March 31, 2009

CADIE - Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity

Snicker, snicker, snicker... Ahh, Google.
posted by Fuzzy Dog at 10:46 PM PST - 66 comments

It's closer to around 2 Months of Night, but who's counting?

STEVE NILES is one of the writers responsible for bringing horror comics back to prominence, and was recently named by Fangoria magazine as one of it's "13 rising talents who promise to keep us terrified for the next 25 years." Niles, a horror/comic writer, is responsible for 30 Days of Night. Although, the idea originally was unsuccessful as a film pitch he turned it into a breakout mini-series comic. Did you know there was a prequel released, before the movie, online: 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails (Hulu)? AND a sequel: 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust (Hulu)? [more inside]
posted by P.o.B. at 10:23 PM PST - 20 comments

THANK GOODNESS SHE HAS HAIR NOW.

Need a wig for your baby boy? Too bad, they're just for girls.
posted by bystander at 10:09 PM PST - 59 comments

Happy Birthday Gil!

April Fools Day, 2009 also means happy 60th birthday to one of my favorite musicians, Gil Scott-Heron (previously). From his popular early works like the heavily referenced "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", "Whitey On The Moon", and "The Bottle", to his continued productions and tours over the decades, he's had a few hurdles, but never stopped. For more on his life and music, here's a great documentary from a few years back (MLYT): pt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
posted by p3t3 at 8:53 PM PST - 26 comments

Keeping Our Eyes on the Money

Although the government has committed almost 3 trillion dollars to rescuing the financial sector, testimony today revealed that 6 months after the start of TARP, basic oversight of the program is lacking (more here and here), including the failure to account for almost 80 billion dollars. Meanwhile, Congress wants to know more about the court-appointed AIG monitor, while Neal Wolin, who helped draft Gramm-Leach-Bliley, has replaced a former hedge fund manager to run TARP--raising more questions about who is overseeing the plans, and about how they are being administered.
posted by ornate insect at 7:58 PM PST - 24 comments

SpaceTime TV: Free Videos on Heaps of Topics

SpaceTimeTV collects and lets you watch all the best educational videos online from full length documentaries (such as the 50 minute long Is There Life on Mars) to short video clips such as this one on glaciers and global warming. There are hundreds of videos on topics including history, space, technology, and nature.
posted by Effigy2000 at 6:37 PM PST - 6 comments

Surprise!

April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 274 days remaining until the end of the year. April 1 is most notable in the Western world for being April Fools' Day. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 6:15 PM PST - 42 comments

Star Trek/A-Team mashup

Star Trek/A-Team mashup. (SLYT.)
posted by Prospero at 4:42 PM PST - 30 comments

Most Embarassing Protest

Last month's food court occupation at NYU's Kimmel Center cafeteria, live-blogged here, has produced what is possibly the most embarassing protest video ever. [more inside]
posted by jsonic at 4:26 PM PST - 135 comments

Filling up the city skies with righteous grooves

Four Hours of Free Funkiness Filter: Pretty Lights [more inside]
posted by jammy at 3:39 PM PST - 20 comments

"Go Green Death!"

Girls Soccer Coach Resigns over hilarious (insane?) email to parents "Some say soccer at this age is about fun and I completely agree. However, I believe winning is fun and losing is for losers. Ergo, we will strive for the “W” in each game. While we may not win every game (excuse me, I just got a little nauseated) I expect us to fight for every loose ball and play every shift as if it were the finals of the World Cup. While I spent a good Saturday morning listening to the legal liability BS, which included a 30 minute dissertation on how we need to baby the kids and especially the refs, I was disgusted. The kids will run, they will fall, get bumps, bruises and even bleed a little. Big deal, it’s good for them (but I do hope the other team is the one bleeding)."
posted by njbradburn at 1:38 PM PST - 221 comments

Philosophia Islamica

Meet the Islamic Philosophers. Arabic philosophy sought to reconcile the science and empiricism of Aristotle, the metaphysics of Neoplatonism, and the revelations of the Holy Qur'an. From the first thoughts of Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, to the 20,000 pages of Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd, the influence of these Muslim polymaths profoundly shaped Western thought. [more inside]
posted by ageispolis at 1:21 PM PST - 13 comments

The Anti-Tevis?

Rosanna Pulido is the Republican nominee for the 5th Congressional District of Illinois (Rahm Emanuel's old seat). She's also an active poster on Free Republic. An active poster on Free Republic who's learning that what you write on the internet can come back to haunt you.
posted by dersins at 12:50 PM PST - 107 comments

More like Liam Hulkstra

Meet Liam Hoekstra. He is a remarkable toddler with a rare genetic disorder called Myostatin-Related Muscle Hypertrophy, which causes him to have accelerated muscle mass and development, which leads to enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Supposedly, the same genes were manipulated to create these beefcakes [previously].
posted by aftermarketradio at 12:29 PM PST - 53 comments

This week, Guantánamo!!! It was an incredible experience.

Miss Universe goes to Guantánamo Bay!
posted by geos at 11:56 AM PST - 42 comments

You Are My Type

The Ministry of Type is a weblog about type, typography, lettering, calligraphy and other related things. The FontFeed, from the folks at FontShop, is a daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 11:23 AM PST - 13 comments

A New Balance of Power

Chris Crawford (previously) has released the beta version of his Storytron engine. The first demo? Balance of Power: 21st Century. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 10:56 AM PST - 30 comments

Hugh, Pugh, Barley, McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Chuck

Prince Charles has been a notable critic of architecture over the years. Now he's had a go himself, designing a fire station in the village of Poundbury. Whilst the reception to the Prince's efforts has not been overwhelmingly positive at least the commentators at the Daily Mail like it
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:34 AM PST - 110 comments

Fake fossils down through the ages

Stephen Jay Gould tells the story of the 18th Century German professor Beringer who published a book, Lithographiae Wirceburgensis in 1726 which purported to show remarkable fossils, including spiders in their web, copulating frogs and Yahweh written in Hebrew (high resolution images of the original plates: 1, 2, 3, 4) This turned out to be a fake but the conventional story of the humiliated Professor Beringer and his Lying Stones of Wurzburg is not as simple as the one usually retold in textbooks. And as Gould mentions fossil fakes are not a thing of the past.
posted by Kattullus at 9:46 AM PST - 25 comments

Fire descends from on high in the shape of a lion

He's a Hasidic Jew, but that doesn't stop him from dropping mad raps over hot reggae beats. Did I mention he can beatbox like a mofo, too? He was born Matt Miller, but you can call him Matisyahu. [more inside]
posted by baphomet at 8:37 AM PST - 71 comments

Nothing To Do With Wonder Woman

"Percy Harrison Fawcett ... convinced himself, based on a mix of archival research, deduction and clairvoyance, that a large undiscovered city lay hidden somewhere in the Amazon" Greg Grandin of The Nation talks about the allure of the Amazon in history and the repeated attempts made to domesticate, colonize, control, or explore it. previous discussion of failed Amazon ventures here ( via )
posted by The Whelk at 7:30 AM PST - 21 comments

Moses is Departing Egypt: A Facebook Haggadah

"The Passover Seder, the oldest continuously observed religious ceremony in the world, tells the story of the Jews' Exodus from Egypt. Jewish tradition says that people of each generation must imagine that they personally had departed from Egypt, and the sages say that each generation must tell the story in its own terms. The sages probably did not intend this. "(Via)
posted by lucia__is__dada at 7:05 AM PST - 28 comments

Secret Archaeology

Archaeologists and Native Americans race against the border fence. The REAL ID act authorized government agencies to bulldoze long-standing environmental, cultural and anthropological standards. But a team of activists worked delicately behind the scenes to win millions of dollars in federal funding and the go-ahead for a last-ditch effort to study ancient artifacts. Archaeologists have faced similarly rushed projects elsewhere along the fence route.
posted by univac at 1:32 AM PST - 47 comments

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