October 2, 2007
Fugue States, YouTube Edition
Britney is not known for her fugues. But you- do you think you got the clever to write a fugue? Get Bach, JoJo!
Aphorisms - James Geary Books
Aphorisms: "A minimum of sound to a maximum of sense." [ram] Journalist, gnomologist and author James Geary has just released Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists [Amazon. recent NPR interview here]. It draws from such aphorists as Shakespeare,
Voltaire, Emerson, Shaw, Mae West, Woody Allen and Steven Wright. Also discussed is chiasmus, the Jefferson Bible and some meta. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in your reading have been like the blast of triumph..." [more inside]
It really hurts the knees
How to use an Indian Toilet
The Forgotten Lens
50mm, the Forgotten Lens Why You Should Ditch That Zoom for a Classic 50mm "Normal" Lens. [more inside]
Speed Levitch's The Cruise
The Cruise, director Bennett Miller's timeless portrait of New York City, free thinking and the 1990s as lived by Timothy "Speed" Levitch.
In eleven beats on youtube: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Meet The Lollipops
The Lollipops are a collection of stylized cartoon drawings by Craig Robinson of famous rock stars (mouseover text will reveal the artist). 26 of them in alphabetical order appear in this ad for The Observer, entitled "From Abba To Zappa."
Duh?
Have you noticed quite a number of stupid things lately? Perhaps now you will find them documented in the Encyclopedia of Stupid.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch
King of Fruits, Tempter of Adam, Prize of Paris: It's apple-picking time. The apple's origins reach into prehistory. Thanks to tremendous genetic variance in each new generation, humans have cultivated a dizzying number of named varieties, as many as 17,000, of which 7500 are available as growth stock. In the past, different apples were prized for particular strengths: cider pressing, storage, cooking, drying, or eating out of hand. Despite this bounty, just 15 shelf-stable, shiny, easy-to-pick varieties account for 90% of apple sales today. But heirloom apple growers are working to preserve the old flavors of the Roxbury Russet, the Westfield Seek-No-Further, the Fallawater, the Limbertwig, the King Luscious...
Whaddaya want, a rubber biscuit?
These were the times of your life. The genesis of 16 magazine.
Legs McNeil starts PUNK magazine. Henry Mancini pens the Pink Panther Theme? The Flaming Lips play Beverly Hills 90210? Pink Floyds performance at Live 8. Gene Autry? Pavarotti? King Sunny Ade? The Archies! Fugazi! WXPN's 885 Most Memorable Musical Moments, in progress now. You can listen to the stream here
Canadian border guards gone wild
Facebook and MySpace posts embarrass Canadian border guards. PDF. Another example of Jan Wong's advice in 15 minutes of shame, about a 2005 incident at a Toronto private school: Don't write anything you wouldn't want someone to forward to [the national newspaper].
In China, it is a common thing to stumble over the bodies of dead babies in the streets.
In the 19th century, English author Favell Mortimer wrote several books describing various countries to children. Apparently she didn't travel much. [more inside]
Yes, but does it swing?
Harvard Scientists Build a Device to Smoke Weed During Brain Scan
It's not often one gets one's bong in the scientific literature, let alone one designed to allow you to smoke weed inside an MRI scanner... [more inside]
Ahimsa
On June 15th, 2007, the UN unanimously adopted a resolution declaring October 2 to be the "International Day of Non-Violence." October 2 is also Gandhi Jayanti, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi,a national holiday in India in honor of the man called the "Father of the Nation". Previously on Mefi, Gandhi's heirs - five champions of non violence and Everything you wanted to know about Gandhi. [more inside]
Living in the Mall
Living in the Mall is an art project by Providence artist Michael J. Townsend that has come to an abrubt end. "Eight artists snuck into the depths of Providence Place mall and built a secret studio apartment in which they stayed, on and off, for nearly four years until mall security finally caught their leader last week." Townsend's wife, Adriana Yoto, also documented the project at her website.
Who Moved My Cheese?
...This site is my year-long cheese course. I mean that in both senses of the word. By next year I will have sampled at least 365 different cheeses, some old favorites, some brand new to me…
More delightful cheese collections: French library of fromages, French boxes of Camembert, Polish cheese labels, etc. This is not the first & only cheese blog, there are many others. Not to mention the Venezuelan Beaver Cheese (YT). Tastings and pictures of all 43 cheeses from the sketch
One continuous Line (x2)
you can gouge away, stay all day, if you want to
School libraries are wasting away, unused by children and underfunded by headteachers, according to research which found that pupils borrow on average only one library book a term.
More fun than humans should be allowed to have
The 12 Memorable Moments From The Late Show With David Letterman. Inspired by his recent interview with everyone's favorite socialite cum ex-convict, Paris Hilton, here are is a YouTube link dump of some of Dave's crazier moments over the years, including, the Alka-Seltzer suit, Borat, Pee Wee Herman, Drew Barrymore, Jerry Lawler slapping Andy Kaufman, Sam Kinison, Cher, and the incomparable Crispin Glover. [Previously]
Behold, the zoomable panorma
Science Daily reports that researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, have built a low-cost robotic device that enables any digital camera to produce breathtaking panormamic images called Gigapans.
Adding up US subsidies for auto travel with and without the costs of war
In the U.S., motorists do not pay their way. The US government spends more on highways and other auto-related expenses than it receives from auto-related taxes, unlike almost every country in Europe. In a recent report [pdf], Mark Delucchi calculates automobile-related costs and revenues in three different ways and concludes the subsidy is around 20-70 cents per gallon or $24-105 billion in 2002. But what are automobile-related costs, you ask? [more inside]
"We realised what a fascinating archive of images we were sitting on."
The London Zoo's historic photographic archive went online today. According to news reports, the pictures will be offered for sale to fund conservation programs. Via.
Les Ballets Trockadero
Freaks in the Big Top the Artwork of Mark Bryan
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