December 4, 2008

Nerd trifecta

A robot made out of Lego bricks that solves a Rubik's cube. Video of the robot in action. Includes full blueprints for building and source code.
posted by grouse at 11:42 PM PST - 32 comments

We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm

How the Poor Die My right-hand neighbour was a little red-haired cobbler with one leg shorter than the other, who used to announce the death of any other patient (this happened a number of times, and my neighbour was always the first to hear of it) by whistling to me, exclaiming "NUMÉRO 43!" (or whatever it was) and flinging his arms above his head. This man had not much wrong with him, but in most of the other beds within my angle of vision some squalid tragedy or some plain horror was being enacted. Previously [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 10:18 PM PST - 16 comments

Star Wars: A New Heap

The Used Future + Star Wars: A New Heap
posted by vronsky at 9:01 PM PST - 41 comments

Don't go to business school(?)

Business writer Seth Godin tell readers to forgo the MBA and spend six months in his company. While potential applicants have made use of social networking to show their enthusiasm, others think it's a bad idea. Great opportunity or massive scam?
posted by divabat at 8:39 PM PST - 42 comments

Hides in winter's skirts

I Know Where Summer Goes Photos by Ryan McGinley. Some nudity; fireworks; fun, longing.
posted by klangklangston at 8:30 PM PST - 43 comments

The moon waxes ...

Move over, Wonder Girls! It's Jang Kiha and Faces (장기하와 얼굴들), the latest Korean Internet music sensation. Their performance of 달이차오른다, 가자 ("The moon waxes, let's go") on a Korean educational TV channel catches the attention of Korean netizens, who respond by producing mashups and following the terpsichorean teachings of "Reverend Jang" - from middle school students to college students, and even a professional Starcraft player. [more inside]
posted by needled at 8:22 PM PST - 9 comments

Sooner or Later

Sooner or Later István Madarász's sci-fi film tells the story of a Nazi experiment in ten minutes. Or maybe longer?
posted by justkevin at 7:57 PM PST - 11 comments

Redesigning Mecca?

Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid have been lined up to take on one of the most high-profile projects on earth – the redevelopment of Mecca [more inside]
posted by puckish at 6:14 PM PST - 52 comments

The Body Swap Illusion

If I Were You: Perceptual Illusion of Body Swapping. Expanding on previous experiments, researchers discover how to induce a "body-swap" illusion, whereby subjects perceive the body of another as if it were their own.
posted by homunculus at 4:18 PM PST - 22 comments

WITH, LIKE, ELBOWS!

YO, CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME GIANT SQUID-TYPE THING WITH, LIKE, ELBOWS, DUDE!!! WHOA!!!!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:42 PM PST - 142 comments

How to Make All the Meat You Eat Out of Wheat

So when I was in London some buddies and I went into one of the many all you can eat Chinese restaurants. It was a nice spread too: fish, chicken, steaks all slathered in sauces. "That was great," one of my friends said. "Yeah," I responded. "And all vegetarian, too!" They were dumbfounded. I was apparently the only one who'd noticed the "Vegetarian" sign in the window, and they were all victims of the hoax meat known as Seitan. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious at 3:13 PM PST - 151 comments

Guruphiliac

Revealing Self-Aggrandizement and Superstition in Self-Realization since 2005
posted by Roach at 2:44 PM PST - 21 comments

Washington to Obama

America has come a long way. There is the official version of history or the peoples' version. There are artifacts and rankings. They had some quirks and were occasionally men of their time. If you prefer audio or visual references those are available as well. Common knowledge has it that one GW was our first President but the title of first is under dispute. 230 years later another GW is making a run for worst. That is also under dispute by the nations best brains. For better and worse, the story of the Presidency is the story of America.
posted by Glibpaxman at 2:09 PM PST - 24 comments

Mark Roth: The Re-Animator

Raising the Dead. When scientist Mark Roth's one-year-old daughter died after heart surgery, Roth obsessed clinically first about immortality, then about suspended animation, when all life processes temporarily cease. His subsequent research work -- placing yeast, nematodes, drosophila, frogs, and zebrafish into suspended animation (clinical death) for up to 24 hours, then reviving them unharmed -- earned him a MacArthur Fellowship and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Award. [more inside]
posted by terranova at 12:45 PM PST - 67 comments

Break it down, Martin! Yo, I'm tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-try-try-try-try-tryin' to.

Cinemnesis, filmmaker Martin Arnold's 41 minute compilation of the films of his "compulsive repetition" trilogy, is available to you online. The quality is lacking, small details are missed, but I thought you'd enjoy these nonetheless. Time codes for the three pieces and more inside. [more inside]
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:44 PM PST - 6 comments

Burn patients find relief in Snow World.

Researchers have known for several years now that video games can distract people from pain. Now one virtual-reality game, developed for burn patients, has added a conceptual boost to this idea; the action takes place in a snowy landscape populated by penguins and snowmen. Wounded soldiers who have played the game (wearing VR goggles to help block out the sight of their burns being treated) report a reduction in pain of 30-50%. "Patients reported feeling less pain when playing Snow World, and had greater range of motion in their burnt limbs as their muscles relaxed. Less pain medication was also required, meaning patients were lucid for longer periods of time." In this video, one wounded vet talks about how the game has helped him.
posted by GrammarMoses at 11:51 AM PST - 34 comments

Walk on Water

Walk on Water: OH Napier is a living piece of Americana and performing a conceptual piece with guitar, river, .25-.38 cal pistol and disquieted camera woman. You may get as many as three songs for your 2:31 of youtubery, I can't say for certain if they are individual pieces or just movements in a larger piece. Also, spirit liquor may have played a part in the creative act.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:43 AM PST - 29 comments

Gay rights and wrongs

Cynthia Dixon, at the time employed by the University of Toledo, read this Toledo Free Press opinion piece, and wrote this response, which got her fired. Back in May the UT President responded to the growing controversy on local TV. Now Dixon is suing. (text of the suit) [more inside]
posted by aerotive at 9:42 AM PST - 257 comments

Easier sIFR implemention with jQuery Plug-in

Easier sIFR implementation with jQuery Plug-in. Web developers or typography aficionados may remember when sIFR was first mentioned and discussed (160 comments) on MeFi: Dec. 29th, 2004. Since then, when it has been mentioned on the Blue, it has mostly been by people who dislike it (or anything remotely related to Flash). Or, as expressed this comment by TKChrist, they have found it overly-complicated to implement. For those of you interested in giving it another look: the jQuery sIFR plug-in. If you do nothing else, check out the three examples using this approach. [more inside]
posted by spock at 8:27 AM PST - 93 comments

The Old Ball and Chain

"The best man was Kirk "Spanky" Smyth, who had recently been caught passing through the metal detectors with Buck knives in his rectum. Today he was loaded on smack and rubbing his face red." A Los Angeles Times series examines a woman's quarter-century of marrige to a man behind bars. Part Two. Part Three.
posted by Bookhouse at 8:00 AM PST - 23 comments

If a shark is dead, is it still copyrighted?

Damien Hirst is sueing a 16 year-old graffiti artist, Cartrain, who featured images of Hirst's For The Love of God in his collages. In September Hirst made 95.7m pounds from auctioning his wares. Hirst is demanding all the money Cartrain has made from his collages - £200.
posted by mippy at 7:38 AM PST - 108 comments

How the University Works

Marc Bousquet does interviews with "Faculty on Food Stamps." (1, 2, 3) He also has a book and a blog called How the University Works (pdf) where he writes about higher education. (pdf) Bousquet recently sat down to discuss some of these issues with NPR and Goucher College President Sanford Ungar. (pdf)
posted by anotherpanacea at 6:11 AM PST - 36 comments

Knee-Deep in the Dead, Redux

DOOM is a 3D adventure game with arcade-style elements. It was programmed for computers running DOS Flash 10. Here's the plot: your character is a Space Marine on the planet Mars, who uses guns his fist, and even a chainsaw to kill monsters from another dimension.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:30 AM PST - 85 comments

The Stranger in Alexandria

"Two people emerged from the ship, a man and his wife. .. Mrs. Wise immediately called for a doctor to look after the woman... The husband and wife were shown to Room 8, where the woman's condition continued to deteriorate... Eventually, the husband summoned the doctor, hotel staff and even the owner’s wife to Room 8 to ask a very unusual request: He asked that everyone present swear an oath never to reveal their identities." So, begins and essentially ends Alexandria Virginia's mystery of the Female Stranger. [more inside]
posted by vacapinta at 5:23 AM PST - 47 comments

Be careful drawing conclusions from this data

StateStats: Explore the popularity of search queries in U.S. states [more inside]
posted by sambosambo at 4:50 AM PST - 40 comments

"Well, we will write our memoirs."

The Napoleon Series has been collecting Napoleonic scholarship since 1995. Its monstrously replete archive includes articles on Napoleon's role in Jewish emancipation, the Institute of Egypt and its investigation of the Rosetta Stone, obscure British generals, the Malet Conspiracy, and the never realized North American Empire; memoirs from the Russian Archives; and a massive collection of maps and battlefield tours.
posted by Iridic at 12:55 AM PST - 4 comments

Shaping San Francisco

"Shaping San Francisco is an ongoing multimedia project in bottom-up, participatory history." Earthquakes, freeways, baths, parks, jazz clubs, chutes, streetcars, neighborhoods dead and alive, and oh so much more.
posted by hal incandenza at 12:52 AM PST - 8 comments

100 years of the roundel

London's iconic transportation symbol, the roundel, is 100 years old this year and a new online exhibit at the London Transport Museum features some amazing galleries of architecture, promotional material, livery and a great illustrated history of the mark.
posted by salishsea at 12:09 AM PST - 10 comments

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