March 10, 2014
First Kiss
Eclectic DJ Mix Monday
While the UK-based FACT magazine surveys a broad range of popular music content, its regular mix series tends to focus on electronic and hip-hop. Since January, however, the website has featured three distinctive mixes that buck this general trend: Peanut Butter Wolf's 24-hour soul music mix for Valentine's day; the Wild Beasts's eclectic, short-and-sweet mix of classical, black metal, poetry, rock, and folk in support of their new album Present Tense; and Slowdive's rock-and-shoegaze mix compiling many of their inspirations in celebration of the band's reunion. [more inside]
RSA Conference security breach! View the evidence!
Stephen Colbert, as "Stephen Colbert" gave the closing keynote speech at the 2014 RSA Conference in San Francisco. While this speech has not been made officially available, it has been posted in its entirety to YouTube. Part 1, Part 2 [total length <20m] [warning - audience video of conference hall video screens -- content overcomes video shortcomings]
Did you say iconic or ironic?
The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, which has been in Crested Butte, CO since 1988, announced a few months ago they would be moving to Marin County, considered the birthplace of the sport. It seems like a natural move to many, but others (including many in bike forums) point out the irony of moving to an area where bike trail access has become so limited. The Angry Singlespeeder is not happy.
"this collision ... won't be an isolated incident"
Broken Stride
There's an ongoing culture war in America between fitness enthusiasts and automobiles — a quiet, persistent, and almost entirely one-sided battle that creates new casualties every day. The legal skirmish surrounding the death of Ashley Poissant reveals this stark divide. The Clinton County District Attorney and Poissant's friends insist that when an 85-year-old man with an unsafe level of alcohol in his blood and a steering wheel in his hand collides with and kills a 27-year-old woman, it is a crime, a form of homicide. Trombly's attorney says it's a horrible accident, one that the women contributed to by running at dusk on the wrong side of the road. He believes an accident, even a fatal one, doesn't warrant sending an octogenarian to a New York state penitentiary.
Blasting into the unknown...
DIY model rocket builders do it (YT) Just searching for cool things (COOL!) people do that I'd like to try....
Prev on the Blue... Steve Eves launched a 1:10 scale Saturn V.
Of course you can get just a lil creepy with this sort of thing.
then again...be a 12 year old already. [more inside]
Of course you can get just a lil creepy with this sort of thing.
then again...be a 12 year old already. [more inside]
2×2×2×2×2×2×2×2×2×2×2
2048, a tile game.
The Foldoscope, a 50 cent paper microscope
Stanford bioengineer Manu Prakash has developed the Foldoscope (pdf), an Origami-based paper microscope. A shave and a haircut is two bits (25 cents), the Foldoscope costs only twice that.
Your New Coffee Overlord
Green Mountain plans to launch "Keurig 2.0" this fall, a new set of machines that will only interact with Green-Mountain-approved pods.
For a corporation, a lease is always going to be more attractive than a sale. If they can turn owners into users, they will.
Missed it by THAT much.
Many animals, cats in particular, are graceful creatures capable of leaping high and far with remarkable precision. But sometimes they miss. (SLAnimalGIFsTumblr)
“This Town Exists Apparently Just to Write Speeding Tickets"
The small town of Hampton, Florida (pop. 477), is facing disincorporation after a state audit discovered massive irregularities in its finances and records. The audit was triggered by the excessive ticketing practices linked to the town's notorious speed trap on a corridor of U.S. 301. As The New York Times reports, between 2011 and 2012 the Hampton police (many of whom were essentially irregular volunteers) issued 12,698 speeding tickets to motorists on the 301 corridor. [more inside]
Christ, what a statue
Arms Wide Open. Inside Rio's iconic statue of Cristo Redentor.
Single Link Post, putting SubaruBlue on the Blue.
RC Subaru WRX STi versus many many stick bombs. Perhaps I'm easily impressed but they brought out a lot of very nice equipment to do this shoot.
"Yeah, I Saw That Online."
Supreme Court Deals Massive Blow To Rails-to-Trails Programs
Rails-to-Trails Essentially Told To Take A Hike
"For all I know, there is some right of way that goes through people's houses, you know," Justice Stephen Breyer said, "and all of a sudden, they are going to be living in their house and suddenly a bicycle will run through it."The Supreme Court struck a decisive (8-1) blow against rails-to-trails programs today with its ruling on Marvin Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States. [more inside]
"Let me be even more clear: The Internet already exists in Africa!"
Do not taunt Waboba Ball
The Waboba ("WAter BOuncing BAll"), has attracted all sorts of fans since it went into production over five years ago. Now it can count one more: The U.S. Navy.
The Saga of King Tut's Genes
In February 2008, Yehia Gad sequenced Tutankhamun's genes in front of a documentary crew from the Discovery Channel. Jo Marchant writes about the previous work studying his tomb and remians and the unfortunate timing of the last study. (King Tut Previously) [more inside]
No mention of Sindarin, though
The Little House that Tweets.
In San Francisco, a homeowner gave his house a Twitter account that posts an update when there is unanticipated movement on the first floor, and welcomes him home. [more inside]
Pentagon Channel, Defense Laboratories Team Up for New Science TV Show
"Armed with Science," is a new science-focused TV show developed by two of the Department of Defense's in-house research laboratories and the Pentagon. They have always developed some crazy tech work, like perception tests on their robots. If Skynet is going to be real, I think these are the agencies that will put the terminators online.
No people without houses, no houses without people.
Photojournal of Spain's new squatters: families, young professionals, degree-holders, single mothers, the elderly. "I have grandchildren," she says. "When I die I would like to be able to say to myself that they will have jobs, homes and a happy life. The corralas are important. They set an example to people who are struggling. They show that we can help ourselves and each other. I don't know what the future will hold for any of us, but one way or another I believe that this will be a successful fight. I have to, otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep at night." [more inside]
To think Jean would prefer Rose over me, that's ridiculous!
You wake up. The room is spinning very gently round your head.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the classic Infocom text adventure based on "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." To celebrate, BBC has put up a "spit and polish" refresh of the game, playable in your browser. [more inside]
RIP Bartcop
Pour out a little Chinaco
The godfather of liberal bloggers, Terry R. Coppage, aka Bartcop, passed away last Wednesday.
Bartcop was a snarky, no-holds barred, riotous – at times mean-spirited, but never untruthful – oasis of hilarity and vitriol, where politicians and a compliant media were called out for their bullshit. Along with Media Whores Online (‘The Horse”), no journalist was ever again safe from having their stories fact-checked online and then held up to ridicule.
Bartcop was the brainchild of Terry R. Coppage, based out of his beloved and sometimes mocked Tulsa, Oklahoma home. Terry was fearless in a way that other media critics couldn’t be for a simple reason: he wasn’t angling to move up the fawning beltway food chain with a guest spot at The Washington Post. He didn’t pull punches and he called bullshit for what it was: “bullshit.”
The site was crude, the graphics sometimes even cruder (I have a special place in my heart for his animated gif of Tim Russert repeating “Clinton’s cock” over and over and over again), but most importantly it dispensed with the niceties with a wicked grin with a well-placed deflating shiv between the ribs.
The godfather of liberal bloggers, Terry R. Coppage, aka Bartcop, passed away last Wednesday.
Bartcop was a snarky, no-holds barred, riotous – at times mean-spirited, but never untruthful – oasis of hilarity and vitriol, where politicians and a compliant media were called out for their bullshit. Along with Media Whores Online (‘The Horse”), no journalist was ever again safe from having their stories fact-checked online and then held up to ridicule.
Bartcop was the brainchild of Terry R. Coppage, based out of his beloved and sometimes mocked Tulsa, Oklahoma home. Terry was fearless in a way that other media critics couldn’t be for a simple reason: he wasn’t angling to move up the fawning beltway food chain with a guest spot at The Washington Post. He didn’t pull punches and he called bullshit for what it was: “bullshit.”
The site was crude, the graphics sometimes even cruder (I have a special place in my heart for his animated gif of Tim Russert repeating “Clinton’s cock” over and over and over again), but most importantly it dispensed with the niceties with a wicked grin with a well-placed deflating shiv between the ribs.
Kenau: heroine or harridan?
The fascinating thing about the sexist Dutch slur kenau -- aimed at women deemed too aggressive or bossy -- is that it originated as the given name of a heroine of the Eighty Years War, Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer who during the 1573 Siege of Haarlem led a monstrous regiment of women in defence of her home town against the Spanish oppressor. Last week a movie was released retelling her legend, which prompted the Haarlem Frans Hals Museum to create a short documentary about her, Kenau: heroine or harridan, looking at the historical truth of Kenau Hasselaer's life, which has been subtitled in English.
Snowden To Address Audience in First Live Q&A, Days After EU Testimony
“The good news is that there are solutions. The weakness of mass surveillance is that it can very easily be made much more expensive through changes in technical standards: pervasive end-to-end encryption can quickly make indiscriminate surveillance impossible on a cost-effective basis. The result is that governments are likely to fall back to traditional, targeted surveillance founded upon an individualized suspicion. Governments cannot risk the discovery of their exploits by simply throwing attacks at every “endpoint,” or computer processor on the end of a network connection, in the world. Mass surveillance, passive surveillance, relies upon unencrypted or weakly encrypted communications at the global network level.”
Edward Snowden submits written testimony to an EU committee investigating mass surveillance, and answers questions. The testimony takes place 3 days ahead of his highly anticipated SXSW appearance, to take place later today. Snowden is expected to speak about privacy, security, mass surveillance programs, free speech and whistle-blowing in a rare remote video appearance before a live audience.
Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo finds this “deeply troubling” in a letter he's sent to the organizers of the conference.
Meanwhile, people who wish to #asksnowden questions can use the hashtag on Twitter. The talk is to take place at 12pm PT, today.
Edward Snowden submits written testimony to an EU committee investigating mass surveillance, and answers questions. The testimony takes place 3 days ahead of his highly anticipated SXSW appearance, to take place later today. Snowden is expected to speak about privacy, security, mass surveillance programs, free speech and whistle-blowing in a rare remote video appearance before a live audience.
Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo finds this “deeply troubling” in a letter he's sent to the organizers of the conference.
Meanwhile, people who wish to #asksnowden questions can use the hashtag on Twitter. The talk is to take place at 12pm PT, today.
Postal History Corner
Postal History Corner: Canadian Postal and Philatelic History is chock full of fascinating information and high quality images and has been doing so for four years. [more inside]
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