June 7, 2011
The Future That Wasn’t
The past century . . . is rich with examples, both poignant and tragic, of technological possibilities not realized. On 1 September 1939, a decision was . . . taken by our species to spend five trillion dollars and expend ~72 million human lives. This decision was followed in 1947, and repeated at intervals until 1991, to expend an additional ~12 trillion dollars, and perhaps another 1-2 million human lives. . . . In the midst of the first of these costly escapades, on 15 March, 1944, the architect of the German V-2 rocket, Wernher von Braun, was arrested by the Gestapo on charges of high treason for having privately expressed regret, after dinner at a colleague’s home one evening the previous October, that he and his team were not working on a spaceship . . .From a wide-ranging essay by Mike Darwin on the future that wasn’t. (Note: Site doesn't seem to display properly in Internet Explorer)
The Sun lets loose a HUGE explosion
Samegame Fighter
Heading for the last Roundup?
Industry regulators have known for years that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide causes birth defects according to a newly released report by Earth Open Source. Regulators knew as long ago as 1980 that glyphosate, the chemical on which Roundup is based, can cause birth defects in laboratory animals... Although the European Commission has known that glyphosate causes malformations since at least 2002, the information was not made public. (Previously) [more inside]
Is there a new geek anti-intellectualism?
Is there a new geek anti-intellectualism? by Larry Sanger of Wikipedia fame. [via]
You don’t really care about knowledge; it’s not a priority. For you, the books containing knowledge, the classics and old-fashioned scholarship summing up the best of our knowledge, the people and institutions whose purpose is to pass on knowledge–all are hopelessly antiquated. Even your own knowledge, the contents of your mind, can be outsourced to databases built by collaborative digital communities, and the more the better. After all, academics are boring. A new world is coming, and you are in the vanguard. In this world, the people who have and who value individual knowledge, especially theoretical and factual knowledge, are objects of your derision.
The Post-War Expulsion of Germans From Eastern Europe
Orgasm Guaranteed
Katherine Goldstein writes about working as a fact checker for Cosmopolitan.
"AIDS at 30: A time capsule," by Bill Hayes
I Love The Smell Of Web-Fluid In The Morning
What if Spider-Man served in Vietnam? A short comic by intricate artist James Stokoe, best known for his drippy fantasy comic Orc Stain. (Last two links may be NSFW)
No One Was Obviously Harmed
In the 1970's, the prevailing wisdom was that children with 'pre-homosexual' behavior required therapy to allow them to develop into straight individuals. Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin researched the story of "Kraig," a young boy whose journey through therapy was published as a gold standard of such attempts to change what was considered abnormal gender behavior. "Kraig" was in fact Kirk Murphy, and Burroway tells Kirk's real (and tragic) story in seven parts: What Are Little Boys Made Of? [more inside]
Letters of Note
In 1971 a children's librarian in Troy, Michigan wrote dozens of letters to various celebrities and political leaders and asked them to send back inspirational messages to the children. Ninety-seven of them wrote back.
Outliers
The World Top Incomes Database (click on "Graphics" and select countries, years and other variables) (via)
The only secure password is the one you can’t remember.
People who use Sony don't make very good passwords. "None of this is overly surprising, although it remains alarming. We know passwords are too short, too simple, too predictable and too much like the other ones the individual has created in other locations. The bit which did take me back a bit was the extent to which passwords conformed to very predictable patterns, namely only using alphanumeric character, being 10 characters or less and having a much better than average chance of being the same as other passwords the user has created on totally independent systems." [more inside]
"I'm not a good singer, but I just like it."
Sung-bong Choi auditions for 코리아 갓 탤런트 (Korea's Got Talent.) (SLYT. The singing starts around 2:45. Video is unrestricted.)
Overhead video of NYC intersection
3-Way Street is a video from above of a Manhattan intersection highlighting cars, bikes, and pedestrians as they narrowly avoid each other. (And one mad genius driving a SYSCO truck.)
Cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark's in the water. Our shark.
"The shark not working was a godsend. It made me become more like Alfred Hitchcock than like Ray Harryhausen" - Steven Spielberg relives the filming of Jaws.
Still in love with Judas
Giving new meaning to "Contributions of employees have brought about visionary strategies that have defined not only our company, but an entire industry."
Is American law enforcement colluding with Cisco? A quick lesson on how to abuse the law and quiet whistleblowers.
Behind the lens
The Newspaper Map
The Newspaper Map: browse thousands of local, regional and national newspapers from around the world, based on geographical location. Filter and translate languages, see newspaper archives back to the early 19th century, and find fourth estate Twitter and YouTube feeds. A mobile version is also available. via
There and back again, a PSA
Mixcloud
Mixcloud is a website that allows anyone to upload a podcast/radio show/mix, and anyone else to stream it in-browser. A quick glance at the categories page should show you that it leans somewhat clubbish, but you can also find a fairly good range of music (e.g., musique concrete) and talk (e.g., Lithuanian politics) that's not so dancefloor-oriented.
There are some big names posting on the site (Carl Cox, FACT mag, Mary Ann Hobbs), and a pretty good tag and search system for poking around what's available. I've been pleased to find a couple of dirty south car rap mixes, an Italian programme offering bitesize chunks of pop from Africa + the African diaspora, and regular postings from a rare soul/funk club night in Hull. Hopefully you can find something to suit all most many some tastes.
C. P. Stacey on relations between US and Canada
The Undefended Border: the myth and the reality (PDF). In 1812, the US invaded Canada. Today, the US and Canada share the world's longest undefended border. What happened in between? Canadian historian C. P. Stacey discusses the history of relations between the US and Canada from the War of 1812 to the Treaty of Washington in 1871. [more inside]
The biggest thing since sliced bread
60 years ago, the Chorleywood Process was born. The new, fast-baking, lighter loaf conquered the market in Britain and across the world, after the hard wholemeal National Loaf being the only bread available during rationing until it ended in 1953. But despite Chorleywood giving us 'the cheapest bread in the world', thethe old style is making a comeback. [more inside]
Hub Spoke Zarathustra
Crazy Guy On A Bike: A place for bicycle tourists and their journals. 5,863 journals and articles, with 790,939 pictures. [more inside]
Where's the drop?
The BBC Philharmonic and Nero present A Dubstep Symphony.
Hollywood Career-o-Matic
A visitor to the Rotten Tomatoes site can check out the data for individual Hollywood careers—that's how Tabarrok came up with the Shyamalan graph—but there's no easy way for users to measure industrywide trends or to compare different actors and directors side-by-side. To that end, Rotten Tomatoes kindly let Slate analyze the scores in its enormous database and create an interactive tool so our readers might do the same.
Unit 731 - A Lesser Known Piece of WW2 History
While most Westerners are familiar with the Holocaust and Nazi war crimes, fewer Westerners know much about the war crimes committed by the Japanese military throughout Asia, particularly the human medical experiments conducted by Unit 731. [more inside]
Makes Part One Look Like "My Little Pony"
The Human Centipede sequel just too horrible to show, says BBFC. In the sequel, a man becomes erotically obsessed with a DVD copy of the original film – in which the victims are surgically stitched together mouth to anus – and decides to recreate the idea. Director Tom Six responds to news of the ban. Teaser preview. [Descriptions of events in film are NSFW; teaser preview is just silly.]
Is Syria approaching meltdown.
Syria vows to retaliate after attack on police and security forces in the North West kills 120
However there is a big gap between the media in Syria and what is happening in the street.
It is reported that blogger Amina Abdallah (Previously) has been kidnapped.
The Portrait of a tortured, murdered and mutilated 13 year old boy has become a rallying point for the uprising.
The Syrian regime has raised ghosts that will not go away indicating Alawite hit squads protected by the army.
There are cracks in the House of Assad and as is becoming normal in these situations communication with the outside world is fractured.
There is also the danger of the unrest spreading into Lebanon where the black-market price of an AK-47 rifle is now said to be $1,500.
However there is a big gap between the media in Syria and what is happening in the street.
It is reported that blogger Amina Abdallah (Previously) has been kidnapped.
The Portrait of a tortured, murdered and mutilated 13 year old boy has become a rallying point for the uprising.
The Syrian regime has raised ghosts that will not go away indicating Alawite hit squads protected by the army.
There are cracks in the House of Assad and as is becoming normal in these situations communication with the outside world is fractured.
There is also the danger of the unrest spreading into Lebanon where the black-market price of an AK-47 rifle is now said to be $1,500.
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