December 5, 2011
Single Link His Toons
D. on Ice, in honor of the 110th birthday of Walt Disney, kinda.
chicken and rice recipe
Education For All
The 2011 Edublog Awards
are on. The nominee lists provide rich resources for everyone, perhaps most especially in the free web tool category. A personal selection: Online Convert (free online conversion of dozens of video formats), GeoTrio and TripLine (recorded tours around the world), CorkboardMe and LinoIt (online, shared pibboards),
Cover It Live (online event presentation) and A Google A Day (daily questions and puzzles, presented by Google (previously)). For kids, there’s
Artsonia (the world’s largest children’s arts museum) Tarheel Reader (illustrated readers for multiple platforms) and SweetSearch (a search engine for students),along with much, much more. [more inside]
Inequality highest in thirty years across most of the developed world.
Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising is the latest report from the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. It finds:
In the three decades prior to the recent economic downturn, wage gaps widened and household income inequality increased in a large majority of OECD countries. [...]Launching the report in Paris, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said “The social contract is starting to unravel in many countries. This study dispels the assumptions that the benefits of economic growth will automatically trickle down to the disadvantaged and that greater inequality fosters greater social mobility. Without a comprehensive strategy for inclusive growth, inequality will continue to rise.”Links to Overview [.pdf]; press release; notes [.pdf format] for Australia, Canada, the UK, the USA; data link (excel format).
....and falling.
In June 2004, Paul Stephens pulled over to the shoulder on The George Bush Tollway/I-75 overpass in Dallas, TX while arguing with his girlfriend, Lorena Godoy Osorio. As the fight escalated Osorio got our of the car to flee and Stephens threw her off the overpass onto the Interstate. He then jumped to his own death, 85 feet below. Dallas indie rock band Sorta wrote and recorded a song about the incident, "85 Feet" [more inside]
New worlds of wonderful sound
"Far From Moscow is a resource designed to promote, catalog, and consider new music from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, together with the Baltic nations (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia)." Posts are frequent and extensive and stuffed full of fantastic songs. They also offer a dozen free sampler albums; I'm listening to and loving Apples and the more ambient Forest. [more inside]
Bike vs. Board
The Pinhegg
T-Dot
The history of Toronto in photos is 90 some odd posts linked to provide a thematically organized visual overview. The vast majority of the photographs featured derive from the Toronto Archives. Should you be interested in a less visually oriented take on Toronto history, there is also the Nostalgia Tripping series, which was designed to be a bit more about storytelling than just the photos.
Meet Benjaman Kyle
On August 31, 2004, a naked, bruised man was discovered behind a Burger King at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Highway 17 in Richmond Hill, Georgia. He had no memory of who he was. Fingerprint and DNA searches were unsuccessful. His identity continues to remain missing.
“This is not a definition, it is not true—and, therefore, your questions do not make sense.”
In reflecting on the project, McAllister feels “caught between the intimacy of each individual response, and the pattern of the cumulative replies.” The question remains: Why did they answer? McAllister claims no credit, describing his survey form as “barely literate.” He recalls that in his cover letter (no examples of which exist) he misused the word precocious—he meant presumptuous—and in hindsight he sees that he was both, though few writers seemed to mind. “The conclusion I came to was that nobody had asked them. New Criticism was about the scholars and the text; writers were cut out of the equation. Scholars would talk about symbolism in writing, but no one had asked the writers.” Sixteen year old boy dislikes English homework, goes outside the chain of command.
A leaking woodpecker
Security researchers at North Carolina State University led by Xuxian Jiang (who had previously discovered 12 malicious Android applications sold through Google's Android Market) have uncovered holes in how the permissions-based security model is enforced on numerous Android devices. Called "leaks", these vulnerabilities allow new and existing malicious applications to eavesdrop on calls, track the user's location, install applications, send SMS messages, delete data from the device, and more. (via)
There goes the balls again!
And now, a 1984 talk show performance of Whistling On My Mind. (stupefying SLYT)
Hey girl, I'm sorry I said 'multivariate' when I meant 'multivariable'.
Do you think Ryan Gosling is sexy? Do you think statistics are sexy? If so, you might enjoy this.
Quantum realism mounts a charge. Prepare phenomenological defenses.
A mixed (superpositioned?) state of buzz among those working in quantum foundations over a new paper by Matt Pusey asserting that quantum states are real physical objects and not simply statistical probability distributions. Matt Leifer does a balanced contextualization and explication. A giddy article in nature news and David Wallace support and summarize. [more inside]
What do you think?
Robin Waart is a Dutch artist whose work often involves isolating unexamined elements of narrative. 745 is a collection of all of the exclamation points from a single copy of the weekly 'Donald Duck' comic book. Part One is a book of 101 'Part One' pages from English-language books. Thinking in Pictures is an ongoing project to gather moments in film when a character says 'What do you think?' or 'What are you thinking?'
Sweet Mother of Lethbridge-Stewart!
The Middleman and Wendy in THE WIBBLY-WOBBLY, TIMEY-WIMEY, JIGGERY-POKERY. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, creator of The Middleman (prev) in both comics and TV, imagines a cross-over with a certain venerable British franchise. [more inside]
Pen and Portraiture
Jane Austen biographer discovers 'lost portrait' Better (expandable) picture of it in the Guardian, and a link to the classic pic you should be familiar with.
Good for Business; Kids Not So Much
The Failure of Corporate School Reform: schools and school systems desperate for funding often turn to businesses for help. According to some critics, the U.S. educational system has also adopted a corporate philosophy that is at odds with the historical notion of the "common school." Next up: "virtual education reform." A critic's claim: "controlled, rigid, anti-critical teaching results not in subjects with a greater capacity for economic productivity, but the opposite."
Gorilla vs Bear's 2011 Album Picks
Gorilla vs Bear is a way cool Texas, USA based music blog. These are their top 30 album choices for 2011. Full disclosure: this was sent to me by my friends son. Although I think these are great selections -- I even knew a few -- I'm way to old to be part of their core readership demographic :-)
Duck!
Mowing the lawn. A collection of aircraft taxiing with the wheels up...
Samuel Beckett's Film
Samuel Beckett's Film. Here is an article by director on Alan Schneider on the movie, and an article by Sylvia Debevec Hanning.
Other earths, circling different suns
The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog is a database of the planets outside our solar system which are considered the most suitable for life according to certain steps and metrics. So far 16 have been identified as possible candidates. This Guardian article is a good introduction. You can also just dive into the catalogue, which ranks planets on two main scales, similarity to Earth and surface habitability (note that all images are computer renderings). The catalog is a project of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo (home to the world's largest radiotelescope).
for the budding Bene Tleilax
The quest for the $500 home molecular biology laboratory Molecular diagnostics and molecular biology in general are becoming more pervasive every day in a range of applications. For some time there have been attempts to build an affordable diy machine to explore this fascinating science. OpenPCR (polymerase chain reaction) received quite a bit of publicity with their $599 system. Each of these have had problems and were not quite suitable for students. Here is an attempt to get the price even lower and to simply the construction process. Previously on Metafilter
Take up the White Man's burden— And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard—
Indian author Pankaj Mishra writes a brutal takedown of Niall Ferguson's latest book, Civilisation: The West and the Rest in the London Review of Books.
Ferguson responds to the critical book review with a lawsuit. [more inside]
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
Jacques Delors: Euro would still be strong if it had been built to my plan. 'Former president of the European Commission Jacques Delors talks to Charles Moore about the fate of the euro.''Jacques Delors is a master of all the technicalities of the argument, and all the Byzantine structures of the institutions, and speaks confidently in their jargon, but his mind seems burdened by deeper thoughts, too. He sees the crisis of the euro as part of something deeper and wider even than the credit crunch itself. He believes that the main social and economic “players” have their doubts about European policies.' [more inside]
The Best Paper Airplane in The World
The DC-3: The Best Paper Airplane in The World. "During the summer of 1950, on the outskirts of Harrisburg Pennsylvania U.S.A., my sister's boyfriend 'Skip' was sitting on the glider on the front porch of our house. He said to me - Hey Mike... bring me a sheet of paper.' I answered why? and he responded with his make believe impatience 'Just bring it!' I obeyed and he said that he was going to build the best paper airplane in the world. I was eight years old at the time and my meager knowledge of paper airplanes was the traditional flying wedge that spiraled into tight loops and fell head first to the ground." [more inside]
LAT at 130
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times celebrated the 130th anniversary of its first issue, and marked the occasion with 130 photos from Los Angeles history, as well as a gallery of historic front pages.
When adults take the high school achievement test.
Could you pass your state's standard high school level achievement test today? One school board member, a successful business executive with multiple college degrees, took his state's 10th grade achievement test. He failed.
Beyond Digital: bringing some of Morocco's off-line culture to the online world at large
Beyond Digital is a collaborative project between eight members who have come together to explore the culture and music of Morocco, which is often poorly represented online to the world at large, thus "beyond digital." The team put together a 9 minute "behind-the-scenes" look at their work, or you skip the preview and jump into their YouTube channel, articles on The Fader, and more on their website. Highlights: a collection of Moroccan percussion loops, a photo essay on Morocco's changing culture, and a collaboration between Moroccan musician Hassan Wargui (Imanaren) and Nettle, a "band project" by DJ/rupture. [more inside]
This Old Cub gets to the Hall
The votes are in, and former Chicago Cub, Ron Santo is this year's only inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame, one year after his death. (previously discussed)
All I want for Christmas is you (in a pink leotard and knee socks)
SWAT Raids, Stun Guns, And Pepper Spray: Why The Government Is Ramping Up The Use Of Force
Shortly after Jared Loughner allegedly opened fire in the parking lot of a Tucson grocery store last January, we saw much hand-wringing about the threat of violence against the government. In fact, violence against government officials is actually pretty rare. But just three days before Loughner's rampage, police in Framingham, Mass., raided the home of 68-year-old Eurie Stamps. Stamps wasn't the target of the drug raid. Police were after the son of Stamps' girlfriend, and actually apprehended him outside the home. They raided the house anyway. Stamps, who was unarmed and broke no laws, was shot and killed by a police officer. By my count, he's at least the 46th innocent person killed in a botched drug raid. Every politician in Washington condemned the Loughner shootings, and rightly so. But nearly every politician in Washington supports the laws and policies that led to the death of Eurie Stamps.-- Radley Balko continues his lonely crusade documenting the ongoing militarization of America's police forces.
The National Championship of the Gulf Coast.
The Southeastern Conference has been ensured of producing its sixth straight BCS national champion as the #1 ranked 13-0 LSU Tigers will play against the #2 ranked 11-1 Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2011 BCS championship game. [more inside]
An Institution in Transition
Upheaval at the New York Public Library: an article in The Nation which looks at the current state of the NYPL, and highlights many of the problems facing public libraries across the United States.
This is the Classical
2011
A Crowd of One: Living with Multiple Personalities
Sidian3 is a middle aged woman who has Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.), formerly known as Multiple personality disorder. She makes video blogs about this and related subjects. Potential triggers and sensitive topics are in videos after the jump. [more inside]
Reading the Riots
"You feel euphoric you know. Because it's one of the best buzzes personally I've had in my life. Better than any drug. And you know it was just that....It was a feeling of standing up straight against an institution that's been historically has always been brutal, wicked and bad mind towards young people especially young black people."
In collaboration with the LSE, the Guardian's Reading the Riots project has used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to explore the causes of England's summer of disorder.
In collaboration with the LSE, the Guardian's Reading the Riots project has used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to explore the causes of England's summer of disorder.
How Doctors Die
It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little.How Doctors Die.
Yes, this is where I admit to the world I've been tying my shoelaces wrong.
Shoelaces come undone? You may be tying them incorrectly. Easy check: do they sit straight across your shoe, or tilt up at an angle? If the latter, you're securing them with a granny knot, which falls apart readily, but this can be fixed by a small change in the way you tie the laces. Ian Fieggen explains and demonstrates. (He also writes it out). [more inside]
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