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Y dutew ofwetiapwotf wt peqgwtmeyvd.
Y peqgwtmeyv od y peqgwtmeyguop ptfafieav of luopu owd yawute lokk dlowpu y dqvntk of y dweofm tx lteid xte yf yfyktmtad dqvntk, yfi qta vadw lter taw owd teomofyk dyqofm. Uodwteopykkq, Dgyewyf vokowyeq ptvvafopywotfd ioi kyq metafilter, te yw vofovav ypw yd yf ofowoyk dutlofm tx peqgwtmeyvd, yfi gtkowopyk yggkopywotfd nq Etvyfd ioi xtkktl. Ftl, y peqgwtmeyv od, xte vyfq, y gtgakye utnnq. Yf yggetypu wt y dtkawotf pyf waef taw nydop, dapu yd kttrofm xte dutew lteid, te ioxxopakw--peqgwyfykqdod, adofm cayfwowq tx ofiojoiayk dqvntkd te iomeygud. Getmeyvd pyf ykdt yddodw, ox y peqgwtmeyv weakq ptfxtafid qta. Y ltei tx lyefofm, wutamu--peqgwtmeyvd pyf eaf ag ymyofdw domfoxopyfw ptvgkopywotfd ox netamuw ag ymyofdw y kogtmeyv, luopu od y xtev tx lteigkyq of luopu y gyewopakye dqvntk od ktdw xetv y gyeymeygu tx leowofm. Te, ox y gyeymeygu od wtt voki, y nttr tx xoxwq wutadyfi lteid. (Y jykoyfw iodgkyq tx vydtpuodv.) Y dyvgkofm tx geote yew.
Men from Nantucket need not apply
The man who runs xkcd
has created the LimerickDB.
Though often quite dirty
There are more that are nerdy;
If you check out the best ones, you'll see.
has created the LimerickDB.
Though often quite dirty
There are more that are nerdy;
If you check out the best ones, you'll see.
I, for one, welcome our new Wii remote hacking overlords
Still aren't sure if the Wii is worth the wait in line? That's okay, the Wiimote is all you need for: Low-Cost Multi-point Interactive Whiteboards Using the Wiimote,
Tracking Your Fingers with the Wiimote, and the latest:
Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the Wii Remote (extremely cool and the easiest to implement). From the maker of the $14 steady-cam [prev. here], Johnny Chung Lee is taking Wiimote hacking to a whole new level, and giving away all necessary software and instructions for free. Wii games are about to get a whole lot cooler.
Leave the SIV, take the cannoli
At a time when fed-up American citizens are petitioning Congress to end the imprudent financial practices that caused the housing bubble sub-prime mortgage crisis liquidity crisis impending recession -- including the banning of SIV's and refusing any bailouts for Wall Street, banks, or mortgage companies -- the United States Treasury Department has just announced the creation of a giant-mega-ultra SIV called "M-LEC" made up of assets from several of the largest American banks. Already unofficially nicknamed "Sivie Mae" (or worse, "the Frankenstein Fund"), it would be an off-balance-sheet way for these banks to pool and price the ABCP's that they've lately been having trouble pricing and thus selling -- i.e. the liquidity crisis.
Ol' Rip
1897, Eastland, TX. A cornerstone was being laid in the foundation of the new county courthouse (to replace the old county courthouse, not to be confused with the original county courthouse). People put various items in the hollow space in the marble, time capsule style. Just before they sealed the box court clerk Ernest Wood (E.E. to his friends), acting on a whim, grabbed a horny toad that his son, Will Wood, had picked up on the way in to town and placed it in the box. Entombed forever. But...31 years later, 1928. Eastland, having decided it needed a NEW new courthouse, was about to demolish the old one. Someone recalled the time capsule, and the unfortunate horny toad, and 3,000 people showed up to see the poor dead lizard. "As a county official held up the dusty reptile, his leg twitched, and then his whole body came alive."
The allure of the underground city
Derinkuyu wasn't discovered until 1965, when a resident cleaning the back wall of his cave house broke through a wall and discovered behind it a room that he'd never seen, which led to still another, and another. Eventually, spelunking archeologists found a maze of connecting chambers that descended at least 18 stories and 280 feet beneath the surface, ample enough to hold 30,000 people. [flickr]. [wiki].
Grace Paley, 1922 - 2007
A wonderful obituary in the NYT for Grace Paley,
who died yesterday at her home in Thetford Hill, Vt. She was 84.
Say "Xyzzy!"...Nothing happens
Real Life "Colossal Cave Adventure”! Discussion of original source code, different versions of the game, hand draw maps, and lots of photos inside the cave the game is based on. Grab your shiny brass lamp and tasty food and meet me at the Bedquilt entrance.
All go, no show
The menacingly complex roguelike (previously) world-building game Dwarf Fortress (previously) is busting into the mainstream with an article in a gamer mag. Scans: page 1, page 2, page 3. For the less ASCII-minded among us, Let's Play has a thorough (and absurd, and tragic) chronicle of the fortress of Koganusan, or Boatmurdered, so you won't have to wait 20 minutes for the world to generate and be populated with mandrills and kobolds. via tigsource, where you should also check out their latest recommended independent games list.
My Computer Can't Hear Itself
Vista screwed up my ability to record inline audio. How do I fix it?
Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not a stock broker!
Just how bad is it Jim?
Cramer, no not Kramer, melts down on live TV and tells a very large audience to stop trading. Is the US economy heading toward collapse?
"It is with extreme modesty that I present the following pages to be read by other eyes than mine..."
Went To Kansas: Being A Thrilling Account Of An Ill-Fated Expedition To That Fairy Land, And Its Sad Results. A personal account by Mrs. Miriam Davis Colt (based on her daily diaries) about her family's move from New York to Kansas in the 1850s, and the tragic story of the Vegetarian Settlement Company, which sold cheap land to settlers (if they signed an oath swearing they would never consume alcohol, tobacco or animal flesh) along with the promise of a prairie utopia.
Home theater assistance
What sort of speakers/setup should I go with for my home theater?
Avant-garde radio drama?
I just listened to Radio Inferno and it completely blew my mind. What should I listen to next?
What country has the oldest unchanged borders, and how old are they?
What country has the oldest unchanged borders, and how old are they?
College Saga - Final Fantasy
Mark Leung's College Saga (pt 1)
(2)(3)(4)(the entire 40 min. youtube) is many things, but it's mostly a massive live action homage to Final Fantasy and having way too much free time at Babson College. Points for tremendous effort. (Related Retrovideogamepopcultery: Collegehumor's Street Fighter: The Later Years.)
There was a ghastly Trial once/Of a dead man by a live man, and both, Popes.
The Cadaver Synod
is a episode from Church history they don't teach you in Sunday school.
The trial began when the disinterred corpse of Formosus was carried into the courtroom. On Stephen VII's orders the putrescent corpse, which had been lying in its tomb for seven months, had been dressed in full pontifical vestments. The dead body was then propped up in a chair behind which stood a teenage deacon, quaking with fear, whose unenviable responsibility was to defend Formosus by speaking in his behalf. ... Stephen VII screamed and raved, hurling insults at and mocking the rotting corpse. Occasionally, when the furious torrent of execrations and maledictions would die down momentarily, the deacon would stammer out a few words weakly denying the charges ... The sentence imposed by Stephen VII was that all Formosus's acts and ordinations as pope be invalidated, that the three fingers of Formosus's right hand used to give papal blessings be hacked off, and that the body be stripped of its papal vestments, clad in the cheap garments of a lay person, and buried in a common grave.Perhaps you prefer a cartoon version or the classic poetry of Robert Browning.
Enduring Outrage: Editorial Cartoons by Herblock
Enduring Outrage: Editorial Cartoons by Herblock,
an LOC exhibition. From 1950s plutocrats to 1970s ethics scandals, and up to the ideal American Flag of the religious Right, Block captured complex issues in just one frame. His drawings about government limitations of civil liberties seem particularly prescient.
Help me make the perfect cup of coffee.
Help me make the perfect cup of coffee.
Olivia
Some stuff that happened. A mild case of OCD.
A neighbourhood mom played the violin.
A technological Hero
Leonardo is overrated: the steam turbine was invented two millennia ago by Hero of Alexandria who developed the aeolipile as a toy. Hero was also responsible for the first vending machine (for holy water) and hydraulic automatic temple doors, along with advances in areas as diverse as physics and mathematics. A translation of Hero's influential Pneumatics is available online, featuring illustrated examples of many of his inventions, many of which are related to clever devices for drinking or prayer, or both.
Rubber monsters
If you know monster makeup, you already know the name Jack Pierce, who created the makeup for Frankenstein's monster, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and many others. But Pierce's career with Universal Studios, for whom he created these masterpieces, came to a sudden, and unexpected, end when, in 1945, he and his entire staff were fired.
The trouble? Pierce's methods were time-consuming and painstaking, involving, among other things, building up his creatures features with cotton and collodion, a process that took many hours. Universal had fallen on hard times, with mergers, sales of its catalogue, and the loss of its 1,500-screen theater chain bringing the bean counters to the fore. They wanted to cut back on Universal's grand-spending ways, and out with the bathwater went the baby. The sorts of makeup men the bean-counters like were George and Gordon Bau, two brothers from Minnesota who had worked at Rubbercraft and brought with them a knowledge of how to make reusable appliances from cheap, lightweight foam latex. Their major accomplishment was House of Wax (1953) and they revolutionized the industry (Dick Smith's work in Little Big Man would be unthinkable without it, as would the entire career of Rick Baker. Best still, it's now possible to buy monstrous and gruesome rubber appliances right off the shelf.
The trouble? Pierce's methods were time-consuming and painstaking, involving, among other things, building up his creatures features with cotton and collodion, a process that took many hours. Universal had fallen on hard times, with mergers, sales of its catalogue, and the loss of its 1,500-screen theater chain bringing the bean counters to the fore. They wanted to cut back on Universal's grand-spending ways, and out with the bathwater went the baby. The sorts of makeup men the bean-counters like were George and Gordon Bau, two brothers from Minnesota who had worked at Rubbercraft and brought with them a knowledge of how to make reusable appliances from cheap, lightweight foam latex. Their major accomplishment was House of Wax (1953) and they revolutionized the industry (Dick Smith's work in Little Big Man would be unthinkable without it, as would the entire career of Rick Baker. Best still, it's now possible to buy monstrous and gruesome rubber appliances right off the shelf.
Toilet Rat
A rat just swam up into my toilet. Can I flush it back down?