March 7, 2011
I just mailed you a bunch of Anthrax... CDs. I heard you were a big fan.
N64Boy Advance
And You Thought Orwell Wrote Fiction
Obama creates indefinite detention system for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The announcements, coming more than two years after Obama vowed in another executive order to close the detention center, all but cements Guantanamo Bay's continuing role in U.S. counterterrorism policy.
Global Warming?
Clement Valla uses Google Earth to zoom in on bridges and roads in a way which makes them appear warped. [more inside]
Freedom from information
As despotic regimes fall under the weight of free communication and transparency, the state of Utah takes a step in the opposite direction. The Utah legislature seeks to restrict GRAMA (Government Records and Management Act) by prohibiting disclosure of lawmaker instant messages, cellphone texts, and video chats, while raising the fees for records requests. After being rammed through the legislature on a fast-track last week, then following a resounding public outcry, the bill has been delayed to allow for public input.
Crowd-Based Peer Review of Real-Time Experiments
Backyard Brains, the people who showed you how to stimulate neurons in a cockroach leg using your iPhone, now bring you the remote controlled roach. [more inside]
Coming Home
1699 US Military personnel are still considered as POW or MIA from the Viet Nam conflict, but one is finally coming home.
The remains of James Moreland are being returned to the US, and Kathy Strong, who's worn his POW/MIA bracelet since she was 12, can now, 38 years later, take it off.
Savagery
Stroke weight
We love typography. Don't try to deny it. We love it deconstructed. We love asking questions about it, and hearing people talk about it. We’ll even play games about it.
In Heaven, everything is fine. We'll make Heaven a place on Earth.
Tom Waits has teamed up with The David Lynch Foundation to help launch DLF Music and their ‘Download for Good’ campaign on PledgeMusic. The David Lynch Foundation "is a non-profit educational organization which was established in July 2005 to ensure that anyone at-risk for traumatic stress can learn Transcendental Meditation."
See You Space Cowboy...
The deeper you go, the deeper you need to go.
Fractal Lab is an interactive WebGL fractal generating app that allows you to virtually explore 3D fractals in a web browser (Chrome or the latest Firefox 4 beta). [more inside]
A midsummer night's dream on Elm Street.
A hapless painter is endowed with the ability to understand the speech of forest creatures. Little does he know that the evil King Cactus is planning to destroy the forest using his monstrous grinding machine and an army of magically animated polearms, or that he will play an instrumental role in thwarting the scheming xerophyte. Released in 1986, Čudesna šuma ("The Magical Forest") is Yugoslavia's first feature-length animated film. Created in collaboration with a US production company, it's available in English as (hold on to your hats, folks) "The Elm-Chanted Forest." [more inside]
Live Long And Prosper
Star Trek Convention NYC 1973 - Interviews with the fans, some of the makers of the show and Isaac Asimov (SLYT)
"This is a system that fails the responsible and the innocent."
"Yesterday, I went to court. I was there for the sentencing of the man who spent this summer stalking me." [more inside]
Bean plating brass lanterns
The IF Theory Reader is finally out...a collection of some intriguing thought about the theory, craft, and history of interactive fiction (free PDF or buyable paperback). A must-read for both Ludologists and Narratologists.
You are listening to Los Angeles
Tiger, Tiger
Margaux Fragoso met Peter Curran when she was 7 and he was 51. For the next 15 years until his suicide, they had a hidden, violent and sexually abusive relationship. Her new memoir, Tiger, Tiger is being likened to a "reverse, true-life Lolita," told from the perspective of Delores Haze's character, which in some ways humanizes the pedophile who preyed upon her without excusing him. [more inside]
hey, Ant...
Not much is stranger than a small red ant talking like Dean Martin and a giant blue aardvark that talks like Jackie Mason. The Ant and the Aardvark were a series of 17 theatrical short cartoons produced between 1969 and 1970 by animator Friz Freleng's studio, DePatie-Freleng. (MLYT). [more inside]
The Definitive Look at the Diversity of Our Planet
Five years ago this week, the BBC started broadcasting one of the most extraordinary documentaries ever to grace television: Planet Earth. The culmination of five years of field work, it employed the most cutting-edge of techniques in order to capture life in all its forms, from sweeping spaceborne vistas to shockingly intimate close-ups -- including many sights rarely glimpsed by human eyes. Visually spectacular, it showcased footage shot in 204 locations in 62 countries, thoroughly documenting every biome from the snowy peaks of the Himalayas to the lifegiving waters of the Okavango Delta, a rich narrative tapestry backed by a stirring orchestral score from the BBC Concert Orchestra. Unfortunately, the series underwent some editorial changes for rebroadcast overseas. But now fans outside the UK can rejoice -- all eleven chapters of this epic story are available on YouTube in their original form: uncut, in glorious 1080p HD, and with the original narration by renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough. Click inside for the full listing (and kiss the rest of your week goodbye). [more inside]
When Words are Pictures
In 1918 Guillaume Apollinaire published his Calligrammes introducing a type of wordplay still used in France,
and occasionally animated (albeit slowly).
However today's nerd totally outdoes them with Typography Portraits.
However today's nerd totally outdoes them with Typography Portraits.
ATF: Fast and Furious
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives deliberately allowed assault rifles to be smuggled into Mexico, so they could be tracked. The weapons were then used in a spree of murders, including that of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The operation was called "Fast and Furious". The Mexican government was apparently unaware of the operation, and is investigating. The ATF is going to have a review of whether their strategy supports "the goals of ATF to stem the illegal flow of firearms to Mexico".
Elizabeth David
At Elizabeth David's Table: Classic Recipes and Timeless Kitchen Wisdom "When I go back and read her books now, I feel I plagiarized them. All of it seeped in so much, it's embarrassing to read them now." Alice Waters [more inside]
Meet the Geminoid DK.
Meet the Geminoid DK, who looks exactly like Associate Professor Henrik Scharfe of Aalborg University in Denmark. If you're wondering why on Earth someone would want an exact robotic double of themselves, besides being TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AWESOME, the Geminoid is going to be used for researching "emotional affordances" in human-robot interaction, the novel notion of "blended presence," as well as cultural differences (from different continents) in the perception of robots.
Inside the multimillion-dollar essay-scoring business
With the institution of No Child Left Behind, educational testing in the US boomed. Now, some of the low paid temp workers hired to score these tests are speaking out about the behind the scenes manipulation that goes on to ensure test scores are in line with "customer expectations".
"A flamingo falls on them from above"
I hope he's still reaching for those rainbows
She's just asking for it
American women at work, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ratio of women's to men's earnings, for all occupations, was 81.2 percent in 2010. Of course, it was also at this level in 2005 and 2006. Give it another 40 years or so to women to get paid what men do for working the same jobs. Though the trend is stagnant at the moment (see Chart 1 on page 3 of this 2009 PDF) some are optimistic about the progress women have made. [more inside]
"Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink." Charles Bukowski
Full Bladder, Better Decisions? Study says controlling your bladder decreases impulsive choices.
The Ultimate In-N-Out Secret Menu (and Super Secret Menu!) Survival Guide
"I could clear nearly 1 percent of my state’s organ waiting list."
Giving life after death row. Death row inmate Christian Longo continues his crusade to allow prisoners to donate their organs with an op ed in the Times. Post mortem voluntary donation supposedly avoids the same consent issues as some recent domestic and international cases.
Journalist Michael Finckel--whose identity was stolen by Longo at one point--describes his own part in how Longo came to this cause (Finkel's encounter with Longo was part of his own redemption story after a fabrication scandal at the New York Times Magazine).
Stasi, SSIS, ...
"I almost can't believe I'm witnessing this. We're inside the fortress of terror, our very own Mordor..." [more inside]
Where the wild things are
Halvin and Cobbes
Joker and Lex. Lara and Mxy. Ozy and Buba. Peter and Mary Jane. Carmine and Selma. (Part 2.) Hobbes and Hobbes. Calvin and Holly. Calvin and Hobbes.
The World of R. Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller was an architect, engineer, geometrician, philosopher, futurist, inventor of the famous geodesic dome, and one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time. Previously.
As you were.
Irish pop singer Brian McFadden released a single called 'Just The Way You Are (Drunk at the Bar)' on February 25th. Clem Bastow, in her 'Singled Out' review column for Australian street press music weekly Inpress, writes about it in the context of the centenary of International Women's Day (March 8th). [more inside]
Dr. zu Googleberg
In February, a political and academic scandal broke in Germany when it turned out that the defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg had plagiarized parts of his doctoral dissertation, defended in 2006 and published as a book in 2009. Guttenberg, who had initially denied the allegations and maintained his popularity despite the scandal, resigned on 1 March. [more inside]
Street Art Rocks!
Last month our family watched "Exit Through the Gift Shop." We loved it. In fact Gracie was bound and determined to become a street artist when she grew up... Now of course we would never in a million years damage anyone's property. But we wanted to do something artsy. Something stealthy. Something public. Then I had a bright idea... A gallery of dozens of small rocks with cartoony faces hand-painted on them and placed back outside. (Via CNLT. previously. )
What does an athlete look like?
« Previous day | Next day »