June 2008 Archives
June 30
Viking invasion ends
Viking invasion ends as longship sails home. The Sea Stallion From Glendalough, a replica Viking longboat (previously), is returning to Denmark.
It's Spock's illusions I recall
Leonard Nimoy ruins Joni Mitchell. Johnny Cash redeems Gordon Lightfoot. The Donnas render Men Without Hats ever so slightly less ridiculous. The CBC assembles a list of great (and sub-great) covers of Canadian songs. And a happy Canada Day to you.
The record shows I took the blows -- And did it MYYYYYYY WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!
Red Karaoke is a free social network for music lovers, offering more than 14,000 songs for karaoke enthusiasts, and tools that enable users to record their own video and audio files.
June 30th, June 30th
30 years ago, Richard Brautigan's last collection of poems, June 30th, June 30th, was published. [more inside]
"Of course, neither Simon nor Garfunkle has been identified as a Nautical Expert"
Chief Justice Roberts (mis)quotes Bob Dylan* in his dissent on Sprint Communications Co. v. APCC Services, Inc., making this the first known time that a Supreme Court Opinion has used a "rock song to buttress legal opinion," according to Alex B. Long of the University of Tennessee. Mr. Long knows a thing or two about this**, having authored [Insert Song Lyrics Here]***, a Washington & Lee Law review Article on the subject of Pop Music in legal writing. The article is funny†, insightful, comprehensive in its musical background††, and surprisingly knowledgeable about good taste in writing.††† [more inside]
The best selling Fitness Author and how he got there.
Most people have heard of Body for Life. Do you know about the guy behind it, Mr. Big? [more inside]
A quarter century in black and white.
Joseph Szabo has been photographing his teenage students for the past twenty-five years, and has perfectly captured the ambivalence of that time of life. Samples from his books: Almost Grown, Jones Beach, Teenage, and Rolling Stones Fans.
Soft Science
If you like those giant plush microbes but maybe they're a little too life-sciencey for ya, perhaps you would like The Particle Zoo instead.
mmmm, bacon
"Meat Vision" allows Bacon Boy to propel sausages and corn dogs out of his eye sockets - A young man's art therapy produced a hero, Bacon Boy, and has been chosen by the Tacoma Museum of Glass as part of a traveling exhibit, "Kids Design Glass". [more inside]
A new jug ships clean
Wal-mart/Sam's Club and Costco are in the process of switching to a re-designed milk jug. [more inside]
Look, you work your side of the street, and I'll work mine.
Journal of Footballing History
The Journal of Footballing History is a scholarly journal about the history of football (soccer) all over the world. You need to register (or "subscribe" as JOFH calls it) but it's free. Gloriously, gloriously free. After you've subscribed you can enjoy articles on matters such as France's footballing culture, a back and forth about the state of African football, a pair of articles about Euro 2000 and what England's dismal failure at that European Championships tells us about the national side and on shooting from free kicks. There are also short histories of kits, boots, passing and squads and a book review section.
Jerzy Duda-Gracz
I'll bet if you aren't Polish you've never heard of Jerzy Duda-Gracz. Poor guy doesn't even have an English Wikipedia page [pl], even though he's the most popular post-war painter [pl] in his homeland. Come inside to see some of his work. [more inside]
Just a Spoonful of Ducats
Please take your meds. Here's some cell minutes if you do. Or hmm, how about a chance for $10 or $100 if you take your meds? No? Well fine - it's your funeral, and then maybe we can just give you a lil somethin to take those organs off your hands. [more inside]
Religion scholars of Judas "feel, in a word, betrayed."
Did a 'dream team' of biblical scholars mislead millions? [Chronicle of Higher Education] You may recall the curfuffle over the gnostic "Gospel of Judas" (previously). The National Geographic's documentary premiere "attracted four million viewers, making it the second-highest-rated program in the channel's history, behind only a documentary on September 11. . . . However, it's a perfect example, critics argue, of what can happen when commercial considerations are allowed to ride roughshod over careful research. What's more, the controversy has strained friendships in this small community of religion scholars — causing some on both sides of the argument to feel, in a word, betrayed."
What Does a Bear Really Do In the Woods?
Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project ― the grizzly bear has had a threatened status for more than 30 years now. Several zones have been established in the northwestern U.S. and Canada to monitor recovery. Kate Kendall of the USGS led a project to investigate recovery through DNA monitoring of the bears. Since the funds dried up, Kate and her team have used remote cameras to capture some interesting footage of bears and other wildlife.
Synchronicity
Gene Weingarten, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his story on Joshua Bell's busking stunt in a D.C. subway station, tells the story of an earlier busker performing in similar circumstances. With a spooky surprise ending: [more inside]
The Fabled Pyramid
Jesse van Dijk paints fantasy and science-fiction scenes. Some of these paintings include a little shot of narrative about the astonishing imagined worlds they depict. His work has appeared in a mediocre PSP game and won a Gnoman Workshop challenge. Mr. van Dijik does his thing with Photoshop, and this is how he does it.
¡Atención!", "1234567890"
Find a short wave radio and before long you should be able to tune into The Lincolnshire Poacher - the station plays an introduction comprising part of the eponymous folk tune followed by a robotic female voice reading strings of numbers: listen! So called Numbers Stations have been a mysterious constant of short wave radio for several decades. The Conet Project [previously 1, 2, 3] has made a collection of the recordings available allowing you to listen to "Ready! Ready! 15728", "The Buzzer" (especially mysterious), "Gong Station Chimes", "Magnetic Fields" and many others.... [more inside]
Gone, like a train...
Poison pen
June 29
Nobody knows Emperors and Queens more intimately
Pictures of 100 poems by 100 poets, explained by a Wet Nurse - Hokusai's pictures describe what the poems do in the head of a wet nurse. With high resolution scans.
Shall We Play a Game?
Secret moves against Iran
Police State, take one step forward.
Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for "suspicious activity" — and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.
The Black Godfather
Agile Mobile Hostile [ Mov. file]
A year with Andre Williams the documentary. The wiki entry, some clips from the film. [more inside]
Mighty mouse conquers cancer
1999: Researchers at Wake Forest University discover an incredible oddity: a mouse resistant to many forms of cancer. The resistance is found to be inherited (Pubmed link). 2006: They show that cancer resistance can be transferred (Pubmed link) to non-resistant mice. 2008: They've found that the resistance is mediated through blood cells called granulocytes, and that some humans potentially have the same ability to resist cancer. Now they need your help. [more inside]
"I was walking down the street; something caught my eye... and dragged it fifteen feet."
The original Emo. Wikipedia states that much of Emo Philips' standup comedy "stems from the use of paraprosdokians and garden path sentences." And, while there are plenty of quotes to support this, it doesn't quite do justice to the man who wrote the best God joke ever--it's in the way he delivers these lines. Experience true Emo here, through these links which I like to call, "Audio and Video Clips from Emo Philips' Website." [more inside]
Anger Management Gas Station
"Your anger just earned you a car wash, ma'am." Gas prices in California are hovering around an upsetting $4.58 per gallon. One gas station in the Bay Area is offering stress relief: a chance to dunk a Shell employee and an Express Rant for an Express car wash. The owner, Bobak Bakhtiari, tells NPR: “Cashiers are trained to really encourage all forms of expression during the rant. Well, except for throwing a chair through the window.”
"All he ever talked about was building that vestibule for his maw"
Low Plains Drifter is an award-winning short film featuring artistically photographed 8" custom and kitbashed action figures in painstakingly crafted scale sets. It's the first of a series of Wee Westerns, the latest project from Jason DeWitt, a man who believes very strongly that toys are for playing.
Righteous among the Peoples
In March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied its ally Hungary and immediately began preparing the extermination of Hungary's Jews. A small band of diplomats from neutral countries and the Red Cross put their lives at risk to try to smuggle as many Jews as possible out of Hungary from under Adolf Eichmann's nose. While Raoul Wallenberg remains the best known of these "Righteous among the Nations", there's no doubt that the most intriguing character was Giorgio "Jorge" Perlasca. [more inside]
Spain - 2008 European football Champions.
Tracking, and now mapping, the entire world.
Remember They Rule, the now-stale site from 2004 that mapped connections between executives and corporate boards? OK, now remember NNDB, the constantly updated collection of unsubstantiated dossiers on "Notable Names" of all sorts? Behold the NNDB Mapper; a They Rule-like visualization tool that integrates the entire database of people and connections. It's fun for conspiracy theorists, gossip hounds and political junkies alike. [more inside]
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Joss Whedon's latest project is a family affair. Seems that Mr. Whedon got a little bored during the writer's strike and called up some friends and family to help him make a low-budget web-series:
The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. Featuring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, Felicia Day as Penny and a cast of dozens. Written by Joss Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Zack Whedon. Directed by Joss Whedon. Produced by David Burns, Michael Boretz, and Joss Whedon. Music by Joss Whedon and Jed Whedon. Lyrics by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen. Score and Orchestration by Jed Whedon.Make sure to watch the trailer, and read Joss' announcement. And if you're so inclined, there's an official MySpace page, and a fan page.
CDN military to gays: Join us!
Canadian military to gays: Join us! They're even setting up recruiting booths at Gay Pride events (when they are allowed) Note that CBC moderators deleted some of the comments on that first link, but you get a hunch on what they said from the other comments. You may also have heard about two gay soldiers who wed on a military base.
night people vs. day people
Jean Shepherd has been mentioned before but WFMU's Beware of the Blog has finally dug out an mp3 of Shepherd himself telling the story of "I, Libertine" (mp3 link) (wiki). I, Libertine was a literary hoax that began as a practical joke. Shepherd asked his listeners ("the Night People") to go into bookstores and ask for a book that didn't exist. Fueled by bewildered bookstore owners and distributors, I, Libertine eventually did end up as a genuine bestseller, proving his point that the process of choosing bestsellers was flawed.
Nazigarten
Fancy a little story?
On this page
you can make a choice
out of several little stories
in different languages.
Most of them however can be enjoyed without speaking the used language.
you can make a choice
out of several little stories
in different languages.
Most of them however can be enjoyed without speaking the used language.
A History of Techno
The 25 Greatest Electronic Albums of the 20th Century. From the instrument that was created by Leon Theremin, to the Moog Guitar that's been named after the legendary Bob Moog (the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer), Electronic music has come a long way since its early days. YouTube [a, b, (extreme caution advised: graphic images of death, destruction and 9/11 c), d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y] (Previously mentioned here, here, here, here, here and here)
El tango del siglo XXI
Killing The Indian In The Child
Canada has apologised for forcing more than 100,000 aboriginal children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools aimed at assimilating them. Controversial former Minister Kevin Annett has written two books on the subject of residential school abuse in Canada [Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust and Love and Death in the Valley]. Unrepentant - Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide reveals Canada’s darkest secret - that the Canadian residential school system, the Christian churches along with state authorities implemented a policy of genocide against Canada's native population. Related: Deliver Us From Evil
The political-economy perspective on women's rights
Women's rights: What's in it for men? - "Women in rich countries largely enjoy gender equality while those in poor countries suffer substantial discrimination. This column proposes an explanation for the relationship between economic development and female empowerment that emphasises changes in the incentives males face rather than shifts in moral sentiment. Technological change that raises demand for human capital may give men a stake in women's rights." [more inside]
We can be heroes just for one day
Christiane F was a 1981 German film that portrayed the life of young heroin addicts growing up in 1970's Berlin. Notable for the collaboration of David Bowie, the film became well known for its realistic portrayal of drug use. [more inside]
Leaves of jade
Miss Neddy's tea blog — all about tea. Insightful and pleasant tea commentary from Singapore.
the tail wagging the dog
webofdeception.com is a bizarre, timecubesque linkdump maintained and updated by private investigator and domain squatter Joseph Culligan. In addition to sleazy dirt-digging on various celebrities and politicians, Culligan also includes a huge resource list of links to databases and public-record searches. [more inside]
Waxing and Waning
The New York Moon is an internet-based publication adhered to the lunar phases. It is a collection of experimental, reflective, and imaginative projects produced with every other month’s full moon. In the current issue visit the 6th Borough interactive map to discover imaginary precincts, find ephemeral street sculptures on The Trash Map, browse sketches of the moments in between Waiting, or redesign your neighborhood in Blueprints. [more inside]
June 28
Ice and Lights
Anthony Powell is a photographer based in Antarctica. In addition to his photography, he's shot some excellent time-lapse video of the Southern Lights and a Day in the Life of Antarctica.
History, crudely drawn
Behold the raw, elemental beauty of the world's first monolithic integrated circuit, aka microchip, made by Nobel-laureate Jack Kilby in 1958 when he worked at Texas Instruments. The third anniversary of his death was last week.
Major League Eating: The Game
Major League Eating: The Game. Coming soon to a Wii near you! I was first made aware of this game during an interview with Bill Shwartz of Mastiff games (mp3 audio download) during an episode of Relentless, a weekly show on Hardcore Sports Radio. Relentless has decided to protest the Beijing Olympics by covering sport eating during any time the Olympics would normally be discussed. The show is featured on satellite radio, and it's definitely NSFW.
RIP Ayveq
Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000
Connecticut's Have a Nice Life is responsible for one of the year's most acclaimed, highly conceptual albums this year, Deathconsciousness. The two discs (entitled The Plow That Broke The Plains and The Future, respectively) feature music spanning over five years of collaboration between the two artists, and are accompanied by a 75-page booklet on medieval Italian heretics in lieu of liner notes. Combining elements of shoegaze, new wave, ambient drone, post-rock, experimental industrial, avant-garde dark metal, and electronic music, and citing references such as My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division to their credit, the original and only pressings sold out within hours. Full stream of all 85 minutes available here. Direct mp3 samples here and here. [more inside]
Birth of the National Health Service - How the state of the nation's health became a political ideal
The NHS at 60. The National Health Service is 60 on July 5th. Take a look at documents, audio and video related to the birth and growth of this "radical plan."
Ssssssssssst! Throw me a Gookie!
The Politics of Radicalized Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money
Bush had Karl Rove. But the original wiretapping President needed brains too. Introducing Kevin Phillips. He predicted the prolonged Republican dominance of Washington 1970-present and advised the Ford and Reagan presidencies. He predicted a more liberal 1990s and when the Bushies killed his party he became uttery disgusted.
Recently he spoke about the influence of the christian right, our addiction to oil, and America's debt (public and private) at the University of California Santa Barbara. [more inside]
I've Been Saying That Shit For years
Prince is an angry, angry man
Fifty Norwegian artists (including the national symphony orchestra KORK), who recorded Prince covers in honor of his 50th birthday June 7, have been slapped with a lawsuit by the short-tempered star.
For now, all 81 songs can be previewed free on C+C Records' website, and some are also available on MySpace in streamable medley form. Source.
"It's not of this world. It's Sadako's fury. And she's put a curse on us."
RIP Tartan Films. The UK-based film distribution company has gone into administration, laying off it's entire staff. [more inside]
SNAFU
The Employable Web Designer
The Employable Web Designer ― Andy Rutledge at Design View constructs a list of suggestions to help aspiring designers better craft their own preparedness and, if necessary, adjust their degree plans toward a more effective and responsive result in the web design field. (previously) [more inside]
June 27
Rock the streets
Whether you want to learn to lace shoes, tie shoelaces, stop shoelaces from coming undone, calculate shoelace lengths or even repair aglets, Ian's Shoelace Site has the answer!
Desolace alone feels like about a million square miles.
There have been many efforts at measuring Azeroth, and MeFi's own Hogshead has the latest, which not only determines the land area but also touches on the geophysical properties of the planet's most populated fantasy world.
..and when Pickman suddenly unveiled a huge canvas on the side away from the light I could not for my life keep back a loud scream
Get it all on eBay
In the market for a new house? This one comes complete with upgraded tile, Berber carpet and a European wife.
"Well it sure ain't Ozzie and Harriet"
Avebury
Avebury. A short, trippy 8mm film shot around the Neolithic stone circles and henge at Avebury, Wiltshire. [Via BB]
Two great tastes that taste weird together
Candy bar cross-section ID quiz
Hush, the babies are sleeping...
Justine Dream Experiment (NSFW)
Shouting Fire on a Website
From the dryly professional US National Fire Protection Agency (who write the US national electrical code among other things), to the 1998-ish web stylings of The 911 Site portal page, there's a lot of fire/firefighter related content on the web. [more inside]
419 spam received; put down, flipped, reversed.
Marian Bantjes, typographer, designer, and Layer Tennis competitor, received a 419 spam email and turned it into this print. [more inside]
Celebrating digital film culture
Our wonderful nature is a hilarious 5-minute animation about the mating rituals of the water shrew. The action starts at around 1:30.
Other gems found at the bitfilm 08 Digital Film Festival include "The post-it note prison".
Tornado Engines
Dreamland
Tomorrow, Björk, Ólöf Arnalds and Sigur Rós are teaming up for a free concert - Náttúra - which aims to raise awareness of the proliferation of aluminium smelting plants in Iceland.
Held in a large park near the centre of Reykjavik, will be broadcast live on the Nat Geo Music and all of the performances will be in broad daylight with Iceland’s dramatic rolling scenery providing a perfect backdrop to what is expected to be one of the biggest concerts the country has seen.
The festival also aims to publicize Andri Snær Magnason's book Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual to a Frightened Nation, an Icelandic bestseller about the environmental situation that will be published in an English translation next month. [more inside]
Casual Collective
Casual Collective has been linked before[Previously, and Previously-er], but they have some more recent, well-crafted games. [more inside]
Vivisecting the Goddess
The operation was a success, but the patient is now a mere mortal. When she was born, her neighbors considered her a gift from God and lined up to receive her blessing. However, her parents, who wanted her to have a normal life (and refusing an offer to sell her to a circus) , found a doctor and a hospital who would operate on Lakshmi for free. [more inside]
Matt is back
Where the hell is Matt? The 2008 version is oddly moving. Be sure to watch the high quality version. (Previously)
Mouton Rothschild artist labels
Since 1945, one of the great wineries of the world, Château Mouton Rothschild, has commissioned great painters, sculptors, and artists to illustrate their wine labels. [more inside]
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
Buy Now, It'll Only Go Higher
They didn't know they were icons...
Over a half century ago, legendary Swiss photographer Robert Frank snapped their picture as he was wrapping up what would become a groundbreaking outsider's perspective on the U.S., his two-year photo project entitled simply The Americans (previously on MeFi).
51 years later, now that the Indianapolis Museum of Art is opening TODAY an exhibit pairing all of Frank's 83 images from The Americans together with the original scroll of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," friends and relatives have identified the couple who had never known they were so iconic! (via)
Push the crates off the platform. Hurry!
Crates are falling out of the sky. Push them off the platform. Keep doing it until one of them crushes you. Which it will. Soon. [more inside]
Should Have Waited 7 More Years
Hello, McFly?! Don't you know that the McFly 2015's people have been buzzing about for years seem to finally be arriving in a few weeks? Auto-Lacing? Not quite, but there's flywire! Glowing? Well, no. But you could set your wallet ablaze.
Full Astern Ahead
The US Federal Reserve has allowed ... its credibility fall "below zero". Barclays Capital said in its closely-watched Global Outlook that US headline inflation would hit 5.5pc by August and the Fed will have to raise interest rates six times by the end of next year to prevent a wage-spiral. "This is the first test for central banks in 30 years and they have fluffed it. They have zero credibility, and the Fed is negative if that's possible. It has lost all credibility." [more inside]
Ted introduces its Top Ten List
Too busy to watch all of the great videos over at Ted (or, for that matter, read all the posts about TED here on the blue?)? Ted has you covered: Ted Top Ten.
June 26
Now, here's the way I work...
Meet Dmitri. He's a complete catch. Women approach him 6-7 times a day.
Borealis Basin
Plate tectonics early in its history have been suggested as an explanation of Mars' unsymmetrical shape. Multiple impacts [pdf] have been proposed. Or possibly, it's the result of a single, highly energetic impact....
ICANN has been under pressure
The popular online trading site eBay is one of the many companies that wants to have its own domain name. [more inside]
728 ton pendulum
728 ton pendulum in action: Taipei 101's tuned mass damper during the Sichuan earthquake. [Via The Long Now Blog]
The Aptera
Welcome To The Future Where we drive around in things like this and get 230 miles to the gallon, all for under 30k.
You get the Leary you deserve.
Beyond Life with Timothy Leary
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (OMPS)
Space Ghost interview
More Audio
Timothy Leary's Last Trip
Getting High - The History of LSD
LSD - The Beyond Within part 1 part 2
More Video
...As well as letters, a ridiculous amount of photos, and more at The Leary Project. [more inside]
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (OMPS)
Space Ghost interview
More Audio
Timothy Leary's Last Trip
Getting High - The History of LSD
LSD - The Beyond Within part 1 part 2
More Video
...As well as letters, a ridiculous amount of photos, and more at The Leary Project. [more inside]
Tar-ism
When blogging goes nowhere
Who wants to be a millionaire?
Many people are up in arms (heh) over the Supreme Court's decision regarding gun control, but rather less press is being given to another opinion handed down today: Davis v. FEC. The issue was the constitutionality of the "Millionaire's Amendment", which allowed for political candidates facing self-funding challengers who intended to spend more than $350,000 to raise more money from individual donors than they would otherwise be allowed to do.
In a 5-4 decision, the court found the law unconstitutional. [more inside]
“Please keep your ass crack covered at all times.”
"I’m Charlie Cappa floating through his nightclub in a sharp Italian suit in MEAN STREETS, Henry Hill being lead through the back door of the Copacabana to a table right in front of the stage in GOODFELLAS, or Ace Rothstein at the dead center of the frame as he walks through the Tangiers in CASINO. I’m also Michael Barnes and I am walking through Atlanta Game Factory on a summer day three years ago. Imagine the Ronettes or the Rolling Stones on the soundtrack and you’ve got a pretty good picture of what it felt like to walk into AGF at the peak of its powers. All my life I wanted to be a game store owner."
Gameshark has just posted the tenth and final installment of the strange saga of the rise and fall of the Atlanta Game Factory.
Hedghogs in space
Birthright Israel
Birthright Israel , funded by the Israeli government and Jewish philanthropists, provides free all-inclusive 10-day trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. The program's goal is to promote Israel along with general Jewish unity and engagement. The blog Jewlicious has a category about these trips. (Scroll down past many promotional entries for the interesting stuff.) Some question its efficacy and results, while some Jews subvert the program. The trips end with a "Mega Rally" featuring entertainment, giant inflatable Stars of David, and speeches by dignitaries including PM Ehud Olmert. Here is video coverage (FLV) of the most recent rally. There is also a satirical Something Awful report.
"If you can't make it good, at least make it look good."
Bill Gates files a bug report: "There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail ... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job."
My Bloody Valentine recently completed a staggering series of concerts at London's legendary Roundhouse venue in Camden.
My Bloody Valentine recently completed a staggering series of concerts at London's legendary Roundhouse venue in Camden. [more inside]
American Museum of Natural History Photo Collection
War-porn clearinghouse
Real Military Flix. Documentaries, combat clips, full-length movies. For all your warporn needs. Iraq/Afghanistan firefights. The Great War etc..
What should I do with my life?
"If I make enough money now, I can quit and do what I really love later." "If I just think hard enough, I'll finally figure out what I want to do with my life." "I know people in this career path lose their souls, but I'll be different." "What if I try a new career, and it turns out I don't like it?" Po Bronson tackles some of the thoughts that keep people from pursuing a career they would really love. The article (one-page version) is based on his New York Times bestseller, What Should I Do With My Life? The writing is several years old, but the question seems to spring eternal.
Sweet music video
The video for Naive New Beaters' song "Live Good" has a mind-blowing amount of green-screen going on, to good effect.
It's just the grill... the grill... the grill you want
Claiming "complete rip-off" of their iconic image and sound, Devo are suing McDonald's over the "New Wave Nigel" included with the American Idol Happy Meal. See the video of Nigel in action. "They didn't ask us anything," Gerard Casale told Australian Associated Press. "Plus, we don't like McDonald's, and we don't like American Idol, so we're doubly offended."
Beasties Boy Made Good
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (that's MCA to you) says you got to fight for your right... to make movies? [more inside]
Immediate prospects for the electric car
Two takes on the immediate future of the electric car: we are either "Going Nowhere Fast" (if you ask a petrolhead from Top Gear magazine) or we are witnessing "The End of the Petrolhead" (if you ask The Economist). A bestiary of current and planned models includes TeslaMotors (now in production), Fisker Automotive (who are being sued by Teslamotors), the GM Volt (due 2010), The Lighting Car Company, the plug in Prius, the GWiz (now slightly less squishy apparently), the Corbin Sparrow, a few (vapory?) models from Zap! and the wondrous Sinclair C5.
Mogadishu Madness
Two Current correspondents are the first American journalists to venture into Mogadishu, Somalia after the infamous 1993 incident when two U.S. military Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by Somali militia. They film one of city street gun markets to show how easy it is to buy an AK-47, a machine gun or even RPG launcher. Their full-length video report Mogadishu Madness reveals the country under the self-proclaimed government of the Islamic Court Union, which was later overthrown with the help of the United Sates.
Totally outrageous!!!
Branded in the 80's: Peel Here From the obvious to the obscure to the downright frightening, Peel Here documents the collectible stickers of the 80's and related ephemera.
Heller v. D.C. Decided
Heller v. District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court's first actual interpretation of the Second Amendment, has just come down. In a 5-4 decision, the Justices ruled D.C.'s comprehensive handgun ban to be unconstitutional. Antonin Scalia writes for the majority.
Conducting? Hell, a robot could do it!
I will teach you, Walter, why I carry thorns in the moon
In an intriguing blog entry the mysterious jasminembla muses about the man in the moon, and his relationship with thorns, linking finally to a most remarkable collection of sourced and footnoted Victorian Moon Lore authored by a Rev. Timothy Harley, 1885. In the "Man in the Moon" section, we learn that, indeed, the man in the moon has been traditionally linked with thorns, variously being exiled to the moon for stealing a bundle of brambles, strewing brambles on the path to church to hinder the pious, or cutting wood on the Sabbath, among other infractions - and that this folktale has existed since at least 1157, when an English abbot asks, in Latin, "Do you not know what the people call the rustic in the moon who carries the thorns? Whence one vulgarly speaking says,
"The Rustic in the moon /
Whose burden weighs him down /
This changeless truth reveals /
He profits not who steals."
Furthermore, no less a personage than Shakespeare has mentioned the thorny situation of the poor man in the moon... and most interesting, perhaps, the rather convincing theory that the bramble-burdened man in the moon may very well be an older "Jack" of Jack and Jill fame, who did not steal, but was stolen by the moon, along with his sister. [more inside]
Lost Souls
According to a new report, children in Sweden are becoming increasingly concerned by their parents' internet habits. "This summer she has been sitting up all day and all night and she forgets what's important to me. And when she's not at the computer she's like a lost soul. She just looks straight ahead and says nothing. I'm not doing so well." Dr Jerald Block from Oregon Health and Science University in Portland is pushing for internet addiction (and its three subtypes: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations and e-mail/text messaging) to be included as a common disorder in the next update of the DSM (DSM-V). "The relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer... It's much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games..."
uncrazyfrog: toneshared ringtone library
toneshared is a library of free mobile phone ringtones made by electronica/alternative musicians. From the subtle to the mashed to the downright annoying.
June 25
World's First Rotating Skyscraper
Amphibious Robot Snake
Don't talk to the police
Most Americans are aware of their Miranda rights, the most important of which may be the right to remain silent. Apparently, many people don't take advantage of that right. Professor James Duane makes some compelling arguments why you should, and Officer George Bruch agrees. Of course, if you choose to ignore their advice and have something to hide, you will be going up against pros in interrogation. Good luck.
Knee Bouncers
The Women Who Wore The Pants
"Pashe Keqi recalled the day nearly 60 years ago when she decided to become a man." In today's New York Times: an account of the twilight of an ancient Albanian tradition that permitted young women to forever pledge to live as men -- swearing completely off sex and marriage in exchange for greater social, political, and economic freedom. A last few women who took this step are still alive, and still treated as men by their communities.
OCLC Meets Facebook
Citations on the fly. WorldCat previously, the world's online largest catalog of library holdings, got its own Facebook page in early 2008. That was pretty cool, but now WorldCat has upped the ante again by introducing another Facebook app called CiteMe. Using CiteMe, Facebook users can look up any item in WorldCat (there's over 1 billion of 'em) and get its properly-formatted citation (choose from APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, or Turabian styles) instantly. For more than a few citations, you can still build a bibliography of any size in your favorite style, directly on the WorldCat site.
ATDT
Cooking with Masao
Sharing means caring, right? Well, Masao would like to share with you his techniques for cooking Torta di ceci which is a type of Italian cake. If beverages are your thing, perhaps you'd like a nice glass of Sambuca exotic fruit punch, some peach juice, or something he calls his "Super Energy Raisin Juice". More of a hot dog or sausage person? Well then, our buddy Masao has got that covered for you!
In all fairness, these video clips might ruin your appetite so be aware of that in advance.
In all fairness, these video clips might ruin your appetite so be aware of that in advance.
Gopher Hole Museum
While in Torrington, Alberta you can visit the world famous Gopher Hole Museum. The museum features dioramas of taxidermied Richardson’s Ground Squirrels in humorous situations.
He let them down. He ran around and hurt them.
A few days ago a post appeared on the Something Awful forums noting a curious website called Notes to Mary. The notes are a series of threatening letters from a high schooler named Robert to his crush, Mary. The goons figured out pretty quickly that they had an ARG on their hands and went to work on solving the puzzle. Several other forums picked up on the game. Robert began interacting with players, sending them strange messages and several series of numbers that appeared to be some sort of code. A Flickr pool was started. Players even created an IRC channel to swap clues and information in real time. The Notes to Mary site offered a link to a login. All effort was made to crack the user/pass combo. Finally, several days after the game began, users were finally able to log in. The game was solved. The players would be rewarded for their hard work. Where did the login lead? Here. [more inside]
The Fulgurator
The Fulgurator. By using a flash detector and a high-powered flash of its own the Fulgurator can project images that are only seen when photographed. "This procedure is very inconspicuous, since it takes place within a few milliseconds." A short video of the Fulgurator in action shows its usage and the results.
Jack Sheldon...Oh Yes!
Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon Who is Jack Sheldon? You may remember him as Merv Griffin's comedic trumpet-wielding sidekick, or the indelible voice on School House Rock (etc.), but musicians know him as a jazz giant. Unlike his close friend and collaborator, Chet Baker, Jack Sheldon survived the demons of drugs, alcohol and unspeakable personal tragedy...
A documentary film by Penny Peyser and Doug McIntyre. (multiple YT clips in description; official site contains Flash audio)
A documentary film by Penny Peyser and Doug McIntyre. (multiple YT clips in description; official site contains Flash audio)
Charles Bird King's Portraits of Native Americans
"It's somewhat fitting that a man named Charles Bird King--a name both eminently European yet vaguely Amerindian--would depict the natives of the American East (Creek, Crow, Seminole, Cherokee, Choctaw, Iowa, Fox, Winnebago, etc) at a time when there was a semblance of parity (parody of parity?) between the Old and New Worlds. This was expressed in the dress of natives as well as many whites who lived among them: European brass gorgets and artfully knotted cravats around the neck of a men with painted faces and feathers in their hair. The synthesis is breathtaking: both fierce and fey. It's a damn pity the European influence eventually crushed the Native--this could very well have become our national mode of dress." Lord Whimsy.
I know, it should be 'Armin Tamzarian'.
Cute quiz: Name the Simpsons characters. Also: US states, countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America, periodic table of elements. More.
The Beginning of the End of Suburbia?
The New York Times article, Rethinking the Country Life as Energy Costs Rise , is just one of many articles documenting the apparent demise of suburbia. Unlike the notable Atlantic article which focused mostly on the mortgage bubble (previously), these more recent articles are beginning to focus of the rising cost of gas and transportation in general. (Previously) Is this the beginning of The End of Suburbia as predicted by the curmudgeonly James Howard Kunstler? (Discussed previously here and here.) Or are Americans simply readjusting their lifestyles to fit current economic limitations?
New York City's High Line
Design plans for the much talked about High Line in NYC were unveiled today. It has been hotly anticipated as one of the most distinctive public projects in generations.
NRD of 19
Using OmniFocus to manage a 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons character sheet. Nerds. Dungeons and Dragons. Obsessive overuse of Mac software.
From the cradle to depraved
Measuring depravity. The Depravity Scale is an international research effort that aims to scientifically standardize the definition of legal terms such as "heinous", "atrocious", "evil" , and "depraved" according to input from the general public. But is the Scale itself, er, a bad idea? [more inside]
Turkish Literary Delights
A Mid-summer Night's Story - one of hundreds of novels, poems, and tales in English translation at Suat Karantay's Contemporary Turkish Literature pages. Also: Turkish Poetry in Translation (the side-by-side translations of Dağlarca are particularly well-done), and selected stories of childhood & youth from Turkish authors in the mid 20th century.
Both happy office workers punching the air AND kittens disguised as frogs
Adventures in Stock Photography - David Schwimmer's Secrets of Natural Posture, I smell Pulitzer, The simultaneous quadratic face nutrition delivery system, Scenes from the battleground of sexual selection #3,344, Nuffield the rubbish hypnotist, Doctors & Doctoring #1, A Cavalcade of Thumbs... What is Adventures in Stock Photography?
Most books published 1923-63 in public domain
"For U.S. books published between 1923 and 1963, the rights holder needed to submit a form to the U.S. Copyright Office renewing the copyright 28 years after publication. In most cases, books that were never renewed are now in the public domain. Estimates of how many books were renewed vary, but everyone agrees that most books weren't renewed. If true, that means that the majority of U.S. books published between 1923 and 1963 are freely usable." How do you know? The renewal copyright records have traditionally been scattered and hard to access, but Google - with the help of Project Gutenberg and the Distributed Proofreaders painstakingly typed in every word - has just released a single database as a freely downloadable XML file.
I just blue myself
In great news for all fans of the dearly departed sitcom Arrested Development, Jason Bateman appeared on his friend's show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and confirmed that an Arrested movie is being worked out. (MSNBC video link. He talks about Hancock for a bit first; good stuff starts at 4:16.) And another special guest is there to share the announcement... [more inside]
Should we be very afraid?
First!
"Wow, a new user... That's Great! We'd be happy to show you the ropes!" a PSA on conversation starters in forums and comment threads online that have never been heard or used before. Brought to you by Red Vs. Blue.
"He makes Gozer look like little Mary Sunshine."
Back in the 80s DiC produced a cartoon, aired in syndication and on ABC Saturday Mornings, called "The Real Ghostbusters." Based on the popular action-comedy movie, it more-or-less continued the adventures of Ray, Egon, Winston and Garfield Peter through seven seasons of supernatural shenanigans. It could have been a mere cash-in, but there was something more to it. It aspired to realism, at least as much as possible. It was story-edited by J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5. (He also worked on He-Man and Murder She Wrote!)
This may explain the second season episode, written by Michael Reaves and rife with Lovecraft references, in which the Ghostbusters face down the Cthulhu cult. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
This may explain the second season episode, written by Michael Reaves and rife with Lovecraft references, in which the Ghostbusters face down the Cthulhu cult. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
June 24
Fire-Wielding Beavers and Man-Bats, Oh My!
The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. During the last week of August 1835, the New York Sun published a six-part article about the discovery - purportedly by renowned astronomer Sir John Herschel - of fantastical life on the moon, including herds of bison, blue unicorns, "a primitive tribe of hut-dwelling, fire-wielding biped beavers, and a race of winged humans living in pastoral harmony around a mysterious, golden-roofed temple." The public's reaction was a mix of credulity and skepticism. Read the full text of the serialized articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
National Geographic Flashback
The National Geographic Flashback is a section where the magazine publishes old pictures from its archives. There are many strange and wondrous pictures. Some of my favorites include: turtle riding, cooking with verbs, moving the lawn at Stonehenge, Robert Peary at the North Pole, artist along the Dordogne, cannibal fork, Great Pyramid of Khufu lit up by 6500 bulbs and flying car.
Octopus
Twitter lives
The rumors are true. Outage-plagued Twitter really has been raising money and today announced that they'd closed their funding round. Venture firm Spark Capital doled out some cash as did Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. Twitter, however, ain't saying how much money was raised. (It's reportedly around $15 million.)
CNET helpfully points out how the press release from Twitter that announced the news went out of it's way to mention that the company will -- hold the presses -- someday be supported by an actual revenue model: "To reach our goal, Twitter must be reliable and robust. Private funding gives us the runway we need to stay focused on the infrastructure that will help our business take flight."
Ear candy for your eyes
Apple's Album Art screensaver, recreated for Windows. I saw this on someone's Powerbook today and got jealous. Luckily, some developer decided to make this, for all the Windows users feeling left out.
Fun, Frivolity and/or Forced Conviviality?
"One in five U.S. workers regularly attends after-work drinks with co-workers, where the most common mishaps range from bad-mouthing another worker to kissing a colleague and drinking too much, according to a study released on Tuesday."* And "why do workers go to happy hour? The majority (82 percent) of workers report that they attend happy hour to bond with their co-workers, while another 20 percent find it to be a great way to network. Fifteen percent of workers said they attend to hear the latest office gossip, while 13 percent only go because they feel obligated to be there. One-in-ten workers (11 percent) use happy hour as a way to bond with their boss" [more inside]
Forgetting Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea is more than your average headline-making, human rights-eschewing African nation. Likening the country’s uneasy street-silence to that of Pyongyang, deported journalist Peter Maass reveals an unparalleled culture of fear blanketed by an international media blackout. But for the Whitehouse, ExxonMobil and Teodoro Obiang—Equatorial Guinea’s torturous leader—the poverty, abuse and dead-quiet are business as usual.
God is an Astronaut
God is an Astronaut is an instrumental post-rock trio hailing from Ireland. Formed in 2002, they started their own record label, Revive Records, to release their debut album The End of the Beginning. With heavily layered melodies, their music is beautiful and dynamic. They've released three videos Fragile, The End of the Beginning, and From Dust to the Beyond. My personal favorites include Forever Lost and Frozen Twilight. More of their songs can be heard on their Last.fm and Myspace pages. Link to their official website here.
"..watched him seize a silver fish from under the water and hold up his head and go through the customary and elaborate motions of swallowing it..."
The Silver Swan is a life-size musical automaton built in 1773 from silver and glass, now housed in the Bowes Museum in County Durham. [more inside]
Waiting for the New Way Forward
Fables of the Reconstruction. According to a new GAO report [PDF of full report], the surge has resulted in security gains and reduced violence in Iraq, but the political goals the surge was supposed to buy time for mostly haven't happened. [more inside]
Itchy McItchy
The Itch: The New Yorker's suprisingly interesting Annals of Medicine article which includes the story of a woman whose scalp itched so badly she scratched through it. And then through her skull.
Vector Portraits (1989-1997)
Los Angeles-based photographer Andrew Bush mounts a camera on the side of his car to capture freeway drivers in the southwestern United States. [more inside]
Don't Say It Can't Be Done! -- This Brave Nation
Pete Seeger and
Majora Carter sit down together and bridge the generational gap with a discussion on environmentalism, activism, history, and music. [more inside]
Next up, the Perpetual Motion Machine
Last week, Genepax Co demonstrated a car that it says runs on water. Video of the demonstration is here. [more inside]
The Website Is Down!
The Website is Down! is a short movie based on tech support horror stories. (Movie may have NSFW language and imagery)
World's Biggest and Most Expensive Ship
Project Genesis - "It's destined to be the world's largest cruise ship—when launched next year, Royal Caribbean's US$1.24 billion Project Genesis will be 1,180 feet long, and carry 5400 passengers (6,400 at a pinch). It's the most expensive ship in history, and it's longer, wider and taller than the largest ocean liner ever built, (Cunard's QE II), 43 per cent larger in size than the world's largest cruise ship, (Freedom of the Seas [previously]) and remarkably, bigger than any military ship ever built, aircraft carriers included. In a world where choice of amenities count, Project Genesis has yet another trump card—in the the center of the ship is a lush, tropical park which opens to the sky." cf. The Lilypad
Chit Chat.
Pecha Kucha - get to the point. 20 slides in 20 seconds. Talk about what you want. Your city probably has a night for it.
LEGO is full of WIN
LEGO is full of WIN - Roo Reynolds' Interesting 2008 talk.
Keeping it in "The Family"...
Beasts!
1,000 Beasts by Aeron Alfrey
Degree 2.0 mash-ups not advisable for computer games careers
95% of degree courses in video gaming at British universities leave graduates unfit to work in the industry, according to Games Up?, an organisation set up to address the UKs video games skills shortage. Maths skills are a particular weakness.
urban prankster
Boris Johnson - War criminal
"the circumstances in which I came by this object were so morally ambiguous that I cannot quite think of it as theft." Boris Johnson, mayor of London, a war criminal?
Oh, Alison, my aim is true.
"When my daughter Alison was born, in the tradition of a new parent, I began to photograph her, initially in a separate and private body of work. However, in the process of documenting Alison's growth, I developed a passionate interest in human relationships and capturing intimate moments in the lives of family and friends...." A haunting photographic essay from Jack Radcliffe.
13 People In A Volvo
Man fined for stuffing 13 people in a Volvo. Big news story today in Wales about a man fined and banned from driving for driving around Llandudno with 12 passengers in his Volvo. There's a handy little film attached so you can see just how difficult this is. Great to see license fee money being used for such hard-hitting investigative journalism like this, silly season's come early. Giving the current fuel costs in the UK, expect to see more of this OTT car pooling.
Religious Groups' Official Positions on Same-Sex Marriage
Here is a handy guide to the various attitudes towards gay marriage from religious denominations. (previously)
Take a looky.
Lookybook lets you browse full versions of children's picture books, like The Other Side by Hungarian-born illustrator Istvan Banyai, or Alphabeasts by Wallace Edwards.
Trash Flash
Here for your delectation are the Web Flash Festival 2008 finalists and winners. I know we are supposed to post the best of the web. I know we are not supposed to editorialise. But… but… CRIKEY! Even the best is execrable. What's going on in the Flash world? [requires flash]
Don't you wish your drugs were hot like Oxytocin?
"Tests have shown that oxytocin reduces anxiety levels in users. It is a hormone that facilitates social contact between people."
Ungh!
Indie platformer extravaganza!
Do you enjoy classic 2D platformers? Then boy, are you in luck! The indie game community is thriving, and a good majority of its games are exactly that. I've spent many hours playing these unique, beautiful, and often exceptional projects, and there's quite a few - more than I can count on my fingers! - that could stand toe-to-toe with the finest contemporary games. Inside is a list of some of the greatest indie platformers, based on community recommendations and my own experience. Enjoy! [more inside]
They see her rollin, they lovin'
\\ \\ \\ MAXIMUM HEADROOM // // //
Suspension de l’abonnement internet
"There is no reason that the Internet should be lawless," President Nicolas Sarkozy told his cabinet, as Culture Minister Christine Albanel presented a new bill designed to encourage responsible use of the Internet. The legislation would set up a new administrative body that would receive complaints from the music and film industry and track down offenders through Internet service providers. An e-mail warning would be sent to suspected downloaders followed by a registered letter. After two strikes, offenders would risk losing their Internet subscription for up to a year. "We know that we are not going to eradicate piracy 100 percent, but we think that we can reduce it significantly," Albanel told a news conference. [more inside]
June 23
It may not be art, but I know what I like.
It's been almost a year since Roger Ebert responded to Clive Barker on the debate over whether games can truly be "art." In support of Mr. Barker's position, here are some of the most artistic moments from games in recent years - the tragic, the trippy, the Saturday mornings, the darkly comic, the downs and the ups, and the rare phyrric victory. [more inside]
Fighting the curse of the face-eating tumour
The Man Without a Face - "A Jehovah's Witness who for decades refused all surgery on his horrific facial disfigurement has been given hope by a British doctor and new medical technology." from the Telegraph.co.uk. (Possible NSFW or bad for the squeemish)
You've gotta hope / That there's someone for you / Strange as you are
A cat with no face is nonetheless loved very much. Let's be blunt, Chase the cat is a surprising creature. When she was only a few weeks old, she lost her face in a car accident. While this link isn't exactly NSFW by any use of the term, she is a disfigured cat - no face, no eyelids - and at first she's a little hard to look at. However, she is in no pain and she is obviously well loved and well taken care of. Chase is currently "employed" as a therapy cat, so that people can "feel just as great about themselves and realize that not everyone looks perfect and that is OK."
Primal Quest 2008; sleep is optional
The hardest race you've never heard of: Primal Quest 2008 kicked off today in SW Montana. Using only a map and compass, teams of 4 have up to 10 days to run, kayak, mountain-bike, riverboard and climb over 500 miles of wilderness. Sleeping is not required by the rules. [more inside]
Amazing Tree Houses
10 Amazing Tree Houses from Around the World: Sustainable, Unique and Creative Designs. 15 (More) Amazing Tree Houses from Around the World: Unusual, Ecological and Inspired Designs.
Countdown to 49 states?
The Hawaiian Kingdom Government is back up and running. This monarchy, deposed in 1898, rules from the Iolani Palace, in which Hawaii's last native queen ruled and was later imprisoned.
Philip Pullman's ideas behind His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman interviewed about the ideas behind "His Dark Materials" [YT,1 hour, South Bank Show,parts 2,3,4,5,6,7]. Inside, and hidden from those who don't want spoilers, are links relating to the ideas raised and about the books generally. [more inside]
Clipperton or bust
1200 kilometers southwest of Acapulco lies the only atoll in the eastern Pacific: one of France's most isolated overseas possessions. First named for an English pirate/buccaneer/privateer, written about here by one John Harris in 1744, the island has changed hands numerous times: claimed by France as part of Tahiti, claimed by the US under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. The island remained uninhabited until 1906, when a British and Mexican mission began mining guano (still in demand today, though sources can now be found a little closer to home). The atoll was thought to have been polished off entirely by an earthquake rumored to have sunk the islands outright in August of 1909. [more inside]
It's Probably True!
Today we'll see Dave go back in time. Most of the retro Nickelodeon love goes to You Can't Do That On Television, but let us not forget about the show that gave us the Hurry-Up Machine, a pre-Full House Dave Coulier, Hern Burford, and the Burping Chili Men. It's Out of Control! [Previously] [more inside]
Delaying News in the Era of the Internet
Wikipedia Updater Fired For Scooping NBC on Tim Russert's Death -- "When Tim Russert collapsed ten days ago, his colleagues at NBC held off reporting the news for almost two hours so his family wouldn't hear about it from the media....The news appeared on Wikipedia 40 minutes before the NBC report, with all of the verbs in Tim's entry changed from present tense to past. It appeared on the New York Times's web site 5 minutes before the NBC story. It zipped around Twitter all afternoon. According to the New York Times, the person who updated the Wikipedia entry 40 minutes before NBC reported it worked at Internet Broadcasting Services, a company that provides web services to TV stations including NBC affiliates." [more inside]
Breakdown
Breakdown. First-hand accounts of the impact and stigma of mental illness. Moving subject matter presented in a way that updates traditional newspaper reporting.
Man, I really hated getting killed by The Farting Sluggoth
Gaza: The Killing Zone
A Dispatches documentary Gaza: The Killing Zone shows the shocking reality of seemingly ordinary Palestinians caught in the crossfire between Hamas and Israeli forces. Feels almost like a sci-fi movie about some fictional totalitarian regime. Hard to believe it's their everyday life. WARNING: contains scenes of graphic violence, which you may find disturbing.
'zines v. 2.0?
MagCloud enables you to publish your own magazines. All you have to do is upload a PDF and they take care of the rest: printing, mailing, subscription management, and more.
Doing something well for its own sake.
Read this excerpt of Richard Sennett's The Craftsman. Listen to him on the Diane Rehm show or peruse this interview with Laurie Taylor. Discuss.
Autobiography of Read
Happy Birthday, Anne Carson! The iconoclastic modern poet who published the arresting, compulsively readable Autobiography of Red turned 57 this weekend. [more inside]
Times Archive,
Every issue of The Times published between 1785-1985, digitally scanned and fully searchable. (Via Wordorigins.org.)
A people too scared to vote.
Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Withdraws MDC From 'Sham' Poll. Apparently he agrees with Mugabe's claim that only God can remove him from office. Prev Zim.
Crack Lung
Amy Winehouse has Emphysema. The 24 year old artist, whose career has netted multiple awards but has often been overshadowed by her drug use, now faces a lung condition that can be slowed but never reversed, with effects ranging from shortness of breath to cyanosis and heart faliure.
Phonographantasmascope
Record player + video camera = Phonographantasmascope, animator Jim LeFevre's extension of the zoetrope. "It is all live action and works by using the shutter speed of the camera rather than the rather irritating stroboscope methods other 3D Zoetropes use."
June 22
George Carlin Dead at 71
George Carlin Dead at 71 Not sure if I really want to make a joke out of this one, but why not post your favorite quotes and routines of his.
Spertus Museum pulls plug on controversial map exhibit
The Spertus Museum/Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies has just canceled Imaginary Coordinates due to complaints that some of the artwork (NSFW: nudity, disturbing imagery) in the exhibit had an anti-Israeli slant. [more inside]
Tag Art
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. Example. (via)
Military tattoos in the age of Iraq
The Uncanny Island
"I began to realize that "robots"-- in all their various forms-- can really be seen as a symbol of a larger relationship between people and technology." In 1988, Frederick Schodt wrote about the Japanese fascination and use of robots in his book Inside the Robot Kingdom, curious by the disparities between American and Japanese manufacturing processes . In 1988, the American public wasn't ready for the book, or for robots.
Today, Japan still has embraced robotic automation in a way that arguably no other country has. For more similar topics, Mangobot is a column that reports on Asian futurism.
I Have Seen the Elephant
It's 1881. You're real estate speculator James Lafferty, and you've just bought a large parcel of empty, scrubby shoreside land just south of Atlantic City. Problem is, it's cut off from the AC streetcar line by a deep tidal creek. How do you entice potential buyers to make the trek over the inlet and look at your property? Build a giant elephant, of course. Capitalizing on the celebrity of P. T. Barnum's famous Jumbo, Lafferty built 65-foot tall Lucy the Elephant, the first of three giant elephants Lafferty built (followed by Cape May's Light of Asia and Coney Island's Elephantine Colossus). He even took out a patent on the very idea of buildings shaped like animals. Though threatened by decades of neglect and rot, the Save Lucy Committee began preservation efforts in 1970, moving her to her present site and giving her a complete restoration. [more inside]
Pakistan’s Phantom Border
Pakistan’s Phantom Border. "Pakistan is often called the most dangerous country on earth. Increasingly, its people would agree. Despite nearly $6 billion in U.S. military aid for the border region since 9/11, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and homegrown terrorist groups have eroded the border with Afghanistan, inflicting a steady toll of suicide bombings. Going where few Westerners dare—from Taliban strongholds to undercover-police headquarters—the author sees what’s tearing the country apart."
screamyGuy
CRACKED and Loaded
I apologize in advance for linking to Cracked.com, internet leader in lame lists, but this 3-minute video sketch works for me: The Real Reason Guns Are Dangerous. [more inside]
The Big Sort
"Bishop contends that as Americans have moved over the past three decades, they have clustered in communities of sameness, among people with similar ways of life, beliefs, and in the end, politics. There are endless variations of this clustering—what Bishop dubs the Big Sort—as like-minded Americans self-segregate in states, cities—even neighborhoods. Consequences of the Big Sort are dire: balkanized communities whose inhabitants find other Americans to be culturally incomprehensible; a growing intolerance for political differences that has made national consensus impossible; and politics so polarized that Congress is stymied and elections are no longer just contests over policies, but bitter choices between ways of life. "
Article about the book from the Economist. Book's Website. A review.
A dot's as good as a wink.
Who killed the semicolon? Paul Collins fingers a 19th-century culprit; Trevor Butterworth finds an American anitipathy to this troublesome punctuation mark. [previously] [via]
Blue Yodel #1 (aka T For Texas)
Jimmy Rodgers' blue yodel series started in 1927. He started with Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas). My favorite covers were by the Everly Brothers and by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. There's even a hip hop cover.
Under the wide and starry sky / Dig the grave and let me lie: / Glad did I live and gladly die, / And I laid me down with a will.
Ugly [single link photobucket post]
Star Wars Crawl
StarWarsCrawl.com. Generate your own Star-Wars-style opening crawl.
Air India 182
On June 22, 1985, Air India flight 182 left Montreal en route to Delhi with 329 passengers aboard, most of them Canadian. Four hours later, an explosion in the baggage compartment destroyed the plane, killing all on board. Premiering tonight on CBC television, this documentary (trailer) recounts the final hours, days and weeks before the plane disappeared off Irish radar screens. It reveals the story of how Canada’s first major counter-terrorism operation failed to thwart the conspiracy and details the errors that resulted in the world’s most lethal act of aviation terrorism before Sept. 11. (previously on MetaFilter) [more inside]
June 21
Play, what you experience daily
Playmobil Online Archiv - Playmobils archive of every toy they've ever produced, from it's start in 1974 onwards. It's only available in German, but even non-German speakers can appreciate gems like this awesome tiger tamer or these Mexican bandits, odd anachronisms like the chimney sweep or the figures for recreating the American civil war. [more inside]
Capitol Words - US Congress In A Word A Day
Capitol Words allows you to see what the most often used word was on any given day in the U.S Congress. [via mefi projects]
Remembering the Hollywood 10
Remembering the Hollywood 10 . "At rare intervals, there appears among us a person whose virtues are so manifest to all, who has such a capacity for relating to every sort of human being, who so subordinates his own ego drive to the concerns of others, who lives his whole life in such harmony with the surrounding community that he is revered and loved by everyone with whom he comes in contact. Such a man Dalton Trumbo was not."
(The background/history.) Then there is the opposing view.
The Ethnosphere
"Cultures at the far edge of the world" (YT) and "The worldwide web of belief and ritual" (YT). Two TED talks by anthropologist and explorer Wade Davis (previously) on the diversity of the world's indigenous cultures and their beliefs, and the richness of the "Ethnosphere," which he describes as "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness." [Via Mind Hacks]
Watch the story
Watch the story. Still photography and narrative as documentary.
Remembering Tony Wilson
The late, great Tony Wilson is being honoured today with a 24-hour long "intelligent" conversation in Manchester, England. Wilson was a musical Svengali par excellence. He co-founded Factory Records, helped discover both Joy Division and the Happy Mondays and has been credited with reviving the city that was cradle to the industrial revolution. [more inside]
Time in a bottleneck
Snail mail isn't that slow, unless you use real snails.... As part of a "slow art" project, Vicki Isley and Paul Smith of Bournemouth University have attached radio frequency identification chips (RFID's) to three gastropods, Austin, Cecil and Muriel. The RFID's will pick up your mail as the carriers amble past an electronic reader and deliver it when (in just a few days! ...or weeks ...or months....) they slip past a second reader.... RealSnailMail! [more inside]
Taking Affirmative Action Against Crime and For Economic Reconstruction
The black backs by and on which the fortunes of the New South were built:
On March 30, 1908, Green Cottenham was arrested by the sheriff of Shelby County, Alabama, and charged with “vagrancy.”... Cottenham’s offense was blackness.... [After a brief trial] Cottenham... was sold. Under a standing arrangement between the county and a vast subsidiary of the industrial titan of the North — U.S. Steel Corporation — the sheriff turned the young man over to the company for the duration of his sentence.... he was chained inside a long wooden barrack at night and required to spend nearly every waking hour digging and loading coal. His required daily “task” was to remove eight tons of coal from the mine. Cottenham was subject to the whip for failure to dig the requisite amount, at risk of physical torture for disobedience, and vulnerable to the sexual predations of other miners.... Forty-five years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freeing American slaves, Green Cottenham and more than a thousand other black men toiled under the lash at Slope 12.— from the Introduction to Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II. The book's website includes reviews of the book, an excerpt of the Introduction, and an extensive photo gallery that includes disturbing images of enslaved and tortured prisoners. [more inside]
June 20
I will try not to sing on a Kia
For those still wondering what the hell Joe Cocker was singing in 1969 at Woodstock in his landmark version of "A Little Help From My Friends", this hilarious video"transcription" (with some visuals added to the footage) should help. For purists, the original unedited version here.
Is anyone out there? Does anyone copy?
Three times as many killed as once thought in 50 years of conflicts, new analysis suggests.
Wars around the world have killed three times more people over the past half-century than previously estimated, a new study suggests... The researchers estimate that 5.4 million people died from 1955 to 2002 as a result of wars in 13 countries. These deaths range from 7,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo to 3.8 million in Vietnam. According to Obermeyer, the estimates are three times higher than those of previous reports. Data from this new study also suggests that 378,000 people worldwide died a violent death in war each year between 1985 and 1994, compared with 137,000 estimated at the time.ABC News: Study: War Deaths Grossly Underestimated
The study: Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme
Related: Measuring deaths from conflict
Your quest awaits!
The classic arcade game Dragon's Lair is turning 25 and Don Bluth has a deal for you. For one week only, if you buy a copy of Dragon's Lair for DVD, PC, or Blu-Ray from the online store at DigitialLeisure.com you can have it signed by Don Bluth as well as designer Rick Dyer, and animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy. The new cleaned up version looks sweet! I hear it looks really great on Blu-Ray. I can remember drooling over it when I saw it played on the TV show Starcade. There was even a Saturday morning cartoon based on the game. If you spent any time in an arcade during the mid-80's you'll probably recall the attract mode which is one of the most memorable ones in the history of arcade games. I still have it burned into my brain. Need a walkthrough for the game? Well, the website Dragon's Lair Project has that covered.
snow globes
Sign, Sign, everywhere a sign.
US Traffic & Road Sign Test. Five part, 30 questions each, multiple choice test on US road, highway and traffic signs. Results include inline scoring and explanation of each sign. [more inside]
My my my
After breaking up with his band, Justin Vernon retreated to his father's cabin in the northwoods of Wisconsin to recuperate over the winter. [more inside]
But they DO fry your brains, you know...
Did you happen to see those "making-popcorn-pop-with-a-cellphone" clips that showed up at the end of last month on the toobs? Well, WIRED wrote about it, and a kajillion copycat clips showed up in about the time it'd take to, you know, make some popcorn. Turns out it was a viral, natch, as a cursory search will reveal. But just today a clip appeared that explains how the actual stunt was pulled off. Well, anyway, as you've probably guessed by now, this is all just an excuse to link to Popcorn. Yep, Popcorn. [more inside]
Requiem for the Mighty Wurlitzer
A recently divulged casualty of the Iowa floods (previously covered on Mefi here) is the Mighty Wurlitzer organ at the Paramount Theater. The pictures are pretty awful, and the video is even worse. If you grew up in Cedar Rapids any time in the last 80 years, you'll have heard the Wurlitzer on at least one occasion. Cedar Rapidians are vowing to "Return and Rebuild". [more inside]
Pi(es) in a field
"I don't value music made from sampling."
Mashup artist Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, is another artist to try the 'pay whatever you want' Internet release model. However, his 55-minute album consists of over 300 samples from other artists, with many current and past hits. No stranger to current controversies in copyright, Gillis also appeared in the documentary Good Copy Bad Copy. Previously. [more inside]
Raw umber is just the beginning...
Colors have many names. The online color thesaurus will recognize 20,000 of them (and let you see which is most popular). You can also browse a page of colors and associated names (yes, "goose turd" and "dead Spaniard" were once common color names). Of course, the most popular color names probably come from our childhoods. [more inside]
You weren't planning on sleeping tonight, were you?
Flash Friday: If you enjoyed GemCraft (recently posted by juv3nal), you'll want to stop by towerdefence.net, catering to all of your tower defense needs. With a hundred Flash games and ten downloadable ones, you're sure to find something you like. [more inside]
That's funny, he never has a second cup at home!
Green screen or not? The latest advertisement for incumbent Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota is raising questions about whether his wife (actress and model Laurie Coleman), shown drinking coffee with him presumably in their home, was anywhere near her husband during the shoot. The controversy might amount to nothing more than the many terrible photoshop disasters we've all seen before if it weren't for all the rumors about the state of the marriage between Senator Coleman and his wife, where she resides, and the growing internet accusations and general political hackery over the new advertisement. [more inside]
Requiem for Ferris Bueller
Requiem for Ferris Bueller (SLYT)
Underthinking a plate of cheese
Babies are jerks, am I right?
As we were talking about Joke Theft, here's an interesting case. It appears that the Daily Show may have stolen a joke from Penny Arcade. [more inside]
Ambidexterity vs. ambidexterity
In May 2006, we discussed switch pitcher Pat Venditte on MetaFilter. Many wondered: what kind of bizarre game-theoretic catastrophe would occur when the switch pitcher faced a switch hitter?
Two years later, it has come to pass. (video)
The Fatherland of Apples
The Fatherland of Apples Orion Magazine chronicles "[t]he origins of a favorite fruit and the race to save its native habitat." More about the origins of the apple and wild apples by Michael Pollan, Jake Fleming (PowerPoint), William J. Bramlage (PDF), Linda McCandless (with the germplasm repository catalog here (PDF)) and Barrie Edward Juniper (Google Books preview).
Obama supports Blue Dog
Obama, telecoms and the Beltway system. Georgia Rep. John Barrow ran ads accusing his party of wanting to "cut and run in Iraq," and was one of the Blue Dogs to send a letter to Pelosi asking to be allowed to vote to give the President warrantless eavesdropping powers and to give lawbreaking telecoms amnesty (previously). Barrow faces a July primary challenge from State Senator Regina Thomas, whose policy positions more closely match Obama's views and the views of the Democratic base in that district. Despite this, Obama has taped a radio ad in support of Barrow.
Even homemade Daleks EXTERMINATE!
Project Dalek: Alan has deliberately 'beefed up' the dome. From a child's eye view it looks like half an inch thick battle armour but the dome is really only four millimetres in thickness. This looks more substantial when viewed from underneath - an angle from which children often see Daleks. [more inside]
Abrupt climate change
Abrupt climate change is popularly thought of in the movies. But new Greenland ice core findings show two huge Northern Hemisphere temperature spikes occured prior to the close of the last ice age some 11,500 years ago, with a 22-degree-Fahrenheit spike in just 50 years. These followed a massive "reorganization" of atmospheric circulation taking just one or two years. "We know such events are in Earth's future, but we don't know when .. we are speeding blindly down a narrow road, hoping there are no curves ahead." [more inside]
Long Day's Journey Into Night
To kick off the northern hemisphere's summer solstice, an old favorite from the original Eddie Cochran, The Who, Van Halen, Blue Cheer, Brian Setzer, T. Rex, Bruce Springsteen, yes, even Hanson. But wait, last but not least, Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Little kids are cute
Little kids are cute.
Photographing gay weddings: a moral quandry?
Will Photographing Same-Sex Ceremonies Hurt or Help Your Wedding Photography Business? Wedding photographer Sean Cayton wonders how to deal with gay weddings. "If you're thinking, 'I just won't do same-sex weddings because I don't need the headache,' it's not that simple." via
Willie Mae's grab-you-in-the-gut blues
Elvis rode to fame on one of her covers and Janis got rich on her signature song, but you haven't truly heard Hound Dog or Ball & Chain until you've experienced Big Mama Thornton belting them out. A seminal blues figure who could play the harp with the best of them, she was true original. In her heyday, Willie Mae was a 6-foot tall, 350-pound, gun-toting crossdresser who led a rough and colorful life and took no guff whatsoever. Emaciated but still powerful, she gives a final raw and expressive performance of Ball & Chain and
Hound Dog shortly before her death in 1984. [more inside]
June 19
Not much puzzle, but lotsa farting!
I love Scotch too! (Unrelated, but true)
Evidence of water ice on mars.
copyrite more like copyrong
"Happy Birthday to You" is the best-known and most frequently sung song in the world. Many - including Justice Breyer in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft - have portrayed it as an unoriginal work that is hardly worthy of copyright protection, but nonetheless remains under copyright. Yet close historical scrutiny reveals both of those assumptions to be false. [Full pdf here.] [via]
[more inside]
Replicating the Milgram Experiment
The Milgram Experiment Today? "Students commonly assume that, even if Milgram’s famous experiment sheds important light on the power of situation today, were his experiment precisely reproduced today, it would not generate comparable results. To oversimplify the argument behind that claim: The power of white lab coats just ain’t what it used to be. Of course, that assertion has been difficult to challenge given that the option of replicating the Milgram experiment has been presumptively unavailable — indeed, it has been the paradigmatic example of why psychology experiments must be reviewed by institutional review boards ('IRBs'). Who would even attempt to challenge that presumption? The answer: Jerry Burger, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University. With some slight modifications, Burger manage to obtain permission to replicate Milgram’s experiment — and the results may surprise you." [Via MindHacks]
Studio Scavenging
"I've switched from building my own installations to painting ones I've found".
NewArt Tv interviews artist Cindy Tower at one of her many makeshift studios in the industrial ruins of East St. Louis, where she's covertly creating paintings as part of her Workplace Series. "We need to find a way to sell more paintings so I can hire you full time", she tells her bodyguard, Edgar. Until then, most days she makes do with a dummy. [more inside]
Mark Langford's KR2S
I love nicely done home-built aircraft. I discovered Mark Langford's website over a year ago but forgot to bookmark it. Thankfully, I recently found it again.
His dedication (obsession?) is obvious. I can't get over how many parts he custom built for his plane. He suffered an engine failure in his Corvair engine at one point, and I loved how he took the engine apart afterward and gave a full rundown about what happened.
Paddling with Polar Bears
In 1930, Eric Sevareid and Walter Port embarked on a wild adventure when they launched a canoe at Fort Snelling on the Minnesota River and paddled over 2200 miles north to Hudson Bay. Sevareid later documented their story in the book Canoeing with the Cree. The book has since served as inspiration for young adventurers. Two such men, Colton Witte and Sean Bloomfield, departed on their own trek on April 28, 2008. The pair made it to Hudson Bay on June 17, 2008, in only 49 days. They aren’t the only ones to follow in Sevareid’s and Port’s footsteps – Scott Miller and Todd Foster made the same journey in 2005.
KABOOM!
Jonathan Golob at Dear Science.org has a series of posts up about nuclear power. Topics include: The physics behind nuclear power, the inner workings of a reactor, nuclear radiation, nuclear waste, the disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and the future of nuclear power.
Also in a truncated podcast form. [more inside]
Blue Collar Babies
Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town.
Zoomii.
Telecom Amnesty Bill Tomorrow
The warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty will be voted on tomorrow in Congress. The bill pushed through by Democratic Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer is looking likely to pass. [more inside]
Infinite Oregano
If geeks talked about cookbooks the way they talk about RPG books, the results would not be pretty.
The most important thing you know
An old professor of mine used to ask graduating students, "What is the single most important true proposition or fact (not theory) that you learned in university?" This question has been aimed at many fields, and social scientists have long and famously struggled to find good answers, while scientists have had a large number of options, and those who study the humanities wonder if they can even answer similar questions. What is your most important (or interesting) fact?
Oh oh oh.
Ray Romano sings. SLYT. I'm sorry. That is all.
They don't make them like they used to.
I have to believe in the YES. The YES can cure everything.
NYC in Black and White (mostly)
New York City in (mostly) black and white. A huge collection of photos starting in the 1880s—some beautiful, all fascinating. Previously.
How much more clear can this guy make it that he does NOT want to smell your finger?
Sorry I Missed Your Party. Pictures of other people's parties from Flickr, with commentary. (Some images NSFW.) (Via.)
How to write a song and other mysteries
Andrew Bird dishes on recording in the Wilco Loft. Roseanne Cash discusses the songwriting process, and follows up a bit later. Darrell Brown talks about everything, and Suzanne Vega laments being a two-hit wonder. They are all part of the wonderful Measure for Measure blog from the New York Times.
It takes a country
CBC Filter: I guess parenting in Canada ain't what it used to be. The Senate wants to make spanking your children illegal and a Quebec judge quashes a dad's grounding of his 12-year-old daughter.
Searchme - Visual Search Engine
Searchme is a search engine that displays results as images of web pages.
Your favorite band ...
Calling your personal online radio station the best of everything seems designed to provoke controversy. But in this case it's just one "mature consumer" taking a stand against big media and youth oriented marketing. Be sure to read the about page. [more inside]
The Smithsonian on Flickr
The Smithsonian has a Flickr page as part of the Flickr Commons program. So far there are 6 sets, Portraits of Scientists and Inventors, Portraits of Artists, American Celebrations, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, People and the Post and Smithsonian's First Photographer, featuring the work of Thomas William Smillie. [via The New Yorker's Book Bench]
New Kiribati
New Kiribati "...will future climate change refugees become a new caste of service sector workers inhabiting a sort of Floating Hotel & Duty Free Mall ... ?" Small island states are on the front line.
This is how we do it.
"We like to play gladiator. You know what I mean? Let two gangs beat each other up without weapons, and the winner gets to deal on the corner. Or, we grab a bunch of muggers, or maybe two crews who steal cars, and tell them, “Okay, you all fight each other — the one still standing gets to avoid jail.” I know: it sounds awful, but believe me, this really works."
Cops tell Freakonomics "the things that cops do to keep the peace that no one wants to know about.”"
Cops tell Freakonomics "the things that cops do to keep the peace that no one wants to know about.”"
Boring men?
Magical Photography
Break-dancers Floating in Space French photographer Denis Darzacq is back with a new collection called Hyper. You may remember his previous collection called La Chute.
people take pictures of each other
Goodbye, Netflix Profiles?
In a world where one company single-handedly created the online DVD rental industry, what happens when they turn against their own customers? Netflix has announced the cancellation of its Profiles feature. This means no more separate rental queues for different people in a household. Since the announcement, it took less than 24 hours for SaveNetflixProfiles.com to launch, bloggers are furious, and the real hardcore fans are absolutely livid. Who will triumph, and who will break?
Learn the game that adults play in private--and use it against them!
Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! A "board game" where you gather a gang of girls in the roaring 20s and taunt, fib, & flirt your way to high school domination! [more inside]
June 18
Alright folks, let’s get this show on the road. I want to make it to Country Buffet by four.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The Abridged Script [probably contains spoilers]
"An experiment in organic software visualization."
Slangin' Liquor in the Hood
Slangin' Liquor in the Hood From the site:
A look into the everyday dealings of a 34 year old liquor store owner and his crew in the "hood." Gangs, trailer parks, alcoholics, methheads, crack heads (yeah they still exist)....I read somewhere that this profession makes the top 5 regularly among the most dangerous jobs. But me, I ain't scurred. [more inside]
R.I.P. Arizona Parking Solutions
R.I.P., Arizona Parking Solutions. Guy parks car without displaying his pass. APS boots car. Guy dollies car into his garage and invites APS to reclaim their boots. Or not; their choice: either way, they can't tow, he won't pay the fine, and he really doesn't need to be driving the car. This catch-22 upsets the owner. And eventually APS goes off the deep end, booting nearly everyone's car in the community. The media becomes involved. And we become witness to a business owner suiciding his own business.
A number we can live with
Today marks the official 8-language launch of 350.org and the start of global action against climate change. But what does this 350 number even mean? As author Bill McKibben and a chorus of scientific voices suggest, it means everything to the planet. If we want an earth at all, we'll need an Earth at 350.
Big Bad John
Nick Sanderson 1961-2008
Nick Sanderson, ex-lead singer of UK art rockers Earl Brutus, has passed away. Earl Brutus were one of the most overlooked bands of the Britpop era, Sanderson himself being a swaggering hybrid of Jarvis Cocker and Mark E Smith. If you've not heard any of their music, just listen to (and watch) Come Taste my Mind (YT), and have a taste of the Brutus.
Well, That Took Balls...
Nicolás Guagnini has produced an art book entitled 77 Testicular Imprints. You can see an example here. Not everyone is impressed (scroll to #4). [more inside]
Yale Environment 360
Yale Environment 360 is an online environment magazine from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. It has a lot of great material, like "Biodiversity in the Balance" by Carl Zimmer and "Carbon’s Burden on the World’s Oceans" by Carl Safina and Marah J. Hardt. [Via Zimmer's blog The Loom]
Tasha Tudor, R.I.P.
Artist Tasha Tudor is dead at age 92. Born in 1915 to an inventor and a painter, Tasha has been a quirky fixture in the childrens' publishing world for more than half a century. She lived an anachronistic life in Vermont, raising goats and chickens, caring for the small herd of Welsh Corgis that appeared in many of her books, and maintaining a small arts-and-publishing business that sustained her and her family for years. When she died, she said, she wanted to return to the 1800s as a sea captain's wife. Here's hoping she's inhaling sea air now.
The Barnett Shale Or How I Learned to Love the Gas
The Barnett Shale, the largest onshore natural gas formation in America, is transforming Fort Worth, TX and surrounding areas. [more inside]
Found Feet
Footloose. No, not the movie, and not the song, but the continuing mystery of feet washing up
in the Strait of Georgia. Previously, previously and previously.
Do no harm?
To treat, or not to treat? Samuel Golubchuk is 84 years old, in a coma on life support in a Winnipeg hospital, and the subject of ethical, religious, and legal debates. Three doctors have refused to continue providing care, while one has stepped in, potentially keeping the intensive care unit in operation.
Click click victorious, buzz buzz glorious, Long to reign over us, buzz buzz click click.
The first known recording of a digital computer playing music, recorded by the BBC in 1951. The music played on a Ferantti Mark 1, one of the first commercial general-use computers, and was entered via punchtape and played on a speaker usually used for making clicks and tones to indicate program progress.
Everyone is an Expert on Something
H.A.R.O., or "Help A Reporter Out," is the brainchild of Peter Shankman (aka skydiver on Twitter). Embracing the philosophy that "Everyone is an expert on something," HARO matches reporters and authors up with sources through the simple process of a sign-up form. Seems like a good match for all the experts here on MeFi. [more inside]
What's the problem with Yale?
William Deresiewicz examines the pitfalls of an Ivy League education Apparently, the Ivies prepare you for... mediocrity.
U.S. Conference of Mayors
The United States Conference of Mayors will take place from June 20th-24th in Miami, FL. The agenda (pdf) includes rising energy costs, housing, water, transportation, street crime, public schools, gangs, health care quality and costs, secure airports and ports, illegal guns, drugs, and immigration with a special focus on climate protection initiatives. Not to mention speakers Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton. [more inside]
You Duck Stealing Goin Pile!
Insult generators have been done previously (here and here), but there's something about this one that makes me smile.
If you don't think so, you're a Thighbone Cooking Doodle Drinker.
Flickr founders leaving Yahoo
Please turn off the lights. The founders of flickr are joining the executives leaving Yahoo. Caterine Fake left Friday; Stewart Butterfield will leave July 12th.
Nice going, there, Switzerland!
Oops! Swiss national broadcaster SRG turned back time on Monday when, while broadcasting an Austria/Germany soccer match, it offered subtitles accompanying Germany's national anthem that mistakenly included the "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles" lyrics, a verse popular under Nazi rule but ignored since the fall of the Third Reich. The melody, Das Deutschlandlied, comes courtesy of Joseph Haydn, who penned the ditty in 1797. [more inside]
Just like any mother
A Turkish Celebrity, Bulent Ersoy; a popular singer of Ottoman classical music, has gone on trial charged with attempting to turn the public against military service.
What makes this a bit different is that Bulent is a 56 year old transexual. It has been suggested in local daily news that this is the Revenge of the oppressed sexual identity. Here is Bulent
Ersoy performing as a man and as a woman. [more inside]
Planets in a waterdish
Is that Jupiter or Saturn? Or perhaps a picture of extrasolar planets? Nope, it's one of Jason Tozer's beautiful pictures of soap bubbles. The Creative Review blog has a post about how Tozer took the pictures. [more inside]
Down time on Hoth
Introducing to MetaFilter: Reg Mellor, one of my all-time heroes.
The King of the Ferret Leggers Reg Mellor has been a hero of mine ever since I first heard of him, maybe ten years ago. A total whack-job, it's true; a hero nonetheless. I've been a member here for a while and hadn't posted anything, thought of Reg, searched and found nothing posted here about him; I'm hoping some of the rest of you will enjoy reading about him as much as I have.
June 17
"No fixed pushers, and no magnet skateboards."
These "track boards," or "fix push" boards, were initially developed to be raced in the velodrome, and differ from traditional skateboards in one major way: the rider can never coast.
A brief documentary on the increasingly popular fix-push skateboard culture and its roots in San Francisco's Mission district. [more inside]
Spoiler Alert.
"This film is so bad that I feel compelled to make a spoiler-laden list of its most laughably terrible parts rather than review it." - Christopher Orr reviews spoils M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" to save people from having to watch it. The film is getting the worst reviews of Shyamalan's career. Which is saying something.
>find pig
Pig lost! Boss say that it Grunk fault. Say Grunk forget about closing gate. Maybe boss right. Grunk not remember forgetting, but maybe Grunk just forget. Boss say Grunk go find pig, bring it back. Him say, if Grunk not bring back pig, not bring back Grunk either. Grunk like working at pig farm, so now Grunk need find pig. [more inside]
A "Harmonious" Path
Accidental Astrophysicists: "They started with algebra and ended up learning about gravitational lensing (PDF)." [Via linkfilter]
Beautiful Dynamite
Cyd Charisse passed away today at 86. Part of the MGM Golden Age, she first started out in minor roles usually as a dancer (1:52). It wasn't until the Gotta Dance routine with Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain did she begin to get meatier roles. [more inside]
The Bicycle Tutor
The Bicycle Tutor is a site with lots of video tutorials designed with a sole purpose; to teach you how to fix your own bicycle. [via mefi projects]
Who says Republicans don't have class?
Dogs in Wigs
Dogs in wigs
Dogs in wigs
Dogs in wigs
Dogs in wigs
Dogs in wigs
This is a little weird.
Mouseover text for more info.
Dogs in wigs
Dogs in wigs
Dogs in wigs
Dogs in wigs
This is a little weird.
Mouseover text for more info.
Traffic Scorecard
The National Traffic Scorecard ranks the 100 most-congested metropolitan areas in the United States. Number one? Los Angeles, naturally. [more inside]
Everything should be subject to critical analysis.
Via The Friendly Atheist and the New York Times, this blog post and this article explain two instances of a very, very unsettling new phenomenon. [more inside]
zzzzzzzzzzzz
Firefox 3: Hot or Not?
A major new release: Firefox 3 is now out in your language. (RC3 is said to be identical to the Final 3.0.0.0 version). Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Upgrade to Firefox 3. Firefox 3 Versus IE 8 Beta An opposing view: Hold Off on Firefox 3 (the chicken!). Alternative view? Flock catches up with Firefox 3. PS: (As you might expect from something expected to set a World Record for number of downloads today, he Mozilla sites are currently getting crushed, apparently ).
Help populate the fantasy world.
The king of sound silenced
Allergic to WiFi
Are you allergic to WiFi? Some residents of Sante Fe, NM certainly think they are and they want to take away municipal WiFi to sate their delusions.
So that's why it's called IPA
Have you ever wondered what a real IPA tasted like after the long, hot journey to India? Pete Brown found out. [more inside]
CookingFilter: Ten Home Cooking Mistakes
Keith Law's Ten Common Home Cooking Mistakes. Law, better known for his sports writing, lists ten pitfalls the home chef can fall into and how to avoid them.
No Monty jokes...
Earlier this year, the US Fish and Wildlife service opened an inquiry into the possibility of adding all snakes of the genera Boa, Python and Eunectes to the Injurious Species List. [more inside]
Breakfasthenge
Concentration for music fans
Lets play the Album Cover Game! [Flash]
The web conceived in 1934?
Le réseau - Starting in the late 19th century, Belgian Paul Otlet envisioned the basics of a human powered Wikipedia and Google. He created a 12 million item database on index cards and accepted queries via mail or telegraph. The article describes his work and the Mundaneum museum in his honor. Be sure to watch the video. There is a full documentary on Otlet as well.
The revolution will be led by a 12-year-old girl
GrifBall
GrifBall! Red Vs. Blue's Sarge and Caboose introduce the rules. A sample match: Bungie Vs. RvB. Context: Since the release of online multiplayer first-person shooter Halo 3, Bungie have allowed players to customise maps with the placement of objects, weapons, spawn points etc. using the Forge feature. Combined with customisable rule sets, unusually innovative custom games are possible. [more inside]
A Woolen Reef
It's all in your head.
Homosexual brain resembles that of opposite sex. As announced yesterday in the Swedish Newspaper Dagens Nyheter, researchers at the Stockholm Brain Institute have published the results of a study conducted using PET scanning showing that homosexual men showed brain similarity with heterosexual women in their amygdala connections, which process certain emotions, as did homosexual women and straight men. [more inside]
June 16
Wholphin: DVD Magazine of rare and unseen videos
Wholphin: DVD Magazine of rare and unseen videos Delightful and unexpected collections of videos.
There's a lot here. Let me show you a few of the videos that caught my eye:
The Country, a short animated film based on a whimsical poem by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
The Strongest Man
Drink all Day
The Crying Game (AKA The Competition, Take 1) (with surprise ending)
Brimful of Kumar
Rare Kishore Kumar Songs is a website dedicated to the music of legendary Bollywood playback singer and comic actor Kishore Kumar. There are hundreds of songs, many with other Bollywood legends, such as Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar. There are also songs by Kishore's son Amit. All songs and videos are in Real Player format and in low quality.
Get yer urban exploration/dead mall fix right here
"Q: What the hell is this site about? This is a site about urban exploration in the Ozarks." Abandoned water slides, underground tunnels, abandoned buildings and half-demolished malls throughout Missouri were all once fair game for this blog, and remain fair game for those who post in Underground Ozarks' forums.
What's black and white and was heard all over?
In the 1930-40s there was an interracial, all woman swing band, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. They are not exactly forgotten. There is a book, a movie, a black history month public radio special and a tribute album devoted to them. Ladies and gentleman: the International Sweethearts of Rhythm (YouTube). More audio files here. Photo 1, 2 [more inside]
Nothing but to keep on trying
Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were the first to wed in California -- again. Martin and Lyon are best known for founding the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian rights organization in the U.S. Congratulations, Del and Phyllis!
Associated Press? More like Litigious Press, amirte?
The Washington Post give the Associated Press the banhammer. It seems the A.P. doesn't like some blogs for using its headlines and excerpts. It's fair use, but A.P. disagrees. NYTimes take. [more inside]
Boris Artzybasheff
Diableri, Machinalia and Neurotica. Illustrations by Boris Artzybasheff (previously) from his book As I See.
Are your peers making more than you are?
NYC Waterfalls
NYC Waterfalls -- On June 26th, four waterfalls will go up around New York City.
Designed by Olafur Eliasson and paid for, in part, by the Public Art Fund. Rendering of what they will look like here.
Good night, Stan
Legendary special effects artist Stan Winston has passed away from cancer at the age of 62. From Mr. Roboto to the Terminator to Iron Man, he leaves an almost unparalleled body of work.
A neat interface to a depressing market
HotPads has one of the cooler interfaces to the real estate world. Especially worth looking at are the heat maps that show you scary, scary foreclosure rates across the country and the rent ratios that tell you whether it is worth buying in a particular area, among lots of other data.
Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy. Because we know that the earth sits on giant elephants which in turn ride an even gianter turtle. [more inside]
Birthrate Ballyhoo
Baby Bust! After 200 years of exponential population growth, and just four decades after overpopulation doomsaying began filling the bestseller lists, the First World is suddenly gripped with underpopulation hysteria. The governments of the developed world have always maintained an interest in birthrates and procreation, but the reasons why are changing, and the ensuing demographic debates about gender, race and culture are "ideologically fraught and scientifically questionable."
Would you like more cheese for your Lagermelt?
Lagerfeld Confidential documents the daily life of everyone's favorite eccentric fashion mogul and head of Chanel: Karl Lagerfeld (warning: peacock terms).
Guaranteed to be brimming with more karlquotes than you can wave a fan at. [more inside]
Farm life in 1910
Farming with Dynamite Do stumps, clay or tired old soil have you down? Let "Red Cross" dynamite come to your rescue. (A blast from the past via ) [more inside]
Elementary School Slavery Play
This is what happens when you ask a bunch of fifth-graders to write a play about slavery. The teacher claims the only advice he gave them was "Keep working, it isn't good enough." [via] [more inside]
Steampunk recumbent.
Steampunk recumbent. That is all. I'm speechless but awed.
Guantanamo: Beyond the Law
Guantanamo: Beyond the Law From the table of contents: "An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad." A few pieces are already up -- "We got the wrong guys", and "'I guess you can call it torture'" -- and more will be released as the week goes on. The project also includes a database of detainees and their stories of detention, documents acquired during the investigation, video and a whole lot more.
Optical illusions
Dead labour.
A close reading of the text of Volume One of Marx's Capital in 13 two-hour video lectures by David Harvey. (Two online so far) David Harvey is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York. He has been teaching Karl Marx's Capital, Volume I for nearly 40 years. Marx biographer Francis Wheen speaks on NPR as to why the book remains required reading.
Forgotten Architects
Forgotten Architects: In the 1920s and early 1930s, German Jewish architects created some of the greatest modern buildings in Germany, mainly in the capital Berlin. A law issued by the newly elected German National Socialist Government in 1933 banned all of them from practicing architecture in Germany. In the years after 1933, many of them managed to emigrate, while many others were deported or killed under Hitler’s regime. Pentagram Papers 37: Forgotten Architects is a survey of 43 of these architects and their groundbreaking work. [more inside]
All your scary song needs, from A to Z (Astro to Zombie)...
Anyone who thinks Porter Wagoner's twisted, echo-laden psycho-classic The Rubber Room is worth blogging about is someone after my own heart, and anyone who can introduce me to tunes like Voodoo Voodoo and Midnight Stroll is someone I'm gonna make a MetaFilter post on. That's just the way it is. And it just so happens that this particular blog, The Essential Ghoul's Record Shelf, is the new project of MeFi's own beloved, web-prolific Astro Zombie, whose strange and wonderful tunes y'all should listen to as well.
June 15
Make Em Clap To This
The Kanye West Beat Drop. A number of the web's best rap blogs get together to post and chronicle the best of Mr. West's impressive and extensive history of producing, ghost producing, and the stories around many of the songs. [more inside]
The internet is a series of Cubes
From the minds that brought you this, Cubescape is the chance to do your own little isometric projection drawings. I have some favorites. (See hover-overs)
The Father Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter
You won't find Donkeyskin in many modern fairy-tale anthologies, perhaps because it concerns a girl so beautiful that her own father wanted to marry her. But don't worry, she dresses up as a donkey and escapes! Made famous by Charles Perrault, the story has many variants--Catskin, Allerleirauh, Thousandfurs, The She-Bear, All Kinds of Fur--and has been subject to many interpretations. The tale was illustrated by several of the great gift-book illustrators, including Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Gustave Doré, and the less well-known R. de la Neziere. (More R. de la Neziere here and here.) Oh, and here's a sexy one. [more inside]
Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights
Satellites Document War, Destruction From Outer Space. The AAAS's Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project uses high-resolution satellite photography to detect and call attention to human rights violations.
Anthropomorphising the War on Terror
Afuganisu-tan is a simple and impossibly cute manga illustrating the background and development of conflict in Central Asia. In which we learn that "Afuganisu-tan gets picked on a lot and has bad luck." Also, "Meriken is a superhero fanatic and has a tendency to think her version of justice is right for everyone." [more inside]
Fawns love carrots.
Gore Vidal on The New York Times Magazine
Gore Vidal on The New York Times Magazine. On McCain: "Who started this rumor that he was a war hero? Where does that come from, aside from himself? About his suffering in the prison war camp?". On WFB's death: "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred". [more inside]
High Performance Kart Racing
High performance kart racing is frequently misunderstood to be bumper-car-like "fun park" or "trailer park" karting in the US. [more inside]
Life before ProTools
Al Green sits in with Chicago (SLYT with a massive side order of awesome).
Best review of worst book ever
"The lamp's glow was very weak compared to the blue glow emancipating from the basement." And while the award for best book review ever certainly goes to young Chaz Moore, the contest for worst book ever written presents some competition. And so as not to offend anyone, here's the obligatory honorable mention.
El Gato Unicornio!
As a child, illustrator Rafa Toro adored the creepy Monstruos Diabolicos sticker collection. As an adult, he's giving the whole set a fresh look. [Via]
Zaida Ben-Yusef, New York Portrait Photographer
Photographer Zaida Ben-Yusuf (1869-1933) was an important figure in the pictorialist photography movement in late 19th and early 20th century New York. The first woman to embark on building a "gallery of illustrious Americans," Ben-Yusuf attracted to her Fifth Avenue studio many of the most prominent artistic, literary, theatrical and political figures of her day. See the first exhibit ever on her photography at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC (through Sept. 1), view the online exhibit or read the book.
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad refers to the effort -- sometimes spontaneous, sometimes highly organized -- to assist persons held in bondage in North America to escape from slavery. Historic places along the Underground Railroad are testament of African American resolve. One of those places is Lycoming County, PA. Freedom means a hard, dangerous trek. Do you try it?
Let's be careful out there....
Stupid Design Neil deGrasse Tyson gives a short view from the other side of the coin. (SLYT)
June 14
Beautiful Goats
The "Most Beautiful Goat" competition. SIx pictures from the Mazayen al-Maaz this year in Riyad.
The Beatles, in their native habitat
1964 means the Beatles. But listen to the other #1 hits that year! No wonder Douglas Adams broke into the matron's room. Via my second favorite music blog.
Floating university moored
The Scholar Ship , an international floating university stewarded by top universities in Morocco, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Mexico, USA, and Ghana, have temporarily suspended all voyages due to lack of funds - mainly caused by the withdrawal of main sponsor and initiator Royal Caribbean International. The program ran two voyages in 2007 and 2008 before shutdown. Alumni and prospective students on Facebook and Ning are busily sourcing options to revive the organization, while Semester at Sea is offering spaces to students who were accepted for the now-cancelled voyages. [more inside]
GemCraft
GemCraft Flash Tower Defense goodness. Neat little rpg/upgrading touches in between maps. Lots of maps with some epic bosses thrown in every once in a while. [more inside]
You Are the Prize to be Won: The Adventures of Guy Alpha
This is Guy Alpha™, a salesman and delivery person for the Pleasure Factory™. He can transform into Super Hot-Man™ with the help of the Alpha Mind-Power Robe™ stored within his sidekick, Zed Suit™, a walking and talking robotic suitcase. [more inside]
Bruno's Art and Sculpture Garden
Full of contemplative creatures and sleepers, Bruno Torf's Australian sculpture garden began with just fifteen life sized terracotta sculptures. Today there are over one hundred and fifteen pieces on display and Bruno is still making regular additions. Dive on in. Via
Eat the taco. A funnel cake won't kill you.
E. D. Hill has company. Jamison Foser of Media Matters for America summarizes how Obama is treated by the press. (via Jay Lake) [more inside]
I wonder if Sumo Wrestlers have to lose weight also?
We've talked about BMI as a metric for health, and possibly laws regulating health. What about waist measurment? [more inside]
Freedom of speech
Should Michael Reagan be free to say this on syndicated radio? Should Mark Dice be free to say this (NSFW audio) on his website? [more inside]
"A small statement that says a lot of things to different people."
I Love My Life The Way It Is. A collection-in-progress of unscratched scratch-off lottery tickets, the project is the brainchild of Ali Alvarez, who hopes to collect at least 8000 tickets, enough to fill a 12x12 room from floor to ceiling. Alvarez is soliciting donations of unscratched tickets from volunteers around the world, and has posted pictures of some of the ones received so far. The idea of an unscratched lottery ticket makes some people "a little crazy," but Alvarez hopes the collection will cause people to explore the ideas of "getting your hopes high, dreaming, escaping, and then usually being let down." Via.
There's nothing as beautiful as a urine dump at sunset.
How space toilets work. They've come a long way. They sure don't look like the one in my house. What happens when they break? NPR explains the logistics of the repair process. Oh thank heavens, it's working again.
Salmoning: a bot-initiated two-way chat surprise
Have you been salmoned? I just met a stranger from Denver via the process of salmoning, in which a chatbot initiates an unexpected two-way conversation between two (apparently random) nicks, giving them both aliases ending with "salmon," and leaving both parties confused. [more inside]
WAAALT!
In The Stocks.
'Today I reviewed (again) the guy who takes pictures of his tools ... every single screwdriver in his tool box' ... a day in the life of a microstock photograph reviewer.
June 13
Perhaps We Should Rename the Song "George's Monkey"
Rethinking Literacy
The Dark Side of Literacy - Indian education reform organization Shikshantar, who aims to encourage concepts of "Swaraj", or self-rule in local education, argues that current education and literacy models do not take into account local cultures and languages and gives too much credit to the Western alphabet. They also argue that there are many serious flaws in what they describe as UNESCO's campaign of "McEducation For All".
Whither Aaron and Robinson and Mays and Griffey, Jr. and...?
"The pervasive narcissism and cartoon chest-thumping of young black culture no longer jibes with what's essentially a sacrificial game. Basketball hawks the individual star. Football offers glamour jobs like quarterback, running back, receiver. For baseball, meanwhile, sacrifice is an actual statistic: The best fail in 70 percent of their at-bats. 'The thing about baseball is that it's such a team sport,' Philadelphia's Rollins told Sports Illustrated. 'And when you're in the inner city, it's all about being the man, about establishing your strength as an individual. So how can you be the man? You want that ball in your hands with three seconds on the clock to take the shot, or you want the football under your arm. That's how.'
Race, class, families, fathers, and baseball: Where Have All the Black Guys Gone?
Race, class, families, fathers, and baseball: Where Have All the Black Guys Gone?
TSA gets Xray goggles. No, seriously.
Scanners that see through clothing installed in US airports. Good news! No more testing. Time to roll these puppies out. It's OK though, seriously guys. See we're gonna blur the faces when we look at their sexual organs, so everything's cool. K?
Prev.
Let's see that clip.
Tim Russert dead at 58.
Ledger Art of Plains Indians
Plains Indian Ledger Art is a website devoted to the art that Plains Indians developed in the latter half of the 19th Century when they got access to paper and modern painting tools. The gallery has 14 different ledgers, including the famous ledger by Black Hawk. The ledgers depict all kinds of scenes, amusing, violent, mythical, mundane and lots of other facets of life for the Plains Indians. There is also a short history of ledger art but for a bit more information read Drawing on Tribal History by Inga Kiderra.
Indiana Jones & the Quest for the Truth behind the Crystal Skulls
We've heard about the crystal skulls recently, thanks of course to the latest movie in the Indiana Jones franchise. As posted previously on MeFi, are they pre-Columbian, modern European, or from another world? Well, you don't have to take somebody else's word about them, when you can also check with folks who've handled them personally! The British Museum staff are constantly engaged in their own research projects, not least of which is a detailed extensive investigation into the two large skulls from their own collection and the Smithsonian.
We Have Met the Aliens and They Is Us
The Cosmic Womb: Recently published findings from researchers with the Imperial College
London’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering seem to bolster the case for
extra-terrestrial sources for the origins of life on Earth. (A PDF of the published results can be downloaded here, if you want the technical specifics.) [more inside]
Many. Same.
Only God Can Judge Me
Product Placement Banned in U.K.
Product Placement Banned in U.K. Minister says it 'contaminates programs'.
Keep Watching the Skies!
Bald Eagle Attacks Swan | Eagle vs Goat [YT] | Eagle vs Fox | Eagle vs Sandhill Crane | Golden Eagle vs Deer [YT] | Eagle vs. Eagle [YT] | Hawk vs Pet Mouse [YT] | Eagles vs Human Children | Eagles vs Our Primitive Ancestors | [more inside]
End of the World? ABC wants your ideas
Earth2100.tv is a project by ABC (video preview) to solicit ideas from the public and experts about the dangers facing world in the next 100 years. "The world’s brightest minds agree that the “perfect storm” of population growth, resource depletion and climate change could converge with catastrophic results. We need you to bring this story to life."
Little boxes on the hillside
Friday Flash Java Fun - 'Building Houses With Side Views' Entertaining Java game/exercise/doodad. [more inside]
Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green
Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green. Last month, Wired published what it called "10 green heresies" which makes the case for urban living, intensive forest management and, er, air conditioning, among other things.
Another Reason You Wish You Were David Byrne
42 days and a resignation
42 days and a resignation. The day after the British Labour government narrowly won a parliamentary vote to extend the time that the police can hold people for questioning without charge from 28 days to 42 days, Tory frontbench MP David Davis has resigned his seat. David Davis is a senior member of the main parliamentary opposition party - who strongly opposed the 42 day bill - and has stepped down to fight a by-election for his own constituency to start a debate over "the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government". [more inside]
Orange junk.
June 12
The fix is in
Gasoline prices fixed. 11 Quebec companies and 13 individuals were charged today in a gas price fixing scheme. The Competition Bureau conducted a lengthy investigation into the allegations. [more inside]
You know less about Tetris than you think
Tetris has changed over the years. The latest game mechanics are well-documented and allow for techniques more complicated than those of us used to earlier iterations could possibly imagine. And of course, you can have it any way you want it. [via]
Goodbye yellow brick road
Bird Watching for Homebodies
Taking a look through this site, I can see why bird watching is such a popular hobby. From the common to the bizarre to the downright adorable. this site has a little... no, scratch that, a whole lot of everything. I suggest starting at the family list on the lower left hand column of the main page and trounsing about for a spell; it's good for the soul.
Go OKC!
Goodbye Seattle! Hello Oklahoma! Get ready for the NBA's newest team, the Oklahoma City SuperSonics! Whither Seattle basketball? Methinks not.
The Internet dies a little bit
Goodbye alt.* Andrew Cuomo claimed that his office found child porn on 88 newsgroups--out of roughly 100,000 newsgroups that exist. In a press release, he took credit for [Verizon's] blunderbuss-style newsgroup removal by saying: "We are attacking this problem by working with Internet service providers...I commend the companies that have stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry." Verizon eliminates the entire alt. subset of usenet. Today, the alt.* hierarchy is by far the most populous on Usenet.
Night Vision
The Light-Painter of Mojave D: An Interview with Troy Paiva (previously) about his photography and his new book, Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. [Via BLDGBLOG]
School Defends Drunken Driving Hoax
"On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School [Oceanside, California] to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend. Classmates wept. Some became hysterical. A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax — a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving." While the school defends its actions, some students are protesting: "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions." [more inside]
Cette bud n'est pas pour vous
Look away, MPAA.
RestoftheMovie.com will probably be taken offline pretty soon, since it seems like they show full (screener) versions of current movies (like Kung Fu Panda and Ironman) in streaming format, so you'll probably want to check it out sooner rather than later.
all the things you once tried so hard to forget…
Kindertrauma is about the movies, books, and toys that scared you when you were a kid. It’s also about kids in scary movies, both as heroes and villains. And everything else that’s traumatic to a tyke! [more inside]
"The test for determining the scope of this provision must not be subject to manipulation by those whose power it is designed to restrain."
In a five-to-four decision, the Supreme Court ruled today that detainees at Guantanamo Bay have a constitutional right to habeas corpus review:
Security depends upon a sophisticated intelligence apparatus and the ability of our Armed Forces to act and to interdict. There are further considerations, however. Security subsists, too, in fidelity to freedom’s first principles. Chief among these are freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint and the personal liberty that is secured by adherence to the separation of powers.[...] Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law. The Framers decided that habeas corpus, a right of first importance, must be a part of that framework, a part of that law.Decision, Summary, Analysis
plus, there's food. And bars.
With over 35,000,000 visitors a year, it could be argued that it is the busiest museum in the world. Yet most people are there to catch a plane. [more inside]
human egg makes accidental debut on camera
A woman ovulates during surgery for a partial hysterectomy, and it's caught on film.
Not Loving That Dirty Water
Hoping for the best for Mefites in eastern Iowa. I was CR born and raised, and just watching the feed on KCRG is ...disturbing. It looks like the height of the Cedar River is estimated at 25.4 feet, and it hasn't crested yet. They've lost a railroad bridge downtown so far, and the news feed keeps tracking the rise of the river by standing outside the studio and watching the water approaching. [more inside]
A Voyage for Madmen
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the ill fated Sunday Times Golden Globe round the world solo sailing race. Of the 9 starters, only 1 finished. The race featured courage, madness, and a cast of characters out of a book. The mad Donald Crowhurst, the enigmatic Bernard Moitessier, and the eventual winner Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.
one point oh four megawatts!
In 1876, the US celebrated the centennial with an International Exposition. The centerpiece of Machinery Hall, and the source of power for all the machinery therein, was the world's largest steam engine. A beam engine (previously), it produced 1400 horsepower and was built in a mere 7 months when other bids to provide motive power proved inadequate. [more inside]
Gallery of American Art by the National Endowment for the Humanities
Picturing America is a website by The National Endowment for the Humanities which aims to make great American art readily available to children, adolescents and everyone else who wants to take a look. Some personal favorites: Charles Sheeler's American Landscape, Childe Hassam's Allies Day and Martin Puryear's Ladder for Booker T. Washington. John Updike gave a speech at the opening which can be read here. [via Edge of the American West]
Modern rationalization
"This all would have never happened if their windows were closed." Runner up: "I didn't feel like a creep," he said. "I didn't feel like a Peeping Tom. I felt like this type of thing happens a lot."
On Kimchi
These days, spice is integral to ideas of kimchi in both the West and Korea—it’s always a funny game trying to convince various restaurant ladies here that I can, in fact, eat kimchi without spewing two ribbons of fire from my nostrils, thereby singing the wallpaper and confirming their suspicions that we white folks are just a bunch of food pussies. “Maeun-kot” (“spicy shit!”), they say, making flamey-flamey motions with their hands; “Yes,” I say, “Maeun umshik-ul chal mogoyo” (“I can eat spicy food, no lie, please stop looking at me like I’m a recalcitrant goat who’s about to try to eat a roll of barbed wire”).
I've Been Everywhere, Man
Are you, like many others this summer, considering avoiding the costs & hassles of pricey foreign or domestic travel by having a "staycation" at home? Daily Show commenter John Hodgman (ably backed by Jonathan Coulton on the strings) enumerates the benefits of a "Holistay" (much better name) to help you make your choice.
city of shadows
Remember the AIDS pandemic?
Remember the heterosexual AIDS pandemic? There isn't one outside of Africa. Actually, there never was. Well, at least not for straight people.
BPDG
Baby please don't go, baby please don't go, baby please don't go down to New Orleans, I love you so, baby please don't go.
Bye Bye Blackboard
Blackboards were wiped after use: they were meant for immediate communication, not for record. Even as they were being used, their messages were continuously revised, erased and renewed. But when Einstein came to Oxford in 1931, he was already an international celebrity. After one of his lectures a blackboard was preserved and has become a kind of relic. It is the most famous object in this Museum. [more inside]
Daily photos from the SF Bay Area
So you'd like to see daily photographs taken in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area? You can start with What I'm Seeing and supplement your viewing with the following sites. [more inside]
Mystery on 5th Avenue
It began when Mr. Klinsky threw in his two cents, a vague request that a poem he had written for and about his family be lodged in a wall somewhere, Ms. Sherry said, “put in a bottle and hidden away as if it were a time capsule.”
Sometimes when you make a simple suggestion about the remodeling of your $8.5 million 5th Ave. apartment, the designer goes a little overboard. In an awesome way. Don't miss the slideshow.
Sometimes when you make a simple suggestion about the remodeling of your $8.5 million 5th Ave. apartment, the designer goes a little overboard. In an awesome way. Don't miss the slideshow.
A Completely Original Game, Except For All Of The Parts That Aren't
Epic Theft? Epic Fail. "Steve Bovis, Tim Croucher and Laurence Francis, all from Maidstone, have dreamt of seeing Limbo of the Lost played across the globe since they first started discussing the game 10 years ago."* Conceived in the 90s as an Amiga 1200 title, the three Kentish lads went with the PC for the decades-deferred realization of their creative dream. Unfortunately, the long-delayed release of Limbo of the Lost is leaving reviewers with a profound sense of deja vu, as if they've seen this game somewhere before ... [more inside]
Beware the machines
Once home to the Naval Shipyards, L'Ile de Nantes now houses the workshop of Les Machines de l'Ile.
The 12m high Elephant made its debut last year (although a predecessor was spotted 3 years ago) and is the first of 3 major projects to be undertaken. [more inside]
Charlie the deer.
Ping.fm: update everything
Ping.fm lets you update your social network statuses, blogs and microblogs simultaneously from one place. The current sign-up beta code is "tastyping". [more inside]
June 11
7 deadly glasses
Wrath, Greed, Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Sloth
Don't forget your display!
Made by: Hamilton Design
(via)
Don't forget your display!
Made by: Hamilton Design
(via)
Interactive 18th century Rome
Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi’s Grand Tour of Rome is a rich and innovative geographic database that projects Vasi's 18th century engravings of Roman architecture onto the contemporary map of Giambattista Nolli [previously] with supplementary modern satellite, photographic and mapping overlays together with copious background detail. The work was undertaken by researchers at the University of Oregon (announcement) [via]
Galapagos kitties exterminated
What would have evolved in 10,000 years? Feral cats have long-established colonies on the islands of the Galapagos chain.
China's Olympian Human Rights Challenges
Beijing 2008: China's Olympian Human Rights Challenges. This website was set up by Human Rights Watch to monitor human rights issues in China during the run-up to the Olympics. "This is a historic opportunity for China to show it has the confidence to make tangible and sustainable progress in ensuring basic human rights for its 1.3 billion citizens." [more inside]
Sparkle sparkle
Starshine - catch the stars with your comet by clicking on the centres of gravity at the right times. Short, relaxing, charming Flash game.
"What are they gonna do, send you to Vietnam?"
[NSFW]"The following program is in living color and has been rated X by the Vietnam academy of maggots. The purpose of this program is to bring vital news, information and hard acid rock to the first termers and non-re-enlistees in the Republic of Vietnam. Radio First Termer operates under no Air Force regulations or manuals. In the event of a vice squad raid this program will automatically self-destruct." Radio First Termer was a pirate radio show broadcast by "Dave Rabbit," an anonymous USAF sergeant, for 63 hours between January 1st and 21st, 1971, out of the back room of a brothel in Saigon, gracing the dial at 69 MHz and 690 AM.>>
Fearing reprisal from his superiors, Dave Rabbit then shut Radio First Termer down and, after returning to the States, went back to living a normal life. 34 years later, while helping his son on a homework assignment, Dave came across old recordings of his show. He's since revived his old persona via podcast, and has also brought Radio First Termer back to the warzone--to Baghdad, Iraq. [more inside]
Phony airline ads and website almost too close to reality
A fairly convincing website for a fake airline added to the outrage some felt in Philadelphia when newspaper ads promised airfares based passengers' weights. "Philadelphia to L.A., $2.25/pound" read the ads.
Cinematic Renderings of Broadcast Television
Once upon a time, movies were made that parodied broadcast television, advertisements and all. I knew there weren't many, but really, this was all I could find:
The Groove Tube Tunnelvision
Kentucky Fried Movie
UHF
Amazon Women on the Moon (Links are to YouTube trailers of variable quality) [more inside]
A Changing Neighborhood
Before and after sattellite photos (along with much more information) of the effects of climate change over the past 30 years are available through UNEP's (the United Nations Environment Programme) Atlas of Our Changing Environment (Via)
Under His Robes
U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals Chief Justice Alex Kozinski [wiki] is currently adjudicating a remarkably hardcore obscenity case. He is currently facing his own obscenity case as well, having allowed public access to NSFW or illegal-for-minor-viewing material posted on his own vanity website, as reported in the LA Times. Although he maintains that the material's posting was just innocent fun, he clearly knows his way around the internets. Kozinski is a prolific and well-regarded essayist, and is occasionally mentioned as a potential Supreme Court nominee.
Coming to a farmer's market near you
As Oregon struggles with diversity, one young man from Corvallis takes a cue from Improv Everywhere and invites you to meet a black guy. [via swpl]
Worlds within worlds
The record has finally been set for an Onion article (video, actually) to turn into real life. It's now a real game. You can download it. It's free.
time: about 1 day.
The subject is MMORPGS (pronounced 'more pigs') and how popular they are.
(more inside for descriptions) [more inside]
Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound Was Mostly Bears
Hate Speech or Free Speech?
Portraits of Phone Sex Operators by Phillip Toledano.
Urban pranks
From the Improv Everywhere people comes the Urban Prankster blog to keep track of delightful shenanigans around the world.
She's a robo-babe. In Latin she would be called "babia majora".
Philips brings us the future of shaving.
Hand Crafted Tiki Mugs
Vantiki is the work of Hawaiian artist Henrik Van Ryzin. His specialty is hand-crafted, one of a kind Tiki Mugs, each with their own special twist. [more inside]
Eight solid hours of sleep... and DOOM!
How much sleep do you really need? Six and a half to seven and a half hours. People who sleep eight hours a night are 12% more likely to die in a six-year period than those who sleep less. If your new lack of sleep means you get tired mid-afternoon, recent research says the solution is, shockingly, to nap. And if you can't nap, at least learn the optimal way to dose yourself with caffeine.
Keep the lolxtian talk to a minimum
"I wanted to ask for survival tips in case I am unexpectedly transported to a random location in Europe (say for instance current France/Benelux/Germany) in the year 1000 AD (plus or minus 200 years). I assume that such transportation would leave me with what I am wearing, what I know, and nothing else. Any advice would help."
How to rock the Middle Ages with your bad 2008 self.
An Affair to Remember
Colorful Allusions
Colorful Allusions
Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In these rebus-style puzzles, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes.
Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In these rebus-style puzzles, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes.
Death Lives!
Death were a proto-punk trio of black Jehovah's Witnesses based out of Detroit back in 1974. They were almost signed to Columbia, but bailed on the label when Columbia wanted them to change their name. Instead, they self-released a 7" which is now quite a collector's item, influenced as it was by, “Iggy and Stooges, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and The Who”.
But the story doesn't end there. Recently, Bobby Hackney, whose father played in Death along with two of his uncles, learned of the band and, lo and behold, his dad found the master tapes for their unreleased full-length in his attic. Is a new chapter in punk rock history about to be written?
This little piggy stayed home, no longer.
"While her six brothers and sisters messed around in the mire, she stayed on the edge shaking. It is thought she might have mysophobia - a fear of dirt." This little piggy is afraid of the mud. Cuteness ahoy.
Why Do Beans Make You Fart?
ilovebacteria.com explains science to people who do not necessarily have a scientific background. You'll find a selection of DIY experiments like egg osmosis, and strange facts like the ever popular why does asparagus make your wee smell? And don't forget to meet the microbes.
The Supersizers Go...
With flagrant disregard for their waistlines and their own gustatory limitations, Giles Coren and Sue Perkins (known as The Supersizers) have been going back in time to the diets of their ancestors for the (education?) amusement of the general public (well, people who watch BBC Two). Restoration | Edwardian | Victorian | Wartime | Seventies [more inside]
The "dynamic octagenarian duo"
Lorenzo Semple, 84, has been a screenwriter for more than 50 years; his credits include "Papillion," "The Parallax View" and "Three Days of the Condor." Marcia Nasatir, 81, is a longtime agent and production executive, was the first female VP of production at United Artists, and produced films like "The Big Chill" and "Hamburger Hill." Together, they are the "Reel Geezers," offering irresistible film reviews on YouTube. To wit: Superbad, Iron Man, Sex and the City, Lars and the Real Girl, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood. [more inside]
What is a Munchy Box?
What is a Munchy Box? In the west of Scotland, in the towns and villages surrounding Glasgow, there is a delicacy available in some of the more discerning fast-food outlets. It’s called the Munchy Box (sometimes just Munch Box) and it’s a sight to behold.
June 10
It was this, or a million rubber duckies.
The world's largest ball pit? 400,000 black plastic balls, one reservoir, thousands of happy goths.
Other unusual things being filled with balls: the Spanish Steps, Rome, a co-worker's cube, San Francisco. (videos)
Captain Kirks Alien Mysteries
With all the crystal skulls, nazca lines and such at the box office these days now might be the ideal time to reacquaint yourself with the theories of Erich von Däniken. What better way to do it than by watching William Shatners Mysteries of the Gods ( Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, Pt. 5, Pt. 6, Pt. 7, Pt. 8, Pt. 9, Pt. 10)(MULTI LINK YOUTUBE SHATNERFEST)
Are Americans leaving the US?
While Gerorge Soros and Jim Rodgers predict one of the worst recessions for the US, Americans seem to look for exit options in form of a second citizenship. [more inside]
The New Yorker: The Gerbil's Revenge
Tourists black out reflective retinas in snapshots before printing them, and millions of people refer to strangers they’ve never spoken to as friends, because they’ve connected through a social-networking platform. [...] It should come as no surprise, then, that singers sometimes choose to correct recorded flaws in pitch with modern software, like Antares’s Auto-Tune.
Sasha Frere-Jones on auto-tuning, in The New Yorker. [more inside]
Sasha Frere-Jones on auto-tuning, in The New Yorker. [more inside]
Emily Dickinson
Fffffffffffffffff v. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Take the Funny and Run , a history of notorious joke-thieves from Milton Berle and Robin Williams to Denis Leary, Carlos Mencia (previously) and Dane Cook.
Top Tourist Spots Americans Can’t Visit
Top Tourist Spots Americans Can’t Visit. Some will take this as a challenge.
Monkeys fish.
Scientists find monkeys who know how to fish. Apparently, they're not the first. Although they might be the first to do so without tools. I, for one, want some sashimi.
Skin raised and red
Ariana Page Russell: My own skin frequently blushes and swells. I have dermatographia, a condition in which one’s immune system exhibits hypersensitivity, via skin, that releases excessive amounts of histamine, causing capillaries to dilate and welts to appear (lasting about thirty minutes) when the skin’s surface is lightly scratched. This allows me to painlessly draw patterns and words on my skin, which I then photograph. Images (click skin one or skin two). Interview.
Natural selection observed in a lab
In the 1980s, Richard Lenski hypothesized that his research team should be able to watch random mutations and natural selection taking place in a lab by observing a bacteria population over many generations. In 1988, beginning with a single bacterium, he started several replicate colonies. Recently, after 33,127 generations, his team has observed natural selection.
Hold all bets, please
How much of the Oil Shock of 2008 is peak oil, and how much just speculation? Will the cavalry ride to the rescue?
Where Religion & Politics Intersect
Like it or not, religion is at the forefront of the 2008 US Presidential elections. The Pew Forum On Religion & Public Life previously cited in MeFi threads examines many of the current intersections of religion and politics, domestic and abroad.
The English Disease
Vegan girl, 12, 'has spine of 80-year-old.' The youngster, fed on a strict meat- and dairy-free diet from birth, is being treated at Edinburgh's Royal Hospital for Sick Children. She is said to have a severe form of rickets and to have suffered a number of fractured bones. [more inside]
Sexually explicit salmon hentai comics
I’ve seen men in fur suits masturbating on stuffed animals. I’ve seen high heels stepping on snails. I’ve seen women farting on birthday cakes. I’ve seen guys wearing white socks in two inches of water in the bathtub. I’ve seen a tutorial on how to jack-off with a pair of Keds. And I’ve seen some weird stuff, too. Isn’t there a line of some kind, where it just stops being sexy to anyone? And the answer it seems, is no.... Because there is sexually explicit salmon hentai. NSFW. Via FG blog.
The Muse in the Machine
Robert Pinsky writing about Zork.
Yes, I know its super old.
Cluck. Cluck. (Thwack)
How to Butcher a Chicken. From killing to plucking to gutting and freezing, Herrick Kimball takes the budding poultry farmer step by step through the process.
I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.
Permission to approach the buffet?
"A venal, dysfunctional government"
"A venal, dysfunctional government." That is how the San Francisco Chronicle describes the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq. Now an investigation by the BBC's respected Panorama TV program estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq. But they are not allowed to report fully because of US gagging order.
"Everyone has this strange archiving addiction now. It's like they're trying to pin a butterfly to a corkboard."
Are cellphones ruining concerts? If they're not going off in the middle of a performance, they're constantly strobe-lighting the musicians. Of course, there are plenty of other ways you can ruin a concert.
No glove boning for me.
NYT asks: What's your recipe deal breaker? Deep frying? Requiring a helper? Standing overnight? Lifehacker readers chime in with the recipes that stop them cold.
Where the Wild Things are
Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen - YouTube animations of Maurice Sendak's classic childrens' books.
June 9
Don't be a sitting duck
Subivor - People should have more protection than a necktie, their shirt or paper towel to cover their mouth, nose and eyes. They need Moist Towelettes too. [via]
Think you can do better than Congress? Prove it.
No, No, Nostalgia!
NetClassixFilter: The next time you're standing clueless in the greeting cards section of your local drugstore franchise, you'll be wishing you'd visited the Gallery of Unfortunate Greeting Cards instead. For all your holiday needs: Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Weddings, 4th of July, Hallowe'en, Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and of course, Washington's Birthday. [via Cap'n Wacky] [more inside]
Impeach Dubya.
Impeach Bush. Dennis Kucinich has introduced 35 articles of Impeachment against George W Bush on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Health Inequalities
It's like gunning the engine of a car. The recent documentary Unnatural Causes examines the health consequences societal inequalities have on people. The PBS series has a couple dozen embeddable video clips exploring atomic testing, Native American Health, Latino Health and more. One clip examines why when African women come to the U.S., within one generation, their daughters suffer higher rates of premature babies and poorer birth outcomes.
One group is putting hundreds of millions of dollars into alleviating health disparities in 14 communities across the country. [more inside]
Museum of Nature
High Water Everywhere
For decades, showman Tommy Bartlett ran a Wisconsin Dells "Thrill Show" featuring waterskiers performing all sorts of stunts on Lake Delton. His bumperstickers were on the station wagons of tens of thousands of families across the midwest. This summer, Lake Delton is no more.
Mr. Buffett makes a bet
Warren Buffett bets a hedge fund manager $1 million that the S&P 500 will outperform hedge funds over the next 10 years. Buffett has argued vociferously, sometimes using parables, that the smartest way for the average person to invest is to put money in simple no-load index funds. The bet is being overseen by the Long Now Foundation's Long Bets, where previously Ted Danson has won a bet about the Red Sox and Brian Eno one one politics. And there's more on the Long Now blog, which is generally interesting reading.
iPhone 2.0
Gamers rejoice
At last, a study on video games that is grounded in common sense. Two scientists say their results can best be summed up in one word: relax. It's okay for kids to play videogames. What's more, parents can enjoy gaming with their kids. The relationship between videogames and violence is anything but causal. One interesting finding: those middle school boys most likely to bully others are the ones who play no videogames at all.
Boss Bitching
Boss Bitching is a user driven social content website that allows anonymous postings of stories about bosses.
Soviet Jazz
When people think of Soviet culture in the Stalin era, jazz usually isn't the first music to come to mind. But it was there, and some of it was pretty good, whether adapting Western standards,
partying with a Russian twist, or just being adventurous. If that's a little too old-school for you, try some Soviet funk.
HeroWorship Filter
Is Barack Obama the Messiah? After all, it may explain the logo. Maybe he's just a light-worker, "who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet." This could just be all hootenany from the press, like Chris Matthews, who called BO the "New Testament." But, as always, there are unbelievers.
Spock is Greek?
Star Trek: The Animated Series + Shatner (previously) "singing" (previ|ously) Common People (previously) = THIS.
100 Movies/100 Days
Stomp Tokyo's Scott Hamilton has completed 100 Movies/100 Days, in which he watched and "reviewed"... uh, 100 movies in 100 days. Many of the reviews are scarcely a paragraph, but quite a few are witty and insightful (particularly the last line of his Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull review).
X-Ray of a Reader
Ever used a slice of bacon as a bookmark? How about a hundred dollar bill? For every reader who has grabbed something close at hand and slipped it into a book, it seems there's a patron of a used book store who has found it.
Sucking CO2
Sucking CO2 out of the air has long been a holy grail for solving global warming; Richard Branson has promised $25m to anyone who succeeds. Of course it's already been done, but the amount of energy required doesn't make it net carbon positive. Now a team in Arizona, led by Klaus Lacknet under the company of Global Research Technologies, says it has made a significant breakthrough that massively reduces the amount of energy required - the "project has reached the stage where it is quite clear we can do it." The planned prototype, which will be finished in two years, will cost $200,000 USD, be smaller than a shipping container and be capable of eliminating around 1 ton of CO2. Even if it works many hurdles remain but it portends a cooler future for air-capture technology.
Loudness war
"With each passing year records have gotten louder and less dynamic ...This all comes down to the moment a consumer hears a record, and the fear that if the record is more dynamic, the consumer won't know to just turn up the volume."
Is Ben Bernanke a finally coming out of the closet?
While the wild crowd call it "Woodstock for Central Bankers", others get festivities off on a sour note, referring to it as "Understanding Inflation and the Implications for Monetary Policy".
Regardless of what your invitation to this party reads, it starts today, Monday June 9th on the 50th anniversary of The Phillips Curve, a previously discredited forecasting tool which may be revived by Ben Bernanke at The Federal Reserve. [more inside]
June 8
Buzz reloaded
Oskari Tammelin picks up where he left off. Jeskola Buzz, a flexible and formidable (and free) piece of music composition software created in the late 90's by Oskari, had its growth unexpectedly stunted by a hard drive crash. Oskari indicated no immediate desire to continue the project at the time, but users of the software were so enamored with it they continued to create plug-ins, enhancements and hacks to pick up where the program left off. Oskari made the replay code available to those who wanted to develop software around the Buzz engine (for a price) and soon a number of Buzz clones followed, including variations for Mac and Linux. And so the Buzz community ran...until last week...
More than a lucky shot
"In the early 1970s, the artist Chris Burden pioneered a kind of sculpture that explored boundaries few people would care even to approach." The artist has had himself (in two of many examples...) nearly electrocuted and shot; some of his later and lighter work includes building complex model bridges and reconstructing a "Speed of Light Machine". He created a ghost ship, uninhabited and self navigated, and continues to surprise with his latest work.... [more inside]
My advice to the graduates: Plastics.
Randy Pausch, Barbara Kingsolver, Barack Obama, and J.K. Rowling inspired the hell out of Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Wesleyan, and Harvard graduates this year.
If you're a big fan of pomp and circumstance, you'll also want to check out these: Chuck Norris at Liberty University, Samantha Power at Pitzer College, and Michelle Nijhuis at Reed College. [more inside]
Klassic Kazoo
Bill Moyers Vs. Fox News
Bill Moyers Vs. Fox News The Fox News stooge was unaware that he was messin' with a Jedi. Joseph Campbell would be proud.
¿How do you design a year?
Google News from a Better World
Trainrider
Trainrider : How to surf on a train - at 330 km/h.
Sir Norbert Smith - A Life
'Danger Of Death'
In Bed With Chris Needham (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
A BBC video-diary documentary from 1991 depicting the trails and tribulations of a teenage metal fan as he tries to knock his band, Manslaughter, into shape for its first gig, with many digressions into his philosophy of life along the way. Some NSFW swearing. [more inside]
White Skin, Black Souls.
Often referred to as “sope”, meaning something magical inhabited by powerful evil spirits, albinos have long been the victims of discrimination in Africa (scroll up). Although Tanzania recently nominated an albino MP, they are being killed and mutilated to support a growing trade.
Fritzl, all too nonfictional
The horrifying crimes of Joseph Fritzl shocked Austria and the world. Recently two essays explored Austrian literature in an attempt to understand what cultural conditions could foster such monstrosity. Nicholas Spice, in Up from the Cellar, explores the work of Nobel Prize laureate Elfriede Jelinek and her dissection of male violence. Ritchie Robertson searches for antecedents in Josef Fritzl's fictive forebears. [via The New Yorker's Book Bench]
Objection!
SCP
Special Containment Procedures lists a collection of unusual, bizarre and often disturbing objects. [more inside]
Barack vs Clinton - a cool interactive graphic
Barack vs Clinton, a cool interactive graphic... What matters when it comes to which candidate people voted for? Race definitely mattered. Income matters sort of. And education. From the NYT, a fine piece of interactive illustration.
Postcrossing
you've got new postcrossed mail You have heard of geocaching. You have heard of Bookcrossing. Here comes Postcrossing.
The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you'll receive at least one back, from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world. [more inside]
Change Your Mind Day 2008
Crank That Honor Roll
Smart Shorties is a new CD being marketed to teachers that takes the beats from popular rap songs and rewrites them to the multiplication tables, with the intent of improving kids' math skills. Forbes has a nice roundup on it's history, and NPR has done a featurette on it as well At the very least, it's certainly worth a listen for the chuckle potential, but in addition to that, it's an interesting example of the now-booming Edutainment industry, something that not only spans CD's, but also computer games and even standalone video game consoles.
also, Smart Shorties is certainly not the only "Hip-hop in the classroom" product out there, nor is it the first.
also, Smart Shorties is certainly not the only "Hip-hop in the classroom" product out there, nor is it the first.
What Is A Species?
What Is A Species? "To this day, scientists struggle with that question. A better definition can influence which animals make the endangered list."
June 7
Nostalg-afire Explosion
Searching for animatronics that'll take you out and do you right? Long beyond their glory days, renowned Showbiz Pizza house band, The Rock-afire Explosion, is attempting a comeback. Not that they haven't tried before, but this reunion is driven on multiple fronts: the refocussed creator Aaron Fletcher, the head (and tail) of Creative Engineering; accomplished custom performances by Chris Thrash (previously on Metafilter) and his fellow fan programmer/collectors; and a cameo in the technicolor orgy of an MGMT music video. (Noticed on the fittingly titled Gorilla vs. Bear.) [more inside]
adopted by a seal...
Paul Nicklen grew up in the Arctic, and his photography is amazing...A short, narrated presentation on the National Geographic site.
A vicitm of overhunting
The Caribbean Monk seal is officially extinct. It's the first seal extinction attributed to human activities, though it may not be the last.
Nature's Design on Your Desktop
Designers spend about 90% of their waking life in front of a computer, so the most appealing genre for a wallpaper would be one that has beautiful design mixed with the all important aspect of being outdoors. At their best, desktop wallpapers bring animation to often lifeless computer screens, reflecting the personality of the user and acting as a calling card for creative talent. The Desktopography Project first arrived in 2005 as a place to download nature / topological themed wallpapers with edits from selected designers. They have just released their 2008 library.
Christened an Engelmacher, or "angel-maker"
NURSE CHILD WANTED, OR TO ADOPT -- The Advertiser, a Widow with a little family of her own, and moderate allowance from her late husband's friends, would be glad to accept the charge of a young child. Age no object. If sickly would receive a parent's care. Terms, Fifteen Shillings a month; or would adopt entirely if under two months for the small sum of Twelve pounds. This kindly nineteenth-century advertisement had a hidden meaning. If a woman paid her adoption fee to a baby farmer and handed over her infant, no one ever had to worry about that baby, ever again. [more inside]
The Prague Bible
The Prague Bible (1489) is a splendid three-volume MS of the Tanakh, once in the possession of Enlightenment luminary Moses Mendelssohn. There are several other beautiful examples of medieval and early modern Hebrew MSS online, including the Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts collection (New York Public Library), the Illuminated Haggadah Exhibit (Klau University), selections from Moses Maimonides' Moreh Nevukim (Leiden University), and the Prato Haggadah (Jewish Theological Seminary). See also the introduction to the Hebraic Collections at the Library of Congress.
They put me in handcuffs in case I bopped them on the head with a dandelion.
Wildman Steve Brill: The man who ate Central Park. Once arrested by undercover park rangers in a sting Wildman Steve Brill has been foraging in public spaces, including Central Park, for over 26 years. [more inside]
Sex, and sex, and more sex (and then write a book about it).
The antithesis of the sexless marriage: 365 days of getting it on, and on, and on. "Let's say you and your spouse haven’t had sex in so long that you can’t remember the last time you did. Not the day. Not the month. Maybe not even the season. Would you look for gratification elsewhere? Would you file for divorce? Or would you turn to your mate and say, 'Honey, you know, I’ve been thinking. Why don’t we do it for the next 365 days in a row?'" And of course, how could this be complete without books chronicling all the ins and outs of the experiments? (NYTimes article, may require registration.)
Seven average Indians
Liberalisation's children. The Financial Times interviews seven 24-year-old Indians, all of the average age but of very different circumstances.
Wine Jelly!
Wine jelly. Yes, wine jelly. It isn't bacon flavored, but you can make it yourself and its damn good. Distilled beverages can also be made into jellies, though they tend to be mixed with fruit juice.
Tough Luck
The public shaming of Orange County billionaire Henry Nicholas continues apace. While his financial crimes may not have drawn more than a passing reference, his drug use and other, more unsavory acts, have gotten widespread coverage -- as early as last year. Perhaps, it's because Nicholas was famously involved in supporting tough sentencing laws (his sister was murdered by her boyfriend in 1983.) However, some of the "tough on crime" policies he has backed as recently as a few months ago are said to unfairly worsen the punishment for those who commit crimes much less serious than those for which he was just indicted.
Harvesting Guano
Long revered for its value as a fertilizer, and as a raw material for explosives, guano is the dried droppings of various birds and bats. The New York Times has published an excellent account of the Peruvian harvest of this valuable resource including a multimedia slideshow. Guano was superseded by synthetics in the early part of the 20th century, due to the development of the Haber Bosch process, which fixed atmospheric nitrogen.
An attempt to harvest bat guano from a Grand Canyon cave in the late 1950’s was beset by technical problems and was ultimately unsuccessful. The remaining structures at the canyon rim are now a tourist attraction.
They're all gone
Veteran sportscaster Jim McKay dies. The host of ABC's Wide World of Sports for forty years, Jim also called the 1980 Miracle on Ice. However, he will probably be best remembered for being thrust into the role of news journalist during the 1972 Munich Games.
Gay Marriage in 1953
"Imagine the year is 2053 and homosexuality were accepted to the point of being of no importance. Now, is the deviate allowed to continue his pursuit of physical happiness without restraint as he attempts to do today? Or is he, in this Utopia, subject to marriage laws?" The same-sex marriage debate in ONE magazine in 1953. [via]
Meet Adam Chodikoff, that guy who makes The Daily Show shine.
Meet Adam Chodikoff. He's the guy that finds those before and after videos, where politicians contradict themselves, for The Daily Show.
Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar...
You'd be forgiven for thinking that the iconic American folk song The Wabash Cannonball was written as a tribute to an actual train, but in fact, in an interesting case of life-imitates-art, the actual train name was inspired by the song. The Lake Erie, Wabash, and St. Louis Railroad Company was formed in 1852, but there was no train called the “Cannonball” when the song was first sung late in the 19th century. There have been many, many, many wonderful versions through the years, but I think Roy Acuff pretty much owns it, wouldn't you say? [NOTE: See hoverovers for link descriptions] [more inside]
The carbon trading scheme
When Humans Punch Aliens
When Humans Punch Aliens: The Video Remix. A tribute to our diplomatic encounters with alien life forms.
Kiki and Bubu
Kiki and Bubu! Austrian art collective monochrom presents the adventures of two sock puppets. Part One: Kiki and Bubu and The Shift. "Bubu wants to know why his dad is busy all the time. And Kiki explains him why... because of the neoliberal shift." Part Two: Kiki and Bubu and The Privilege. "Bubu ran into a bunch of liberals and they gave him a book. They said if he doesn't read it, they're going to beat him up. But Bubu can't read! And so Kiki helps..." [Via BB]
June 6
Before Roe vs. Wade.
"There are few physicians today who can relate to the 'bad old days' before Roe vs. Wade. I can." A doctor who has seen the days before abortion was legalized relates his experiences and reminds us why abortion must remain safe and legal.
The "Humans of Hokkaidō" formally recognized.
Until 400 years ago, the Ainu controlled Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands. Today they are a small minority group of Japan. They are a hunting and fishing people whose origins remain in dispute. Long before the people who would come to be known as "the Japanese" completed their migrations from the Asia mainland, the islands of Japan were already inhabited by a race of people known as the Ainu ("human"). On this northernmost island, (Hokkaido), in the "snow country," there still may be found remnants of this once proud and vigorous people who roamed the Japan islands long before the Japanese themselves arrived.More links inside [more inside]
15 Vintage Warplanes in Flying Condition
As the Seattle PI notes "Paul Allen's 'Flying Heritage Collection' of 15 planes, mostly dating from the 1930s and '40s, is noteworthy both because of its rarity -- several are the only models of their kind remaining -- and its condition -- almost all of them have been refurbished so that they can be flown." [more inside]
The Grand Tour...in York
Don't stay a Virgin
It seems the Belgian "party" NEE's move towards film has ironically lead them into public service announcements and political activism for net neutrality; again using a sexually charged pun, but now directed at Virgin media.
Plastic Brain Outsmarts Experts
Garkov -- Garfield + Markov chains
HAL's iPod?
Inspired by the discussion of the remix of Nude, I dug up some other musical hardware (it seems that scanner engineers really like classical). Here's the earliest example of this silliness I could find.
Jon & Kate Plus 8: raising twins and sextuplets on reality TV
You're a couple in your 20s, with twin girls. Desiring to have just one more child, your fertility treatments result in sextuplets. You are the Gosselin family and your reality TV show is about to start a 4th season. You have your admirers and of course, critics.
Hocus Pocus! Ride That Line!
Hurrah! We're all Free Now!
New Allegations Have Surfaced that the US Is Effectively Holding Iraq's Oil Revenues
Hostage to Force through a Proposed Long-Term Strategic Alliance, Raising New
Questions about the US' Committment to an Independent, Self-Governing Iraq. The Deal,
Which in its Current Form is Said to Provide for an Indefinite American Military Presence and Blanket Immunity from Iraqi Law for All American Troops and Civilian Contractors, Is Understandably Not All That Popular with Many Iraqi Citizens. Iraqi Lawmakers Have Also Expressed Doubts about the Deal. (IRAQ WAR/POLITICS FILTER.)
Pleasing Blog. Some Monsterism.
Stealth bomber crash
Wired: "In February, a B-2 stealth bomber crashed in Guam. Now we know why. And we've got video of the scene." (good stuff starts around 1:20)
Not just for coffee shops and hair salons any more!
Magazine Design and Print Culture
"The Magazineer is a blog about magazine design and print culture, written by people who love, and make, magazines." {The most recent entry is by Jess, actually.}
An Unforgivable Name
"'Uncle Adolf' referred to William Patrick as 'my loathsome nephew'." Willy Hitler, the son of Adolf Hitler's half-brother Alois Hitler, Jr., is one member of Hitler's extended family, although he wasn't easy to track down. After WWII, he changed his name and tried to live a private, secret life in the United States. Now, his three sons, relatives of Hitler living normal, regular American lives, have decided to never marry and let their family line die with them. [more inside]
Get out of the vehicle, or we'll burn it
Islamic Banking - a compelling mix of religion and finance
While western banking institutions continue to reel from the credit crunch, Islamic banking, with assets approaching one trillion dollars, is growing at roughly 20% pa by offering Sharia compliant - and only Sharia compliant - financial products. But compliance to Sharia law in matters financial is not easy (previously). [more inside]
A Slightly Differently Approach To Old Skool Remixing...
I would have added this to the original post save for the fact that it's closed now. Anyway, this entry to the Radiohead Nude Remix Competition is innovative, interesting, awesome and nostalgic enough to warrant it's own FPP... I bring you Nude, played on ZX Spectrum, Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer, HP Scanjet 3c and a Hard Drive array, the work of video artist James Houston.
Oh look, we have created enchantment.
The male rejection of adulthood is now the dominant attitude in Hollywood comedy.
The center of attention is usually a guy, his buddies and his toys. He will, most of the time, be nudged toward responsibility, forgiven for his quirks and nurtured in his needs and neuroses by a woman who represents an ideal amalgam of supermodel and mom.
The center of attention is usually a guy, his buddies and his toys. He will, most of the time, be nudged toward responsibility, forgiven for his quirks and nurtured in his needs and neuroses by a woman who represents an ideal amalgam of supermodel and mom.
“I hear voices from another star.”
A Day In The Afterlife of Philip K Dick - An Arena documentary first broadcast by the BBC in 1994 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
share your neuroses.
June 5
Cyber Command Über Alles
"I like to see black words on white paper rolling up in front of my gaze."
"I have never had an accident where I have pressed a button and accidentally sent seven chapters into cyberspace, never to be seen again. And have you ever tried to hack into my typewriter? It is very secure," says author Frederick Forsyth. In the computer age, people still love typewriters. BBC News Magazine examines why, with some interesting comments after the article. Via.
There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
Russian car magazine "Autoreview" has posted photos of a 1978 Korean Air Lines (KAL) forced landing to accompany an article about the Land Rover Defender pickup that was used to haul equipment at that time.
Apparently, Korean Air Lines is not amused (Korean) by this effort to dig up the past.
More photos. Via the always awesome Marmot's Hole. [more inside]
Not the Ford Galaxy
Five years and 800,000 images went into producing a 4 gigapixel mosaic image of the galactic plane, which when printed out is 180 feet long. But it has been made browser-sized by GLIMPSE, the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire, the research group which, along with MIPSGAL, created the image: A Glimpse of the Milky Way.
magical balls
This fun Japanese contact juggler's clip is proving popular lately, but he is not the first Japanese practitioner of the art to surface online. Here are several more highly entertaining Japanese contact juggler clips worth watching: one, two (starts about 1:06), three, four, five. (all via the highly entertaining Ministry of Manipulation's blog). [more inside]
Sacred bulls and headless pyramids.
Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered the "missing pyramid" of a pharaoh and a ceremonial procession road where high priests carried mummified remains of sacred bulls.
Word Nerds
Inflatable Electric Cars
Inflatable Electric Cars When it arrives (hopefully in 2010) it will apparently be able to 2500 miles per charge.
"Changes in my cervix throughout the month"
"Day Ten - Cervix low and closed. Notice blood spot near os and brown clot near cervix (right). Possibly from vigorous intercourse earlier that day (not mittelschmerz as I am not ovulating yet)." First link has graphic photos that may be NSFW.
The world’s worst disease
While many ailments are considered terrifying, Lesch-Nyhan is the stuff of nightmares. An extremely rare genetic neurological disorder with no cure, it often compels its victims to self-mutilate, even when they understand that doing so causes them harm. Richard Preston used Lesch-Nyhan as a plot device in his best-selling thriller The Cobra Event, and went on to write a fascinating article about the disease, its sufferers, and its implications for human behavior in the New Yorker. [PDF]. [more inside]
Blog about those who tried to rock
For Those Who Tried To Rock is a blog about the bands that never went anywhere, for example. Urbicide, The Tribulations and Only One. The band photos are usually accompanied by mp3s and short testimonies, such as this one about Soft Option: "Flock of Seagulls owned Liverpool when we came together but we were really Depeche Mode fans. Trouble was, we only had one Synth – the Roland pictured above – so on the more complicated songs we covered like Everything Counts (see cassette below) I had to play parts on a Melodica – the small keyboard you blow into. It was my Mother's idea. We went to an all boys school, so the gigs were boys only, which meant we did not get laid but the nights we played were some of the greatest of my adolescence." [via Carrie Brownstein's Monitor Mix]
Mapping Iran's Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere.
Sensible units
123 mm = 12 stacked CD cases. 6 miles = 30 Eiffel Towers. 5 acres = 11 ice hockey rinks. Sensibleunits.com converts any length, area or mass into real objects.
Senate Intelligence Committee Phase II Reports
Senate Intelligence Committee Unveils Final Phase II Reports on Prewar Iraq Intelligence. Phase II Report on Public Statements [PDF] and Phase II Report on DoD Policy Office [PDF]. This may come as a shock, but most of what the Bush Administration said about Iraq wasn't true. Republican co-chair Bond, Kit Bond, says the reports are "political theatre." [more inside]
1966 federal ban on racial discrimination in housing
The Meaning of Box 722. Letters to Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois in reaction to the 1966 civil rights bill, particularly the federal ban on racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. At the time, Chicago was the most segregated city in the north, with boundaries enforced by mob violence. By Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland. When I started researching NIXONLAND I knew the congressional elections of 1966 would form a crucial part of the narrative. They'd never really been examined in-depth before, but by my reckoning they were the crucial hinge that formed the ideological alignment we live in now. Via Brad DeLong.
In an Instant.
In an Instant. "Would a doctor come right here?" David Steiner, 65, reflects on how the night of June 5, 1968, changed his own life forever. (LA Times reg. req.)
Canada's second National Anthem, no more.
The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Coporation) has decided to not renew a licensing agreement for the Hockey Night in Canada theme music (Youtube link).
Mortgaging America
America's for sale. Just ask Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. With the U.S. economy in shambles, Paulson just spent four days touring the Middle East, hat in hand, looking for investors to bail us out. Specifically, on Monday, Paulson met with heads of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the world's largest "sovereign wealth fund" with roughly $875 billion in assets, and encouraged them to buy American businesses. Mortgaging America by Eric J. Weiner (LA Times Op Ed) [more inside]
Boullée in North Dakota
The Safeguard system consisted of three primary components, a Perimeter Acquisition Radar, Missile Site Radar and Remote Sprint Launchers.
Boullée in North Dakota [via]
Is this it? Yes, it is. But it's plenty.
A squirrel enjoys a nice cracker, to the tune of "If This Is It" by Huey Lewis. Strangely satisfying. [more inside]
BK Veg City.
German advertising agency .start has created an ad campaign for Burger King Europe complete with various tray liners (1 2 3 4), an interactive website, and TV commercials.
Doug and Jeffrey
Miniature Illuminated Manuscript
The Morgan Museum currently have an exhibition featuring the 1517 Prayer Book of Claude de France, a gorgeous miniature (2.75 x 2 inches) illuminated manuscript, together with the Prayerbook of Claude's mother, Anne de Bretagne. [via]
I'm Tom freakin Skilling!
WGN-TV's Tom Skilling is legendary Chicago weatherman with an equally famous brother. While Sam Zell's ownership of Tribune Corporation has ruffled the feathers of many, even a mefite, it's very clear who is running the company.
Next Time Won't You Sing With Me?
An introduction to Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park: A WWII juggernaut. It decrypted German Enigma (try one!) and Japanese messages on an industrial scale in huts and blocks, had an outpost in Mombasa, and built one of the first modern computers (it helped that Alan Turing was on staff). Now a diverse museum with or without a funding problem, it generated yet more intrigue in 2000 when an Enigma was stolen, and hosts a rebuilt, working Colossus that launched a cipher challenge. Beating it wasn't easy! [more inside]
June 4
Reality
The Reality Tests. "A team of physicists in Vienna has devised experiments that may answer one of the enduring riddles of science: Do we create the world just by looking at it?"
Telescope making
Mark VandeWettering makes telescopes, and has written a set of guides for those who would like to build their own. Francis O'Reilly has made a similar set of guides, except as a series of videos.
Amazing map exhibition
Maps: Finding our place in the world is an exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, and it runs until this Sunday June 8. That page contains images of a few of the maps. One of the many great things included is an animated map of the US Civil War in 4 minutes (one week per second, timeline noted at bottom, casualty counter rolling in bottom right corner - info about this animation) The exhibition book was previously linked here; that site includes higher-resolution versions of some more of the maps. I was floored by all the stuff they have; in terms of the rarity of the stuff in it, and the geek-delight factor, I think it's probably the best gallery show I've ever seen. [more inside]
VF: How the Web Was Won
Vanity Fair has a typically excellent article out -- "How the Web Was Won," an oral history of the Web. Even if you're familiar with ARPANet, Metcalfe's Law, Pearl Harbor Day, the VC rush, whatever -- the story told by the often-animated people at the center of the whirlwind is an enlightening and entertaining experience. And for those of you don't know the history of the Internet, learn it! This is part of your heritage now. [more inside]
"social problems of a somewhat mixed-up but dynamic, even brash, modernizing community"
From the Bookstalls of a Nigerian Market. Onitsha Market Literature consists of stories, plays, advice and moral discourses published primarily in the 1960s by local presses in the lively market town of Onitsha [in then-newly-independent Nigeria]... In the fresh and vigorous genre of Onitsha Market Literature, the commoner wrote pulp fiction and didactic handbooks for those who perused the bookstalls of Onitsha Market, one of Africa’s largest trading centers. Examples: How To Write And Reply Letters For Marriage, Engagement Letters, Love Letters And How To Know A Girl To Marry, Learn To Speak 360 Interesting Proverbs And Know Your True Brother, Struggle For Money [All full-text links are in pdf format, and some are quite large]. With links to additional resources.
Satyajit Ray on Cinema
"In this rare documentary, Satyajit Ray talks about his films. Part 1, 2, 3.
Satyajit Ray... is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and letters, Ray studied at Presidency College and at the Visva-Bharati University. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing the Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London. He directed thirty-seven films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali, won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Document at Cannes film festival"
Do Your Strip Comic Exhibit
Do Your Strip: A hopeful book and exhibition where 70 artists and illustrators invent a character, provide instructions on how to draw it, then create the first comic adventure. Exhibit-goers would then create additional stories with their favorite characters. All the characters, instructions, and first strips can be seen here [pdf]. [more inside]
Go real fast.
Since 1997 ThrustSSC holds the World Record for land speed, going as far as to officially break the sound barrier - something that the Budweiser Rocket claimed doing much earlier, but under unoffical circumstances - or outright suspicion and disbelief. With Thrust SSC looking like something out of a Podracer lineup, the inboard and outboard video is something to behold. While workman-like and almost boring in calculated precision, it can get hairy. [more inside]
Back Story to the folk song "Tom Dooley"
Tom Dula was a real person. Who knew? The Kingston Trio's version of Tom Dooley is the most famous. It says here that Doc Watson's great-grandparents were the Dooley's neighbors. They say Ann Melton confessed before she died...
"Folk music is serious business."
May 25 tornado, Parkersburg, Iowa
The (U.S.) National Weather Service has released its report on a strong tornado that occured in Iowa the evening of May 25th. On the evening of May 25th, 2008 a tornado rated at EF5 (estimated wind speed was around 205 MPH!!) obliterated half of the town of Parkersburg, Iowa. Eight people have died, and 70 were injured. Here is a PDF containing incredible pictures of the damage (taken by employees of the NWS during their survey). [more inside]
They're not available from Edmund Scientific
Later this year, geophysicist Dan Lathrop's DIY Planet Earth will be filled with liquid sodium, weigh in at 26 tons, and will be spun-up to 80mph at its equator in an effort to discover how the earth's magnetic field is generated. Currently undergoing tests, even those can be pretty impressive.
A satirical rendering of Transhumanism.
That's entertainment
The Black and White Minstrel Show was a (very cheesy) British variety series that ran Saturday nights on the BBC for twenty years. Hard to believe that it was still on the air as late as 1978. A live show, "Memories of the Minstrels ," toured the UK to packed houses in 2004 and 2005. The show was performed white-faced and featured the stars, medley's and costumes from the original TV series. Previously. [more inside]
bomomo flash drawing/physics app
bomomo is a fun little drawing tool that creates some pretty interesting brush patterns using a variety of physics and mouse behavior. You can even save your finest works (Firefox and Safari only though) [via mefi projects]
How to steal priceless jewelry: prank call
Theives bypassed all security systems by simply posing as the security company on the phone These days as a robber dealing with high-tech security systems it seems that it's not about being a hacker or having loads of money to pull off a heist, its about making a phone call, having bear spray, and waiting for a guard to go on smoke break. [more inside]
Of being a foster parent ... of kittens
A teeny-tiny bloggie about itty bitty kitties. A foster parent of (usually) motherless kittens at the Tacoma Humane Society, Laurie Cinotto's blog IBKC has developed a following among ailurophiles through occasional shout-outs from Cute Overload. [more inside]
Remembering 10-Cent Beer Night
ESPN's Paul Jackson tells the tale of 10-Cent Beer Night and the ensuing riot in Cleveland on June 4, 1974.
He meant "Character Assassination"
Giant Vulva Bicycle Taxi
F#@%ed-up-Food-Filter
Encyclopedia Repulsica, a/k/a The Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking (1972 edition):
A peanut butter and lettuce sandwich, with a pickle on top
• The Weiner Tiara Bake
• Watercress Frappé (with optional radish rose)
• How not to serve a Hamburger •
[These, and many more, via a blog-full of eye-and-gut wrenching (and occasionally sublime) offerings from MeFi's Own™ Mael Oui, a/k/a Curly Wurly] [more inside]
Charity begins at home. And sometimes ends in jail.
The Banyan Tree Foundation promised to take donations from contributors to be redistributed to worthy Canadian recipients. The foundation also gave donors inflated charity receipts for tax declarations, and donors were encouraged to borrow money to contribute even more, and did... from a company now owned by Banyan Tree president Robert Thiessen. Now, the money has stopped flowing, and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has called the organization a "sham" and is going after Banyan donors for past charity receipts totalling more than CAD$100 million. [more inside]
Don't try this at home.
OK, I got yer muhfuggin Single Link You Tube post right here. That's right. Now you tell me that's not amazing. [more inside]
God Save The Thief -- Sex Pistols vs. Wolfmother
God Save The Thief (automatic download) is a mashup of The Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" and Wolfmother's "Joker and The Thief" mixed by The Illuminoids.
L'affaire du mariage annulé met Rachida Dati en difficulté
Rachida Dati, France's Minister of Justice, faces a difficult position after a judge annulled a Muslim marriage because of lies over the wife's virginity. [more inside]
Tiered internet use
Timewarner has set a precedent by creating tiered internet use that is capped at certain levels. Pricing will be about $29.95 per month for a 5 GB monthly cap to $54.90 per month for a 40 GB cap.
Apparently he missed 5% of it.
Bread Recipes and Classes
Here's your chance to bake bread like a master. Cookingbread.com. The detailed step-by-step instructions include photos to help guide you through each bread recipe, from start to finish. You will find many different kinds of recipes for bread machines, or family classics such as cheese bread and banana bread. I just made some cracked wheat this past weekend. Also includes printable recipe cards. So get baking. [more inside]
Adverts Made In Scotland From Girders
Take Britain’s favourite poem and add it to Scotland’s other national drink and here’s the result (mildly NSFW). [more inside]
Back to the future
By its own admission the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been ‘through the system’ since 2001.
even 200 years ago, there was a general insistence that prisoners be charged with and convicted of a crime before they could be condemned to the lower decks of an aging naval ship.( prison hulks previously ).
"Everyone can be constructive even in tiny ways"
Humble abode: Loftcube // Rucksack House // Micro-Compact Home // Superadobe // Zigzag Cabin // Tree Sphere // Mirador // La Petite Maison du Weekend _ all via.
June 3
MetaCognition
You know the feeling that something is on the tip of your tongue? It offers deep insights into the nature of the mind. [Via The Frontal Cortex]
A moment in history; Obama Wins Presidential Nomination.
It's official. Obama has won the Democratic Party nomination for the US Presidency. In response, McCain has launched a "verbal sortie" against him and the media has already begun disecting Hillary's campaign.
The story of a giant rabbit
Insert Office Space Jokes here. Or don't.
When they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free. Because they're made of metal. And robots are strong.
Build a robot for less than $50! Create your own evil robot of doom! Make an adorable red ladybug bot! Or a coat-hanger bot! Or another $50 robot! Or a 2-hour, $85 bot excellent for beginners! [more inside]
You mean they read?
"I can only answer in the negative: I want them not to read The New York Times, while subscribing to The Financial Times." The New York Times book review asks various writers for their suggested required reading for each of the three presidential candidates.
John Prine
John Prine released John Prine in 1971 with the songs Illegal Smile, Spanish Pipedream, Hello In There, Sam Stone, Paradise, Pretty Good, Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore, Far From Me, Angel From Montgomery, Quiet Man, Donald & Lydia, Six O'clock News and Flashback Blues. An interview from 1971.
Old Weird Europe
German newspaper Der Spiegel decided to take a look at Europe's oddest folk traditions and festivals. Perhaps you can have a metaphorical hard-on for the phallus festival of Tyrnavos, Greece. Maybe you're hungry for how a small Belgian town celebrates the practice of swallowing live fish. Or, alternately, you can look down on those bizarre practices... while chasing a giant wheel of cheese down a hill. [more inside]
The Amazing Race
The Great NYC Commuter Race! A short by Streetfilms about Transportation Alternatives' annual event that pits a cyclist against a car and a straphanger in a race to Union Square from Fort Greene. Guess who wins?
The Light The Dead See
30 years ago today, Frank Stanford, a young Arkansaw poet shot himself three times in the heart with a 22-caliber pistol. He was 29. By then he had become a powerful and unique voice in the American poetry landscape, dubbed "a swamprat Rimbaud" by Lorenzo Thomas and "one of the great voices of death" by Franz Wright. He left behind a strong (though often hard to find and/or unrecognized) body of work, most notably his immense epic The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You, a 15,280 line poem with no punctuation or stanzas. [more inside]
Geekin' out on your Grandma's Gramophone
[PREVIOUSLY on METAFILTER] Each week between 2005 and 2007 (and sporadically thereafter), Basic Hip Digital Oddio's Kiddie Records Weekly offered children's recordings issued by big labels during the 1940's and 1950's. This cache now holds approximately 214 phonograph records, the covers and sounds therein lovingly digitized, ready for you to absorb.
Do the Uke!
The UkeCast The Ukulele Podcast
You've Been Left Behind & I Nailed Your Wife
We all know The Rapture is coming soon (although "no one knows the day or hour"), and many of us will want to send out appropriate taunting messages from our heavenly perch to our loser buddies that didn't get chosen. At last, a service provider has arisen to serve this need. At You've Been Left Behind, you can store up to 250 MB of documents to be sent to up to 62 separate emails addresses in the event of the Rapture. Rapture is determined to have occurred when 3 of the 5 team members fail to log in to the site over a 3 day period.
A tale of two Sonny Boys
It's just gotta make you feel so good to hear (and see) Sonny Boy Williamson sing and blow the harp. Keep in mind, of course, this is Sonny Boy Williamson II we're talking about here. Yes, there were two harp-blowing Sonny Boys, and here's a documentary on the legendary Sonny Boy the first: Part 1 and Part 2. [more inside]
"Afterward, the locust with its execrable teeth"
The Speculum theologiae is a beautiful medieval manuscript. Its diagrams demonstrate visually various aspects of the medieval worldview. The diagrams are explained and translated and most of them are expounded upon in a short essay. My favorite diagrams are The Cherub with Six Wings, The 10 Commandments, Plagues of Egypt and Abuses of the Impious and The Tree of Virtue and The Tree of Vices.
Slipping towards the Singularity
The current issue of IEEE Spectrum devotes itself to the sci-fi genre du jour, the Singularity. Neuroscientists such as Christof Koch and David Alder talk about our understanding of the brain and quantum computing, John Horgan argues that it's just too difficult to recreate consciousness in a computer any time soon. Robin Hanson writes on the Economics of the Singularity, and of course, Vernor Vinge - the person who originally postulated the Singularity - tells us how to spot its approach. [more inside]
Survivors reborn
First it was Blake's 7, now another Terry Nation cult classic sf television programme is to return. The BBC have announced they are remaking Survivors. Telling the story of the survivors of a plague that wipes out most of Britain, the original was famed for its gritty and somewhat controversial story-telling.
"Shall I not have intelligence with the earth?"
Allotments: how to get one, and what to grow in it once you've got it. Lots of people have allotments. Lots. Geddit?
Epsilon
June 2
Rachel Carson
Rehabilitating Carson: "Why do some people continue to hold Rachel Carson responsible for millions of malaria deaths?" [more inside]
Therz a hole in the bucket Eliza Eliza
Who do you want her to be... next year? Fans of Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku vow to save the television series Dollhouse from cancellation by Fox Television - eight months before it is scheduled to broadcast. Is this just guerilla fan-marketing, or are they serious? Or both? (previously on MetaFilter)
This is an Andy Rooney post. That would be an Andy Rooney post worth celebrating.
The Andy Rooney Game. Here’s how you play: take out everything but the first sentence and the last sentence from Andy Rooney’s latest segment on 60 Minutes. Then you put that on youtube. That’s it! Check it out:
Rutabagas, Artichokes, Kiwis, Oh My!
FruitAndVeggieGuru – everything you need to know about the delicious fruits and vegetables you enjoy. Answers about how to lower your cholesterol or how to prepare asparagus. You’ll find loads of background and variety information, nutrition specifics, serving sizes, preparation ideas and care and handling tips.
Caution: May contain nuts
Where would you like to spend the rest of eternity? The man who designed the Pringles potato crisp packaging system has been buried in one of the iconic cans. Sandra Ilene West was buried in her favorite Ferrari. And a man buried in a suitcase (not by choice, it would appear) Previously: 1, 2
ObitFilter: Paul Sills
Paul Sills, son of Viola Spolin and one of the fathers of Chicago style improv comedy through his work with The Compass Players (who sort of morphed into Second City) and through his Story Theatre work has passed away at age 80. Chicago has lost two of its legends in one day.
Crap, I'm hungry.
At Taipei's Modern Toilet restaurant, the chairs are toilets. You sit around sinks and bathtubs, and eat chocolate soft-serve out of little toilet-shaped bowls. Bon appetit!
The Unofficial Google Shell
Hey, command-line nerds! You shell geeks over there! Switch over to your browser and go to goosh.org right now. [more inside]
Drawing Rock Music
Legendary artist Alton Kelley created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic sixties. His concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and fine art have forevermore defined that time. Kelley passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, June 1, 2008 of complications from a long illness.
Public Relations
Show me a PR person who is "accurate" and "truthful," and I'll show you a PR person who is unemployed. In The Wake Of Scott McClellan's New Book, CBS Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen Says PR People Are Aghast At The Truth. Includes a follow-up to the mountain of reactions he received.
Wigkitties!
A flipside of Kitty WigsTM, for the stylish kitty - pointed out previously - is available for the stylish kitty owner!
You got your E.coli in my pancakes and it's AWESOME
Cool: Scientists have genetically tweaked bacteria to create simple computers. Scary (probably unnecessarily): They're E.coli bacteria. Funny: The bacteria are able to solve the “Burnt Pancake Problem”. Money quote: “It’s kind of like that computer in ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. It’s been working on a problem so long that by the time it comes up with an answer, everybody forgot the question.”
Cats 'n' Racks
I have to be a star like another man has to breathe.
Sammy Davis Jr—entertainer , photographer... camwhore... SATANIST!!!??? Did hanging out with this guy make Sammy bad? Or was he just selling his
soul to be groovy? [more inside]
UAV Sniper Drone
Career Objective: Fail
Lists of resume blunders. “I am a wedge with a sponge taped to it. My purpose is to wedge myself into someone’s door to absorb as much as possible.”
Death of a Banana
The world loves the banana - they are the world's most popular fruit and the fourth most consumed food on our planet.
According to Johann Hari in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, it appears that the variety of bananas loved the world over - the Cavendish - is headed for extinction due to Fusarium oxysporum (Panama disease). [more inside]
EMBEDtastic!
Flash, PDF, two great tastes that go great together? And now you can use PDF flash movies to put videos in your powerpoint – er… what?
European Jazz Piano
Europe has produced its share of outstanding jazz pianists. Here are five of them: Martial Solal (French/Algerian-born, born 1927); Tete Montoliu (Catalonian/Spanish, 1933-97); Enrico Pieranunzi (Italian, born 1949); Misha Mengelberg (Dutch/Ukrainian-born, born 1935); Marco di Marco (Italian, born 1940). [more inside]
Meta-Media
"Lost is a far more ambitious piece of media, which uses the entire web as its canvas and its entire audience as its creators. I'd suggest this piece of work - Lost, when viewed in its entirety - is truly new."
He must specialize in a dozen fields...
In 1948, W. Eugene Smith, best known for his brutally honest war photography, traveled to Kremmling, Colorado to document the life of a small town country doctor. The result, a splendid piece for Life magazine, has been hailed as one of the first photo essays of the modern photojournalism age. [more inside]
Ellas Otha Bates R.I.P.
Ellas Otha Bates R.I.P. We all knew him better as that cat with the rectangular-shaped Gretsch who played it with the hambone beat.
Goodbye, Bo Diddley. And thank you.
Moving at a speed of 100 inventions per year
Madman or genius? Well... madman. But being confined to an asylum (with one of his symptoms described as "manic invention") didn't keep Karl Hans Janke from developing elaborate theories of atomic energy, flight, space travel and the history of humanity, creating over 4,000 complex drawings and even models over 40 years of incarceration for paranoid schizophrenia. [more inside]
TCP/IP via bongo drums
The Big Picture
The Big Picture The Boston Globe launches a new blog focusing on a large single image from the day's news. It's kind of surprising how rare it is to see a really big photo on newspaper sites these days and this blog makes the simple concept work. [via mefi projects]
Jero
Enka is popular Japanese music which started to become popular in the Showa era after World War II. Until very recently, it's pretty much been popular only with the older crowd or in karaoke. Recently, though, a popular young star from Philadelphia has brought about a resurgence with the younger crowd. Look at his videos and be amazed. Presenting Jero. [more inside]
What was shakin' in '58.
The year was 1957: the Soviet Union had launched the cutest little sattelite ever. And it didn't just look good, it sounded good, too! As sweet a sound as any avant garde composer of the 1950's might dream up! Of course, the US would have to get a little metal ball of its own into space, but things didn't go so well. They did manage to get one up there in 1958, but nobody knows if it sounded as good as ol' Sputnik. But anyway, most folks weren't listening to satellites 50 years ago, they were listening to, well, lessee, there was... [more inside]
Be afraid
Place matters
Another Paul Graham essay, Cities and Ambition. This one's one of his better ones though. His claim: each city sends its inhabitants a distinct message about how they should live their lives. New York City sends the message that you should be richer. Cambridge sends the message that you should be smarter. Berkeley sends the message that you should live better. Consequently, the city you live in has a profound effect on what you strive for, what you value, and how you channel your ambitions. Place matters; choose wisely. [more inside]
British Literature Blogs
British Literature Blogs is the brainchild of six British literary bloggers. Each working hard at bringing readers to forgotten or overlooked books, our BritLitBloggers decided that combining their latest blog entries together in one place would highlight the breadth and depth of British literary blogging.
NYT Op-Ed labels Obama "muslim apostate"
An opinion piece by Edward N. Luttwak in the May 12 Sunday New York Times declares that Obama is an apostate under Islamic law (Sharia), and thus that an Obama Presidency would compromise US relations with the Middle East. This Sunday, Clark Hoyt, the NYT ombudsman, was sorry.
RFK Funeral Train
RFK Funeral Train A moving audio and photo account of photographer Paul Fusco's experience on the RFK funeral train to Washington DC.
{via NYTimes Magazine}
Top Ten Top Tens
To celebrate its hundredth edition the Observer Sport Monthly publishes it's ten best Top Tens. [more inside]
The plague is over, lets party.
The plague is over, lets party. Article by Elizabeth Pisani describing the troubling consequences of a gay scene in a world where HIV is treatable and AIDS is avoidable.
Another Report Which The President Won't Read
The U.S. Climate Change Science Program has just released "Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3: The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States." It makes for pretty interesting reading. [more inside]
"Thus oft a struggle to escape - But lands us in a still worse scrape"
page2rss is a simple, effective RSS scraper. For instance, here's an RSS feed for Astronomy Picture of the Day. A powerful feature: "You can add a button to your browser's bookmarks toolbar that will create Page2RSS feed for the page you are currently viewing."
June 1
You look familiar.
Two Spanish women meet in their late twenties and realize that they're identical twins. The hospital had accidentally swapped one with another random newborn, and each family had unknowingly taken home the wrong baby. Now all three women - the two actual twins, and the one fake twin - are suing the hospital, who seriously did not have their act together. But there are all sorts of ways this could happen. For example... [more inside]
He keeps Bopping his Boppo!
In 1961 Albert Bandura published a study titled "Transmission of Aggression through Imitation
of Aggresive Models," better known as the Bobo Doll Experiment, in which young children were shown video of a woman beating up on an inflatable Bobo doll in various ways, the video of the woman and the results is quite interesting/shocking and sums up the general experiment quite nicely if you don't want to do too much reading.
"Schools should continue to require library research so they can see how old folks used to Google stuff."
The continuity I have in mind has to do with the nature of information itself or, to put it differently, the inherent instability of texts. In place of the long-term view of technological transformations, which underlies the common notion that we have just entered a new era, the information age, I want to argue that every age was an age of information, each in its own way, and that information has always been unstable. Let's begin with the Internet and work backward in time.The Library in the New Age by Robert Darnton, historian and Director of the Harvard Library. A wide-ranging overview of the status of libraries in the modern world, touching on such subjects as: journalist poker games, French people liking the smell of books, bibliography at Google, news dissemination in the 18th Century, book piracy and the different texts of Shakespeare. Some responses: Defending the Library of Google, The Future in the Past and Librarians Need a Better Apologetic.
Self Made Scholar
Self Made Scholar hosts a comprehensive collection of links to online classes in over 80 subjects. They also link to collections of free books and audiobooks.
ASL Music Videos
I bet they hate Star Trek.
The Grammar Curmudgeon makes up for all of those snarky grammar comments we refrain from posting.
Associative Musical Visual Intelligence
"Associative Musical Visual Intelligence (or "amvi" for short) is a type of intelligence that's difficult enough to define, let alone test. Many creative people can associate across sensory domains: they "hear" hints of shapes and can "taste" the essense of colors. At its most extreme this phenomenon is called synesthesia. However, I believe that creative people subconsciously employ elements of synesthesia every day when attempting to think of things in new ways. This is a logic test that attempts to measure one's ability to correlate musical phrases with abstract shapes and symbols." [more inside]
That's a good name - ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me?
The world may never know
YSL RIP
Burma: monks vs. junta
Monks Succeed in Cyclone Relief as Junta Falters. In Burma (Myanmar) the Buddhist monks are doing more than anyone to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis. At the same time, Burmese officials are trying to stem the influence of the monks by forcing survivors who have sought refuge in monasteries to return to their shattered homes. [Via Barbara's Buddhism Blog.]
What If: Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Lee & Hitler had lived?
Fat Profits
"After a period of collective indigestion induced by the 2004 documentary Super Size Me and the 2001 book Fast Food Nation and its subsequent film adaptation, much of the industry is returning to its traditional customers—men—and its traditional food—meat—served up in ever-greater quantities. Although CKE's signature behemoths—the Carl's Jr. Double Six Dollar Burger and Hardee's Monster Thickburger, both introduced in 2004—out-calorie all comers, Burger King narrowed the gap with its Triple Whopper With Cheese (2005); Wendy's unveiled the Baconator (2007)...and Taco Bell awakened the industry to new possibilities with its 2006 campaign, which urged customers to enjoy a "fourth meal" each day."
Coco Wang: China 5:12 Earthquake
Wrath of the Grapevine: The Roots of John Fahey
So, about 9 months ago I started working on this compilation... Until yesterday, however, I hadn't seen a tracklist from the mysterious 10-cd set called the VrootzBox, so this is not a derivative work, however similar it may be...I should mention that not all of these songs are songs that he covered or copped licks from. Most of the music he has made mention to, though a few of the songs were recorded after his formative years and one or two he never would have heard. But they are presented to give an illustration of the styles he drew from (such as gamelan, which he grew up playing in his neighbor's back yard).Wrath of the Grapevine: The Roots of John Fahey
via FaheyGuitarPlayers
Polyhedral Maps
Polyhedral Maps is a website that explores unconventional methods of mapping the surface of the earth. The most famous of these unusual maps was Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion map, which used the net of an icosahedron. Da Vinci had experimented with this technique in his “Octant” map of 1514, which used Reuleaux triangles as map elements. This process is now being used by photographers and artists in manipulating panoramic images. A good example is Tom Lechner’s The Wild Highways of the Elongated Pentagonal Orthobicupola.
Chinese democracy
Please Vote for Me (official site) is a documentary about Chinese third-graders electing a class monitor. [more inside]
Underage drinking and parental responsibility?
Under current proposals, parents to be fined or prosecuted if their children drink underage Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has proposed that parents of children caught drinking underage would be subject to prosecution. text of speech [more inside]
Being depressed (or gay) is not all in your genes.
Cheer Up Emo Kid! Writer Ekaterina Sedia argues that the lack of a consistent definition of homosexuality, conflation of sexual orientation and gender, conflation of heritability and inherited, conflation of correlation with causation, conflation of biology and genetics, non-random recruitment for twin studies, and other factors make the argument for a genetic basis for homosexuality and other complex human behaviors "not only misguided, [but] downright foolish."
Darker Projects
Darker Projects has a bunch of original audio dramas in the sci-fi, horror, and suspense vein. Think of it as your local community audio-only theatre, or not-actually-old-timey old-time radio. [more inside]
Invention Playhouse
Explore the playful side of invention and the inventive side of play in Invention at Play. Learn how play connects to the creative impulse of both historic and contemporary inventors. [more inside]