April 28
Bunker Busters
Is George really planning to nuke Iran? Some physicists are worried and have written a letter to the president voicing their concerns. Others have gone one step further and made a flash animation.
Mr Squiggle
A duel between two artists. One artist supplies a squiggle, the other turns it into a drawing, incorporating the elements of the squiggle. Hence this becomes this and this becomes this. My favourite - before and after.
Lymphatic filariasis
Lymphatic filariasis (or, more dramatically, "elephantiasis") is spread by mosquitoes. The mosquitoes transmit worms to your blood, the worms mate while you sleep, and their progeny travel to your lymph nodes to live a happy life. Unfortunately for you, the worms can get too big, allowing fluid to collect in your limbs or scrotum. Lucky for your neighbors, the disease can be controlled using salt. (China already did it).
Nine out of ten transgendered carp prefer Prozac to Zoloft
The Ty-D-Bol Man looks pretty mellow today. When I was younger, my father - a pediatrician - would routinely clean out the medicine cabinet of old cold medicines, antibiotics, high potency barbiturates, illegal diet pills and other nostrums. Rather than throw them into the garbage "where someone might get their hands on them" he would flush them down the toilet (just like the poison control people recommend). Apparently in doing so he was making sure that everybody got them. Think the quantities are too small to make a difference? Not so, say Canadian fish, who seem capable of getting confused by the residue from birth control pills and changing gender. Don't worry too much about them, though. They're all on Prozac, so they're OK with it.
[NB: see comments for .pdf version of first link]
America's dangerous employers
Workplace health and safety dirty dozen (pdf) - profiles of companies that have demonstrated egregious disregard for worker safety. Today is Worker Memorial Day, commemorating workers who die on the job - an average of 16 per day. Workplace deaths are trending up, not down, which, according to an extensive report by the AFL-CIO, is the inevitable Toll of Neglect with this administration's rollback of worker protections. Confined Space offers a daily view of work safety issues in the U.S. for those who would like to learn more.
Plus ca change
Do the Democrats need just one big idea, one that may sound familiar from Hillary Clinton's time as First Lady when she was hanging out with Amitai Etzioni, Michel Lerner and other advocates of "communitarianism". Or is this just not the right historical moment?
April 27
Bigfoot is Bullshit?
"After our transparently bogus story and our impossibly shitty video appeared on the website... we received a flood of messages from big-shot bigfoot hunters who were dying to find out about [the] footage. Our plan was working." So, Penn and Teller faked the Sonoma bigfoot footage. But only the BFRO fell for it. Conveniently, they deleted the evidence of that. With so many sasquatch enthusiasts expressing doubt about the video when it was released, can our favorite Libertarian and mime really use it to prove that bigfoot is bullshit?
You're probably not reading this on IE
The Great Microsoft Blunder. Short but scathing article about how Microsoft has continually dropped with ball with Internet Explorer.
10th anniversary of the massacre at Port Arthur
The victims of Australia's worst mass murder will be remembered today, on the 10th anniversary of the tragedy in Port Arthur in Tasmania. [MI]
Two Glenns enter, one Glenn leaves
Battle of the blogger book clubs! Glenn Reynolds Drudge vs. Glenn Greenwald Kos (I think.) The winner gets* a copy of the current #1 book on Amazon.
What time zone is the South Pole?
Ever wonder how time zones work at the North and South Poles? (No, not this North Pole, the real one.)
We shall overcome.
The songs of the Pete Seeger Sessions presents an ultra-detailed listing of prior recordings of the songs included in Bruce Springsteen's excellent "We shall overcome" album, a majestic tribute to the American musical tradition, with some songs written over two centuries ago. The site lists more than 1,560 eariler recordings, by nearly as many artists, with some full-length audio clips included.
Aft
Show some spirit... holy spirit
Show some spirit... holy spirit Christian Throwback Jerseys
You hear bats. You feel a draft. You smell a Wumpus.
The Dot Eaters. A dauntingly comprehensive history of video games, beginning with proto-PONG and Spacewar!. If it's difficult to navigate through Captain O's prize matrix, use the handy timeline/scape (the dates don't work, so don't try). It's an interesting site, for sure, but if it doesn't pique your interest maybe the links page will, since it's the largest I've ever seen. In just minutes I found the First Church of Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros fanfiction (@), and a great Robotron shrine. Plus, this noise (wav).
Dishonor, Blood and Treasure - By The Numbers
Two years after the Abu Ghraib scandal, new research shows that abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at Guantánamo Bay has been widespread, and that the United States has taken only limited steps to investigate and punish implicated personnel. A briefing paper issued today, 'By the Numbers,' presents findings of the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project... the first comprehensive accounting of credible allegations of torture and abuse in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. The project has collected hundreds of allegations of detainee abuse and torture occurring since late 2001 – allegations implicating more than 600 U.S. military and civilian personnel and involving more than 460 detainees.U.S.: More Than 600 Implicated in Detainee Abuse
See also Projected Iraq War Costs Soar, See also The Trillion Dolllar War.
The long, slow death of public health care...
Few things are more sacred to Canadians than the nation's medicare system. After years of health spending cutbacks by conservative politicians, debate rages over whether private providers should now be allowed to compete with the public system. In British Columbia, where the government is shovelling tax dollars into the 2010 Olympics, patients are being left to die in emergency rooms and long-term care facilities due to overcrowding and understaffing. Is it too late to save public health care? Should it be saved?
Yet Another Time-Waster
The Endless Forest is a strange piece of software (that can be a screensaver), where you control a deer in a, well, endless forest. And so do a bunch of other online players. And you can interact all you like with them - with the minor caveat that deer can't talk.
Rethinking Ryungyong
The Ryungyong Hotel is a nearly 1,000 foot tall abandoned pyramid in the heart of Pyongyang that North Korea has officially tried to forget. [discussed previously here] The architecture magazine Domus had over 200 entries to a contest to repurpose the Ryungong, a similar project is also underway elsewhere on the web, though some architects think the effort is a bad idea. [For Domus, use:mefier/mefite]
Comix Remixed
Better Comix The concept behind this is to use comics from the same day and mix them, good ol cut and paste style, so that they become a tad more funny, depending on your sense of humor.
Wii wii? Non non.
Introducing Nintendo Wii The revolution is officially the Nintendo Wii: pronounced "we", as in 'to urinate'. If only we weren't coming to the end of april.
What did the big tomato say the the squished tomato? SketchUp!
Google Releases Sketchup for All. Google has released a free version of SketchUp (video and tutorials), quite possibly the coolest and most intuitive 3D authoring tool. An added bonus of SketchUp is it's integration into Google Earth. Google has also provided a 3D Warehouse for the posting of your models, which can be downloaded into either application (SketchUp for editing, Earth for displaying). Kind of gives you some insight into their plans for using Google Earth as an Automotive (Honda and Volkswagen) GPS service. (Sidenote: how long until this is seen as a threat to national security?)
Breathing room...
For those following the situation in Nepal (previously mentioned here, here, and here), the King has relented and reinstated parliament, though it's not clear whether the new Prime Minister has long for this world. The Maoists have declared a ceasefire, though they aren't happy about the development. Everything is still awaiting a constituent assembly...
Solo!
Re-Mission: a game for kids with cancer
Re-Mission is a 3rd-person shooter designed for teens and young adults with cancer, developed by HopeLab and RealTime Associates. Players pilot a nanobot, Roxxi, through the
body of a fictional cancer patient to destroy cancer cells and infections. The Re-Mission Outcomes Study enrolled 375 teens and young adults with cancer, randomized them to receive a computer with the game or without. Data from the study showed statistically significant improvements in cancer-related self-efficacy, social quality of life, cancer-specific knowledge, and adherence to prescribed medication regimens in patients who played Re-Mission. The game (and related online community) is free of charge to teens and young people living with cancer and will be available to others in May at a suggested donation of $20. (related)
Kropilak's Garages
You are, of course, familiar with Kropilak's Garages, no? via the seemingly unavoidable BLDBLOG, who got it from we make money not art, who got it from the prevoiusly unknown to me regarde.
red reticent?
"As much of life that the world can show"
The Illustrated London News :: an archive
MIT Hawk Cam: The Second Season
The Return of the Hawk-eye. The Hawks of MIT are back for a second season. Will Little Chirpy get some food? Will Preener finally reveal himself as the Mysterious Doctor Wing? Tune in now to find out! Previously.
Oxfordshire church photos
Oxfordshire church photos. For all your Oxfordshire church photo needs.
Adult Swim Fix: Something You Don't Need a TV to Understand.
Adult Swim Fix. Streaming full-length Adult Swim episodes twenty-four hours a day online. Seven archival episodes will be available at all times, while premieres will continue to debut on Fridays, two days before they appear on-air.
Guestbook spammer sullies a name
An unwelcome guest of spam. As thanks for his efforts against link spam, a guestbook spammer uses infotech writer Michael Pollitt's name in its autosubmissions, flooding his inbox with confirmation emails and soiling Google's search results for his name. A special word of gratitude goes out to Ev1Servers for his troubles.
Check out my balls!
So gratuitously offensive that only the most depraved would defend them.
Jesus with Erection. In its March edition, the Insurgent (link down), an "alternative" student paper on the Eugene, Ore., campus printed 12 hand-drawn cartoons of Jesus as a response to rival paper the Commentator having published the controversial cartoons of Muhammad originally published in Europe that sparked Muslim riots worldwide. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, called it "one of the most obscene assaults on Christianity I have ever seen."
Hey now!
April 26
happy fun vacuum time
CSS Love Song
Hands to Boag A love song about web standards with lyrics like, "Tonight I need your CSS, coding in the darkness. From now on no more tables nest; you will meet web standards"...
I'm betting Spock; maybe McCoy.
Trekkergate escalates! Canadian blogger J. Kelly Nestruck puts out the call for pics of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, closet trekkie. (I wonder if Harper has has an autographed photo of William Shatner?)
You want something because someone else does
Mimetic rivalry on a planetary scale. Rene Girard is the author of several books developing the idea that human culture is based on sacrifice as the way out of mimetic, or imitative, violence between rivals. When one rival is successful in obtaining the love object, violence is precipitated, which falls on the head of certain scapegoats, of whom Jesus Christ is the archetype. The violence can be traced in literature.
Short? Commercial? Sellout?
Wes Anderson does a 2-minute commercial for American Express. (YouTube link). As you might expect from Wes Anderson, the results are "quirky" to say the least. Another bigshot director, M. Night Shayamalan, has made one as well. This certainly isn't the first time big companies have hired A-list directors. I wonder who's next?
Da Vinci Code Inspires Judge
“Smithy code” The secret lies in HBHG and DVC. According to news reports the Judge who recently ruled in the Da Vinci Code plagiarism case has included his own code in his high court ruling (PDF). At this time, no one seems to have decoded it all...
BBC Programme Catalogue
The BBC Programme Catalogue: an index of 946,614 radio and television broadcasts, dating back 75 years. (Via BB.)
Force in the House - super cool lightsaber duel
OK - Lucas has pretty much ruined Star Wars for me. Still, lightsabers are freaking kewl with a capital K, and true to its title, this one is quite probably The Best Home Made Lightsaber Duel Ever.
Man, I wish I was a Jedi!
High Yield Investment Programs
In the murky world of HYIP (high-yield investment programs), on the wrong side of the Internet tracks, Team Aaron and Shara were very well known. They had tens of thousands of fans, eager to know which programs were still paying 1-2% per day (or more!). Now their fans will have to resort to other sites to see who is still paying. Curiously, these programs only seem to take anonymous, non-disputable forms of e-payment, such as e-gold. Now, all that is left of them is their farewell website. Did they retire on all of the referral fees, as some suspect? It is impressive that such effort is dedicated to this snake oil, but the law of large numbers must make it work. Who can resist 1.5% an hour return on investment? Is this what has become of anonymous micropayments?
Darfur: 400,000 dead, 2.5 million driven from their homes
Is the Bush administration really serious about NATO and UN protection to stop the Darfur genocide?
"Is it only
weak and incompetent, or is it two-faced?"
What can U.S. citizens do to help end this genocide? For starters, take to the streets: you can register for an April 30th demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge & at the Presidio, or in Washington, DC. You can also ask your Rep. to sponsor House Resolution 723, a measure that urges the President to help deploy a NATO bridging force to the Darfur region.
What can U.S. citizens do to help end this genocide? For starters, take to the streets: you can register for an April 30th demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge & at the Presidio, or in Washington, DC. You can also ask your Rep. to sponsor House Resolution 723, a measure that urges the President to help deploy a NATO bridging force to the Darfur region.
Ladies, you should know better!
Get Rich Quick?
Stock Spam Effectiveness Monitor Spam comes in, graphs come out. You are not buying stock based on spam, but surely someone must be, or else you wouldn't be flooded with more spam everyday. This tracks one user's inbox and the stocks spammed therein. A bit more analysis here and here
HOWTO: Host an orgy
Do it for someone you love.
Flatulence free legumes or, a more to the point headline. Although I thought ABC news might be a bit more scientific in their phrasing. Nope.
Check Out My Breasts
Hey Metafilter, check out my breasts! (NSFW)
50th birthday of the shipping container
Happy 50th birthday (bugmenot) to "the box that changed the world". (Video interview with the author, here.) On April 26, 1956, Malcolm McLean, a trucker from rural North Carolina, hired a crane to hoist 58 trailer-sized steel cargo boxes onto a refitted oil tanker. This modest experiment would profoundly alter international trade and the global economy, eventually creating the "biggest real-time datastreaming network in the world."
In the olden days, before 1984, not very many people used computers....
Apple Computer 1984 Newsweek Advertising Insert :: a complete scan of Apple's 16-page advertising insert in Newsweek magazine, introducing the new and revolutionary Macintosh computer.
« Older posts | Newer posts »