October 13, 2008
data visualization toys
Spisi, spiral signal analysis, an infoviz toy by Bestiario. This application of theirs is also beautiful, heat C. A. "A simple cellular automata simulating heat dynamics". water, tissue and neurozapping are quite mesmerizing. Their birds flock makes me think of the starlings over Ot Moor.
You think it's easy to choose a cardigan?
Election Day in Canada. Haven't followed the campaign? Summed up in images, it would probably look like this, or this. To our American friends, it probably looks a bit like this. Complete campaign chronology in cartoon form here and here.
For those who like a little more meat, the Hill Times provides a campaign synopsis, and speculates about how the next minority Parliament may work. [more inside]
Don't watch the Dow. Here’s the number that really captures the financial crisis [TED spread]
The Dow went up today.. don't watch the Dow. Here’s the number that really captures the financial crisis [TED spread]. [more inside]
The Sun
Mini Monkees
New AI "Elbot" Scores 20% On Turing Test!
Think you can stump the Elbot? Give it a try. Maybe your interaction will enable it to "learn" an extra 10% more to pass the 30% threshold of the Turing Test. The test is to fool a panel of people who talk with AI entities via text and guess if it's a real person or a robot.Mr Smarty Pants where are you?
Fandom of the past
Lets Anime: Reminisces of early American Anime Fandom. Including discussions of 80's cosplay, the rise and fall of the Animanga APA and other zines, and early merchandising. For more old school goodness see part 1 and part 2 of Mike Toole's "Dubs that Time Forgot" at Anime News Network.
Don'tgive me no jibber-jabber
The World is An Unusual Place
OK, it's a little cheesy, maybe MeFark or Believe It or Not Only True, but this site has some hidden gems. Vagabonds in America (lifestyle of the New Depression?), the Road of Death, Lenin: Still Dead, and the always popular, almost finished, really genuinely tall Barj Dubai.
Six weeks was enough time for Mozart to write three of his greatest symphonies.
A bunch of writers (42 to be exact), having decided civil liberties are important, have launched a website with poems, essays, and short stories protesting the extension of the pre-charge detention period in the UK from 28 to 42 days. Of course, Not everyone thinks it's a good idea. [more inside]
One person's old news can be another's person art form.
Perhaps in your non-Metafilter time or during the occasional power outtage you indulge in that charmingly antiquated past-time of reading a newspaper made out of actual paper. But, once you've read it, you're left with blackened hands and the necessity for putting that fragment of a dead tree somewhere or other. Aside from putting it in the recycling bin, which is responsible but kind of obvious (and therefore would not necessitate a MeFi FPP) what can you do? One option is to make handmade paper. If you're an outdoors type, you could make organic flower pots, some kites, or a dory. If you're more of a fashionista or home decorator, you could make a purse or a bead necklace, weave a basket or placemats, or make a bird. If you're a spinster, you could make some newspaper yarn as student Greetje van Tiem did for her Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show. The yarn can be woven into carpets, curtains and upholstery. Here's a tutorial on how to make the yarn. Then there's always papier maché. [more inside]
Up to a point, Lord Copper
The Daily Beast is the latest venture from Tina Brown. (mis)Named after the newspaper in Evelyn Waugh's (awesome) novel Scoop, the site is a mixture of original journalism and curated links from around the web, and of middle and low brow. Already it's attracted attention for both a (previously spiked) feature on Jennifer Lopez and for its logo, which some allege is remarkably familar. Reviews have been so so, but its stated aim to "sift, sort, and curate" finally allows us to get the best of the web...
Post(modern)-Apocalypse
'We are in (a period of) intense turbulence - fasten your seatbelts,' Gonzalez-Foerster told reporters. So why not shelter from the coming apocalypse in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, lying back on a bunk bed, listening to the rain, reading or watching some SF, looking at art.
Tubular Bells for the C64
Tubular Bells, arranged for Commodore 64: Part 1, Part 2. (Tubular Bells for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum has been on MeFi previously, but this has far more ring modulation.)
What is the largest prime factor of the sum of the favorited comments from all fibonacci-numbered MeFites?
"Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems."
Started in 2001 as a sub-section of Maths Challenge, it has since grown large enough to become its own entity. It now boasts over 200 problems, many of them insanely difficult. [more inside]
Started in 2001 as a sub-section of Maths Challenge, it has since grown large enough to become its own entity. It now boasts over 200 problems, many of them insanely difficult. [more inside]
Essential Credit Crunch Reading
Afraid to read the daily news? Need some broader perspective on The Credit Crunch? There are lots of different ideas by lots of different authors floating about ... [more inside]
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (QT). The words of the Declaration are brought to life in honor of its 60th anniversary (also on YouTube). [Via Cool Hunting]
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