April 14, 2011
And introducing...
Lynn Tilton: Billionaire Industrialist and Woman
Want to Be My Boyfriend? Please Define
Want to Be My Boyfriend? Please Define is the winner of a 2008 New York Times essay competition asking college students to write about what love is like for them. The competition runs again this year.
"....prepares for the hunt."
BBC Human Planet: The Douche For a few weeks, the BBC film crew had the opportunity to follow a unique specimen, they were able to observe and record its mannerisms, rituals and way of life. The result of this is BBC Human Planet: The Douche.
Wokka wokka wokka wokka wokka wokka
Do you like Pac-Man but always thought "What this game really needs is to be a gigantic, player-created never-ending maze of interconnected Pac-Man boards"? Me neither. Fortunately, someone else did. [more inside]
Secrets of the Tax-Prep Business
"Customers wanting a RAL paid Jackson Hewitt a $24 application fee, a $25 processing fee, and a $2 electronic-filing fee, plus 4 percent of the loan amount. On a $2,000 refund, that meant $131 in charges—equivalent to an annual interest rate of about 170 percent—not to mention the few hundred bucks you might spend for tax preparation."
Blow Up The Pokies
"In life you often look around for someone or something to compare yourself favourably with. The games dealers and supervisors in a casino whose souls are troubled can look to the poker machines and say, well at least we provide entertainment (we’re in the hospitality industry, don’t you know!). But in reality, that was just bullshit we told ourselves. The machines blinked and made music while they took the money; we smiled and chatted aimlessly while we took it."
Former casino worker Greg Jericho has written an exhaustive article about the human and economic costs of poker machines.
It comes in the middle of an anti-pokies campaign by Independent Senator Nick Xenophon that is being bitterly opposed by the Australian Hotels Association.
Check out my voodoo mask!
Excellent footage of the stunningly beautiful yet bizarre courtship and mating behavior of the Peacock Spider.This is quite possibly the first footage of this quality that shows this behavior. Many jumping spiders have elaborate courtship dances. More Previously.
By hitting your brain. That's How.
Kittens. Poptarts. Rainbows.
Even I could score better than this.
Kevin Na made it to the 9th hole of the first round of the Valero Texas Open on Thursday with a decent score of one under. Unfortunately, he left the hole with a much, much worse score. [more inside]
Tony Orrico: Human Spirograph
Almost Insideout Ninja
A postmortem at gamasutra on the independently developed game Super Meat Boy. On their design philosophy that in part makes the game so popular: "It was vital for us to bring back the difficulty of the retro age, but also reinvent the idea of what difficulty meant. Frustration was the biggest part of retro difficulty and something we felt needed to be removed at all costs, in order to give the player a sense of accomplishment without discouraging them to the point of quitting. At its core, this idea was quite basic: Remove lives, reduce respawn time, keep the levels short and keep the goal always in sight. On top of these refinements, we added constant positive feedback, and even death became something to enjoy when you knew that upon completing the level you would be rewarded with an epic showing of all your past deaths. The replay feature was a way to remind the player that they were getting better through their own actions and reinforce that feeling of accomplishment of doing something difficult and succeeding."
Karmin Covers
"Hello, we are Karmin! The little band with a big sound. A girl with a guitar and a guy with a box. Amy and Nick from Boston." Look At Me Now - Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne :: Written in the Stars - Tinie Tempah :: Teenage Dream - Katy Perry :: We R Who We R - Ke$ha :: Price Tag - Jessie J :: website
Acoustic Version of C418's "Sweden" from Minecraft
A very eloquent and tranquil performance of a young chap from Sweden playing C418's "Sweden" that you may have heard from Minecraft on classical guitar (SLYT)
Skating through B-school
Rarely is the question asked -- is our business majors learning?
"Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, he’s fucking dead, the guy from Brainiac is fucking dead. I want this to mean something to every fucking one of you."
15 years ago Dayton, Ohio band Brainiac released their third, and final full-length album Hissing Prigs in Static Couture on Touch & Go records. Lead by Tim Taylor on vocals/keyboards the album perfected a brand of short-circuit robot rock that made dance music out of violent shrieks and spasms. The band has been credited by Trent Rezor in 'really inspiring to me from a sonic influence' and eulogized by Jeff Buckley at his last gig. [more inside]
Smile, Paul!
In a heartbreakingly candid blog post, Paul finally explains his deepest, darkest secret to his friends, his family and the world:
That last photo I'm aware of that exists with me smiling with an open mouth is my eighth grade school picture. [...] By the time I was 17, I had cavities in three of my top front teeth and virtually no enamel resembling anything pearly or white when I opened my mouth...so I quit opening it.His blog now follows his progress as he goes through reconstructive dental care, shares anecdotes from his past, and encourages others to ask for help.
"I was 100 percent deceived. One hundred percent."
The Truth About Race, Religion, And The Honor Code At BYU. Deadspin has released an exposé on Brigham Young University's Honor Code, which prohibits students from having sex or drinking alcohol. The article accuses the University of selectively punishing minority (and especially African American) athletes who violate the Code. Co-authored by Darron Smith, a former BYU instructor. Responses from former BYU students at Religion Dispatches, the Deseret News and the Provo Daily Herald. (Previously) [more inside]
all about the brain
Allen Human Brain Atlas - Brain Explorer 2 is a desktop software application for viewing the human brain anatomy and gene expression data in 3D. "Until now, a definitive map of the human brain at this level of detail simply hasn't existed," said Allan Jones, the nonprofit institute's chief executive. "For the first time, we have generated a comprehensive map of the brain that includes the underlying biochemistry." | Functional Neuroanatomy | 10 Great Sites for Reviewing Brain Anatomy | Harvard Brain Atlas. Bonus link: Brain massage with cosmic energy application in Pushkar, India. [more inside]
CONTINUE? 9 ... 8 ... 7 ... 6 ...
Susan Lucci's Soap Bubble Pops
ABC cancels “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.” Thanks to the slow decline of soap operas -- and the coming signoff of cable's SOAPnet, two more daytime series will end decades-long runs. The replacements are a food show called The Chew and a lifestyle show tentatively titled The Revolution. AMC ends in September and OLTL in December; SOAPnet goes dark in January, 2012 [more inside]
Trevor dances in the Apple Store
iTr3vor does not seem to know how to un-mirror his video clips and has only the vaguest understanding of copyright law. But he does like dancing in Apple Stores to the works of Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and Rebecca Black, among others.
The Zoopreme Court is much cuter than the Supreme Court
Zoopreme Court Ever wanted to remember all the justices of the Supreme Court, past and present? Well it's a whole lot easier if they are animals. Dan Schofield and Alice DuBois are illustrating all 112 justices as various critters, as well as several landmark cases.
The All Asked For Who
I'd like to welcome you all lords and ladies, gentlemen, ladies, time-ladies, time-lords, aliens and those of you in the cheap seats to a documentary produced and aired by WYES-TV New Orleans in 1986, focusing on Panopticon, the first US Doctor Who convention. (1, 2, 3) (MLYT, in authentic multi-copy VHS fuzz-o-vision!) [more inside]
Hand drawn 3D comics lettering: Stone Type
Hand drawn 3D comics lettering: Stone Type. Classic front page lettering from Superman, The Spirit, Sgt. Rock, La Garage Hermetique, The Incredible Hulk &c.
Just Write It!
Fans of George RR Martin's "The Song of Ice and Fire" series are eagerly awaiting "A Dance With Dragons", the next book. This anticipation has led to hostility from some fans as to Martin's work ethic and the manner in which he spends his personal time.
The Free-Banking vs. Central-Banking Debate
Out of thin air? "Have you ever said something like 'Let me buy you a beer next week'? I'm sure you have. We all issue promises of this sort. And we frequently use such promises as a form of currency... I have just described a simple credit exchange. Societies rely heavily on promising-making and promise-keeping. It is the foundation of all financial markets. I'd like to point out something about the promises you make. They are made 'out of thin air.' " [more inside]
Gondryesque
Food Foto Fakery Found: Floravores Furious
VegNews, the vegan lifestyle magazine, regularly publishes recipes for vegan dishes, with accompanying food-porn photos. Yesterday, VegNews was revealed to be using stock photos of actual meat dishes to represent their vegan analogues. Vegans are, understandably, appalled. But in an industry where deceptive food photography is customary, is authenticity of food illlustration a valid concern?
Son of Dave
Benjamin Darvill, a.k.a. Son of Dave, is a one-man band of sorts, combining harmonica, vocals, beat-boxing, a rattle and foot-stomping to create his own infectious form of blues. Darvill, a Canadian formerly with Crash Test Dummies, has released four albums to date as Son of Dave, his latest and best being 'Shake A Bone', recorded and mixed by Steve Albini in Chicago, the title track used briefly in an episode of Breaking Bad. [more inside]
Working against the market consensus can be a winning strategy.
In Soviet Russia, Photoshop Crops You!
An interesting article from Wired about Soviet photo manipulations from the 1960s space race. [more inside]
Make Fake Army, Go To Jail
1) Make fake army 2) Collect Fees 3) Profit 4) Go to Jail - Yupeng Deng created the U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve Unit in Southern California for Asian immigrants. Unfortunately for all, the US Government wasn't aware of this... SGV Tribune story (pictures), NY Times story
It's a finglonger, obviously
The NIST Digital Archives is an online collection of scientific instruments from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But even the experts don't always know what it is they've got, and they'd like your help. Any idea what you're supposed to do with Eight Dials Set in a Wooden Frame? How about Metal Instrument in Wood Case?
The Galileo Lectures, from Radio New Zealand
Galileo Lectures In 2009, to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo first turning a telescope skywards, Radio New Zealand National, in partnership with the Royal Society of New Zealand, released this kickin' series of five lectures spanning the evolution of cosmology, extra-solar planets, near-earth objects, the nascent field of neutrino astronomy and prospects for the future as the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope comes online early in the next decade. It's a great listen and best of all, it's free to download as MP3 or Ogg Vorbis!
There's a name for that.
Does this give you head tingles? It's ASMR. Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. And no, it's not masterbatory. Need another fix? [more inside]
Going, going, gone...
I sing the body electric
Hello, my name is FRIDA. I am a concept, developed as part of the Rosetta project, en EU-funded initiative to support the development of robots. Take a good look at me. I can be very romantic.
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