June 15, 2011
Strange History
Dr Beachcombing is curious about the strange and the unexpected in records of the past. This is his engaging blog.
The shooting was expert
"Davis didn’t have time to ponder their motives. The intersection of Jail and Ferozepur roads was packed with cars, bicycles, rickshaws, and pedestrians; the motorcycle pulled around his car and stopped just ahead of it. Shamshad, on the back of the bike, turned. He raised his pistol. He cocked it." [Black Ops and Blood Money] (previously and previouslier)
popular (folk) song
The True Cost of Tomatoes
Why have internet auctions fallen out of favour?
"Today, auctions are a smaller portion of ecommerce than they were in 2001, and even on eBay they are a dwindling . . . [t]hey now account for just 31 percent of all sales on the site and are no longer at the heart of the company’s business model."Why have internet auctions fallen out of favour?
Did Super 8 . . . Super Suck?!
In an essay about the end of J. J. Abrams' film Super 8 (caution: spoilers!), Devin Faraci writes, "[It] would work if just clipped out and used to sell flowers or something; technically it’s well made, but narratively it’s disastrously bad and lazy. That, more or less, sums up the entire film." [more inside]
Hahn's Homeboyz
In CA-36, Democrat Calls For Blanket Condemnation Of Stunning New Web Ad. Initially, businessman Craig Huey, a tea party Republican, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the Los Angeles County GOP. Eventually, Huey's campaign manager stated, "If I could wave a magic wand and take it down, I would. The video was created by Turn Right USA PAC.
This cat has claws!
An unproduced script for the Catwoman film written by Batman Returns scripter Daniel Waters would have sent Catwoman to supervillian support group outside of Gotham City. Want a more modern take on the character? She'll be playable in Arkham City.
DIY Weapons of the Libyan Rebels
Sleep Sort
4chan's texboard /prog/ invents a novel new sorting algorithm(no images, but NSFW with a few reprehensible bits thrown in) called sleep sort and translates it into most most modern programming languages. Hacker News provides analysis and finds itself impressed.
I ain't mad at ya.
Man confesses to Tupac Shakur robbery and shooting Dexter Isaac, now serving a life sentence for murder, told AllHipHop.com that he robbed Shakur outside the Quad Studio in Manhattan in November 1994 on the orders of hip hop management mogul James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond. [more inside]
Paging cstross to the white courtesy phone
Bitcoin is growing up: early adopters lost money due to bad backups; the US Senate wants to crack down due to possible illegal drug purchases with the digital coins; it had its Black Friday, losing 30% of its value in one day (after a 5,600% increase in the first year); the Economist weighs in; and now an alledged heist of 25k bitcoins (original forum post), valued between $250k and $750k on the Mt. Gox exchange. Currently 154 petaflops of CPU and GPUs are computing SHA256 hashes in tight loops, easily beating the #1 on the top500, the Tiahne-1A with 2.56 petaflops. (Previously and more previously)
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Tidal Eclipsed
Google broadcasting today's Lunar Eclipse real-time. With play by play commentary on the action. [more inside]
Wet Hot American Gothic
In commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the release of Wet Hot American Summer, Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles is presenting an exhibition of artwork inspired by the movie. Gallery (2) [more inside]
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Orville Wright would like to show you his new flying machine.
My Daguerreotype Boyfriend. Notables: Hermann Rorschach, Almanzo Wilder, Teddy Roosevelt, Robert Cornelius. More history crushes.
The Canucks have removed the grievances their fans had
What would a pro sports playoff drive be without a fan-written tribute song? For those anticipating Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight, here for your enjoyment is Canucks Waleyan Ne, a Bhangra song written by members of Vancouver's large South Asian community. English lyrics available here (pdf), pasted below the fold for your convenience. [more inside]
2011 LeBron Championship Ring Replica Night
The Peoria Chiefs, the Class A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, are hosting a 2011 Lebron Championship Ring giveaway at their ballpark tomorrow night.
Greek Leader Proposes to Step Down, Reports Say
As nationwide strikes sweeps across Greece, unconfirmed reports are swirling that Prime Minister George Papandreou is preparing to step down.
William T. Hornaday's "The Extermination of the American Bison"
William Temple Hornaday was an early--and probably a founding--member of the American conservation movement, and was also director of the National Zoological Park. He wrote a tremendously bitter and accurate report for the U.S. National Museum in 1894 on the extermination of the American bison, an absolute head-shaker, detailing the history of the bison in North America and its destruction at the hands of sportsmen, hunters, mindless dolts and many others who massacred tens of millions of the animal ("murdered" is the word Hornaday uses constantly). To put the whole issue in perspective, Hornaday issued a famous map showing the shrinkage of the North American bison herd, setting out the enormity of the issue instantly on one piece of paper, a summary of hundreds of pages of bad stories and big numbers.
We're All Stories In The End
In other words, months before The War Games, The Mind Robber has quietly given us an origin story for the Doctor that is almost, but not quite, what we eventually get from the later "official" version. - Philip Sandifer discusses an alternate origin for Doctor Who.
"Here, eat this root."
The Triumph of New-Age Medicine "Medicine has long decried acupuncture, homeopathy, and the like as dangerous nonsense that preys on the gullible. Again and again, carefully controlled studies have shown alternative medicine to work no better than a placebo. But now many doctors admit that alternative medicine often seems to do a better job of making patients well, and at a much lower cost, than mainstream care—and they’re trying to learn from it." [more inside]
Historic preservation as gentrification and discrimination
[Urban planning] allows discrimination but dresses it up as discriminating taste. So says an opinion piece in Reason magazine titled Urban Design Hipsters are Evil. [more inside]
Anchalee Saengtai aka Yumi Modal's Transformations
Anchalee Saengtai is a Thai sculptor who makes incredible Transformer statues out of recycled scrap parts. | Her Predator creations | Alien | Megatron Tank | furniture | and more. Bonus link: Transformer art in Mexico.
The Failure of American Schools
Joel Klein wrote an essay in the Atlantic about the reasons for the current problems in the primary educational system.
Last stop. Boney Borough.
Welcome to Boney Borough, a place where the unit of currency is credits or creds; the most popular (and illegal) sport is DieBall, a game in which the players rub an adhesive, gooey, and brain-damaging substance called Die Gunk on their hands and bodies to help them hold on to the ball; and where one itinerant, nicotine-patch addict, self-proclaimed botany professor, Professor Panther, spreads his knowledge of hallucinogenic plants throughout the town like wildfire. Oh, and did I mention that Boney Borough and its inhabitants are also being watched over by aliens, who are using the townsfolk as guinea pigs in a single-minded experiment? Or, it might be best to say, like ants in a colony.... This is BodyWorld, a comic by Dash Shaw. And it's all online. [more inside]
The Social Psychological Narrative
It's not the objective environment that influences people, but their constructs of the world. You have to get inside people's heads and see the world the way they do. You have to look at the kinds of narratives and stories people tell themselves as to why they're doing what they're doing... Many policy makers, if they're thinking about a problem turn to economists... When economists think about how to solve a problem such as closing the achievement gap in education, or reducing teenage pregnancy, their inclination is to use incentives... To a social psychologist, it is a little naïve to think that adding external incentives is all you have to do. Not to say that incentives can't work, but they can sometimes backfire if you look at it through the eyes of the person who is getting that incentive.Pioneering investigator of the unconscious Timothy Wilson on the state of social psychology and its practical applications – including government attempts to shape public behaviour, and the futility of the self-help industry. [via]
Putting Out Fire With Gasoline
Booth Me Baby One More Time
With E3 2011 over and some majestically creepy 'booth babe' galleries cropping up, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether the 2006 ban ever happened. Never a site to shy from cheap titillation, RockPaperShotgun gives us Booth Babe Babes Bonanza. In a similar vein, Comic Con Pervs has its zoom lenses at the ready for San Diego Comic Con this year.
NSFW scantily-clad ladies in first links, also a few incidentally featured in latter ones
To create or not to create
Do Artists Have a Moral Responsibility in War? is a thoughtful, question raising 40 min video and podcast by NYT journalist Alan Riding.
Should Artists Speak Out Against War? Goes at some depth into the nuances of this complex question by describing the Cultural Life In Nazi-Occupied Paris
Should Artists Speak Out Against War? Goes at some depth into the nuances of this complex question by describing the Cultural Life In Nazi-Occupied Paris
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of children who don't go to sleep
Go the F**k to Sleep as read by Samuel L. Jackson (no really). Audible is offering it as a free download (registration required). [Go the F**k to Sleep previously]
The Band from TV
On the keyboards: Dr. House and Dr. Archie Morris. On the guitar, Nathan Petrelli and the plumber. Violin, Dr. Chase. On the drums, Matt Parkman. On the vocals, Bob Guiney. It's the Band from TV, and they do it for charity. Videos.
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