June 15, 2010
"They may be individuals who may be hunting illegal border crossers. That's really a big concern for us,"
Eleven weeks after Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was found murdered near the U.S.-Mexico border, a group of illegal entrants have reported to police that they were shot at by two men in camouflage with high powered rifles near Rio Rico, Arizona. [more inside]
But no green bacon, man, that's where I draw the line.
Green Eggs and Ham: music by Dylan Hears a Who [previously previouslier], animation from Dr. Seuss on the Loose (1973). [more inside]
Reading. Is reading painful.
It's time for a new bacon thread.
Your Truly Quite Open Book
Your Open Book (NSFW language) lets you search Facebook's publicly accessible status updates. While the site exists ostensibly to protest Facebook's problematic privacy settings, perhaps its even greater achievement is to let us peer into the lives of our fellow Facebook users. (NSFW language)
How to become the world's No. 1 hacker/plagiarist
Cyber security consultant & self-styled “innovator, leader & visionary” Greg Evans has just written & self-published a book titled How To Become The Worlds No. 1 Hacker. Or did he? His company, LIGATT Security International, counts Philips Arena, the NBA Atlanta Hawks and the NHL Atlanta Thrashers among its clients. Or does it?
So Where The Bloody Hell Are Ya?
After suspending all asylum applications from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, the Australian Government has made a series of confronting youtube videos showing the dangers of the sea, and the arrest and detention of asylum seekers. [more inside]
James Dean? JIMMY Dean!
Jimmy Dean (Aug. 28, 1928 - June 13, 2010) is best known to Mefites for his brand of sausage, although he sold the company in the '80s, and was dropped as its spokesman in 2003; its current owner is Sara Lee*. But his musical legacy is sealed by his 'country rap*' classic "Big Bad John" (performed live in 2008), often imitated, but never parodied better than with "Big Bruce"** (info). But to me, he was the guy with the variety show where he spent several minutes every week bantering with the muppet Rowlf****. Here's Jimmy in Esquire Magazine's "What I've Learned". His final resting place is music-themed, NOT sausage themed. "Here lies one hell of a man." [more inside]
Post mortem social networking
Ladies & Gentlemen. Mr. Al Green!
Vic Rawl has filed a protest against the man who beat him in the South Carolina Democratic primary for the US Senate. The official reason is election irregularities, however at the core of the protest is the fact that the winner Alvin Greene is a complete unknown with no prior experience. He won the primary despite the fact that he has no campaign headquarters or material and in fact did not seem to campaign at all. Also curious is the pending criminal case in which he is accused of showing a pornographic website to a college student. Mr. Greene does not come across particularly well in interviews and CNN interviewer Don Lemon even went so far as to question his mental health and called it one of the most bizarre interviews he's ever had. So is this Republican tampering as many observers are accusing? (FiveThirtyEight weighs in) Did South Carolina voters give him the (59%-41%) victory because they thought he was Al Green, soul music's most insinuating singer? Or perhaps these are the wrong questions and we should be focusing on Alvin Greene's platform: jobs, better education for children and justice.
Devo kawaii desu!
KITTEHS AND CONEHATS!!! In order to celebrate "Something for Everybody", their first album in 20 years, Devo is streaming their new album live, right now... with appropriate feline accompaniment!
Knots and Crosses
Sure, knot theory is an interesting subject with a storied past, and self-avoiding walk theory takes it a bit further in describing real-world ropes, lines and wires, but can it be usefully applied to the knotty problem of spontaneously forming tangles? Robert Matthews of Aston University has suggested that there's a simple solution to avoiding tangles in all our computer cables, headphone cords and Vectran cored double braid halyard lines: make them into loops [pdf]. It's plausible, but not proven. Enter The Great British Knot Experiment which aims to provide "compelling empirical evidence to support the Loop Conjecture – and thus for its role in solving one of life's little irritations." [more inside]
"What Psychology Professionals Should Know About Polyamory"
The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom presents "What Psychology Professionals Should Know About Polyamory". [PDF] [more inside]
The Sun is a Mass of Cyclically Furious Gas
"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity." Dr. Richard Fisher and other sun-gazing scientists recently discussed the upcoming peak in the 11-year sunspot cycle. Due to the ever-increasing humans' reliance on electrical systems, the storm could leave a multi-billion pound damage bill and "potentially devastating" problems for governments. Constant improvements in satellite designs have assisted in
bracing for a solar superstorm, an effort that comes in part by studying the impacts records of activity from past peaks in solar storms. System limits are set based on significant solar storm-triggered events in the past, though the largest magnetic storm on record was before the modern understanding of solar events. The solar storm of 1859, also known as The Carrington Event, when "telegraphs ran on electric air," was experienced around the world. [more inside]
The Viewer As Voyeur
Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera is an exhibition at the Tate Modern in London which examines voyeurism through the medium of photography. In addition to works from professionals such as Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Miller, Shizuka Yokomizo, Guy Bourdin, Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe, it includes amateur and CCTV "stolen" images taken both with and without the knowledge of their subjects -- all intended to "explore the uneasy relationship between making and viewing images that deliberately cross lines of privacy and propriety." [more inside]
Sadly they all died from a disease caught from an undisinfected telephone
OKCupid prides itself on being a free (though ad-supported) dating site that (supposedly) doesn't use underhanded methods to make money. But The Consumerist is reporting that some members are receiving notice that, as Beautiful People, "You will now see more attractive people in your match results."
After 38 years, the truth
After 12 years, the enquiry is over. And the report on the Bloody Sunday massacre is published. [more inside]
A different way of looking at crime statistics.
A short imagined monologue from Comic Sans
In With The Old
Nestled amid endless Budweiser ads, The AV Club is putting together some great modern covers of ’70s and ‘80s classics. My personal favorites: The Antlers take on Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and Cursive’s cover of Starship’s We Built This City.
Cover Art From International Editions Of "Planet Of the Apes" Comics.
"Those games up there are what they are depending on to save the industry."
The Day the Gaming Industry Died: David Wong, editor of Cracked, attends E3 2010 and finds it wanting: "For whatever reason gamers won't keep playing games unless given a completely new format every half decade."
Where are Americans Moving?
Where are Americans Moving? An interactive map of county-to-county migration within the US in 2008.
“When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers."
Rod Humble, lead designer for The Sims, and creator of seminal art-game The Marriage -- discourses on free will at E3. [via]
Creative Infographics ↓↓
Information is beautiful : 30 examples of creative infography
Water is likely to be widespread in the moon’s interior
The Carnegie Institution for Science reports "a much higher water content in the Moon’s interior than previous studies." For decades, the moon's water content was estimated at less than 1 part per billion; the new estimates range from 64 ppb to 5 parts per million. A scientist at Washington University said, "We can now finally begin to consider the implications—and the origin—of water in the interior of the Moon.”
There's more at NASA and the BBC, and the full paper is available at PNAS (PDF).
In a Blaze of Glory
Loved
Loved is a flash platform game about choice by Alexander Ocias that features multiple endings. (via/mini writeup: RPS)
Finding Nighthawks
Finding Nighthawks: Nearly seventy years after Edward Hopper finished what would become one of the icons of American art, Jeremiah Moss went in search of the diner that inspired it.
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