October 4, 2012
Why not?
Their last winning season came in 1997. Only one member of their Opening Day starting rotation remains, a 27-year-old from Taiwan who hadn't pitched in the majors before this year. The others have been replaced by a Red Sox cast-off picked up from the Mexican League, an ex-prospect with a career ERA of 5.5 in his first three years, and the son of one of their former pitchers, a throw-in in a 2009 trade with the Dodgers. They have only one regular hitting over .270, they're missing two-thirds of their Opening Day outfield, and their 20-year-old third baseman started the year at AA. Nate Silver's PECOTA projection system reckoned they'd finish in last place, 24 games behind the Yankees. And tomorrow night, the Baltimore Orioles will play their first postseason game in 15 years. [more inside]
Naco, Pocho
"It's like a hillbilly, really. You listen to the wrong kind of music, you dress in the wrong kind of way, you have the wrong kind of hair." Mun2tv does a ten minute video on the evolving social implications of the terms 'naco' and 'pocho' within the community of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. Featuring Edward James Olmos! It may not be safe for work if you have coworkers who understand Spanish, but it is subtitled in English. [more inside]
Red Dwarf Season X - Returns!
After a 13 year hiatus Red Dwarf returns to the UK on Dave TV. The first episode airs this evening in the UK. Apparently all the main cast have been booked into the show this season albeit a bit older. [more inside]
Women on Waves
Women on Waves is a Dutch organization started by a doctor in 1999 to provide abortion services to women in countries where abortion is illegal by performing procedures in international waters. They have traveled to Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, and now have their eyes set on Morocco.
But Moroccan authorities are attempting to prevent the ship from docking. The group promises a surprise response. [more inside]
Plurality
Plurality... in 2023, the Grid knows who you are and where you go at all times. A short near future sci-fi movie (15 min).
Unkilling Me Softly
Cult genre film director Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Cypher, Splice) directs The Undeading, a PSA for the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation.
The Manbij Experiment
"What is currently happening in Manbij, once a sleepy provincial city in northern Syria, is the first future-oriented experiment in the midst of horror. " In the Syrian city of Manbij, the first larger city to be liberated by rebel forces, residents have been left with the task of governing amidst Syrian forces' daily attempts to destroy schools, hospitals, access to clean water and other infrastructure using air strikes.
A sappy ending?
About a month ago we learned in the blue that a large amount of maple syrup had been stolen from a Quebec warehouse. Yesterday, the RCMP seized a large amount of maple syrup from an export company in New Brunswick. The export company's owner claims that he purchased the syrup from one of his regular suppliers. The recovered syrup was escorted to parts unknown in Quebec by provincial police cars. As the Chicago Tribune notes, "Plot thickens as Quebec police seize cache of maple syrup" ...
For Lsson Plans, Study Help, or Quick Reference
Are you the type of person who, when flipping through a book or scanning a website, immediately searches for the diagrams or charts because you'd rather absorb the information visually than have to read a bunch of text? If so, then you are probably a visual learner and you may find Useful Charts helpful. The goal is to present useful information in the form of study charts so that students, teachers or simply those interested in increasing their general knowledge can absorb the information quickly and visually.
free & cheap ebooks
Books on the Knob, Pixel of Ink, and iReader Review are three blogs that feature free & bargain ebooks daily. If you want to start simple there's OpenCulture's 375 Free eBooks list but if you don't mind doing some footwork then there's this very comprehensive 614 Places for Free eBooks Online post (with divisions of content by genre) on Gizmo's Freeware. [more inside]
Alan Dean Who?
Not only is there no paper in the Star Wars universe, it's highly likely that almost everyone is illiterate.
Today's Hall-Of-Famer?
After years of fans complaining about their omission (including, quite frequently, fans here on the blue), Rush is finally on the list of nominees for entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Better yet -- this year, fans can vote on who gets in. [more inside]
De Palm's incineration
In May 1876, Baron Joseph Henry Louis Charles De Palm died, leaving his worldy goods to Theosophical Society president H.S. Olcott with the request that his body be disposed of “in a fashion that would illustrate the Eastern notions of death and immortality." And so, after what the press called a "Pagan Funeral" in New York and with the help of Pennsylvania doctor Francis LeMoyne, his became the first modern cremation in the United States. The New York Times of 1876 covered both funeral and
cremation. (That is, if you can stand to read grainy pdf scans of old newsprint.) In Winter 2009, a theosophist telling of events was published in the American society's quarterly, Quest magazine. Olcott himself devoted several chapters to De Palm's story in his Old Diary Leaves.
Makers
In February, PBS and AOL launched Makers, a video archive containing personal stories and anecdotes told in the first person by women, many of whom have sparked groundbreaking changes in American culture. [more inside]
F*ing magnets, how do they work?
Magnetic resonance images of fruits and vegetables. And more MRI of more foods. Another 3D rendering of a broccoli MRI. [more inside]
Epic Campaign
Meet the Green Candidate. Is Maine ready to elect America's first Orc Assassin Rogue senator?
Drinks you should never order in a bar. (Maybe?)
Writing for the Globe & Mail's "Wine & Spirits" section, Beppi Crosariol interviews some bartenders and suggests that there are some drinks you should never order in a bar. [more inside]
*This* is the science of sound and matter.
Two elements: tempo and volume. Researchers at the Sundance Research Facility have finally discovered how to turn sound into matter.
high and dry
High and Dry: How Sabrina De Sousa, a former US diplomat of Indian origin, was swept up in the undertow of the war on terror "Sabrina De Sousa was among those convicted in absentia in Italy in November 2009—wrongly, she says, and based only on circumstantial evidence. She was an accredited diplomat at the US consulate in Milan at the time, but claims she was not in Milan on the day of the kidnapping ... Sabrina has argued that she should have been protected from prosecution because of diplomatic immunity. The US government thought otherwise."
Tapes on Books
Tapes on Books: Mixtape soundtracks for beloved classics. Some obvious ("Runaway" by Del Shannon for Ralph Macchio's escape after stabbing Johnny Cade in The Outsiders), some clever ("If You Got the Money" by Lefty Frizzell as Daisy Buchanan's theme song in The Great Gatsby), with witty rationales throughout ("If Sauron's evil flaming eye was actually a evil flaming mouth, then it would sing with Lemmy’s voice").
Mega Shark vs Giant British Spider
Ecologists breed and release swarms of giant fish-eating spiders into the waterways of Britain. [more inside]
Punching Down The Closet Door
World Boxing Organization featherweight title winner and former Olympic boxer Orlando Cruz has come out as boxing's first openly gay athlete.
All Hail Miguel Cabrera -- Triple Crown Winner
Miguel Cabrera has won the Triple Crown. The list of Triple Crown winners is quite short (considering that Major League Baseball is 136 years old). [more inside]
Nine Ways of Looking at D’Annunzio
Perhaps to compensate for his not-so imposing physique, lack of good looks, and plebeian background, Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938) embraced excess in everything he did. And he did many things: novelist, playwright, poet, aviator and sailor, a genuine war hero, a narcissist, a drug addict, a gifted rabble-rouser, debt-evader, and a noted womanizer.
I have to tell you about Tuesday night.
Microsoft and David Lynch team up for a new generation of internet communications. Microsoft LYNCH is your one-stop-go-to communicator for all aspects of your business. Share videos, chats, files, and pictures with everyone - even yourself. I mean, if that is actually you on the other end of the chat. Will you accept the message? [more inside]
Japanese is just weird, nahmean?
Are Some Languages “Faster” Than Others? from Slate's Lexicon Valley podcast series. Transcript included!
How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career
How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career (PDF) (non-PDF version requires free registration): Conventional career change methods...are all part of what I call the “plan and implement” model of change. It goes like this: First, determine with as much clarity and certainty as possible what you really want to do. Next, use that knowledge to identify jobs or fields in which your passions can be coupled with your skills and experience. Seek advice from the people who know you best and from professionals in tune with the market. Then simply implement the resulting action steps. Change is seen as a one-shot deal: The plan-and-implement approach cautions us against making a move before we know exactly where we are going. It all sounds reasonable, and it is a reassuring way to proceed. Yet my research suggests that proceeding this way will lead to the most disastrous of results, which is to say no result. (by Herminia Ibarra, who expands on these ideas in her book Working Identity)
HI BATS!!!
The Crying Competition
But no one ever cared about the cloth map they got for a game that wasn’t any good.
Kickstarter success stories have so far been firmly rooted in nostalgia, not innnovation. We’re seeing some of the biggest talent in the industry openly abandoning the ambition of innovation, and we’re paying them to do it.Kicking It Old School: The Peril Of Kickstarter Nostalgia
The. Polls. Have. Stopped Making. Any. Sense.
“Maybe after the election I’ll have a better sense of the big picture,” he continues. “I do think I’ll probably try to learn statistics.”"The. Polls. Have. Stopped. Making. Any. Sense." profiles Nate Silver of 538 and other polling innovations. Meanwhile, authentic polling nerds read the Princeton Election Consortium, pundits complain that "Political Scientists are Killing the Campaign 'Narrative'," and Peter Levine asks, "Would we better off without any horse-race polls?"
"Works like a depth charge. Pow."
Hey Billy, where d'you get those sunglasses?
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