October 17, 2013
WINNER: CHINA MIÉVILLE
Yooooouuuu, yoouuu can dooo anyyyything, you want to
Microwave Timing Conversion Charts
So the label on your frozen food gives a cook time, but it says it's for a microwave of a wattage other than what it says on yours. How are you supposed to know how long to nuke it for? Well, you could consult one of these handy charts!
Schnauzer Radio Orchestra - Music for a 1950s Video Game
If you looked through Dark Roasted Blend's collection of "Music For ..." album covers, you might have noticed Music for a 1950s Video Game and scratched your head. No, it's not an archive of soundtracks for the proto-video games of the 1950s, but modern creations by the Schnauzer Radio Orchestra, aka Rob Geboers of Shnauzer Studios. Basta Records has two tracks on Soundcloud (Into The Cave and Final Boss), and Schnauzer Studios has a few clips of SRO in the studio (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV), and CD unboxing. You can hear more from Schnauzer Radio Orchestra on Soundcloud. [more inside]
To Save or Serve the GPO
This August, Washington state's Fish and Wildlife Commission banned giant Pacific octopus hunting (recreational harvesting) across seven popular scuba sites in the Puget Sound -- not because the species is endangered, but simply because the sea creature is revered by the Seattle community. The law went into effect on October 6. What triggered the ban? Therein lies a story. [more inside]
RIP Ed Lauter
Character actor Ed Lauter has died. In a career that spanned over forty years, he was a familiar face on both television and film (and active until the end with appearances in "Trouble With The Curve" and "The Artist"). And with the greatest respect and affection, he also costarred in one the greatest bad films of the eighties.
SLPBS:Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
Here's a would-be documentary miniseries that PBS has buried in a single 3-hour bloc. It conatains the perspective that has been lost in all of the reimaginings and reboots durinng the last 15 years. It will broadcast in repeats during the nest 2 weeks, or you can watch it online.
Here's a would-be documentary miniseries that PBS has buried in a single 3-hour bloc. It conatains the perspective that has been lost in all of the reimaginings and reboots durinng the last 15 years. It will broadcast in repeats during the nest 2 weeks, or you can watch it online.
"Certified humane raised."
Warning: This will probably make you angry about silly things.
Scrapple, Half-smokes, Marionberry Pie, Cowboy Cookies and Akutaq: Deadspin responds to Slate's wonderful state-by-state sports map (previously) with a map of regional foods, complete with highly opinionated rankings and commentary.
Don't Force Symbolism
Larry Flynt, Activist:
Don't Execute the Man Who Paralyzed Me "I would love an hour in a room with him and a pair of wire-cutters and pliers, so I could inflict the same damage on him that he inflicted on me. But, I do not want to kill him, nor do I want to see him die."
Four wings good, two wings better?
The effect doesn't work. Stanley doesn't mention it again.
The FAA vs. Trappy
Raphael Pirker, a.k.a. Trappy, is a FPV pilot who came to be well known after the video from his New York flight went viral. While most of the media coverage of Trappy's NYC exploits was positive, the incident prompted a heated debate in the hobbyist community, and the authorities took a dim view of it.
Shortly afterwards, Trappy was hired by a PR firm to do an aerial video shoot over the University of Virginia. The FAA, having banned commercial use of UAVs in 2007, took the unusual step of issuing a $10,000 fine for the unauthorized flight.
Earlier this month Trappy's attorneys filed a response(pdf) to the FAA's action which questions whether the FAA holds jurisdiction over "model aircraft" in the first place. According to Wired Magazine, he court's decision could determine the future of model aviation and miniature UAVs in the US. Once again, the response from the hobbyist/entrepreneur community has been spirited. [more inside]
drone mapping
Drone Mapping the Matterhorn "The Matterhorn has been mapped in unprecedented detail by a fleet of autonomous, fixed-wing drones, flung into the sky from the peak by their makers. What's more, the entire process took just 6 hours." [via]
ONWARD TO VICTORY
Will It Blend?
Are ‘Trans Rights’ and ‘Gay Rights’ Still Allies? New York Times examines: "Does it still make sense to think of trans rights as part of the gay-rights movement? Or at this point, is it a different campaign with different goals?" [more inside]
Up at the top there's a bucket and a mop and -
O’Bryan walked me slowly down the steep side of the mesa, to the desert floor, so I could see Star Axis in its entirety. The work’s centrepiece is a 10-storey staircase that lets you walk up through the rock of the mesa, your eyes fixed on a small circular opening that cuts through the top of the pyramid. The first section of the staircase is roofless and open to the sky, but the end of it has a stone overhang that makes it look and feel like a tunnel. This ‘star tunnel’, as Ross calls it, is precisely aligned with Earth’s axis. If you bored a tunnel straight through the Earth’s core, from the South Pole to North Pole, and climbed up it, you’d see the same circle of sky that you do when you walk through Ross’ tunnel. Gazing up through it in the afternoon glare, I saw a patch of blue, the size and shape of a dime held at arm’s length. But if the sun had blinked for a moment, fading the heavens to black, I’d have seen Polaris, glittering at the end of the tunnel, like a solitary diamond in the void."Embracing the Void," Ross Andersen, Aeon.
I didn't get your vote but I hope through my work to earn your respect
In a special election to fill the seat of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg, Newark Mayor Cory Booker (Booker previously on the Metafilter) has defeated Tea Party favorite Steve Lonegan. [more inside]
This is everything I know: a 24 comic about comics.
"I'm a professional indie cartoonist, and before that I was an aspiring pro." Spike is the author of Poorcraft, a how-to-live-well-within-your-means comic that many many of us on the Blue really dig.
Repairing a Saturn V rocket...during countdown on the launch pad
About this time, it came to my mind that during one of our training sessions we were told that one of the fully fueled prototype S11 rocket stages had been exploded out in the desert. The results showed that all buildings better be at least three miles from the launch lads - which they are. We were now within 25 feet of this 363ft tall bomb that sounded like it's giant fuse had been lit, and we were soon going to get much closer.
Repetition is the death of magic.
Of Human Bondage
The Walk Free Foundation has released its latest report on the contemporary slave trade, the Global Slavery Index (interactive map). As summarized by Al Jazeera, over 29 million people are in some form of involuntary servitude, ranging from kidnapped fishermen to women forced into prostitution to child brides. The countries with the largest populations of enslaved people include Mauritania, Haiti, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. Back in 2012, J. J. Gould wrote on the difficulties in confronting slavery in today's society: In the West, and particularly in the United States, slavery has long settled in the public imagination as being categorically a thing of the past.... It can mean having a harder time recognizing slavery when it's right in front of us.
Putrid smells reduce me to a pitiful pile
Morrissey's autobiography was released today, and rocketed straight to number one with a bullet. Published under the Penguin Classics imprint, it's full of surprises and quintessential Morriseyisms, and has even inspired a musical cover version from Peter Serafinowicz.
EU plans new laws to limit transfer of data to the US
The Guardian reports on new rules designed to curb the transfer of data to the US, with fines running into billions. [more inside]
Forgetting the sound of a dead person's voice is sadder.
What if it decides to fire?
Полигон (Polygon), also called Firing Range, is a Soviet short film from 1977. It concerns a tank that is able to read the brain impulses of enemy soldiers, and the man who designed it. The generals have great plans for this tank, but the designer, and the tank, have other plans. [more inside]
Maybe there isn't a "positivity ratio" after all.
Positive psychology superstars Barbara Fredrickson and Marcial Losada had put forward a theory, seemingly with experimental confirmation, that was bolder than bold: that mankind, whether working alone or in groups, is governed by a mathematical tipping point, one specified by a ratio of 2.9013 positive to 1 negative emotions. When the tipping point is crested, a kind of positive emotional chaos ensues—“that flapping of the butterfly’s wing,” as Fredrickson puts it—resulting in human “flourishing.” When it is not met (or if a limit of 11.6346 positive emotions is exceeded, as there is a limit to positivity), everything comes grinding to a halt, or locks into stereotyped patterns like water freezing into ice. Nick Brown smelled bull.
And so my life began: Junior Lobby Boy-in-training
I’m going to make a “Public Castration Is a Good Idea” children’s shirt.
The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones sits down with Michael Gira of Swans to discuss, among other things, Not Here/Not Now, the new Swans live CD hand assembled by Gira. The proceeds will fund the making of Swans' next album.
Oh my but that big country elephant can play!
Fat Pony
The book is about a little warrior princess who is given a silly looking pony on her birthday, and it’s not exactly what she wanted … So [the story] is about finding value in something unexpected - Kate Beaton, best known for her Hark! A Vagrant book and website, announces Fat Pony, her new project. Wired Interview.
"like staring at a cow for 45 minutes"
Billions and Billions of Path Traces
The Physics of Light and Rendering is a talk given at QuakeCon 2013 by John Carmack, co-creator of Doom, Quake, and many other games at id Software and beyond. It provides a detailed but surprisingly understandable history of 3D rendering techniques, their advantages and tradeoffs, and how they have been used in games and movies. (SLYT, 1:32:01, via)
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