October 21, 2008
For use on slow zombies only.
Can't decide on what would serve you best in the next zombie outbreak? Zombie Tools has you covered. Each weapon is handmade from tempered spring steel and designed specifically for dispatching the undead. [more inside]
We've met before, haven't we?
The City of Absurdity - The Mysterious World of David Lynch
Presenting African Swim
African Swim is the newest free album being offered by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. This time the album features South African hip hop groups.
Shantaram
Shantaram is the story of a violent man's search for the man of peace within himself. Gregory David Roberts, clip 1, clip 2, 3 and 4, is an ex-junkie, former gun runner; drugs, forged passports and black market currency dealer; was a member of the Bombay Mafia and close with a Mafia don there; acted in Bollywood movies; fought with the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan; imprisoned in an Australian maximum security prison with a 19 year sentence and escaped to the Bombay slums, where he set up a free clinic. His semi-autobiography is called Shantaram, which means man pf peace. Review on Shunya. His website. Movie due out in 2009. [more inside]
Phishing in Plain English
The latest paper-based video from the folks at Common Craft. This video explains the ins and outs of phishing scams. Show it to your less web-savvy brethren.
floating away
Derek Powazek Closing Up Pixish
Pixish is Closing. Today, Derek Powazek announced on his blog that the collaborative website for creative and design work will close on October 31, openly admitting "We underestimated the 'spec work' issue." [more inside]
YAD KCOL SPAC
OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!!! EVERY YEAR WE GET TOGETHER AND MAKE SALMON FOR TOAST, EVERY YEAR WE GET A CROCKETY BLOAT, EVERY YEAR WE GET DRUNK ON THE DOCKS, AND EVERY YEAR WE HAVE SEX WITH OUR CAPS LOCKS!!!!!!
Time
Flow of Time is a BBC documentary that "tries to explain time and covers the different ways we have used to understand Time, religion, mathematics, relativity, and quantum mechanics." Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Toilet Paper: More Than Just Something To Wipe With
This post is all about toilet paper, such as its history, toilet paper art, toilet paper facts, and toilet paper commercials. There's even links to toilet paper museums, detailed facts and scans of toilet paper from Germany and alternatives to toilet paper (both physical and virtual), which is great since finding ways to reduce your toilet paper consumption might just help save the planet or, at the very least, solve The Toilet Paper Problem.
Flawlesss Aircraft Emergency Landings (QLYTP)
Flawless Aircraft Emergency Landings (QLYTP). Breatheless reporting aside, it looks like when a pilot can control the landing, these aircraft are tough enough that no one need be hurt. Many more excellent videos in the post-video links, too.
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
Friedman under attack More than 100 faculty at the University of Chicago, where Milton Friedman won the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics, are trying to stop the university from putting Mr. Friedman's name on a $200-million (U.S.) research centre. The opponents argue that the Milton Friedman Institute would compromise the academic integrity of the university and serve as a monument to Mr. Friedman's world outlook, which they say has largely been discredited. [more inside]
More proof that dogs totally rock. :)
Ghostwriter. What a trip.
He's a ghost, and he writes to us: GhostWriter. In 1992, PBS launched a new TV show designed to teach 7-to-10 year-olds to love reading and writing. The show initially featured a team of 5 characters (Rob joined the team a few episodes later, and by the end there were a few additional characters) in Brooklyn, NY solving mysteries. It had cameos by Julia Stiles, Spike Lee, and Samuel L. Jackson and one of the characters even had her own music video.
So what happened to it? Well, it's available on VHS, but has not been released on DVD. Don't worry! There's an online petition!
I ain't on some, "oh I'm a celebrity" / I deal with the real, so if it's artificial let it be
post a celebrity and i will TRY to tell you a story about them. Amhir "?uestlove" Thompson, drummer for the Legendary Roots Crew regales the crowds at Okayplayer with tales from the life of a professional musician. [more inside]
So you ditched your car - here's help with public transit
NextBus uses GPS to tell you the predicted time of the next bus. Google maps show buses in real time, and you can get updates on your phone/PDA. The coverage is limited to certain agencies within the US, so these other sites might be useful: Hopstop covers subways and buses in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, DC, and more. (mobile version) Google Transit has many US metro areas in addition to Canada, Europe, and Japan. (previously) Many more locations inside. [more inside]
Blood of the Lamb, motherfucker.
Internet overload
NATO war in Afghanistan "Doomed to Fail"
With election season in the US, it's probably hard to get a less than Gung-ho picture of the war in Afghanistan, but this Spiegel Online article paints a dark picture. "Pessimism about the situation has never been so high." High level NATO commanders are using phrases like "Doomed to Fail," "We are trapped," "repeating the same mistakes as the Soviets", military victory "neither feasible nor supportable," "downward spiral." For some it is so dark the only beacon of light would be peace talks with the Taliban. [more inside]
This cake's not a lie
Do you miss blasting with your orange and blue space-warping cannons? Surely you miss Companion Cube... Nine months of work by a dedicated modder: NykO18 (and team) has crystallized into what amounts to an epic prequel to Portal, called Portal: Prelude, whose story arc focuses on the "pre-GlaDOS epoch". It's said to have more gameplay than even the original: 8 chapters, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps and more than 400 lines of speech. [more inside]
Climate Futures
New Year’s Day 2030. A new report from Forum on the Future, Climate Futures (6.7MB PDF), maps out five possible scenarios for how climate change might affect our collective future by 2030. Meanwhile, the WWF has released a report, Climate Change: Faster, Stronger, Sooner (1.65MB PDF) which claims that global warming is accelerating at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted. [Via Gristmill and Disinformation]
Before They Were UFOs
Before They Were UFOs, back when the only flying objects were arrows, birds, and clouds, how did people describe them? [more inside]
Before Abu Ghraib, there was Area 2.
For nearly 20 years, Chicago has known about police torture of suspects. Torture at the city's notorious Area 2, under Commander Jon Burge, resulted in numerous false confessions in the 1980s, including the men who became known as the Death Row 10. The Death Row 10 case was among the reasons former Gov. George Ryan's called a moratorium on capital punishment in Illinois in 2000 and pardoned four in 2003. Burge, fired in 1993, retired to Florida on his police pension, where he seemed to escape any measure of justice. Until today. [more inside]
When Borrowing to Save Actually Makes Sense
Portland's got white ones, Austin has yellow ones, Vassar has them in pink. What are they? Community bikes. Colleges, universities, even whole cities are seeing the benefits of offering their students and citizens an alternative to cars, fossil fuels, and parking lots. Want to start a shared bike program in your community? Here's how. (previously)
Cultural voyeurism
ChinaSMACK. English China. (Occasionally NSFW)
Grace Chang
In the 1960s and 1970s Hong Kong had a thriving film
industry, dominated by studios such as Cathay Studios.
One of Cathay's most fabulous stars was Grace Chang (Ge Lan), referred to by some as the Marlene Dietrich of Hong Kong Chinese
cinema. Her greatest hit was The Wild Wild Rose (Ye mei gui zhi lian), based on Bizet's Carmen. The showstopper is
her version of Habanera (YT). [more inside]
Build bridges, don't burn them...
Wooden Paths is a flash game where you solve puzzles to complete bridges connecting two land masses with progressively more difficult levels and new challenges. [more inside]
You can't say that!
The U.S. Constitution protects your right to bear arms. And it supposedly protects your right to mock nearly-bare bears. Speech is definitely subject to supply and demand. So why does the FCC feel the need to regulate swearing on the airwaves? Steven Pinker complains. [via ALDaily]
mass transit
“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
The Atheist Bus Campaign rolls out today in London.
The Atheist Bus Campaign rolls out today in London.
ChinAfrica
China, Africa see closer cooperation since Beijing Summit. Others see it a bit differently: 'We never pay,' he said, 'because once you pay you become their bitch; you will pay for ever and ever.' The phenomenon even has a name on the ground in the sub-Sahara: the Great Chinese Takeout. China, Africa and Oil: China's national oil companies are, in some cases, politically stronger than the government agencies charged with regulating them. previously
Decisions, decisions...
The Choice 2008 is the newest report from PBS's Frontline. It examines the backgrounds, both personal and political, of John McCain and Barack Obama. You can also watch the entire two-hour show on YouTube.
Guitar heroes
The website to tie in with the BBC series Imagine: The Story Of The Guitar has video interviews with The Edge, Bob Brozman, Johnny Marr, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Charlotte Hatherley and BB King. [more inside]
Forward
Warfare: 1917 gives you a taste of the trenches.
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