November 24, 2011
November 25: Update Your Parents' Browser Day
#heblowsalot
High school student Emma Sullivan posted a tweet disparaging Kansas Governor Sam Brownback while on a field trip to the State Capitol. Brownback's staff called Sullivan's principal and complained. This has not resulted in postive PR for Brownback.
Bite me.
Oh, hai. You weren't thinking of sleeping tonight, were you? SLYT NSFW inexplicable electronic disturbing/erotic Canadiana.
Subtext, meet text.
"Too many people are out of work, struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Many are lacking health insurance and foregoing staples that in different times were a given. So please, protesting retail workers, stop whining about having to work holiday hours. Be grateful to have a job." [more inside]
Size Doesn't Matter
Frank Kunert is happy his photographs have an “analog” look about them. After all, he did hand-make the models himself. Before the German photographer even snaps a single shot, he is in his studio, creating 3D model subjects — usually industrial grey constructs in still, almost poetic, settings — out of deco boards, plasticine, and paint. It could take weeks, even months, before Frank is fully satisfied. The result? Models that could could pass for the real thing, and photographs that portray complete worlds of their own.
TIGERS AND TURKEYS (also pumpkins)
How is this malarkey supposed to stop the war effort?
The creators of Italian Spiderman were hired by Australia's multicultural TV network, SBS, to produce Danger 5: "Set in a bizarre, 1960s inspired version of World War II, action comedy series DANGER 5 follows a team of five spies on a mission to kill Adolf Hitler." The six-part TV series will air in February 2012, but the trailer and the first instalment of a promotional web-series are now playing.
Bullish
Can the Bulldog Be Saved? (SLNYT)
A Pareto-optimal Thanksgiving
The most economically efficient use of a turkey is to use it for conceptual art while others starve. Generalized equilibrium theory wishes you a happy and Pareto-optimal Thanksgiving, via Cosma Shalizi.
George, Please F*n Stop
The best Thanksgiving song for nerds ever. In which geek comedy songsters Paul and Storm essay the things they are thankful for and ask whatever motivates the universe to take a moment and deliver a special message to your friend and mine, George Lucas. (NSFW language, but if you're in the US, hopefully you're not at work on Thanksgiving.)
Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, the Wrath of God"
Despite appearing early in his career, Aguirre, the Wrath of God is for me the quintessential Herzog movie. ... It deals with possibly the most obsessed group of people in history, the Spanish conquistadors, and their desperate hunt for the most magic of all Grails, the elusive golden land of El Dorado – leaving destruction and death to millions in their wake. A few lines in an old chronicle is all that remains of the historical facts, thus leaving plenty of room for Herzog to employ his imagination and re-arrange the facts. In short: an ideal topic for a visionary director, tackled with just the right crew, and on a location guaranteed to make the shooting an ordeal in itself.
Car Wars
Nearly a decade of US road accident casualties mapped by location across America from ITO World via the Guardian (they have also done the UK)
NeXT
Steve Jobs at NeXT. Videos of Steve Jobs brainstorming with the NeXT team, describing the goals of NeXT and demoing NeXTStep.
“Nothing she does is memorable, because she does so much.”
"The rigorous division of websites into narrow interests, the attempts of Amazon and Netflix to steer your next purchase based on what you’ve already bought, the ability of Web users to never encounter anything outside of their established political or cultural preferences, and the way technology enables advertisers to identify each potential market and direct advertising to it, all represent the triumph of cultural segregation that is the negation of democracy. It’s the reassurance of never having to face anyone different from ourselves." – Charles Taylor, The Problem with Film Criticism
The Karate Kid Rehearsal Movie
When they were making The Karate Kid, they decided to shoot each scene's rehearsal with budget cameras so the actors could watch themselves back afterwards. Now it's been edited together so that it forms a version of the movie that looks like it was shot and made by eight graders in their basement, including loads of unseen scenes (SLYT)- The Karate Kid Rehearsal Movie.
"What I realize when I’m doing an audiobook is that I actually have a much closer relationship to the text than I do when I’m reading."
Neil Gaiman’s audiobook record label: [Salon.com] The best-selling author talks about introducing his new, hand-picked lineup [Audible.com] of favorite books to American ears. Neil Gaiman Presents is part of a larger enterprise by Audible.com, called ACX (for Audiobook Creation Exchange). It aims to bring new titles to the public by hosting a service through which authors (and other rights holders) can connect with professional narrators.
Putin v Russia
Vladimir Putin booed live on Russian TV. Taking a rare evening off from propping up Bashar Assad and threatening to station missiles on EU borders, past and future President - and current Prime Minister - Vladimir Putin relaxed at a mixed martial arts fight last Sunday night at Moscow's Olimpisky Arena. When he stepped into the ring after the bout to address the crowd however, his reception was as hostile as the fight had been. The muzzled Russian media have either ignored the incident or claimed the booing was directed at Jeff "The Snowman" Monson, but thousands of comments on the American's facebook wall tell a different story. [more inside]
Google StreetView Landscapes
Google StreetView Art Aaron Hobson creates beautiful landscape photographs out of Google StretView
This was important
As we wind down 2011, we think of the most exciting moments from the last year. We measure these moments by "Tweets per minute". The 10 Most Tweeted Moments Of All Time all happened during the last year. Remember when Osama bin Laden died? (Number 10: 5,106 tweets per second.) There was an earthquake in Japan (Number 7: 5,530 tweets per second.) There were sporting events. But the Number 1 most tweeted event of 2011 was... [more inside]
buzz buzz buzz
In 1978 a tiny English company called Electronic Dream Plant produced their first product, the EDP Wasp synthesizer, the first of a short-lived range of creepy-crawly-named devices. In the golden age of big wooden and metal synths the wasp was made of plastic, battery-powered, with a built-in speaker, a keyboard with no moving parts, and used a brilliantly minimalist CMOS circuit design (in fact, people are still copying the Wasp filter circuit). It was the first analog synth to be truly affordable. The Wasp's accessibility, unique sound and portability saw it quickly used by musicians ranging from buskers to rock stars. [more inside]
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