June 18, 2007
I'll trade you a Farrah for a Frampton.
Classic trading card scans from 1930-1980. Okay, I confess, I had some of the Sgt. Pepper's (movie, not album) cards. What young 70s girl didn't swoon over Peter Frampton as Billy Shears (sigh)? A boy down the street from me had most of the Star Wars cards, but I would never trade my Charlies Angels or my Six Million Dollar Man cards with him, although he really wanted Farrah.
Another fine mess
More nightmares in Iraq: Abuse in an orphanage, Baghdad has turned a “war zone”, photographers don’t want to go back, 4MM displaced
The story of the strange language of the Pirahã
The story of the strange language of the Pirahã is just as much a story about the state of the field of linguistics. Professor Dan Everett of Illinois State University, who lived for decades with the Pirahã, first as a missionary, then as a linguist, believes Pirahã casts serious doubt upon Chomsky's theory of universal grammar. Chomskyites have started to fight back with a reassessment of Everett's famous paper on the Pirahã, where he claimed that the Pirahã "have no numbers, no fixed color terms, no perfect tense, no deep memory, no tradition of art or drawing, and no words for “all,” “each,” “every,” “most,” or “few”—terms of quantification believed by some linguists to be among the common building blocks of human cognition." He also claims that it doesn't have recursion, a feature of language Chomsky recently claimed was the defining feature of human speech. Dan Everett has rebutted the Chomskyite reassessment of his work. Video interview with Professor Everett. [Pirahã previously covered on MetaFilter in 2004 and 2006]
Crashing Australian Army Blackhawk
On 29 November last year an Australian Army Blackhawk helicopter crashed while attempting a landing in strong winds on the HMAS Kanimbla. Two soldiers died in the accident, with the airframe and the corpse of one Trooper later being recovered from the seabed 3 km down. The Board of Inquiry opened today, releasing graphic video footage.
It's Also Acetaminophen-riffic.
Ready for '90s nostalgia yet? Well, throw some flannel on your Furby and get ready for that decade's most migrane-tastic fad, the autostereogram, or Magic Eye. Of course, the Web can't leave anything alone, so you can watch a moving autostereogram, play a little wall-eyed Tetris or Pong, and create your own image to delight and annoy your friends.
Nevermind the Mainstream
In the Fall of 1991, MTV's 120 Minutes released two compilations (Amazon: one, two) of songs from the show. (Youtube: one, two)
The Carrotbox - a site about rings
Grass rings, lace rings, rock rings, bunny rings...The Carrotbox has month after month of posts about odd and unusual rings. Alice is allergic to metal so focuses in her own collection on "glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite and even stone — anything, as long as it's not metal!" She even provides a timeline of plastic history. [via FunForever]
Filmschatten
Double or nothing
Ashley Revell bet his life's savings on one spin of roulette. Watch the video to find out what happened. The young Englishman sold everything he owned -- including rights to his name -- and put the entire proceeds on red (which he decided at the last minute, originally having fixed on black). After you've watched the video, read an interview about the aftermath and about how Vegas almost didn't take the bet. His wager topped Inside Poker magazine's list of "Top 25 Most Outrageous Gambles."
The Siege of Sidney Street
Gun crime on the streets of London? It's not new. Here's a tale of robbery, murder, revolution, and Churchill in a topper. First, the Tottenham Outrage, a factory robbery resulting in two murders, 27 injuries, and a bizarre chase. The villains are Latvian anarchists, a group who are trying to finance their revolutionary aims through crime. The next year, a plan to tunnel into a jewelers is botched, and attempted burglary becomes the Houndsditch Murders . The police investigate, and on locating the gang, The Siege of Sidney Street begins. The army is called in, and the Home Secretary pops by and assumes control. After much shooting, a fire breaks out, and two men burn to death. But neither of them is the mysterious gang leader, Peter the Painter, and the five later tried are all acquitted. Churchill, however, is guilty of showing off a bit.
Can't Stop The Serenity.
Can't Stop The Serenity. "By their very nature, science fiction fans want to improve their world." Joss Whedon's birthday is this weekend (June 23). In honor of the event, fans of Firefly and Serenity are organizing Serenity screenings around the world with the proceeds to benefit his favorite charity, Equality Now.
"Equality Now works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure." It's a fitting charity for a writer whose favorite subjects include "amazing, kick-ass adolescent heroines" and strong women in general. Last year's event earned almost $66,000 USD for the organization, and this year's event aims to raise $100,000 USD.
The only editorial cartoon worth reading
Kelly returns. Ward Sutton (aka "Kelly") and his wonderfully sublime editorial cartoons are back in the Onion. Sutton's website. Sutton is so dead-on that his Kelly cartoons leave many confused.
Interview of Mark and Ward Sutton at Mother Jones.
Frida Kahlo's 100th
"I have had two accidents in my life - the streetcar crash and Diego Rivera."
To celebrate
the 100th
anniversary of Frida
Kahlo's birth, the largest ever exhibition
of her work is taking place. Frida has been the subject of or inspiration for
movies (most recently, this lovely
one, although not without some controversy),
books (this biography
is quite good), a postage
stamp, and a brand of tequila
(more controversy). People have been interested in her socialist politics and
possible victim
status. There is an online
fan club. She was also featured
in Smithsonian Magazine. If anything, Frida was always outspoken.
im in ur weddin hittin on ur underage sister-in-law while drunk on antifreeze
too many secrets
Congress has never acted to codify the state secrets privilege. It considered doing so in the 1970s but specifically chose not to include the privilege in the federal rules of evidence. Nonetheless, dating from its application in the Reynolds case, the state secrets privilege has been repeatedly invoked, often with disturbing results. This is why we, in cooperation with the Constitution Project, have joined with a bipartisan coalition of policy experts, legal scholars and former government officials in calling on Congress to limit the privilege's use PDF. (WaPo)Case Studies in State Secrets from Federation of American Scientists
Dangerous Discretion: State Secrets and the El-Masri Rendition Case
TSA busts myths, too!
Last week, a woman at DC's Reagan Airport was detained because of water in her son's sippy cup. In an unusual step, the TSA has posted their own Mythbusters site where they show the security footage and the official incident report. Here is BoingBoing's take on the video. And a security/security technology blogger posts about the larger lesson that people readily side against the TSA "because there's no accountability or transparency in the DHS."
Working like hell.
Review patents from the privacy of your own home!
Peer to Patent goes live. First mentioned on MetaFilter almost two years ago, this project allows open review of patent applications, so that members of the public can better inform patent examiners of prior art. Discussed more on the project blog. This experimental system is part of efforts to improve patent application review. (thanks to ubiquity)
Armpits!
Armpits! Strange curiosity of the human body. Sometimes smelly, sometimes stainy, sometimes the origin of things truly weird, sometimes celebrity gossip fodder, and sometimes just the brunt of nasty jokes
They're also linked to controversy and danger, but fear not - there are greener (reder?) and safer, natural ways to take care of them.
David Blaine Art History
The face of Jesus in historic paintings was replaced by that of David Blaine by New Genre Arts professor Ben Bloch. The resulting images were shown to Art History students at Whitman College during the course of a class on Entertainment Violence. The students were not alerted to the fact that the images were doctored, nor did they notice on their own. Stupid students!
They're not surprised, are they?
Lawyer rating site Avvo is getting sued by - well, lawyers. Hopefully nobody at Avvo is surprised by this! The lawsuit alleges that Avvo's rating system is unfair and results in bad ratings for some lawyers.
Flickr in Iran
The Iranian Flickr group celebrates the 1 year anniversary of their first meetup. This is kind of impressive because Flickr is banned in Iran. I love how resourceful people can be.
When Dr Google just isn't enough
The hypnotic beauty of the average face
The hypnotic beauty of the average face. When you average out peoples facial features, the result is strangely beautiful. Which is odd. This captivating website lets you play with facial averaging and design your own people. You can upload your own face and nudge it towards the dark-eyed loveliness that we seem programmed to desire. There are also links to theories suggesting why average people, instead of being bland, are hot. Facial averaging has been discussed before. More on facial beauty from Germany and St Andrews.
The Audacity
Apparently, The Secret Service's code name for Barack Obama is "Renegade". Former agents told the Washington Post that military officials chose the code names without particular reference to the characteristics of the politician.
Sadly, Bush's code name isn't "The Decider" but rather "Tumbler" and, later, (shockingly) "Trailblazer".
If you're feeling left out, you budding Junior Secret Service Agents can make up your own.
In my eyes you are still a bot
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