Favorites from mathowie
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Time is a Dimension
"This series of images are mostly landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes, and they are a single composite made from sequences that span 2-4 hours ... The basic structure of a landscape is present in every piece. But each panel or concentric layer shows a different slice of time..."
WeddingFilter: Church Service Self-Invite?
Is someone 'allowed' to invite themselves to the church service of an acquaintance's wedding? Technically allowed, or socially allowed? Are church services 'open'? [Snowflakey fact scenario inside.]
Our Mother Chaos Rules All
Fiction and Real Life are Different, You Moron.
A cartoon about sports.
DEFCON: The Documentary is Released
In February of 2012, I was in Helsinki traveling with Rachel Lovinger when I was contacted by long time goon Russ Rogers. His question was simple: since DEFCON was coming up on the 20th anniversary, and I had been both an attendee and director of several technology-based documentaries, would I be interested in doing a documentary on DEFCON and its 20th year? I said I needed to think about it, but I really didn't have to think that long. A year and a half later, I put the finishing touches on a two hour movie and an hour of bonus footage, having spent the previous 18 months planning, shooting, organizing, editing, and just generally living this movie day in and day out. While we weren't able to cover every last aspect of DEFCON (and who really could?) I think you'll find there's something for everyone in the movie. It was done out of love And respect for this incredible event, I hope it brings a whole new appreciation of the special event DEFCON has every year.
Orange is the New Black
New Netflix original series "Orange is the New Black", based on a memoir by Piper Kerman about her year in a women's prison, and created by Jenji Kohan of Weeds, has been garnering heaps of critical praise.
Plus, it's super gay.
Of the show's "naïve yuppie" lead character, Jenji Kohan says "I don't think I could have sold a show about black and Latina and old women in prison, you know? But if I had the girl-next-door coming in as my fish out of water, I can draw a certain audience in through her that can identify with her, and then I can tell all of these stories once she's in, once we've signed onto this journey. She's just a great entry point for a lot of people."
A year's worth of the life of a tree.
Mark Hirsch worked as a professional photographer for almost 20 years. He was laid off, then he was hit by a truck. He all but stopped working, until he got an iPhone. His friend goaded him into using the camera, and he started taking pictures of "That Tree." A little more than a year later he was profiled in "How a tree helped heal me."
The Annual World Bodypainting Festival
The annual World Bodypainting Festival is now over, but that means there are a ton of new images online, with galleries for each of the award categories, including brush/sponge bodypainting, airbrush bodypainting, special effects bodypainting, and facepainting. (Note: painted [mostly] naked bodies; previously, a decade ago)
Prosthetic Instruments for Dance and Music Performance
We just finished a documentary about some prosthetic instruments we designed for a collaborative dance and music performance. The instruments were designed by myself and Joe Malloch, another researcher at McGill University, and went on tour in Quebec and Europe in the spring. The basic idea was to create physical devices which would attach to the dancers' bodies in order to create opportunities for exploring movement and . Sensors incorporated in the devices send information to a computer, and the information is then used in the generation of computer music. There's more description on the webpage, and the video describing the design process and showing the instruments in use is on youtube. There's also a one-minute teaser vid in case the full video is TL;DW.
Twitter Anagram Hunter
Anagramatron searches for anagrammatical pairs of tweets, the cream of which are retweeted and posted to an associated tumblr. Source on github.
Help Decode my Bike Lock
I have a bike lock that uses letters instead of numbers for the combination. I locked up my bike a month ago and, of course, have forgotten the code word. I'd love metafilter's help to create a list of dictionary words that are possible from the letters on the lock so I can try them all until it opens. There are four wheels, each with 10 letters.
Have sketchbook, will travel.
Drawn The Road Again
, artist Chandler O'Leary's "illustrated road trip blog."
I’ve logged a lot of miles in my life, visiting as many patches of earth as possible and getting as much down on paper as I can. And for the first time, I’m putting these sketches out into the world. So here we are: I’ve collected all my drawings of crazy tourist traps and Paul Bunyan statues and hidden gems and panoramic vistas, and I’m sending them out like postcards. To you.
Robotic gymnasts made by hinamitetu
No. 16 makes the quadruple backflip look easy (YouTube), but robotic gymnastics don't always go so well (YT).
What Luck Have You Had With Subscription Boxes?
Just finding out about this amazing/ridiculous thing where you can sign up to have different companies mail you crap every month in a box they think you'll like! After a quick review scan online, I'm wondering if any of the Mefis have subscription box services that you would swear by?
If you were a long time messy person, how did you change?
If you were a long time messy person, how did you become good at keeping things clean?
Movin' Right Along - a blog about full time RV living
Mr. desjardins and I have left our apartment (and most of our belongings) behind and moved into an RV. I started a blog to chronicle how we (and the pets) are adjusting to our new lifestyle. The blog title is from the Muppet Movie song.
No Longer King of the Mountain
Chris Bucchere, the cyclist that killed a pedestrian last March in San Francisco while attempting to obtain Strava glory has pleaded guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter becoming the first bicyclist convicted of manslaughter in the United States.
In between "The Master" and "Inherent Vice"
While they were dating back in the 90's, Paul Thomas Anderson directed several of Fiona Apple's videos including "Across the Universe", "Paper Bag" and "Limp". Though they have long since broken up, he recently came back to direct the video for "Hot Knife" off of her most recent album. The result is hypnotic.
"stage lights and Lear jets, and fortune and fame"
Some punk from Iowa is hoping to go number one in the charts
with an album that technically came out over a decade ago, was recorded on a boombox, and which has divided opinion. The record in question is called All Hail West Texas and that punk from Iowa (technically Indiana) is named John Darnielle and releases music as The Mountain Goats. The album can be streamed on the record label website as well as most of your favorite streaming services. You can download a couple of the outtakes here, listen to a recent interview Marc Maron did with John Darnielle that covers his youth and some of his Iowa period, and read Notes on imaginary extant, lost, deleted, and unrecorded tracks written, performed, recorded for or during the period of time in the life of John Darnielle that would produce All Hail West Texas not included in this collection because they are all imaginary by Matt Fraction.
Mysterious elderly lady drummer identified as 63 year old Mary Hvsida
For a short while now, a mysterious older lady has been coming into the Coalition Drum Shop in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she rocks out on the drums and then leaves. The folks at the shop only knew her as Mary, or Grandma Drummer (YouTube), whose song of choice is Wipe Out (YT). A local new station, WKBT, learned that the mysterious drummer is Mary Hvsida, a 63-year-old lady who has been drumming in bands since she was 16. They later reported that she started out in an all-girl rock band, and has been playing in various bands until 1990, when her last band broke up. She couldn't find another band to play in, so she sold her drums. She reminisces over old cassettes, and rocks out in the local drum shop from time to time.
The Rains of Castamere
A while back folk duo Paul and Storm created a song 'Write Like The Wind' urging G R R Martin to finish A Song Of Ice & Fire aka Game Of Thrones as soon as possible. During a recent live performance of said song the duo experienced an interruption. MLYT (previous)
Free method to combine PDFs?
Is there a free / easy method to combine multiple PDFs into one long PDF?
Itinerary to ride ALL THE SUBWAYS
My son wants to ride all the NYC subways in one day. He doesn't need to do the full length all-the-stops-on-every-line (whew), just ride a little on each one. What is the quickest / shortest itinerary that will let us do this? Some extra requests inside:
What are the major American movie studios?
How many movie studios in America are capable of producing films with production budgets over $100 million and how are they ranked from most to least profitable?
The 14th July 14th
Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
Has anyone "traded down" and not regretted it?
I live in a pretty nice, large modern loft. It has all sorts of furnishings: new appliances, garbage disposal, in-unit washer and dryer, new bathroom, dish washer, underground parking. I'm thinking of moving into an older building that has charm, but none of these things. Will the lack of these luxuries make me go crazy? Has anyone done this, and not regretted it?
What are some amazeball things I can do with this mini-projector?
I received this handheld 3M mini projector as a gift, and while it's practical uses are minimal, I'm looking to the twisted hivemind for ideas on what I could do to utilize this to freak people out, do guerrilla marketing, or anything else for fun. FYI: it works well with an iPod touch to stream video to it.
Bertrand Russell had it right
As machines take over more of our work, we are going to have to find other ways of letting people fulfil these human needs. Forcing them to send 500 CVs out every week is not a good start.
In stripping out inefficiencies and pushing digital goods to near-free prices, the Internet kills middle-class jobs. Digitization has already largely de-monetized academia, film, music, journalism, and lots more besides. More industries will feel the pain, including the legal professions, real estate, insurance, accounting, and the civil service, all of which are built on inefficiency, and all of which will be stripped of jobs in the years to come. As it becomes clear to those with established positions that there are no jobs for their children, they’ll push for a more radical solution.
THE PIXAR THEORY
Every Pixar movie is connected. I explain how, and possibly why. Several months ago, I watched a fun-filled video on Cracked.com that introduced the idea (at least to me) that all of the Pixar movies actually exist within the same universe. Since then, I’ve obsessed over this concept, working to complete what I call “The Pixar Theory,” a working narrative that ties all of the Pixar movies into one cohesive timeline with a main theme.
John Hodgman On Full Metal Jacket
"But The Shining speaks to what makes Kubrick such an interesting and, for a lot of people, troublesome filmmaker, because he does not give you what you want. At all. He does not give you a Vietnam movie set in the jungle, and he does not give you a horror movie that is just like Stephen King’s The Shining. He doesn’t even give you scares for a long time, [just] ominous foreboding. And it takes people a while to figure out, “Oh, maybe I don’t know what I want. Maybe this is better.” - Mefi's Own Jon Hodgman talks about Full Metal Jacket with Scott Tobias for "The Last Great Movie I Saw."
Cat-Scan.com
Cat-Scan.com
is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
Pen Ultimate
In an idle moment, you've probably drummed on a desk with your pen. But chances are middle schoolers could show you some skills.
Masters like Shane Bang and many less well-known practitioners are pushing the old idea of pen-as-drumstick - Pen Beats, aka Pen Tap - to new heights.
Shipwreck Log, Marine Traffic and Sailwx, for your ship tracking needs
Have you found it difficult to find information about a specific shipwreck when you only have its location, date or vessel's name? How about a find information on maritime accidents 3 weeks ago, 6 months ago, or even last year? Shipwrecklog.com was created to solve these issues. We designed our site and tools to make researching recent and historical maritime accidents easier. If you'd prefer to track active ships, you might enjoy Marine Traffic (prev: 1, 2), which tracks ships by way of their Automatic Identification Systems (prev. And as can be expected from any *spotter website, there's also a gallery of images from users. For even more sea-faring information, check Sailwx (prev), where you can track ships by type, locate bouys, and see tides, currents and weather.
HELP! My boyfriend just came home with a pet turtle!
My boyfriend just came home with a pet turtle and it's in a really small hermit crab type plastic cage, no lamp, and a very small basking area. How soon do i need to get her a proper habitat?
When do I pop the statement "I'm in an open relatioinship?"
When do I let someone I'm out with casually (not yet romantically) know that I'm currently in a very committed yet also an open relationship? (Both of us were previously married, have been together 5 years, and realize that monogamy and commitment are not necessarily mutually exclusive for us). I've been out with women who, I think, were interested in me and in whom I might have been interested. I worry if I say something too soon, I might be being presumptuous, but if I don't say anything until much later, they might feel lead on. So I've just ended up saying nothing and things stayed casual and "friendly." The one time I told one woman I was in an open relationship - and this after only a second lunch out - she literally fled the restaurant! Since, I've become a little gun shy.
Happy Little Trees
Lorenzo Triburgo has photographed what he calls "Transportraits". He shoots his transgender subjects from a slightly upward-facing angle in order to portray a sense of heroism. Triburgo painted the backgrounds of his portraits himself after learning how from Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting.
Is Americorps a good experience?
Since I got out of the Navy, I've been having trouble making ends meet, and I would like to be able to stay in school. Now there are two different Americorps positions opening up near me, both doing Veterans Outreach, that would pay a living stipend, and after a year award a tuition voucher. I would like to hear all of your Americorps experiences, both good and bad. How did they manage your hours? How much freedom did you have to choose your own work? Were you able to stay in school at a reduced load or take a second job? What else have I forgotten to ask?
Six Months at Sea in the Merchant Marine
Martin Machado's short and serene documentary about his experiences working on a container ship.
It's not a Tour without some Heartbreak
Ted King, everyman cyclist from New Hampshire and Middlebury Alum, riding with a separated shoulder, was cut from the 100th Edition of the Tour de France after missing the time cut during the Team Time Trial by 7 seconds.
Private Varnish Usually Costs At Least $300 A Gallon
Many folks who play Powerball in the U.S. dream of private jets. But that's so passé. All the coolest, richest kids are buying, rebuilding and riding "private varnish" (29 page .pdf file) and those that don't have the scratch for that, charter.
11,000 Miles in 11 Days on a Motorcycle
Today marks the beginning of the 2013 Iron Butt Rally, a long distance motorcycle rally in which participants ride 11,000 miles in 11 days. It rained on today's start in Pennsylvania, but the challenges are only beginning for these riders.
"I will break my arm voluntarily if these are made"
Breaking a bone often means a stinky, itchy cast that hinders personal hygiene arrangements and means your friends seem to suddenly think it's ok to scrawl obscene graffiti on you (although some people find ways of making them super awesome). But what about a 3D-printed cast?
Absolutely No Words
"We heard them yell, shout and scream. But, who ever pays attention when they take that deep breath before they shout it out? Nobody does except for me. Have fun." Professional wrestling frequently leaves the audience breathless, and this video is no exception.
Should we get straight-married in California this week?
We're a straight couple who has always said we wouldn't marry while our queer friends couldn't. We have other issues with marriage, but it's clear that there are a lot of practical and long-term financial advantages. We live in Wisconsin (boo) but we're in California for a week (yay). What are your political, ethical and practical insights about whether we should get married here this week?
Photoganic
A photo layout algorithm side project made into an app! Works best with Instagram currently. Would love any feedback you might have.
Here's an example collage.