April 6, 2011
Max Rebo Would Be Proud
Star Wars: The Musical is now available in full. The 1996 musical was directed by 3 high school students and features a 40 person cast.
"I wondered how much straight Galliano would deliver me to a merciful death."
Acclaimed food and music critic Jonathan Gold was hungry for some Italian. He decided to go to The Olive Garden.
Nonplayer: From Concept to Comic
Illustrator Nate Simpson was a longtime veteran of the video game and concept art industries. Back in 2009, he opted to take a year off from work to work on Gordon and the Stareater, his first attempt at sequential art.This week, Simpson's first major-publisher creator-owned comics project, Nonplayer, hit the stands courtesy of the folks at Image. How'd the experiment work out? [more inside]
The slinging power of a slingshot, mixed with the stabbing power of a machete
a six-issue comic with a view to introducing a new hero into an existing canon
‘Capitalists are a superstitious cowardly lot,’ Louise says. ‘This f*cker put our town out with the trash, threw us on the scrap heap. Well, the scrap heap’s got up, and it’s coming for him.’ China Miéville’s rejected pitch for a superhero for our times.
The Military's Secret Shame
When men in the military rape other men in the ranks, no one wants to talk about it. Why the sexual assault of males in the service is finally being confronted. [more inside]
Motif No. 1
The dark red fishing shack on Bearskin Neck wharf in the artists' colony Rockport, Massachusetts "is one of the most famous buildings in the world and instantly recognizable to any student of art or art history." America's most-painted building received its name in an impulsive exclamation by famed illustrator, etcher and art teacher Lester Hornby. Its name? Motif No. 1 "One day when a student brought for criticism a pencil drawing of the house, Hornby exclaimed, 'What-Motif No 1 again!' It has been that ever since." [more inside]
Didn’t you notice the palpable difference between what is happening in Libya and what is happening elsewhere?
"[T]he real target of Western bombers and soldiers is in no way the wretched Gaddafi...For the target of the bombers is definitely the popular uprising in Egypt and the revolution in Tunisia, it is their unexpected and intolerable character, their political autonomy, in a word: their independence." Philosopher Alain Badiou attacks the left's support for the NATO intervention in Libya. Background: Europe's economic entanglements with Gaddafi's Libya in the Irish Left Review.
Send Your Name For Great Victory Against The Red Planet
Scheduled for November 25th, the Mars Science Laboratory - Curiosity Rover will launch on an 8.5 month journey to Mars. Upon arrival, it will plummet through the atmosphere in a flying-saucer-like aeroshell and execute a most unusual landing via skycrane. Curiosity carries a dizzying array of cameras and sensors, but more importantly a high powered laser to teach Mars who is boss, and oh, maybe your name if you let it.
Sleep is for the weak.
1-3 percent of the population may be natural "short sleepers" who function well on only a few hours sleep. Not only are these people both night owls AND early birds, they function perfectly happily on a short amount of sleep, without caffeine, without drowsiness. They're more energized, multitask more, are thinner, and are very cheerful and resilient.
Sounds like Beggars In Spain wasn't too far off...
I can take a phrase that's rarely heard - flip it - now it's a daily word
In the early 1990's, a young Kejuan Muchita put to use a recording from 5 years before he was born. The recording was Herbie Hancock's 1969 song "Jessica". Not ringing a bell? Well perhaps this brief video will help you listen to how it morphed into something just as beautiful, and perhaps more familiar. [more inside]
The Israeli Peace Initiave, April 6 2011
Maybe not as entertaining as the naked ladies post.
Hot Rocks: the winning entries in Wired's geology photography contest.
Better Than LSD
Jesus Christ Savior
No models, no makeup, no glamor
NuProject is the ongoing project of Minneapolis-based photographer Matt Blum. He describes it as "a series of nudes of normal people." The rules: no models, no makeup and no glamour. He has been working on it since 2005.
The Twitter Three & Ethan McCord
On the one year anniversary of wikileaks release of Collateral Murder, Panorama has released a documentary on the shooting featuring an interview with Ethan McCord.
The Netherlands' Minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal commemorated the occasion by informing a Green MP that he "would not rule out extraditing Rop Gonggrijp to the US" for Gonggrijp's role in the video's production. The ACLU and EFF are appealing a U.S. subpoena of the twitter accounts belonging to Rop Gonggrijp, Birgitta Jonsdottir, and Jacob Appelbaum.
The Netherlands' Minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal commemorated the occasion by informing a Green MP that he "would not rule out extraditing Rop Gonggrijp to the US" for Gonggrijp's role in the video's production. The ACLU and EFF are appealing a U.S. subpoena of the twitter accounts belonging to Rop Gonggrijp, Birgitta Jonsdottir, and Jacob Appelbaum.
Fermilab to announce new physics
The CDF collaboration at Fermilab is set to announce evidence for non-Standard Model physics today. The experiment at the Tevatron particle collider has released a paper on the Arxiv stating it has found evidence for a potential new particle that isn't the Higgs boson. A live stream announcing the results will begin at 4pm Central time (21:00 GMT). [more inside]
Not just for fanfic
Livejournal has been straining to keep up service in the face of repeated DDoS attacks. Fingers are being pointed at the Kremlin, but others are skeptical. While often associated with media fandom in the English speaking world, Livejournal is extremely popular in Russia, and home to presidents and dissidents (info) alike. [more inside]
House of Cards indeed
An amateur filmmaker is no longer pleading his innocence in the death of a man who was killed, cut up and dumped into a sewer. [more inside]
It's Alive! Alive!
Watch stem cells spontaneously form into an eye in the lab. Japanese scientists at the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology have successfully encouraged mouse stem cells to form a crude eye - the first time the optic structure has been created outside a living host - with hopes of human cell trials in two years.
The One Percent Nation
Joseph Stiglitz in May's Vanity Fair ; Inequality: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret. (via)
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret. (via)
Mexican pointy boots.
2011 ASME Awards
"Greatness alone is not enough, or the cow would outrun the hare." - Proverb
Udderly Amazing. [SLYT] 15-year-old German girl could not have a horse, so she trained one of her family's cows to become a show jumper. Luna the cow has come to navigate the pasture with equine ease.
Just one little tweak
As if magicked into existence by wonderful twitter hashtag #hollywoodpostitnotes: It's When Harry Met Sally 2, now starring Helen Mirren.
Which of shape is insane? The Pierly/Redford Dissociative Affect Diagnostic
"This is an exploration of your brain's affective response system. Nonverbal, emotional reactions to shape tableau will target the portion of your brain that is intuitive and pre-lingual. The associated questions should be answered without tying theses shapes to any narrative or storyline.... There are 20 questions. Your answers will be tabulated at the end and your responses measured against our reference group. Take the test." [warning: blinky]
Better than the Kevin Costner Version
Bottle, a lovely stop-motion film by animator Kirsten Lepore [NSFW], explores a long-distance relationship fueled by communication via not-so-instant message. [Kirsten Lepore previously, kinda]
Might as well ask me to go without Internet
Guns! Guns! Guns!
Nobody's born in the forest
Cultural differences (via) is a video created by National Geographic which documents the culture shock (no not that kind) experienced by Sudanese immigrants to the United States. Though in a country with such strife, this may come as no surprise. [more inside]
Still smells like teen spirit
Kurt Cobain's (obligatory Wikipedia link) body was found at his home on April 8, 1994. His estimated time of death was three days previously - that is, seventeen years ago yesterday. [more inside]
"Enhance!"
Access Main Computer File, a collection of (often preposterous) graphical user interfaces culled from dozens and dozens of films, or as the site itself puts it, "
A VISUAL STUDY OF COMPUTER GUI IN CINEMA." (via Subtraction) And Tibetan Prayer Beads
A love song to Ira Glass.
Garbo's fate: eternally desired, never alone again.
*Sooo* much hotter than Andrew Jackson. Sveriges Riksbank has announced that great Greta Garbo will grace the sexy, new blue-themed 100 Krona note, Sweden's closest equivalent to the US $20 bill. In April, the Riksbank is announcing a design competition for the banknotes, with the final design selected by early 2012, and the currency released by 2014-2015. Other new faces in Sweden's complete currency makeover include author Astrid Lindgren, musician Evert Taube, director Ingmar Bergman, sopranist Birgit Nilsson, and diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld.
Hyperphotos
French photographer and digital artist Jean Francois Rauzier stitches together hundreds of photographs to create massive (zoom-able) images. [more inside]
Modern (Western?) Mistakes
Why Donald Duck is the Jerry Lewis of Germany
Dr. Fuchs’s Donald was no ordinary comic creation. He was a bird of arts and letters, and many Germans credit him with having initiated them into the language of the literary classics. The German comics are peppered with fancy quotations. In one story Donald’s nephews steal famous lines from Friedrich Schiller’s play “William Tell”; Donald garbles a classic Schiller poem, “The Bell,” in another. Other lines are straight out of Goethe, Hölderlin and even Wagner (whose words are put in the mouth of a singing cat). The great books later sounded like old friends when readers encountered them at school. As the German Donald points out, “Reading is educational! We learn so much from the works of our poets and thinkers.” [more inside]
That's a big ass rocket
$1,000 per pound to orbit is the holy grail for rocket pricing. Elon Musk claims that his SpaceX corporation's new Falcon Heavy will be able to lift 117,000 lbs. to low earth orbit for 1/3rd the cost of the next most capable launchers, the space shuttle and the Delta IV Heavy. [more inside]
Mapping Petersburg
Mapping Petersburg "..explores the everyday life and the material, political, and literary culture of St. Petersburg [..] at the beginning of the twentieth century. It maps eleven itineraries through the city with the purpose of creating a palpable sense of life in Russia's late imperial capital on the eve of the 1917 revolution and during the subsequent decade." [About] [via] [more inside]
Soft and sweet and shaped like a potato
You say potato, Valve say... potato.
Just over a year after the Portal 2 announcement ARG (previously) had people dialing up a mysterious BBS, on April 1st Valve pushed out updates to thirteen indie games through Steam, under the tag #potatofoolsday. Some of the games got a little starchy straight away, but more interesting was the appearance of cryptic glyphs, which seemed to link to other games in the set, and nonsense phrases. Alongside a cheeky coded shoutout to members of the Facepunch forums, a hidden frame in the latest Aperture Science Investment Opportunity video (1, 2, 3) appeared to confirm there are 16 glyph-and-letter sets, and 13 phrases to be found in and around the games. But what to do with them even when the set's complete? And what of the uplifted talking raccoon and the blogger whose boss's brother has been kidnapped by sentient potatoes? [more inside]
Just over a year after the Portal 2 announcement ARG (previously) had people dialing up a mysterious BBS, on April 1st Valve pushed out updates to thirteen indie games through Steam, under the tag #potatofoolsday. Some of the games got a little starchy straight away, but more interesting was the appearance of cryptic glyphs, which seemed to link to other games in the set, and nonsense phrases. Alongside a cheeky coded shoutout to members of the Facepunch forums, a hidden frame in the latest Aperture Science Investment Opportunity video (1, 2, 3) appeared to confirm there are 16 glyph-and-letter sets, and 13 phrases to be found in and around the games. But what to do with them even when the set's complete? And what of the uplifted talking raccoon and the blogger whose boss's brother has been kidnapped by sentient potatoes? [more inside]
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