October 27, 2011
Cardinals Force Game 7
The Texas Rangers were one strike away from winning the World Series for the first time in their 40-year history in Game 6 Thursday night. Twice. [more inside]
Earth Time
Google Earth Clock is a digital clock assembled from views of the planet that resemble numbers. (Not for the vertiginous; requires the Google Earth plugin). [more inside]
Party of Lost Children
The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was a popular children’s birthday-party venue that was run out of several locations in North Toronto in the 1980's. Whisked away in a hearse, throngs of elementary-school children were led through a "magical underground kingdom" by teenaged attendants, participating in whipped-cream fights and shopping-cart bumpercars, with no parents allowed. [more inside]
The galaxies are waiting.
In 1974, Sun Ra and his Arkestra released a film. In which he plays cards with a pimp and travels through space and time. There is social commentary. And music. He also made an album with the same name. [more inside]
Whaleback Ships of the Great Lakes
The SS Christopher Columbus was the only Whaleback ship ever built for passenger service. [more inside]
Cinderella, Cinderella, Night and Day it's Cinderella
You probably know the Perrault version. And chances are, you haven’t been able to escape the Disney version. Maybe you know the slightly-darker Grimm version, or even the original story of Yeh-Shen. Maybe you’re a fan of musicals, and love Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella or Sondheim’s Into the Woods. But chances are, there’s a bit about this classic story you don’t know yet… [more inside]
The future is amazing.
The future according to Microsoft.
World Order - 2012
Genki Sudo's group World Order have released a new music video set in Mexico with their trademark choreography. [more inside]
Richard Garriott de Cayeux aka Lord British is moving house
Lord British has put his mansion, Britannia Manor II, on the market. Richard Garriott de Cayeux, creator of the Ultima franchise, astronaut, geocacher and regular guest star in his own games as Lord British (or, in the future war MMOG Tabula Rasa, General British) has listed his Austin home, Britannia Manor II. [more inside]
Arvo Pärt
[Arvo] Pärt’s mature style was inaugurated in 1976 with a small piano piece, “Für Alina”, that remains one of his best-known works. It is governed by the compositional system that he called “tintinnabuli,” derived from the Latin word for “bells.” The tintinnabuli method pairs each note of the melody with a note that comes from a harmonizing chord, so they ring together with bell-like resonance. [more inside]
The biped robot which rides on a bicycle by Dr. Guero
Oh hi! You're here just in time for a trifecta of things we love: Cute little robots, fixed gear bicycles, and single-link YouTube posts! I hope you like it!
We're all made of star stuff
Carl Sagan famously said that we are all made of star stuff. In his vision the basic building blocks of life were jettisoned into interstellar space by the massive explosions of stars going supernova. Now scientists from Hong Kong University have claimed that the results of their latest study(paywall), published in Nature, indicate that stars can create complex organic compounds on the very short timescale of weeks. [more inside]
Not the usual Allie Brosh.
Adventures in Depression. Allie Brosh is back with a new Hyperbole and a Half post on the topic of her own depression. [more inside]
The Fear You Can Hear
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater aired weeknights from 1974 to 1982. Here are all 1,399 original episodes , free to stream or download. [more inside]
From Piggi Hedron to Mario DeNiro
Alfred Hitchcock's Angry Birds and other movies-based-on-video-games the way they should be done (Duck Hunt & Donkey Kong) from the G4 people. (SL3Videos, NSFW language, gore)
Nomen est Omen
The U.S. House of Representatives has drafted their version of Senator Leahy's Protect IP Act, renaming the bill the E-Parasites Act. Among other changes discussed previously, the bill now makes internet service providers and websites liable for activities of their users that infringe upon copyrights, effectively overturning parts of the 13-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
"Self-propagating, self-justifying, entirely an end in itself."
The Sad Odyssey of the F-22: America’s Big Broken Toy [SLGM]. 'The F-22 has been okayed to fly again, after being grounded, cleared, grounded, then cleared once more—all within a year. And yet, the Air Force hasn't fixed the plane's life threatening flaw. It doesn't seem like it cares.' [more inside]
Parros Still Wins
Anaheim Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller, back from vertigo, debuts his new mask in a tribute to Movember.
Chicks With Guns
Hazel, the band
Hazel were one of the forgotten bands of the “grunge” years.
Much more info here at about the band (and a ton of other stuff) at the site of the band’s dancer, Fred Nemo.
A sampler:
1.Supersonic
2.J. Hell
3.Comet
4.Boog
5.Day Glo
Dwarfs and orange condoms
This year the Games Media Awards in the UK were sponsored by a little know chain of shops from the North East, Grainger Games, looking to increase their profile... well following the last night's events they are pretty well-known now. Cue a next-day banning and apologies from Grainger and the organisers
Art of household management
A Planetary Crisis Is A Terrible Thing to Waste There are striking similarities between the current economic and ecological crises — both involve indulgent over-consumption and a failure to consider the impacts on future generations. But it’s not too late to look to new economic and environmental models and to dramatically change course. opines Der Spiegel environmental journalist, Christian Schwägerl
"Gotta peel the banana before you can eat it!"
How the Joy of Sex was illustrated. [BBC] Forty years ago, a London publisher was working on a groundbreaking sex manual - a "gourmet guide" to sexual pleasure, with copious and detailed illustrations. But how could this be done tastefully and legally?
Columbia invites Genocide denier Dodik to give a lecture, uninvites protesters
Columbia University Prevents Bosnian Americans from Attending Dodik Lecture Columbia university invited Milorad Dodik, president of the republika Srpska (a Serb republic within Bosnia and Herzegovina) to give a lecture on 10/25/2011.
Dodik is an adamant denier of the massacres of Sebrenica and has said in the past that they were staged.
Outraged, the Congress of North American Bosniaks registered to get the required invitations, and were turned away.
Time Tree
TimeTree is a public knowledge-base for information on the evolutionary timescale of life. A search utility allows exploration of the thousands of divergence times among organisms in the published literature. A tree-based (hierarchical) system is used to identify all published molecular time estimates bearing on the divergence of two chosen taxa, such as species, compute summary statistics, and present the results . . . For those interested in published summaries of relationships and divergence times of major groups of organisms (family level and above), see the authoritative synthesis The Timetree of Life.
Here are some examples to get you started: Humans and Chimpanzees diverged 6.3 MYA; Giraffes and Dolphins diverged 58.3 MYA; Cats and Mice diverged 95.2 MYA; and Dogs and Fleas diverged 777.8 MYA. [more inside]
Here are some examples to get you started: Humans and Chimpanzees diverged 6.3 MYA; Giraffes and Dolphins diverged 58.3 MYA; Cats and Mice diverged 95.2 MYA; and Dogs and Fleas diverged 777.8 MYA. [more inside]
Human Resource 3,766,707,775
Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean
The 13th century wreck of an invading Mongolian ship that fell victim to a famous typhoon known in Japan as the "kamikaze" or "divine wind" has been found off the country's southern coast. [more inside]
Sometimes I suspect the correct answer is Halloween IN Williamsburg
Single Serving Tumblr of the Day: Halloween or Williamsburg?
Excusez-Moai
The Easter Island Statue Project: a glimpse at what's going on from the neck down.
We have to pay attention to the stupid stuff right in front of us.
Why not space? We've previously looked at Do The Math's assessment of energy use and economic growth. But could going to the stars allow us to escape?
‘My magnificent new [red] hair’
In a daring rejoinder to the kind of anti-ginger prejudice (previously) that can fictionally manifest itself as gingercide, one brave redhead gets his hair did, going from suedehead to fashion plate in “nine long months.”
Abortion Access Worldwide: A Reference
Since 1988, the Center for Reproductive Rights has compiled a visual map of the laws regulating abortion throughout the world. Earlier this month, they released their 2011 Map in pdf and updated their online World Abortion Laws Map in a new interactive format which allows country comparisons and provides text of abortion laws for certain countries. (Via Good: Can I get an Abortion Here? The Abortion Rights Map of the World)
Zizek on Charlie Rose
"Never in my life did I dance or sing - the obscenity of gestures...I just cannot do it" - In a predictably outrageous interview, Slavoj Zizek goes on Charlie Rose and discusses Stalin, Zionism, Kung Fu Panda, Niels Bohr and Occupy Wall Street, among other things.
Barbara Sher on how to find and do what you love
Inspired by Steve Jobs' admonition to find what you love to do and not to settle? Barbara Sher has been teaching people the importance of finding and doing what they love, even when it might be multiple things--all without saccharine positive thinking--for decades, starting with her bestselling book (now free online) Wishcraft. (Youtube channel, Discussion forums)
"You know I can't grab your ghost chip!"
She Was A Camera
She Was A Camera. Melissa Gira Grant writes about camgirl culture. (NSFW?)
We are the hipsters of the Church of Jesus Christ! (of Latter-Day Saints)
Today's New York Times has an article about young Mormons finding a way to live their values while remaining socially "with it" -- by turning to hipster culture.
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that played bongos and overthrew the tables of the anti-capitalists.
St Paul's canon Giles Fraser resigns over plans to forcibly remove Occupy London protesters from outside the cathedral. A debate is building up about the role of the church and which side of the capitalist argument they should be on.
VisualCortexFilter: Hubel and Wiesel have a chat
Professors David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel (Nobel Prize 1981; Hubel's lecture; Wiesel's lecture) are responsible for "accidentally (YT)" (other movies) discovering a fundamental property of how the visual areas of the brain process information: single neurons respond to lines and edges of objects in visual space (pdf). This was an enormous leap forward in our understanding of visual cortex, and demonstrated that a cortical neuron can form outputs that are more complex than any of its inputs. They went on to pioneer the field of plasticity (or learning) in cortex. Here they sit together for an hour and chat about the early days of exploring the visual cortex.
Get ti fuk yi baw bag
Voice recognition technology don't do Scottish accents. Really! Apple's new iPhone voice recognition technology, Siri, is having trouble with the Scottish accent. It has trouble with simple phrases like can you dance for me? and boot your bawz and how many miles are there in ten kilometers? and create a remainder.
What's your slavery footprint?
"But you don't hire Picasso and then tell him how to paint."
When we did "Beat It," Michael came in the van with us to scout locations. I remember saying, "I'm hungry, let's stop for a pizza." Michael said, "Oh good, I've never had a pizza." This is a 25-year-old man who'd never had pizza. Now he wasn't accessible like that. He was a superstar, but then he became a deity.I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution is a hugely readable and fun new oral history of the first decade of MTV. Veteran music writers Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum interviewed many of the era's major players, putting a microscope on the biggest, weirdest, and most memorable videos of the time, and [Pitchfork is] thrilled to present the following excerpt.
« Previous day | Next day »