March 21, 2010
Antique Typewriters
Antique typewriters. Welcome to the Martin Howard Collection of Early Typewriters. Comprised of typewriters from the very beginning of the typewriter industry (1880s & 1890s), it is the largest of its kind in Canada. The collection contains many rare and historically important typewriters, showing the remarkable diversity and beauty of the world's first typing machines. (Via)
HCR passes the house.
House passes Healthcare reform. All that's left is voting on a reconciliation package for the senate to sign. But the house has passed the senate bill, which means this is basically a done deal. [more inside]
One-Quarter of What You'd Pay in Town.
Fiverr -- What would you do for $5? "I will do voice over and/or voice acting for you for $5." • "I will write a Short Bed Time Story for $5." • "I will write anything appropriate on my forehead and wear it to public school all day for $5." Any requests? "Do a 30 second video commercial for my website." • "Reduce/eliminate echo in an audio file." • "Ask a girl out for me."
I think that I have already won this battle by simply publishing this statement
Well, here goes. I really resent the term, but I use it because it’s recognized and accepted.
I’m gay.
From some seventy years of personal experience, I can tell you that there’s not much “gay” about being homosexual. For the first twenty years of my life, I had to live in the shadows, in a culture that was — at least outwardly — totally hostile to any hint of that variation of life-style.
James Randi (previously), at age 81, has come out. He discusses the announcement in more detail on the JREF podcast For Good Reason.
Australia's own Madoff affair?
An Australian Madoff? Trio Capital, an Australian fund manager, has been ordered to wind up its funds after being unable to account for $123 million in its Astarra fund since investigations began in October. The fund "has a total of $426 million under management - including superannuation savings of about 10,000 Australians." Some worry what this means for more potential frauds in Australia's "privatized social security." [more inside]
Walking with the Comrades
Last month, Arundhati Roy decided to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central India’s Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribal people many of whom have taken up arms to protect themselves against state-backed marauders and exploiters. She recorded in considerable detail her face-to-face encounter with armed guerillas, their families and comrades.
We live in a brilliant city!
Streets of Plenty is a documentary set in Vancouver's DTES of Corey Ogilvie's 31 day homelessness experiment whose thesis wasn't resolved until the 26th (and last) day. [more inside]
Nennen wir das Ganze ab.
"She was quirky, the sort who excused herself from a social gathering by saying she had to wash her socks."
"I would have liked to think I'd have gone out with a bit more flair." Margaret Moth, CNN photojournalist, has died of colon cancer at 59. [more inside]
The Mississippi Saxophone
Компьютерная анимация 1968
American milk and the cardboard
Emilio the Moor was a parodying humorist flamenco exponent who died in a domestic gas incident.
[via]. [more inside]
HUZZAH!
In anticipation of tomorrow's WiiWare release of the ridiculously awesome Pixel platformer, "Cave Story" (aka "Doukutsu Monogatari"), the Wii developer Nicalis has been running a series on their blog featuring fan art and artists. [more inside]
Nothing comes between me and my Calvins
50th anniversay of the massacre at Sharpeville
Ladies and Gentlemen, Jonathan Goldstein!
If you enjoy Jonathan Goldstein's contributions to This American Life or his recent book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! you'll probably enjoy the quirky, self-depricating comedy of his newly podcast (previously) CBC show WireTap, now in its sixth season. [more inside]
The worst space-related disaster happened in Xichang, China? ...in 1996?
The date was February 15, 1996. The place was the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (Google Map), situated some 64 km northwest of Xichang City, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. At 2:50 AM, the Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched carrying the Intelsat 708, an American communications satellite. Seconds later, the worst space-related disaster in history occurred sparking a technology transfer controversy. Chinese authorities said 6 people died but video footage tells a different story.
The new browser video wars
The <video tag>, as defined by the HTML5 spec, is an element "used for playing videos or movies". Which codec those videos or movies are in is currently undefined, with the two contenders being the free open source Ogg Theora and the proprietary H.264. With the unveiling of Internet Explorer 9 both Microsoft and Apple are supporting H.264 in their browsers, and comparisons of the standards seem to bear out H.264 as the better of the two. However Mozilla have taken a stance against incorporating H264 into Firefox on the grounds that it is patented and has to be licensed. Arguments are now being made for and against Mozilla sticking to its ideals. John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out that Firefox already supports proprietary formats such as GIF. Um, perhaps not the best example.
RIP Liz Carpenter.
Liz Carpenter, Texas humorist, women's rights crusader and aide to Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, dies at 89 [more inside]
Three-Pendulum Rotary Harmonograph
True History of the Jolley Gang
In December 2008 the journalist Victoria Coren revealed the existence of a bizarre crew of professional gatecrashers, led by ex-magistrate Terence Jolley, who liked to show up at the funerals of people they'd never met, apparently in the hope of cadging some free food and drink. Their activities were exposed after Coren advertised a (fictitious) memorial service for the (imaginary) Sir William Ormerod and waited for the Jolley Gang to fall into the trap (previously on MetaFilter). Now the Jolley Gang are back in the news after one of their number, 'retired banker' Alan MacDonald, gatecrashed a party at the Dorchester Hotel and choked to death on a canapé.
you forgot the parsi bawas, you madman
Jug Suraiya, famed middle of the editorial ha ha heh man of india's ridiculous prolific and noisy media takes a poke at stereotypes. All ring true of course.
Are you sad? We've come to cheer you up.
Salvador Allende's Internet
Cybersyn (or Synco, in Spanish) was computer network constructed in 1970 by an English/Chilean team headed by cyberneticist Stafford Beer (his papers). Cybersyn was an electronic nervous system for the Chilean economy, linking together mines, factories and so on, to better manage production and give workers a clear idea of what was in demand and where. The network was destroyed by the army after the 1973 coup. Later that year Stafford Beer drew upon the lessons of Cybersyn to write Fanfare for Effective Freedom, a eulogy for Allende and Cybersyn, and Designing Freedom, a series of six lectures he gave for CBC, outlining his ideas. Besides the first link in this post, the best place to start is this Guardian article from 2003. If you want to go more in-depth, read Eden Medina's Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende’s Chile. And if nothing else, just take a look at the amazing Cybersyn control room.
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