June 26, 2010
Pixel Pickle
Editors of the pop-culture magazine Wired provided the title "iPhone 4’s ‘Retina’ Display Claims Are False Marketing" to a highly critical article about the new iPhone's high-resolution "Retina" display, so-called as the human eye cannot resolve individual pixels when viewing it. A technician who worked on the Hubble telescope disagreed with the Wired editors' choice of rhetoric in very strong technical terms and issued less stringent disagreement with Raymond Soneira, the writer of the piece. Neuroscientist and photographer Bryan Jones published his own highly readable technical analysis of the display's pixel arrangement, that helped him decide whether Apple's claims were truthful or not.
Spoilers don't bother me but they might bother others
For the original 1963 airing of Doctor Who, composer Ron Grainer worked up an early electronica experiment for the main title sequence which remains entrancing to this day. With the 2005 reincarnation, composer Murray Gold remained thankfully faithful to Grainer's composition, but the rest of his score has been highly character specific. See: Rose, Martha, Donna, The Ninth/Tenth Doctors, Amy, and finally the sweeping, epic theme for the Eleventh Doctor.
One Whole Roasted Chicken for Steve to use as a puppet...
Saturday Night.... a party!
Parties haven't changed since the '70's when Phil Ochs recorded this. If you're sitting home, reading Metafilter, with no place to go... here's a party for you...you'll recognize all the guests...
Three comics about nerds
"I hope his wife is named Samantha."
The whole of Mars' surface was shaped by liquid water around four billion years ago, say scientists. Scientists with the best names possible for the job. [more inside]
Last Call at the Velvet Lounge
Fred Anderson was a monster on the tenor sax. Fred Anderson was one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and his "home court," the Velvet Lounge, remains a place for Chicago creative musicians to find welcoming audience. Fred died June 24 in Chicago. A wake will take place from 5 to 6 PM this Tuesday (June 29) at Leak and Sons Funeral Chapel, 7838 S. Cottage Grove, followed immediately by Anderson’s Going Home service. [more inside]
The (Other) Other White Meat
The National Pork Board believes in unicorns. Or, at least, its lawyers seem to think that canned unicorn meat is a real product. [more inside]
We are storytellers
Rare Hole in the Moon Photographed
New photos of the moon have revealed the most detailed views yet of a rare hole in the lunar surface — a pit large enough to swallow an entire football field whole. "High-resolution cameras aboard the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft first spotted the irregularly shaped chasm, located in Mare Ingenii on the moon's southern hemisphere. Now, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken a new, up-close photo of the moon pit from lunar orbit."
The first ever field recording.
Nearly 122 years ago, The first field recording was made. In the Crystal Palace, London, 4000 voices were recorded singing Handel's Israel In Egypt. [more inside]
On a knife edge
And all that jazz
The New England Jazz History Database is an active and growing library of materials focused on the preservation and education of the History of Jazz in New England. [more inside]
Somebody Loan Me a Dime
In 1969 Boz Scaggs released a self-titled album featuring a performance of "Loan Me A Dime". The only problem was the song credited as Scaggs' was writen by blues man Fenton Robinson, resulting in legal battles. The nationwide distribution of Robinson's own version of the song was aborted by a freak snow storm hitting Chicago "It became a big hit for Boz, but Fenton was being robbed of his moment of fame, as well as the dollars that should have gone along with it. It resulted in a big legal battle, which Fenton eventually won." [more inside]
Mother isn't quite herself today.
The secrets of "Psycho's" shower scene. "In the course of my research, I read one allegation about the weeklong filming of the scene that both troubled and intrigued me, but none of the reference books I consulted elaborated on the assertion."
I hope I get the opportunity to do Jello shots with Paul Krugman!
"Trying to do something he knows he really can't do for no good reason tells you a lot about Peter Van Loan" MeFI's own mightygodking snagged an official accredited journalist title via Torontoist in order to post reports and interviews from the controversial G20 Conference.
And now, a choice of viewing
TV idents provide a bridge between programmes, remind the viewer of the channel they're watching and give the announcer something to talk over about what's on next and later. YouTube is a veritable treasure trove of idents, especially British ones, including
Classic BBC2 idents of the 90's, [more inside]
Classic BBC2 idents of the 90's, [more inside]
Metafilter.com is good, but Metafilter.xxx is bluer
Pornography will have its own top-level domain, dot-XXX, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided Friday. This decision angered both foes of pornography and friends of internet porn. (SFW)
Patmos on my mind
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