April 2013 Archives
April 30
I took my power in my hand, and went against the world
In a couple hours, at midnight on May 1, 2013, civil unions will become available to Colorado couples. [more inside]
Free Speech on the Internet
Mayday...
Without fear or favor, kids say the darnedest things
First, Art Linkletter chatted with the honest little scamps, then Bill Cosby talked with kids these days. They probably won't get a TV or radio show, but parents on Reddit shared the creepy things their kids have said or done.
The map of music
Every Noise At Once. A map of musical genres, built by Glenn McDonald of The War Against Silence and the Echo Nest. Click on a genre name to hear a sound sample, or pop it open to see a map of bands within that genre.
If she weighs the same as a duck... she's made of wood!
Trials by Ordeal were a method of determining guilt or innocence by putting the accused through various torturous experiences. Today these approaches are frequently-mocked and banned almost everywhere, though Sassywood remains common in Liberia. However, economist Peter Leeson argues that trial by ordeal may have been a very effective way of dispensing justice, especially when courts and juries were expensive or broken. According to the paper [PDF], a superstitious belief in iudicium Dei, or the justice of God, may have discouraged the guilty from ordeals, while tilting the scales in favor of the innocent - echoes of the practice persist today in swearing on a Bible. Even Sassywood [pdf] may be better than Liberia's broken justice system.
Fire Writing
Etsuko Ichikawa is a Seattle-based artist who specializes in glass pyrography. 2100°/451° is a short film of her at work. [more inside]
That's the second biggest pile of $#!+ I've ever seen.
INFLATION! is the self-described "(con)temporary installation" curated by M+, a not-yet-built museum for visual culture at the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong and located in a future park next to the future museum. As you can guess, all the works on display are large-scale inflatables, and the contribution of American artist Paul McCarthy is "Complex Pile", a 51-foot-tall representation of ... poop. Designboom has a gallery of all the pieces, which also include a giant roast pig and a full-sized replica of Stonehenge.
NEWSFLASH: Bad weather and an unseen flaw combined to flatten "Complex Pile" into a representation of a big brown stain. Repairs are underway.
This is a really great place to have sex
A few words on why Shane Black, writer of Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, record holder for the largest spec script sale ever, and now writer-director of Iron Man 3, is the most badass action screenwriter around. (via Vulture)
Dystopian Future (and present)
Panopticon is a documentary which details how our concept of privacy is altered by the modern surveillance state.
FOOD FLASH - There's spud in your eye!
The Ministry Of Food was a British government ministerial posts separated from that of the Minister of Agriculture. A major task of the latter office was to oversee rationing in the United Kingdom arising out of World War II. They made many newsreels and PSAs to inform the citizenry how to use the food rationing system: Rationing is introduced in 1939 The new ration books are coming! Cod Liver Oil Here's spud in your eye Don't cut that bread! DON'T WASTE FOOD! Dig For Victory! Milk is here! In addition, some short films instructed people in how to best use the new rationing system : Two Cooks And A Cabbage How To Make Tea Rabbit Pie Buying black market meat: a Partner in CRIME A US view explaining UK rationing to the States.
Perpetual Motion, maybe for real
Now, a technological advance has made it possible for physicists to test the idea. They plan to build a time crystal, not in the hope that this perpetuum mobile will generate an endless supply of energy (as inventors have striven in vain to do for more than a thousand years) but that it will yield a better theory of time itself.Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek's "somewhat embarassing" idea will be put to the test as scientists try to build time crystals.
A C*nt and His iPhone
Continuously exasperated Tumblr Jesus Christ, Silicon Valley really lets loose [NSFW] at a Vanity Fair profile of Dave Morin, creator of the hip alternative social media app Path.
The Greatest Web Comic Based On A Classic Namco Video Game
Galaga: Invasion is a webcomic from Ryan North, Christopher Hastings and Anthony Clark. Drop whatever it is you're doing and get reading!
Featuring the suggested voice talent of Burt Reynolds, Rip Torn, & A Cow
God Hates Astronauts is a webcomic that includes: John L. Sullivan and his mustache, a bear army, head trauma, infidelity, a demonic cow head, criminal owls, and agrarian astronauts. [more inside]
Do you spit or swallow?
Bostonians Tyler Balliet and Morgan First love wine. Drinking it, talking about it, introducing other people to it. But wine, unfortunately, is often perceived to have an attitude, a culture of snottiness and pretension that puts people off before they even get close to a wine glass. Why swirl it? What's with that obnoxious sucking sound? What the hell is the deal with spitting it out? What about the confusing vocabulary and snooty descriptors? When did wine become "sassy" or "understated", instead of "delicious"? [more inside]
Sesame Street outreach
Over the past month, the Sesame Street workshop has focused on illuminating the experience of military families, and providing resources to help them cope with their extraordinary lives.
Cookie Monster Broke Luce
“It destroyed two vintage T-shirt stores and a banjo”
The Hipster – a lexicon from the NYT.
Posthumous Papers
The Pickwick Papers, one of the most honored first novels of all time, was conceived as a showcase for the comic etchings of the celebrated illustrator Robert Seymour. His publishers tapped a 24 year old journalist named Charles Dickens (their third choice) to provide the humorous "commentary" linking the pictures, which were to depict the hunting mishaps of a club of cockney sportsmen. Dickens, who knew nothing about hunting, ignored the prospectus and wrote his own way forward. As it became clear that Seymour was ill-equipped to depict the darker turns of Dickens' imagination, illustrator and writer fell into a conflict which ended in horror. [more inside]
COIN 101
A short photo essay documenting a marine's experience of counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in Iraq. via.
"Bin Laden cowered & hid. Mughniyeh spent his life giving us the finger"
It's been five years since the death of Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus. No one ever claimed responsibility for killing him. Hezbollah publicly blames Israel's Mossad, a charge they unsurprisingly deny. So, who killed The Driver? [more inside]
And he would make a great Magneto.
Country legend Willie Nelson turned 80 yesterday and in celebration, he has released his audition tape for The Hobbit 2.
Right, Zach?
The cult 2010 video game Deadly Premonition gets a Director's Cut this week. The brainchild of a guy who calls himself SWERY, one could make a strong case for Deadly Premonition being the most entertainingly bizarre game ever made. It's undeniably influenced by Twin Peaks and more than a touch of Japanese horror, yet that doesn't begin to explain how unique, disturbing and hilarious the game is. The humor is intentionally unintentional. Everyone agrees there are significant gameplay problems, but the phrase "so bad it's good" does the game a terrible disservice. "Capable of swinging from zany to nasty, inspired to absurd within the course of a single sequence," and boasting an eccentric, often inappropriate soundtrack, Deadly Premonition is either a joke, a masterpiece or both. (Previously: It's like watching two clowns eat each other.)
Those Were the Days
Classical Gas was written and publicized by Mason Williams in 1968 - still nimble and able, Mason Williams still performs it (as do many other players), but in addition to being an all-around good player, Williams was a driving force behind the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (and hiring 22 year-old Steve Martin) and he als...well, let him tell you.
How do you even set a fucking bike on fire?
Irish comedian David O'Doherty recorded his song 'Life' while drunk in a hotel room in Australia for the You Made It Weird podcast. It is hilarious.
She could put her lips together for the first time. “It was beautiful."
Groundbreaking Surgery for Girl Born Without Windpipe: [New York Times] — Using plastic fibers and human cells, doctors have built and implanted a windpipe in a 2 ½-year-old girl — the youngest person ever to receive a bioengineered organ.
Back by popular demand
The world first web page has been put back online by the folks at CERN, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Originally posted on April 30, 1993. Cern's announcement blog post yesterday. [more inside]
The Net Before The Net
Music has the right to robots
"Designed in collaboration with interactive designer Jonathan Chomko, the COLORS News Machine turns your tweets into headlines, but only after they’ve been passed through all the media filters and technological platforms that disseminate and distort the news today."
"A megaphone will read your tweet out loud. Its tape recorder listens, converting what it hears into text so that the television can show it onscreen. A camera watching the television converts what it sees into a signal to the radio antenna, which broadcasts the tweet. And the waiting microphone interprets this radio address as text again for printing."
Tweet to here: @ColorsMachine. Live stream here.
"A megaphone will read your tweet out loud. Its tape recorder listens, converting what it hears into text so that the television can show it onscreen. A camera watching the television converts what it sees into a signal to the radio antenna, which broadcasts the tweet. And the waiting microphone interprets this radio address as text again for printing."
Tweet to here: @ColorsMachine. Live stream here.
Created equal; photographed separately.
Created Equal is a photo project created by photographer Mark Laita in which he focuses on the contrasts between people, the lives and cultures through black and white portraits of different people. Some images possibly NSFW.
Madame, it is an old word and each one takes it new and wears it out
"There is consternation at Wikipedia over the discovery that hundreds of novelists who happen to be female were being systematically removed from the category American novelists and assigned to the category American women novelists." [more inside]
Woods-Burner
On this day in 1844, Henry David Thoreau burned down a forest.
"I cried the first time I held a Nintendo 3DS."
Spy versus spy versus spy versus spy versus spy ver ... [load more]
Fade Away: music by Vitalic (previously), directed by Romain Chassaing. Multiple assassins try to get their hands on an attaché case, and (briefly) they all succeed. NWS for action-movie gore.
BBC: How to Eat Healthily on £1 a day
"Starting on Monday 29 April , 5,000 Britons will be challenging themselves to live on just £1 a day for five days, as part of a campaign by the Global Poverty Project.
But is it possible not just to survive, but also to eat a balanced and healthy diet on that sort of budget?" [more inside]
The Great Oil Fallac(ies)
Does the US have a national interest in securing Middle Eastern oil? Economist John Quiggin thinks not, and argues that oil is a commodity like any other. Other scholars have questioned the conventional wisdom surrounding oil.
Timothy Mitchell says that the problem with oil is not its scarcity, but its abundance, and we simply have too much oil.
Eugene Gholz & Daryl Press argue that "American national security policy is based on a misunderstanding about U.S. oil interests. Although oil is a vital commodity, potential
supply disruptions are less worrisome than scholars, politicians, and pundits presume."
App Art
Invisible Hieroglyphics: iPad screen smudges as art.
Is too much news bad for you?
Rolf Dobelli describes the negative effects of the overconsumption of news. An edited extract of his essay is in the Guardian here and the full text of his argument is here.
The text in the Guardian was linked to in a metafilter thread here.
According to Dobelli, news misleads, is irrelevant, has no explanatory power, is toxic, increases cognitive errors, inhibits thinking, works like a drug, wastes time, makes us passive and kills creativity.
Dobelli has a new book on clear thinking.
(^･o･^)ﾉ”
Pathological Physics: Tales from "The Box"
This is a talk I gave on June 1, 2012, about the numerous crank physics letters and books that had been sent to, and saved by, the Physics Department at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Don't believe the apparent video length, the talk is 41 minutes long and the camera sticks around for about 20 minutes of the awesome Q&A afterwards.[more inside]
"[T]the only programs for men were for anger management."
The Men's Alternative Safe House in Calgary was the only shelter in Canada dedicated to helping battered men and their children. Lacking any other source of facilities or funding, Earl Silverman -- himself a survivor of an abusive marriage -- ran the shelter out of his own pocket and his own home, until mounting bills forced him to give up. The Men's Alternative Safe House closed last month, and Silverman announced he would have to sell his home. [more inside]
Color Me Impressed
The goal of Color Me Impressed is to share every known Replacements (and related) live recording available.
World's highest fight
Last weekend, almost 60 years after the first ascent by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, fights broke out between three Western climbers and a group of sherpas, at around 7200m on Mount Everest. [more inside]
Keep up your sensawunda
The entire history of the exploration of the Solar System in one handy picture, as created by Olaf Frohn. (Requires HTML5.)
Abalone submarine detectors
April 29
Robot sold separately
Robots can now assemble IKEA furniture better than you can.
Soderbergh on Cinema
The problem is that cinema, as I define it and as something that inspired me, is under assault by the studios and, from what I can tell, with the full support of the audience. The reasons for this, in my opinion, are more economic than philosophical, but when you add an ample amount of fear and lack of vision and a lack of leadership you’ve got a trajectory that is pretty difficult to reverse. - "Retired" director Steven Soderbergh speaks to the San Francisco International Film Festival about the state of cinema - (summary, full audio at bottom of page 2)
Women of Punk
Women of Punk 30 shows containing almost 400 video clips exploring the role women have played in Punk music from the 70's to today, with rare interviews and concerts, videos, documentaries and feature films.
America's mental health care crisis
Schizophrenic. Killer. My Cousin. "It's insanity to kill your father with a kitchen knife. It's also insanity to close hospitals, fire therapists, and leave families to face mental illness on their own." [Via]
“Meow meow, meow MEOW meow meow MEOOOOOW purrrrrrr”
One more integrated prom
Wilcox County High School is a small, rural school, located three hours south of Atlanta. Recently, in a school district that serves some 1,300 students in total. The high school has been in the news for it's continued tradition of holding segregated proms, and for the efforts of some of the local students to raise funds to hold the first officially integrated prom in the community's history. Though, most students were welcome to the "black prom," the first officially integrated prom happened this past Saturday. So many donors came forward, from around the world, that the students say they have money left over to help local families in need. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean an end to the community's history of segregated proms, as the "white prom" was still held, but a week earlier in Fitzgerald, Georgia, less than 10 miles south of the Wilcox County border. [more inside]
Spinning down the alliance
On April 26, AOL shut down a series of its subsidiary sites: A broad swath of its AOL Music network, including Spinner - whose staff live-tweeted their own termination - and the feature-focused, oft-linked-on-the-blue comics blog ComicsAlliance. [more inside]
Ah am NOT no savage
Celebrating The Very Best That Tony Danza Never Did.
DANZA DID IT! Free Propadanza for Tony Danza. Call the hotline! "Fanza" fan art galleries. Spread Danza. Tony Danza.
Andy Cohen is the Andy Warhol of the 21st Century.
How the Real Housewives Have Made America Better, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. "Watching these housewives scramble to suture up their tattered personas is both anger-inducing and heart-wrenching. That's what literature is supposed to do: make us angry at certain behavior; then when we recognize ourselves in the characters we so harshly judge, to change our behavior."
A generous barrage of narcissism
Do you want to buy one 30 attack items for $0.99?
Introducing Super Monster Bros by Adventure Time Pocket Free Games! Where the characters are Pokemon (kinda), the gameplay is Mario (kinda), and the content will cost you up to $99.99 to unlock!
Likely named for merchant William Fell
How the streets of San Francisco got their names: a fun little history lesson, nicely formatted as a giant clickable map (with search if you just want to look up a specific street).
304 WAYS TO SUBVERT THE BOURGEOISIE (and still feel sexy!)
Cosmarxpolitan! Karl in the bedroom: "From each according to his ability, to each according to her needs."
rewardeternalbeautyfractalinsightwarmdeconstruct
Drop : Yesterday, Minecraft creator Markus Persson, aka Notch (previously), released a new (Unity-based) Web game in lieu of a contribution to Ludum Dare. Drop takes its inspiratation from Terry Cavanaugh's Hexagon (previously), the ending of Fez (previously), and Notch's own apartment ceiling.
A funny thing happened on the way to the funeral
Ownership of your digital works is no longer automatic in the UK
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act changes UK copyright law so that only a "diligent search" for ownership is required before a work is considered "orphaned", and put into extended collective licensing. This is one part of a larger act that is supposed to "modernise the UK’s copyright regime to promote innovation in the design industry, encouraging investment in new products while strengthening copyright protections. "
Pundits are comparing this to Instagram's assertion of ownership over its users' works last year.
Mysterious weather at the second largest planet in our solar system
Act of Terror: arrested for filming police officers - video
When police carried out a routine stop-and-search of her boyfriend on the London Underground, Gemma Atkinson filmed the incident. She was detained, handcuffed and threatened with arrest. She launched a legal battle, which ended with the police settling the case in 2010. With the money from the settlement she funded the production of this animated film, which she says shows how her story and highlights police misuse of counterterrorism powers to restrict photography. [more inside]
There wasn't much talk.
On April 29, 1945, the Dachau concentration camp was liberated. Today, on Reddit, with the help of his grandson, one of the men who liberated the camp did an IAmA.
Now at TKTS in Times Square, It's Monsterpiece Theatre!
"On an average afternoon in the area around 44th and Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, you’ll find a motley crew of Chewbaccas, Buzz Lightyears, and Minnie Mouses — along with the usual Naked Cowboy and face-painted Statues of Liberty—posing for tourists’ pictures and demanding cash in return." Condé Nast Traveler editor Eimear Lynch spent a couple of days dressed up as Cookie Monster to see what it was like. Video. [more inside]
Behind The Mohawk
Interview with Kirk Thatcher , in which he talks about the time he played "Punk On Bus" in Star Trek IV. The song "I Hate You" wasn't included on the original soundtrack and was unavailable for purchase until the soundtrack was re-released in 2012.
China: "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2012"
"The Human Rights Record of the U.S. in 2012 is hereby prepared to reveal the true human rights situation of the U.S. to people across the world by simply laying down some facts." Chinadaily.com, among others, has the full text of the report published by The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China. Last year's report on MeFi.
"What If We Never Run Out of Oil?"
Charles C. Mann writes for The Atlantic:
This perspective has a corollary: natural resources cannot be used up. If one deposit gets too expensive to drill, social scientists (most of them economists) say, people will either find cheaper deposits or shift to a different energy source altogether. Because the costliest stuff is left in the ground, there will always be petroleum to mine later. “When will the world’s supply of oil be exhausted?” asked the MIT economist Morris Adelman, perhaps the most important exponent of this view. “The best one-word answer: never.” Effectively, energy supplies are infinite.[more inside]
Creative Entomophagy
With an incredible protein-to-weight ration, insects have often been promoted as a superfood that could cure world hunger. (Although eating live insects may not be advisable.) However, the "grossness" factor often stops people from trying this comestible. Enter the 3-D printer to change all this.
“Can’t You See I’m In Pain?”
Major Label vs. Indie, as told by Iggy Pop. Blatant plug for new album, but funny as hell.
The Disapproval Matrix
If you're facing criticism and are having trouble "separating haterade from productive feedback", you might Ann Friedman's Disapproval Matrix helpful, especially when it seems as though everyone's coming down on you.
Kenneth I. Appel (1932-2013)
Mathematician Kenneth Appel has died at the age of 80. He is best known for having proved, with Wolfgang Haken, the four-color theorem, which states that only four colors are needed to have a map in which no two adjacent countries have the same color. [more inside]
"I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay."
Jason Collins, a veteran NBA center currently playing for the Washington Wizards, is now the first active player in major league American sports to openly declare he is gay.
Lookee here woman, what's the matter now?
Let yourself be carried along, floating nice and easy down that slow, lazy river of American collective unconscious, when you hear Jack Owens singing Jack Ain't Had No Water.
Didactic DRM
Game Dev Tycoon was released yesterday; simultaneously, the makers Greenheart Games uploaded a slightly different version of the game to torrent sites.
Woo, microcontrollers.
Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive
The Finnish Defence Forces have put their archive of 170,000 WWII photographs online.
Some "night fighters".
Some American prisoners, probably from the ill-fated Convoy PQ 17 [more inside]
Some "night fighters".
Some American prisoners, probably from the ill-fated Convoy PQ 17 [more inside]
Rose-Colored Ribbons
Never fear quarrels, but seek adventures. Julie d’Aubigny or d'Artagnan?
Shortly thereafter, one of the nuns died. La Maupin disinterred the body of the deceased nun and, placing it in the bed of her beloved, set the room afire so that the two could flee in the ensuing confusion. Julie d’Aubigny a.k.a. La Maupin or Mademoiselle Maupin was a 17th century fencer and opera singer of the Paris Opera. In detail. [more inside]
The Magic Box
"It doesn’t matter how good you are"
"Meanwhile, on the LASO setup, Cody and Rob could not defeat a group of two or three grunts. I asked the students to compare each other’s experiences. “What’s the problem?” I asked Cody and Rob, “Caitlin isn’t having any trouble staying alive and she’s fighting even more grunts than you.” This moment taught us that different people approach similar obstacles with certain preexisting advantages and disadvantages that radically alter the probability of their success." -- Samantha Allen teaches intersectionality through the use of Halo's difficulty settings, as inspired by John Scalzi's essay Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is.
Prom spending highest among poor northeastern families
Prom spending rising again, average of $1,139 The USA Today story is based on a recent VISA press release about prom spending that comes out every year. The VISA press release breaks down how prom spending is highest among Northeastern families, with Northeasterners averaging $1,528 compared to Midwesterners paltry $722. It also shows a breakdown by income category with families earning less than $50,000 spending an average of $1,245 while those from higher earning families spend $1,129. [more inside]
April 28
Capybaras in Hot Tubs
Hello Moon
A beautiful short video of a moon rise in Wellington New Zealand which puts things in perspective. (SLV)
The original Star Wars film to be dubbed in the Navajo language of Dine
The various Star Wars movies have been translated into at least 39 languages (as also seen here in a set of 16 international logos for Attack of the Clones), but the Navajo Nation is set to be the first Native American tribe to officially dub the original Star Wars film. [more inside]
How I learned to stop worrying and love Darth Vader
Here is Today
Here Is Today - a simple interactive animation that helps keep things in perspective.
The Weeklies
“My husband and I, our parents wanted better for us than what they had,” Bonnie says. “And it’s gone backwards.” [more inside]
Upstream Color, by the guy who brought you Primer
"Having the movie wash over me was one of the most transcendent experiences of my moviegoing life." The movie is out in theaters, and available for digital download soon.
Some reviews and also some interviews. [more inside]
The Retirement Gamble
“Do you really want to invest in a system where you put up 100 percent of the capital, [you] take 100 percent of the risk, and you get 30 percent of the return?”
Frontline correspondent Martin Smith speaks with authors, policy experts, and investment managers about the history and current reality of the 401(k).
Cartoon fables with strange reversals
Graham Chapman Cleanup (Python and Klein)
A classic spontaneous Monty Python tribute to 'King Arthur' Yes, I'm sure this video has never, ever been seen before at MetaFilter.
The way it is handled is remarkable, with Cleese calmly discussing how comedy works, and then...
Klein's reaction to the chaos near the end is hilarious. [more inside]
RAW, LIVE, DANCEFLOOR WINNERS ONLY!
Very obscure and super rare selection of cumbias, gaitas, mapalé, charanguara, musarana, charanga and guarachas for your ultimate enjoyment! [more inside]
Social Scientist Diederik Stapel Dismissed for Academic Misconduct
“It was a quest for aesthetics, for beauty — instead of the truth.” The recent dismissal of Dutch social scientist Diederik Stapel for academic fraud [SLNYT] leads the article's author to wonder whether "the scientific misconduct that has come to light in recent years suggests at the very least that the number of bad actors in science isn’t as insignificant as many would like to believe."
CRAPCHA
CRAPCHA CRAPCHA stands for Completely Ridiculous And Phony Captcha that Hassles for Amusement. It doesn't keep spammers out. It doesn't crowdsource book scanning either. CRAPCHA's only job is to baffle users, and you can add it to your site today.
[via mefi projects]
Coming soon to a theatre near you... OBAMA.
Single White Feline
If you're a cat owner and also unhappily, and seemingly incurably, single, you need to watch this cautionary tale from the BBC. I'm going to go have a little talk with my own little white feline now.
Famous, Infamous and Iconic Photos.
Iconic photos Is a blog of ...iconic photos ...however the plus is intelligent and interesting commentary and links.
It is well worth checking out by category such as culture or society.
There is a fun page on fictional photographers and an iconic bookshelf
There is a lot more here since it was last posted in october 2009 by Joe Beese.
It is well worth checking out by category such as culture or society.
There is a fun page on fictional photographers and an iconic bookshelf
There is a lot more here since it was last posted in october 2009 by Joe Beese.
RED: "Well, we ought to file that under Educational too. Oughtn't we?"
Guantánamo prison library for detainees. [tumblr] New York Times reporter Charlie Savage set up a Tumblr dedicated to cataloging some of the books available in the Guantánamo prison library for detainees.
"IS THIS THE END OF DAYS? PROBABLY."
Because what the news reports hadn’t mentioned was that Gallinippers have quite literally evolved for the apocalypse. Their mummified eggs hatch during floods and eat their siblings first. Some even say they’re resistant to DEET, and since they suck down the larvae of competing species for nourishment, the super mosquitos are immune to biological controls. In fact, if you introduce a competing species to ward off Gallinippers, it only produces more Gallinippers. Gallinippers are born in chaos, and in chaos they thrive.[more inside]
The Rat Pack in Concert
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., in a concert from June 20, 1965 at the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis. A young Johnny Carson hosts, filling in for an ill Joey Bishop. SLYT.
Endbahnhof, bitte aussteigen Sie!
Endbahnhof , a collection of photographs of every U-Bahn station in Berlin, organised by line and showing the variety of architectural styles in the system. There is an interview with the photographer, Kate Seabrook, here.
FPP below this line _____
Following a 1976 pipeline explosion that left nine people dead, cities adopted the color-coded spray paint DigAlert system to mark the presence of various kinds of buried municipal infrastructure. If you've ever wondered what those marks on the ground mean, the Design Decoded blog breaks it down for you. (The previous entry in their Decoding the City series explained the Fire Diamond.)
The Top 10 Fears of African Diaspora About Africa
They wash dishes in restaurants, clean toilets and look after elderly incontinent people in the West. That makes the majority of the 30 million who have emigrated from Africa. Some are much luckier, they work in subaltern management positions in corporate America or in public institution in Europe. Few are real stars, successful with high pay and social status. Regardless of their current fate, they all share one thing in common: most of them want to return to Africa.
The recent medias’ drumbeat about “Africa is Rising” is making them restless and hopeful because most of them have quite a petty life in the West. They are constantly harassed by the state police, crushed by daily racism from their neighbors and strangers, economically and politically isolated, and with very little hope for a near-future improvement.
Unfortunately their dream to return home is painfully held back by deep fears and unanswered questions. Here are the top 10 fears of the African diaspora about Africa, and also the top 10 questions most of them are confronted with.
April 27
Less than $4 a flush over 5 years
Presenting the NUMI by Kohler. With features like programmable colored LED lighting, bluetooth for music streaming and custom playlists America is finally catching up in the so called, Battle for the Bottom in the high end toilet wars.
Dariusz Klimczak
Robot Hell (now with additional hell!)
Futurama's "Robot Hell" song as performed by the cast of Team Fortress 2.
Dinosaurs are still alive!
Dinosaur Jr. live at Umass 1986. Murph had hair!
Perry Van Arsdale's maps of US historic events
In 1960 or so, Professor Perry C. Van Arsdale was helping his 7-year-old granddaughter researching the Santa Fe trail. He found his granddaughter's textbook to have some number of errors. He set off to create a map of pioneer history (prior to the 1900's), using his own knowledge and information from judges, sheriffs, and descendants of historical figures. This was his start in creating the Pioneer New Mexico map, which would contain 300 towns that no longer exist, old trails of all sorts (including the three historic Santa Fe trails and various camel routes), locations of minor squabbles and major battles, and because he couldn't fit everything on the maps, he also included extensive notes in the corner of the map. [more inside]
99 is the magic number
David Gold, founder of Southern California's (and beyond) ubiquitous 99 Cents Only Stores, has died. [more inside]
Constant and flux...
The Germans wore gray, and you wore a space suit.
Join Spongebob & friends as they dub classics like Godfather, Singing in the Rain & Casablanca! [slyt]
Dance Like a Senshi
Man wears construction paper Sailor Moon costumes; dances to Estelle's "Do My Thing." [SLYT] via The Mary Sue.
"Whoa, this dude really knows how to party."
Partysaurus Rex , a new animated short from Pixar, in which we join the characters from Toy Story for an ecstatic bathtime rave (poster). The short débuted ahead of ("opened for") Finding Nemo 3D in September 2012, and features an original soundtrack by electronic musician BT. [more inside]
The Libra husband is not an easy man to please.
The romance comic blog Sequential Crush takes a look at an astrology-themed love story from 1970: "Horoscope, Don't Fool With My Heart!"
Stop the killer robots before it's too late!
Nobel laureate's campaign calls for pre-emptive ban on autonomous weapons. As our technology advances, it becomes more and more feasible to give more and more autonomy to our drones. A new campaign led by 1997 Nobel laureate Jody Williams calls for an international ban on the design of autonomous weaponized drones. [more inside]
The Naked Edge
Danger Zone: On Archer's Underground Comix Roots
Charles Bock examines how underground comics helped give rise to TV's Archer and reviews the series in a post-Sideshow Bob world. (First link contains NSWF embedded YT videos.)
Frank makes a bowl while Bonnie plays the cello
"Publishing is tremendously susceptible to the availability heuristic"
What Is the Business of Literature?
Publishing is a word that, like the book, is almost but not quite a proxy for the “business of literature.” Current accounts of publishing have the industry about as imperiled as the book, and the presumption is that if we lose publishing, we lose good books. Yet what we have right now is a system that produces great literature in spite of itself. We have come to believe that the taste-making, genius-discerning editorial activity attached to the selection, packaging, printing, and distribution of books to retailers is central to the value of literature. We believe it protects us from the shameful indulgence of too many books by insisting on a rigorous, abstemious diet. Critiques of publishing often focus on its corporate or capitalist nature, arguing that the profit motive retards decisions that would otherwise be based on pure literary merit. But capitalism per se and the market forces that both animate and pre-suppose it aren’t the problem. They are, in fact, what brought literature and the author into being.[more inside]
Garanimals for Grownups
The Vivienne Files. "Timeless, Elegant, Classic, Simple, Unique, Beautiful. Working toward carefully curated and deliberately distilled wardrobes that reflect our personal styles and our distinctive contributions to the world." [more inside]
I'm 85 and tired about worrying about my virginity
Re-Surfacing
In the archives of Cinema Canada (1962-1989), articles about the relationship of Canadian cinema to American genre films, the Canadianization of popular comedy, and "what is 'Canadian film'?" stand out as typical--even commonplace, given their context. They also happen to suggest an interesting mix of obscure and popular films to watch. [more inside]
April 26
Here's to you my little loves, with blessings from above
San Francisco band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club recently released a worthy cover of The Call's Let the Day Begin. [more inside]
Carter is Dead
His deluded music of the eternal present will sadly have little future.
Daniel Asia writes an inflammatory screed taking on the prolific composer Elliott Carter
Daniel Asia writes an inflammatory screed taking on the prolific composer Elliott Carter
Tokyo City Symphony
Create your own 3D projection mapping to music on the Tokyo skyline Put together eight seconds which is added to an ever-expanding, infinite overall 'symphony' projected onto one of the largest scale models in Japan.
A year of self portraits and other art by Brendon Burton
Brendon Burton is now an 18-year-old photographer, who started taking/making a self portrait (almost) each day last April. In the beginning, they started out as simple photos from a young kid in high school. But as the year progressed, some images came with a soundtrack, others were collaborations. The photos became more staged and more cinematic. The series ended April 11th. [more inside]
Don't worry, replicas can't feel any emotions. Except for pain—and love.
More Than One Best Friend
Much Ado About Nuttin'
In 2005, he was considered the finest high school football player in the country. Heavily recruited, the quarterback was sought after by Notre Dame, Alabama, and the school just down the road from home, Arkansas. Many believed that he was a better player than another promising high school quarterback, Tim Tebow. In 2013, Mitch Mustain is the back up quarterback to the San Jose SaberCats, an arena football league team. The documentary,The Identity Theft of Mitch Mustain, seeks to understand what happened.*
*Trailer for documentary. [more inside]
That night the hipsters jazz in
A harrowing graphic story that shows that gentrification of ethnic neighbourhoods by young people leading alternative lifestyles was a controversial issue even in 1957. (SLComic)
Disney Rejection Letter, 1938
Still far from that digital democracy any utopian could hope for.
Hello, Lanie the organic gardener
The Atlantic reports on the 2008 removal/"archiving" of the original three American Girl dolls, dolls whose arrival on the market in 1986 represented a "sensibility about teaching girls to understand thorny historical controversies and build political consciousness." [more inside]
Ages 3 and Up
we're not bailing you out again!
Nathan Fielder of Nathan For You (where he helps real businesses by doing things like developing unique froyo flavors and unlikey-to-be-redeemed rebates), has posted the results of two Twitter "experiments": Text your parents "got 2 grams for $40" then right after "Sorry ignore that txt. Not for you" and a second one about dollar store condoms.
Love is all you need?
Imagine a world where "gay" was "straight" and "straight" was "gay"... How Would You Live If You Couldn't Love? (19:13)
A beautiful short film centered around themes of childhood bullying, community intolerance, and bigotry from within one's own family that is a lot more affecting than one might expect at first from the deceptively kitchy concept.
20 Original Hits by 20 Unoriginal Artists
Nineteen-ninety-phwoargh
As 'ladette mag' turned celebrity rag More! magazine closes, a former writer reminisces on the 'arrival of the suits'. And another on being a male writer at a teen girl's magazine.
International Art English
"The internationalized art world relies on a unique language. Its purest articulation is found in the digital press release. This language has everything to do with English, but it is emphatically not English. It is largely an export of the Anglophone world and can thank the global dominance of English for its current reach. But what really matters for this language—what ultimately makes it a language—is the pointed distance from English that it has always cultivated. " - Triple Canopy magazine on why do artists' statments and press releases sound so utterly odd and confusing.
Just dumb ninja fun
Ninja Slash (fun flash Friday). Move left/right/up/down to kill zombies faster and faster.
Biking & The Gender Candy Store
"Gender isn’t a toy store lined with pink and blue aisles. It’s a candy store, a free for all, a sugar-fueled shopping spree. Anything your heart can desire is free for the taking!" A primer on the gender spectrum, a guide to challenging the current culture and a pannier-load of biking references all in one. [more inside]
All That is Carnal
Sportsfilter!
The first round of the 2013 NFL Draft was held yesterday, leaving two of the most-talked-about players undrafted: QB Geno Smith and Linebacker Manti Te'o. [more inside]
Like a movie set! The alien space station maze...!
Taibbi held a gun to my head, er, I mean...
Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever
The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix
Central Park Five
Remember the Central Park jogger case from 1990? Here's a (lengthy, fascinating) New York Magazine article discussing the case just around the time of the 2002 exoneration of the initial five accused, four of whom had previously confessed to the crime. 24 years after the attack, a group of filmmakers, together with the five wrongly convicted men, have created a documentary telling the tale: The Central Park Five. Criminal reform activists everywhere are hoping the story might change a few minds. Previously
He Stopped Loving Her Today
Steadicam Inventor Honored
American cinematographer Garrett Brown to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the invention of the Steadicam (previously).
"What is an innovation worth?"
This is basically a love letter from my stomach.
Serious Eats tries all the tacos at La Chaparrita. What is this magical place? Well... [more inside]
ADULT DESCRIPTION: Tiny Bird, In Constant Motion
As bird activity is ramping up in the northern hemisphere, let's take a moment to consider the tiniest of the perching birds, the Golden Crowned Kinglet. These diminutive dynamos stay constantly active to counteract the physiological challenges that come with being so very small. [more inside]
Triple Gear
Mathematicians Henry Segerman and Saul Schleimer have produced a triple gear, three linked gears in space that can rotate together. A short writeup of the topology and geometry behind the triple gear on the arXiv.
“Music exists in nature to make you smarter."
Bob Brozman, the undisputed master of the National Resonator Guitar, has passed away at age 59. Ethnomusicologist, virtuoso fingerpicker, musical historian, and anarchist philosopher Bob Brozman fell in love with National’s metal body resonator guitars as a teenager and made them his life’s passion. [more inside]
Ceremonious Trespassing
Hope is the thing with feathers
Listening to birdsong is really good for you. But many of us live in urban environments where birdsong is a scarce resource, so you might consider opening up this YouTube audio clip, or this one, or this one, and just let those little birdies serenade you while you work at your computer, or savor your morning coffee, or do your household errands. It's good for the soul.
Finnish Fan Foments Flash Friday Fun
Hapuriainen makes dress ups / character creators: Disney Girls dress up; Pokémon Trainer creator; Naruto character creator; W.I.T.C.H. Guardians maker; and 64 others. [more inside]
Speculative Lexography
POWER VOCAB TWEET. Boost your vocabulary with these fiercely plausible words and definitions. About. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
April 25
Just a plant?
Kyle put out a video on 4/20/2013. And 4/20/2011. And 4/20/2008. Here's a bonus Thanksgiving video. [more inside]
No longer Valentine's Day, but...
BeerMapper
A heat map of your preferences over the beer space. Developer Kevin Jamieson writes, "Beer Mapper is a practical implementation of my Active Ranking work on an Apple iPad. The application presents a pair of beers, one pair at a time, from a list of beers that you have indicated you know or have access to and then asks you to select which one you prefer. After you have provided a number of answers, the application shows you a heat map of your preferences over the 'beer space.'" [more inside]
"Never, ever let anybody use your gender as an excuse."
"Women get flustered under fire. They're too fragile, too emotional. They lack the ferocity required to take a life. They can't handle pain. They're a distraction, a threat to cohesion, a provocative tease to close-quartered men. These are the sort of myths you hear from people who oppose the U.S. military's evolving new rules about women in combat. But for women who have already been in combat, who have earned medals fighting alongside men, the war stories they tell don't sound a thing like myths" [more inside]
CO2 to hit 400 parts per million next month, highest since the Pliocene
Scripps Institute of Oceanography projects that next month its monitoring station will for the first time measure CO2 at 400 parts per million. Atmospheric CO2 has risen from 280 parts per million before the Industrial Revolution. 400 ppm is an arbitrary milestone that we'll blow right past on our way to 450 ppm within a few decades. This is an unprecedentedly fast rate of increase and it's getting faster. Not all measuring stations are exactly the same: A NOAA station in the Arctic measured CO2 at 400 ppm last year. [more inside]
Transcript of secret meeting between Julian Assange and Eric Schmidt
On the 23 of June, 2011 a secret five hour meeting took place between WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who was under house arrest in rural UK at the time and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. We provide here a verbatim transcript of the majority of the meeting; a close reading, particularly of the latter half, is revealing.[more inside]
Dzhokhar does the robot
Up until last week, "One Direction Infection," a Tumblr blog created and maintained by an eighth grader we'll call Claire, looked like any other 14-year-old's Tumblr. But over the weekend Claire's subject matter took a sharp turn. In place of candid shots of Harry Styles and Zayn Malik, there are now photos of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; instead of inspirational image macros, there are annotated crime scene photos. Gawker's Max Read on where social media fandoms meet conspiracy theories.
I love [my mom] so much it kills me, and I’d sooner die than tell her.
My Foreign Mom. "Every morning when the bus would come to pick us up while it was still dark out, I could see her slight backlit frame outlined in our blinds as she watched us drive away. A senior on the bus once asked if my mom knew that we could all totally see her. I told that kid to go fuck himself and to quit looking at my mom. To this day, I still can’t watch her watch us leave."
You said we were going to try new food! An umbrella isn't food!
All those verbal gaffes were just strategery.
Keith Hennessey is a former economic aide to George W. Bush. And he wants you to know that George W. Bush is smarter than you.
Bolaño Dia 2013
Sunday, April 28, would have been Roberto Bolaño's 60th birthday. The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona is holding an event that day, in conjunction with their recent exhibit of Bolaño's archive, to celebrate the life and work of the writer. Or if you're not in Barcelona, the celebration is #DiaBolaño on twitter. [more inside]
Richard Prince Wins on Appeal (mostly)
Today the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision (Cariou v Prince) determining that 25 of the 30 Richard Prince Canal Zone paintings using appropriated images from Patrick Cariou's Yes Rasta book fall under Fair Use. The remaining 5 paintings were remanded back to the District Court to determine if they also fall under the Fair Use Doctrine with the now clarified proper standard. previously.
"Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
A giant foam head was found floating in the Hudson River by a Marist rowing crew team early Tuesday. [more inside]
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've already kept Jesus waiting five minutes.
"Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice — pull down your pants, and slide on the ice." - Dr. Sidney Freedman, M*A*S*H. Allan Arbus, actor, photographer, and amateur clarinetist, passed away last Friday. He was 95. [more inside]
Sundoggin' it
In a rather daring (or foolhardy) effort to sell 300 season's tickets the owner, General Manager, captain and marketing director for the Central Hockey League's Arizona Sundogs hoisted themselves into the Arizona sky in a scissor lift and announced they weren't going to come down until they met their goal. It has taken rather longer than they expected. The Twitter feed for the event has taken on a rather urgent tone. Oh, and the GM is afraid of heights.
I have a crazy friend who says we dont need zipcodes...is he CRAZY?
On July 1, 1963, The US Post Office introduced the five-digit ZIP Code with a series of PSAs broadcast on national TV. The Atlantic looks at a new report [PDF] that details the history of the now $9.5 billion a year product and its current state of affairs.
Coming home
DAMN HENNESSY, WHERE YOU FIND THIS TRACK?
COMMERCE, MY FACELESS INTERNET FRIENDS, IS BEAUTIFUL. CVS Bangers is a parody mixtape from Hennessy Youngman.
OK, maybe I just have a thing for talking dogs.
"...forcing its cast to act around a Jack Russel terrier decked out in full period costume." Blogger Josh Marsfelder of Soda Pop Art explores the legacy of Wishbone.
Grand complications indeed
The cool features on mechanical watches have the wonderful name of complications, of which the most common are the chronograph, perpetual calender, and tourbillon (originally used to improve accuracy, now it just looks very cool); but many others have been developed in the past centuries, and some are rather absurd. For a watch to be a grand complication, it must have at least three complications for timing, astronomical measurement, and striking. The world's current most complicated watch is the Franck Muller Aeternitas 4, which is just one of several "uber complicated" watches, like the iPhone-sized Zeit Device.
Iranian Men Dress In Drag For Gender Equality
Kurdish men are dressing in women's clothing in response to the punishment given to a convicted man earlier this month. He was paraded down the streets of Marivan in a woman’s dress in order to humiliate him. [more inside]
Grand Theft Austerity
Jello Biafra: 'Obama owes Occupy big time' The former Dead Kennedy talks to us about the state of modern punk – and modern American politics
DNA Lab Party at 4 PM: Staph only!
Celebrate the 60th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's structure with a pictorial story behind DNA's double helix and the Rosalind Franklin papers, including correspondences and lab notes that detail some of her crystallography research, findings that laid the groundwork for Watson and Crick's later publication.
China robot noodles
"It is the trend that robots will replace men in factories, it is certainly going to happen in sliced-noodle restaurants." [more inside]
Yglesias Destruction
Matthew Yglesias wrote a blog post for Slate the other day titled "Different Places Have Different Safety Rules and That's OK" concerning the Bangladesh building collapse and worldwide safety standards. Mr. Destructo was not pleased.
Just how do you move a secret aircraft overland to a secret base?
How did Lockheed move the A-12 from the Skunk Works to Area 51 for flight testing without the vehicle being seen? Here's how.
One book review ah ah ah two book reviews ah ah ah three book reviews
As you know Bob, the gender inbalance within science fiction and fantasy has been a hot button item for a while now. As the just released Strange Horizons count of books reviewed and reviewers writing in sf publications in 2012 shows, this gender inbalance shows no tendency to decline just yet, with some notable exceptions. However it might just be that this gender imbalance is exacerbated in the count by the omission of RT Bookreviews? [more inside]
The CLUB HANGOVER Archive, 1954-58
In the 1950s, Club Hangover was the place to go in San Francisco to hear Dixieland and New Orleans jazz. Thanks to tapes from KCBS being preserved and passed on, you can now listen to 25 complete and unedited half-hour broadcasts from Club Hangover, with recordings of Louis Armstrong, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Kid Ory, Muggsy Spanier, Ralph Sutton, and Jack Teagarden, all from 1954-58.
A Step Beyond Product Placement
Branded Superheroes: sponsorships and marketing deals.
Peeps Show VII
Peeps Mourn Their Peeps is the winner of the 2013 Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest. [more inside]
"The Logic Of Violence In Criminal War"
Criminal Cartels And The Rule Of Law In Mexico: Summary, PDF
The cartels have thousands of gunmen and have morphed into diversified crime groups that not only traffic drugs, but also conduct mass kidnappings, oversee extortion rackets and steal from the state oil industry. The military still fights them in much of the country on controversial missions too often ending in shooting rather than prosecutions. If Peña Nieto does not build an effective police and justice system, the violence may continue or worsen. But major institutional improvements and more efficient, comprehensive social programs could mean real hope for sustainable peace and justice.[more inside]
Insolence raised to the status of a fine art
Despite her varied accomplishments, it seems Nelly Kaplan remains largely unknown outside of France.
The only female filmaker linked with surrealism; she is known for films that utilize her unique combination of gentleness, grotesquerie, vulgarity, boldness, and contradiction.
La Fiancee du Pirate (1969) is online (Also known as "A Very Curious Girl" and "Dirty Mary") .
It was praised by one of greatest fans Pablo Picasso as insolence raised to the status of a fine art.
(Her 1967 documentary Le Regard Picasso won a Golden Lion at Venice but seems to have practically disappeared).
The only female filmaker linked with surrealism; she is known for films that utilize her unique combination of gentleness, grotesquerie, vulgarity, boldness, and contradiction.
La Fiancee du Pirate (1969) is online (Also known as "A Very Curious Girl" and "Dirty Mary") .
It was praised by one of greatest fans Pablo Picasso as insolence raised to the status of a fine art.
(Her 1967 documentary Le Regard Picasso won a Golden Lion at Venice but seems to have practically disappeared).
Is this a new conjunction slash what is its function?
Slash: Not Just a Punctuation Mark Anymore - Anne Curzan writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a new slang word that she learned from her undergraduate students in a History of English course slash analyzes how it fits with traditional parts of speech.
"...wearing various smiles on their faces."
We're all done, **** off.
YouTube user wheezywaiter makes what he calls "The Least Stressful Video Ever Made" (SLYT)
Women of the Algerian War Unveiled
In 1960, the French military required identification photographs of the people of remote mountain villages. The women were forced to unveil. “I would come within three feet of them,” Garanger remembers. “They would be unveiled. In a period of ten days, I made two thousand portraits, two hundred a day. The women had no choice in the matter. Their only way of protesting was through their look.” [more inside]
Photos of large and non fatal mine collapse
Inside a mile-deep open-pit copper mine after a landslide. Flickr set and other links in the article.
Free Culture Foundation explore arguments for and against DRM in HTML5
The three most pervasive arguments for DRM in HTML debunked by Freeculture.org " A handful of myths have become common defenses of the W3C’s plan for “Encrypted Media Extensions” (EME), a Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) scheme for HTML5, the next version of the markup language upon which the Web is built."
The entire article is quite short, and worth a read but see the extended description for a TL:DR summary - [more inside]
"Oh my God, it's orcas attacking sperm whales."
On April 18, a half-dozen orcas battled a pod of sperm whales off the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The unusual encounter is one of fewer than a dozen such recorded conflicts — and the first observed. “We saw the water churning on the horizon,” said Heinrichs, a photographer and filmmaker who was in the area looking for blue whales. He and his colleagues steered their boat toward the patch of white water. As they got closer, they saw an enormous dorsal fin slicing through the water — a killer whale trademark — and then noticed the group of sperm whales, clustered together in a defensive stance.
At that point, Heinrichs did what many of us would not do: He jumped in.
April 24
Will it go 'round in circles...
It's not so often that a new acoustic musical instrument is invented that really makes you go "wow!", but the Wheelharp might just make you go "double wow!" [more inside]
Public's Knowledge of Science and Technology
Pew Research and Smithsonian Magazine recently performed a survey, looking at the American public's knowledge of science.
Pew: The public underestimates how well American high school students perform on standardized science tests compared with students in other developed nations. A plurality (44%) believes that 15-year-olds in other developed nations outrank U.S. students in knowledge of science; according to an international student assessment, U.S. 15-year-olds are in the middle ranks of developed nations in science knowledge.An examination of the results from Smithsonian Magazine.
GIANT GOD WARRIOR APPEARS IN TOKYO
Studio Ghibli presents Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo, a short tokusatsu film. (In Japanese, no subtitles.)
Not the shirtless She-Hulk you were expecting
Little Girls R Better at Designing Superheroes Than You is a (sparsely populated) Tumblr with illustrations based on little girls in superhero costumes, by Eyeburst. [more inside]
Poor Seems Kind
On Sunday, Rachel Shteir, a theater professor at DePaul University, wrote a critique of three Chicago-focused books for the New York Times Book Review. Many Chicagoans were none too happy. [more inside]
Jocasta Innes, 78, influential writer on decor, cooking
The author of The Pauper's Cookbook , Paint Magic and more than 50 other titles, has died in London. If you ever thought about stippling, sponging, stencilling, scumbling, rag-rolling and distressing and/or color-washing a wall, you might well have been influenced by Ms. Innes.
It's only a sucker punch 'cos you're a sucker.
The criminally overlooked work of independent Canadian animator Myles Langlois has my vote for best thing on the internet right now. Specifically Apollo Gauntlet, the tale of a lone hero prone to quips and violence wandering an (imaginary?) wasteland in search of Dr Benign so he can return to Earth, and Superspace, the saga of two mounties, a woman and her son, a criminal, a pilot, a robot and a bald guy who find themselves trapped aboard an alien spaceship.
The low-rent production style, like highschool binder doodles come to life, and hazy Sifl and Olly-style humour might take a little getting used to, but it's all part of the charm.
Here is a teaser, a trailer, and a 1992 Sales Presentation for Apollo Gauntlet. [more inside]
Cerebral palsy isn't funny, but 14 year old kid w/ cerebral palsy is
There Is No Word For Kiss
At long last you can finally hear Six Pence None The Richer's 1997 hit "Kiss Me" the way it was intended to be heard, in the original Klingon.
Sen. Nesselbush: "Today is so important, I even wore a dress."
Rhode Island is about to vote to become the 10th state (and last state in New England) to enact marriage equality with the unanimous support of the State Senate Republicans. [more inside]
Ronald Davis
"No matter what people think about me, I know I'm a human first. And just cause I'm down on my luck, don't give nobody no excuse to call me no bum—because I'm not." Well-done video about a man down on his luck. Brought a tear to my eye.
"There Are Lots Of Ways To Die in Alaska"
I was staring at a week and a half of bone-deep cold, probable-verging-on-inevitable blizzards, baneful travel conditions, and total isolation from the civilized (read: broadband-having) world. I hate snow, do not play winter sports, keep the thermostat at 65 on a good day, and haven’t logged out of Spotify since 2011. I’m not even a dog person.
Grantland's Brian Phillips covers the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.
Karma Chameleons
There have been lots of great covers of Radiohead's Karma Police, but this one that just dropped may be the best you'll ever hear. The amazing video is thanks to a successful kickstarter campaign.
Shazam
The world as you know it is a hologram of sound (SL comic strip on Warren Ellis's website but authored by Eric M. Esquivel, Scott Godlewski, Ryan Cody, and Henry Barajas)
Grimes is not your waif
"I don't want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living" - Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Grimes, has apparently canceled her 2013 tour via Tumblr. (previously)
"the current system is the most practical and 'seems to work'"
"Despite her pedigree, success came slowly," the story bravely ventured. This slowness was maybe not so apparent to several thousand other 24-year-olds who want to be actresses, but who haven't even figured out how to get to a reading for Law & Order to fail at it. Tom Scocca on Nathaniel Rich, Lena Dunham, Zosia Mamet, and cultural nepotism. (Related: How David Carr Became the Daddy of Girls)
"You don’t like it? Find another place to live."
"Them and Them." "Rockland County, New York's East Ramapo school district is a taxpayer-funded system fighting financial insolvency. It is also bitterly divided between the mostly black and Hispanic children and families who use the schools and the Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox Jewish majority who run the Board of Education and send their children to private, religious schools." Also see: A District Divided. [more inside]
Let's go, Maa-at, let's go!
And Indrani believes works of art can change individuals
Wallace Shawn reads his monologue The Fever, at The Lannan Foundation, in Two Parts. (Wallace Shawn previously, previouslier.)
Baltimore Jail
Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that 13 female corrections officers, seven inmates and five others with gang ties have been charged with plotting to smuggle drugs, cellphones and other contraband into Baltimore’s jail and other correctional facilities.
According to an indictment, the ring involved sex between inmates and guards that led to four of the officers becoming pregnant, one of them twice, by Tavon White, leader of a gang called the Black Guerrilla Family.
Stoopidtall
Oh don't lean on me man, cause you can't afford the ticket
Chako Paul City is a women-only city in the north of Sweden, established in 1820 by a wealthy widow. It is "a place that is respectful of women's love, but with a rule that men cannot enter"; the few who have tried have found themselves beaten half to death by the formidable Amazonian sentries at its gates. It has a castle, and its main industry is forestry, with a sideline in lesbian tourism. Of the 25,000 women, from all over Europe, living in Chako Paul City, those wishing to seek male company are allowed to leave, but may only reenter after having bathed and undertaken several other measures to avoid negatively affecting the mental state of the other residents. [more inside]
Our Fair City
Play with pathfinding
An interactive demonstration of different algorithms for finding the shortest path from one point to another on a uniform grid. [more inside]
Hooray a new friend!
Peace is liberty in tranquillity
The UK Peace Index [PDF], a new publication from The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), has produced a startling new headline: against public perceptions of crime, both crime and homicide have fallen significantly. The fall over the last decade has resulted in the UK homicide rate now being roughly equivalent to that of the Western European average, and it is now at its lowest level since 1978. [more inside]
For the Emperor! For the Imperium of Man!
April 23
Keep it simple, keep it real.
If you're a fan of deeply grooving and righteously soulful music that's stripped down to its barest essentials, then you'll love Brushy One String's Chicken In The Corn, not to mention No Man Can Stop Me, They Are Going Down and Boom Bang Deng. A voice and a one string guitar. All you need, really.
“Rituals are the glue that holds social groups together.”
Social Evolution - The Ritual Animal "Praying, fighting, dancing, chanting — human rituals could illuminate the growth of community and the origins of civilization." [more inside]
H7N9
Is China covering up another flu pandemic -- or getting it right this time? A long article from Foreign Policy regarding the recent outbreak of H7N9 flu. [readability link]
Dances with llamas
In southern Sweden, scene of recent sheep-killing incidents perpetrated by wolves, llamas are being introduced to see if they will kick wolf-butt and protect the sheep. In the US, the guard llama is becoming a more common "first line of defense" on ranches. [more inside]
Facing up to CNN
Should viewer discretion be advised for pictures of children with congenital deformities? One Ontario woman doesn't think so: "I am 'deformed' and reading that viewer discretion warning ahead of the article (amounted) to telling me that every time I left the house I should wear a similar warning." [more inside]
It will have 10-20 failures and two successes. That's my hypothesis.
And there will be light.
Recovered Documents Show Murder and Torture of Indigenous Groups during Dictatorship.
First hinted at in 1968 by the Milwaukee Journal.
Al Jazeera: All the President's Torturers.
The Minister of Justice will coordinate an effort to centralize the millions of documents produced during the military regime that, as of now, are held in the archives of various ministries in Brazil and is slowly coming to light under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
First hinted at in 1968 by the Milwaukee Journal.
Al Jazeera: All the President's Torturers.
The Minister of Justice will coordinate an effort to centralize the millions of documents produced during the military regime that, as of now, are held in the archives of various ministries in Brazil and is slowly coming to light under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Lock your bike
Have you been looking for bike locks that work? Will only the best locks do? Perhaps you just need a secondary lock?
the land of milk, meatballs and solidarity
This is why we can't have nice things. Swedish SAP ousts substitute member of the governing board, over issues stemming from his role as chairman of the Swedish Islamic Association.
Media outlets are found to have been fast and loose in their reports concerning the member. [more inside]
Cameo By A Pit Bull Dressed As A Hammerhead
“free as air and water”
Time to feel old!
Youtube user Thepeterson puts together collections of the major radio hits, movies, video games, and technology of a given year. So why not take a time machine trip to the media landscape of : 1997, 1999, and 2002
Zambians are rich, Guineans are studious
But the protestors only had their voices – for none of them had banners or signs to highlight their grievances. Aliou remembers, ”There were no such materials. Where could we even purchase the materials for a riot in North Korea?” -- That day in 1984 that a group of African students went on a demo in North Korea, part three of the memoirs of "Aliou Niane, a Guinean who studied at Wonsan agricultural college in North Korea from 1982-1987". Part 1, part 2.
Not safe for faces
Seducing the sexually inexperienced Tom Cruise
BLACK: My journey to yo-yo mastery.
Delightfully funny, self-honest, interesting and wise. More about personal evolution really than the yo-yo. Some intelligent laughs and inspiration here. It's a TED talk: BLACK: My journey to yo-yo mastery. Actual use of yo-yo begins at 4:00.
Dow tanks briefly after fake AP tweet
The Dow tumbled nearly 150 points this afternoon after a fake tweet about White House explosions was posted from the AP's hacked twitter account. Markets recovered almost completely after the AP clarified that the news was false.
Don’t Act. Don’t Think. Make Twine Games.
The "Slavoj Žižek Makes a Twine Game" game. Created by Cameron Kunzelman of This Cage is Worms (previously). Inspired by Ian Bogost (previously).
A Compassionate "Human Computer", RIP
Shakuntala Devi, the Indian "human computer," passed away on Sunday. The NY Times first did a profile on her when she visited the US in 1976, during which she computed the cube root of a 9 digit integer in her head, but could not remember that she had been to the US once before -- over 20 years prior. Bob Bemer (inventor of the Escape key previously) remembers meeting her in 1953 on the TV show You Asked For It (which had previously featured a race between an abacus and a calculator). Psychologist Arthur Jensen (who did controversial research on race and IQ) wrote a paper on Shakuntala's exceptional ability in 1990. Shakuntala made her living as an astrologer and authored numerous books mostly on mathematical puzzles and tricks, but also The World of Homosexuals (1977), one of the earliest ethnographic studies of gay people in India. Specifically about gays in her hometown of Bangalore, Shakuntala called for "not only the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India, but also its 'full and complete acceptance' by the heterosexual population so that the Indian homosexual may lead a dignified and secure life."
The Complicated Chinese Family Tree: A Video Guide
The Complicated Chinese Family Tree - Cantonese Version! Or, if you like, the original in putonghua. (This previous post may be of some assistance.)
Buffy did it, Fringe did it, why not Downton Abbey?
Broadway stars get together to "preview" Downton Abbey Series 4's premiere musical episode, with "Julian Fellowes" (Colin Mochrie) providing commentary. (10m). [more inside]
drawings acquire a weirdly Ralph Steadmanesque feel
the world in black and white
There are a lot of people scanning and posting vintage photographs to the Internet. A lot. [more inside]
Dresden Dolls meet an idol
Dresden Dolls meet Lene Lovich to sing Delilah. You might know Dresden Dolls from stuff, and their awesome kit-bashed band at last year's MOMA (playing the Violent Femmes and such with Brian Ritchie and Mick Harvey). But do you know Lili-Marlene Premilovich aka Lene Lovich? [more inside]
We've got a kotton krown, gonna keep it underground
Imagined Interfaces
The difference between (Graphical) User Interfaces in movies and in real life is that the former have to convey information to the viewer, not the user. [more inside]
His home is his castle
This St. George's Day sees news of the next attempt to redress Britain's superhero shortage: Englishman, who looks like Iron Man crossed with a mediaeval crusader.
The series promises “brand new, quintessentially English characters, including Greenbelt and Dry Stone Wall”. [more inside]
April 22
A line of quilts based on topography of parks and urban landscapes
TopoQuilts These customized quilts bring together the line work of topographical maps along with the tradition and elegance of widecloth cotton quilts. These heirloom quality quilts reference the topography of specific landscapes and places which often hold a specific memory or meaning to the person who has commissioned the work.
Denis Leary fish face man
Krill Gill rants about stupid humans. From the Ghouligans.
Make way for ducklings. (NSFW)
Star Power
"No GPS or weather reports—just a sailboat, the wild open ocean, and the constellations. Think you could find your way across the South Pacific? James Campbell rides along with a master navigator in the Caroline Islands, where they’ve been sailing this way for thousands of years." [more inside]
One Wish Jerusalem
Shot in one day, in Jerusalem, we invited everyone who passed to share a wish ... One Wish Jerusalem משאלה אחת ירושלים واحد يرغب القدس [more inside]
Cage Against The Machine
Angels and Dogs Are Not Very Different: Stanley Marsh III
Popular eccentric Amarillo millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 (previously) is best known for his art installations Cadillac Ranch and the bizarre road signs he placed throughout Amarillo. [more inside]
——/——/——/717228/936557 /——
A new Boards of Canada release surfaced during National Record Store Day.
These are not your father's bumper cars
Even Nixon & Reagan and the NRA once dabbled in gun control.
The ghost of gun control revisits the history of gun control in the US. (SLNYTOPED)
John C. McGinley interview - career overview (A.V. Club)
"Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about." McGinley discusses his roles in 42, Platoon, Wall Street, Point Break, Car 54, Where Are You?, Office Space, Seven, Mother and Scrubs.
When Richie Havens Sings
Richie Havens has died. Havens, who first roared onto the national stage at Woodstock with the brilliantly improvised "Freedom," has died. [more inside]
Life is a little like lion-taming, wouldn’t you say?
Joe Posnanski, 2011's National Sportswriter of the Year, has an incredible portfolio of work. He also wrote 'Paterno', and writes for Sports on Earth. Previously, we addressed our tremendous respect and adoration for renowned film critic, courageous fighter, and man-about-town Roger Ebert. Today, on Posnanski's personal blog, an incredible treat: Roger Ebert's Opening Sentences. [more inside]
Who would win in a fight? Trudy or Annie?
Paul F. Tompkins and Allison Brie talk Community and Mad Men and then they create unsexy gifs and imitate various internet memes.
100% Prime
"Each prime number is represented by a bright, white square, whereas a non-prime ("composite") is grey. Visitors can select difference spatial arrangements of these numbers, ranging from several variants of the well-known Ulam Spiral, over the Archimedian spiral, to the more sophisticated 3D Hilbert curves." [more inside]
I Am Only Going Into Another Room
"101 ways to say died: in this project, I will be cataloging all the synonyms for "died" that appear in early American epitaphs." Courtesy of Vast Public Indifference: history, grad school, and gravestones. [more inside]
"The tang of the real permeated his talk."
In Memory of a Friend, Teacher and Mentor by Philip Roth: [NYTimes.com] A eulogy for Philip Roth’s homeroom teacher, his legendary and noble friend Bob Lowenstein.
Nelson Van Alden FTW
Michael Shannon Reads the Insane Delta Gamma Sorority Letter (SLFunnyOrDie NSFW language)
The Business of Phish
Phish has consistently been one of the most popular and lucrative touring acts in America, generating well over a quarter billion dollars in ticket sales. Yet, by other measures, the band isn’t popular at all... Phish doesn’t make money by selling music. They make money by selling live music, and that, it turns out, is a more durable business model. (via) [more inside]
Not quite retirement age yet
The Washington Spirit are a professional soccer team in the National Women's Soccer League. Like many of the lower earning professional sports, they have to be creative about costs, and often arrange host families for their players. Instead of host parents, Diana Matheson and Robyn Gayle got host grandparents. Several hundred of them.
Happy Earth Day!
Today is Earth Day! Google has a special Earth Day Doodle up. 350.org is encouraging people to speak out against the Keystone XL Pipeline. President Barack Obama has posted a proclamation, and people from all around the Earth are recognizing Earth Day in many different ways! What are you doing to celebrate?
Electrical Banana – Masters of Psychedelic Art
Sci-Fi-O-Rama is proud to present a selection of ‘far out’ imagery sequestered from the fantastically titled ‘Electrical Banana’ Psychedelic art book – and yes that title is indeed derived from a reference to a certain type of ladies sex toy.
Fascinating pics of Vietnam in the 1980s
Fascinating pics of Vietnam in the 1980s (Part 1) (Part 2). Photographs by Philip Jones Griffiths. Here's a 1993 interview.
Back For Another Bite!
Liverpool's Luis Suarez bit Chelsea's Brankslave Ivanovic on the arm during Sunday's Liverpool-Chelsea football (soccer) game sending the media into a frenzy.
But this is not the first time he's bitten another player. In 2010, while in the Dutch Eredivisie, he bit Otman Bakkal.
He also was suspended for 8 games this year for racist comments.
However, he has a new twitter follower: Mike Tyson who bit Evander Holyfield's ear in a prize fight in 1997.
Eight Writers and the Walks That Inspired Them
Lisa Kokin: Sewn Found Photos
Sewn Found Photos "Sometimes there are inscriptions on the back (“Susie, 7 years old”) but more often they come to me stripped of all identity. I sit in my studio and speculate about the nature of the photographed people’s lives. I will, of course, never know the truth, so I feel it is my job to give them new lives and rescue them from the obscurity they would be headed for were it not for me, humble servant of the arts. I try to invent an altogether different identity for them but of course, in the final analysis these works are more about me than any of the hundreds of anonymous individuals who appear in my work."
More from Lisa Kokin.
NATO airstrikes kill 12 children in Kunar, Afghanistan
On April 7, an airstrike on a Taliban commander killed him and a total of 16 civilians, 12 of them children. Hamid Karzai condemns the attack and says that the CIA is carelessly planning these airstrikes that go awry far too often. Kunar district was the site of another airstrike that killed civilians in February. [more inside]
Get me out of here
April 21
A sobering look back on an infamous chapter in history
In the Year of the Pig is a documentary on the Vietnam war, produced and originally released in 1968 as the war raged. It begins with some background on the end of the French colonial period, then moves on to the American involvement. It features gripping historical footage from the war itself and from leading political players of the time. At the time of its release, a New York Times review said "There are no frills and few ifs, ands or buts about the stinging, graphic and often frighteningly penetrating movie". It is highly recommended for anyone seeking to understand more of the history of the war. Viewable in its entirety here.
TEAM GAMERA!
Gamera II is the University of Maryland's Human-Powered Helicopter. So far it has remained aloft for 65.1 seconds and reached an altitude of 9.4 feet, not quite enough to win the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter competition. [more inside]
SCIENCE
The Origins Project at ASU presents the final night in the Origins Stories weekend, focusing on the science of storytelling and the storytelling of science.The Storytelling of Science. Part 2. [more inside]
Eight years of Eisner Awards for Digital Comics
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books since 1988. The digital comic category was added in 2005. Some say the category could be expanded, given the abundance of digital creations. Regardless, there are 42 different titles nominated in the past 8 years. The 2013 nominations have been made: Ant Comic, by Michael DeForge (previously, twice) | Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover | It Will All Hurt, by Farel Dalrymple (previously) | Our Bloodstained Roof, by Ryan Andrews (previously) | Oyster War, by Ben Towle. Nominations and winners from prior years inside. [more inside]
Say you love me or I’ll kill you!
Jun Togawa is sort of like what you'd get if you crossed Kate Bush and Mike Patton. Togawa, who became known in Japanese culture after appearing in a bidet commercial, was half of the electro-cabaret band Guernica, which sometimes sounded very classical and sometimes sounded very new wave and sometimes much stranger. Somewhat more straightforward is her rock outfit Yapoos, which similarly varies quite a bit in sound and style. Her solo work, unsurprisingly, is quite melodramatic, with some very interesting arrangements, both parodically poppy and funky. I particularly like her covers of All Tomorrow's Parties by the Velvet Underground, Brigitte Fontaine's Comme à la Radio, and – weirdly – Pachelbel's Canon.
How the Other Half Tests
"Students are told, reassuringly, that there is no such thing as failing the Accuplacer or the COMPASS. But there is: students who score below a certain number, or “cut score,” flunk the
test for credit-bearing work." The consequences can be dramatic.
Ronaldinho Flip Book
Thrown for a Curve in Rhode Island
"“It just felt really good, when this all started, to have the sexy sports celebrity from Boston who seemed to like Rhode Island and showed up in Rhode Island, and who built this exotic new business, even though no one knew what it was,” says the historian Ted Widmer, who grew up in Providence and works at Brown. “It seemed like the digital economy, or biotech, or whatever. But then it turned out that it wasn’t the new digital economy. It was some 13-year-old’s medieval fantasy.” "Curt Schilling, Rhode Island, and the Fall of 38 Studios.
Plate of Shrimp
It is an apocalypse tale with no doomsday, a punk movie with no concert, a science fiction story with less than ten seconds of aliens - Repo Man: A Lattice of Coincidence, a look back at the 1984 classic film by cult director Alex Cox, whose current project is a crowdfunded adaptation of Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero.
When we are strong, we will show no mercy. It wont be democratic anymore
Like 1930s Germany': Greek Far Right Gains Ground
Golden Dawn, with it's growing presence in public high schools is now targeting pupils at primary schools. Its official website recently hosted pictures of neatly-dressed 6 to ten-year-olds, accompanied by parents, at a “national awakening” session held at a branch office outside Athens.
Recently 28 migrant workers working at a strawberry production farm in Manolada, Greece were shot because they demanded to get paid.
From one tweet about the incident: Modern Greece has many things in common with Ancient Greece. For example slaves.
An anti-foreign nurse swoop on a Peloponnese hospital exploded in violence as Roma patient's friends confronted the neo-nazis.
The Greek government needs to take action against the extreme right, including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, says the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks. This could even involve outlawing the party.
Golden Dawn, with it's growing presence in public high schools is now targeting pupils at primary schools. Its official website recently hosted pictures of neatly-dressed 6 to ten-year-olds, accompanied by parents, at a “national awakening” session held at a branch office outside Athens.
Recently 28 migrant workers working at a strawberry production farm in Manolada, Greece were shot because they demanded to get paid.
From one tweet about the incident: Modern Greece has many things in common with Ancient Greece. For example slaves.
An anti-foreign nurse swoop on a Peloponnese hospital exploded in violence as Roma patient's friends confronted the neo-nazis.
The Greek government needs to take action against the extreme right, including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, says the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks. This could even involve outlawing the party.
Not available in blue
How Mercedes Benz sells cars in Japan: anime car chases against legendary food trucks (slyt).
H.C. Andersen: forskning, eventyr, liv & forfatterskab
Hans Christian Andersen: research, adventure, life & works This website hosts the center of research and study for Hans Christian Andersen (HCA). So you may find biographies, papers, poems, letters relevant to this worldly acknowledged author, who wrote for children and adults.
For example, there were several conferences about HCA studies:
"Hans Christian Andersen Center held the fourth international HCA conference at University of Southern Denmark in Odense 1st-5th August 2005. The theme was Hans Christian Andersen between children's and adult literature. Read more here .
The contributions from the international HCA conferences are articles of high quality. They are valuable for HCA research and studies and is still often requested - but can be difficult to obtain. Therefore, we have published the speeches from the first two of the preliminary three international HCA conferences, Andersen and the World and A Poet in Time ."
Leo just kept ingesting sweet crap
Dan Goodbaum edits together selected excerpts from Elvis Mitchell's interview with Quentin Tarantino about the role of food as a indicator of power in his movies (full interview here). Grantland's 20 Best Tarantino Food Scenes
One: Singular Sensation
Last summer, the Museum of Modern Art took one of its best-known paintings off the wall, Jackson Pollock's One: Number 31, 1950, so that it could be conserved. They've been blogging about the process of restoring this dense, multi-layered work, including closeup photos that reveal an earlier restoration in the mid-60s before it came to MOMA.
De W van wakker, stamppot eten
The upcoming inauguration of Willem-Alexander as King of the Netherlands has united his people in their hatred of the Koningslied, especially the lyrics written by committee.
Sounds & Spaces 001
“When I was doing my Post-Doc at UCL I used to go to the British Museum to relax, and work in the beautiful library there, so I chose the space for the mix. I wanted to capture the ambient atmosphere in the central courtyard, so I did some binaural recording to include in the mix. I also wanted to make the mix something of an exploration through history and ideas in line with the contents of the museum, so I brought in lots of disparate music spanning the centuries and continents. I also mixed it in a way to be like a journey though the museum, turning corners and regularly coming across something totally different and unexpected, with each track being like a different exhibit. Hence the name of the mix, in that, each piece of music almost has a visual content.” -- Max Cooper & The British Museum [more inside]
Pierre Bensusan plays "Intuite"
That is all (SLYT)
April 20
Who's on first?
If you were to consult the official play-by-play scoring for Friday's game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs, you would find nothing unremarkable about the bottom of the 8th inning. As the scoring tells it, Jean Segura of the Brewers hit an infield single, then stole second base. Ryan Braun walked and was thrown out on an attempted steal of second, Rickie Weeks struck out, and the inning ended when Segura was thrown out attempting to steal third base. [more inside]
San Francisco 1955
San Francisco in 1955 in color "Shot by filmmaker Tullio Pellgrini, the 20-minute movie gives an up-close-and-personal tour of the city from Pellgrini's automobile. His narration is charmingly earnest in a way that's promotional of the city's virtues while never stepping over into being particularly phony or cloying."
How to Live at the Met
If you ever wanted to run away and live at the museum, you probably read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Author and two-time Newbery Award winner E. L. Konigsburg who gave the runaway Kincaid siblings a mystery to solve at the Metropolitan Museum of Art died today at age 83. Konigsburg attended what later became Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in chemistry, and went on to teach science before writing children's books. (previously)
How I Met My Dead Parents
Going through my parents' stuff didn't make me suddenly miss them, but I became more intrigued by them every day. I wanted to know more and more about them, to solve their mysteries. At the same time, I felt a corresponding, if conflicting, urge to speak, or write, about what many people seemed to think was unspeakable: my ever-present lack of grief. So I decided to combine these seemingly divergent impulses into an Tumblr blog called My Dead Parents, which I kept anonymous both out of respect for my family and because, after years of writing fiction, I wasn't sure if I could handle revealing so much about myself in writing.Anya Yurchyshyn writes about rediscovering her parents through their letters, after their deaths.
The Doom Tour
Don't Let the Social Worker In!
"One parental right that is coming under attack more and more is the right to administer reasonable corporal punishment." Blogger Libby Anne of Love, Joy, Feminism (who was homeschooled) has written a detailed three-part series (1, 2, 3) describing how the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA)'s mission to insure the rights of homeschooling parents has come to include making it harder for CPS or other agencies to receive or act on reports of child abuse. [more inside]
Tags: nightmarefuel
When I stop listening, I have a hard time believing I just heard it.
Katra Turana is the most delightfully baffling band I know. Sometimes they sound like a calypso band gone mad. Sometimes they sound like a tornado slamming into a string quartet. Sometimes they're catchy and heartwarming. Sometimes they're sparse and sinister. Or they're annoying in grandiose ways. And sometimes they blossom into something that's vulnerable, lush, and devastatingly beautiful. I know next to nothing about them. They confound me. I hope you find them as wondrous and as special as I do.
Dramatic, visible birthmarks
Australian photographer Natalie McComas has undertaken a project exploring and celebrating individuals with birthmarks. [more inside]
°oOOo°
Jumping spider watching you, jumping spider watching you (again), mantis eating a fly, mantis eating a fly (again), mantis watching you, mantis watching you (again), ladybird hatching, flies having sex, crane flies having sex, shepherd, WTF is that, WTF is that (again), and a really cute baby hamster. Photographs by David Jobi
Keepintime: documentaries and collaborations between drummers and DJs
Keepintime started as a simple idea, to bring some of the most revered and notable L.A. session drummers together for a photo shoot, then have them talk about the recordings that were famous to hip-hop DJs and producers, with some top LA beat jugglers. From that effort in 2002 came the short film, Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl (2 parts on YouTube). The short documentary toured around, and in 2002, along with the screening, some of the drummers and DJs put on a live improvised show in Los Angeles. From that 2 hour show, a 45 minute film was made: Keepintime - A Live Recording. Later that year, after screening the short film in England, the Keepintime crew were invited to Brasil, to team up with Brasilian percussionists of renown, and make a beat record. They also put on an epic live show. That whole enterprise was made into an almost two-hour long documentary, Brasilintime. More information on the artists inside. [more inside]
The water goes over the bridge; the ship goes through the tunnel.
Waterbridges are old hat.
Norwegians are now intending to build a ship tunnel; of course there were critics. The idea for the Stad ship tunnel was first mooted in 1874.
Norwegians are now intending to build a ship tunnel; of course there were critics. The idea for the Stad ship tunnel was first mooted in 1874.
Little Witch Academia is the best way to spend half an hour
Little Witch Academia is an accessible and gorgeous original anime about students learning magic and believing in yourself, available offically on YouTube. [more inside]
Everybody in fancy clothes
Wild Belle's Happy Home set to scenes from avant-garde 1961 film L'Année dernière à Marienbad [more inside]
How to Fold a Suit Jacket When Traveling
Q: I read your “How to Pack for a Weekend in Vegas” post (loved it) and was wondering how you guys get a suit jacket in a carry-on without it coming out like wrinkled tissue paper at the destination. What’s the best way to fold a suit jacket to minimize wrinkles when traveling? – Jason L. A: Hey Jason, here’s the folding method we use when we pack our suit jackets for a trip.From Ask a Black Lapel Stylist.
The alchemists of Wall Street are at it again.
Wall Street begins playing again with the same matches that burned the economy in 2008 From the New York Times: "The banks that created risky amalgams of mortgages and loans during the boom — the kind that went so wrong during the bust — are busily reviving the same types of investments that many thought were gone for good. Once more, arcane-sounding financial products like collateralized debt obligations are being minted on Wall Street. "
(View article on a single page) [more inside]
"It's supposed to make my mornings even dreamier."
Little Rooster is the world's first alarm clock specifically designed to wake you up smiling. By waking you with pleasure. "The raciest alarm clock in the world." [more inside]
YOU NEED TO SEE THESE PICTURES THEY ARE VERY IMPORTANT.
Vo-96 Acoustic Synthesizer
Movies in Color
Feminism as a scifi nightmare. No really.
A review of the 1971 novel "The Feminists," which portrayed the nightmarish future of 1992, where women ruled over men.
Why men need to read Hegel before going out on a date.
Drucilla Cornell On Dating. Drucilla Cornell on Feminism. Drucilla Cornell on Marxism.[obfuscated link to pdf]
I've taken people on tour here where they've wept
A short tour through the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum's library, the world largest collection of comics and cartoon art with the curator Caitlin McGurk and cartoonists Ed Piskor, Jasen Lex and Jim Rugg. For those wanting to see more treasures from the library, there's also the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum's blog.
Saturday Morning Hinduism
Introductions to major figures: Lord Shiva (8:55), Lord Ganesha (10:41), Lord Hanuman (11:25), and Lord Krishna (12:38). But it really doesn't end there. [more inside]
April 19
'The ECB with hereditary leadership and the right to employ an army'
"All this gives us one way to understand the Lannister zeal for power in King's Landing. In effect, Tywin is attempting to execute a debt-for-equity swap since his debts aren't actually recoverable. But that simply underscores the extent to which the loans to the Iron Throne are, themselves, worthless as financial assets." Economics of Ice & Fire, Part I and Part II (minor dialogue spoilers for S03E03) [more inside]
Come un Lampo di Vita
Cirque du Soleil Reinvents the Circus: La Cirque Réinventé. Nouvelle Expérience. Saltimbanco. A Baroque Odyssey. Alegría. Quidam. La Nouba. Dralion. Journey of Man. Varekai. Midnight Sun. Kà. Corteo. Delerium. Koozå. All Together Now. Amaluna. Worlds Away. [more inside]
‘Why do people always want things from me?’
Virginia man robs bank, claims Feds recruited him for secret operation
“If I tell you, you’re not going to believe me,” Torres said. He was crying as he told them an incredible story about being recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency to participate in a secret operation testing the security of Washington-area banks. He said he’d been assigned to rob a half-dozen banks over four days. And he told them about Theo, the man who hired him and gave all the orders—even though Torres had never met him.
A Prosecutor’s Conscious Choice
“This court cannot think of a more intentionally harmful act than a prosecutor’s conscious choice to hide mitigating evidence so as to create an uneven playing field for a defendant facing a murder charge and a life sentence." A Texas court finds probable cause that ex-District Attorney Ken Anderson intentionally hid evidence to secure a 1987 murder conviction against the now-exonerated Michael Morton. (Previously.) [more inside]
A study of the human spirit.
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the largest organized rebellion by Jews during World War II. Marek Edelman, a leader of the uprising, recalls the ghetto and the revolt. [more inside]
You've got serious thrill issues, dude.
For those that think they chose the wrong subject of the new Finding Nemo movie, there's always the true star of the show: Crush the turtle. [more inside]
Fresh young chicks live on cam
SomethingAwful regular Velvet Sparrow is once again running the nailbiting and adorable Chickam, a live stream of chicken eggs in an incubator. The hatching action has started early this year. [more inside]
32 players, 22 balls, 17 days, one big green table
Tomorrow sees the start of the 2013 Snooker World Championship. A gruelling 17-day tournament held at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, where 32 of the world's best players compete for a first prize of £250,000.
This year, the pre-tournament buzz has only been about one thing: the return of Ronnie O'Sullivan.
Indisputably the most naturally gifted player ever to grace the game, O'Sullivan plays almost as well with his left hand as he does with his right, and holds the world record for the fastest ever televised maximum break.
Even though he has barely competed since his convincing victory at last year's World Championship, some people predict that he will win again this year. [more inside]
Read Music Faster With Hummingbird.
"If you learned to play a musical instrument as a kid, you likely remember your first encounter with traditional music notation. You remember being baffled by the symbols denoting quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes. Or the difficulty of reading notes located above or below the staff. The Western system of music notation goes back hundreds of years, and it has been befuddling students for generations." A piano teacher and a data visualization professional team up to create Hummingbird, a new system of music notation which claims to make sight reading "easier to learn, faster to read, and simpler for even the trickiest music." [Via]
Happy Objectified Scotsman Thursday!
Record Store Day 2013
Record Store Day encourages music lovers to support their independent record store on the third Saturday of April. Since 2008, the day has been growing in popularity, and this year more than 700 stores across the U.S. are participating. [more inside]
An Unusual Form of Light Painting
Step by step tutorial on making beautiful abstract Refractographs; caustic patterns produced as light reflects and refracts through an object. [check the via for some amazing examples]
Move the bellows
Boston in lockdown as hunt for marathon bombers unfolds
What started as a report of a convenience store robbery near the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last night has sprawled into a chaotic manhunt for the perpetrators of the recent terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon.
The deadly pursuit, involving a policeman's murder, a carjacking, a violent chase with thrown explosives, and the death of one suspect, has resulted in Governor Deval Patrick ordering an unprecedented lockdown of the entire Boston metropolitan area as an army of law enforcement searches house by house for the remaining gunman.
The Associated Press has identified the duo as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, who remains at large. Both are immigrants from wartorn Chechnya in southwestern Russia.
The Guardian liveblog is good for quick updates, and Reddit's updating crowdsourced timeline of events that has often outpaced mainstream media coverage of the situation. You can also get real-time reports straight from the (Java-based) local police scanner.
Paul "Mozchops" Phippen's Salsa Invertebraxa: imaginary insects & flora
Paul "Mozchops" Phippen has been working as a concept artist and designer for major companies in the video-game and media industries since 1996. Two years ago, he made an intensely vivid graphic novel set in an imaginary world of insects and flora, with a story in rhymes that are somewhere between Seuss and Carroll. You can see four galleries of illustrations from Salsa Invertebraxa on Behance (one, two, three, four), and read some of the poetry on io9. You can also see some more of his art on Deviant Art.
"I started to worry you'd never come."
One day, a small boy's holographic entertainment fails, so he heads out to explore the streets of abandoned shops outside. Down a forgotten alley he discovers the last ever bookshop. And inside, an ancient shopkeeper has been waiting over 25 years for a customer...The Last Bookshop
Antennas for all
Aereo is a web service that allows subscribers to watch broadcast TV on their computers or mobile devices. The broadcast networks are furious. Aereo is ready for a PR fight, and is currently winning the legal battle. Variety wonders: Is Aereo Actually a Good Thing? [more inside]
Batman v0.1 was a Belgian shoemaker
June 1874, and a peculiar sight could be spied over Chelsea. A hot-air balloon hovered a kilometre above the ground with the most curious of payloads dangling beneath: a gigantic bat with a human at its controls. (1 2)
There was no reason we couldn’t take over the world
"It wasn’t just Modern Tales. Keenspot, already established as the big name in webcomics sites, had members out in full force at that Comic-Con. A little group called Pants Press, consisting of a half-dozen Disney-loving teenage girls and one grown man, met in person for the first time after finding each other online, and the Pants Press girls wove in and out of the Comic-Con crowds in a blur of watercolors and cosplay fabric. Every member of that group is now a major talent in comics or animation or both. That summer, it was certain for the first time that webcomics were going to be a thing. A good thing. " -- As pioneering webcomics host Modern Tales has shut down, Narbonic creator Shaenon Garrity reminisces about how Joey Manley got it all started, back in 2001-2002
Photographer Takes boy with Muscular Dystrophy on an Imaginary Adventure
Photographer Matej Pelhjan collaborates with 12 year old Luka to create pictures of Luka enjoying activities that his Muscular Dystrophy make impossible in real life. "Slovenia-based photographer Matej Peljhan recently teamed up with a 12-year-named Luka who suffers from muscular dystrophy, to create a wildly imaginative series of photos depicting the boy doing things he is simply unable to do because of his degenerative condition. While he can still use his fingers to drive a wheelchair and to draw, things like skateboarding and swimming are simply not possible." [more inside]
April 18
Around the World Circuit
An effortless melding of Malian and western styles topped off by the gorgeously smoky voice of Fatoumata Diawara.
The infectiously brisk tempo, chiming guitar artistry and tight, rapid fire harmonies of Shirati Jazz.
The warmly grounded choral expression of South Africa's Black Umfolosi. The delicate, calmly unfolding wellspring of melody (starting off with a classic Morricone spaghetti-western quote!) of kora master Toumani Diabate. The loping, balafon-driven groove over which the majestic, declamatory voice of Oumou Sangare soars. The classic, Cuban-inspired rhumba (but with the distinctively African feel and sound) of Orchestra Baobab... all these modern treasures of African music and much, much more from Africa and beyond at the World Circuit Soundcloud page. Enjoy the ride!
The cars catching on fire probably had something to do with it
While Tesla Motors expects its first profitable quarter (despite some bad press),
the electric car competitor it unsuccessfully sued for stealing its technology, Fisker Automotive,
teeters on the brink of insolvency. How did Fisker, a company valued at over $1 billion
dollars at the beginning of 2013, end up in this sitation? A Timeline of Fisker's Rise and Fall
We are all individuals
Siphonophores are colonial organisms—they are composed of zoöids, specialised individuals that live together collectively, each performing a function that is essential to the other members of the colony. One well-known example is the Portuguese man o' war, which is actually composed of four separate types of zoöids despite resembling the individual organism otherwise known as the jellyfish. Turns out they are also remarkably beautiful. [more inside]
Doomed Planet. Desperate Scientists. Last Hope. Kindly Couple.
The 75 greatest Superman stories of all-time: 75-26, 25-1
- celebrating the 75th anniversary of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's debut of the character in ACTION COMICS #1. Everything you need to know about Superman in four panels. The Actual Best Superman Writer Ever Happy Anniversary Lois Lane. The $130 Check That Bought Superman.
Don't freak out. This will only take a few minutes!
The obvious choice? The obvious choice to oblivion? Let's see...(SLYT)
Turn up the volume, kick up your feet, and take a relaxing glide with Alexander Polli Warning: The part where he attempts to thread the needle may cause involuntary clenching.
This MLYT Post Provides Suction
MeatLifter
Sober homes: $500 a bed per person, $10,000 a month per house
A growing new real estate market. Many homeowners are frightened by the prospect of transitional housing in their neighborhoods. But the operators of sober living facilities argue that the homes don't violate zoning regulations because the Americans with Disabilities Act includes recovering addicts.
"Ring it Out"
Last fall, the Canadian Space Agency asked students to design a simple science experiment that could be performed in space, using items already available aboard the International Space Station. Today, Commander Chris Hadfield conducted the winner for its designers: two tenth grade students, Kendra Lemke and Meredith Faulkner, in a live feed to their school in Fall River, Nova Scotia. And now, we finally have an answer to the age-old question, What Happens When You Wring Out A Washcloth In Space? [more inside]
I am plastered across movie screens; a best-selling caricature.
Found: unused space shuttle
No big deal, just found an abandoned space shuttle.
"I'm yours again. I always enjoy seeing what happens to me."
After years of silence, enigmatic programmer/musician/surrealist why the lucky stiff is publishing to the web again (temporarily). Five days ago he released a number of short collages; today, his site is outputting a number of stories and essays, which are being collected in several Scribd repositories. _why writes about a strange old Oprah show starring guests who've removed themselves from society [parts 2 3 4 5 6], discussing M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening with a friend [2 3 4 5 6], and suffering a personal crisis after reading the complete works of Kafka [2 3 4 5 6 7]. (One final story, "Dentist", has been uploaded to a public Dropbox account [2 3 4 5 6 7 8].) There's also this somewhat ominous web site. [more inside]
Storm Thorgerson Has Died
Storm Thorgerson, famous graphic designer, has died of cancer age 69.
As a member of Hipgnosis and later Storm Studios, Thorgerson created or assisted in creating some of the most iconic album covers in rock history. [more inside]
I'm all man, baby.
Corners of the world where women have yet to tread. Visuals of leadership positions and organizations that are currently and historically boys' clubs. Some of it surprising, some of it expected. All of it sad. [more inside]
"what kind of surveillance society we should be fighting for"
Practical Ethics: Enlightened Surveillance?
Surrendering on surveillance might be the least bad option – of all likely civil liberty encroachments, this seemed the less damaging and hardest to resist. But that’s an overly defensive way of phrasing it – if ubiquitous surveillance and lack of privacy are the trends of the future, we shouldn’t just begrudgingly accept them, but demand that society gets the most possible out of them.[more inside]
4 minutes of a sloth hugging a cat.
Tutorial: Geeky Photography with Space Invaders Flash Stencils
Clever camera trickery in the form of flash stencilling by enclosing the flash and creating a window of a specific shape to let the light through, and then ‘light painting’ for the camera. [more inside]
The Legend of Zelda: Clockwork Empire
Inspired by Anita Sarkeesian’s Video Game Tropes vs Women, internet cartoonist Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codak (Previously) wanted to pitch a Zelda game where Zelda herself was the hero, rescuing a Prince Link. The Legend of Zelda: Clockwork Empire is that pitch. [more inside]
Handmade halftones
Throughout the printing process the human printer assumes the role of the machine and is therefore controlled and restricted by the process of using CMYK halftones created on the computer.
Think Apple Store meets Colonial Williamsburg
240 year-old Menokin House was home to one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Menokin Foundation would like to restore it, but all that's left these days are two broken walls and a pair of crumbling chimneys. Even the head of the foundation admits, "Virginia needs another house museum like it needs a hole in the head." So how to honor the home's owner colonial statesman Francis Lightfoot Lee while still trying to present something novel and worth seeing? The Foundation's answer: rebuild the structure, just as it was, but replacing all of its missing components with structural glass.
Talking about the Simpsons
Conan O'Brien recently reunited with some of the other writers of The Simpsons who he worked with during his tenure on the show. The panel touches on "... how Jub-Jub became the name of Selma's iguana, how Tracy Ullman always hated the cartoon, and how Conan was the only person in the show's history to have three episode ideas accepted in one story idea day."
Cory Nebacterium vs. Sally Staph
Microbiomes & Health "We conducted a study during a flat track roller derby tournament, and found that teammates shared distinct skin microbial communities before and after playing against another team, but that opposing teams’ bacterial communities converged during the course of a roller derby bout." [more inside]
Meet The Edwardians
"This video has been dramatically enhanced in quality, using modern video editing tools. The film has been motion stabilized and the speed has been slowed down to correct speed (from 18 fps to 24 fps) using special frame interpolation software that re-creates missing frames." Watch corrected and cleaned footage of circa 1900s London and Cork (5 min 35 sec). (via)
Fruit Flies at the Whole Foods
"Is organic produce better for you?" is a simple question asked by a middle schooler in a science fair. Using fruit flies fed organic vs. conventional produce, Ria Chhabra tracked the flies and saw improvements based on their diet. Now barely a sophomore in high school, the project lead to university research labs, science fair awards, publication in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, and quite likely, scholarships at her pick of top-flight universities.
Digital Public Library of America launches their beta today
Today at noon eastern time, the Digital Public Library of America launched its beta website... The Digital Public Library of America, having worked since 2010 to try and find ways to organize and group an array of disparate digital resources, finally launches it's beta today. While it's come under some criticism from parts of the library community, the DPLA is moving forward by providing both access to resources and an API upon which existing libraries can build their own tools.
Previously on the blue.
Generation Y
31 percent of employers involved reported parents submitted resumes on behalf of their offspring and 14 other things you should know about the Millennial genearation.
Researchers calculate that life began before Earth existed
Put the Art In Your Mouth
Caitlin Freeman started out as a photographer, but along the way she fell in love with Wayne Thiebaud's work Display Cakes and it sent her in different direction. [more inside]
Building a Treadle Lathe
A nicely crafted video showing the construction of a treadle lathe, a foot-powered device for woodturning. The builder uses only hand tools and traditional methods; even the drill press is hand-cranked. Useful for those interested in constructing such a thing, mesmerizing for those who enjoy "how it's made"-type videos.
Wonder Woman
Cirque de Soleil performer Adrienn Banhegyi demonstrates her ridiculously amazing jump rope skills in this cool, short video. [slyt | via]
The limits of religious belieb
A Norwegian television comedy show recently staged a stunt where a street stall in Oslo offered Justin Bieber tickets to teenagers in return for ostensibly converting to Islam on camera. [more inside]
Real Madrid Fan's Good Luck
Grant Wahl tells the story of a devoted fan and José Mourinho, manager of Real Madrid. Abel Rodríguez, who works for the LA Metro system, has volunteered for Real Madrid soccer practices in Los Angeles. Last February, he traveled to see the Real Madrid-Barcelona Clásico, without a hotel reservation or even a ticket. The training facility's security guard wouldn't let him in, so he sat outside for 5 hours. What happened next sounds like a fairy tale.
The Missing Boy
An extraordinarily raw interview with Vini Reilly, guitarist with the Durutti Column. Recorded at the Manchester Town Hall on Sunday, March 3rd 2013, he discusses his violent upbringing, his lifelong struggle with depression, his friendship with Ian Curtis, and his determination to continue playing music despite suffering a series of debilitating strokes. The recording culminates with his first public performance in two years. Previously in MeFi
Dog wants a kitty.
A kitty!!!!.... or I'm going to chew this couch's arm right off.
Gold Crash
"Gold's crash this weekend is, as Oprah might say, a teachable moment. Crashes like this are a good way to find out how markets work. It's like a game of financial Clue, a way to keep sharp your skills of deduction. You don't have to be a stock investor or a math whiz to figure it out, either – you just have to have a good grasp of news and human psychology." - the Guardian on this week's crash in gold commodity prices.
Olga Ziemska
Olga Ziemska is a sculptor who works in Cleveland, Ohio. She also has a blog. [Some images may be NSFW]
Around the Beatles: a one-off TV variety show from 1964
In 1964, The Beatles put together a one-off variety show, with musical numbers specially pre-recorded for the show, presented in the style of theater-in-the-round. Around the Beatles was aired in the UK and later that same year in the US, but never commercially released. The show includes The Beatles performing a scene from A Midsummer's Night Dream, with Paul McCartney as Pyramus, John Lennon as his lover Thisbe, George Harrison as Moonshine, Starr as Lion, and Trevor Peacock (the only actual actor in the lot) in the role of Quince. A color clip of that was posted previously, but you can watch the entire (almost) hour-long show with The Beatles' segments accompanied by seven other musical acts, on Dailymotion or YouTube, though it's in black and white. [more inside]
The twentieth century started here
Psybient
Psybient or psychill is an chillout genre that combines elements of ambient with psytrance and world music, along with some glitch and dub sounds. Excellent examples are Land Switcher (more), Solar Fields (site), Euphorica, and Entheogenic. [more inside]
The Short Films of Louis C.K.
Top dog comedian, Louis C.K., has picked up a number of industry nods for the talented writing, acting, editing, and directing he does for his show Louie on FX. The highbrow aesthetics of the show might come as a surprise to anyone that remembers his Hollywood flop, Pootie Tang, but C.K. also created a number of indie comedy shorts during the 90s and 00s that may now merit closer attention: Ice Cream (1993), The Letter V (1998), The Legend of Willie Brown (1998), Ugly Revenge (??), Hijacker (1998), Hello There (1998), Brunch (1998), Searching for Nixon (2006), Persona Ne'll Aqua (1999). [more inside]
It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
The new Will.I.Am single sounded very familiar to trance producers Mat Zo (previously) and Arty.
But that's only one example of his serial plagarism of EDM artists: [more inside]
April 17
'Cause the Union Makes Us Strong
On May 16, 1934, the Teamsters local 574 of Minneapolis, Minnesota called for a strike to stop all truck deliveries in the city not run by union workers. This 1981 documentary tells the story in the workers' own words. Part 1, part 2.
Just Gone
Like talking on the phone, but a thousand times more thrilling!
Ever heard of the Voice-O-Graph? Just STEP IN and RECORD YOUR OWN VOICE! RECORDING PLAYED BACK AND DELIVERED TO YOU WITHIN TWO MINUTES ! And now, thanks to benevolent rock god Jack White, you can do it TODAY!
Battle Of The Alt-Comedy Stars
Tuna the Movie is an independent comedy from 2000 starring the then-unknown Louis C.K and Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson). The movie has been uploaded in full by its writer Adam De Coster . Via, via.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Unless you have a camera, of course, in which case there are some amazing shots.
Tomorrow Is Waiting
"She also found herself liking Kermit a lot more than she'd expected to. Anji had never really watched the Muppets before; her parents, like most parents she knew, had treated TV as only slightly less corrupting an influence than refined sugar and gendered toys. But The Muppet Show was really funny—strange, and kind of hokey, but charming all the same. She ended up watching way more of it than she needed just for the project. "Tomorrow Is Waiting", a short science fiction story by Holli Mintzer, published in Strange Horizons.
Real world touchscreen interface for interactive documents and books
Touchscreen interface for seamless data transfer between the real and virtual worlds - Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a next generation user interface which can accurately detect the users finger and what it is touching, creating an interactive touchscreen-like system, using objects in the real world.
(SLDFWYT)
David Foster Wallace discusses ambition, perfectionism, tennis and teaching in an interview with Leonard Lopate from the PBS Digital Studios series Blank On Blank.
"how much of this distress existed pre-Sandy?"
After Sandy, a great and complex city reveals traumas new and old. "Occupy Sandy" represented a disaster cooperativism in opposition to "disaster capitalism" (previously: 1, 2, 3) [more inside]
My Bucket List...
Does my voice really sound like that?
For this year's National Poetry Month, the Poetry Foundation has set up a SoundCloud group called "Record-a-Poem." They're inviting people to record themselves reading their favorite poems. (via) [more inside]
Dali's Demon Bride
That Salvador Dali fell victim to his Russian wife Gala's lust for domination and very young men is no longer a matter of conjecture....some terrifying new facts, which reveal in more detail and depth than ever before how and why this quintessential Surrealist—the master of the soft watches—allowed himself to be destroyed by one of the nastiest wives a major modern artist ever saddled himself with. Art critic John Richardson examines Dali's life with Gala [PDF, should be SFW]. This article originally appeared in Vanity Fair in 1998.A slightly edited version of the article illustrated with different photos [NSFW]. [via Nag On The Lake]
Bad character. Or just Character, depending who you ask.
Evangelical Abstinence-Only speaker Pam Stenzel speaks at George Washington High School in West Virginia. Feeling that Ms. Stenzels rally included a lot of intentional untruths, Student Body Vice President Katelyn Campbell protested the rally. Principal George Aulenbacher retaliated, threatening to report Katelyn to the college she had been admitted to as a student of "bad character." The school in question, Wellesley, responded.
Gun control amendments defeated
Despite widespread popular support, on April 17th, 2013, the US Senate voted to defeat four legislative amendments that would strengthen background checks for gun purchases and place a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines. Victims and survivors of victims of recent shootings who were in the Senate audience were heard to yell "Shame on you" at legislators as the final votes were tallied.
You Are Now Revolt-ing With-- Enjolras & Marius
Wikipedia Live Monitor
Wikipedia Live Monitor is an experimental site that scans Wikipedia edits real-time searching for frenzied editing sessions. Matches are compared with "plausibility checks" on Facebook, Google etc.. to see if there is something in the news, thus quickly pinpointing unexpected events.
I have trouble getting past the first page.
@UnfinishedS is a Twitter feed in which comedian Gavin Speiller posts the first pages of his unfinished screenplays, covering genres such as science fiction, family dramas, mysteries, financial dramas, mob movies, alien invasion films, heist pictures, spy thrillers, biopics, and everything in between.
Aleatoric
Do you like music? Do you like entropy? Do you have Spotify? If so, then go here to listen to a song chosen completely at random. It might even be good!
Yes, we have video of baby goats.
This system sucks
So now it turns out I need around 1,500 readers to get that $5 for my hypothetical site. Say I want to pay myself $500 for the month. It’s not a ton of money. I need 150,000 page views. That jumped right up there, didn’t it? Now look at sites that employ a number of highly skilled, professional writers that are full time and making a livable wage. You’re suddenly looking at millions and millions of page views required to keep everything afloat, much less expand.Ad-blockers, the games press, and why sexy cosplay galleries lead to better reporting.
Kevin Krigger and the Sport of Kings
"Black jockeys once dominated the Kentucky Derby, winning 15 of the first 28 titles between 1875 and 1902. They were former slaves and their sons – a vestige of colonial times, when planters owned both horses and riders. Post–Civil War, they were the country's best riders, but the narrow window opened by Reconstruction was slammed shut by Jim Crow. Even in Northern cities, white jockeys and officials ran black riders off the track, whitewashing their legacy. Churchill Downs was completely segregated throughout the 1950s. On May 4, 29-year-old jockey Kevin Krigger looks to reverse that history at Churchill Downs, riding Goldencents, an early top-10 favorite trained by Doug O'Neill (who trained last year's winner). Krigger is just the second black jockey to compete in the Derby since 1921, and the first from the U.S. Virgin Islands." Via Men's Journal[more inside]
"That's when Han DROPS CHEWBACCA'S SEVERED HEAD onto the floor! Yes!"
Tasked with filibustering a town hall meeting in Parks and Recreation, Patton Oswalt improvised an eight minute monologue pitch for the next Star Wars movie -- which somehow grows to include the X-Men, the Avengers, the Greek pantheon, and Chewbacca getting a robot ("I'm thinking spider") body. (SLYT)
Insects in Flight
An experience beyond limits... pain and pleasure, indivisible...
We Have Such Films To Show You - Damned souls cortex and griphus have been condemned to the infernal torment of watching all 10 Hellraiser movies, and wish to share their explorations of the further realms of experience with you in their new podcast. [via mefi projects]
Form doesn't always follow function
The Alternative Limb Project provides highly detailed prosthetics that either blend in with the body or stand out as unique pieces of art. The Project's custom prosthetic limbs — such as the flowered leg and the snake arm — are created by special-effects artist Sophie de Oliveira Barata (you can see her in her London studio here). Per the project's website, an alternative-style limb can help to "break down social barriers, delight the eye and provide an unusual talking point."
NZ becomes first country in Asia-Pacific region to approve gay marriage
New Zealand legalises same-sex marriage , becoming the first country in the Asia-Pacific region and the 13th country to do so.
The bill was passed with a wide majority, with 77 votes in favour and 44 against. "In our society, the meaning of marriage is universal - it's a declaration of love and commitment to a special person," said Labour MP Louisa Wall. The declaration of the vote was followed by a waiata.
Just the way things are little guy
It Will All Hurt [Part 2, Part 3] is "a weird, sad, silly, sketchy, fantasy adventure strip with magic and science-fiction and some fighting action." By Farel Dalrymple [more inside]
Robert Adams
Robert Adams delivers book reviews as lectures. TVO's Big Ideas posts the videos on the internet. So far, they have posted lectures on: Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Aravinda Adiga's The White Tiger, Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and Elie Wiesel's The Forgotten.
Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?
Stewart Lee asks "Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?" after BBC Radio 4's commisioning editor Caroline Raphael recently admitted they struggle to "find comedians from the right" on shows such as The News Quiz.
A work of significant scale.
Ladies and gentlemen, for your pleasure please behold Leviathan [click image to advance to next image], a work by Anish Kapoor at the Grand Palais in Paris. Contemporary Art Blog link here. [more inside]
Probably not really safe for... anywhere.
ReCISPA
The TechNet trade association has been lobbying for CISPA, a bill the EFF describes as a “misguided cybersecurity bill that would create a gaping exception to existing privacy law while doing little to address palpable and pressing online security issues” (previously). Google's Eric Schmidt signed TechNet's letter supporting CISPA. [more inside]
April 16
Weddings as Art
Weddings are inherently a form of performance art, and various artists have explored weddings as an artistic form. For example, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens held a wedding every year for 7 years to various parts of the environment and Maria Yoon held weddings in every US state to explore marriage as an Asian-American woman. Second Life also hosted a performance art wedding while Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis incorporated their House of Fairytales project into their own wedding. Kathryn Cornelius married and divorced seven suitors every hour on the hour while Chen Wei-yih opted to marry herself.
I'm glad my boyfriend is based
FanBased: Inside Lil B's Ecstatic Cult A look at hip-hop oddball Lil B's sprawling BasedWorld community, home to some of contemporary music's most fiercely loyal, spirited, interconnected fans.
Right here?
Ship My Pants (SLYT, PepsiBlue)
MetaFilter is my anti-drug.
Popular Science explores the psychology behind anti-drug PSA's and whether they help keep kids off drugs... [more inside]
The Disentangled Life
"There have appeared in history certain extraordinary men whose thinking was infused with passion, whose philosophies have changed the world. Alexander Zuckerkandl, MD, PhD, was perhaps the greatest philosopher of our twentieth century. As Aristotle was to antiquity, as Aquinas was to the Middle Ages, so Zuckerkandl is to modern times. The influence of Zuckerkandl has been such that we are all his followers whether we know it or not. Of these followers none is more ardent than our distinguished guest speaker, Dr. Robert M. Hutchins."
Sword maker Francis Boyd
Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords. “When I got this sword, it was completely covered in blood rust.” Sword maker Francis Boyd is showing me yet another weapon pulled from yet another safe in the heavily fortified workshop behind his northern California home. “You can tell it’s blood,” he says matter-of-factly, “because ordinary rust turns the grinding water brown. If it’s blood rust it bleeds, it looks like blood in the water. Even 2,000 years old, it bleeds. And it smells like a steak cooking, like cooked meat. I’ve encountered this before with Japanese swords from World War II. If there’s blood on the sword and you start polishing it, the sword bleeds. It comes with the territory.” [Via]
"We went from Africa to Africa"
"Orphan theology" in the evangelical Christian movement in the United States. One mother described herself as "a dumpster diving orphan lunatic" who was still "afflicted with my Orphan Obsession" after bearing two kids and adopting four more.
Skeptical cat . . . doesn't believe you.
Youtube user Seth Cutler lovingly crafts powerpoint presentations of various Christine Lavin songs, including this test for psychic powers. [more inside]
Pulitzer awarded for whispers, sighs, murmurs, and wordless melodies
Caroline Shaw is a 30 year old composer, violinist, and singer. Yesterday, she also became the youngest person ever, and one of the few women, to receive the Pulitzer Prize for music for her composition Partita for 8 Voices. The work features four baroque inspired movements that were influenced by the violin music of Bach, and yet despite the baroque title, Partita is still thoroughly modern. The Pulitzer jury described it as a "highly polished and inventive a cappella work uniquely embracing speech, whispers, sighs, murmurs, wordless melodies and novel vocal effects." [more inside]
Frændi, svifnökkvinn minn er fullur af álum.
In Iceland, with a population of around a third of a million, the danger exists of that heady one-night stand ending up as an intimate encounter between near-relatives, as nearly happened to the friend of Elin Edda. No longer, due to the launch of an android app ("Bump the app before you bump in bed") which easily tells a budding couple how related they are. [more inside]
Inequality and the New York subway
Inequality and the New York subway. An infographic from the New Yorker: The United States has a problem with income inequality. And it’s particularly bad in New York City—according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, if the borough of Manhattan were a country, the income gap between the richest twenty per cent and the poorest twenty per cent would be on par with countries like Sierra Leone, Namibia, and Lesotho.
Beauty is in the eye of which beholder?
Short little film (SLYT) produced by the people at Dove that packs a lot of punch about how we see ourselves compared to how we see others.
Austerity Bites, especially if you can't Math
"[a]ll I can hope is that future historians note that one of the core empirical points providing the intellectual foundation for the global move to austerity in the early 2010s was based on someone accidentally not updating a row formula in Excel." [more inside]
Rocket! Launched from near where you (may) live! Man!
In August 2013 a Minotaur V rocket (Lunar!) is being launched from Wallops Flight Facility, to deliver a Lunar Orbiter. [more inside]
Episode IV: A New Feed
Does the shutdown of Google Reader make you feel like it has become just another Evil Empire (DeathStar+)? Then plug a feed address into StarRSS, and enjoy your favorite information sources displayed Star Wars style. (thank you, Laughing Squid)
1993 -> 2013
For WIRED magazine's 20th anniversary, they've "gathered stories for, by, and about the people who have shaped the planet's past 20 years—and will continue driving the next."
The Industrial Resource
Do you need some gaskets, but aren't sure where to get the kind you need? Industrial Gasket Resource can help. And it's just one part of The Industrial Resource Network. [more inside]
"with the dog who looks like she has to poop."
On Sunday, reddit user TeaGuru enlisted the help of r/nyc and dozen of strangers to propose to his girlfriend, Laura, in Central Park.
Your Office Vending Machine Will Never Be This Awesome.
What makes a sweet street treat even better? Awesome artists. From Southern China, Sugar Painting makes elaborate, edible toffee masterpieces by carefully draping hot sugar onto cool marble. In Chongqing they make super floral sugar floss in a rainbow of colours. This artist from Xian blows hot sugar as if it were glass. From Istanbul, Tarihi Osmanlı Macunu (aka Traditional Ottoman Candy) is made with five different flavors of thick taffy spiraled deftly around a stick, creating a delicious lollipop. Dragon Beard Candy from Thailand is not only tasty but a great way to learn about geometric progression. And while a Thai banana pancake may seem pretty straightforward, there are always ways to jazz it up. [more inside]
"Coffee ... is still just roasted beans and water"
Coffee Power To The People - "There are three young men in the Netherlands who want to take the barista, whom they see as a part-TEDx presenter, part-birthday magician, out of the equation. They want people to make their own coffee, and to make coffee they can be proud of."
Texas Gets Its Report Card
While a bit parochial, this post reveals some things worth pondering if you are considering relocating to Texas...
The Texas Legislative Study Group released its 2013 “Texas on the Brink” report at the end of last week. The report is an annual study to determine Texas’ rankings among the 50 states and the District of Columbia on health care, education, and the environment. How’s Texas doing? Not so great: The state ranks 50th in high school graduation rate, first in amount of carbon emissions, first in hazardous waste produced, last in voter turnout, first in percentage of people without health insurance, and second in percentage of uninsured kids... - via The Texas Observer
The Texas Legislative Study Group released its 2013 “Texas on the Brink” report at the end of last week. The report is an annual study to determine Texas’ rankings among the 50 states and the District of Columbia on health care, education, and the environment. How’s Texas doing? Not so great: The state ranks 50th in high school graduation rate, first in amount of carbon emissions, first in hazardous waste produced, last in voter turnout, first in percentage of people without health insurance, and second in percentage of uninsured kids... - via The Texas Observer
"JUDAS, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE! FAST!"
"U.S. Practiced Torture After 9/11, Nonpartisan Review Concludes"
Years after the first hints of "harsh interrogation practices" in the US war on terror, years after Obama's decision to "look forward, not back" and not investigate or pursue official torture by the CIA and other agencies, the 577-page Report of the Task Force on Detainee Treatment that was released today is, "[i]n many respects, . . . the examination of the treatment of suspected terrorists that official Washington has been reluctant to conduct." The New York Times' Scott Shane reports. [more inside]
Le gauche caviar
So, what's the problem with champagne socialism? Are well-off advocates of left-wing positions hypocrites? How does one square egalitarian convictions with personal affluence?
Have A Cow, Simpsons Fans.
"The Yellow Album isn’t an album so much as the most dramatic test of a true believer’s faith since God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. The album dares Simpsons diehards like myself to make it through a harrowing 48-minute gauntlet of ill-considered covers, train-wreck collaborations (Lisa and P-Funk All Stars: oh, it happened), generic synth-pop grooves, and jokes that would be killed in Jay Leno’s writers’ room for being insufficiently edgy. " - My World OF Flops on the bizarre, unloved Simpsons cash-in, "The Yellow Album. " complete with sample tracks.
Kittybus!
Hawaii, 1997
Du kan gå nu
"I am writing to you with a simple request, Beatrice Ask. I want us to trade our skins and our experiences. Come on. Let's just do it. You've never been averse to slightly wacky ideas (I still remember your controversial suggestion that anyone who buys sex ought to be sent a notice in a lavender envelope.) For twenty-four hours we'll borrow each other's bodies. First I'll be in your body to understand what it's like to be a woman in the patriarchal world of politics. Then you can borrow my skin to understand that when you go out into the street, down into the subway, into the shopping center, and see the policeman standing there, with the Law on his side, with the right to approach you and ask you to prove your innocence, it brings back memories. Other abuses, other uniforms, other looks. And no, we don't need to go as far back as World War II Germany or South Africa in the eighties. Our recent Swedish history is enough, a series of random experiences that our mutual body suddenly recalls." -- Jonas Hassen Khemiri: An Open Letter to Beatrice Ask (Swedish original). [more inside]
Massive earthquake in Balochistan
Dawn reports that the largest earthquake to hit Iran in 40 years struck the Balochistan region along the Iran-Pakistan border. At least 45 people are dead, but that figure is expected to rise. Earthquaketrack says it was 7.8 on the Richter scale. At emptywheel, Jim White notes that two smaller Iranian earthquakes last year killed over 300 people.
Kitten rescued from Citylink tunnel
Kitten rescued from Citylink tunnel. (The Age, with embedded video). That is all.
Chinese State Circus Performs and excerpt from Ballet Swan Lake
Performance of part of Swan Lake Ballet by Chinese State Circus [SYTL] 4min 29 seconds The full video is here, but for those of you who want to get to the jaw dropping / extreme balance stuff immediately, here is a link which starts at the 1min 40 (ish) mark.
Enjoy.
Stanford developes passive panel that cools without using power
Does it two ways. One: Reflects sunlight like a mirror to keep from heating up structure. Two: Uses a nano-patterned material that radiates infra-red heat (which it gets from being part of the building) at the wavelengths that penetrate the atmosphere without being absorbed. The reverse is what powers the well know greenhouse effect. They are claiming a net cooling of 100 watts per square meter with the panel. All without using power.
April 15
Mozart in Turkey: parts biography, history, documentary, and performance
Mozart in Turkey is film made of three distinct, but related, elements. First, it is a look into Mozart at the time of his courting Constanze, a bit on his new patron, the "enlightened monarch" Joseph II, and other influences, including the Turkish music and culture, along with thoughts on Mozart's opera as a work created in the Age of Enlightenment, all through the running commentary by opera director Elijah Moshinsky, who also interviews Alev Lytle Croutier, the author of Harem: The World Behind the Veil. Then there is the production of an opera in Turkey, specifically set in and around the Topkapi Palace (virtual tour; Wikipedia). And the last piece is the performance of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, or The Abduction from the Seraglio. You can watch the entire film online on Vimeo, thanks to Directors Cut Films.
Batman vs Eggman
A1reviews
PUCK MAN HAD HIS NAME CHANGED IN TRANSLATION TO PREVENT IT BEING DETOURNED INTO "FUCK MAN".
This is the key to everything I know. From this point on, I cannot help you.
A1reviews, the eminently quotable tumblr where thecatamites (previously 1,2) reviews videogames (er, sometimes).
This is the key to everything I know. From this point on, I cannot help you.
A1reviews, the eminently quotable tumblr where thecatamites (previously 1,2) reviews videogames (er, sometimes).
Silicon Valley's Other Entrepreneurs: Sex Workers
In a quiet cafe outside San Francisco, "Josephine" -- a local prostitute -- arranges a collection of t-shirts across the table. They're emblazoned with phrases like "Winter is Coming" and "Geeks Make Better Lovers." She wears them in her online ads to catch the eye of the area's well-off engineers and programmers.
Career Arc: The Strokes
From Is This It to is this it? "The Strokes presently occupy a dubious place in pop culture: They're a legacy band generally considered to be important in contemporary rock history, but whose moment in time is otherwise perceived to have long since passed."
I need tungsten to live
Fan of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea? Check out Licorice Root Orchestra.
Their debut album is a weird, hypnotic masterpiece. Licorice Root Orchestra was an obscure band out of Newark, DE. They echo shades of Neutral Milk Hotel, John Lennon, Brian Wilson, Spacemen 3 and Marc Bolan. [more inside]
Explosions at Boston Marathon Finish Line
"At the finish line of the Boston Marathon, two explosions have left multiple people injured."
via ParadisePost. CBS Boston has a live video feed up of the finish line.
"...the memory of a blue door with a small wired glass..."
"Two years ago, I wrote a post about Rockland County Psychiatric Center, an abandoned insane asylum complex that is easily one of the most haunting places I’ve ever scouted. To my amazement, more than 250 comments have since been left by former patients, doctors and nurses, and residents ... I wanted to share a selection of these with you, to allow those who knew Rockland Psych firsthand to tell its story." (Scouting NY, previously)
DO NOT TOUCH
"After 50 years of pointing and clicking, we are celebrating the nearing end of the computer cursor with a music video where all our cursors can be seen together for one last time." (NSFW)
Joining the Ranks: Demystifying Harvard's Tenure System
'“The ad hoc process is greatly shrouded in mystery; remarkably little is written about it,” says current Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity and Development Judith D. Singer. She smirks wryly as she swigs coffee from her mug, as if this is something she’s explained a hundred times before. “What the ad hoc process does is it takes a recommendation that has come up out of a department, been through a dean, and says, ‘Let’s look at this with a fresh set of eyes. Let’s look at the totality of the evidence and make a dispassionate decision about whether the recommendations that have come up are really in the best interest of the University,’” says Singer.'
The Day Care Dilemma
"Trusting your child with someone else is one of the hardest things that a parent has to do — and in the United States, it’s harder still, because American day care is a mess. About 8.2 million kids—about 40 percent of children under five — spend at least part of their week in the care of somebody other than a parent. Most of them are in centers, although a sizable minority attend home day cares.... In other countries, such services are subsidized and well-regulated. In the United States, despite the fact that work and family life has changed profoundly in recent decades, we lack anything resembling an actual child care system. Excellent day cares are available, of course, if you have the money to pay for them and the luck to secure a spot. But the overall quality is wildly uneven and barely monitored, and at the lower end, it’s Dickensian."
Andrey Zvyagintsev's Elena, The Apocalypse, and Moscow's Mosques
Zvyagintsev claims that the idea for Elena originated with an invitation from the British producer, Oliver Dungey, to participate in a multinational project in which four directors from different hemispheres would each produce a film about the apocalypse. Zvyagintsev ultimately bowed out of the project, but the film that resulted is certainly eschatological. Russian culture has a long tradition of allusions to the Book of Revelation - Tolstoy's Pierre Bezukhov is obsessed with the idea that Napoleon is the Antichrist and many of Dostoevsky's characters read the last book of the Bible - and Zvyagintsev was a natural fit to take up the theme. [more inside]
"solved the problems of both journalism and advertising at once"
Does BuzzFeed Know The Secret? The National Republican Congressional Committee seems to think so, since they redesigned their website. But they're just following BuzzFeed's advice. [more inside]
Where is life?
"The magic of nature’s alchemy."
Alchemy is a stunningly beautiful 4k HD timelapse of a year's worth of season changes in American West. [via]
Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public
Memphis-based photographer Haley Morris-Cafiero has long been aware of strangers making fun of her behind her back due to her size. So aware, in fact, that she has turned the whole concept into a full-blown photography project. Titled Wait Watchers, the series consists of Morris-Cafiero’s self-portraits in public in which strangers can be seen in the background giving her strange looks and/or laughing. More photos at her website.
This bus is going to Cuba
" A 14-year-old ninth grader with no history of legal trouble, McKee stole his father’s .22-caliber revolver and headed for the Tampa airport. Once there, he pulled the gun on a National ticket agent and said, “I’m hijacking you and the plane, let’s go.” Once he had been escorted to the waiting Boeing 727, he demanded passage to Sweden. When advised that the plane didn’t have the range necessary to cross the Atlantic, however, McKee lost his focus and became easily manipulated. The captain first convinced the teen to release all of the passengers, then tricked him into stepping out of the plane to continue the negotiations. Once he unwisely exited the jet, McKee was overpowered by waiting security officers." -- Stories and news items from the days when airplane hijackings were still relatively innocent affairs, before 9/11 changed everything, on the skyjacker of the day Tumblr.
Better than sex?
Why does music feel so good? "Music moves people of all cultures, in a way that doesn’t seem to happen with other animals. Nobody really understands why listening to music — which, unlike sex or food, has no intrinsic value — can trigger such profoundly rewarding experiences. Salimpoor and other neuroscientists are trying to figure it out with the help of brain scanners."
April 14
Killing Is Harmless
We have made the act of killing and shooting so fun, but we’ve also taken the importance out of it by piling so much of it in. You don’t ever have to think about the concept of pulling a trigger, because even if you run out of bullets, we’re going to give you so many more bullets! So many more people to shoot! In fact, even if all the people in the game aren’t enough, we’re gonna give you Horde mode! You can kill people until you can’t kill them anymore!The writers of the controversial Far Cry 3 and Spec Ops: The Line discuss the past, present and future of FPS's. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
belters expanse trajectory: working up the Epstein Drive
How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 "moon rocket" engine back to life - "The story of young engineers who resurrected an engine nearly twice their age." [more inside]
Material Poverty & Privilege in India
Gitmo is killing me
Gitmo is killing me. An op-ed written by a prisoner on hunger strike in his 11th year at Guantanamo Bay.
David Glasheen: the voluntary Robinson Crusoe of Australia
David Glasheen was a wealthy executive in the 1980's, but he lost about $10 million in the 1987 market crash. That was his family's fortune, which lead to their house was repossessed by the bank, then his marriage of 22-years ended. Glasheen found his way to the semi-remote Restoration Island, where Captain William Bligh landed after the mutiny on the Bounty. Once Glasheen settled down, it was his plan was to live as a custodian of the island, until he died. Unfortunately, the beer-brewing hermit who hopes for love might be forced to leave, due to the fact that he hasn't been able to get an eco resort built on the property. [more inside]
Boardgames are fun again!
Quintin Smith (of Shut Up & Sit Down) argues that we're entering a golden age of boardgames (45m Vimeo talk). [more inside]
Break me off a piece of that
Upon proudly celebrating 10 years of the show's rich history at the forefront of Drum & Bass, Breaks, Dubstep, Grime, Broken Beat, 2Step and other emerging genres, the hosts of Future Breaks are satisfied that the time has now come to pass the torch and retire the weekly broadcasts of the program. The final broadcast of Future Breaks FM! will air live January 26, 2008 at 4pm PST. Our online presence at www.futurebreaks.fm will be preserved and we may continue to podcast select archival programs from the "vaults" as well as other surprises. Our small, non-profit radio show was founded in January 1998 by Ms. E, dj PUSH and Arc Angel Gabe Real as an outlet for underground 21st Century electronic dance music featuring weekly, live in-studio mixing by turntable DJs.Future Breaks FM was a weekly electronic music show with a decidedly Jungle/DnB flavor that ran on KUSF, the University of San Francisco's radio station (which went off the air 2011) from 1998-2008. Forty-nine episodes, up to the last show on 26 Jan 2008, are still available on the podcast archive.
City Flags Ranked
150 U.S. city flags, ranked from best to worst. Top-rated flags are typically tasteful and abstract, like that of Washington D.C. (#1) or subtly representational, like Madison, Wisconsin's flag(#11), which is more or less a glyph of Madison seen from above. The bottom of the list has some that seem stuck in a briefly popular graphic style, like Provo (#143), but most are timelessly ongepotch like the flag of Milwaukee (#147), which features a boat, a skyline, some smokestacks, some grain, County Stadium, a Native American,and a church. And then there is Pocatello (#150), whose flag was memorably profiled on badflags. (Vexillology previously on MetaFilter.)
Michelle Rhee's "Reign of Error"
DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee oversaw radical reforms to Washington, DC's failing public schools. Amongst the results were widespread
irregularities on standardized tests that suggest they were tampered with by adults. [more inside]
Getting Stuffed
Spirit Voices: Music is the Healing Force
The Black Classical History Of Spiritual Jazz 1955-2012: a 12-hour music mix [via Aquarium Drunkard]
Real Life "Person of Interest"
The soothing feed of a thousand places around the world (especially parking lots). With a NSFW-sounding URL (and potentially NSFW content), Adrian Hayter writes about his exploration in the world of unsecured webcams. The feeds also include everything from store security cameras to aquariums and doggy daycare. His FAQ discusses the mechanics as well as the ethics this project.
Tiger or Cheetah?
Controversy struck the exalted Augusta grounds of the Masters golf tournament on Friday as Tiger Woods put himself at risk of disqualification. It all began with a situation in which Woods had the extraordinarily bad luck of bouncing his ball off the flagstick on the 15th hole into the water. Instead of dropping his ball "as nearly as possible" to it's original position, Woods dropped it a couple of yards back. In an interview after the round, Woods said: "I went back to where I played it from, but I went two yards further back and I took, tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit and that should land me short of the flag and not have it either hit the flag or skip over the back." Woods signed his scorecard without assigning himself the two shot penalty the rules of golf require for an improper drop.
The following day, the Masters Rules Committee ruled that Woods would not be disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard, justifying it by using a new rule that allows tournament committees to waive rules infractions called in by TV viewers, even though the intention of that rule was to prevent disqualifications based on tiny movements of the ball or sand imperceptible to the golfer but visible on close-up HD shots.
Many in the golf world were outraged at both the ruling and the fact that Woods didn't withdraw himself from the tournament. Nick Faldo suggested it would be "the manly thing to do." [more inside]
''Escrache'' it's direct action.
Mortgage fraud, faux-democracy and escrache in Spain. Those unfortunate enough to lose their homes are also burdened with a debt for life.
Anatomy of an ‘escrache’.
Spanish banks repossessed 30,000 family homes in 2012 and those who take part in doorstep protests may face fines of up to 6,000 euros in Madrid.
Between 2002 and 2008 an average of 754,000 new homes were built in Spain every year. It is currently estimated that up to 6 million homes remain vacant.
Anatomy of an ‘escrache’.
Spanish banks repossessed 30,000 family homes in 2012 and those who take part in doorstep protests may face fines of up to 6,000 euros in Madrid.
Between 2002 and 2008 an average of 754,000 new homes were built in Spain every year. It is currently estimated that up to 6 million homes remain vacant.
Top Needle
Check out this video for a inside look at how an elite squad of knitting grandmas is trained. (SLYT).
What's The Question About Your Field That You Dread Being Asked?
"Maybe it's a sore point: your field should have an answer (people think you do) but there isn't one yet. Perhaps it's simple to pose but hard to answer. Or it's a question that belies a deep misunderstanding: the best answer is to question the question."
Before Jojo and sweet Loretta Martin...
The song that became "Get Back" began as an anti-immigrant satire so easily misunderstood it remains in the vaults. Writing for Salon, Alex Sayf Cummings delves into the story behind No Pakistanis.
Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed
There is a curious feeling of power you get when you drop a couple of twenties without a trace of critical thinking. "Here in the West, a lifestyle of unnecessary spending has been deliberately cultivated and nurtured in the public by big business." [more inside]
Melodica Czardas ~ ピアニカ・チャルダッシュ | Suguru Ito
Everywhere Over a Rainbow
Earlier this week, an Australian conservative state government minister for roads and other stuff... Duncan Gay, ordered the removal of Sydney's first and only rainbow crossing. It had been a highlight of the recent mardi gras celebrations.
As it was ripped up. In the middle of the night.
And now there is an organic backlash as people around Australia, and the world, create their own in chalk. Everywhere.
(disclaimer.... we made one in Sydney Park, St Peters this afternoon.)
The crossing on twitter
The hashtag is diyrainbow.
And they're being posted on facebook here.
Some more here: here
April 13
The Labrador Duck, the Great Auk, the Carolina Parakeet...
The Lost Bird Project documents the stories of five North American birds driven to extinction in modern times and sculptor Todd McGrain's road-trip to memorialize them. (via)
Happy National Scrabble Day!
Psy is a Gentleman
Psy follows up Gangnam Style's horse dance with Gentleman's hip-swaying dance, aka "arrogant dance" from the Brown Eyed Girls' Abracadabra. Psy is helped along by Gain from Brown Eyed Girls and the cast from Korean variety show Infinite Challenge.
The Japanese Version
In the late '80s, documentarians Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker spent six months in Tokyo looking at how symbols and imagery familiar to Americans had been appropriated and given new significance in Japan. Though more than 20 years old, the resulting video remains popular in undergraduate courses across the social sciences and humanities in part because it's so entertaining. [more inside]
Fitter, Happier, More Ska
Easy Star All-Stars released (previously) their reggae and ska infused cover version of Radiohead's OK Computer, "Radiodread" way back in 2006.
Matchmaking in China
"For Ms. Yang, Joy City is not so much a consumer mecca as an urban Serengeti that she prowls for potential wives for some of China’s richest bachelors." [more inside]
Frozen seared steak
OK, this is a single-recipe post, but if you would like to host a steak dinner for more than like two people and get sous-vide-like results with less hassle and equipment, here's what you do: Freeze the steaks, sear them hot, then stick them in a low oven for an hour. Nathan Myhrvold (Modernist Cuisine) explains.
The Unanswered Question
Here's a link to (YT) videos of all six 1973 Leonard Bernstein Norton lectures on one handy page. [more inside]
Aurora Borealis/Australis this evening?
The sun has been active, with a Coronal Mass Ejection on the 11th, which will reach Earth this evening. There's a possibility of the Aurora Borealis further south than is typical, potentially as far south as Boston, for those of us on the East Coast. Check visibility on wunderground or weather.com.
via fantabulous timewaster and xetere, thanks. [more inside]
"Tell them what really happened, Sting."
A joint interview with the Police from April 2000. A career-spanning reminiscence rich with bickering, musical insights, and curse words. [more inside]
plez donnut stel
Superb merbio bros. gr8 game 4 nintendy entertainment cycstem. u buy now! all copyroughts to nintendy corp. [more inside]
a great collection of medieval illustration
Weird, funny, surreal, fun, silly, bawdy, macabre, cool and strangely beautiful. The Discarded Image is a Tumblr collection of Medieval illustrations gleaned from various illuminated manuscripts, bestiaries, books describing the cosmology of the Middle Ages, ordered and maintained by a celestial hierarchy. The Discarded Image is also the name of CS Lewis' last book, about the fascinating Medieval mindset and world picture. [more inside]
Incoming Demon Train
Christian music's angry young men
Contemporary Christian Music in the ‘70s was almost nothing but trite SoCal Jesus People pablum praise music and lame lite rock. And right there was Daniel Amos, which started as a folk group, then switched to Eagles-like country rock. That all changed in 1978 when they recorded Horrendous Disc, but thanks to issues with Larry Norman's Solid Rock label it was in limbo till 1981. It came out a week before one of their best albums, Alarma, which was challenging listening back then. Trouser Press said of them, “The ground zero of Christian alternative rock is Orange County's Daniel Amos (band name courtesy of the Bible's table of contents page). Nearly every underground Christian band was inspired by or in some way connected with them. [more inside]
Want transparency? First step: travel to DC
Even before it was enacted, the United States House and Senate voted unanimously to repeal a provision within the STOCK Act, a bill aimed at curbing insider trading among senior government officials. The repealed provision required that financial disclosure forms were accessible online. [more inside]
The Lost Tribes of the Amazon
Franco believes that governments must increase efforts to preserve indigenous cultures. “The Indians represent a special culture, and resistance to the world,” argues the historian, who has spent three decades researching isolated tribes in Colombia. Martínez says that the Indians have a unique view of the cosmos, stressing “the unity of human beings with nature, the interconnectedness of all things.” It is a philosophy that makes them natural environmentalists, since damage to the forest or to members of one tribe, the Indians believe, can reverberate across society and history with lasting consequences. “They are protecting the jungle by chasing off gold miners and whoever else goes in there,” Franco says. He adds: “We must respect their decision not to be our friends—even to hate us.”
It's 11 o'clock, do you know where you cat is?
Map My Cat: "So we have a cat, well we have three cats actually. One of them is a ‘little’ overweight, so we put her on a diet. She didn’t seem to loose any weight. We assume she is probably finding other food sources, like friendly neighbours. So what did we do next? Well, normal people would do things like keep their cats inside (ours are kept inside at night but allowed out during the day), or maybe they would buy a tag that says do not feed. But we are geeks and needed a more sophisticated solution." Note: This blog contains cat photos. And maps. So that should pretty much get the internet excited.
Sick from it all
"At night, [Nicols Fox] wears a shirt woven with silver fibers to reduce her radio frequency exposure, and though her house has electricity, she shuts it off and uses gas lamps whenever possible. During our conversation, her voice would occasionally get cracked and raspy if I got too close with my audio recorder. In the five years since she’s moved to the Radio Quiet Zone, she hasn't left once."
Despite consternation from locals, sufferers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) have begun moving to the town of Green Bank, West Virginia, to live in the U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone, an area established to minimize interference with radio astronomy. [more inside]
Despite consternation from locals, sufferers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) have begun moving to the town of Green Bank, West Virginia, to live in the U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone, an area established to minimize interference with radio astronomy. [more inside]
The thirst for urine can be traced to the military’s 1971 Operation Gold
"Settling into an upholstered chair across from his mom, 50-year-old Marc Taulé laughs nervously, recalling the last time his mom made him hand over his urine—last year. To everyone’s surprise, he tested positive for cocaine. He’s not a cocaine user; he had been prescribed a painkiller called Lidocaine after minor surgery. “I love them, and just don’t want to see them in trouble,” Elaine Taulé explains." -- For The Nation, Isabel MacDonald looks at the history of drug testing and some of the characters who want every school child in America to pee in a cup.
Talking Cat
"What would you do if you were a rock star?"
It's Saturday morning. Grab a bowl of cereal and let's watch cartoons!
Stuff You Should Know: The Animated Series is an animated version of bits from the very popular Stuff You Should Know podcast, with Josh and Chuck. Thus far, topics include:
Duels
The Digestive System
How to Start a Country
Lilith and Vampire Myths
Self-Experimenters
How Fear Works
[more inside]
Duels
The Digestive System
How to Start a Country
Lilith and Vampire Myths
Self-Experimenters
How Fear Works
[more inside]
Where have all the Wildlings gone?
Game of Thrones: A graphic representation of the Game of Thrones. If you're not sure about the major houses of Westeros, the history, timeline, alliances, religions and incestuous relationships this will help and/or further confuse you.
mwoe
Cat meows underwater [SLYT; important]
"a spontaneous ballet"
James Nares' new exhibition 'Street' is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in NYC. It is an HD video of pedestrians in Manhattan, slowed way, way down. Watch 2:17 of the 61 minute piece here, and another 2:01 clip here. Villlage Voice, New York Times, Vogue, and an interview with Nares in Interview. [more inside]
Tallchieva? Never!
"If anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away." American ballerina Maria Tallchief died Thursday. [more inside]
April 12
Frontline: The Bombing of al-Bara
Frontline journalist Olly Lambert captures the event of a Syrian government air strike on the town of al-Bara. Powerfully upsetting and tragic, his footage conveys the sheer terror afflicting the lives of Syrian refugees struggling to survive under the Assad regime. [36min SLYT] [more inside]
Dial 4-6-5-6-5-3-4
1st Triple Play of 2013. The Yankees pull off a unique 4-6-5-6-5-3-4 triple play.
It's the first turned by NY since they executed a more conventional version in 2010. But as an A's fan, I prefer this one, which is is bit more uncommon.
Heads above the rest? No. Below.
We all know that people messed around with photos long before there was Photoshop. But you might not have realized how crazy the Victorians were about headless portraits. They literally lost their heads over this trend. Check it out.
A Most Virtuous Aurora
"Hopefully this also means that I finally can close the case on the auroras from March 17. Go here to be transported back to March 17, to a small town in northern Sweden called Östersund. Welcome!" As mentioned on Space Weather.
"That" is not all he wrote
The new James Joyce commemorative coin has a typo. "While the error is regretted, it should be noted that the coin is an artistic representation of the author and text and not intended as a literal representation."
Sounds with an "eternal essence"
Sometimes called the "Alan Lomaxes of India," the founders of Amarrass Records are on a mission to record and revitalize interest in traditional music from India, Turkey, and beyond. Over 100 videos on their YouTube channel chronicle their field recordings and festivals featuring artists like Lakha Khan, the Barmer Boys, Bombino, and many others. [more inside]
The Sacred and the Profane, under one roof! (But not for the first time)
A French auction house has gone ahead with a planned sale of Hopi katsinam. Such a sale would have been illegal in the United States. A depiction of the Crow mother sold for more than $200,000. [more inside]
When dinosaurs ruled yr ♡
(^_^) Jurassic♥Heart is a Japanese-style 彡☆ dating sim ☆ミ that finally lets you date a dinosaur (^_-) [more inside]
Trans 100
The Trans 100 is a list curated by We Happy Trans based on nominations of 100 key trans people breaking ground in American culture, arts, social justice, and politics. [more inside]
Gene genie, let yourself go
After a decade or so of legal back-and-forth between Utah-based Myriad Genetics and medical researchers, the ACLU, and the Public Patent Forum, the US Supreme Court will hear a case next week which attempts to address whether genes — isolated (derivative) or original — can be patented. The stakes are high on both sides: opponents use Myriad's actions to argue that giving short-term monopoly control over humanity's genetic constituency is not in the public interest, while proponents defend the use of patents to spur private research in biotech, alternative energy and other nascent industries.
Discourse on the otter
An event is not a decision, a treaty, a reign, or a battle, but the reversal of a relationship of forces, the usurpation of power, the appropriation of a vocabulary turned against those who had used it, a feeble domination that poisons itself as it goes lax, the entry of a masked otter.
Son of a bitch I got stuck on a pitch.
Notes from meetings. Madeleine Di Gangi (very creatively) doodles the (very boring) goings-on during meetings. Via Free Range blog from Working Not Working.
I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it.
Jonathan Winters, the wildly inventive actor and comedian who appeared in such films as "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Loved One" and played Robin Williams' son on the TV show "Mork & Mindy," has died. He was 87. [more inside]
Attack of the zombie directors (or: "Whatevah. I do what I want!")
When Shareholder Democracy Is Sham Democracy: Directors in 41 publicly traded companies remained in their posts despite "resounding votes of no confidence" from their shareholders, prompting New York City’s comptroller, John Liu to observe that the right to elect directors, "one of the few rights afforded shareholders is illusory," and “Shareowners need accountable directors who will ensure the company isn’t being run for the benefit of insiders at our expense.” Meanwhile, studies seem to back Liu up: "...firms with stronger governance exhibit a higher propensity to pay dividends and, for dividend payers, pay larger dividends." [more inside]
Nuit et Brouillard
Night and Fog is a 1955 documentary directed by Alain Resnais.
It is mortifying, for both its brutal imagery, and poetic narration, but moreso, the fact those two could seemingly live together.
Censored by the French over one shot it only came to fruition after writer Jean Cayrol, a camp survivor himself, agreed to write the script.
The soundtrack was by Hanns Eisler, whose music was banned by the Nazis in 1933.
[What follows is 30 minute documentary film concerning two Nazi concentration camps. Please be warned there are some very NSFL/triggers ahead.] [previously] [more inside]
It is mortifying, for both its brutal imagery, and poetic narration, but moreso, the fact those two could seemingly live together.
Censored by the French over one shot it only came to fruition after writer Jean Cayrol, a camp survivor himself, agreed to write the script.
The soundtrack was by Hanns Eisler, whose music was banned by the Nazis in 1933.
[What follows is 30 minute documentary film concerning two Nazi concentration camps. Please be warned there are some very NSFL/triggers ahead.] [previously] [more inside]
Mars Eats Probes
We Found Hope in a Mega Millions Ticket
“This restaurant lifestyle is killing us,” Mandy said one night as we took a break from our creative endeavors to eat Walgreen’s off-brand ice cream sandwiches on our front stoop in the cool, salty night air. “Look at us. It’s two o’clock in the morning and we’re still awake. Working. Eating. Drinking shitty wine. Every night. It’s unhealthy! How can I work well if I don’t live well?”
“Yeah, it’s the pits. But what can we do?” I ate my ice cream sandwich slowly, nibbling around the edges.
Mandy finished her sandwich in two bites and crumpled the paper wrapper into a ball. “I’ll figure out something...”
“This is historic legislation, and it’s time to right this wrong.”
Yesterday, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed Senate Bill 97, the Scottsboro Boys Act allowing for posthumous pardons. Bentley has said he wanted to close a chapter of state history. The Scottsboro case led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision against excluding Blacks from juries. [more inside]
Like Poohsticks, only brighter
Find a variety of colored glow sticks. Drop into the top of a waterfall. Take pictures lasting several seconds to several minutes. Enjoy. [more inside]
Why Etsy Doesn't Have a Gallery in New York
Does anyone here speak art and tech? "Indeed, for a certain sort of hoodie-wearing entrepreneur more keen on trips to Tahoe than the Tate, the rules of the art world can seem especially opaque." No, they are two different cultures. "The traditional art world appears to be recognizing that it is going to need to collect some of this money to continue operating in the manner it has grown accustomed to. What it doesn’t seem to recognize is that it may be selling the wrong thing, a brand of social status that the technology culture is not interested in buying."
Smaller Wallets, Larger Households?
A dozen ultraleft voluntarists arguing about shower schedules is a noise complaint; 120,000 downwardly mobile yuppies doing it out of necessity is a substratum. The material realities of declining wages, ballooning debt, and skyrocketing rents at the core of the neoliberal city have conspired to herd young people into unprecedentedly dense, poor, and precarious kinds of living arrangements. - Andrew Fogle on how the economic crisis is changing how people live together.
Al Gore Is Fat, Therefore Global Warming Doesn't Exist
Studio Rayyan
The art of Omar Rayyan "Rayyan’s artwork includes fantasy-inspired paintings of dragons, mythological creatures set against a backdrop of seemingly ordinary buildings and people, works of abstraction such as the teapot hat on a man drinking a cup of tea in “Mists of Oolong,” and all manner of woodland creatures as one might expect to find in an animated Disney film or a children’s book of fairy tales."
Hockey Is For Everyone
The National Hockey League Players' Association and the National Hockey League recently advanced their commitment to make the NHL the most inclusive professional sports league in the world by teaming up with the You Can Play Project (previously), an advocacy organization fighting homophobia in sports. The organization was created by Philadelphia Flyers scout Patrick Burke in memory of his brother, Brendan Burke. Less than a year after it was created, You Can Play has addressed some recent instances of homophobic comments from professional athletes in the US. They also have put together a number of videos, presented on their YouTube channel, or on the You Can Play website.
Google Inactive Account Manager
Google has announced a new feature called Inactive Account Manager "that makes it easy to tell Google what you want done with your digital assets when you die or can no longer use your account."
Cats vs dogs
The Internet is cat; books are dog. "We're reading dogs and clicking cats."
Thanks for your non-purchase of the Mumble Indie Bungle!
Mumble Indie Bungle. "The idea for the collection, in keeping with the titles, is that it’s meant to be this set of crappy indie games that someone perhaps bought for you, mistaking them for the originals," blogged Pippin Barr at the outset of his latest project. Now you can play such not-hits as Gurney (not Journey), Proteas (not Proteus), World of Glue (not World of Goo), Spy Parity (not Spy Party) and 30 Flights of Loathing (as opposed to Loving). Don't want to commit to playing these "games" yourself? Just watch this playthrough. (Previously and previouslier.) [more inside]
Just a bunch of athletes competing for the sweetest kittens
No one will ever believe you
What does oil represent? Us. Gamers.
More amusing than it has any right to be.
Ruled by “Dave” and “Nick”
In a sense what we have is the Americanisation of Britain, or at least of England. A society where everybody has then sense that they can be anything they want to be, and where hardly anybody can. Crooked Timber's Chris Bertram on the evolution of British society since the seventies.
"There’s no heavy lifting in pointing out that a band sucks."
Self-proclaimed Rock and Roll Sociologist, Paul Lawton (of The Ketamines) has a Tumblr called Slagging Off where he critiques his fellow Canadian musicians. A recent post attacking government sponsorship of the arts earned Lawton an interview with Vice Magazine and a rebuttal from indie-rocker (and robot-lover), Dan Mangan. Unsurprisingly, Lawton has responded to Mangan's rebuttal.
Random Access Memories
With Daft Punk's new album coming out, The Creators Project is interviewing their collaborators about their careers, production and playing techniques and working with Daft Punk.
Giorgio Moroder
Todd Edwards
Nile Rogers
It's Just Toronto
Between 1986 and 1993, rather than showing a test pattern, Global Television would, in the dead hours of the night, broadcast long videos of walking and driving through Toronto. [more inside]
April 11
You and all the friends who are yourself can get together and play
I don't know how this guy got 8-12 perfectly harmonized versions of himself stuck in a Nintendo, or why, but the results are basically pretty amazing. with bonus intruding kitty!
Oh the places yoo'll go dude!
Oh the Places You'll Go. In 68 different accents. Not necessarily accurate, but different. SLYT
Ils Sont Cools/They Are Cool
Ils Sont Cools/They Are Cool. French rap Power Rangers at the Acropolis. And doner. (SLYT)
Chliean student protests resume for 2013
Students in Chile held one of their largest marches yet, continuing a campaign for greater public funding of education and in protest of Chile's significant economic inequality, particularly as it affects access to education. (Previously.)
You're not late!
Floating an idea
Leighton Naylor has a goldfish called Einstein that does tricks, but recently stopped floating. So he did something about it. [more inside]
He's Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
Hawaiian kayak fisherman almost catches a little more than he bargained for. SL more or less YT.
The most dangerous city in the world
Three Chicks, One Worm
Fallout Monopoly
Fallout Monopoly. That is all
Riverbend returns
Baghdad Burning, a blog written by an Iraqi woman during the course of the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, has had its first update since 2007. [more inside]
Maybe chemtrails were deployed to boost cartilage gel sales
A Brief History of Chemtrails traces the popular conspiracy theory to its origins on Usenet and Art Bell. How To Debunk Chemtrails collects resources about the theory. Jet Pilots Fear Chemtrail Attacks suggest the belief may be more than a harmless theory.
Whodunit?
Greg Fleniken was a decent, honorable, smart, and successful man whom people liked. The sort of man nobody would murder—yet somebody had. But why? And how had The Body in Room 348 received its internal injuries? [more inside]
"like most of the working class, I’ve developed a locust morality."
The Locust Economy
I was picking the brain of a restauranteur for insight into things like Groupon. He confirmed what we all understand in the abstract: that these deals are terrible for the businesses that offer them; that they draw in nomadic deal hunters from a vast surrounding region who are unlikely to ever return; that most deal-hunters carefully ensure that they spend just the deal amount or slightly more; that a badly designed offer can bankrupt a small business. He added one little factoid I did not know: offering a Groupon deal is by now so strongly associated with a desperate, dying restaurant that professional food critics tend to write off any restaurant that offers one without even trying it.[more inside]
Important Changes to Federal Tax Form 1080-VQ.Ω8
Novus Cultus Seclorum
In the spirit of Danny Peary's definitive Cult Movies books, Scott Tobias's New Cult Canon sought to compile and review a grand roll of the offbeat oddities, midnight wonders, overlooked influencers, and otherwise cultish flicks of the last 20 odd years. The series began in 2008 with a retrospective of Donny Darko and ended today with a look at Michael Tolkin's The Rapture and the announcement of Tobias' resignation from the A.V. Club. [more inside]
IRS Claims Authority to Read Your E-Mail Without A Warrant
The ACLU reports that the IRS claims in an internal document that it has the authority to access citizens' online communications without a warrant. The IRS claimed in a 2009 document that "the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications." It still retains that position even after the 2010 case of US v Warshak which determined that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications. [more inside]
"It Tastes Like Steak"
"Steak is the defining mouthful of our time" (A.A. Gill, for Vanity Fair)
I hope it is at least better than Prometheus...
A general technique for automating NES games
Blinking lights convey so much filler
Cardinal Perplexogram
L.A. producer [PHYSICS] has made a video for his new track "Cardinal Perplexogram." It is nuts. It is also very NSFW.
Intelligence Tests
Is Psychometric g a Myth? - "As an online discussion about IQ or general intelligence grows longer, the probability of someone linking to statistician Cosma Shalizi's essay g, a Statistical Myth approaches 1. Usually the link is accompanied by an assertion to the effect that Shalizi offers a definitive refutation of the concept of general mental ability, or psychometric g." [more inside]
"You don't need that many guitars. Bout two's enough."
"They come in and, they may bring their instruments in, lay it in the back room, come out and eat some peanuts, talk with us, get some coffee, trade knives, tell a few jokes, settle the world's problems, and eventually, play music if and when they want to."
The Barber Shop, Drexel NC.
The Barber Shop, Drexel NC.
Will it blend?
Photoshop Blend Modes Explained: When you use Photoshop, do you just fiddle with opacity, multiply, and overlay until your image is sort of close to the effect you're going for? Did you figure out two or three blend combinations and then never use any others? Robert Thomas explains the logic behind blend modes, so you can blend more purposefully.
Dom's laptop is in Iran.
It's still there. A tale of loss.
so *that's* what Tumblr's good for!
If you like clothes, Tumblr has something for you. Historical costume, vintage fashion, awesome cosplay, and sheer costume-related nerdery abound. [more inside]
Uruguay Legalizes Gay Marriage
With 71 votes from the Chamber of Deputies, Uruguay became the third country in the Americas to legalize gay marriage. From the article:
While some countries have carved out new territory for gay and lesbian couples without affecting heterosexual marrieds, Uruguay is creating a single set of rules for all people, gay or straight. Instead of the words "husband and wife" in marriage contracts, it refers to the gender-neutral "contracting parties."
Time Square Still Hell On Earth
Planesploit
Planesploit : this Android app permits you to take control over the commercial jet in which you are a passenger if it is on autopilot.
"The Real Truth About Blacks and Unemployment…"
Yolanda Spivey was unemployed for two years, but job offers only started coming in after she changed her race - and name - to White. She wrote about her experience; she's also been interviewed by The Current's Young Turk (video).
Free falling
The Future of Political Science Just Showed Up
GDELT data is now publicly available. GDELT stands for Global Data on Events, Location and Tone, and is a dataset that contains information on over 200 million geolocated events. [more inside]
I'll be back
A 'Back-to-the-Camera Shot' supercut, in which a character stands (usually) centre frame, gazing out onto an epic landscape. All film titles are listed, with timecodes, in the 'about' section. [SLYT]
Your dog did not eat your homework
CourseSmart software enables professors and teachers to track how much of the assigned reading students have completed.
3 examples of great African-American music, with commentary and analysis
Listening Guide to West End Blues by Louis Armstrong - Listening Guide to Backwater Blues by Bessie Smith - Listening Guide to Salt Peanuts by Dizzy Gillespie and His All Stars
Lawsuit(s) in Washington anti-discrimination case
The state of Washington has filed suit against Arlene's Flowers, whose owner, Barronelle Stutzman, refused to provide flowers for the wedding of regular customers Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed. [more inside]
More evidence that cats can sleep anywhere at any time.
Cat sleeps on its head. [slyt]
'Lizard'
How Animals Eat Their Food (SLYT)
"To explore the constant battle between the North Sea and the mainland"
Photographer Neil A. White's 'Lost Villages' project chronicles the effects of coastal erosion on the Holderness coast, in the north-east of England. It's inspired by the disappearance of Ravenser Odd in the 14th century. (Via BBC News.)
An Open Letter to the Church from My Generation
'Church,
I got to go to the Macklemore concert on Friday night. If you want to hear about how that went, ask me, seriously, I want to talk about it until I die. The whole thing was great; but the best part was when Macklemore sang “Same Love.” Augustana’s gym was filled to the ceiling with 5,000 people, mostly aged 18-25, and decked out in thrift store gear (American flag bro-tanks, neon Nikes, MC Hammer pants. My Cowboy boyfriend wore Cowboy boots…not ironically….). The arena was brimming with excitement and adrenaline during every song, but when he started to play “Same Love,” the place about collapsed. Why? While the song is popular everywhere, no one, maybe not even Macklemore, feels its true tension like we do in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. If you’re not familiar, here’s the song.' [more inside]
I got to go to the Macklemore concert on Friday night. If you want to hear about how that went, ask me, seriously, I want to talk about it until I die. The whole thing was great; but the best part was when Macklemore sang “Same Love.” Augustana’s gym was filled to the ceiling with 5,000 people, mostly aged 18-25, and decked out in thrift store gear (American flag bro-tanks, neon Nikes, MC Hammer pants. My Cowboy boyfriend wore Cowboy boots…not ironically….). The arena was brimming with excitement and adrenaline during every song, but when he started to play “Same Love,” the place about collapsed. Why? While the song is popular everywhere, no one, maybe not even Macklemore, feels its true tension like we do in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. If you’re not familiar, here’s the song.' [more inside]
April 10
Science and beauty converge. A treasure of anything to do with birds.
NestWatch offers all kinds of interesting information about birds and their nests with beautiful pictures of the birds, their nests, clutches, broods, and fledglings. An example: the Indigo Bunting. Each page about a particular bird includes their often beautiful songs and sounds. There is a related Flickr NestWatchers site, as well as an extensive community with links about places for bird watching in each state. It's part of the fabulously encyclopedic website of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology with its own rich archive of superbly organized recordings and videos at the Macaulay Library. [more inside]
Hugh Hefner's Playboy Philosophy and Richard Nixon's My Six Climaxes
On this date in 1963, the most influential comedy theater to ever emerge out of the Bay Area - The Committee - opened its doors at 622 Broadway in North Beach. Thus began a full decade of widespread cultural influence, with multiple studio albums, appearances on The Tonight Show and The Dick Cavett Show, and a feature film. The Committee's provocative and confrontational style, influenced equally by Chicago's Second City and the radical politics of the era, set the stage for much of the comedy to follow. The Groundlings was a direct descendents (Gary Austin came from Committee workshops) and the improv structure known as Harold, basic arithmetic in the halls of IO and the Upright Citizens Brigage, was birthed at The Committee under the direction of Del Close.
To celebrate this anniversary, I'd like to present a recently unearthed recording of their Satirathon from 1968, from the archives of the late Peter Bergman. Featuring, among others, Garry Goodrow, Carl Gottlieb, and Chris "The Egg" Ross, an improv genius who succumbed to an overdose, in 1970, at the age of 25.
"More like Statue of Watery, right?"
This is fucking awesome
Let's say you're a drummer, and you have seven mates who play brass instruments. What do you do? Cover Thrift Shop (by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis). Broken Brass Ensemble have three more demo tracks on Soundcloud, if you dig their mix of traditional New Orleans brass with hiphop, balkan, funk, fanfare, and more. Or you could just listen to a ton of brass band cover songs on YouTube, if that's you're thing.
"We have entire streets of Roman London in front of us."
An archaeological excavation led by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) has been quietly uncovering a site on the now-lost Walbrook River which they have dubbed the Pompeii of the north. [more inside]
Autism Is A Gift
Paging Umberto Eco
When Dickens Met Dostoevsky. "So now the meeting between two literary giants had led me to two names with very little behind them: Stephanie Harvey, who had written only these two articles, and Leo Bellingham, whose chief claim to fame may be that he was once compared by Stephanie Harvey to Doris Lessing." [more inside]
WHY'D YOU PUT THE COFFEE ON THE TABLE!
Got 15 seconds? Then you can watch an animation of Serj Tankian ordering coffee at a Starbucks. [more inside]
“Shopping is so ritualised that we walk around like zombies,”
Sian Jarvis, the supermarket’s head of corporate affairs, had undermined her claims to care about the health of her customers and let slip one of the secrets of a multi-billion-pound industry ... she revealed that one in three Asda checkouts “are what we call guilt-free checkouts”. Jarvis insisted “guilt-free” was merely “a term that’s commonly used in retail”. But it was too late, and her “guilt” gaffe quickly invited scorn in the industry and among public health professionals. Whatever the damage, she had already opened a door to the arcane science of supermarket psychology. To the designers of the modern store, shoppers are lab rats with trolleys, guided through a maze of aisles by the promise of rewards they never knew they sought The Secrets Of Our Supermarkets[more inside]
Teaching philosophy in prison
"Tell you what, Case, if I never meet another psychopath again as long as I live, it'll be far too soon." And I knew that I had lost the stomach for the whole damned business. If I carried on in prison, I would have to do it differently; I would have to admit that it was prison.
The bigger they are, the harder they will crush your bookshelf
Sebastião Salgado, whose past photographic topics have included workers, migrations, and Africa, is unveiling a new exhibition: Genesis.
The supporting catalogue is available in a special extra-large edition, with 2 volumes measuring 46.8x70cm (18.4"x27.6"), and shipped in a box weighing a total 59kg (130 lbs). [more inside]
Brains have never looked so pretty
Karl Deisseroth and his team at Stanford University [previously] have developed a completely new technique to make a brain perfectly see-through. They call it CLARITY, and the result has to be seen to be believed. [more inside]
In which we discuss the politics of the Mario Universe.
...Although as he self-styles himself "King Koopa," it is apparent that he claims (or is seeking) parity of esteem with Princess Peach; that is to say that he does not regard himself as a "terrorist," but as a "freedom fighter" or entitled ruler in his own right.
On the hook for Mom & Dad
Your parent's nursing home bill may soon be your responsibility. In response to the US recession and aging population, long-dormant state filial responsibility laws are being upheld. Use this handy chart to find your state laws. [more inside]
"Sexism is over!"
An Orange Prize nominee speaks out about her experience as a woman in literature: weakened titles, pink covers, snubbed for reviews. [more inside]
Check the Belt Buckle
Have you ever wondered if you might be fucking ... but you weren't sure? Reggie Watts clarifies. SLYT, NSFW
The True Shape of Snowflakes
Snowflakes in freefall "The classic image of a snowflake is a fluke. That flat, six-sided crystal with delicate filigree patterns of sharp branches occurs in only about one in every 1000 flakes. And a snowflake seen in 3D is another beast entirely"
"'Spitzer! You’re Governor Spitzer!'"
Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin’s Post-Scandal Playbook (Spoiler: The disgraced Congressman is likely running for Mayor of New York City. SLNYT, Via)
Who Needs Society? (Except to Steal From)
A Maine hermit went into the woods at age 20, survived for 27 years by pulling off 1,000+ robberies, then finally was caught last week by game wardens using hidden cameras.
What is "satire" anyway?
Last Monday, New Inquiry blogger Aaron Bady audited the word satire and made it clear. He wrote, "If something is not taken to be satire, it fails as satire. [It's] an effect, and everything depends on how the joke is received, what the author intended, what the circumstances were in which it was made, and so on."
It's an interesting definition, both for the way it's made and the assumptions on which it relies. He establishes criteria for the existence of satire based on its audience, citing people who mistake The Onion and The Daily Currant for real news as evidence for the genre's fragility, tying satire's ontology to whether it achieves food for thought for the permanently slackjawed. Leaving aside the fact that a satire's being mistaken for reality is often a satirist's dream, basing the existence of something on the perception of idiots is a powerful argument. [more inside]
Faster, Empire! Strike! Strike!
If Russ Meyer had directed Star Wars instead of George Lucas, and had gender-flipped all the characters, what would the action figures have looked like? At last, the answer can be known. [via] [more inside]
By this time next year, coffee will no longer work.
The Secretary of Agriculture stepped forward with a big briefcase. "Sir, I’ve spent years working to develop a synthetic coffee substitute for just such an emergency." He pulled out a big test tube filled with liquid. "This little concoction is the answer. It’s just as good as real coffee."
The room was silent.
"It’s orange," said the President.
"Yes. That can’t be changed."
"Does it have any other shortcomings?"
"It has been known to cause occasional... body-death."
The room was silent.
"But it tastes like coffee?" the President finally asked.
"Moderately so."
Everyone in the room nodded solemnly. It would have to be.
The Day Coffee Stopped Working, by John Bailey Owen.
The room was silent.
"It’s orange," said the President.
"Yes. That can’t be changed."
"Does it have any other shortcomings?"
"It has been known to cause occasional... body-death."
The room was silent.
"But it tastes like coffee?" the President finally asked.
"Moderately so."
Everyone in the room nodded solemnly. It would have to be.
The Day Coffee Stopped Working, by John Bailey Owen.
Splattered Ink
“All I can say is, we had no good taste, no good decorum, and no good style. There almost wasn’t anything that was off limits.”
Gameological speaks to the minds behind Data East's Tattoo Assassins.
Ta-da!
It's The Claw
Documenting the absurd finger acrobatics required to Save For Web in Adobe software (SLTumblr)
Fixie Nascar
The Mini Drome is one of the smallest cycling tracks in the world. Fixed gear cyclists ride the 51 foot velodrome(Velodromes are typically 1 kilometer in length) without any brakes. The Mini Drome is pretty much a fixed gear version of Nascar.
Cats in games: does exactly what it sounds like
Do you like cats? Do you like videogames? Then you'll love cats in videogames (SLTumblr).
First They Came For The Cunning Hats...
Ten years after cancellation, FOX finally starts caring about Firefly. Well, Fox's lawyers at least, who recently started going after the no doubt lucrative Jayne's Hat cottage industry.
End Extreme Wealth
Many of these people live in a very limited environment. They have never been outside the finance district, gated communities, or the typical holiday resorts of the extreme wealthy.Do they know it's Christmas? [more inside]
Class-Divided Cities
Beginning with New York and wending its way through to Detroit, The Atlantic Cities has just completed a series of posts exploring geographic class divisions in a dozen cities (actually metro areas) in the U.S., with help from American Community Survey data. [more inside]
"Your dad's a nutter! A skinhead priest!"
Perfect for that breakfast on the go, and creeping out your friends.
This webpage will be held to regulate the service
"North Korea is a not a state, it's a cult."
A former top female North Korean spy gives an exclusive interview, saying Kim Jong-un is posturing on the world stage because he is too young and too inexperienced to gain control of the military. [more inside]
April 9
ONETWOTHREE DEATH
"A single cow yields a very large amount of beef..."
Snack Data is a publicly–accessible database of food. It serves as a definitive resource for snack enthusiasts throughout the world.
Permadeath. Puzzles. Portals. Pong
2x0ng (and its predecessor, Xong) is a hybrid roguelikes that has the appearance, sound and mechanics of Atari age games. Levels are randomly generated, and the rules are up to you to discover.
Here is a video review for your elucidation.
Available for PC, Mac and Linux.
David Frost interviews Paul McCartney
Road Trip!
If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman
Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace talks about her first year as a woman since publically coming out as transgender last year. She'll address it further on Against Me!'s upcoming album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues. Laura Jane has already played the title track live, along with other songs from it like
Osama bin Laden as the Crucified Christ. The album may have been delayed by the departure of their fourth drummer, Jay 'son of Max' Weinberg. Punknews has officially endorsed Mikey Erg as a replacement.
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
It's the simple things
Felix Baumgartner
The Man Who Pierced the Sky. "When Felix Baumgartner [autoplays sound] set out to make a living by stunt jumping—from cliffs, buildings, and bridges—the young Austrian had no idea where it would take him: to a pressurized capsule nearly 24 miles above New Mexico, last October 14, preparing to free-fall farther than any man in history, and at supersonic speed. Detailing Baumgartner’s quest, William Langewiesche explores what drove him to ever greater heights."
Silicon-based viruses of the analog kind
A selection of glass viruses by artist Luke Jerram (a full gallery and photographs of other sculptural work are also available directly from his site)
Enter, Stranger
How we made Knightmare
The creator and the dungeon master of the 1980s fantasy game show revisit dodgy technology and terrified children. The wikipedia entry explains more. Knightmare mentioned previously on mefi
The Fishing Party
The BBC documentary The Fishing Party captures the mood of the Thatcher era with devastating accuracy. First broadcast in 1986, it follows a group of four City businessmen on a fishing trip to Scotland as they air their opinions on politics, money, education, discipline, women and dogs. Hilarious and appalling by turns, the whole documentary can now be viewed on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. (Bonus link: the director Paul Watson describes the making of 'Mrs Thatcher's least favourite film ever'.)
A Love Letter to 2011
Drone meets laser, end of drone.
Navy saves $1,399,000 versus short range missle. For the patient I particularly appreciate the appearance of R2D2, with modifications, at about 2:50 minutes.
Out with the new and in with the old
When Bill Ackman hand selected Ron Johnson as the new C.E.O. of JCPenney (previously) people took notice. However, after dismal fourth-quarter results, Bill Ackman had strong criticisms for Johnson, calling his tenure "very close to a disaster." Last night, JCP announced that Ron Johnson has been replaced by ex-CEO Myron Ullman.
The Helsinki Bus Station Theory
Long known by photographers, the Helsinki Bus Station Theory explains the creative process in an interesting way.
The Solway Spaceman
On 24th May 1964, Jim Templeton, a fireman from Carlisle in the North of England, took his young daughter out to the marches overlooking the Solway Firth to take some photographs. [more inside]
For eccentric book-lovers with beards and cats
"..it is refreshing to see Jason Merkoski, a leader of the team that built Amazon's first Kindle, dispense with the usual techo-utopianism and say, “I think we’ve made a proverbial pact with the devil in digitizing our words.” [more inside]
Fwoosh! Zoom!
"If you spend any time looking for records at flea markets and garage sales, you come to recognize a variety of common vintage records: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Barbra Streisand, box collections of "best of" classical music, the band America.
And then there are the rare finds, the albums that you would never expect to exist. My latest find at the Alameda Point Antiques Fair falls into that category ... it became my possession for $2. And now yours, via SoundCloud, for nothing."
Sounds of X-15s, Atlas missiles, Nieuport biplanes, and more.
How a Single Spy Turned Pakistan Against the United States
More than two years later, the Raymond Davis episode has been largely forgotten in the United States. It was immediately overshadowed by the dramatic raid months later that killed Osama bin Laden — consigned to a footnote in the doleful narrative of America’s relationship with Pakistan. But dozens of interviews conducted over several months, with government officials and intelligence officers in Pakistan and in the United States, tell a different story: that the real unraveling of the relationship was set off by the flurry of bullets Davis unleashed on the afternoon of Jan. 27, 2011, and exacerbated by a series of misguided decisions in the days and weeks that followed. In Pakistan, it is the Davis affair, more than the Bin Laden raid, that is still discussed in the country’s crowded bazaars and corridors of power. - The Spy Who Lost Pakistan (SL NYTIMES Magazine)
What next after capitalism?
Recent posts here, here and here discuss a growing sense that climate change is going to be worse than we thought. A link to Charles Stross's musing on a future that included climate change was discussed on MeFi here.
But Kim Stanley Robinson asks a slightly different question: If capitalism is the driver of climate change, what happens next? What does post-capitalism look like?
Team Hoyt Immortalized!
Team Hoyt has been honored with a bronze statue! Team Hoyt is a fixture of the Boston Marathon. For 30 years, Dick has pushed his son Rick the entire 26.2 miles.
Rick has Cerebral Palsy and decided in 1977 that he wanted to participate in marathons and other sporting events around the country. And thus, Team Hoyt was born! [more inside]
NDT 2013
Last week Emporia State University won the National Debate Tournament for the first time. Ryan Wash and Elijah Smith won the round over Northwestern's Peyton Lee and Arjun Vellayappan in a close 3-2 decision. (link goes to a video of the round) [more inside]
All Your TV Are Belong To Us
More than five years after it was first announced, it looks like beloved British 1970s/80s science-fiction show Blake's 7 (previously) is coming back to television. The story about the innocent freedom fighter framed for sex crimes against children and his criminal compatriots fighting the Authoritarian Federation is getting a fresh lick of paint at SyFy. It will be directed by Casino Royale and Green Lantern director Martin Campbell. But should it return? [more inside]
Today we begin a "cyber march" on Washington
A group of respected entertainers (and some not-as-respected celebrities), businessmen, Civil Rights leaders and academics have signed an open letter calling on the President to #EndTheWarOnDrugs. [more inside]
Oh, pretty boy, can't you show me nothing but surrender?
You keep doing your work, because you have to, because it's your calling... one does their work for the people. And the more people you can touch, the more wonderful it is...
Patti Smith's Advice to the young [more inside]
"about the size of your face"
In Sri Lanka a new species of giant tarantula has been discovered by the British Tarantula Society. They prefer to live in "well-established old trees, but due to deforestation the number have dwindled and due to lack of suitable habitat they enter old buildings." For spider lovers, there's video footage.
Quiz Bowl SCANDAL!
Inside the biggest scandal in quiz bowl history. Probably attracting more media attention than quiz bowl has ever received, it was recently revealed that a Harvard player accessed questions prior to several recent national tournaments, leading NAQT to strip Harvard A of multiple national championships. Coverage has been extensive, ranging from Bloomberg to The Telegraph.
For the Next Six Months I'm going to make your life better.
The Free Help Guy found that he had nothing to do for six months. So decided to spend that time helping others with their "morally deserved, fun, interesting and different" projects.
Today he's helping tourist Gillian Chin (@Geeliann) explore London with an Oyster Card, a warm hat and a series of clues to be solved by Twitter Followers.
San Francisco by air at night is beyond beautiful.
Absolutely gorgeous aerial footage of San Francisco bay (shot in gyrostabilized ultra-high def, so watch in full-screen if you can). [via]
The day the irony detectors died...
Fairsearch (a group led by Microsoft, Oracle and Expedia) has filed a complaint [PDF] with the EU claiming that Google has a monopoly in the mobile market and is using its mobile position to force its other products on users.
Raccoon Tightrope Walking
Raccoon walking across phone lines I could never do this. I'm so scared of heights.
Brain games are bogus
"Brain training games don't actually make you smarter." Looking at recent meta-analyses and replication attempts of studies showing increased cognitive abilities gained from brain-training games, the New Yorker article comes to the conclusion that the results are suspect and these games haven't been shown to improve cognitive abilities broadly. Currently, brain training is a multi-million-dollar business.
April 8
40,000,000 dead at home, but our boys won the war anyway!
The 36-Hour War. A look at the future of nuclear warfare, from a 1945 issue of Life Magazine
Will take approx none of your sh..
Everyone around the watercooler is talking about supreme court justices. You want to join in, but you just don't have the time to research them! Don't fret! dalmatianparade's Quick Guide to the Supreme Court Justices is here to help!
Les Blank
Beloved indy ethnographic documentarian Les Blank died yesterday.
This interview gives a good overview of his background, and this post includes clips. Watch a couple of his public domain films here. Or do yourself a favor and find the complete version of Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers. [more inside]
Sinuous, Grotesque, and Fantastic.
U.K. illustrator Kate Baylay creates gorgeous book illustrations, like these for The Olive Fairy Book. [more inside]
The contest will be held on the island fortress of Shang Tsung...
Hardcore Gaming 101 present an in-depth examination of the Mortal Kombat series.
When I walk into a room I do not light it up
Anthemic indie rock band The National have just released 'Demons', the first single off their upcoming album Trouble Will Find Me. The band is perhaps best known for their song Mr November and its association with the Obama reelection campaign.
Fun foal ages.
The QI Zoo is a delightful collection of animated and educational gifs about animals and their quirks.
Selection pressure
Researchers have found that size does matter as it relates to overall proportions of the male body (PNAS link, PDF)
BRAIN Initiative
President Obama recently announced a big new effort to map and understand the human brain. [more inside]
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, pioneering astrophysicist
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was a towering figure in 20th-century astronomy. Born in 1900 in England, she won tuition to Newnham College where she studied botany, chemistry, and physics. After attending an astronomy lecture in 1919, she changed the focus of her future studies. She moved to the United States, where she went on to earn the first Ph.D awarded in astronomy from Radcliffe College. She later became the first female to be promoted to full-professor from within the faculty at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and was the first woman to head a department at Harvard when she was appointed to the Chair of the Department of Astronomy. Amongst her numerous studies and advances, she challenge the belief that the sun was made of the same composition of the earth, furthered the study of metallicity of stars and the structure of the Milky Way. [more inside]
We are in the same place now.
Death of a Revolutionary. Susan Faludi on the life, work, and decline of Shulamith Firestone, with some interesting words on the feminist movements of the last century. SLNY.
How amazing is my thought!
Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) was a physician and essayist, writing gracefully on topics as varied as language, nuclear war, and our excellent health and deplorable health-care system (PDF). He believed that the existence of Bach vindicates humanity, that "ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment", and that the Earth is perhaps best thought of as a cell. A three-time winner of the National Book Award, Thomas authored Lives of a Cell, which was voted the 11th-best nonfiction work of the 20th century by the Modern Library.
Millions of Baby Boomer boys in mourning
Annette Funicello , beloved star of the original Mickey Mouse Club, beach movie queen, teen idol, and darling of many an early 60s teenage boy has died.
In a circle, in lines, in turning
Dhikr (or Zihr) is a islamic devotional act involving the remembrance, the chanting, and repeating of the names of God. Though this often happens in silence, the Sufi tend to have ritualized group ceremonies ranging in style from the Whirling Dervishes of the Mevlevi to the fervid dancing of the Chechen.
RIP Robert E. Lee
Country singer Brad Paisley and hip-hop artist LL "Cool" J join forces to help Americans clear the air re: Civil War, racism, the "hood," and Lynyrd Skynyrd shirts with their new song, Accidental Racist.
The PAPAC-00
In less than an hour you can build the simplified digital computer shown in figure 1, using only a pair of scissors, three dozen common pins, and the parts shown in figures 1 and 2.
Toy Poodle Scam
Ferret-Poodle Scam With enough cosmetic modifications, it is possible to (profitably) pass off a ferret as a toy poodle.
Tell Death to bugger right off!
Inner Vision by Sunil Rao (SLFlash) This struck me as a rather powerful analysis of suicide and why not to, even if it is a rather simplistic Flash game. [more inside]
Find a separating hyperplane with one weird kernel trick!
The pace of global warming
A consensus is emerging that in the past decade or so global surface temperatures have plateaued at a recorded-breaking level, not increasing. In fact the world's oceans can absorb up to 90% of all extra heat so global warming has not stalled, it is heating the pool. Predicting ocean heat is tricky, but one scientist's model got the past decade right (in retrospect). Her model shows that by 2020 or so, the ocean may begin to circulate heat back into the atmosphere and things will pick up for us on land. Maybe. Fred Pearce explains.
Pounce!
Great Scientist ≠ Good at Math?
Do you need to know math to do science? Harvard professor emeritus E. O. Wilson says, "no." Jeremy Fox, an Associate Professor of Population Ecology at the University of Calgary disagrees.
"Mrs Justice Thirlwall: the one woman Philpott couldn't defeat"
"Before examining the night in question – the petrol, the plot, the screaming 999 calls, the dead children – Thirlwall said: “It is necessary to look at the history of your relationship with women.” I’ve rarely heard a judge say such a thing, although in the judicial system there aren’t that many female judges, so there’s more chance this take on events is overlooked. Across Europe, the average gender balance among judges is 52 per cent men and 48 per cent women. At 23 per cent, England and Wales is fourth from the bottom, followed only by Azerbaijan, Scotland and Armenia. The higher up the court system, the more male-dominated the bench becomes. Only 15.5 per cent of High Court judges are women. The odds were against Philpott meeting a female judge this week – one woman he had no chance of controlling, striking, or impregnating – but I’m quietly joyous he did." In The Independent, Grace Dent looks at the abusive background of Mick Philpott, who got his six children killed in a house fire he started to take revenge on his ex. [more inside]
An Emotional Child
Reasons My Son Is Crying (sltumblr)
The Iron Lady has rusted away
Margaret Thatcher has died following a stroke her spokesman Lord Bell has said. Details are still coming out but the Iron Lady of British politics was and is a divisive figure even today.
She will probably be best remembered for her role in the coal miner's strikes and the Falklands War.
Her life in pictures is already online. The obituaries have been written for some time.
Okay now do that 59 more times!
Start your Monday with some beautiful modular origami at Kusudama Me! by Lukasheva Ekaterina. [more inside]
April 7
No Sanitation? No Services? No Problem!
Megabumtopia (explanatory Reddit thread) is a virtual libertarian paradise which houses over a million happy Sims without worrying about things like 'power' or 'sewage treatment' or 'drinkable water'. SimCity's recent launch problems have been discussed previously on Metafilter.
The Beat Goes On
Fog Count
In the false American imagination, West Virginia is a joke or else it’s a charity case; but more than anything it is unseen, an invisible architecture of labor and struggle; and incarceration shares this invisibility, hidden at the center of everything; our slipshod remedy for an abiding fear, danger pinned to human bodies and then slotted into bunk beds you can’t see from any highway. [more inside]
Burning Televisions
Burning Televisions - To Henry Ford My Soul Will Creep (1991) by Carl Wiedermann. A celebration of 20th Century detritus. Kodak Tri-X 16mm reversal film, a Bolex 16mm camera, a Realistic MG-1 synthesizer, and a Fostex four-track cassette recorder.
DOCTOR PUPPET!
To celebrate Doctor Who's 50 year(!) run, our friends at Nerdist bring you a new animated web series featuring a stop-motion 11th Doctor investigating a mystery involving his previous selves. It's Doctor Puppet!
(I wouldn't have though it was possible for Matt Smith to look even more like a Rankin/Bass stop-motion puppet, but these folks proved me wrong...)
"Behold the missing link between Martha Stewart and Moby Dick"
into the wild
Catching Up with Kai - "Which is the thing about being home free, when you submit to the authority of pieces of paper you lose your personal identity and the identity you find through nature." (previously; via)
The Weird and Wonderful World of Chess Now
For four years and seventy-nine episodes, Manhattan Neighborhood Network's public access show Chess Now was a revolving door of exuberant hosts (including fan favorites as Tana and Checkerboard Phil), technical difficulties, prank calls, and remarkably little chess. The complete archives are on YouTube.
They're not the same men
Mad Men Season 6 (and simultaneous saturation coverage) begins again tonight. As the show winds down, along with the decade that defined it, the 1960s, critics are wondering "What's the best ending for the best series on TV? Can it survive the onset of the 1970s?"
Darth Baby's Lightsaber
Just try and get a lightsaber out of a toddler's hands. It's easier said than done when you're unarmed. [more inside]
Calvin and Hobbes - the movie?
"Sometimes just *being* is enough"
A lighthearted [blah blah blah] Because whenever you describe something as 'lighthearted' it usually means they've taken a serious subject and can't talk about it properly. This father seems to have genuinely managed to talk about having an autistic son, and the ups and downs that entails. [more inside]
Paging Madame Streisand
This rather bland article on the French Wikipedia about a military radio station (now in English!) became on April 6 the most viewed page on the site, after agents of the DCRI (French Homeland Security) summoned the president of Wikimedia France, Rémi Mathis, to the DCRI headquarters last Thursday and (allegedly) forced him to delete the page under threat of prosecution, on the grounds that the page divulged classified military information. The page was quickly undeleted by other users, as could be expected. Mathis, an historian and library curator at the French National Library is also known as an advocate for freedom of panorama.
He could go all the way.
At the University of Nebraska's football, Spring Game (essentially a practice scrimmage that is attended by more than 60,000 rabid fans) on Saturday, there was an incredible play that you must see. It was 4th and 1 from the Red's 31 yard line. Into the game came 7-year-old Jack Hoffman, a 7 year old brain cancer patient. Just watch the play. [more inside]
In every dream home a heartache
The clean lines, the geometric decorative elements, the seamless blending of indoor and outdoor space… I sure do love mid-century modern architecture.
Do you know what I love more? My children. And that is why I will never live in my MCM dream home. Because mid-century modern architecture is designed to KILL YOUR CHILDREN. (Also, moderately clumsy or drunk adults).
Do you know what I love more? My children. And that is why I will never live in my MCM dream home. Because mid-century modern architecture is designed to KILL YOUR CHILDREN. (Also, moderately clumsy or drunk adults).
The unsaid subtext was "millions of Gamers JUST LIKE US."
"Today I donated my Xbox 360 Elite to Goodwill. It represented a time in my life as a developer that I'm not overly proud about living." A former Microsoft game designer reflects on how his ex-company turned gaming into a bro thing and perfected a formula for the modern console title.
Charlie Is My Darling
The Rolling Stones are playing at Glastonbury this summer. (Here's the full line up of the acts). Sold out. Followed by another open-air show in Hyde Park, London. On July 6. Also sold out. "So Charlie, the Stones are playing Glastonbury! Excited?" [more inside]
Cargo
Cargo is a short film about a man and his baby daughter in the aftermath of an apocalypse. It was a finalist at the Tropfest short film festival. It contains no dialogue.
The Blogging Dead
NOT a blog about Zombies... but a collection of 'ghost blogs', relabeled for topicality. "Zombie Dead Blog" shows off some of the sincere-but-doomed, as well as the not-even-half-hearted attempts at blogging whose history remains on the web, most often thanks to Blogspot's disinterest in deleting inactive blogs. [more inside]
April 6
Que estando triste, cantava
Fado is a Portuguese musical genre which originated in the 1820’s in Lisbon. It has been enjoying a revival over the last twenty years, one of the most prominent recent voices being that of Mariza. In 2006 Simon Broughton did a documentary exploring the roots of the music. Via youtube, here is Mariza and the Story of Fado. [more inside]
Right about now you're thinking, "I have a bad feeling about this..."
Each year in May and June, the Disney Hollywood Studios theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort holds a "Star Wars Weekends" festival. The days conclude with "Snig and Oopla's Hyperspace Hoopla" and Star Wars characters competing against each other in a dance competition. [more inside]
The Elaborate End of Robert Ebb
A man, a woman, a monster costume, gun-toting villagers ... The Elaborate End of Robert Ebb. [more inside]
Dreams of your Life
A brilliant plan.
This is what happens when you take the blue pill *and* the red pill.
Postcards From Google Earth: "I collect Google Earth images. I discovered them by accident, these particularly strange snapshots, where the illusion of a seamless and accurate representation of the Earth’s surface seems to break down. I was Google Earth-ing, when I noticed that a striking number of buildings looked like they were upside down." [more inside]
Format Wars
40 Years of Music Industry Change, In 40 Seconds or Less: A gif showing the revenue contribution from various music formats, 1973-present, based on RIAA figures.
Mother otter teaches baby to swim. (EWISOTT)
In the midst of life I woke to find myself in the East End of London
Spitalfields Life is a blog about an East London neighbourhood. Sometimes it's about the dogs of Spitalfields. Sometimes it's about the wallpapers of Spitalfields. Or the leather shops of Spitalfields. Or people in Spitalfields who collect pictures of dogs. [more inside]
"chance favors only the prepared mind"
"The Art of Observation and How to Master the Crucial Difference Between Observation and Intuition"
Lessons In Mindfulness And Creativity
Lessons In Mindfulness And Creativity
The Best 3D Movie Ever Made!
Starchaser: The Legend Of Orin (trailer) is an animated SF film released in 1985. Presented here in 11 parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Or perhaps you prefer the original 3D, in 13 parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. [more inside]
i am afraid there is only one
Real Dr. Light capsule from the Mega Man X series. A part of Gauntlet Gallery's "Mega Man Boss Battle" exhibit, at which Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune contributes an in-person drawing. [more inside]
U.S. Customs and Patriarchal Protection
Sexism at the border: A personal account. "For me, carrying my own condoms (in purses, wallets, camera bags; everywhere) is a routine act towards safer sex. For someone else with the power to not only deny passage but judge, moralize and intimidate, it has become enough evidence to put a woman through hell. My story has brought a number of women out of the woodwork stating that they have had similar experiences." [h/t Alex Grossman]
The First Honest Cable Company
A Quantum Leap in games reviewing
"This week, I'm a ..." Christopher Livingston (aka notmydesk) plays mundane PC simulations so you don't have to! Read, heart-in-mouth, as he masters the art of Being a Wolf in WolfQuest, treats objects like women as a furniture-fixated Hugh Hefner in Playboy: the Mansion, makes a thrilling escape from the life of a simple cruise ship captain in Ship Simulator: Extremes, disappoints the masses in Circus World, and performs routine adminstrative tasks and dates a cartoon lawyer in the frankly terrifying-sounding Love & Order. [more inside]
Worth scrolling down for the owl
Racial Misprofiling When "Arab" stock photos go terribly wrong (SLTumblr)
So is this, Goodbye steadicam?
The "MōVI" demonstrates why most film vs digital debates are missing the point. An issue explored in recent documentary "Side By Side", that we are past the point of pixel peeping and can pursue fresh paradigms. [more inside]
Night Shade's Deal or No Deal
"I should have known before Night Shade came to me with a deal that things were rotten. Instead, I got an email immediatley upon announcing that I’d inked the deal saying “You know they aren’t paying people, right?” Everything authors knew about the rotten abuse at Night Shade was shared in private. With a few exceptions (Moon and Williams, most notably) no one was talking out loud about what was happening. The SFWA was accomodating and gracious and gave them chance after chance. We should have spoken up. All of us." Kameron Hurley talks about the culture of silence surrounding the problems at Night Shade Books. [more inside]
Chinese landscape painting animation of the 1960s
During the 1960s, the Shanghai Animation Studio (perhaps most famous for their classic interpretation of the Monkey King story,
大闹天宫 "Uproar in Heaven", also called "Havoc in Heaven") produced some beautiful, lyrical short films in a traditional Chinese ink painting style.
Mostly wordless and featuring a mix of Western and traditional Chinese music, many of the films are available on YouTube: [more inside]
A relentless curiosity and desire to move beyond
The World According to John Coltrane is a one-hour documentary, featuring lots of music footage and interviews with prominent jazz musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Tommy Flanagan and many others. It's an excellent primer on the enormously influential saxophonist's life and music.
April 5
North Korea Sets April 10th Deadline
North Korea has warned foreign embassies in Pyongyang that it cannot guarantee their safety from the threat of conflict after 10 April, and has advised them to consider pulling their staff out of the capital. This follows North Korea blocking South Korean Workers from the Kaesong industrial complex - a sign that this might be more material than the usual posturing, warning that a 'moment of explosion' is nearing and moving missiles with "considerable range" to its east coast. Though the US is playing down the threat and the UK and Russia have no plans of moving their diplomats the possibility of an accident or miscalculation leading to war looms. North Korea has earned the reprobation of Russia and Fidel Castro in recent days and even longtime supporter China is beginning to lose patience with it - something some say is not before time.
Not far, but too far to walk: the Forrest Fenn treasure hunt
The Forrest Fenn treasure is described as a bronze chest, approx. 10"x10"x5" and 42 pounds, containing over a million dollars worth of gold, jewels and artifacts, claimed by Mr. Fenn to have been hidden by him somewhere in the Rocky Mountains north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The 82 y.o. long-time Santa Fe art dealer and former U.S. Air Force major decorated for fighter missions over Vietnam has published a memoir, The Thrill of the Chase and a cryptic poem with clues to the chest's location. [more inside]
"The only one used on official world tournaments. Don't settle for less"
"It's become a tradition among Amazon users: Find the stupidest products for sale on the site, and write sarcastically glowing reviews of them. The examples are legendary: the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt, of course, and also Bic for Her pens. Now, the latest idiotic product to get a ceremonial roasting is the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer, a little plastic gizmo that lets you "slice an entire banana with one quick motion." Universally panned as something completely unnecessary, the product is thus being faux-celebrated as a milestone of human invention." [more inside]
£53 a week? Of course we all could! - True grit in politics.
On Monday, the British Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, made a rather rash claim on BBC Radio 4. Hijinks ensue. 'Duncan Smith came under pressure after he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday that he could live on £53 ($81/week) after he was asked about a market trader, David Bennett, who claimed that he had to live on that amount after his housing benefit was cut. "If I had to, I would," Duncan Smith replied." ' from The Guardian. Since then a petition has started challenging him to try it. Petition has gathered 440,133 signatures in 5 days. Original report. There is a secondary petition going: this one is guaranteed to be debated in Parliament if it gets 100,000 signatures. [more inside]
Walt Disney posters from 1924 to present
Thousands of movie posters from the Mouse , from Alice's Day at Sea (March 1, 1924) to Wreck-It-Ralph (November 2, 2012). Includes US and foreign posters, historical and modern versions (the changes in poster design are particularly interesting), trailers and advertising material. The site (in French) covers movies produced under the Disney umbrella (including Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures and Pixar but not Miramax): shorts and feature films, animated and live action movies, classic and less classic works.
Maybe I Can Finally Finish an Episode of AbFab!
Do you find British slang perplexing? Can't get all the way through an entire episode of Absolutely Fabulous or the original Channel 4 Shameless? Maybe this will help.
Buzzfeed's Oral History of Weird Twitter
First Person Shooter
When it hits you, no matter how much you expect it, it comes as a surprise — a literal shock, like a baseball bat swung hard and squarely into the small of your back. That sensation — which is actually two sharp steel barbs piercing your skin and shooting electricity into your central nervous system — is followed by the harshest, most violent charlie horse you can imagine coursing through your entire body. With the pain comes the terrifying awareness that you are completely helpless. You cannot move. You lose control of almost everything and the only place you can go is down, face first to the floor.
That’s what it feels like to be hit with a Taser.
"I will never straighten out my wrist."
A little sunshine on a rainy day...
The Virtual Power Plant: "Critics of renewables have always claimed that sun and wind are only intermittent producers of electricity and need fossil fuel plants as back-up to make them viable. But German engineers have proved this is not so." A pilot program funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment offers a rebuttal to critics who claim renewable energy sources have an insurmountable variability problem.
The remote odds of becoming a professor in humanities...
Getting a literature Ph.D. will turn you into an emotional trainwreck, not a professor. "Who wouldn’t want a job where you only have to work five hours a week, you get summers off, your whole job is reading and talking about books, and you can never be fired? Such is the enviable life of the tenured college literature professor, and all you have to do to get it is earn a Ph.D. So perhaps you, literature lover, are considering pursuing this path.
Well, what if I told you that by 'five hours' I mean '80 hours,' and by 'summers off' I mean 'two months of unpaid research sequestration and curriculum planning'..."
BRRRAAAIIIIINNNNSSSS!!!
Pictures of some brains from the Texas State Mental Hospital. (Not for the squemish.) "I walked into a storage closet filled with approximately one-hundred human brains, none of them normal, taken from patients at the Texas State Mental Hospital. The brains sat in large jars of fluid, each labeled with a date of death or autopsy, a brief description in Latin, and a case number."
What the Third Stream Isn't
In 1957 composer, conductor, and sideman Gunther Schuller defined the Third Stream as "a new genre of music located about halfway between jazz and classical music." He also defined what it was not. [more inside]
New method to produce abundant hydrogen from Virginia Tech scientists.
Does it at low temp (122 deg F) and atmospheric pressue. Uses a normal plant sugar, Xylose, and any quantity of biomass. The trick seems to be a cocktail of enzymes from microorganisms that grow at extreme temperatures such at the boiling point of water.
This is what happens, Larry.
The Year in Hate and Extremism.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre has produced its annual synopsis.
The number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment “Patriot” groups reached an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012, while
the number of hard-core hate groups remained above 1,000.
Via Juan Cole: Congress Obsessed with American Muslims, Neglects real threat of White Supremacists.
The number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment “Patriot” groups reached an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012, while
the number of hard-core hate groups remained above 1,000.
Via Juan Cole: Congress Obsessed with American Muslims, Neglects real threat of White Supremacists.
If only I had a tiger mom or started a fake charity.
Saving Basquiat: Seeing the Art Through the Myth-Making at Gagosian
Saving Basquiat: Seeing the Art Through the Myth-Making at Gagosian
The show is overwhelming and difficult to write about, partly because there doesn’t seem to be any idea behind it at all; the works are hung neither by chronology nor by theme. They are merely a spectacularly impressive collection of largish Basquiats from a number of private collections. In this way, the show replicates the tragedy of this artist’s short and chaotic life, where the feverish buzz of celebrity came to overpower any assessment of the works as individual objects.
a film cobbled together from drafts worked on by at least nine writers
The actors would shove each day's new pages aside unread. Hoskins and Leguizamo swilled scotch together between takes, leading to an on-set accident in which Leguizamo drunkenly crashed a truck and Hoskins broke his hand... When Stayton told Hopper the directors declined to speak to him for the story, the actor responded, "That's the only intelligent thing I've heard that they've really actually done."Hollywood Archaeology: The Super Mario Bros. Movie [more inside]
Yiddish Theatre in London
In this virtual exhibition you can find out more about the people, buildings and plays that made Yiddish theatre in London so special, as well as explore the unique collection of Yiddish theatre photographs, documents and objects held at the Jewish Museum London.
Many a Maester have tried to play the Game of Weather Patterns
As valuable as the paper it was printed on
The Hershberger Award In March of 1973, the National Association of College Basketball Writers awarded The Hershberger Award to the top 15 rookies in the nation. It was never awarded again, and now we know why.
Freedom And Unity
The Creator's Dilemma; Make or Unmake? Which is more satisfying?
In the (slightly twisted) animated short: A Fight for Everyone, we get to see a frustrated Creator dealing with a less than cooperative world. [via]
Home, my Facebook's taking me Home, my Facebook's taking me Home
Facebook announces Facebook Home, a layer of apps for Android that turns your phone into a Facebook hub. The Verge has a review with pictures – they seem to like it. But Om Malik fears that Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy for its users:
So if your phone doesn’t move from a single location between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. for say a week or so, Facebook can quickly deduce the location of your home. Facebook will be able to pinpoint on a map where your home is, whether you share your personal address with the site or not. It can start to build a bigger and better profile of you on its servers. It can start to correlate all of your relationships, all of the places you shop, all of the restaurants you dine in and other such data. The data from accelerometer inside your phone could tell it if you are walking, running or driving. As Zuckerberg said — unlike the iPhone and iOS, Android allows Facebook to do whatever it wants on the platform, and that means accessing the hardware as well.
April 4
Let them eat two dollars a day.
The Implications of Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite (previously) has been hailed as brilliant by many but others, even while enjoying it, have questioned the way the game deploys violence and whether this limits the audience that may otherwise have enjoyed the fascinating narrative put forth by the game.
While not directly implicating the game's violence others have suggested that Bioshock Infinite might be the last of a dying breed (the Triple A, big budget, narrative game) due to the lack luster returns of such fare in the face of cheap, accessible indie and mobile games.
Is forgiveness overrated?
"At one time, knowing that some actions are beneath the valley of the forgivable—the Holocaust, murder, rape, animal cruelty—gave our existence a little structure." In which fashiony-type Simon Doonan rails thoughtfully and rather humorously against our culture's insistence on forgiveness for everything.
Playing With Food
Malaysian artist-architect "Red" Hong Yi creates evocative scenes and playful characters with all-edible materials. She's creating art with a different meal every day until April 7th and posting them on her Instagram site. Examples of Hong's previous work include a coffee-stain portrait of Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou and one of Aung San Suu Kyi using dyed flowers.
MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILHOUSSSSE - BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART
Bartkira is a collaborative effort of several cartoonists to adapt the manga Akira in to the world of The Simpsons. Here are a few panels from artist Cameron Stewart.
I said Goddamn!!!
Gorgeous Portraits of Movie Characters & Classic Shots by Massimo Carnevale [slimgur]
Computers replace grad students
A new software program grades essay answers automatically. While not the first to do so, the program released by EdX is expected to gain more traction as it will be used to give instant feedback for the non-profit's free online courses offered by top universities. Critics have already found ways to game the system.
Carmine Infantino Comic Book Artist RIP
Comic book legend Carmine Infantino has died at the age of 87. Beginning his career in the early 1940's, Infantino created or co-created stalwart DC characters such The Flash, Batgirl, Black Canary, and Deadman. He also served as editorial director at DC, and added artists and writers like Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Denny O'Neill and Bernie Wrightson to the company's roster.
The dark side of the moon
When it first surfaced in 2005, it was hailed as 'the most important Galileo find in more than a century'. Then, in June 2012, news broke on the Ex Libris mailing list that the unique 'proof copy' of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius containing his original drawings of the Moon was in fact a highly sophisticated forgery. The full story is still unclear, but the finger of suspicion points at Marino Massimo de Caro, who in his brief reign as director of the Girolamini Library in Naples removed thousands of rare books in what has been described as a 'premeditated, organised and brutal' sacking of the library. Meanwhile, experts are still marvelling at the quality of the forgery: "We’ve seen missing pages replaced in facsimile, but no one dreamed that an entire book could be forged, something that is now more easily possible because of modern technology."
Abuela, did you ever figure out how to stay in love?
I have found the spoken word poetry of Denice Frohman. I bring her to you. She's from NYC and works in Philadelphia.
The first performance I stumbled on was Dear Straight People from her preliminary performance at Women of the World Poetry Slam 2013. Weapons, also from this year's Women of the World. She won the championship. This is the finals. The editing is terrible, but she comes on at 7:16. And the other ladies are also awesome. [more inside]
Time Spent With Cats is Never Wasted
"When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not passing time with me rather than I with her?" Russian photographer
Andy Prokh has captured adorable photos of his daughter Catherine who grew up with their gray British Shorthair cat.
Home Movie of Walt Disney Playing with a Model Train in 1948
Ward Kimball's home movie footage of Walt Disney playing with a backyard scale model railroad in 1948.
You don't realize it, but we're at dinner right now.
Meetup and beat up
Seriously, KRS-ONE and Rockapella in the same half-hour.
Having already taken on the dreaded Temple Run, Jon Bois turns his nostalgic criticism to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and the nearly-impossible Africa Map.
Just keep swimming
Ellen DeGeneres announces the making of a sequel to 2003's Finding Nemo. The movie, titled Finding Dory, is scheduled for release on Thanksgiving 2015.
Sympathy for the Cabbie
Boston taxi cab drivers, often cheated, work in a world where risk and reward are a mismatch. [more inside]
Tax-haven-gate
ICIJ has 2.5 million files from over 120,000 offshore legal entities covering 30 years of emails and financial records from from 10 offshore tax havens.. [more inside]
The Llama Stares Back
Is the "New Atheism" movement Islamophobic?
Glenn Greenwald thinks so. Noted atheist Sam Harris recently made some inflammatory comments about Islam and Muslims in his twitter feed. This is not a new development. Is this a defining characteristic of New Atheism?
The Caged Bird Sang
In 1957, famed studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, along with percussionist Al Bello, recorded Miss Calypso, featuring a young singer named Maya Angelou. [more inside]
Tolstoy, the Circassians, and Lincoln
"But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest general and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know something about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock and as sweet as the fragrance of roses. The angels appeared to his mother and predicted that the son whom she would conceive would become the greatest the stars had ever seen. He was so great that he even forgave the crimes of his greatest enemies and shook brotherly hands with those who had plotted against his life. His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived..." [more inside]
...with numbers like these — why would women want to work in games?
"The next time someone tells me that men and women get paid equally for their talents in the game industry, I wanted something to link to them." [via]
AppleSoft BASIC in JavaScript
AppleSoft BASIC in JavaScript. If you ever fiddled with AppleSoft BASIC back in the day, get ready for some serious nostalgia.
"Rule 1: Truth and Falsity Do Not Matter"
Frequently dismissed as trivial or unimportant because untrue, rumors are a potent in the information war that characterizes contemporary conflicts, and they participate in significant ways in the struggle for the consent of the governed. As narrative forms, rumors are suitable to a wide range of political expression, from citizens, insurgents, and governments alike. The authors make a compelling argument for understanding rumors in these contexts as "narrative IEDs," low-cost, low-tech weapons that can successfully counter elaborate and expansive government initiatives of outreach campaigns or strategic communication efforts.Narrative Landmines - The Explosive Effects of Rumors in Syria and Insurgencies Around the World [more inside]
“I don't paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.”
After being locked away for decades, Frida Kahlo's dresses are now on display at her home-turned-museum, La Casa Azul, in Mexico City. Las apariencias engañan: los vestidos de Frida Kahlo ("Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo") features more than 300 dresses -- compete with paint stains and lingering cigarette smells -- as well as shoes, jewelry, and other accessories. The collection is a testament to her unique and influential style, so often seen in her self-portraits; the corsets, leg immobilizers and prostheses reveal the pain she suffered throughout her life. [more inside]
In mathematics we trust.
Shark Tooth Swords
Badass Shark Teeth Weapons Hint at Shadow Diversity Josh Drew and colleagues have published a report in PLOS ONE wherein he shows that the people of the Gilbert Islands make really cool weapons that can tell us about the shark biodiversity the used to exist. Original paper here
The dance of urban life goes on
The adventures of Wonderdick, Toronto's beloved urbanist blogger as he explores the miracles of North America's most exciting and largest metropolitian landscape (outside the USA or Mexico), now available at Cartoon Machine. Also available, the hilarious hijinks of Pair Bond, a twentysomething couple caught in the grip of a dying relationship, and the Time Professor, sending his young assistant on a murder spree through history to save the future, or so he says. All from the febrile brain of Mike Winters, who occassionally also does more serious comics about the grim struggle in in 1942 between von Paulus 6th Army and the courageous Russian defenders of his beloved hometown, Edmonton.
April 3
The Story of the Turban
The Story of the Turban (slyt) is a 38 minute documentary on the history of the Sikh community in 20th century Britain as embodied by the struggle to be allowed to wear the turban in all walks of life.
"Onze helden zijn terug!"
On April 13, the Rijksmuseum will reopen to the public after a renovation and makeover that took five years longer than expected and went tens of millions of dollars over budget. The museum's most famous painting was also one of the last to be restored to its original location: Rembrandt's "The Night Watch". Sponsor ING Bank celebrated with a unique and special flashmob. [more inside]
MOOCs of Hazard
Will online education dampen the college experience? Yes. Will it be worth it? Well... [more inside]
Fooood In Spaaaaaace
NASA's Space Food Hall of Fame
Today's space food has come a long way since the Mercury Program of the early 1960s. When John Glenn first tried apple sauce from a squeeze tube onboard his Friendship 7 spacecraft in 1962, who could have dreamed that later astronauts would be able to choose from such a wide variety of foods?See also: Food in Space: Great Photos of Astronaut Meals, from the Early Space Voyages to Today, on io9. [more inside]
Take a Left off WebKit onto Blink
Google is forking WebKit. WebKit was a fork of KHTML and now Google is creating a new fork called Blink. Opera will contribute to it and use it too. Vendor specific prefixes will no longer be supported.
Antimatter. It's out there.
A number of headlines have proclaimed the detection of "dark matter" today, but Science News has a more measured take.
What we do know is that the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer riding aboard the ISS has detected positrons at high energy. Some theorists suggests that dark matter collisions would generate these positrons, but dark matter annihilation should also produce antiprotons, gamma rays and radio waves, which have not yet been observed. Since dark matter is suspected to account for far more of the universe than ordinary matter, the AMS data is a tantalizing hint of what we might learn.
Jim Morrison, fat activist
"It’s terrible to be thin and wispy, because, you know, because you could get knocked over by a strong wind or something, man." Via Dangerous Minds. [more inside]
It's not going to do any good to land on Mars if we're stupid.
Starlog Magazine
"Thank you for being the best readers any film critic could ask for."
Roger Ebert has announced that he has had a recurrence of cancer and will be taking a partial hiatus from reviewing while he undergoes treatment. Ebert, who lost the ability to speak and eat to cancer in 2006, filed a career-record 306 reviews in 2012. The news comes as Ebert plans to revamp his website and is considering a Kickstarter campaign to bring back his iconic show At the Movies. A documentary about Ebert directed by Steve James and executive produced by Martin Scorsese is currently in production.
Welcome to Night Vale: Vigilant Citizen article coming soon?
Ever watch one of those shows set in a town with odd happenings (ie, Gravity Falls, Eureka, Twin Peaks), and wish you could listen to their community AM radio station?
Welcome to Nightvale [Podcast] has you covered. [more inside]
Dunkirk in Manhattan: the 9/11 boat evacuations
The 12-minute 2011 documentary "Boat Lift: An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience", vividly depicts one of the lesser-known aspects of September 11th: the evacuation by water of over 500,000 people, and the largest evacuation by water in history.
Abort Guidance System? There's a manual for that!
How to set a bar on fire.
Caldera
Caldera. "Through the eyes of a young girl suffering from mental illness, CALDERA glimpses into a world of psychosis and explores a world of ambiguous reality and the nature of life and death." [Via]
"This is me flirting. I know I'm doomed."
Viking Knitting: It's not just for Vikings anymore!
The Vikings, pillagers and plunderers that they were, were the possessors of quite a bit of metal that needed to be used in some way. So they made jewelry. By the 8th century they had created a technique that is called trichinopoly or more commonly "Viking knitting", although it is really a type of weaving. If the Viking style of adornment appeals to you, you can learn this technique and make your own Viking-style jewelry. It's less complicated than it looks, and you don't even have to know how to knit in order to learn. You can learn to make a necklace or bracelet like this with this tutorial, or by watching a YouTube video. Once you master the basic technique, you'll be able to start improvising by adding beads and findings and semi-precious stones. It's possible that such jewelry was used as currency on those occasions when the Vikings actually paid for their acquisitions, like some sort of wearable bank account. Ostentatious types, those Vikings, but I suppose when you're known for your ferocity and lawlessness, you don't have to fear being mugged or looking nouveau riche.
LucasArts RIP
Game Informer has learned that Disney is closing its LucasArts game publishing subsidiary. [more inside]
Join the merchant navy and transport people for a living
A ro-ro ferry briefly "docks" at the island of Kimolos. Video. Everyone, and everything gets soaked.
The Glorious Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is dead. RIP
RT @bijli Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the German-born screenwriter and novelist who, as the writing member of the Merchant Ivory filmmaking team, won two Academy Awards for adaptations of genteel, class-conscious E. M. Forster novels, died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 85. Her 1975 novel, “Heat and Dust,” about an Englishwoman exploring a family scandal in India, received the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s highest literary honor. She wrote the screenplay for the Merchant Ivory version in 1983 as well. New York Times obit
"Where is the moon?" "Right straight ahead of you, John."
Distractions in Space: Because astronauts also have problems with directions, coworkers, and poop.
To Boldly Design....
Artist/designer Shepard Fairey was commissioned the Center For The Advancement Of Science In Space to design a brand new patch for the International Space Station's ARK 1 (Advancing Researching Knowledge) mission. CASIS's Pat O'Neill unveiling the patch and the ARK 1 proposal.
Metropolitan-Statistical Madness
Which of these two cities is bigger? The Census bureau has a quiz to see how well you know the relative sizes of the 64 largest metropolitan areas in the US, March Madness style. [more inside]
o
Rutgers Fires Basketball Coach After Video Goes Public: [New York Times] Rutgers fired Mike Rice, the coach of its men’s basketball team, on Wednesday, a day after a video [ESPN] surfaced showing him berating his players during practices, throwing balls at them, kicking them and taunting them with slurs.
45 years ago, the future visited us...
The stewardess who retrieved a sleeping passenger's floating pen. The man in the ape suit who howled at the monolith. Arthur C. Clarke, recalling how he thought Stanley Kubrick was wrong, back in the day, about HAL being able to read lips, but later, aware that computers were developing such ability, admitting that he had been wrong. This and much more in The Making of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Meanwhile, from Douglas Trumbull, here's Creating Special Effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey. And here, full to bursting with interesting info, is the IMDb trivia page for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Why all this? Well, it's in honor of the 45th anniversary of the film's world premiere. Thank you for the masterpiece, Mr. Kubrick.
Buttoning Up Up and Away!
Fully Dressed Redesigns of Superheroines. Artist Mike Lunsford redesigns several prominent superheroines' costumes to show a lot less skin while retaining the feel of their original outfits.
A German Shephard, a suit, a jar of peanut butter, a spoon, and laughter
Galaxies are quite big.
Boom!
PANDA TACKLE!! [slyt]
Writers, rebels and diarists, remember rule #1: buy low, sell high.
The Italian producer of the restarted Moleskine notebooks has taken the company public. The IPO is being managed by Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, and UBS.
He is interested in confusion
‘I am a phantasmagoric maximalist. I like things to be overwhelmingly strange and capacitous. I want what I write to live; it isn’t about something, it is something’— Michael Cisco. [more inside]
"Usually we don't hit anybody"
"Chinese citizens can file petitions about their grievance with so-called letters and visits offices of various levels of government organs and courts, a mechanism set up in the 1950s. Under the current system, the number of petitions filed during an official's tenure is used as a yardstick for performance evaluation, prompting local governments to use every means possible to stop petitioners and shuffle them home. It has become an open secret that local governments hire "black guards" in the capital to stop petitioners from filing a grievance, thus reducing the number of petitions that are recorded." -- A day in the life of a Beijing "black guard".
Turn the wheel and look to windward
Two of our finest authors, humanist and government critic, Iain [M] Banks is dying of cancer. His next novel will be his last. His books are a source of inspiration and joy for me and many other mefites.
April 2
Tell 'em Big Bertha sent ya!
Meet Bertha, the world's largest underground tunnel boring machine that will soon begin digging a controversial roadway underneath downtown Seattle, similar to Boston's Big Dig
Watching the Lights Go Out
I have Alzheimer's disease.[more inside]
I’ve probably had it for about two years, but it’s still pretty early in the illness. Most other people don’t notice my illness yet, although my memory is starting to move from a normal “bad memory” that lots of older people have to an abnormal “there’s-something-wrong-with-his-memory.” I don’t feel abnormal, at least not yet. But, in addition to the memory problem, I’m certainly slowing down. As a retired physician who hass seen his share of mentally declining patients, I know what’s most likely in store as the disease gets worse: A long, progressive mental decline (to the point, for instance, where I don’t recognize my family), nursing home care, and early death from complications of the disease. I’m writing because it may be helpful for people to know what one person’s process is like from inside the diseased mind....
If you take this podcast as a joke you'll have to restart life
H7N9: The next pandemic?
Is this a pandemic being born? [Google cache] The H7N9 (Bird) Flu Virus May Have Adapted To Mammals. The WHO is investigating. Four new human cases were identified late Tuesday.
Cleric walks through misty gateway; never seen again.
Hungry for Education
Though reducing hunger in school children has been proven to lead to a "significant increase in educational opportunity and attainment", the Tennessee state legislature believes they have a better plan to improve the performance of underprivileged students: a 30 percent reduction in "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" benefits to parents whose children are not making satisfactory progress in school.
"I couldn't afford for Carpentersville to become Detroit"
Tom Roeser was unhappy about the decline of his town, Carpentersville, IL. So he decided to do something about it. Roeser bought some foreclosed properties, renovated them, and then rented them out for below market value.
Jane Henson 1934-2013
On the passing of Jane Nebel Henson, who was, as this piece from a Muppets fansite explains, more than Jim's widow, she was the original Second Muppeteer. [more inside]
Medical Gatekeeping
Weight x Distance = Flight Cost.
Your Favorite Film
The Criticwire Survey: Overrated Masterpieces. Badlands... La Dolce Vita... 8 1/2... The Godfather... Star Wars... Citizen Kane... Taxi Driver... ... [more inside]
7% of voters think the moon landing was faked
On our national poll this week we took the opportunity to poll 20 widespread and/or infamous conspiracy theories. Many of these theories are well known to the public, others perhaps to just the darker corners of the internet.
(Previously)
How will they fill their above-ground pools and wash their TruckNutz?
Graveyard of the Peaches An Army Ranger and Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations draws up a battle plan in light of Georgia's plan to attempt to claim part of Tennessee, in order to get access to vital water from the Tennessee River and undo a 1818 surveying error.
How I Learned to Stop Debunking and Love My Inner Psychic Ability
Amaze your friends! Befuddle your enemies! Impress the miserly old woman you've been crushing on! Ray Hyman's 1977 Cold Reading: How to Convince Strangers That You Know All About Them [more inside]
Yet another reason books are awesome.....as if we needed one.
Mining books to map emotions through a century. Emotion words aren't consistently used through time, it seems. Things got scary in the 80's.
Bullseye from 1,000 yards: Shooting the $17,000 Linux-powered rifle:
Seems like someone has invented the aim-assist. "Steve has just delivered a .338 Lapua Magnum round directly onto a
target about the size of a big dinner plate at a range of 1,008 yards.that's
ten football fields, or a tick over 0.91 kilometers.
It's his very first try. He has never fired a rifle before today."
As a leftover, the soup was equally good without the croutons.
Times Haiku Not every haiku our computer finds is a good one. The algorithm discards some potential poems if they are awkwardly constructed and it does not scan articles covering sensitive topics. Furthermore, the machine has no aesthetic sense. It can't distinguish between an elegant verse and a plodding one. But, when it does stumble across something beautiful or funny or just a gem of a haiku, human journalists select it and post it on this blog.
I pressed the irony control, and around me halftone dots filled the sky
I feel that cinema should be like a box of surprises, like a magic box
RIP Jesús 'Jess' Franco, the prolific Spanish horror and exploitation writer and director of films such as Vampyros Lesbos and The Awful Dr. Orloff who was once condemned by the Vatican as one of the most dangerous filmmakers in the world. [more inside]
________________________
Smooth pickin' and sweet harmonizin'
Friends, neighbors, let's drop in on ol' Don Reno, Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cut Ups for a heapin' helpin' of some of that good old time country/bluegrass goodness, shall we? What say we kick it off with their fine rendition of Love Please Come Home? Mmm-MMM, so satisfying! You know, the boys had their own lil' ol' TV show, too, brought to you by the fine folks over at your local Kroger grocery store, and I'll just bet you'd like to watch the pilot episode, now, wouldn't you? Well, here's Part one, and there's... [more inside]
Lots of group sex means you're a people-person
Iterated learning using YouTube
"What happens if you repeatedly run Kafka's Metamorphosis through YouTube's auto-transcription? Structure emerges!" via Sean Roberts
The Psychology of Apology
Apologies function as a social lubricant. They smooth hurt feelings and make interactions easier. So why is it so difficult to say "I'm sorry"? It turns out there may be psychological benefits from refusing to apologize.
Mmm. Crickets.
Anarchist Dating Advice
Political Identification: communist"Dear Bloody Red Heart, Always remember that information is power, and functions as such." [more inside]
Your problem: I have recently started seeing a communist woman, and I really like her, but my problem is that I still have overwhelmingly strong feelings for the communist woman I had a thing with in the summer, and who has gone to fight the good fight in other lands. Should I tell the comrade I’m currently seeing about my divided affections? As we are not yet in full communism, I fear I may not have enough to go round… From: Bloody Red Heart"
A pervasive and pernicious notion says you!
House MetaFilter: ?
In honor of season three, Caldwell Tanner at College Humor made banners for the great houses of the Internet. [more inside]
Reading? Ain't Nobody Got Time That!
If the bird is the word, three must be the number. Do you feel you don't have time to read everything you want? What about establishing some ground rules?
Then Play Long
Marcello Carlin and Lena Friesen review every UK number one album so that you might want to hear it, starting in July 1956 with Frank Sinatra's Songs For Swingin' Lovers (reviewed August 2008) and so far ending up in September 1981 with Genesis' Abacab (March 2013).
April 1
The hottest prospect in Mets history is a lifelong Cubs fan
"I called Joe," Stewart remembers, "and asked if he wanted to come to spring training with me. I said, 'The Mets have this pitcher they picked up. They got him pitching in secret, under a big tarp. He has a 168 mile an hour fastball and he plays the French horn and went to Harvard and he was raised in Tibet by Buddhist monks and he pitches with one foot bare and one foot in a boot. And guess what? You're going to be him.'" [more inside]
Escape From The Planet Of The Pink Monkey Birds
Ronan the sea lion gits down to Boogie Wonderland
Ronan keeping the beat | Sea Lion is First Non-Human Mammal to Keep a Beat | Study done at the Pinniped Cognition & Sensory Systems Laboratory.
The Dapper Rebels of Los Angeles, 1966
In the summer of 1965, riots broke out in the Watts neighborhood of southern Los Angeles. Over a six-day period, 34 people were killed, 1,032 injured and over 3,438 arrests were made. In 1966, LIFE magazine revisited the site of the worst riots America had ever seen in its history. The photo essay depicting the region’s ‘fearsome street gangs’ however, turned out more like a fashion shoot for dapper style… [more inside]
They could be talking smack about seals
For this April the first, NPR has a touching story on the efforts to record the stories of retired Navy dolphins.
YouTube, and perhaps the greatest online April Fools ever
It's finally time to pick the winner… and we're 10 hours in. Earlier today, YouTube declared that it is finally time to pick a winner with the service shutting down at midnight upon declaring the winner. YouTube has been livestreaming the nominee ceremony for 10 hours now. [more inside]
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears
Recently on BBC America they have been running a promo for the upcoming second season of Copper featuring a compelling cover of Hard Times Come Again No More, a song written more than 150 years ago by the "father of American music" Stephen Foster. If you don't recognize the name, you will certainly recognize his work - "... he virtually invented popular music as we recognize it today ..." reads his bio, and that is not an exaggeration. "Camptown Races", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" -- just a quick scan through this list of his more than 200 songs and you will soon realize that when you think of traditional American folk music, you are probably thinking of Stephen Foster. [more inside]
The forgotten story of a dramatic imperial adventure
As a companion to his fascinating Raffles and the British Invasion of Java, Tim Hannigan has a blog — Footnotes and Sidelights from the Story of the British Interregnum in Java, wherein he shares interesting stories that could not find space in the published book. [more inside]
WHAT IS
What is the Internet anyway? What is Internet, anyway? What is the Internet?
What is the Internet, really? [more inside]
Pluck
Prior to their southward migration, the godwits eat up large, until up to 55 per cent of their body weight is fat. They then reduce the size of their gut, kidney and liver by up to 25 per cent to compensate for the added weight. Godwits are amazing migratory shorebirds who travel many thousands of miles at a go. Here's a brief documentary of people studying them (12 minutes on youtube + ad, shows invasive surgery). Here's some science on their flights (creative commons). [more inside]
The average human vagina
You can't ground Spiderman!
Josh Keaton, the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man from 2007-09 for the TV series The Spectacular Spiderman reads a whole bunch of 60s Spider-Man Image Macros (Bleeped Audio) (Know Your Meme - video)
You've always wanted to know who it was...
Press the Power Button!
The Power Button is the podcast from Press the Buttons, a site about gaming that's run by one man, Matthew Green, but has such extremely professional standards that you'd never know it apart from the tag line. Contained within are several interesting regular themes, like Beyond Beeps that covers early video game music which is actually quite good despite the beepy-ness, and Secret Origins relating personal and remarkably interesting stories concerning when and how he obtained various games, really. The latest entry is about him proposing to his girlfriend. There's a new weekly poll approximately every Monday, and articles like Open Up The Zelda Box about unique and interesting things that you don't see on a day to day news site. In the podcast, he talks with a couple co-hosts and occasionally has guests. Here are some of the more interesting episodes … [more inside]
Louis Kahn: the brick whisperer
"Inspired by ruins, DNA and primary geometry, Louis Kahn was one of the 20th century's most influential architects. Why isn't he more famous? Oliver Wainwright on the life and legacy of a man who died bankrupt" ~ The Guardian
There’s no sound like it.
Every Day We Are Dying and Outer Space Does Not Give One Single Fuck, a 60 minute ambient piano suite by Jared Brickman of One Hello World. [more inside]
Snitches get lines and have to stay behind after school
Until Jackie Parks, Georgia state investigator Richard Hyde had never tried to flip an elementary school teacher. Ms. Parks admitted to Mr. Hyde that she was one of seven teachers — nicknamed “the chosen” — who sat in a locked windowless room every afternoon during the week of state testing, raising students’ scores by erasing wrong answers and making them right. She then agreed to wear a hidden electronic wire to school, and for weeks she secretly recorded the conversations of her fellow teachers for Mr. Hyde.
I have no idea how these people got their cats into their porn, or why.
Indifferent cats in amateur porn. [SLTumblr, NSFW]
Not So Evergreen
"India's supreme court has ruled against Swiss drug giant Novartis in a landmark case that activists say will protect access to cheap generic drugs in developing nations." [more inside]
Magnus Carlsen will play Vishy Anand for the 2013 World Chess Tournament
Magnus Carlsen will be playing Viswanathan Anand for the 2013 World Chess Championship. [more inside]
You Win Fights By Being More Willing to Permanently F-Up The Other Guy*
"I would advise you when You do fight Not to act like Tygers and Bears as these Virginians do - Biting one anothers Lips and Noses off, and gowging one another - that is, thrusting out one anothers Eyes, and kicking one another on the Cods, to the Great damage of many a Poor Woman." Thus, Charles Woodmason, an itinerant Anglican minister born of English gentry stock, described the brutal form of combat he found in the Virginia backcountry shortly before the American Revolution. Although historians are more likely to study people thinking, governing, worshiping, or working, how men fight -- who participates, who observes, which rules are followed, what is at stake, what tactics are allowed - reveals much about past cultures and societies."Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch" The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry [more inside]
What's the secret to a happy marriage?
Anyone who tells you their rules for a happy marriage doesn't have one.
"Marriages are made of lust, laughter and loyalty - but the three have to be kept in constant passage, so that as one subsides for a time, the others rise”
"Marriages are made of lust, laughter and loyalty - but the three have to be kept in constant passage, so that as one subsides for a time, the others rise”
The legendary giant of free jazz
Stockholm syndrome
The Meme Hustler
"The enduring emptiness of our technology debates has one main cause, and his name is Tim O’Reilly." (Evgeny Morozov, for The Baffler)
The Gleaners Kitchen
Tufts University senior Maximus Thaler is raising funds to start a Freegan, pay what you can restaurant out of a Somerville, MA apartment. Food for the restaurant comes from local dumpsters.
It was bound to happen sooner or later.
It was as if older cats didn't even care.
Mobile Usability for Cats: Essential Design Principles for Felines. "Even the simplest video of a cat using an iPad app easily gathers millions of viewers. Bowing to this takeover, our clients are increasingly asking us, 'How can we improve our site or app for cats?' With their lack of opposable thumbs and ever-shifting focus, cats are certainly a challenging target audience." [more inside]
DENIED!
Open source pictures to liven up any website
The Dutch National Archive (Nationaal Archief) can trace its history back to 1802. It's main task is to maintain governmental archives of the Dutch rijksoverheid and its predecessors, as well as similar archives from the province of Zuid-Holland. It also maintains several other collections from non-governmental institutions like the Dutch football association and the Spaarnestad photo collection. Through its work it has amassed a vast pictorial database, parts of which have now been opened up to the public through its own website as well as their Flickr photostreams. [more inside]