MetaFilter posts by stbalbach.
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We've seen literal video before. Artist/author Tao Lin (b.1983, previously) has turned literalism into performance and literary art. His Asperger style can be quickly distilled in these literally boring videos: [1],[2],[3],[4]. A video interview with Tao has more insights into his technique (and vegetable chopping). The critics don't always seem to get it, nor do I, though they pay lots of attention.
posted on Oct-14-10 at 11:41 AM
Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937). Master Hindustani classical musician: Piya bin chain nahi aavat, Raag Natyageet, Bengali folk, Jamuna ke teer, Raag Bilawal
posted on Oct-11-10 at 11:50 PM
For the past month or so I've been daily watching YouTube episodes about Mike "LionKing"'s 2008 hike across the USA on the American Discovery Trail. There are 66 episodes (4-8 min ea) which is a lot and probably difficult to absorb in a sitting or day, but if you spread it out, you'll get the impression a long haul experience from Delaware to California, w/out the sore feet. He is the first to hike the entire trail non-stop, including both parts of the mid-country loop.
posted on Sep-30-10 at 9:54 PM
"The Dungeon Master", a short-story about Dungeons and Dragons by Sam Lipsyte in this weeks New Yorker.
posted on Sep-27-10 at 12:14 PM
NASA has some new maps showing air pollution around the world. It shows PM2.5, that is, Particulate Matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size, small enough to get past normal bodily defenses and cause health problems.
posted on Sep-23-10 at 4:22 PM
This 30-min clip showing Henry Miller eating dinner in 1979, "regaling the camera with his powers as a raconteur," is probably NSFW, don't you know. Via Ubu.
posted on Sep-17-10 at 9:17 AM
The $10 Million X-Prize Competition for the best 100 MPG production-capable car has been announced, the winner is Edison 2 Very Light Car at 102.5 MPG.
posted on Sep-16-10 at 9:01 AM
Global warming skeptic Bjørn Lomborg changes position, saying global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront." He says in a new book forthcoming this year that governments should levy a tax on carbon and spend billions annually on research for new technologies. I suppose it's hard to ignore when 10 of 10 key indicators show the world is warming, and Lomberg is not the first prominent skeptic to change position.
posted on Sep-1-10 at 9:33 AM
Electric airplanes are not a new idea, but there have been recent developments in building affordable production electric sport aircraft. They are super quiet, low vibration, highly reliable, simple and gas-free.
posted on Aug-30-10 at 8:54 PM
The world's largest solar power plant will probably be cleared for construction in California. At 1GW it is the size of a nuclear power plant and nearly doubles the US installed base of commercial-scale solar power. It will take 6-years, $6-billion and 7,000-acres. Proposed site (on Google maps). It will use parabolic trough's (video). It is being built by a German company (construction video / operation animation). There are many other CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) projects.
posted on Aug-27-10 at 10:51 AM
The American Great Plains rival the Serengeti, according to National Geographic, but unlike in apparently more progressive Africa, the USA never protected the plains on a large scale. Now private interests under the The American Prairie Foundation are buying up land in Montana hoping to create a multi-million acre preserve that would be the largest privately funded conservation land venture on the planet, bigger than Yellowstone National Park, that one day may see the return of great migrating herds of bison, pronghorn antelope, deer and elk. Not all Montana ranchers are happy with the new Serengeti neighbor.
posted on Aug-21-10 at 12:14 PM
Scottish researchers have developed what they call a “super” biofuel using by-products of whiskey production. Given the enormity of Scotland’s £4 billion ($6 billion) whiskey industry, scientists say there is the potential for whiskey biofuel to emerge as a significant source of fuel for cars and even airplanes.
posted on Aug-18-10 at 6:36 PM
A Kindle, iPad and printed book are magnified 400x.
posted on Aug-17-10 at 6:17 PM
Some say the USA is a Plutonomy-an economy dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthy. In a further sign, the top 5% of Americans by income now account for 37% of all consumer outlays (the bottom 80% by contrast share about the same). Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product. In a possibly worrisome sign, the wealthy are cutting back on spending.
posted on Aug-6-10 at 3:11 PM
Is the alpha-dog method of training, as promoted by Cesar Millan, a myth? Rival trainer Victoria Stilwell thinks so and has launched a competitive assault on Cesar's Dog Whisperer by starring on It's Me or the Dog and spreading her system of positive-reinforcement training.
posted on Jul-30-10 at 1:25 PM
Paper receipts - including receipts from McDonald’s, CVS, Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Postal Service - are a major source of endocrine-disrupting bisphenol-A. The total amount of BPA on tested receipts was 250 to 1,000 times greater than other, more widely discussed sources of BPA exposure, including canned foods, baby bottles and infant formula. BPA transfers readily from receipts to skin and can penetrate the skin to such a depth that it cannot be washed off.
posted on Jul-27-10 at 11:42 AM
Zenyata may be the greatest mare ever. Even if your not normally into race horses, it's worth seeing this one, there may not be another like her. Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote Seabiscuit, explains why (NPR 6min).
posted on Jul-17-10 at 12:18 PM
The immodestly named Versailles1 in Florida is possibly the largest home in America. At 90,000 sqft it is nearly twice the size of the White House and includes 23 bathrooms, a 10 car garage and 10 Segways to get around. The WSJ reports on Touring the (Almost) Largest Home in America. Of course the owners ran out of money and now the hulking shell of Versailles, sitting precariously for the ages a few feet above sea level, is for sale (click through for virtual tour).
posted on Jul-16-10 at 11:58 AM
A Texas company S2C Global Systems has announced that it is moving forward with a plan to ship 2.9 billion to 9 billion gallons of water a year from the small Alaskan town of Sitka to the west coast of India (near Mumbai). If the company succeeds in carrying out the shipments, the deal would represent the world’s first regular, bulk exports of water via tanker. The water will be redistributed to places in India, southeast Asia and the Middle East. The Alaskan town of about 8,000 people could earn up to 90 million a year in revenue.
posted on Jul-12-10 at 1:20 PM
"I don't see any future for whale species except extinction." A report (pdf) released Thursday by Ocean Alliance noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. Concentrations of chromium found in some whales was several times higher than the level required to kill healthy cells in a Petri dish. Mercury in some whales was 16 times higher than a typical shark or swordfish, both known for their high mercury levels. Beyond whales, "You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species."
posted on Jun-24-10 at 2:57 PM
The "Laser Inertial Fusion Engine" (LIFE) is being developed at the National Ignition Facility. Stewart Brand blogs about its potential here and this video (.mov 128MB) is stunning. How LIFE works. Successful early test shots suggest that the NIF will achieve first nuclear fusion ignition within the next few months (+10 years to commercial).
posted on Jun-17-10 at 11:20 PM
Take a stand for permanent paper. "Eight years ago we started to notice the shift in buying patterns from free-sheet Permanent Paper to groundwood paper for hardcover books. Groundwood is the type of paper used in newspapers and mass market paperbacks, and its production is such that it is much lower-quality and degrades more quickly than traditional book publishing paper." What makes a book permanent?
posted on Jun-1-10 at 8:25 PM
On May 10th, 2010 ExxonMobile had an oil spill in Nigeria Delta. It is somewhere around the 16th worst oil spill in [wikipedia reported] world history, at 95,000 tonnes (696,350 barrels or 214,475,800 gallons). Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it. Oil spills are a regular occurrence in Nigeria, about 300 a year, it is estimated over the past 50 years about 1.5 million tons have been dumped in the Delta, equivalent to the Gulf War oil spill (the largest spill on record) or 50+ Exxon Valdez.
posted on May-30-10 at 9:23 AM
Intellectual Ventures is an invention factory founded by Nathan Myhrvold, who previously founded Microsoft Research and was MS's CTO. Bill Gates raves about IV, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article about the IV invention process in The New Yorker, Newsweek profiled Nathan’s company in April 2010, and this week there was an hour-long TV interview with Myhrvold on Charlie Rose. Take a 6-min video tour of the laboratory.
posted on May-26-10 at 12:19 PM
In early 1934, about a dozen of America's leading writers and critics - William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, Edmund Wilson, Thorton Wilder, etc. - answered the question: What are some “Good Books That Almost Nobody Has Read”? [Via the always interesting Neglected Books Page]
posted on May-13-10 at 8:08 PM
"The Tea Party Jacobins" is one of the better insights into the weirdness driving populist politics in America (and elsewhere) today.
posted on May-12-10 at 6:24 PM
Each issue of Lapham's Quarterly (previously) has original and whimsical info-laden "Charts & Graphs". 76 of them are online (click "previous" to move forward).
posted on Apr-27-10 at 7:21 PM
Harvard University finished in 1986 construction of the Harvard Depository, a mysterious storage facility in a publicly undisclosed location 30 miles from campus where large tracts of land are less expensive than in Cambridge. While the facility was originally intended to store Harvard's least-used volumes, it is now home to 45 percent of Harvard's collections. David Lamberth, chair of the Library Implementation Work Group, calls it a "precise warehouse" for which the term "library" would prove inaccurate.
posted on Apr-2-10 at 9:15 AM
James Lovelock, 90, says we're too stupid to prevent climate change. "I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change." One of the main obstructions to meaningful action is "modern democracy", he added in an extended interview. "I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while." He thinks only a catastrophic event would now persuade humanity to take the threat of climate change seriously enough, such as the collapse of a giant glacier in Antarctica.
posted on Mar-30-10 at 5:18 PM
"Preppers are keen not to be seen as survivalists - the stereotypically anti-government, wood-dwelling, gun-toting hermits of past decades. Rather than isolating themselves in preparation for Armageddon, preppers tend to have normal jobs, mingle with their communities and take a more relaxed view about looming disasters. "
posted on Mar-28-10 at 12:22 PM
On America's little magazines. "The most up-to-date and reliable lists of literary magazines on the web". Literary Press and Magazine Directory. Category: American Literary Magazines. The Little Magazine A Hundred Years On: A Reader’s Report.
posted on Mar-27-10 at 9:43 AM
The Man Who Planted Trees (part 2, part 3) is an Academy Award winning 1987 Canadian short animated film directed by Frédéric Back, based on the 1953 story by French author Jean Giono. See also/Previously.
posted on Mar-24-10 at 7:49 AM
Due to population decline, Detroit plans on bulldozing roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city into semi-rural farmland. It is a worst case scenario in America, but pales to the problem of Eastern Germany, where demographic collapse in some towns is so severe, urban-wolves and neo-Nazis are the new order of the day. The mayor of one town says: "You can't go into the forest without a knife anymore."
posted on Mar-19-10 at 10:54 AM
Open Library has a new collaborative open source website that aims to catalog every book ever published. About the project. The vision is one Wiki page for every edition of every work with description details.
posted on Mar-17-10 at 9:24 PM
20th-Century American Bestsellers (novels). Browse the database: The Hunt for Red October - Watership Down - &c.
posted on Mar-10-10 at 9:54 PM
"The Wizard", by Daniel Mendelsohn. Avatar, a film directed by James Cameron. [previously]
posted on Mar-8-10 at 5:05 PM
About 8 years ago, U.S. Representative James Traficant (D-Ohio) was sentenced to 8 years in jail for kickbacks, fraud, bribery, and racketeering. He was tightly connected with the Youngstown Ohio Mafia. At the time, he was only the second Congressman since the Civil War to be expelled by his peers from the institution in a vote of 420:1. The fascinating story of the Youngstown Mafia - and Traficant's rise and fall - is told by David Grann (of Lost City of Z and The New Yorker) in a 2000 article called "Crimetown, U.S.A.". Traficant was released from prison on September 2, 2009 to a hometown hero welcome. On February 23, 2010, Traficant announced he will running for Congress as an Independent.
posted on Feb-23-10 at 7:20 PM
The Magisterial Goal. YouTube/Essay on the great British sports announcer Ray Hudson and his literary metaphoric style. “Look at him, so languid, look at him walking. He’s like a big, beautiful zombie, Riquelme. He just strolls around…like smoke off a cigarette.”
posted on Feb-2-10 at 6:25 PM
Do you want to personally verify climate science? You can, with open source data and algorithms. OpenTemp.org: An Open Analysis of the Historical Temperature Record. Clear Climate Code: Python reimplementation of GISTEMP, the NASA GISS surface temperature analysis. EDGCM: a research-grade Global Climate Model (GCM) with a user-friendly interface that can be run on a desktop computer.
posted on Jan-15-10 at 10:33 AM
James Cameron has acknowledged that Avatar implicitly criticizes America's War in Iraq and the impersonal nature of mechanized warfare in general, although it's not the films main theme. American Conservatives have blasted Avatar for depicting U.S. marines as villains. Others see it as a "race fantasy" for white people. Over in China, Communists see parallels between the movie’s plot and one of the nation’s most prominent social issues: the forced removal of Chinese citizens from their homes for government development projects. The St. Petersburg Communist Party believes the film is an American apology for Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. “It is quite funny to watch how the activists of the national liberation movement of Pandora accept a Pentagon-made mutant instead of judging him by the laws of the revolutionary time,” the communists noted.
posted on Jan-14-10 at 8:09 AM
Low-Tech Magazine and No-Tech Magazine have some fairly well written/illustrated articles about old and low technologies. The concept being, in a sustainable future due to environmental constraints, carbon taxes, Peak Oil, etc.. these old-school technologies might be used - in some places, in some form - instead of more energy intensive modern high technology. Trolly Canal Boats, Timbrel Vaulting (vs. steel and concrete), Bring Back the Horses (and the bicycle), Tile Stoves, Wind Powered Factories, Sneakernet, more.
posted on Jan-2-10 at 3:14 PM
Public Domain Day 2010. This is the day when a year’s worth of copyrights expire in many countries around the world.Year of death + 70: (disclaimer) But in some other countries, it is a bittersweet day. The United States, Australia, Russia, and Mexico are in the midst of public domain freezes.
posted on Dec-31-09 at 9:32 PM
"Steal These Books" is a NYT essay about the most commonly shoplifted books from bookstores. tl;dr? #1=The Virgin Suicides.
posted on Dec-23-09 at 8:01 PM
In 2006, LibriVox released a small collection of traditional Christmas Carols, sung by volunteers from around the world, all in the Public Domain. It was a neat idea. Then, years of silence, no carolers came. Now it's December 2009 and the carolers have returned, with a second larger collection of traditional carols. (orig LibriVox page. Project page.)
posted on Dec-19-09 at 7:32 PM
A "Dow Jones Index for Climate Change". The IGBP Climate-Change Index distills complex climate change factors into a single number, like how the Dow Jones distills the markets to a single number, and visually graphs it over time.
posted on Dec-12-09 at 10:03 AM
The Noughtie List. A meta-list of "best of" lists for the 2000s decade. A similar meta-list for best of 2009.
posted on Dec-9-09 at 2:12 PM
Inkmesh ebook search engine will search across these sites finding free books and comparing prices. Video.
posted on Dec-5-09 at 8:52 AM
Fairy-tale author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874-1938) has been called the "Croatian Anderson", or more recently the "Croatian Tolkien", and twice nominated for a Nobel, in the 1930s, before she committed suicide. Her most famous fairy-tale collection, Croatian Tales of Long Ago (1916), was recently adapted as a flash animation, some of which can be viewed online (flash, pop-ups) in an award-winning site. The original book in English translation (1923) at Internet Archive includes some cool artwork.
posted on Sep-25-09 at 9:12 AM
Archive Team: We are going to rescue your shit. (previously)
posted on Sep-15-09 at 10:45 PM
Warren Buffett says his favorite economic indicator (last 30sec) is the FTSI or Freight Transportation Services Index (blue line). Since 1979, across four recessions, the index "shows a strong leading relationship to the economy", with an acceleration of freight leading the economy "by an average of approximately 4 to 5 months". Explanation of the index (recommend PDF version), most recent analysis (July 2009).
posted on Jul-9-09 at 11:37 AM
posted on Oct-14-10 at 11:41 AM
Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937). Master Hindustani classical musician: Piya bin chain nahi aavat, Raag Natyageet, Bengali folk, Jamuna ke teer, Raag Bilawal
posted on Oct-11-10 at 11:50 PM
For the past month or so I've been daily watching YouTube episodes about Mike "LionKing"'s 2008 hike across the USA on the American Discovery Trail. There are 66 episodes (4-8 min ea) which is a lot and probably difficult to absorb in a sitting or day, but if you spread it out, you'll get the impression a long haul experience from Delaware to California, w/out the sore feet. He is the first to hike the entire trail non-stop, including both parts of the mid-country loop.
posted on Sep-30-10 at 9:54 PM
"The Dungeon Master", a short-story about Dungeons and Dragons by Sam Lipsyte in this weeks New Yorker.
posted on Sep-27-10 at 12:14 PM
NASA has some new maps showing air pollution around the world. It shows PM2.5, that is, Particulate Matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size, small enough to get past normal bodily defenses and cause health problems.
posted on Sep-23-10 at 4:22 PM
This 30-min clip showing Henry Miller eating dinner in 1979, "regaling the camera with his powers as a raconteur," is probably NSFW, don't you know. Via Ubu.
posted on Sep-17-10 at 9:17 AM
The $10 Million X-Prize Competition for the best 100 MPG production-capable car has been announced, the winner is Edison 2 Very Light Car at 102.5 MPG.
posted on Sep-16-10 at 9:01 AM
Global warming skeptic Bjørn Lomborg changes position, saying global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront." He says in a new book forthcoming this year that governments should levy a tax on carbon and spend billions annually on research for new technologies. I suppose it's hard to ignore when 10 of 10 key indicators show the world is warming, and Lomberg is not the first prominent skeptic to change position.
posted on Sep-1-10 at 9:33 AM
Electric airplanes are not a new idea, but there have been recent developments in building affordable production electric sport aircraft. They are super quiet, low vibration, highly reliable, simple and gas-free.
posted on Aug-30-10 at 8:54 PM
The world's largest solar power plant will probably be cleared for construction in California. At 1GW it is the size of a nuclear power plant and nearly doubles the US installed base of commercial-scale solar power. It will take 6-years, $6-billion and 7,000-acres. Proposed site (on Google maps). It will use parabolic trough's (video). It is being built by a German company (construction video / operation animation). There are many other CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) projects.
posted on Aug-27-10 at 10:51 AM
The American Great Plains rival the Serengeti, according to National Geographic, but unlike in apparently more progressive Africa, the USA never protected the plains on a large scale. Now private interests under the The American Prairie Foundation are buying up land in Montana hoping to create a multi-million acre preserve that would be the largest privately funded conservation land venture on the planet, bigger than Yellowstone National Park, that one day may see the return of great migrating herds of bison, pronghorn antelope, deer and elk. Not all Montana ranchers are happy with the new Serengeti neighbor.
posted on Aug-21-10 at 12:14 PM
Scottish researchers have developed what they call a “super” biofuel using by-products of whiskey production. Given the enormity of Scotland’s £4 billion ($6 billion) whiskey industry, scientists say there is the potential for whiskey biofuel to emerge as a significant source of fuel for cars and even airplanes.
posted on Aug-18-10 at 6:36 PM
A Kindle, iPad and printed book are magnified 400x.
posted on Aug-17-10 at 6:17 PM
Some say the USA is a Plutonomy-an economy dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthy. In a further sign, the top 5% of Americans by income now account for 37% of all consumer outlays (the bottom 80% by contrast share about the same). Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product. In a possibly worrisome sign, the wealthy are cutting back on spending.
posted on Aug-6-10 at 3:11 PM
Is the alpha-dog method of training, as promoted by Cesar Millan, a myth? Rival trainer Victoria Stilwell thinks so and has launched a competitive assault on Cesar's Dog Whisperer by starring on It's Me or the Dog and spreading her system of positive-reinforcement training.
posted on Jul-30-10 at 1:25 PM
Paper receipts - including receipts from McDonald’s, CVS, Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Postal Service - are a major source of endocrine-disrupting bisphenol-A. The total amount of BPA on tested receipts was 250 to 1,000 times greater than other, more widely discussed sources of BPA exposure, including canned foods, baby bottles and infant formula. BPA transfers readily from receipts to skin and can penetrate the skin to such a depth that it cannot be washed off.
posted on Jul-27-10 at 11:42 AM
Zenyata may be the greatest mare ever. Even if your not normally into race horses, it's worth seeing this one, there may not be another like her. Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote Seabiscuit, explains why (NPR 6min).
posted on Jul-17-10 at 12:18 PM
The immodestly named Versailles1 in Florida is possibly the largest home in America. At 90,000 sqft it is nearly twice the size of the White House and includes 23 bathrooms, a 10 car garage and 10 Segways to get around. The WSJ reports on Touring the (Almost) Largest Home in America. Of course the owners ran out of money and now the hulking shell of Versailles, sitting precariously for the ages a few feet above sea level, is for sale (click through for virtual tour).
posted on Jul-16-10 at 11:58 AM
A Texas company S2C Global Systems has announced that it is moving forward with a plan to ship 2.9 billion to 9 billion gallons of water a year from the small Alaskan town of Sitka to the west coast of India (near Mumbai). If the company succeeds in carrying out the shipments, the deal would represent the world’s first regular, bulk exports of water via tanker. The water will be redistributed to places in India, southeast Asia and the Middle East. The Alaskan town of about 8,000 people could earn up to 90 million a year in revenue.
posted on Jul-12-10 at 1:20 PM
"I don't see any future for whale species except extinction." A report (pdf) released Thursday by Ocean Alliance noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. Concentrations of chromium found in some whales was several times higher than the level required to kill healthy cells in a Petri dish. Mercury in some whales was 16 times higher than a typical shark or swordfish, both known for their high mercury levels. Beyond whales, "You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species."
posted on Jun-24-10 at 2:57 PM
The "Laser Inertial Fusion Engine" (LIFE) is being developed at the National Ignition Facility. Stewart Brand blogs about its potential here and this video (.mov 128MB) is stunning. How LIFE works. Successful early test shots suggest that the NIF will achieve first nuclear fusion ignition within the next few months (+10 years to commercial).
posted on Jun-17-10 at 11:20 PM
Take a stand for permanent paper. "Eight years ago we started to notice the shift in buying patterns from free-sheet Permanent Paper to groundwood paper for hardcover books. Groundwood is the type of paper used in newspapers and mass market paperbacks, and its production is such that it is much lower-quality and degrades more quickly than traditional book publishing paper." What makes a book permanent?
posted on Jun-1-10 at 8:25 PM
On May 10th, 2010 ExxonMobile had an oil spill in Nigeria Delta. It is somewhere around the 16th worst oil spill in [wikipedia reported] world history, at 95,000 tonnes (696,350 barrels or 214,475,800 gallons). Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it. Oil spills are a regular occurrence in Nigeria, about 300 a year, it is estimated over the past 50 years about 1.5 million tons have been dumped in the Delta, equivalent to the Gulf War oil spill (the largest spill on record) or 50+ Exxon Valdez.
posted on May-30-10 at 9:23 AM
Intellectual Ventures is an invention factory founded by Nathan Myhrvold, who previously founded Microsoft Research and was MS's CTO. Bill Gates raves about IV, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article about the IV invention process in The New Yorker, Newsweek profiled Nathan’s company in April 2010, and this week there was an hour-long TV interview with Myhrvold on Charlie Rose. Take a 6-min video tour of the laboratory.
posted on May-26-10 at 12:19 PM
In early 1934, about a dozen of America's leading writers and critics - William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, Edmund Wilson, Thorton Wilder, etc. - answered the question: What are some “Good Books That Almost Nobody Has Read”? [Via the always interesting Neglected Books Page]
posted on May-13-10 at 8:08 PM
"The Tea Party Jacobins" is one of the better insights into the weirdness driving populist politics in America (and elsewhere) today.
posted on May-12-10 at 6:24 PM
Each issue of Lapham's Quarterly (previously) has original and whimsical info-laden "Charts & Graphs". 76 of them are online (click "previous" to move forward).
posted on Apr-27-10 at 7:21 PM
Harvard University finished in 1986 construction of the Harvard Depository, a mysterious storage facility in a publicly undisclosed location 30 miles from campus where large tracts of land are less expensive than in Cambridge. While the facility was originally intended to store Harvard's least-used volumes, it is now home to 45 percent of Harvard's collections. David Lamberth, chair of the Library Implementation Work Group, calls it a "precise warehouse" for which the term "library" would prove inaccurate.
posted on Apr-2-10 at 9:15 AM
James Lovelock, 90, says we're too stupid to prevent climate change. "I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change." One of the main obstructions to meaningful action is "modern democracy", he added in an extended interview. "I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while." He thinks only a catastrophic event would now persuade humanity to take the threat of climate change seriously enough, such as the collapse of a giant glacier in Antarctica.
posted on Mar-30-10 at 5:18 PM
"Preppers are keen not to be seen as survivalists - the stereotypically anti-government, wood-dwelling, gun-toting hermits of past decades. Rather than isolating themselves in preparation for Armageddon, preppers tend to have normal jobs, mingle with their communities and take a more relaxed view about looming disasters. "
posted on Mar-28-10 at 12:22 PM
On America's little magazines. "The most up-to-date and reliable lists of literary magazines on the web". Literary Press and Magazine Directory. Category: American Literary Magazines. The Little Magazine A Hundred Years On: A Reader’s Report.
posted on Mar-27-10 at 9:43 AM
The Man Who Planted Trees (part 2, part 3) is an Academy Award winning 1987 Canadian short animated film directed by Frédéric Back, based on the 1953 story by French author Jean Giono. See also/Previously.
posted on Mar-24-10 at 7:49 AM
Due to population decline, Detroit plans on bulldozing roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city into semi-rural farmland. It is a worst case scenario in America, but pales to the problem of Eastern Germany, where demographic collapse in some towns is so severe, urban-wolves and neo-Nazis are the new order of the day. The mayor of one town says: "You can't go into the forest without a knife anymore."
posted on Mar-19-10 at 10:54 AM
Open Library has a new collaborative open source website that aims to catalog every book ever published. About the project. The vision is one Wiki page for every edition of every work with description details.
posted on Mar-17-10 at 9:24 PM
20th-Century American Bestsellers (novels). Browse the database: The Hunt for Red October - Watership Down - &c.
posted on Mar-10-10 at 9:54 PM
"The Wizard", by Daniel Mendelsohn. Avatar, a film directed by James Cameron. [previously]
posted on Mar-8-10 at 5:05 PM
About 8 years ago, U.S. Representative James Traficant (D-Ohio) was sentenced to 8 years in jail for kickbacks, fraud, bribery, and racketeering. He was tightly connected with the Youngstown Ohio Mafia. At the time, he was only the second Congressman since the Civil War to be expelled by his peers from the institution in a vote of 420:1. The fascinating story of the Youngstown Mafia - and Traficant's rise and fall - is told by David Grann (of Lost City of Z and The New Yorker) in a 2000 article called "Crimetown, U.S.A.". Traficant was released from prison on September 2, 2009 to a hometown hero welcome. On February 23, 2010, Traficant announced he will running for Congress as an Independent.
posted on Feb-23-10 at 7:20 PM
The Magisterial Goal. YouTube/Essay on the great British sports announcer Ray Hudson and his literary metaphoric style. “Look at him, so languid, look at him walking. He’s like a big, beautiful zombie, Riquelme. He just strolls around…like smoke off a cigarette.”
posted on Feb-2-10 at 6:25 PM
Do you want to personally verify climate science? You can, with open source data and algorithms. OpenTemp.org: An Open Analysis of the Historical Temperature Record. Clear Climate Code: Python reimplementation of GISTEMP, the NASA GISS surface temperature analysis. EDGCM: a research-grade Global Climate Model (GCM) with a user-friendly interface that can be run on a desktop computer.
posted on Jan-15-10 at 10:33 AM
James Cameron has acknowledged that Avatar implicitly criticizes America's War in Iraq and the impersonal nature of mechanized warfare in general, although it's not the films main theme. American Conservatives have blasted Avatar for depicting U.S. marines as villains. Others see it as a "race fantasy" for white people. Over in China, Communists see parallels between the movie’s plot and one of the nation’s most prominent social issues: the forced removal of Chinese citizens from their homes for government development projects. The St. Petersburg Communist Party believes the film is an American apology for Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. “It is quite funny to watch how the activists of the national liberation movement of Pandora accept a Pentagon-made mutant instead of judging him by the laws of the revolutionary time,” the communists noted.
posted on Jan-14-10 at 8:09 AM
Low-Tech Magazine and No-Tech Magazine have some fairly well written/illustrated articles about old and low technologies. The concept being, in a sustainable future due to environmental constraints, carbon taxes, Peak Oil, etc.. these old-school technologies might be used - in some places, in some form - instead of more energy intensive modern high technology. Trolly Canal Boats, Timbrel Vaulting (vs. steel and concrete), Bring Back the Horses (and the bicycle), Tile Stoves, Wind Powered Factories, Sneakernet, more.
posted on Jan-2-10 at 3:14 PM
Public Domain Day 2010. This is the day when a year’s worth of copyrights expire in many countries around the world.Year of death + 70: (disclaimer) But in some other countries, it is a bittersweet day. The United States, Australia, Russia, and Mexico are in the midst of public domain freezes.
posted on Dec-31-09 at 9:32 PM
"Steal These Books" is a NYT essay about the most commonly shoplifted books from bookstores. tl;dr? #1=The Virgin Suicides.
posted on Dec-23-09 at 8:01 PM
In 2006, LibriVox released a small collection of traditional Christmas Carols, sung by volunteers from around the world, all in the Public Domain. It was a neat idea. Then, years of silence, no carolers came. Now it's December 2009 and the carolers have returned, with a second larger collection of traditional carols. (orig LibriVox page. Project page.)
posted on Dec-19-09 at 7:32 PM
A "Dow Jones Index for Climate Change". The IGBP Climate-Change Index distills complex climate change factors into a single number, like how the Dow Jones distills the markets to a single number, and visually graphs it over time.
posted on Dec-12-09 at 10:03 AM
The Noughtie List. A meta-list of "best of" lists for the 2000s decade. A similar meta-list for best of 2009.
posted on Dec-9-09 at 2:12 PM
Inkmesh ebook search engine will search across these sites finding free books and comparing prices. Video.
posted on Dec-5-09 at 8:52 AM
Fairy-tale author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874-1938) has been called the "Croatian Anderson", or more recently the "Croatian Tolkien", and twice nominated for a Nobel, in the 1930s, before she committed suicide. Her most famous fairy-tale collection, Croatian Tales of Long Ago (1916), was recently adapted as a flash animation, some of which can be viewed online (flash, pop-ups) in an award-winning site. The original book in English translation (1923) at Internet Archive includes some cool artwork.
posted on Sep-25-09 at 9:12 AM
Archive Team: We are going to rescue your shit. (previously)
posted on Sep-15-09 at 10:45 PM
Warren Buffett says his favorite economic indicator (last 30sec) is the FTSI or Freight Transportation Services Index (blue line). Since 1979, across four recessions, the index "shows a strong leading relationship to the economy", with an acceleration of freight leading the economy "by an average of approximately 4 to 5 months". Explanation of the index (recommend PDF version), most recent analysis (July 2009).
posted on Jul-9-09 at 11:37 AM
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