July 16, 2013
Some Thoughts On Mercy by Ross Gay
One song, made up of 26 different music genres from A - Z
So Where Are They?
The Fermi Paradox poses the question, if intelligent ETs exist why haven't they shown up yet. Now a new mathematical study shows that self-replicating probes using sling-shot maneuvers (paper) could explore the entire galaxy in just 10 million years. Perhaps they're already here, hiding, waiting for our technology to reach a level that can de-cloak them.
Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.
Thomas Oliver - Jurassic Park Theme (Weissenborn Instrumental)
"Hint: It's not about the kids."
In 2002, now-disgraced stock analyst Jack Grubman (previously) was the central figure in a preschool-placement scandal in New York's famously Wall Street connected 92nd Street Y.
The Price Of Perfection
The Price Of Perfection
Something to crow about
2,800 miles in 62 days.
At 9:45am on July 14, 2013, Alison Bradley met her mom on the steps of LA's City Hall and had a beer. Why? She'd just (unofficially) broke the previous World Record for a a Transamerica Run by a Female. Running mostly unaccompanied, Bradley covered 2,800 miles in 68 days (and burned through 6 pairs of shoes), starting at New York's City Hall. Why? Cancer research. [more inside]
yo dawg
Quine Relay. A quine is a program that produces its own source code as output. This is what happens when you write a program that outputs the source of a program in another language, that outputs the source of a program in another language, and so on through fifty different languages until you get out the source of the program you started with.
Dear Mr. Watterson
Joel Schroeder, with the help of Kickstarter, has finally finished a documentary about Calvin and Hobbes and its creator, Bill Watterson. It's scheduled to be released on Nov. 15, 2013.
A year of reading the world...
Writer Ann Morgan set herself a challenge – to read a book from every country in the world in one year. She describes the experience and what she learned. Here is her blog
uuuuuuuuAH? aaaaaaarooh? ooooooogh? however the hell you spell it...
Every Grunt from Home Improvement (SLYT, 14:37).
Dear Daily Mail, Up Yours
Dear Daily Mail [NSFW]. Recently the Daily Mail covered Amanda Palmer's breast being "left on show" while she was on stage at the Glastonbury festival. Amanda responds with a (sung) open letter.
whatever Mick was saying, it was a conversation with him
Spin magazine's GIRLY SHOW: The oral history of Liz Phair's 'Exile in Guyville.' It's 20 years old now. [more inside]
"Two please."
Movies in movies: A montage (SLYT).
"debates on politics, culture and society"
Symposium Magazine bills itself as "where academia meets public life". Its promotes long-form, accessible articles about a variety of topics.
The 25 Best Action Movies Since Die Hard
"A quarter of a century ago this week, John McTiernan’s action masterpiece Die Hard was released into theaters, and it's not an understatement to say that we're still reeling from the impact .... For the past few months, I’ve been watching and/or rewatching almost every major action movie made since then in an attempt to come up with the best ones. The good news is that a lot of awesome action movies have been made over the past 25 years. The bad news? Not all of your favorites will be on this list." [more inside]
The ship will suck us!
What if the movie Titanic was translated into Japanese with a crappy online translator then translated back into English?
Japanese Titanic, that's what.
Snapshot in the family album
Pink Floyd's The Division Bell tour in 1994 was the highest-grossing tour in rock music history to that date, and featured spectacular special effects. For the first time since 1975, the band played the entirety of The Dark Side of the Moon in many of the tour's shows. On October 20, 1994 the concert at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London was filmed, and the subsequent documentary P•U•L•S•E: Live at Earls Court was released in 1995. Fullscreen. Widescreen. [more inside]
Ping pong will never be the same
Dynamic target tracking camera system keeps its eye on the ball - motorized mirrors track a moving object of interest every thousandth of a second, reflecting its image into a camera
A Beautiful Angel
Talia Castellano, the 13-year-old terminal cancer patient whose makeup tips made her a YouTube star, an honorary Cover Girl and a guest on Ellen DeGeneres's talk show, has died at age 13. [more inside]
Dogs and water
Here is a video of a dog + some water. Here is another video of a dog + some water. Here is a third video of a dog + some water.
Music Bender
Curiosity piqued by the music behind Avatar: The Last Air Bender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, or Kung Fu Panda: Legend of Awesomeness? If so, then you may already be fan of the work of Jeremy Zuckerman, one half of the music and sound design production company, Track Team. [more inside]
The Slandering of NY Jet Oday Aboushi
In the fifth round of the NFL Draft, the NY Jets selected a guard/tackle from the University of Virginia. His name is Oday Aboushi. While not a first round pick, Aboushi has garnered a lot of media attention.
Why? Oday Aboushi is a Muslim Palestinian.
MLB.com's New Media Coordinator Jonathan Mael compared Aboushi to Aaron Hernandez,the former New England Patriots tight end charged with murder. [more inside]
Trouble on the International Space Station
“Imagine having a fishbowl on your head with a half a litre of water sticking to your face, ears and nose. Then imagine you can’t take the fishbowl off your head for a minimum of 20 minutes, feel the panic?”
ISS astronaut Luca Parmitano developed a water leak in his helmet shortly after beginning a spacewalk, but is fine now.
ISS astronaut Luca Parmitano developed a water leak in his helmet shortly after beginning a spacewalk, but is fine now.
Do the Fiveish, Oorah!
Oorah is a non-profit Jewish organization providing year-round activities and educational opportunities to Jewish children and families (including funding for Kars4Kids. But they also have some amazing videos on YouTube.
We do the weird stuff!
The mad doctor is (temporarily) out. Five years ago this week, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog went live, in three separate acts. Since then, there has been confirmation of plans for a sequel dating back to April 2009 -- and July 2011 -- but something always seems to come up... though Mr. Wheadon did have time to perform live, singing commentary on his project, which led to the recording of "Commentary" in 2010, reuniting the cast. Felicia Day, Jed Whedon, and even Nathan Fillion seem a little bit less busy, however... welding kid-toting robots and preparing for the zombie apocalypse.
Giant Concrete Arrows That Point Your Way Across America
He listens to people a lot and uses his brain
I'm here today to help prevent Egypt from becoming a commodity owned by one person. A 12-year-old Egyptian comments on the political situation in his country. (SLYT)
Titum Arum Watch 2013
Washington DC's Botanic Gardens is livestreaming the blossoming process of its corpse flower. The corpse flower, aka titan arum, is well known for smelling absolutely awful. [more inside]
Lovin' It: Minimum wage budgeting without heat, food or gas.
McDonald's has a new website dedicated to showing employees how to properly budget their paychecks. Death and Taxes takes a look and concludes: "McDonalds' suggested budget for employees shows just how impossible it is to get by on minimum wage." It also notably excludes heat, food and gas.
"Hold my beer and watch this" said the CERN guy
Black holes are one of the most interesting, mysterious and cool things in the universe. So, why dont we make one in a lab? [more inside]
I'm me :D
What kind of pants does Super Mario wear? Denim Denim Denim
Nintendo's Famicom (the Japanese counterpart to the NES) launched in Japan three decades ago this week. Ars Technica and NintendoLife have posted tributes and history lessons of this console.
Corey Feldman - Ascension Millennium
Corey Feldman is probably most widely recognized as a child star of the 1980s, but since then he has branched out into music. Yet with two group albums and two solo albums, his only music video appearances have been cameos (Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" [Funny or Die] and Mac Miller's "S.D.S." [YouTube]). That is, until now: "Ascension Millennium" (YT) is the first song off his forthcoming album, and it's "a musical journey through his 'Feldmansion' in this Day in the Life Adventure," complete with an appearance from his pal Sean Astin from "The Goonies" and tributes to Michael Jackson. [more inside]
Ah! They DO have a name!
Fixed that for you, Alanis
It's finally Ironic. Rachael Hurwitz fixes the lyrics to Alanis Morisette's "Ironic" to make them, y'know, actually ironic. (SLYT.)
Big Bad Bag Boys
Last month, New York PBS affiliate WNET launched a subway ad campaign that promoted several fake but totally plausible reality shows, to poke fun at the state of Cable TV. To follow up on the successful campaign, yesterday, the network released 3 TV spots with a similar theme. (Kinda previously...)
"The alphabet? You'd better learn to listen, kid."
Life in Five Seconds
The summer sexism was called out?
There have been some high profile examples of sexism in the UK media this summer. Are we seeing a groundswell of strong female voices calling out sexism? Big Brother has in the past caused the UK media to focus on uncomfortable issues such as bullying and racism. Following the removal of a housemate for aggressive behaviour towards a fellow female housemate, how will the conversation continue this summer? [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »