December 4, 2007
The Bone Trade
For 200 years, the city has been the center of a shadowy network of bone traders who snatch up skeletons in order to sell them to universities and hospitals abroad. In colonial times, British doctors hired thieves to dig up bodies from Indian cemeteries. Despite changes in laws, a similar process is going strong today. (More on the unsettling subject of the human bone trade from the author of the first link, and his Wired article too. And Photos.)
Via the excellent Sepia Mutiny.
The tiny pieces are under the sofa cushions
Won't You Blog About This Song? Sure!
"Here Comes Another Bubble" a very 2.0-savvy song parody with a 'catch all the in-jokes' video. [more inside]
3.14159265itwasthebestoftimesitwastheworstofti...
Ever wondered if and where a specific set of numbers could be found in pi? Maybe you'd like to know where your birthday is? Or maybe just something funny. [prev. here, here] [more inside]
French language ephemera and visual miscellany blog
Agence Eureka is a French language image-blog with hundreds or even thousands of scanned illustrations, mostly from mid-20th century French schoolbooks, educational material, magazines, and ephemera. The current front page is slightly NSFW. Some of the categories include anatomy 1 & 2 (mildly NSFW); chocolate wrappers/trading cards; bricolage; decoupage (cut-outs); math education; playing cards; books and magazines; cars; cinema; orientalisme; sport; mild pin-ups; and many others (scroll all the way down the right to see the tags). [more inside]
Tomb of tomes
An obscure 1911 British law requires a copy of every published book, journal, newspaper, patent, sound recording, magazine etc.. to be permanently archived in at least one of five libraries around the country. The British Library has the most complete collection and is currently adding about 12.5km of new shelf space a year of mostly unheard of and unwanted stuff. A new state-of-the-art warehouse is being constructed with 262 linear kilometers of high-density, fully automated storage in a low-oxygen temperature controlled environment. It is not a library, it is a warehouse for "things that no one wants." BLDG Blog ponders on what it all means.
the blob invades prague!
The proposed new home of the National Library of the Czech Republic. The old one looks like this. The new one ... well ... is it an octopus? What the hell is this thing?
Amazing discoveries in plain-text Tor exit traffic.
This is an ironic tale of the consequences of inept application of cryptographic tools. Or is it? Dan Egerstad, a Swedish hacker, gained access to hundreds of computer network accounts around the world, belonging to various embassies, corporations and other organizations. How did he do it? Very easily: by sniffing exit traffic on his Tor nodes. [more inside]
Freaky Flicks
Freaky Flicks is a p2p community with a radical mascot that collects arthouse and cult cinema.
Browse the selection on The Pirate Bay or look at their list of Red Letter Directors.
The FF Forum is pretty good for recommendations and links to non-p2p and legal online video.
Browse the selection on The Pirate Bay or look at their list of Red Letter Directors.
The FF Forum is pretty good for recommendations and links to non-p2p and legal online video.
Post a joke, go directly to jail
Post a controversial comment, get arrested. "Some were disturbed by the post police say James Buss left on a conservative blog, but other observers said it was a sarcastic attempt to discredit critics of education spending."
Maestro Twang
The Maestro FZ-1 Fuzztone was one of the first stomp boxes a guitar player could use. Released in 1962 by Gibson, sales didn't take off until a British band used it in the introduction to one of their songs in 1965. But if it weren't for a Marty Robbins song and engineer Glen Snoddy, the pedal might have never been invented and country music wouldn't have been the same. [more inside]
Football's Ironman. (Sorry, Cal.)
Through alcohol and vicodin addicition, trauma, grief, and loss, Brett Favre has thrown the ball for the largest muncipally-owned professional sports team in the United States. After reinventing himself several times over, and leading his team to an improbable string of wins and accomplishments a year after almost retiring, he is Sport's Illustrated's sportsman of the year.
Antonio de Felipe, Spanish pop artist
Antonio de Felipe is a Spanish pop artist whose work is heavily influenced by pop culture, Hollywood, classic art and movies, animation, advertising, and simply growing up in Spain. Among the actresses he frequently depicts are Audrey Hepburn (as well as melding different sources) and Marilyn Monroe. He has also recreated some international masterpieces in pop art form. Some may be familiar with his work from the art he created for Pedro Almodóvar's film Live Flesh. Altogether, his work transcends national boundaries while still maintaining a distinct Spanish flavor. [more inside]
The Saint Nicholas Center: Discovering the truth about Santa Claus
One day you're here, but the next day you're gone.
Pimp C, one half of Texas rap group UGK (along with Bun B) was found dead today in a hotel room in Los Angeles.
Mizuko Kuyo
Mizuko Kuyo, meaning "water-child memorial service" is a memorial service held by or for those who have experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion, and has become widespread in Japan since the 1970's. (Wikipedia definition). Peggy Orenstein relates her experience with miscarriage and this ritual in Mourning My Miscarriage - In Japan, I Find a Culture Willing to Acknowledge My Loss. [more inside]
Chip Reese Cashes Out
In the future, we're still all raging dirtbags.
The Boy in the Moon
The Boy in the Moon: Ian Brown writes about the living with his son Walker, who was born with a rare and serious genetic disorder called Cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome, or CFC. The first part of a three-part feature is available, and includes pictures and video.
This is serious-- we can make you delirious
Retrostatic is a treasure trove of 80's (and 90's) TV commercials--from PSAs of singing pills to the Post cereal Create-A-Villain contest (and so much more). Also, cartoons, with descriptions and opening sequences of everything from Alf Tales to Thundercats.
Afrigator.
Afrigator. An Africa Aggregator.
A mouthful of bytecode
Bytecode-based virtual machines are the Next Big Thing in programming. You can run
Lisp, Ruby, Python, OCaml, and yes even COBOL on the JVM. Or if you prefer your languages to be a bit more melodic there's J#, A#, P# and F#. Even C/C++ has a bytecode compiler now. That's not to mention languages that have their own VMs like Erlang or that are writing their own like Parrot or PyPy. [more inside]
Splinter your sides with laughter
Joseph Conrad reviewed
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary since the birth of Joseph Conrad [Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim etc], The Guardian's Giles Foden makes a fair attempt at assessing the great novelist's legacy. [via]
Squaring the square
Nowhere-neat tilings are actually pretty neat. We all know you can't "square the circle", but do you know the story of squaring the square? (And by the way, even if you can't construct π with a ruler and compass, you can come awfully close without too much work.)
Somebody get me a 15-year old to explain these.
PISA results are in. Finland and Canada high five and make awkward polite bows and gestures towards The Far East. For education policy Programme for International Student Assessment is the research about how 15-year old students are being educated. Briefings for UK and US.
Results escape easy answers, but you might test your theory against interactive data tool. [more inside]
Osocio
Osocio is a blog that covers some of the best social marketing and non-profit advertising worldwide - whether it be through a careers fair, a "beauty" ad, or even through sex education.
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