July 17, 2007
Robots: Where Are They Now?
Bots've come a long way, baby. So everybody knows about Honda's flashy ASIMO, and the sadly canceled QRIO, but now Wakamaru, Mitsubishi's entry into the field, seems to have been first among semi-autonomous humanoid robots to find a job. I wish it luck, but it might need to grow up a little. Maybe it can learn from Domo, son of Cog, robot of yore.
Where's An Egg, and other wonderful fake flash games.
Where's an egg? Psuedo-Russian noir wumpus action. Confused? Consider bidding on the only copy of the instructions in existence. Need a break? Check out some other fine titles from completely made up game company Videlectrix.
ctrl alt
I'm Bill James, bitch!
"After all, the best part about sitting in an ivory tower is pissing on the people below you." Legendary statistician Bill James, the father of Sabermetrics, is smarter than you.
Möbius strip unravelled
Harry Potter and the Red Herring
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows recently leaked on a few torrent sites... or did it? Security measures taken included pallets of books protected by alarms, baited lawyers, and even delivery trucks with satellite tracking, which seems at odds with this UPS delivery truck stacked with loose boxes 5 days before they are to be delivered. A spokeswoman at Scholastic, the book's US publisher, said "she was aware of at least three different versions of the file 'that look very convincing' with what she described as 'conflicting content.'" So what's real and what's fake? We'll just have to wait and see.
Global Warming and Our National Parks
Unnatural Disaster: Global Warming and Our National Parks (PDF). A new report from the National Parks Conservation Association explores the impact of global warming on America's national parks. [Via Gristmill.]
Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation
Alasdair Gray 0-70 2004 BBC Artworks Scotland film made on the occasion of Glasgow artist and author's (best known for Lanark) seventieth birthday. Also a short clip and another film on his mural work as embedded Youtubery at his site. (Previously.)
It ends when you're dead
Tim Kreider's editorial cartoons have that sort of vulgarity, puerility, absurdity, topicality, pith, bile, and self-awareness that help me get through the unending despair of reading the news every day.
(He also draws great faces.)
Hail Abacha
Dear Friend,
I am a Swiss Banker currently in possession of over $ 1 Billion in funds stashed away by the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of the Congo. Our Swiss Confederation President Micheline Calmy-Rey said her government is holding just $6.6m frozen in accounts.
"We discussed the question of Mobutu's funds and my government is prepared to restore the money to the DR Congo as soon as possible," Ms Rey told reporters in the DR Congo capital, Kinshasa, after talks with Mr Kabila.
But we can help you get the rest of the 92.4 million dollars if you will just send us your bank account number and call to confirm your ID and pin number.
THUNDERPANTS!
Before the 5th film and the upcoming 7th book of the Harry Potter series Rupert Grint was showing off in the epically ridiculous children's film Thunderpants! Rent it Today! One of the finer children's films about harnessing the power of flatus. Sadly not related to Thunderpants Johnson or Thunderpants Clothing c'est la vie.
Scoble on How to Read 600 RSS Feeds a Day
How to Read 600 RSS Feeds a Day for Pleasure and Profit. Video of Robert Scoble showing how he culls 600 RSS feeds a day for his weblog, Scobleizer, using Google Reader.
pliable beauty
Contemporary Japanese bamboo art.
I am Murloc
I am Murloc. Cool World of Warcraft music video. (Note: Impressed me, but I've never played WoW. Might not impress WoW players, I dunno. Won't change your mind if you already hate WoW. Horrible vocals.)
bunt cake: a webcomic thing
"I like to think that baseball players are a pretty imaginitive bunch. I mean, these are guys who, when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, said something nuts like 'baseball player' — and then didn’t change their answer." Bunt Cake: a webcomic for those of us who like baseball cards recontextualized and our humor depantsed and set on fire. Or something like that. [via mefi projects]
Edwards on Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards: the Salon interview. An earnest, candid conversation with one of the most interesting figures in the 2008 candidate cadre.
"Yes, I've been jailed on six continents. All I have to do is kill a penguin."
Modern pointillism from artist Phil Hansen
Profile of Phil Hansen - "Strokes of a Genius" - [Hansen] gives pointillism a modern twist. You might call it "kinetic fragmentism" — pointillism in motion.
For instance, Hansen completed an on-camera piece of paint-dipped karate chops to reveal a portrait of martial arts legend Bruce Lee. Preferring to post videos of the process of his work on the internet instead of showing the finished product in galleries, Hansen shows the madness in the method in his amazing art.
Motherland
This keyboard will not only stomp your colon, but the colons of distant relatives of the human species such as lagomorphs
"Pay no attention to the shameless hussy on the bicycle."
This web site details how to construct a high performance bicycle lighting system. Also contains information on bells, horns, dynamo powered lights, and other safety devices (Warning! This site contains a small fair amount of nudity!)
Of course it's an ad for Ray Bans, no need to revisit that...But wait, there's more!
Sequel to Guy Catches Sunglasses With Face It wasn't too long ago that we had a look at Guy Catches Sunglasses With Face. Here is the sequel, Bobbing For Glasses. Both videos are from artist Ben Kaller, who has worked on most of Spike Jonze' best stuff, among other things. His brother Jeremy Kaller is also a talented director, who recently released a a documentary about the progressive recycling scene in San Francisco.
We're in your routers, hacking your Government
The Athens Affair. An IEEE Spectrum article on the Vodafone Greece phone-tapping case, quite possibly the most elaborate publicized cybercrime ever (previously).
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