September 12, 2012
Politicopsychopathology
According to Adorno, in psychoanalysis only the exaggerations are true. If you wished to characterize the Democrats and the Republicans in terms of true exaggerations, you might say that the Republicans have become the Party of Psychosis while the Democrats have become the Party of Neurosis. The Republicans are psychotic because they have lost contact with reality, and orient their behavior not toward realities but toward fantasies. The Democrats are neurotic because they are aim-inhibited, as an old-fashioned shrink might say: their anxieties, hang-ups, and insecurities mean that they can’t attain satisfaction, since in a basic way they won’t even allow themselves to know what they want.
WHOA, DUDE, ARE WE INSIDE A COMPUTER RIGHT NOW?
NASA Scientist suggests everything we see, touch, feel, taste, and smell could be a simulation running inside a computer. [more inside]
Pass the Spoon: a sort-of opera about a television cooking show
"Pass the Spoon is a daft and instantly lovable collaboration between cartoonist David Shrigley, composer David Fennessy and director Nicholas Bone. The posters promised a "sort-of opera" about cookery; what transpired was a zany, warm-hearted sort-of pantomime held together by some extremely good music and expert comic delivery." The short-run "sort-of opera" was largely structured around the story and designs of artist David Shrigley, who had never been to an opera, and doesn't have any specific interest in TV cookery. The Space is streaming a lovely, professionally shot film of a performance.
Two Words: Extremist Sharks
"To aid the national security community in imagining contemporary threats, the Australian Security Research Centre (ASRC) is organising Australia’s Security Nightmares: The National Security Short Story Competition. The competition aims to produce a set of short stories that will contribute to a better conception of possible future threats and help defence, intelligence services, emergency managers, health agencies and other public, private and non-government organisations to be better prepared." (via)
"My name is Dark," she said.
Before Mr. Dark and "Something Wicked This Way Comes," Ray Bradbury wrote about a mysterious little girl named Dark, who helps a little boy overcome his fears of the night. Presenting "Switch on the Night" (1955), Bradbury's first book for children and a delightful collaboration with Swiss artist Madeleine Gekiere. [more inside]
Robert MacPherson interviewed
Robert MacPherson interviewed as part of the Simons Foundation's Science Lives series. MacPherson is among the founders of the modern theory of singularities, points like a kink in a curve where the geometry of a space stops being smooth and starts behaving badly. In the interview, MacPherson talks about cultural differences between math and music, his frustration with high school math, growing up gay in the South and life as a gay man in the scientific community, smuggling $23,000 in cash into post-Soviet Russia to help mathematicians there keep the lights on, catastrophe theory, perverse sheaves, how to be a successful graduate student, stuttering, and of course the development of the intersection homology theory for which he is most well-known.
The Lesula of the Congo
A new monkey species, known to locals as the 'lesula' (Cercopithecus lomamiensis), has been discovered in a largely unexploited rainforest within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The 100 most endangered species
"Priceless or Worthless?" is a handsomely photographed report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature identifying the 100 most endangered animals, plants, and fungi (9 MB PDF) on the planet and what needs to be done to save them. [more inside]
A cluster of raspberries
University builds inexpensive computer cluster with Raspberry Pi and Lego, and publishes a guide if you want to build your own.
A Handsome Atlas: 19th Century Data Visualizations
Rank of states and territories in population at each census: 1790 - 1890
Political History (Supremecy of Parties and Popular Vote)
Insanity (1870)
and more at
A Handsome Atlas: The Amazing and Incredible Statistical Atlases of the United States of America compiled in the final decades of the Nineteenth Century. [via projects]
Political History (Supremecy of Parties and Popular Vote)
Insanity (1870)
and more at
A Handsome Atlas: The Amazing and Incredible Statistical Atlases of the United States of America compiled in the final decades of the Nineteenth Century. [via projects]
O soapy flavour / Why pollutest thou my food? / Thou me makest retch
A genome-wide association study has linked a dislike of cilantro with a variant of a single nucleotide in a cluster of olfactory receptor genes. The palatability of cilantro has previously been a divisive subject on the blue. [more inside]
FWIW
Seagulls!
Fun With Accordion Covers, Part 2: Revenge of the Accordions
Accordion covers (previously) are no longer just for soloists. You've probably seen five North Koreans performing A-Ha's "Take On Me." (Previously.) And of course tango is ever-popular for the accordion. But have you heard Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d minor? Or a medley from "The Sound of Music?" Or the first movement from Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik? Or a choreographed routine for North Korean school children? Or the theme from E.T.?
"I really value that experience because it gave me confidence to then pursue other relationships."
"A good day for Europe"
Today was, according to Angela Merkel, "a good day for Europe" - but it might also be the start of something much bigger. [more inside]
Up In The Air
See all the aircraft* currently in flight around the world. Also: Google Flights, to help book your own trip. [more inside]
1.5 million protestors demand Catalan autonomy
Huge crowds gathered yesterday on the streets of Barcelona to demand autonomy for Catalonia. Police estimated that 1.5 million people protested. [more inside]
Ask For Janice
Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature
"So it was right after we had the rest of him uncovered, and [the spine] was really obviously curved and we looked at each other and said 'Wow, this is a really good candidate'. - archeologists in England uncover what is likely to be the burial place of Richard III under a car park. Having traced an all-female line of descent direct from Richard’s sister, Anne of York, to a lady living in Canada, the team (and the world) eagerly await the results of the DNA tests.
Oh! Cloud! Your hair looks like a Chocobo!
Would you like to see the first disc of Final Fantasy VII recreated in LittleBigPlanet 2? It's terribly cute. More info here.
Hillsborough was covered up -- official
On 15 April, 1989, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death at the Hillsborough Stadium, in what was the worst stadium disaster in British football history. At the time and for years afterward, the blame for the disasters was laid squarely on the supporters themselves, who supposedly were drunk hooligans, smeared and slandered both by the South Yorkshire police and the media, especially The Sun. Now, twentythree years after the disaster prime minister David Cameron has formally apologised for the coverup. [more inside]
Nothin' but a post about space stuff
Be kind, rewind
In 2009, the entire rental library of legendary New York video store Mondo Kim's (previously) was shipped to a small town in Sicily, with the promise of a nonstop film festival and free access for former Kim's members. The reality turned out considerably differently. (Printer-friendly link).
I'm as high as a Georgia pine.
The Long, Strange Trip of Dock Ellis. ESPN's Outside the Lines has created a digital reading experience worthy of its subject matter. [more inside]
Romney in a Brave New World
On September 4, 2012, the first ever Bitcoin extortion attempt was made public. The target? Mitt Romney and his tax returns.
Clinton (18)12!
Who would you vote for in historical American presidential elections and why? Jeremy Young writes: I’m making my calculations based on a combination of which candidate I like the most and what I think candidates’ chances are of winning. I’m also not counting strategic voting (voting my conscience for a minor candidate in a state where my vote doesn’t matter). Nor am I considering regional “favorite son” status (i.e., the 1836 election). [more inside]
The Advertising Council of Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas
All the parody ads from Grand Theft Auto games, on one web page. Rockstar Games has published (nearly) all the radio ads from Grand Theft Auto games on their website.
It ain't easy getting Green
Steam Greenlight is Valve's initiative to expand their catalog by letting the community vote on the games they want to see distributed (sound familiar?) Developers are generally positive, but issues with discoverability and outright trolling have led Steam to institute $100 entry fee (with all proceeds going to charity) that runs the risk of "[limiting] Greenlight's appeal by crowding out hobbyist developers that ... lack the will or ability to risk $100." In response, Dejobaan Games announced their plan to loan the fee to one aspiring developers and is calling on others to do the same. Meanwhile, the first ten games have made to the coveted Greenlit section.
'You're a pretty good player, but you're too pessimistic.'
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021
Got a few hours to kill and want to spend a little time in gaming history? Don't have anything else to do until 2013? Check out Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021 (wiki) (previously), one of the earliest 4X games ever made, dating to 1987-88. The original version was DOS-based, but the creator, George Moromisato, released a Windows version in 2004 which has significant updates. [more inside]
"We are heartbroken by this terrible loss."
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens Killed in Consulate Attack in Benghazi: "Stevens, 52, was killed on Tuesday as 20 gun-wielding attackers stormed the U.S. consulate, angry about an American made film that depicts Prophet Mohammad as a fraud and womanizer." [more inside]
Nightmares on Wax, Stars on 45
The music industry is moving rapidly into the digital world whether it likes it or not, and vinyl just might be the last thing standing in the way of a world where nobody bothers to buy physical music anymore. So did labels sabotage vinyl on purpose? Of course, the death of the CD has been touted before. Trends indicate,
vinyl does seem to be making a comeback, but is a a word where you don't own your digital music (or do you?) enough to save the once-popular format? [more inside]
Make good programmes
Armando Iannucci's Bafta lecture 2012 - In which the creator of The Thick Of It argues that the BBC should be more aggressive, fight back against critics in the press and goverment, be more like HBO than committee-driven American network TV, and that if as James Murdoch says the only reliable, durable guarantor of independence is profit then the only guarantor of profit is independance.
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