November 27, 2008
Nintendo Comics System
Nintendo Comics System. Full colour scans of most of the Super Mario Brothers comics that many Nintendo fans, such as myself, read back during the 90s. Oh, as well as Legend of Zelda, Punch Out!!, Metroid and Captain N: The Game Master. Further reading, if you dare.
What's up, doc?
The Opry Has Sinned
"The Reinstate Hank campaign calls for the remittal of Opry star, and country music legend, Hank Williams." [more inside]
Bondi Jitterbug
1930's Bondi Beach fun "Bondi resident George Caddy was best known for his success as a jitterbug dancer. But it's these posthumously discovered photographs of 1930s 'Beachobatics' that's got Alan Davies from the State Library of NSW jumping for joy." [more inside]
Tis the Season for Shoplifting
Tis the season for Shoplifting, when the unemployed, teens, professionals, kleptos, and political shoplifters jack, rack, nick, and stroke holiday gifts. The BBB anticipates a rise in light-fingered merchandising, but notes that on average, shoplifters get pinched only "once for every 48 times they steal." Retailers are fighting back in unusual ways. Wal-Mart, the oft-target of political shoplifters, aggressively guards its merchandise, while across the pond the Dutch approach the problem with bemusement.
The Economist: The World in 2009
In 2009, a remarkably gifted politician, confronting a remarkably difficult set of challenges, will have to learn to say "No we can't", Guantánamo will prove a moral minefield, economic recovery will be invisible to the naked eye, governments must prepare for the day they stop financial guarantees, we will judge our commitment to sustainability, scientists should research the causes of religion, we will all be potential online paparazzi, English will have more words than any other language (but it's meaningless), Afghanistan will see a surge of Western (read: American) troops, Iran will continue its nuclear quest while diplomacy lies in shambles, the sea floor is the new frontier, we should rethink aging, (non-)voters will continue to thwart the European project -- but cheap travel will continue to buoy it -- though it has some unfinished business to attend to, and a Nordic defence bond will blossom.
The Economist: The World in 2009. [more inside]
The Economist: The World in 2009. [more inside]
It's Just Art, Dude
Burton Snowboards' new Love (NSFW?) and Primo (NSFW?) snowboard lines are causing quite a stir across the country. Even the Burlington, VT, City Council wants to get involved. Here's what the Burton cofounders have to say about the whole thing. [more inside]
IRL Games
Four Acts in Four Rooms
Thanksgiving at Dan and Jane's by Dave Eggers. [Lech, 6, under the table, pretends to be dead, in a coffin raised over the heads of hysterical mourners.]
Can you spot Mr. Cook's cameos in the videos?
The Brighton Port Authority was a shadowy musical project lasting from the early 1970s and lasting until the mid 90s, or so it's rumored. The tapes from this project have recently been found and are slowly being released. [more inside]
Gleaming the Cube
Dave Bollinger is a computer artist that specializes in geometry. He creates both still images and short videos. Some videos are silent, like this unusual Pac-Man homage, and some have soundtracks. Some are in black and white and some are in color. His Flickr photostream categorizes still images by style. His current fascination seems to be with cubes and cubic lattices.
This one goes to 11.
This one goes to 11. Louder
than the "loudest band in the world" but powered by a Hemi, (sound, pops),
the most powerful sirens ever built served faithfully through a war that didn’t happen.
Others may be more technologically advanced but even today’s loudest ones can’t match the Chrysler (though they may be useful in warning of other types of disaster). [more inside]
Brooker Blue
The second episode of the current series of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe is a special on television advertising (1, 2, 3) (possible NSFW - swearing and nipples) or as George Orwell put it: "The rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket." [more inside]
Fixers.
Fixers are local guides who help foreign journalists get by. Fixers on the Frontline in 6 parts - 1 2 3 4 5 6.
Mammoth Stars
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
We don't need no straight lines.
The Black President
A 1926 Brazilian sci-fi novel predicts a U.S. election determined by race and gender. O Presidente Negro envisions the 2228 U.S. presidential election. In that race, the white male incumbent, President Kerlog, finds himself running against Evelyn Astor, a white feminist, and James Roy Wilde, the cultivated and brilliant leader of the Black Association, "a man who is more than just a single man ... what we call a leader of the masses."
Pop Rocks
The Little Fox has gas. Giovanna Tinetti using the Hubble Telescope says (in Nature - subscription required) there's Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere of the Jupiter sized, hot, extrasolar planet HD 189733b.
Scientists have also found methane clouds in its atmosphere, as well as water vapor.
Tinetti (who looks a bit like Kari Byron from mythbusters if you squint) also found evidence of methane.
Deconstructing Dinner
Produced and recorded in the studios of Kootenay Co-op Radio in Nelson, British Columbia, Deconstructing Dinner has been designed to dispense and discuss current food issues.
This weekly radio show hosted by Jon Steinman features a wide range of topics revolving around food security. [more inside]
Do the Wasteland Boogie
Where the battlegrounds meet moral grounds.
World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion involves a quest titled The Art of Persuasion. Richard Bartle, co-author of MUD (and pioneer of MMO gaming), speaks out against this: "Basically, you have to take some kind of cow poke and zap a prisoner until he talks. I'm not at all happy with this. I was expecting for there to be some way to tell the guy who gave you the quest that no, actually I don't want to torture a prisoner, but there didn't seem to be any way to do that..." (via) [more inside]
Defining Imagery
The Photographic Dictionary defines words through the personal meaning found in each picture. M is for mask, E is for ephemeral, T is for twin, A if for alone.
The Gobbler
A Thanksgiving treat from Lileks. The Gobbler may be the most ill conceived, worst designed hotel to ever grace the American landscape. I sure wish I could have visited there.
To Roll, To Crease, To Fold...
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