July 11, 2012

Not Fade Away

On living, dying, and the digital afterlife
posted by latkes at 11:50 PM PST - 19 comments

Is the Web Driving Us Mad?

Is the Web Driving Us Mad? (Newsweek, cover) Evidence wise, the verdict isn't looking good. The proof is starting to pile up. [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 11:27 PM PST - 112 comments

What are the Chinese characters for "Didier Drogba"?

"The last European monopoly, in any area, is crumbling. This recently-opened transfer window has underscored, more than anything else, that it is no longer the European football clubs’ birthright to sign the greatest players in the world." -- Leander Schaerlaeckens on the growing clout of Chinese, Brazilian, and (WTF?) Indian soccer leagues in grabbing the top talent
posted by bardic at 10:13 PM PST - 24 comments

I would just show you my butt, right now.

Ze Frank previously and Rainn Wilson talk about the Teen Brain.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:44 PM PST - 28 comments

Went to one university for a semester. Didn't like it. Knew I couldn't afford four years of student loans.

Henry Rollins: The One Decision that Changed My Life Forever (and the post that goes with the video as well)
posted by boo_radley at 7:48 PM PST - 54 comments

Because it was square.

Nice looking and sounding diy bass made with a C64. (SLYT). At first I thought she was just using the body of the thing, but there is some C64 goodness in the sound as well.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 6:53 PM PST - 30 comments

@Ambassador

'E-Diplomacy map shows which leaders talk to each other on Twitter. AFP news agency releases interactive tool showing how Twitter plays out globally,' from Ars Technica [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:48 PM PST - 4 comments

Dark Water

Underwater Photography by Elena Kalis. This is just one of her projects, other collections can be found here.
posted by HuronBob at 6:40 PM PST - 7 comments

5999.997

Robbie is a short film assembled from NASA archive footage.
posted by anigbrowl at 5:38 PM PST - 9 comments

Viacom Pulls Free Daily Show and Colbert Report from the Web

Viacom pulls free Daily Show and Colbert Report from the web. The move comes after satellite broadcaster DirecTV stopped carrying Viacom's cable channels Tuesday night. One of DirecTV's issues with Viacom is the amount of content the cable programmer puts online for free. DirecTV and other distributors fear that giving programs away online undermines the pay-TV business model. As if sitting through hundreds of this was not price enough to pay.
posted by Danf at 4:52 PM PST - 113 comments

I got 99 problems but the Fourth Ammendment ain't one

A line-by-line legal analysis of verse 2 of Jay-Z's 99 Problems [PDF], published in the law review of St. Louis University, is a surprisingly enlightening take on Fourth Amendment rights during a traffic stop. Jay-Z is right in submitting to a show of authority and refusing to consent to a search, but he is wrong in assuming that a warrant is needed to search a locked trunk or glovebox. However, Jay-Z would probably be able to suppress evidence of the drugs in his car, even if they are found, because he had to wait while the K-9 comes. He's got 99 problems but a female sniffer dog isn't one. Hit me.
posted by blahblahblah at 4:48 PM PST - 58 comments

collectivecadenza: "we create musical video experiments"

Every other week, cdza ("collective cadenza") has been releasing a comedic musical video on YouTube. Their latest offering is An Abridged History of Western Music in 16 Genres (through a performance of "What A Wonderful World"). Their videos so far include The History Of Lyrics That Aren't Lyrics (previously), the NYC Phoneharmonic, and Zuckerberg: The Musical!. On FastCompany: How cdza combines highbrow music skills and web-marketing savvy to create YouTube hits.
posted by flex at 4:46 PM PST - 2 comments

The new normal warfare. Opponents still die.

Back in December American Conservative talked about The Changing state of War stating:
One of the most discouraging aspects of the current Republican presidential candidate debates is the discussion of drone warfare, or rather the fact that it is not being discussed at all except to approve of the practice.
Tom Junod of Esquire now discusses in a long article the targeted killing of an American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki. [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 4:07 PM PST - 157 comments

The WritersDiet Test Evaluates Your Writing

The WritersDiet Test, created by Dr. Helen Sword, allows you to enter a writing sample of 100 to 1000 words and have it graded from "lean" to "heart attack" on its level of excess verbiage.
posted by shivohum at 3:55 PM PST - 39 comments

Don't Cross the Streamers

Netflix's lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck.
Leading up to the first anniversary of the Netflix meltdown, CNET interviewed former and current Netflix employees to find out how a series of missteps turned into a lost year, and whether it has rebounded from those self-inflicted wounds.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:19 PM PST - 118 comments

We all like the shopper who travels before or after rush hours

Transit etiquette of yesteryear (courtesy of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and blogto.com). We may no longer think that shoppers - inevitably depicted as women - have no place on the rush hour streetcar, but some things never change. Move to the back of the car, please!
posted by jb at 2:26 PM PST - 63 comments

"its all you can do with them, since theres no money anymore."

Composer Dr. Richard Eigner put together a group of musicians to jam on a bunch of improvised instruments made out of credit cards. slyt via andrewsullivan
posted by andoatnp at 1:39 PM PST - 10 comments

We Love Typography World

We Love Typography World [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:17 PM PST - 5 comments

It's A Beautiful Day

Why You’re Not Friends With Your Neighbors. 'After building neighborhood social networks in more than 3,000 communities across the U.S., Nirav Tolia has learned just how many different things neighbors can accomplish. Using Nextdoor, the site built by Tolia and his team, neighbors get burglars arrested, investigate possible water poisoning, and stop the installation of parking meters. They lend one another ladders and grills, recommend babysitters, and upload videos of locals. But the one thing they’re not looking to do is make friends.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:14 PM PST - 76 comments

Resurget cineribus

Historic Detroit - some urban architectural history in a nice online format. [more inside]
posted by Miko at 11:55 AM PST - 6 comments

It's a Bernini sculpture of a goal

Hockey highlights with soccer announcers. Come for the highlights, stay for the Scottish broadcaster's analogies.
posted by dry white toast at 11:53 AM PST - 15 comments

I Got That On Camera!

Shark steals fish off line (slytSHARK!)
posted by jtajta at 11:23 AM PST - 60 comments

A rainbow indeed

Moises Kaufman can kiss my a** The La Jolla Playhouse production of Broadway-bound "The Nightingale", about the Emperor of feudal China, will boast zero actors of Chinese descent. Actress Erin Quill responds.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:51 AM PST - 153 comments

It filled the air, like a chord that won’t die out

Brian Cullman was a young American journalist in London when he met Nick Drake through musician John Martyn. This is an interesting look at a very fragile artist who left a deep legacy. And the song Cullman quotes
posted by Isadorady at 9:24 AM PST - 8 comments

Whitey on the moon

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney just took his case to the NAACP. This satirical look at Mitt's prep session.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:18 AM PST - 449 comments

Tut-tut, it looks like rain

Camille Seaman likes to take pictures of storms. Big, beautiful, terrifying storms. [more inside]
posted by pdq at 8:50 AM PST - 29 comments

Virtual Travel

Virtual travel- mini vacations with Google Street View
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:04 AM PST - 15 comments

(for various definitions of 'classic')

Classic movies in miniature style. It all started 2 years ago with an experiment to blend traditional ‘oriental’ (Ottoman) motifs and contemporary ‘western’ cinema. After a positive response to "Ottoman Star Wars", I decided to take the theme further, and developed more film posters using the same technique.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:41 AM PST - 19 comments

From Solaris to the Zone

Through a spasm of serendipity whose mechanism I cannot begin to fathom, two inarguable masterpieces of Eastern European science fiction - Solaris by Stanislaw Lem and Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - have recently been accorded fresh translations. In this posting I would like to briefly consider the virtues of these new versions [...] [more inside]
posted by smcg at 6:50 AM PST - 51 comments

"This whole situation may well get uglier before it gets better..."

Bullying & Goodreads: "Little more than a week ago, a website aimed at naming and shaming so-called Goodreads [A kind of facebook for bibliophiles.] ‘bullies’ suddenly appeared online – called, appropriately enough, Stop the GR Bullies. Run by four concerned ‘readers and bloggers’ writing anonymously under the handles Athena, Peter Pan, Johnny Be Good and Stitch, the site thus far seems bent on punishing the creators of snide, snarky and negative book reviews by posting their handles, real names, locations and photos in one place, together with a warning about their supposed ‘level of toxicity’ and some (ironically) snide, snarky and negative commentary about them as people. There’s a lot here to unpack, but before I get started on why this is a horrifically bad idea, let’s start with some basic context."
posted by Fizz at 6:19 AM PST - 178 comments

First Class!

First Class was a titanic "electronic" tea time BBC general knowledge quiz show in the late 1980s, presented by heartthrob Debbie Greenwood (now a regular on QVC UK) with the aid of a BBC Micro called Eugene. Two teams of teenagers represented their schools as they battled for supremacy playing a random selection of arcade games like skateboarder 720 degrees and Hypersports, the ultimate prize an Acorn Archimedes. Now, the nail-biting encounter between Armthorpe School in Sheffield and Montagu School of Kettering is on YouTube [parts 1, 2 & 3]
posted by feelinglistless at 3:35 AM PST - 16 comments

I’ve got a very bad feeling about this...

The 7 best behind-the-scenes Star Wars photos. (More photos here, and here.)
posted by Artw at 12:05 AM PST - 57 comments

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