June 20, 2014
Humming Along
Hummingbirds have been slow to give up their secrets, but slowly, we've learned to understand them.
Thanks to a certain resemblance to an insect, the hummingbird is known in French as “oiseau mouche” (fly bird). Its fondness for the calyxes of blossoms has inspired the Portuguese names “beija flor” (flower kisser) and “chupa flor” (flower sucker), and the related Spanish “pica flor” (flower poker). In other languages, hummingbirds are known as “Kolibri,” a word likely of Caribbean origin, or Trochilidae, their scientific name (which was provided by Carl Linnaeus and, curiously, seems to relate to a different bird — a type of kinglet called “trochilus” by the ancient Greeks). These inventive names reflect the wonder and enigma that surrounds these creatures and the peculiar abilities and proclivities that set them apart from other birds.[more inside]
It's brown o'clock
The Hex clock is a clock that tells both what time and color it is.
The Color Clock converts the time to hexadecimal.
Some other formats.
The Color Clock converts the time to hexadecimal.
Some other formats.
Witches, dragons not included
Imbued with asymmetrical charm and handcrafted whimsy, Storybook Style houses evoke the aesthetic of classic fairy tales, inside and out. [more inside]
Ideas can be dangerous, especially the good ones
Four years ago, a group of punk anarchists with no political experience led by Icelandic comedian Jón Gnarr formed a joke political party, the Best Party, to campaign for Reykjavik's mayoral and city council positions, hoping to lighten up local politics in the wake of the catastrophic Icelandic financial meltdown. To everyone's surprise, they won. [more inside]
Dryer sheets are 10 cents, two for a quarter!
Time for laundry, but wait... my coin jar is empty.
Oh, if only there were a place that I could trade bills for those pesky quarters!
But now with Washboard.co I can order quarters online—and for only a 50% markup! [more inside]
Scene from a bygone era
For those of you born in the 80s or later, this is what counted for primetime entertainment back in our day.
Features include rickroll
8088 Dominion is a production by demoscene programmer Jim Leonard (a.k.a. Trixter) displaying full-motion color video with audio on a 1981 IBM PC 5160. The production is a followup to a similar 2007 demo, 8088 Corruption, but with improved graphical fidelity. [more inside]
Odd leaves from the life of a Louisiana "swamp doctor" (circa 1850)
One of the most intriguing personalities in Southern medical history of the nineteenth century is Dr. Henry Clay Lewis (1825-1850), whose fame rests not on his accomplishments in medicine, but upon his humorous writings published under the pseudonym "Madison Tensas, M.D., the Louisiana Swamp Doctor." Though Lewis was a practicing doctor, his true identity as the author of the "Southern grotesque" (previously) pieces was not known until after his death. His works pre-dated the Southern Gothic style (prev), and are unusual for their time in that "[Lewis] presents his black characters with as much pain and grotesqueness as his white characters, steering away from the time's usual stereotypes." You can read a longer biography and a summary of his style here, or just dive in and read his works, which available online in
Odd leaves from the life of a Louisiana "swamp doctor", which was also published as
The swamp doctor's adventures in the South-west (also available with fourteen illustrations) on Archive.org.
Last year's filibuster was just the beginning...
"...only ragged odds and ends of my script had been used..."
Airports from above
Holding Pattern is a Tumblr of some images of airports from Google maps.
Kilroy is HERE.
The Google Street Art Project is an online collection and exhibition about the history, locations and artists of street art.
Explore all the street art exhibits by place, artist, collection, medium, and more. Part of the Google Cultural Institute.
Automatic Supercut Script
Videogrep is a python script that searches through dialog in videos and then cuts together a new video based on what it finds. Basically, it’s a command-line “supercut” generator. The code is on github
I Love Lions. Don't You?
Explorer Shivani Bhalla Helps People and Lions Coexist (and in turn helps those people as well) It's articles like this that make me smile. If only there were more arrangements like this for other endangered animals as well.
The Ultimate Chinatown Filming Location Map of Los Angeles
The Ultimate Chinatown Filming Location Map of Los Angeles "The movie was released 40 years ago tomorrow, on June 20, 1974, and to mark the day we've mapped out all of its real-life locations, with help from this old LA Times article, The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, and Filming Locations of Chicago and Los Angeles. Take the Chinatown tour this way..."
But let's just do this, and I can get back to killing you with beer
no other art form does this
What is unique about pro wrestling is this: it is the only creative endeavor where the audience affects the work in real time. A long time ago some smart aleck described pro wrestling as “a LARP where the wrestlers are playing athletes and the audience is playing the audience, and everybody’s in on it.” And that’s exactly true. Now, of course, pro wrestling is still a scripted affair and on a case-by-case basis the audience doesn’t usually change the outcome of a story as it happens – [...] But it’s more than just simply cheering for the guys you like and booing the guys you hate; the crowd is an integral part of wrestling now.Christopher Bird (aka the Mighty mightygodking) explains why wrestling is the one true performance art.
Rian Johnson to Write and Direct Episodes VIII and IX
In a suprise move, a "bombshell" even, Disney and Lucasfilms have announced that Rian Johnson will write and direct the next two films in the Star Wars franchise, Episodes VIII and IX, taking the reins from JJ Abrams after Episode VII. Copious previously.
Johnson has previously directed Brick, Looper, and three episodes of Breaking Bad. Johnson responded thusly on Twitter.
They use social media as a research tool
All of them blue and with numbers and lens flare.
Big Data Pictures is a tumblr for visualizations of big data.
Are you a fascist?
Read this, Rick Perry
To Straight and Back: My Life as an Ex-Ex-Gay Man Afterward people began emailing and Facebooking me, telling me stories that were very much like those of my friend in the Portland coffee shop, “I wanted to be like you and your wife; you were held up as poster children. And I hated myself because I couldn’t be you.” That really rocked me. I hadn’t realized all this while I was preaching the ex-gay gospel. I’d been shielded from it. Previously
The Master of Darkness
The Fansubbed Last Words of an Auditory Phantom
Eccentric Japanese bedroom musician Ventla is in the process of releasing 100 digital albums for free over the coming years, and he's already up to 25. Think J Dilla meets J-pop in the form of small, extremely evocative song sketches. At his most extroverted he sounds like a buzzing 8-bit executive lounge dance party, and when he's introverted it's like strolling through a rainy park full of sleeping flamingos. [more inside]
Tool Unlocked: Equilateral Triangles
Gilbert Legrand
Gonna Get Me a Piece of the Sky
Gerry Goffin, lyricist for many of the songs that those of us over 50 grew up on, passed away Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, at age 75. [more inside]
The Ebola Map
When we last looked at the West African Ebola outbreak in April it was already beginning to peak. However in the past 30 days it has become the worst Ebola outbreak history with no end in sight. A senior official for Médecins Sans Frontières says it is 'totally out of control'. [more inside]
Let me tell you the story of Right Hand, Left Hand....
The movie was shot over nine weeks in Brooklyn, entirely on Stuyvesant Avenue between Quincy Street and Lexington Avenue.... [more inside]
Why Spain Got KO'd
It's now been a day since we saw defending World Cup and Euro champions Spain lose to Chile, 2-0, a day since they were mathematically eliminated from the knockout stages, and a day since we witnessed the grisly end of an era. It was a profound moment in soccer and in soccer's history, and still, all I can think about is boxing.
How Dying Became A Multibillion-Dollar Industry
Immigrant invasion!
Seizing of America. How United States took over 1.5 billion acres from native peoples.
Hong Kong, on the ocean. Snowden and Greenwald, in Hong Kong.
In what early press reports call a "surprise vote" in a "late night session," the US House of Representatives voted to defund controversial NSA surveillance activities. [more inside]
The jeers started when she began talking about men doing their share
With a vague promise to support more women in the workplace as one of the key points of pushing an economic recovery, the reality is much more bleak for working women in Japan. Yesterday, while delivering a speech on the importance of supporting working mothers, Ayaka Shiomura, a member of the Tokyo government assembly was heckled, with jeers from other lawmakers demanding to know why she hadn't gotten married, and demanding to know if she was able to bear children. The Liberal Democratic Party has so far refused to reprimand the members responsible, and while members of Shiomura's party point out that Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe (with his own history of outright sexism) was evidently laughing as Shiomura at first laughed in disbelief, then was quickly reduced to tears (Japanese link, no English subtitles).
« Previous day | Next day »