The Big Map Blog – Five-hundred enormous historical maps; all downloadable in their highest resolution. With a new map every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 1,700 to go!
[via mefi projects]
posted by carsonb
on Apr 4, 2011 -
43 comments
Legendary hip hop producer DJ Premier interviewed in
the XXL Icon Interview and
The Smoking Section. Remarkably candid conversations about his life in East Coast hip hop, with interesting stories about his work with Jay-Z, Biggie, Puff, Nas, Jeru the Damaga, Group Home, Suge Knight, Christina Aguilera and of course, Guru. On finding records to sample:
"Well, there’s still diggin’ spots. If you’re in that world like I am, you know the spots, you see everybody—Just Blaze, Alchemist, Large Professor, Pete Rock—we still pop up in those spots. You got Big City records, you got Turntable Lab, you still have A1, you got Academy, you know. I’m not gonna tell you all the digging spots."
posted by the mad poster!
on Dec 20, 2010 -
11 comments
"It's big, like people were back in the 70s... Big when you get that way because you're just real damn strong." Brought to you from the
Wichita Falls Athletic Club, 70sbig.com will teach you how to eat, how to train, and how to style your moustache so that you can get 70s big. Not interested in becoming 70s big? Then stop by and observe the amazing feats of those who were, like
weightlifter Anatoly Pisarenko, who cleaned and jerked 583 pounds, or
powerlifter Doug Young, who deadlifted 711 pounds in competition despite three broken ribs. The site also feature a series of cheeky interviews with Mark Rippetoe, owner of WFAC and author of books like
Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training and
Practical Programming for Strength Training.
posted by ludwig_van
on Oct 8, 2009 -
48 comments
Politicians and
citizens alike are struggling with the decision to bail out the under-performing American automakers. But
what will happen to the cities and towns of the Midwest if the automakers fail?
Flint, Michigan provides an interesting template. In the 1960s and 70s, Flint had a population of 200,000 and was home to some 80,000 autoworkers. Today, after many
plant closures, relocations, and worker buyouts, only 8,000 autoworkers remain. So,
what are we to do with cities like Flint? There have been lots of ideas, like
demolishing dilapidated houses, renovating brownfield sites like
Chevy-in-the-Hole [pdf], downtown business
renovation, and increasing community participation by
giving ownership of vacant lots to local homeowners.
[more inside]
posted by billysumday
on Dec 5, 2008 -
54 comments
"Bishop contends that as Americans have moved over the past three decades, they have clustered in communities of sameness, among people with similar ways of life, beliefs, and in the end, politics. There are endless variations of this clustering—what Bishop dubs the Big Sort—as like-minded Americans self-segregate in states, cities—even neighborhoods. Consequences of the Big Sort are dire: balkanized communities whose inhabitants find other Americans to be culturally incomprehensible; a growing intolerance for political differences that has made national consensus impossible; and politics so polarized that Congress is stymied and elections are no longer just contests over policies, but bitter choices between ways of life. "
Article about the book from
the Economist. Book's
Website. A
review.
posted by wittgenstein
on Jun 22, 2008 -
49 comments
A founding father of DIY indie rock, Will Rigby recounts the pilgrimages to locate underground rock legends
Alex Chilton, (during his wry Americana deconstructo anarchy phase), and the 'McCartney' to Chilton's Big Star 'Lennon', the Brydsian Chris Bell. Blogs on bands may not seem to rate but cats with these sensibilities, unlike today, seemed incredibly uncommon then . Also mentioned, the Dbs, Little Diesel, and Mitch Easter. Free Mp3s of the rare 45s included.
posted by celerystick
on May 2, 2008 -
12 comments
NEC plans to market a system later this year that can derive someone's gender and age from images captured with a camera "The system compares the photo against a database of several thousand faces to figure gender and age based on such factors as facial shape and wrinkles. " According to Nikkei Weekly 01/28/2008 Edition. Link goes to Ubergizmo.
"It's called FieldAnalyst and it's from NEC. The system homes in on faces of people who pass by the video camera. It then rapidly compares the image against samples in a database. It then spits out what it believes is your approximate age is and your gender." .."NEC scientists may next try to add clothing as a characteristic and classify people by whether they wear a suit or a T-shirt." more
here
posted by celerystick
on Mar 23, 2008 -
9 comments
What is Web 2.0? [PDF] The best description of Web 2.0 that I have read.
The six big ideas...
1 Individual production and User Generated Content
2 Harness the power of the crowd
3 Data on an epic scale
4 Architecture of Participation
5 Network Effects
6 Openness
posted by bobbyelliott
on Mar 8, 2007 -
78 comments
According to this site - More than 700 Trillion BEEDIES or BIRI are smoked annually
- Indians smoke more than one trillion bidis every year.
- An experienced worker can roll 2,000 a day.
Step inside and learn more about these unrealistic stats!
posted by joelf
on Nov 24, 2006 -
63 comments
Remember that
Shining trailer from a few weeks back? Now they've done it with
Big. (embedded WMV)
posted by adrober
on Dec 1, 2005 -
46 comments
ASmallWorld is a very exclusive world, where participants seek advice on where to charter a private jet for a single person and use 'summer' as a verb. This
invite-only website for the well-connected, famous, or just stinking rich has an alternate however. When an aSmallWorld member is no longer welcome, they are unceremoniously dumped to a less restricted set of forums called aBigWorld. I don't expect to get an invite anytime soon, so I can't tell you of their
Illuminati-like plans to keep their lofty power. (
via1,
via2)
posted by Kickstart70
on Aug 12, 2005 -
45 comments
Cleveland bloggers are organizing against a giant suburban-style shopping plaza called Steelyard Commons (to be built on the site of the city's historic steel factories), which will include an immense Wal-Mart at its core. After City Council passed legislation in February to prevent Wal-Mart from adding a grocery store (causing the Bensonville bullies to "pull out" and scuttle the project), the developer was aided and abetted
behind closed doors by Cleveland's mayor, Queen Jane. Despite the mayor's proclamation of "no public money" or tax abatements for the project, there's plenty of
evidence to the contrary.
posted by bitter-girl.com
on May 20, 2005 -
16 comments
Giant lava lamp to save town. Theme structures built for cities throughout the world are constructed to draw attention and tourists. As someone said, “never underestimate the power of awe.” Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Seattle has the Space Needle and Soap Lake has the worlds largest Lava Lamp! Give them credit for dreaming...
posted by Coop
on Jan 14, 2003 -
27 comments
Who Killed Tupac Shakur? More importantly, does the
L.A. Times run the risk of re-igniting an east-coast/west-coast rap "war" by implicating a certain
notorious indivdual in a feud that was virtually nonexistent until the media hyped it up the first time around?
posted by aflores
on Sep 6, 2002 -
34 comments
LA Cop shot Notorious B.I.G.?! While I hope justice will be served, I can only pray that this does not come to be the case. LA is already spooked about the police force. This could start another riot.
Just another day in Southern California. Sigh.
posted by Brilliantcrank
on Oct 16, 2000 -
3 comments
