November 11, 2011
You Are Not Watching PBS
Omar Little meets Craig Ferguson and Skeleton Robot Larry King. (With a cameo by Secretariat.) [more inside]
Ohm on the Range
Do you remember that silly 'Ohm on the Range' joke from electronics class? Well, OhmArt will satisfy your wildest dreams for this sort of joke.
Wonder Girls Are Back!
Wonder Girls are back in Korea with a 2nd album, after a foray into the U.S. including touring with the Jonas Brothers in 2009, and an upcoming movie for Teen Nick, "Wonder Girls at the Apollo." The first single, "Be My Baby" will also be featured in the movie soundtrack. The album also includes their re-interpretation of Korean rock legend Shin Jung-hyeon's "The Beauty" - "Me, In" (link is to trailer for the song). If Wonder Girls are not your cup of tea, some other Korean girl groups: [more inside]
Department of DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE!
The U.S.S. Carl Vinson, which has provided relief in Haiti after an earthquake, launched air strikes in the Middle East after 9/11 and, most recently, dumped Osama bin Laden’s body out at sea hosted an uncharacteristically maritime event this evening: a basketball game on the flight deck. [more inside]
They used to just be "The Pack"
Bluesy Canadian garage duo The Pack A.D. has put out four albums in like five years, the most recent in September of this year. [more inside]
Make your own money, kid
My dad taught me cashflow with a soda machine
After a brief, failed experiment paying me to do chores, my dad tried something really neat. It clearly took a bit of legwork, but maybe there are some transferrable lessons for parents who want to lay an entrepreneurial foundation.
He gave me a vending machine.
Why Americans won't do dirty jobs?
Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs? “Look, you got immigrants doing more than what blacks or whites will. Look at them, they just work and work all day. They don’t look at it like it’s a hard job. They don’t take breaks!” Businessweek takes a look at the labor supply situation in Alabama, after state legislation sent illegal immigrants packing to other states.
Lost at Sea
When Rebecca Coriam vanished from the Disney Wonder in March, hers became one of the 171 mysterious cruise ship disappearances in the past decade. So what happened? Jon Ronson booked himself a cabin to find out…
Don't presume; that's a backstory we didn't agree on before.
Never mess with a ninja librarian -- they'll correct you within an inch of your life
After an AP exclusive report on how the CIA is using "ninja librarians" to comb through internet postings and social media, NPR's Robert Siegel interviewed reporter Kimberly Dozier about her research for the article. This prompted enough listener response that All Things Considered had to revisit the phrase in their Letters segment today, with clarification about what kind of degree a ninja librarian may have earned.
Pythagasaurus
Pythagasaurus is the fabled Tyrannosaurus practiced in the skills of trigonometry and long division. Apparently he knows all eight numbers. [Via]
The durable Mike Malloy
In 1933, Anthony Marino, Joe Murphy, Frank Pasqua and Dan Kriesberg decided to make money by taking out life insurance on drunks and then letting the victims drink themselves to death. Then they encountered Mike Malloy...
Jailbreak the Matriarchy
Jailbreak the Patriarchy genderswaps the world for you. A new Chrome extension by Danielle Sucher swaps pronouns and other gendered words on most sites. [more inside]
Shapecatcher: draw to explore Unicode characters
Koko and Friends
Koko, the Western Lowland Gorilla who is able to understand more than 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language and 2,000 words of spoken English, has met some celebrities over the years. In 1988, William Shatner had a memorable visit with Koko, as seen in part in this edited clip, and re-told on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2009. Mister Rogers visited in 1998 (YouTube clip), as part of series of shows addressing children's fears of meeting someone new or unusual. In 2004, Koko met Betty White and Robin Williams. (Koko and other non-human primates using and learning sign language previously)
11/11/11 helicopter crash
A helicopter crashed this morning near Mexico City, killing all eight aboard, including Mexican Secretary of the Interior, Francisco Blake Mora. This has happened almost exactly three years to the day a plane crashed in Mexico City, killing a previous mexican Secretary of the Interior, Juan Camilo Mouriño (Blake Mora even tweeted about remembering Mouriño last week, in his last tweet [link in Spanish]). [more inside]
Press X to not die
Zero Punctuation reviews Battlefield 3 (video), possibly the most reviled game ever to earn itself 93% on Metacritic. Remember to press X to not die (TV tropes).
Music notation as art.
Music is art for the ears. But what about music notation as art?
Crosswalk to Nowhere.
What do you mean the building codes require us to install handicapped-accessible crosswalk? Fine. Here's your fucking crosswalk. [more inside]
ROSA
ROSA (vimeo) A sci-fi short animated film created by a new Spanish artist, Jesús Orellana. This was a year-long, solo project created without a budget. [more inside]
Blow dry or hand towel?
The Great Debate: What's the most environmentally-friendly way to dry your hands in a public bathroom? Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have completed what is believed to be the first major study to assess the greenest way of drying your hands.
Come ye cool, cool conservative men
If mainstream conservatism is a “philosophically flabby movement,” and I won’t argue that it isn’t, this is not evidence of its success but simply of its exhaustion and lack of imagination. Perhaps conservatism should thrive on loss and defeat, but I see little evidence that the conservative movement in America understands that it has already lost on many fronts. There is an illusion of success that the most recent election has kept alive, but it is a temporary one.As the campaign for the Republican nomination for president gets weirder by the minute, what does it mean to be an American conservative? Daniel Larison and Corey Robin debate the changing nature of conservatism.
Bonus: A Liberal Reads the Great Conservative Works
Punctiliousness at Poynter?
Journalist/blogger Jim Romenesko resigns from Poynter after questions of "incomplete attribution" in his stories. [more inside]
Climate Change Denialists Take Heed!
Climate Variability and Climate Change: The New Climate Dice An excerpt from what should be a very incendiary academic paper by Hansen, J, et al: Thus there is no need to equivocate about the summer heat waves in Texas in 2011 and Moscow
in 2010, which exceeded 3σ – it is nearly certain that they would not have occurred in the
absence of global warming. If global warming is not slowed from its current pace, by midcentury 3σ events will be the new norm and 5σ events will be common.
"We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are." - Anaïs Nin
The IAEA report on Iran has been leaked to the public. But are the new allegations "a game changer"... or, even new, for that matter?
Barbara Grier, pioneering lesbian publisher, has died
Barbara Grier,founder of the lesbian publishing company Naiad Press, has died at age 78. [more inside]
R. Crumb Withdraws from New Yorker
Cartoonist Robert Crumb's drawing for the New Yorker was turned down by editor David Remmick in 2009. Crumb didn't take the rejection well. [more inside]
Ijna / Anji
Ijna is backwards for Anji. Anji is a guitar tune known as the most famous piece written and performed by Davy Graham. Inja (on the album cover the track is titled Ijna (Davy Ji) is an homage dedicated to Graham's Anji, written and performed by Steve Tilston in his new album "The Reckoning". [more inside]
Ne touchez pas my tuition.
Meanwhile, in Montreal, tens of thousands of students take to the streets to protest...tuition increases. [more inside]
What? Nothing for Ocean's Eleven?
With all due respect, today (11/11/11) is not just for Veterans or those remembering the end of World War I. It is also...
Nigel Tufnel Day (facebook group) (RL event) "It goes to eleven." Whatever you do loud, today do it one louder.
Eleventh Doctor Day "GERONIMO!!!" Wear a bow tie, fez and/or stetson because they're cool.
Pocky Day for the snacks shaped like, well, 1's.
Corduroy Appreciation Day for the material that... oh, if you don't know, don't bother. BTW, what are Christopher Guest's and Matt Smith's pants made of?
But the less said about the movie the better. 11+11+11=33%? Close.
Also, it's 1 year 1 month and 11 days until the end of the Aztec Calendar. Which makes a few too many 1's, so sit back and watch this clock turn to 11:11:11.
Nigel Tufnel Day (facebook group) (RL event) "It goes to eleven." Whatever you do loud, today do it one louder.
Eleventh Doctor Day "GERONIMO!!!" Wear a bow tie, fez and/or stetson because they're cool.
Pocky Day for the snacks shaped like, well, 1's.
Corduroy Appreciation Day for the material that... oh, if you don't know, don't bother. BTW, what are Christopher Guest's and Matt Smith's pants made of?
But the less said about the movie the better. 11+11+11=33%? Close.
Also, it's 1 year 1 month and 11 days until the end of the Aztec Calendar. Which makes a few too many 1's, so sit back and watch this clock turn to 11:11:11.
« Previous day | Next day »