August 21, 2007
Haikus
BioShock, 2nd best game ever?
BioShock was released today for the PC and XBox 360. Why should you care? Well, it's the 2nd best reviewed game of the last 10 years, it's an interactive commentary on Objectivism, it features a great Art-Deco style and atmospheric sound design, and is the spiritual sequel to one of the best games of all time. If you still don't care, make sure to stay away from Big Daddy.
Content Aware Image Resizing
Content Aware Image Resizing. Every year SIGGRAPH rolls around I get a reminder of how smart everyone else is, especially people who do computer graphics research. From Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir. The algorithm resizes images non-uniformly and, well, somewhat magically.
the cupboard, the cupboard.
With This Ring
The War as We Saw It
The War as We Saw It. A powerful op-ed about Iraq written by seven infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division who will soon be heading home, it has received surprisingly little attention.
18-Year-Old Weltanschauung
Most of the students entering college this fall, members of the class of 2011, were born in 1989. They never “rolled down” a car window. They have grown up with bottled water. “Off the hook” has never had anything to do with a telephone. Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre. Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM. They never saw Johnny Carson live on television. Wisconsin's Beloit College has published its annual Mindset List. [previously 2003 and 2006]. Now, get offa' my goddamned lawn!
Isle of Man TT Race
The Isle of Man TT race is arguably the most dangerous race one can do on a superbike, as it has claimed the lives of over 220 racers over the last 100 years. still, that doesn't seem to prevent people from competing, year, after, year.
Beans, beans, the magical fruit...
Obesity may really be an epidemic
Obesity has been called an epidemic in the United States.
Looking at an interactive statistic [CNN, flash] of the state-by-state numbers is sobering mf.
64% of adults are overweight and approx 25% are obese
[Wikipedia 1,
2].
The usual suspects have so far been a culture of low-exercise mf
high-consumption (due to urban sprawl, driving, TV, ... ),
microbes mf,
genetic predisposition,
and bad diet
(the ubiquity of
junk food with its high levels of fat, sugar and salt. Recently the high fructose levels in the common American diet has also been noted.
Fructose comprises 50% of table sugar and up to 90% of high-fructose corn
syrup (HFCS), both ingredients found in copious
amounts in most American 'convenience' foods.
[Wikipedia: Fructose#References, Wikipedia:HFCS]).
Now it seems that a decisive assessory is a common virus, the Human Adenovirus-36, which may really make obesity an actual epidemic. [Int. Journal of Obesity, CNN]
Now it seems that a decisive assessory is a common virus, the Human Adenovirus-36, which may really make obesity an actual epidemic. [Int. Journal of Obesity, CNN]
Paranoia vs Preparation
Traditionally, media doesn't print names/photos of people only accused, but not yet convicted, but not always. Lots of towns have a police blotter section where arrests are listed.
Here in Seattle, the FBI recently asked
the public for help in identifying two men seen acting suspicious on the ferry system. The Seattle PI has decided not to publish the photos. Other local media have. The commentary on if the PI made the right choice follows predictable paths...
Pin the Bush on the Flag and Impeach Cheney (and Bush)
Who was Opal Whiteley?
In 1918, at the age of 20, Oregonian Opal Whiteley published "The Fairyland Around Us" (contains full text & pictures), a nature book for children. Two years later, her diary (also contains full text and pictures) was published and became one of the best-selling books in the world. She died in a British mental hospital in 1992. More.
Brazilian Blogger Bash
Brazilian Blogger Bashing! The respected Brazilian newspaper Estadao decided to promote its new online presence by jokingly producing a series of ads with obvious misfits and asking such questions as "Is this the guy giving you dating advice?" and a video (youtube) comparing bloggers to monkeys. Bloggers are outraged "Why would you read a newspaper that compares bloggers to monkeys?". In today's newspaper, Estadao offers no apology but instead dryly recounts the facts. Meanwhile, the resulting controversy, with thousands of blogs weighing in, has driven a lot of traffic to their new site.
The most kissed girl in the world
In the 1890s, an unknown woman was found drowned in the Seine. Known as the l'Inconnue de la Seine, her death mask became a fixture in the homes of artists and writers, and her look the ideal of the age. Many have speculated on her identity, and she has inspired a long list of artistic works by Nabokov, Rilke, Man Ray, and others. She has since become the "most kissed girl in the world" thanks to the Norwegian toymaker that used her mask to create Resusci Anne, the standard CPR doll.
Arguing pays off
And how 'bout that part where that little critter eats the boom box?
Minilogue / Hitchhiker's Choice. A curiously engaging 4 minutes and 13 seconds of whiteboard animation. The visual ideas are all over the place, and they move really fast, so don't blink or you'll miss entire subplots.
"We have become a society filled with crime, bloodshed, hopelessness and despair."
It has been three decades since the Summer of Sam. Since his conviction for the murders he committed as the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz has been imprisoned at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, NY. But he hasn't been idle. Through his website, he has been preaching the Word of God as well as conveying a public apology. But recently, alarmed by the murders in Newark, he wrote a letter[1,2] to amNewYork. "Perhaps," he writes, "it is time for us to go back to our roots and reexamine what America is all about. Greed or generosity? Unity or selfishness? Liberty or bondage? Love or hate? Life or death?"
Joybubbles R.I.P.
"It really looked quite a bit like a real disease."
The 2005 outbreak of Corrupted Blood in World of Warcraft may provide epidemiologists with a new platform for studying the spread of disease.
By using these games as an untapped experimental framework, we may be able to gain deeper insight into the incredible complexity of infectious disease epidemiology in social groups.It comes as no surprise that the "stupid factor" plays a role in susceptibility to viral marketing, but it may also be a factor in the spread of real life germs.
J. Allen St. John: Grandmaster of Fantasy
Before Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, and Michael Whelan, J. Allen St. John brought to life the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and defined the images of Tarzan and Barsoom. St. John also illustrated a wide variety of books and magazines and produced some pulp masterpieces.
Reporting from the Danger-zone
One of the few to speak the truth about the Middle East, God-like journalist Robert Fisk holds more international journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent. He has covered every major event in the region for the past thirty years. He rarely gives interviews to anyone, but agreed to talk to edgey/angry youth culture magazine, Vice, about his life in the danger-zone.
I have gut feeeling this is sweet.
I really enjoy discoveries that, in retrospect, should have been obvious (but weren't). It's not just your tongue that can taste sugar.
Another kind of music video
"Another Kind Of Love" by The Stranglers' Hugh Cornwell - a music video directed and animated by Jan Svankmajer. (via)
Food Critics in Camouflage
Reviews of MRE's, at times unintentionally hilarious.
Kosher MRE reviewed. Also, the LA Times.
Previously.
"The most unpardonable sin in society is the independence of thought."
My Disillusionment In Russia. Deported American anarchist Emma Goldman's narrative of her time in 1920s Russia. Omitted chapters were published as My Further Disillusionment With Russia. Emma was not only an anarchist, she was also an advocate for free speech, women's equality, sexual freedom, birth control and more. For more of her writings, see Anarchism: What It Really Stands For, Patriotism: A Menace To Liberty, and Minorities Versus Majorities. [Previously 1, 2]
« Previous day | Next day »