August 2, 2010
Sachin Tendulkar becomes the most-capped Cricket player
Today, Sachin Tendulkar is playing in his 169th Cricket Test Match. With this, he goes past Australia's Steve Waugh. [more inside]
Schillervision
Tom Schiller is best known for his work on NBC's Saturday Night Live, particularly for his filmed "Schiller's Reels" and "Schillervision" segments from 1975 through 1990. Examples [mouseover for more details on each]: [ Don't Look Back in Anger • Java Junkie • Falling in Love • The Land Before Television • Swedish TV One investigates Hidden Camera Commercials: What Are They Hiding? • Broadway Story • Search For Akasa ] [more inside]
Wrong Tea Party
The Books, Annotated
The Books is a collaboration between musicians and found sound archivers Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong. If you're not familiar with their music, allow me to recommend giving their newest album, The Way Out a listen over at NPR (where you can no longer stream the album in its entirety, but individual tracks are still available for your listening pleasure). Two videos are already available—the summer camp hit A Cold Freezin' Night and We Bought The Flood, which was 'directed' by archival image researcher Rich Remsberg. Since The Way Out's release Nick has been proceeding track by track through the album, explaining and annotating the techniques, instruments, and ideas used on each song—and resulting in a collage of thoughts as powerful and varied as The Books' collage of sound. [more inside]
Solar everywhere....
New and upcoming solar energy advances: Using heat and light . Tiny? Think solar cells so small you can embed them in windows and not obscure the view, embedded in resins to spray on roofs.... more
take this content and shove it, I ain't workin' here no more
"The mark of a real writer is that she cares deeply about literary joinery, about keeping the lines of her prose plumb. That’s what makes writers writers: to them, prose isn’t just some Platonic vessel for serving up content; they care about words. Any chief product officer who says “quality online does not equal craftsmanship” is channeling the utilitarian gospel of the managerial class, an instrumentalist vision of journalism that presumes writing, online, is just a turkey baster for injecting content into the user’s brain." Mark Dery, on writing for the web.
Hike the Appalachian Trail to Morocco
The Appalachian Trail, beyond Mount Katahdin. Way beyond. The Appalachian Trail runs from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. The International Appalachian Trail goes much further. Beginning at the northern terminus of the AT, it stretches through Canada, across the ridge of mountains formed during the continental collision that created the Pangaean continent, as far around as Morocco. The Eastern Continental Trail includes all of the AT and IAT in North America, plus an extension south to Florida.
MRSA and Animals
Optimal control of MRSA's spread and diversity would involve attention to the role of pets and livestock, especially factory-farmed livestock (40 minute podcast -- no transcript, but here is the text of an interview that covers some of the same ground as the podcast.) Science journalist Maryn McKenna: "[Bacteria are] unpredictable and dynamic . . . We have few treatment options, so we need to be much more thoughtful." [more inside]
Mountains. Madness. Del Toro. Ia! Ia!
APAs: Pre-Internet Communication
Before the internet, nerds communicated through Amateur Press Associations (APAs). Members wrote and photocopied their individual 'zines on a subject, then mailed them to a central mailer, who collated and mailed the completed sets to all the members. The earliest APAs were founded by printers and amateur journalists. The National Amateur Press Association is the oldest, founded in 1876. Later APAs were often the province of science fiction and comic book fans. They are still around [pdf]. A lot more inside... [more inside]
"What garlic is to food, insanity is to art."
They Draw and Cook: The art world intersects with the food community at They Draw & Cook, a clever blog started earlier this year by sibling design and illustration team Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell (together they run Studio SSS). Each day, They Draw & Cook features a new recipe illustration by a practicing artist, illustrator, or designer. The recipes vary in both style and content and are submitted from all over the world.
Inspire the web with just 10K
10k Apart — Fond memories of the 5K Awards resurface with this modern spin on the idea. It’s time to get back to basics — back to optimizing every little byte like your life depends on it. Your challenge? Build a web app in less than 10 kilobytes.
Wanted: Monkey annoyer. Must have own flying squirrel.
The most wonderful headline in the history of the world: Monkeys hate flying squirrels, report monkey-annoyance experts.
Long hard times in space
"Tubes of space borscht are on sale in the museum gift shop. “There are white and black tubes. On the white is written: ‘BLONDE.’ On black one: ‘BRUNETTE.’ "
Astronauts relate challenges of life in space.
Better stay where you are...
Scientopia
Scienceblogs' aborted foray into Pepsi Blue leads to mass exodus, new home for a bunch of science blogs
ce qui m'a permis de scanner en très haute définition ce microcosme en permanente évolution
NewsBleak
Batman wins... the bride
VQR editor takes his own life
Heartbreaking news for people who care about reading. Founded in 1925, the Virginia Quarterly Review has become the standard-bearer for long-form narrative journalism - "the sort of articles that make readers want to become writers." "The Life and Lonely Death of Noah Pierce" is a great example of what this kind of writing can achieve, but it's not the only one. The essential Bookslut has called the VQR "the best fucking magazine on the planet right now."
Last week Mefi's own Waldo made the blog post we all dread having to make. His friend and boss, the VQR's genius editor Kevin Morrissey made his will, left his affairs in order, called the police to report a shooting that had not yet happened, and took his own life.
Previously on the blue.
Six Feet Small
Lebronenomics
After announcing that Lebron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade would join the Miami Heat in July the team almost immediately sold out their seasons tickets packages while placing another 6,000 on the waiting list. The result? All 30 seasons ticket salespeople were fired on friday becasuse as a staffer put it `They let us go because there was really nothing left to do anymore.'' [more inside]
Japanese Horror Bot
Video of horrific, Japanese maggot-man robot allegedly designed to act as a physical presence during phone calls. More info and photos here.
Sing Along with Mitch
Mitch Miller has died at the age of 99. In the years before rock'n' roll took over, Miller, as an A&R man first at Mercury, and then at Columbia Records, signed and produced hits for a large stable of stars, including Patti Page, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, and Tony Bennett. While he did have a disdain for rock music later, he did offer Elvis Presley a contract and brought Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin into the fold. Artists like Frank Sinatra would later criticize Miller for forcing novelty tunes like Mama Will Bark on them.
In 1955 he had a number one hit with the old Civil War-era standard, The Yellow Rose of Texas.
Beginning in 1961 he turned a series of records into a hit NBC series, Sing Along with Mitch and his goateed face became a television staple as he encouraged viewers at home to follow the bouncing ball and join in. The show helped launch the career of future Sesame Street star Bob McGrath and inspired the Flintstones parody Hum Along with Herman.
A short drive through hell.
A short drive through hell. NSFW swearing (in Russian).
The Resurgence of Indie Bookstores in New York
Indie Bookstores Rising: New York takes a look at a new crop of indie bookstores in New York City that are defying predictions of the death of the independent bookstore.
And now you know...the rest of the story.
Laugh it up, fuzz ball!
"Security officer demonstrates how to easily hack into every imperial computer system with a simple jail-breaked R2 unit. #wookieeleaks"
In response to the leaks of top-secret military documents concerning the war in Afghanistan earlier this week on Wikileaks, (covered previously on MeFi) Twitter users started posting their “Star Wars”-themed parodies of the scandal days later using the hash tags #Wookieleaks and #wookieeleaks. [more inside]
In response to the leaks of top-secret military documents concerning the war in Afghanistan earlier this week on Wikileaks, (covered previously on MeFi) Twitter users started posting their “Star Wars”-themed parodies of the scandal days later using the hash tags #Wookieleaks and #wookieeleaks. [more inside]
The [copyright] maximalist is working for the day when ... all culture is property.
It's a three patch problem Watson.
Sherlock Holmes is running around modern day London. Airing Sundays on BBC1, The BBC has reinvented the master dectective and his sidekick for 2010. Sherlock is cast as a modern day "high functioning sociopath" while Watson is a former army doctor with PSTD returned from Afghanistan. It has been written and created by Doctor Who writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat.
Reviews are in and the update is a stellar success. The series has been sold worldwide, however UK viewers can watch with BBC iplayer. Rumor has it that those unwilling to wait for release can find alternative sources for viewing.
The Food Crisis in Niger
An ongoing drought in Niger has resulted in a famine that threatens millions of people. "These are very high levels of child malnutrition, the situation is bad," said Gianluca Ferrera, deputy director for the UN world food programme (WFP) in Niger. "The loss in harvest last year was worse than expected, and the lean season started earlier than anticipated for a larger share of the population. "In some areas, there is a 50% malnutrition rate for children under 2. Many of these children will not survive." [more inside]
Take that, flying cars that don't!
Derf Scratch has died
Derf Scratch, founding member and bassist for Fear, has died. His sister says he was 59. [more inside]
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