June 14, 2013
It's so loony, it might work
Project Loon: Google is testing an Internet access system mediated by stratospheric balloons. They are starting in New Zealand with 30 balloons.
"stay out of my hairspace"
Brazil Bus Riots 2013
Brutal police crackdown on protesters against a bus fare rise in São Paulo and Rio, as well as other cities. [more inside]
"It's pronounced REE-shard."
Ryan Hansen celebrates his return to the Veronica Mars cast with a very silly video. I LOLed. Previously. [more inside]
Have you seen the size of the saxophone on that guy?
12 in the corner pocket
Amadeus is a chihuahua who likes to play ball. On a pool table.
Hobbies for dorks like us
Carpets For Airports [spacey sound on load] | Hugh Dancy is one of the contributors. -via- [more inside]
Invented by a mother!
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a messiah figure!
Although the new Superman movie by Zack Snyder (previously) has put off critics with its appropriation of 9/11 imagery and riled fans with its revision of the superhero's moral code, Warner Bros. Studios is hoping Man of Steel will win over the Christian market. In interviews, Snyder is talking up "Christ-like parallels" in his reboot of the character created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. For those who'd like something more theologically grounded, the studio's marketing department is offering sermon notes entitled "JESUS - THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO" [PDF] by Dr. Craig Detweiler, M. Div., and organizing free pastor screenings through faith-based PR firm Grace Hill Media. They aren't the first, however, to notice similarities between Jesus and Superman (among other popular cultural figures).
Even nerd misogyny is subject to Rule 63.
"I know the only reason you wear those cargo shorts is to get my attention, okay? I'm not buying it."
Ladies, I'm sure you've noticed them on the Internet: Fake Nerd Boys -- a brief rant on the impending demise of a proud but beleaguered subculture. (SLYT) [more inside]
Folk Rock at One Horsepower
That's twelve
Science fiction writer/fan Jamie Todd Rubin went on a holiday in the Golden Age, by reading through vintage issues of Astounding Science Fiction, starting with the July 1939 issue.
Computer model shows men to blame for menopause
Men to Blame for Menopause: Younger Women Preferred in Human Evolutionary History. Humans are actually the only species where females cannot reproduce throughout their lives, and previous studies have suggested that there may be a "grandmother effect." This suggests that women lose their fertility at an age where they may not live to care for another child. Instead, they're available to care for younger women's children.
Yet some scientists weren't satisfied with this theory. "How do you evolve infertility? It is contrary to the whole notion of natural selection" ...
Original paper published in PLOS Computational Biology - Mate Choice and the Origin of Menopause [more inside]
Strolling on the railing
MindTunes
Mindtunes is a track created by Andy, Jo and Mark, 3 physically disabled music fans, using only one instrument: their mind. The track was produced by DJ Fresh.
Changing Perceptions, One Icon At A Time
The Accessible Icon Project seeks to change public perception of the disabled by subtly redesigning the traditional blue-and-white accessibility icon. New York City is one of the first to embrace the new design.
Also: OpenDyslexic, a free font designed to lessen confusion between visually similar letterforms.
Also: OpenDyslexic, a free font designed to lessen confusion between visually similar letterforms.
It’s the goddamned theorizing.
With your love and support she can get through anything that comes
Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration is a bilingual initiative to help children cope with an incarcerated parent. [more inside]
Good night, sweethearts.
Shutter Madness
Garry Winogrand, best known for his street photography, left behind "three hundred thousand pictures (at a minimum), barely sorted, unorganized, with no indication of why or when they were taken" after his death in 1984. Jacob Mikanowski from The Awl. previously
Small-Town Maiden Aunt Chic
Left. Right. Leeeeft. Left, Right. Right. Right. Left. COME ON!
A minute is a long flippin' time. Fill it like you care. One of the most minimalistic games to be released last year, Super Hexagon has been praised by many as being hypnotic, addictive, briiliantly designed, and devilishly challenging. It's a game that, like Tetris, delivers pleasure with each inevitable failure, and is simply about reaching escape velocity from your own feeble reflexes. The game has a reputation for turning one's appreciation and apprehension of its challenges into intense addiction, constant improvement, and fervent devotion. [more inside]
Massive Implosion . . .
. . . when half the population is ignored: At the Movies, The Women are Gone Also:
Joss Whedon pissed off about lack of female superheroes in films.
Female roles in 2012 blockbuster films drop to lowest level in five years.
Blackwolf the Dragonmaster
“You know who I am, don’t you?” he asked.
“Who’s that?”
“I am BLACKWOLF the DRAGONMASTER. I am the unofficial wizard of New York.”
Blackwolf's official web page.
With Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
More Triumph (starts at 4:06)
They are way cooler than you’ll ever be, basically.
The Avant/Garde Diaries interviews Jarad Dawkins, 11, and Malcom Brickhouse, 12, aka the metal band Unlocking the Truth. Here they are performing on Totally Biased With Kamau Bell [via]
Punk is Not Dead ... yet
PUNK: Chaos To Couture is an exhibit running at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Reactions have been mixed. [more inside]
Kenny appreciates what you did
I Can't Break 'The Walking Dead' I’ve tried breaking The Walking Dead down to its core components. I’ve tried to analyze it from a distance to figure out how it’s able to so effectively hook my emotions, but I can't break it. I can't "game" it.
Making the Weather: Six Politicians who shaped our age
Vernon Bogdanor has recently completed a series of lectures on politicians who have played a crucial role in shaping the postwar political agenda in the UK [more inside]
Awesome stop-motion miniature car chase videos
the fire is dead. the room is cold.
Nazi in the heartland.
Nazi SS commander living in Minnesota
"A top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit accused of burning villages filled with women and children lied to American immigration officials to get into the United States and has been living in Minnesota since shortly after World War II, according to evidence uncovered by The Associated Press."
"He’s also on PCP, FYI."
The Open Key: comics inspired by the endless stream of weirdness that is the Chicago Police and Fire scanner. (And if you prefer your scanner feed with evocative ambient music, You Are Listening to ___ has a new site.)
The Memphis Group
Ettore Sottsass was an industrial designer who was born in Innsbruck, Austria. Famous for his My Valentine typewriter design and his geometric enamel designs. [more inside]
Disney presents...Arab Stereotypes and Dated Pop Culture References
Mommy, "My Birthday Party will be Ruined if we Can't Sing That Song."
Jennifer Nelson is suing the music publishing company Warner-Chappel to block it's copyright to the worlds most popular song: Happy Birthday to You. "The lawsuit notes that in the late 1800s, two sisters, Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill, wrote a song with the same melody called “Good Morning to All.” The suit tracks that song’s evolution into the familiar birthday song, and its ownership over more than a century." previously
Spoke Stack
Mechanised Japanese Underground Bicycle Parking Pictures and video of space-saving bicycle parking in Japan.
Mark Weber, R.I.P.
Obit for Lt. Col. Mark Weber. Author Lt. Col. Mark Weber, U.S. Army, has passed away, but not before promotion to the rank of Lt. Col. by his high school's JROTC unit, almost twenty-five years after graduation. [more inside]
A life in focus
Greg Marinovich is well known as a member of the Bang Bang Club, winning the Pulitzer Prize for photography for his work during the death throes of apartheid in South Africa. Less known are the unique (and often difficult to obtain) images documenting the often secret rituals amongst the diverse peoples of his homeland. As he writes in a recent column remembering Mandela, making the right choice can often be a difficult one.
Mandela's release in 1990 was a pretty surreal series of events for me. As a fledgling photographer I was thrilled when a British agency asked me to cover it. It was a great chance to make a break into the business, but I was conflicted. I had also managed to gain access to an otherwise secretive ceremony in the far north of the country, scheduled for the same day. The distance between Pollsmoor Prison, where the news crews of the world were camped out, and the mysterious stockade of the Modjadji was some two thousand kilometres. I had to choose between two competing once-in-a-lifetime shoots.Here is a showcase of the works he has made publicly available as prints as well as collections from his close colleague, Joao Silva*. [more inside]
This is a position of daunting, fairy godmother-like power
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