July 30, 2010
Federal Injunction Blocks Portions of SB1070
On July 28, Federal District Court Judge Susan Bolton issued an injunction (link to pdf of court order) blocking several portions of the recent immigration bill SB1070, which was passed on April 23. (Previously on Metafilter.)
Among other provisions, the bill would have allowed Arizona police officers to demand proof of immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally pursuant to a legal police stop.
Most importantly, the federal ruling blocked the portion of the law that would have allowed police officers to demand proof of legal status. Opponents of the law, who had already planned demonstrations yesterday, the first day the law was set to take effect, reportedly view the ruling as a victory, though partial and perhaps temporary.
Proponents of the law are predictably unhappy with the ruling, and react with disappointment.
The Hidden Problem of Charity
"Charity degrades and demoralizes." The latest RSA Animate adapts a lecture by Slavoj Zizek. Previously. Previously.
The plot thickens...
The CIA is watching him. He's been addressed directly by powerful people all across the United States government.
And earlier today on his website and across the internet, the same man has placed a 1.4 gigabyte encrypted file labeled "insurance."
course, you won't be able to water the lawn with it...
So, you always wanted to be a musician, but your pops wouldn't send you to music school? And you can't afford a decent instrument? Aw, quit yer whining and go get a garden hose.
Officials Say The Darnedest Things
Flower Power
Track Record
The Wall Street Journal investigates web snoops. The 50 sites installed a total of 3,180 tracking files on a test computer used to conduct the study. Only one site, the encyclopedia Wikipedia.org, installed none. Twelve sites, including IAC/InterActive Corp.'s Dictionary.com, Comcast Corp.'s Comcast.net and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com, installed more than 100 tracking tools apiece in the course of the Journal's test. [more inside]
An Introverts Manifesto
Now You See Me, Now You Don't
The sad and lonely adventures of a very miserable bear
Misery Bear: Goes to London - Celebrates Christmas - Has a day off - Gets a Valentine's card - Looks forward to the World Cup
Strange Cargo
Strange Cargo: Taryn Simon took over 1,000 photographs of items seized or detained at JFK Airport. Here is a sampling. Here is some information about the project.
Alpha-Dog myth
Is the alpha-dog method of training, as promoted by Cesar Millan, a myth? Rival trainer Victoria Stilwell thinks so and has launched a competitive assault on Cesar's Dog Whisperer by starring on It's Me or the Dog and spreading her system of positive-reinforcement training. [more inside]
Alexis Soyer, Famine Soup, and the Magic Stove
Alexis Soyer lived quite an an amazing life. According to his wiki, he "was a French chef who became the most celebrated cook in Victorian England" who also "during the Great Irish Famine in April 1847, ... invented the soup kitchen and was asked by the Government to go to Ireland to implement his idea. This was opened in Dublin and his "famine soup" was served to thousands of the poor for free. Whilst in Ireland he wrote Soyer's Charitable Cookery. He gave the proceeds of the book to various charities. He also opened an art gallery in London, and donated the entrance fees to charity to feed the poor." And then there is also the remarkable story of Soyer's Magic Stove.
The faces we wear
Faces, a short animation by Lei Lei (雷磊), an independent Chinese animator and designer. He's put most of his works on Vimeo, including a short TEDxShanghai talk he gave several months ago. [more inside]
Any sufficiently advanced brush pre-set
Arron Diaz of Dresden Codak (previously previously previously) shows us how he makes his colorful comic pages at Indistinguishable From Magic, an art/instruction blog about Character Design, Hands In Storytelling, and Batman.
Public Libraries Offer DRM-free Music Downloads
Free music downloads without committing piracy! Freegal is a new service that libraries around the country are now offering to library card holders (up to 20 per week per library card). Freegal offers DRM-free mp3 downloads with no third-party application involved from Sony’s massive music catalog. [more inside]
old new music
Acousmata is a unique music blog devoted to "idiosyncratic research in electronic and experimental music, sound and acoustics, mysticism and technology" with special focus on the early history of electronic music.
Our show's a hit, it's sh1t - you watch it anyway
The Adam and Joe show ran on Channel 4 during the 90s. There are many marvellous memories from the late-night lo-fi bedroom fest, but most fondly rememberered are their re-enactments of popular films and shows using toys. Kids. This Life.
Toytanic.
Shine.
Se7en.
American Beautoy.
Saving Private Lion.
Furends.
The Toy Patient.
ToyTrainspotting.
what do you get when you cross a laughter with a candy ? a laugh saver .
Put Your Nook Back in Its Crannie
Noted literary agent Andrew Wylie has made a deal with several of his authors - including Saul Bellow, John Updike and Phillip Roth - to release their e-books exclusively on Amazon. Macmillan's John Sargent and Tyler Cowen react.
Dynamic Linear Modelling
It has applications in Economics, Biology, Pharmaceuticals, and is rooted in State Space Modeling, which with Kalman Filtering (paper, breakdown [warning: long]) was used in the Apollo program. Dynamic Linear Models are gaining in popularity. There exists an R package, and both a short doc and a really great (read: worth buying) book (sorry, not a download, but here's chapter 2) by Giovanni Petris, Sonia Petrone, and Patrizia Campagnoli with its own little website.
A portal into the past
This is what it looked like then... Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov takes old WWII photos and go to exactly the same place it was taken, then combines the two. Some of my favorites
A Bad Moooooove
Correctional Services Canada and the Harper Administration say they will close the Frontenac Institution prison farm. A group called Save Our Prison Farms in Kingston Ontario says they won't. Conflict at 11. [more inside]
Last roll of Kodachrome shot and processed
Final Kodachrome produced and processed. 13 months after (previous
MeFi thread) Kodak announced they were discontinuing production of Kodachrome, the final Kodachrome
roll made by Kodak has been processed by Dwayne's Photo Service, in Parsons,
Kansas—the only Kodachrome processor left in the world. It
was given to and shot by (NPR interview) Steve McCurry, of "Afghan
Girl" fame, around New York City for a documentary by National
Geographic. Just a reminder: you only have until December 30th, 2010 to get any
rolls of Kodachrome developed before Dwayne's Photo stops processing
Kodachrome.
...around the web, around the web....
Daft Punk's Tron Legacy Score Leaked Online Youtube user alexdaft26 has
uploaded
the
entire soundtrack in nine films on youtube.
Because who doesn't like a visual?
Twaggies, turn your tweets into pics. Take random weird tweets and turn them into even weirder visuals. Twaggies, a website by Kiersten Essenpreis, features illustrations by the extraordinary @K_Essenpreis. (Essen is the German verb for “to eat” and preis means “praise.” So you better leave some nice comments for her or she’ll twag you most unfavorably.) The other half of the team is David Isreal, @resila, who can’t draw a stick figure much less a twaggie, but does all the other stuff for the blog and hit on the idea for it in the first place.
Three additional twaggers have contributed in the past – @yaelbt, @mmbemer and @hsugene.
Tenjō-sagari is watching you
Weirdly wonderful illustrations from 70s Japanese children's books by Gōjin Ishihara, including much nightmare fuel from the Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters
How DVDs got their commentary tracks, and other stories from Bob Stein
And how did DVDs get commentary tracks? Let Bob tell you: You have to understand how much of this stuff is accidental. I knew the guy who was the curator of films at the LA County Museum of Art, and I brought him to New York to oversee color correction. He’s telling us all these amazing stories, particularly about King Kong, because it’s his favorite film. Someone said, “Gee, we’ve got this extra sound track on the LaserDisc, why don’t you tell these stories?” He was horrified at the idea, but we promised we’d get him super stoned if he did, and he gave this amazing discussion about the making of King Kong, which we released as the second sound track.... [via snarkmarket] [more inside]
Executive Decarbonization
With the climate bill dead and blame portioned, Ezra Klein asks what happens when congress fails? He concludes that "regulations to reduce carbon emissions are alive and well. The Environmental Protection Agency can attack carbon as a pollutant, and the Obama administration's announcement that efforts to hamstring the EPA will be vetoed suggests that they mean to do exactly that." [more inside]
Guitars are pure awesome
Look, I just like guitars. And I think this is the best guitar blog I have ever seen. For example, this great story about a punk rock bass from New Zealand. And this one about the Maton Phil Manning Custom Stereo. And it's always nice to find some good Antipodean content.
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