January 6, 2014
One procedural universe, coming right up
Space Engine is a free (but not open source) program that allows you to fly through vast reaches of the universe. Along the way, you'll see some pretty amazing vistas and probably want to take screenshots of them. It incorporates a good amount of real-world data about the solar system, exoplanets and the universe in general with procedural generation of everything we don't know. [more inside]
Homer was blind
Shaylee is four years old, a native ASL signer, and an amazingly expressive raconteur. Here's a bilingual link to her version of A Visit from St. Nicholas (a.k.a. The Night Before Christmas), with a breakdown analysing her storytelling technique: Why This Young Girl Is a Masterful Storyteller in Sign Language [more inside]
Rest in Peace, Run Run Shaw
A surreal, musical film about understanding time.
Crowdsourcing the Uncanny
"With a flood of dark memes and viral horror stories, the internet is mapping the contours of modern fear" - How creepypasta is reinventing folklore, via io9.
Chronologies of design: Iron Man, Superman's shield, Wolverine, Dr. Who
HalloweenCostumes.com sells, well, costumes. But they also have made some interesting infographics over the years. The first few were what you'd expect, Halloween statistics (direct link to the long, long image), but later they got into the "evolution" of super hero designs, costumes and logos, from Iron Man's suit (image link), Superman's shield (image link), Wolverine's costume/image (image link), the look and some facts about Doctor Who (image link), and even a character map of interactions in Alice in Wonderland (image link). [more inside]
I'm traveling at the speed of light
Starting at age 15, on New Year's Day in 2011, Matt Perren took a shot of himself every day lip-syncing to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now". 1100 days later, at age 18, the video is ready. [more inside]
Every Penny You Make
Sting makes $2,000 a day because Puffy Daddy and his record label didn't bother clearing the rights when they sampled "Every Breath You Take" for "I'll Be Missing You." Even though Andy Summers wrote the guitar line that you hear. It's still a sensitive subject.
if a paragraph does not start with bold and italics feel free to skip it
Indian tech entrepreneur and engineer Navin Kabra was dubious when the B.E. students he was advising told him that publishing papers at conferences were a requirement for graduation - a requirement shared by M.E. and M. Tech students in India. When an 'international engineering conference' came to Pune, he submitted two fake papers - one generated using SCIgen and one interspersed with random references to pop culture. Both were accepted - and one was published after Navin paid for the publishing fees (haggled to a 50% discount). Since the expose, the University of Pune has clarified that publishing for Masters students is recommended but not mandatory, more conference fraud has been uncovered, and Navin's still investigating publishing requirements for Bachelors students.
Why is Everything Tilted?
What to do with the freebie heebie jeebies
...only one soul in the river Styx...
Washington Post education reporter Valerie Strauss posted some quotes on her blog to answer the question: "How Hard is Teaching?" She then received another response, from a veteran seventh-grade language arts teacher in Frederick, Maryland: "I would love to teach but..."
The Curve?
Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Bay has a meltdown at CES. That is all.
MIT meets bicycle
So you can pre-order the Copenhagen wheel now I can't fathom how it might possibly work, but it looks super cool!
eSexism
Mannequin 3: Mind The Gap
The Gap Mannequin Project is pretty simple: guy dresses up like mannequins at The Gap and stands next to them, but the results are pretty awesome.
Making Up Hollywood
Beatles for sale
Copyright laws force Apple to release 59 Beatles tracks. "The only reason why they are doing this is to retain the copyright of this bootlegged material."
SHIBE FOR ALL / ALL FOR SHIBE
Good. Well, it's good that you're fine, and - and I'm fine.
In need of an entertaining cinematic podcast to meet your listening needs? Then tune into Fighting in the War Room! Previously known as Operation Kino, Fighting in the War Room features fascinating discussions between film critics Katey Rich (Vanity Fair), Matt Patches (Hollywood.com / Vulture.com), Da7e Gonzales, and David Ehrlich (Film.com), offering reviews of current films, as well general cinema related topics. [more inside]
Thoughts and tools for the startup
The internet is full of mediocre, self-aggrandizing, or plain bad advice about how to found and manage a startup, but there some really useful collections out there. The annual collection of best links by Tom Eisenmann of Harvard (also: 2012, 2011, 2010) is very good, as is the 30 best posts by First Round Capital, and the many readings available in Stanford's E145 class. On an ongoing basis, the Startup Management blog is a good place to look, plus, inside, there are... [more inside]
An extraordinary atmosphere of sullen, baffled evil, as the year opens.
The State of the World 2014 Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky have started this year's WELL-based review.
Good Night Vienna!
Dancing over the Edge: Vienna in 1914. Österreich (Austria) was one of the cultural and political Centres of modern Europe a hundred Years ago. Vienna - the Capitol of the big Austro-Hungarian-Empire and Home to the longest running imperial Family the Habsburgs. Just in 1913 Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin (previously on MeFi) all lived in Vienna.
Ramsey + Moore = God
David Chalmers and Alan Hájek give a one-page argument that the Ramsey test and Moorean reasoning entail that rational subjects should accept that they have the epistemic powers of a god [pdf]. [more inside]
Justice does not take the shape of punishment eagerly dispensed.
Words, Words, Words: On Toxicity and Abuse in Online Activism: "There was a time in my life where I took pride in being a 'social justice warrior' on Reddit, ticking the boxes of others' mistakes, missteps, and misspoken words, cruelly scolding people, looking for those who were 'doing it wrong' as a means of validating my own sense of integrity as an activist, as if each person I roasted would be a talisman against the same thing happening to me ever again. It was only when I discovered that I had made someone cry for hours that I took a long step back and asked myself if I was really making the world a better place by doing this." [more inside]
*bear hugs*
Have you ever wished that you had an array of reaction gifs featuring hilarious medieval art? u don't say. Previously.
I Am Your Camera
Octopus steals GoPro. Sealion steals GoPro. Crab steals GoPro. Human steals GoPro. (Previously: Eagle steals camera, Seagull steals camera)
How To Treat Your Fans
After being thrashed 5-0 in the FA Cup by Nottingham Forest, West Ham United have offered one very sad young fan the chance to watch a home game from the directors box.
Harper's War on Science Gets Uglier
Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, has become notorious for the way his government treats science. The latest news concerns the shutting of 7 of 9 regional DFO libraries across the country. Despite claims that the collections have been digitized, alarming reports are emerging that a lot of the materials, some dating back to the 19th century, were simply junked.
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