December 30, 2008
Just your average 15 year old foodie.
Screw getting a new car. Use your summer job money on fine dining. Nick is a fifteen year old "foodie" who used his summer job money to dine at Per Se, one of the poshest restaurants in Manhattan and home to one Thomas Keller. He had to hide out in his school bathroom between classes to try and get a table. When that failed he did what normal teenagers do: he manipulated his mom into letting him do it on a school night. (via)
Under the sky and over the whole Earth, the Human race is only one!
When her Japanese-American husband was sent to internment camps in California and Wyoming, Estelle Peck Ishigo chose to accompany him. An art-school teacher fired for her interracial marriage, she documented the three-and-a-half-year ordeal in a short memoir and hundreds of sketches and paintings. [more inside]
Closing Guantánamo
People doing strange things with electricity
Dorkbot is a "monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students, scientists, and other interested parties who are involved in the creative use of electricity." Started in NYC in 2000 by Douglas Repetto, Director of Research at the Columbia University Computer Music Center as well as one of Wired's 10 Sexiest Geeks, there are now dozens all over the world. Past presenters have been featured here on the blue. For instance Jeff Han presented his multi-touch interface at dorkbot-nyc in April of 2006. Miru Kim presented her naked city spleen at dorkbot-nyc in October of 2006. Bummed that there's not one in your own city? Start your own! [more inside]
Celebrity deformites: Akyroyd Edition
Another one bites the dust...
Will I Make It Through The 80s?
Hey, what ever happened to Julie Brown? ( not that one) She was a hit in Earth Girls Are Easy with her number, Cause I'm a Blonde. She had another hit with the Dr. Demento staple The Homecoming Queens' Got a Gun! Then she faded into the cultural-artifact twilight ... [more inside]
Paul Anderson was the strongest man in the world.
Don't be micro-bored
Ever spend a few moments during the day idly mucking about with your cellphone? You're part of a new trend known as micro-boredom - which now presents "a significant opportunity for a publisher to exploit readership and advertising consumption". Get away from the bombardment of advertising and find some sacred space, or just turn off the phone.
Scientists Tease Dogs
Dogs get jealous. Or, if you are a scientist, they exhibit inequity aversion.
What Else Will Drop on New Year's Eve?
This New Year's Eve you can watch the drop of the "Waterford Crystal New Year's Eve Ball" (which will now become a year-round attraction hovering above Times Square). Not interested? How about watching the dropping of a drag queen, a pirate wench, pickles and sausages (among other things) while ringing in the New Year? [more inside]
NASA releases Columbia report.
NASA releases the Columbia shuttle disaster report. Space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry in 2003 as a result of damage sustained to its thermal protection system. This report details the possible lethal incidents and the investigation board's recommendations based on their findings. [more inside]
Untapped natural resource
Neato keen!
Some cool houses. There are also some cool photos and such, but it's the houses that caught my eye. [more inside]
Fake Cards, Real Stories
Okay, so you're setting up a payment system and you need to punch in a fake credit card number. You can always go with the familiar standby, 4111111111111111, but the truth is any sequence of numbers will work so long as it conforms to the Luhn algorithm (occasionally also referred to as "Mod 10", since it involves modulo operations). If you don't want to work the algorithm out with a paper and pencil, you can just use Credit Card Generator [now available in JavaScript] developed by Graham King. How is any of this interesting? Well, he also provided a page of already generated credit card numbers with predictable, yet hilarious, results. In response, one person offered a foolproof method of getting your hands on a valid credit card number and a CVV2 code.
2008 in 40 Seconds
My Guitar Hero.
Mondo Kim's moves to Sicily!
Contents of the beloved/historic/deceased Mondo Kim's video store in New York City purchased by the town of Salemi, Italy. The village intends to project the videos as part of a neverending film festival open to the public. Roadtrip, anyone?
A new vision for the future poor
Wearers of Adaptive Eyewear can make their own prescriptions. The lenses are plastic bladders that change shape and corrective power with a small syringe. So far 30,000 people who may never be reached by an optician or afford conventional eyeglasses now have corrected vision. Recipients are now able to read, mend fishing nets, sew, and perform other tasks requiring good eyesight. The inventor, Oxford University professor Josh Silver, hopes his nonprofit organization can begin manufacturing and distributing up to 100 million pairs a year.
Why Wall Street Always Blows It
Why Wall Street Always Blows It, and why we're always to blame, as told by banished securities analyst Henry Blodget.
twittering disaster
Mike Wilson, on a continental 737 flight, twittered his plane crash almost as it happened. See his feed starting here.
you gotta get that dirt off ya android
Jaydiohead, an album of Radiohead and Jay-Z mashups by Minty Fresh Beats Warning: goofy-looking dude's myspace. [more inside]
Classic Animation Remixed
While Adult Swim is generally regarded as the pioneer of irreverent short-form animation -- especially for 'toons that reimagine past hits -- it wasn't always the king. In fact, the late-night programming block arguably found its birth in a series of short toons and interstitials that ran in the heyday of its daytime alter ego, the venerable Cartoon Network. The brainchild of C.N. Creative Director Michael Ouweleen and Hanna-Barbera chief Fred Seibert, these cartoons reinterpreted the network's properties through stock footage, indie music, and original animation in a wide variety of styles, as well as introducing prototypes of characters that would become some of the most famous in the history of American animation. (warning: monster post inside) [more inside]
godWEENsatan
Maybe you remember them from their 'hit' single "Push Th' Little Daisies", or from their appearance on MTV's Beavis and Butt-head. Maybe you know them from their appearance in the film "It's Pat" or from their contributions to the "Road Trip" soundtrack or even from their appearance at Chef Aid on South Park. My hope, however, is that you don't know Ween, allowing me the opportunity to let you taste the waste. [more inside]
glimpses of the African Rock n' Roll Years
Clips from the BBC documentary, The African Rock n' Roll Years - Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4 l Part 5 l Part 6 - a six-part series mixing interviews with key artists, concert footage and news archives, the series examines and explains the "styles that make up the continent's music, and the political and social pressures that led to their development." BBC documentary details. Found in YouTube member, Duncanzibar's, good collection of mostly African music videos. [more inside]
Stir in poisoned DNS and add a dash of transparent proxying...
The embargo has been lifted on the newest research on growing internet infrastructure insecurity. Using an army of Playstations, researchers have managed to forge a RapidSSL (owned by Verisign) CA certificate in a couple hours due to known flaws in MD5.
Oral History of the Bush White House
Farewell to All That An illuminating and depressing Oral History of the Bush White House from Vanity Fair
Museum of the Moving Image
Moving Image Source is devoted to the history of film, television, and digital media. It features original articles by leading critics, authors, and scholars; a calendar that highlights major retrospectives, festivals, and gallery exhibitions at venues around the world; and a regularly updated guide to online research resources. [more inside]
2009, You're looking good!
Have a Happy New Year and a Crappy Old Year. 2008 was the worst: year ever, for Wall Street, for movies, for restaurants, celebrities, malware, for women, for children, for relationships, for newspaper history, for the environment, for Arts, for ad revenue, for CDs, IPOs, MMOs, the GOP (duh!), for hurricanes, (almost) for weather related disasters, number of disaster victims, the nerd elite, Italian military helicopters, the vain and the venal, for guerillas and bear encounters.
Avatara: the movie
Avatara is a 2003 ethnographic film (72 minutes) that takes place entirely in "Cyberia", specifically in the Digitalspace Traveler virtual world (previously), which dates back to 1996. Interview with the filmmaker. Review of the film. via [more inside]
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