May 31, 2010
Thinking about the immortality of the crab
WikiWorld was a comic series developed for Wikipedia by Greg Williams using the encyclopedia's text and released under a Creative Commons license. It's topics range from the concept of a redshirt in science fiction, public radio personalities like (MeFi's own) John Hodgman, Sarah Vowell and Terry Gross, Godwin's Law, Ann Coulter and world domination.
Pure musical purity
Tropical storm leaves more than 115 dead in Central America
Leaves giant sinkhole. At least 115 people have died after a tropical storm battered Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over the weekend, officials in those countries reported.
Biblioctopus
The Biblioctopus Catalog can be as entertaining a read as some of the rare and antiquarian books that the Beverly Hills, Calif., shop sells. An entry for a $3,300 first edition of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea asserts that the book is “as stubbornly immortal as those plastic baby diapers that won’t biodegrade.” Although Catalog 44 was mailed earlier this month, I have only been able to find links for Catalogs 20, 22, and 34. (previously)
Au Revoir, Louise Bourgeois
Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
No Secrets: Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency. A New Yorker profile of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his "media insurgency."
"I left my stamp."
I scored a goal in the FIFA World Cup Final. A series of short films produced by ESPN about players ranging from Uruguay's Alcides Ghiggia in 1950 to Italy's Marco Materazzi in 2006. [more inside]
Yes, He Parachutes
Primavera by Victor Novikov. WALL·E checks out the scenery. [slv]
Raptors, Owls, Bats Guard South African World Cup Stadium
Open air sports stadiums often have issues with birds, insects, and other wildlife. Common preventative measures include ultrasonic devices and bird netting. But Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium - one of the venues for the 2010 World Cup - has taken an all-natural approach. It is working with the Urban Raptor Project to install raptors, bats, and owls to patrol the stadium for various pests, while a trained peregrine falcon chases away crows. This is not a new technique - Millennium Stadium in Wales has long used a Harris Hawk for bird control. But according to the NMB stadium manager, it "is the only stadium with a programme like this in place as a pest deterrent".
Opera star Rene Fleming pulls a reverse-Sting and enters a "parallel universe"
Rene Fleming pulls a reverse-Sting and enters a "parallel universe" of sound. Brings up interesting issues in the different ways people in the pop and classical realm define the "natural" vocie, as well acknowledges that in our completely shattered, niche market this cross-over record has no more or less validity then any other album being released today.
Towards the exascale
From the BBC, A graphical treemap of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, arranged by country, speed, OS, application, processor and manufacturer. [more inside]
Listen to presences inside poems. Let them take you where they will.
Sean Haldane, a nominee for the post of professor of poetry at Oxford, talks about his dual life as a poet and neuroscientist
Robert Graves wrote in 1968: “I like Sean’s poems: clean, accurate and no nonsense – they still have the original poetic nap on them. They make sense, which is rare these days”.
From The Psychiatrist 2002: Are poetry and psychotherapy too ‘wet’ for serious psychiatrists?
Poetry Therapy is not new.
“I now think poetry has more capacity to change people than psychotherapy”And he also has an interesting blog.
Robert Graves wrote in 1968: “I like Sean’s poems: clean, accurate and no nonsense – they still have the original poetic nap on them. They make sense, which is rare these days”.
From The Psychiatrist 2002: Are poetry and psychotherapy too ‘wet’ for serious psychiatrists?
Poetry Therapy is not new.
Keep Thundering. Never Forget.
Rolling Thunder XXIII - A seemingly endless line of more than 250,000 motorcycles roared across Memorial Bridge into Washington, DC yesterday. The 23rd annual ride, drawing riders from all over the world, wound its way from the Pentagon parking lot near Arlington National Cemetery, around the National Mall, past the Lincoln Memorial to the Vietnam Memorial, culminating in an emotional gathering at the West end of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. [more inside]
Up a bit, down a bit, over a bit ...
Sprocket Rocket is a physics game whose goal is to collect sprockets to unlock argumentations to your egg shaped rocket ship (and school you about IP law but you can ignore that part). [more inside]
Bend me, shape me, anyway you want me
Whitechapel, the Warren Ellis forum, remodels Superman #1, 2000AD Prog 1, Amazing Adult Fantasy #15, Young Romance #1, Zap Comix #1, Wonder Woman #1 and New Worlds #223. More remodel fun. Note that the good stuff tends to be towards the middle of a thread, where the artists have had time to get going and before things tail off.
Hindi Urdu Flagship Program
The Hindi Urdu Flagship Program at the University of Texas, Austin has a number of freely available online resources on Hindi and Urdu, including vocabulary exercises for beginners, video interviews with native speakers discussing various aspects of their language, a Hindi-language podcast on various topics and the ways one can discuss them in Hindi, and several downloadable books in PDF format. [more inside]
We have to protect our village.
A tribute to fallen heros
“Let us acknowledge the measure of their sacrifice by honoring them as brave women, and by honoring them as women who served without thought of glory which we accord to heroes of battle. The service pilot faces the risk of death without the emotional inspiration of combat. Men who battle in the sky have the grim, triumphant knowledge that their bombs and bullets are destroying the enemy, and their courage is sustained by the emotions of conflict.
These women have given their lives in the performance of arduous and exacting duties without being able to see and feel the final results of their work under the quickening influence of aerial action. They have demonstrated a courage which is sustained not by the fevers of combat, but the steady heartbeat of faith—a faith in the rightness of our cause, and a faith in the importance of their work to the men who do go into combat.
Let us pay tribute to these women by honoring their memory . . . Let us treasure their memory as women whose sacrifice has brought honor not only to their country, but also to their organization.
We shall not forget the accomplishments of our women fliers and their contributions to the fulfillment of our mission. And we shall always keep and remember the brave heritage of the women who gave their lives. It is the heritage of faith in victory and faith in the ultimate freedom of humanity.” [more inside]
Joe Gaetjens scored a goal in the World Cup, died as a political prisoner of Papa Doc Chevalier
A heartbreaking 10-minute documentary on Joe Gaetjens who scored the single goal in the USA's shocking victory over England at the 1950 World Cup. Gaetjens was a Haitian accounting student at Columbia University who went to Europe shortly after the 1950 World Cup and returned to Haiti a few years later. His story, and the story of the upset victory, was until recently largely unknown in the US.
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