December 10, 2014
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top
The River of Money
MapLight is a database that "looks at big industries and big interests, their elected beneficiaries and their votes." They also run Voter's Edge for personalized election information. Check out the contributions by vote on Net Neutrality and the Keystone XL pipeline. Maplight also contributes to the national law review. [more inside]
I am a big bright shining star.
Paging through history
"The masturbatory call is a wank I have no time for"
The upside of the recent Sony hack is that we get to learn about how the Steve Jobs movie isn't getting made 1 ("You better shut Angie down before she makes it very hard for David (Fincher) to do Jobs"), how Kevin Hart would like to be paid extra for his social media savvy ("I'm not saying he's a whore, but he's a whore.") [more inside]
Stormageddon 2014: The Reckoning
Drought-stricken California is bracing for the strongest storm it has experienced in five years, with school districts preemptively canceling Thursday classes. The storm is the result of an "atmospheric river," a weather phenomenon that has only recently been identified/defined, but which is now suspected of being the cause of other major historical weather events.
England, England
BBC Land "Popular BBC shows such as Doctor Who, Sherlock and Top Gear could be turned into theme-park attractions as part of a development deal involving the Hollywood studio behind Mission Impossible and Star Trek." [more inside]
"Run, runner!"
The movie Logan's Run is available in its entirety on Dailymotion. First half. Second half. Also available are all 14 episodes of the TV show Logan's Run. Logan's Run pilot Part 1 and Part 2. Episode 2 The Collectors. Episode 3 Capture. Episode 4 The Innocent. Episode 5 Man Out of Time. Episode 6 Half Life. Episode 7 The Crypt. Episode 8 Fear Factor. Episode 9 The Judas Goat. Episode 10 Futurepast. Episode 11 Carousel. Episode 12 Night Visitors. Episode 13 Turnabout. Episode 14 Stargate. [more inside]
One step closer to Ng's "wheelchair" from Snow Crash
The Ripchair 3.0; a powerful vehicle which provides extreme mobility and utility to the wheelchair bound.
I am be angerous now
It's as if he were the wind or weather itself.
Vyacheslav Korotki is a man of extreme solitude. He is a trained polyarnik, a specialist in the polar north, a meteorologist.
Just the Dogs
New York vs. Los Angeles. As the two American population and media centers on opposing coasts, New York City and Los Angeles are prone to endless imperfect comparison. [more inside]
Nine Kisses
Lighthouses are more helpful than churches, to misquote Ben Franklin
Do you like lighthouses? They're pretty cool, aren't they? They can be short or tall, urban or rural. They come in a variety of styles and conditions. [more inside]
"I was totally detached. I was outside myself."
The Babies in the Freezer
Women who kill their newborns usually claim to have been in denial about their pregnancies. Can you carry a child to term without realizing it? And if you do, how responsible are you for your actions?
Women who kill their newborns usually claim to have been in denial about their pregnancies. Can you carry a child to term without realizing it? And if you do, how responsible are you for your actions?
Eat the Pear!
The problem with the pear is the same problem that afflicts the apricot and the cantaloupe. When ripe, and fresh, and of good quality, it is spectacular, but it is a low-percentage fruit, its ripeness difficult to divine and often misjudged. I would wager there are literally millions of pear-eaters who have never had a good pear.
Ludum Dare: exciting tiny games, made fast
Ludum Dare is a 48-hour game design contest run several times a year, with each contest having its own theme. There are often thousands of participants, and the winners are almost always worth a couple minutes of your time. Many have turned into "real" games. The current theme is "The Entire Game in One Screen" and one of the entries will make your head explode. Inside, the playable winners of the last dozen or so contests.... [more inside]
Electric Literature's 25 Best Novels of 2014
"Year-end lists are always subjective and incomplete, but they are especially tricky for books. A dedicated film critic can watch every wide release film and a theater critic can go to most every play, but the book critic is faced with an insurmountable mountain of books each year. The sheer number of books is inspiring as a reader, but it can make 'best of' lists laughably subjective when the critic has only read a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of novels published each year. With that in mind, I decided to crowd source Electric Literature’s year-end lists. First up: novels."
My name is Cybele May and I love candy.
Candy Blog. Mentioned in passing in a couple previous FPPs, this incredibly in-depth and long-running site deserves a closer look. Candy obsessive Cybele May has ranked thousands of candies since 2005 on a ten-point scale from 'superb' to 'inedible'; taken an in-depth look at candy purveyors from from Just Born to Trader Joe's to See's; brought back news of the yearly All Candy Expo; and of course, compiled The 110 Essential Candies for Candivores. And as if all that weren't enough, there is now a podcast, Candyology, with the first three episodes devoted to Halloween candy, peanut butter candy, and chewing gum.
This changes everything
How to wrap Christmas (or whatever) presents in under 30 seconds. a/k/a You've Been Doing it Wrong the Whole Time (slyt)
AD/BC: A Rock Opera
Just in time for Christmas, the internet has rediscovered the 1978 recording of a rock opera detailing the little-known story of the innkeeper at the nativity. You may recognize some familiar faces and voices. (slyt)
On the tin
Is this band emo? A website that answers your biggest question. Try some names like Journey, Fugazi, or Fallout Boy.
Santa as you may never have seen him before
Pirates hide treasure in Swedish Mines of Moria, doesn't work.
BBC: Pirate Bay goes offline after Stockholm police raid. "Paul Pinter from Stockholm County Police, told the BBC that an investigation that had lasted 'for years' led them to the location of the servers containing material related to the The Pirate Bay. As well as servers being removed from the data centre for examination, he said several people were now being interviewed by police." [more inside]
2014: a lot of people on the internet said a lot of things about comics
There Will Be Tracking Shots
Given that Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice" opens in two days, what a great time to explore... "The Career of Paul Thomas Anderson in Five Shots"
A Galaxy of Information
Wiki Galaxy is a Wikipedia represented as a galaxy. You can see links between articles, fly around, orbit an article and see other users zooming around whilst you do it.
Turn Down For 2014
We're three weeks away from the end of 2014, but YouTube have put together their Rewind video for the year already: YouTube Rewind: Turn Down For 2014. [more inside]
Mom and me
An elderly Pennsylvania Dutch woman and her adopted daughter in the kitchen, making quesadillas and talking about life. (SLYT)
Didn't we just do this for 2013?
It's turned December, we can no longer pretend 2014 isn't almost over and of course that means it's time for NPR's best books of 2014, which you can filter according to taste. Into science fiction & fantasy or rather realistic fiction? Wanting a long or a book or perhaps just a short, seriously great book about sex? NPR has got you covered.
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