February 21, 2014
Flight, try setting SCE to AWESOME.
This dad puts us all to shame. All I ever got from my dad was a train set.
Vampire Squid
The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet. "Banks are no longer just financing heavy industry. They are actually buying it up and inventing bigger, bolder and scarier scams than ever." This is the latest and last article for Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi, who is moving on to join First Look Media.
What fire dies when you feed it?
Game of the Year. Some words and a comic on success, depression, insecurities and validations by the writer of The Stanley Parable
Netflix Neutrality
Verizon and Cogent Communications are at odds over how much money needs to change hands to deliver decent Netflix performance. Verizon has developed a rival to Netflix, Redbox and have been accused of tinkering with Netflix and AWS speeds due to the recent FCC Net Neutrality ruling. Things may change again, but then again, maybe not really.
Da-da-dah-da-da-DAH!
The Super Mario theme played on a sheng. Li Li-chen performs the Super Mario theme on a sheng, an ancient Chinese musical instrument that is at least as old as 1100 BC.
"Who is Dependent on Welfare" With Ananya Roy
It is time for America to reconsider who is dependent on welfare. Poverty is not only the lack of income and wealth but also the poverty of power. A key part of the poverty of power is to be defined as dependent: dependent on charity, handouts, welfare. Yet, it is the wealthy, not the poor, who are dependent on government subsidies. To transform dependency into self-determination is the work of poor people's movements. To demonstrate the dependency of the wealthy on welfare as well as on the labor of the poor must be our collective work.
I think I can...
On this date in 1804, at Penydarren Ironworks in Wales, the first locomotive hauled passengers and freight for the first time.
Richard Trevithick was the inventor who created it.
Truth & Beauty
The emotional experience of mathematical elegance. A new study by the perceptual neurobiologist Semir Zeki and the great mathematician (& Fields Medalist) Sir Michael Atiyah examines fMRI scans of mathematicians viewing formulae which they'd previously rated as beautiful or ugly, and reports that mathematical beauty elicits activity in the same brain regions as great art or music.
Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland: Pussy Riot's new song
Pussy Riot's new song and video, "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland", rocks. This video features both Nadia and Masha (just released from jail) performing in public and hugging the Winter Olympics mascot - before being beaten with whips by cossack soldiers. And the song is actually catchy...
"I'm a lefty, liberal, lezzer cook."
Have you met Jack? Author of the popular "eat just as well when you have less" blog, A Girl Called Jack, Jack Monroe came to widespread attention in the UK and the rest of the world when she wrote a blog entry called "Hunger Hurts", in which she detailed how heartbreaking it was for her to realize that she had run out of money and yet she still had a small child to feed and needed to keep the lights on. The NYT has called her "Britain's Austerity Celebrity"; the Daily Mail hates her as does Edwina Currie, but whether you like her or not, she has created a delightful set of frugal yet elegant recipes. She even beat Jamie Oliver in an austerity challenge cook-off.
"Do not throw yourselves with your own hands into destruction."
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment has issued a fatwa banning Muslims from participating in a Mars colonization effort, citing pervasive risk for no "righteous reason." The Mars One project (previously) has penned a remarkably erudite reply.
A town dedicated to rememberence
Jacques-André Istel is the father of American skydiving, Honorary Soviet Master of Sports and French Legionnaire, and the founder, mayor, and only resident (with his wife) of the desert town of Felicity, California. Felicity is a wondrous place. Inspired by a children's book he wrote, Istel managed to have the town officially designated as the Center of the World. It is also the home of the Museum of History in Granite, 431 carved panels of the history of the world, written by Istel and copy-edited by his wife with a modern Rosetta Stone to help people 4,000 years from now interpret it. Seriously, just look at the panel about the moon.
Goonswarm didn't get where they are today by "playing it smart."
The first issue of the new EVE Online comic book from Dark Horse comics is now available for free download (free registration required). What's particularly interesting about the "EVE: True Stories" comic series is that the stories are retellings of actual player-driven game events. The first story to be adapted is the downfall of the Band of Brothers alliance, which we talked about previously.
Building Goes Up, Building Goes Down
KEEP TALKING NANCY
When audio failed on the WGN Morning News today, the intrepid anchors persevered with pen and paper. [more inside]
The Legographer
"UK-based photographer Andrew Whyte has documented the adventures of a brave lone LEGO photographer in his 'The Legographer' photo series." (via)
the generations and the blues
Commodore 64 web synth
Irrational Games, journalism, and airing dirty laundry
No one talks to the games press officially. I wish they did, but I get it. They want to keep their jobs. Let's just say multiple people within a studio were willing to risk their careers to confirm to me that yes, in fact, if their game didn't sell extremely well, like exponentially more than its predecessor or "well" according to a matrix of time and cost investment and desired profit, that their studio would be closed in a year.[more inside]
Economic Ephemera
"These gargantuan Lego blocks flattened global capitalism and erased human labour from industrial history in the process; they are the perfect tool for an economic system only interested in short-term, pop-up solutions." The shipping container (previously) an innovation that both revolutionised global trade and caused mass job loss, is now being reborn as the pop-up shop.
Kumi Yamashita, "Constellation"
This body of work consists of three simple materials that, when combined, produce the portraits: a wooden panel painted a solid white, thousands of small galvanized nails, and a single, unbroken, common sewing thread.
Al Jazeera tracks the violence and the unfolding humanitarian tragedy
10 Famous Writers Who Don't Use Modern Tech to Create
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