February 29, 2008
Animal Minds
The Nature Photography of E.J. Peiker
E.J. Peiker, Nature Photgrapher There are a lot of nature photographers out there -- some better than Peiker and some worse -- but what fascinates me about Peiker's site is the number of photos available. A birdwatcher's dream, it features pages of photos of over 500 different species of birds, including an index devoted solely to wild waterfowl. Maybe animals are more your speed? How about nearly 150 pages of photos of wild animals (including my favorite - a quite handsome, flower-eating porcupine.) There's also a section for scenic photography featuring 23 states and 20 countries (or you can search by national park.) The photos are, unfortunately, not that big but there a ton of them, many of them quite pretty.
Candy for your brain
Surf your music. Audio surfer is a new game that uses .mp3 files to create racetracks of musical goodness. If guitar hero and F-Zero had a love child, this would be it.
The Missing Link found at last.
Kevin Ray Underwood found guilty of first degree murder in the April 2006 killing of 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin. The jury only needed 20 minutes to decide on his guilt. Previously on Metafilter, because he linked here. How could a seemingly normal, albeit "single, bored and lonely", young man become a cannabalistic child rapist and murderer? Exhibits: The blog he kept for almost four years up until the day after the murder. A collection of misc information about Underwood, including (near the bottom) the text of an online chat he had with a friend after killing Bolin. An extremely disturbing transcript of his confession to the FBI. Video footage of the trial. Deliberations will begin Monday as to whether or not he will be sentenced to death.
Super-Duper-Size Me
Hungry? Arteries not quite plugged enough? Behold, the Big MacChicken.
Don't you die on me man!
Flash Friday Fun: Experience the thrills of amateur surgery as you play Amateur Surgeon over at Adult Swim . You'll be performing transplants with a chainsaw, suturing wounds with staples and shocking patients back to life with a car battery. [more inside]
New VU
I'm not into VU bootlegs really, but apparently this is a big deal. It's the ONLY available live stuff from 1967 and has only become available in literally the last two days. Recorded just after the release of The Velvet Underground And Nico and featuring the debut performance of Sister Ray (19 mins long) and the *previously unheard* song I'm Not A Young Man Any More. That's right, A NEW VELVET UNDERGROUND SONG. And it's fucking good too. This version of Sister Ray absolutely shreds and is what the Velvet Underground are all about.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Singin' in the rain
Rainwear in Films has a very narrow focus.
Wings of Desire... or something
Buddy Miles RIP
Drummer Buddy Miles has died. Another wonderful musician - one who played with Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsies - died far too young.
What we're gonna do right here is go back. Way back.
Go way back into time with a deliciously analog collection of mastermixes from 1980s-era soul radio from London. [more inside]
WE DID IT THROUGH TEAMWHURK!
Boston Mayor Tom Menino is running for president. Here's why he'd be a better president than Mitt Romney. And he's done vocals for a techno track.
Riding the Waves
Riding the Waves of interest in MVC web frameworks such as Rails, Django, TurboGears, and Cake, comes the latest entrant: Ruby Waves. Interesting features include request lambdas, hot patchable, nestable templates, app reusability, and decoupled controller/view. Is the proliferation of MVC projects helping to push innovation forward? Or pointlessly reinventing the wheel? (via RubyInside)
More White House lies...
Tim Goeglein, director of the White House office of public liaison, is a plagiarist.
... and he actually admits it.
... and he actually admits it.
“It is true,” Tim Goeglein wrote to The Journal Gazette in an e-mail. “I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses."Found by Blogger (and MeFi lurker) Nancy Nall.
Signifier Signed
Excuse me, Ms. Ono, Mr. Gehry, Sen. Wellstone—pardon me Mr. Chomsky, Mr. Castellanetta, Gov. Ventura—would you mind signing this paper?
Oh no, don't sign your name. Sign mine.
Oh no, don't sign your name. Sign mine.
The curious habits of the Mall Ninja
The Mall Ninja is easily distinguished by an abundance of “tactical” gear, such as fatigues, a thigh holster (with, of course, a Glock), combat boots, bandolier and other accouterments. Read the collected stories of the the Rapid Tactical Force at one of America’s largest indoor retail shopping areas! Marvel at their cunning equipment selection (such as duct taped trauma plates) and learn from their battles with the dreaded mall gangs.
I for one welcome our new "Controllers"
It's official. The aliens are coming. In 2017. Turns out they might like The Beatles after all. The UN is on the case. The Hindus are going to be especially upset.
Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species?
Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species? Get this: Everyone in our sample was an American, a teenager, and belonged to the same major religious tradition of Protestantism. In these respects they were culturally uniform. But some belonged to conservative denominations such as Pentecostal and others to liberal denominations such as Episcopalian. As Ingrid combed through the data, which involved tedious hours in front of the computer, the differences that began to emerge were astounding. It was as if these conservative and liberal religious youth were--different species. [via 3quarksdaily] [more inside]
Echo Part Travel Mart
Need some barbarian repellent ? How about some leeches? You can get it all at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. They travel time so you don't have to.
Teaching to Testosterone
Teaching to Testosterone. Dr. Leonard Sax is promoting his version of single-sex classrooms in public schools based on inherent biological differences between young boys and girls.
Stop me if you've heard this joke: DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINES
Once again, The Onion comes a little too close to the truth for comfort. Or in reality, are things working just fine? Security at Diebold is as tight as ever. Concerns (again) in Ohio. Also: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." (Bill Shakespeare)
Neil Gaiman's American Gods
The novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman is being offered for free in its entirety at the Harper Collins website (only viewable using HarperCollins' BrowseInside system). It was put up in celebration of the seventh birthday of Neil Gaiman's blog. Which is appropriate since Neil Gaiman started his blog to chronicle the process of turning the text of American Gods into a physical book. [via the man himself, natch]
I like the part where they blow up the planet.
Turning Star Wars Japanese -- Manga Scenes Done Better: StarWars.com writer Pablo Hidalgo explores the differences between the American and Japanese comics adaptations of the original trilogy.
Make a Leap of Action.
Leap For It! The 2008 Slingshot Organizer, a staple publication of the Slingshot Collective based out of Berkeley, urges mass participation in Leap Day Action Night.
O-BA-MA
will.i.am is on a roll. It is hard to top his YES WE CAN video inspired by Barack Obama, but I think he comes pretty close in his just released WE ARE THE ONES video. [more inside]
Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own.
Phreaking subculture alive and well
If you thought phone phreaking was a dying art, you may be surprised to read the story of "Li'l Hacker", as told by old-school hack/phreaker Kevin Poulsen.
Hey, I actually kind of liked Moonwalker!
The 10 Worst Celebrity Video Games Ever. Your favorite celebrity cash-in video game sucks. [more inside]
How To Draw The Venture Bros.
Do you desire to achive artistic perfection? Can you tell both humorous and dramatic stories in the Jackson Publick Fashion? Are you titillated by a man dressed like a butterfly?! If so, follow me... For I am... the Character Board SupervisorTM, and from my base on the moon, I can teach you to draw all things... Venture!!!* [more inside]
Detritus From a Dream
Shaun O'Boyle recently returned from Cape Canaveral where he photographed the artifacts of the early space program. They are part of the Modern Ruins site (previously, previously, and previously) which is a great place to waste an afternoon.
Coptic Illusion?
An exchange student spending the school year with a host family in Egypt claims he was starved by the family. Johnathan McCullum, as part of an AFS program, was placed with an Egyptian family who, as Coptic Christians, fast over 200 days a year. His weight went from 155 to 97 pounds during his stay. He says friends and teachers wanted him to change his host family, but he felt he had to "tough" out the year. Others in the exchange program feel that Johnathan and his family are simply out to make a buck.
McMansion ghettos
The sub-prime mortgage crisis is giving way in some places to crime ridden McMansion ghettos, perhaps the beginning of a larger long term trend in demographics: "many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay."
Mongolian Overtones
In Mongolia, overtone singing (or hoomei, as it's known locally) is mainly a guy thing, but there are exceptions to the rule, for example, the Hoomei Women's Group. More commonly though, women who want to sing do so in an exquisite, soaring style like this and this. Sometimes the men do the hoomei thing while the women do that soaring thing. Then there are those lovely choral arrangements. And then there are those rare moments when the YouTube poster's description of a clip just hits the nail square on the head, as with this one: amazing. [more inside]
Relax. Just chart it!
Song Chart Meme. A series of charts breaking down popular music.
No real issues. Just stuff and nonsense
Synaesthesia Ho!
Why is this day not like other days?
Why Leap Years are used.
Leap Years in other calendars.
About Leap Day itself.
On this day in history.
The Leap Year Capital, Anthony, Texas.
February 30?!
[via]
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