Links posted in March 2008
March 31, 2008
Speedo augments its own bad self. Faster package delivery than Fedex. But this time, in the water. (mildly NSFW)
Hell hath no fury like a Teri scorned. Fluff piece on women who are cheated on, more noteable for the story of what happened when someone cheated on Teri Garr. Also, and more importantly, what kind of moron cheats on Teri "Roll in Ze Hay" Garr?!? [more inside]
In a fit of scientific skepticism, we decided to calculate how unlikely Joltin’ Joe’s achievement really was. Using a comprehensive collection of baseball statistics from 1871 to 2005, we simulated the entire history of baseball 10,000 times in a computer.
March 30, 2008
If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs is the book title that has beaten off competition from to win The Bookseller magazine's prize for oddest title, a competition which began in 1978, and the roll-call of previous winners includes Lick My Greasy Chicken, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love a Barnacle, and of course the classic Quidnunc Kid's Guide to Sensible Arguments.
March 29, 2008
Charley Harper- an illustrated life Charley Harper was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist. He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters and book illustrations, all of which are included in this book. [more inside]
Jedi Master beaten up by drunken Darth Vader during TV interview.
Earth Hour 2008: turn your lights off, you bum! Earth Hour, conceived in Australia in 2005, has become a worldwide event with (woo) over 20 cities officially taking part. It's a chance to show your commitment to climate change and sustainable energy, or, you know, something along those lines. Christchurch will be the first to switch off at 8pm tonight, and San Francisco the last, 20 hours later. [more inside]
March 28, 2008
Drum machine robot (a video of a robot)
Ragtime, Limericks & Fibonacci Hardly mainstream knowledge, but bloody interesting, if you're interested in that kind of thing.
March 27, 2008
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS: A weekly podcast featuring puppet versions of the Johns, a song and video from their new children's album Here Come the 123s! and a second song from one of their previous albums! This is a very descriptive post!
Saturn moon reveals organic matter. Sign of life, comet-like origin or bombardment?
Does the Human Brain Possess Potential “Super Powers”?
March 26, 2008
'Fat Bandit' believed to be fat, not wearing a fat-suit.
Gerd Ludwig photography
Striking and disturbing photos of pollution and its effects in the former Soviet union. (WARNING: dying baby photo)
via digg
[more inside]
Bead Me Up, Scotty - a crafty take on Star Trek. [more inside]
The peace symbol is fifty years old. It was originally created as the logo for CND by wartime conscientious objector Gerald Holtom.
March 25, 2008
You don't see one of those every day Musical instruments.
A Brief History of the Home Video Game Console
From Odyssey to Wii
Curious George: not a nymphomaniac but a compulsive liar. Visiting this thread on the mother ship this morning got me thinking -- who among you saw Ally Sheedy 's transformation in The Breakfast Club as a good thing? Who among you was disappointed by it? (It is interesting to note that she didn't go for such a make-over in real life, but whatever.) Was it a sell-out? Did they all just buy into the stereotypes they just destroyed? How do you see it now, as compared to then?
Japan's internet group suicide problem.
The Asylum- Bringing you the Mockbusters you crave! From the giddy tech thrills of Transmorphers to the adrenaline pumping mysteries of The DaVinci Treasure, we've got it all! Crave a little creature on creature action but don't want to pay HIGH HOLLYWOOD PRICES? Let me suggest Alien Vs. Hunter, or AVH as we like to call it. You kids going crazy for snakes on some sort of transportation? We can do that, too- Bang! Snakes on a Train! Just like that Sam Jackson picture, only better cause it's on a train. [more inside]
'Mean Spirited' Goat kills Pastor - an angry goat, probably looking something like this one, in the words of the police 'just went berserk' and attacked and killed an elderly Christian Ecclesiastical official in Tennessee, USA. [more inside]
March 24, 2008
Curious George: A very Good Year? Murder? Wine? CATACOMBS??? [more inside]
How did humans evolve a brain that supports language? - a post from Babel's Dawn blog discussing the events of the Evolang* conference in Barcelona, which apparently signals the end of Chomsky's Generative grammar theory as an explanation of human language evolution.
Let's Talk - picture by Polish photographer Marcin Nawrocki
March 23, 2008
Calculating the terminal velocity of a Balrog.
March 22, 2008
Canada in a Box "...cigar boxes from this era provide tantalizing vignettes of everyday life in the new country, Canada." [more inside]
March 21, 2008
Obamamania on the comics page, and it's not a strip you would expect. I am a longtime fan of "Over the Hedge" (not even CGI and Bruce Willis could ruin it for me) and, well, "Yes, folks, he can talk to animals... even at 3AM" is cool on top of cool.
Are you a god? So Bennett Prescott and a friend are on their way to California. Apparently, they live somewhere between the oughts and the nineties (the bad ones where the web designer didn't allow for your 19.2K modem). [more inside]
March 20, 2008
Tommy Gravedigger, Billy Bricks, Dai Llewellyn and all "Home on vacation in 1972, a photography student saw that the essence of his Welsh town was about to be torn apart by redevelopment. Now the social significance of his images has been recognised."
Today is Mister Rogers' 80th birthday,
and in honor of this most momentous of days, I think you should read this Esquire profile of him. It's a little long, so if you haven't got the time, you can look at a list of 15 Reasons Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever. Or you could watch a a nine-part Google video of interviews with Fred Rogers.
[more inside]
5 Reasons Why "The Customer Is Always Right" Is Wrong The "Chief Happiness Officer" gives his encouragement to the legions of 'Customer Service' workers who either (1) don't know what they're doing (2) don't care or (3) are being paid to say NO. I'm a customer and I do NOT endorse this message. [more inside]
ONLY IN YORKSHIRE. A people who really know the value of the folding stuff.
Sing along with Carmina Burana!
(flash video)
This is one even the kids will be glad to join in. Or perhaps you've always wondered what they were saying in those Bollywood videos. (YouTube)
[more inside]
March 19, 2008
Flipping particle could explain missing antimatter - In its early days, the cosmos was apparently a cauldron of radiation & equal amounts of matter and antimatter. As it cooled, all the antimatter supposedly was annihilated in collisions with matter - but for some reason the proportions ended up lopsided, allowing some of the matter to form the elements, stars and galaxies we see today. The precise reason for this is unknown to physics, perhaps until now. [more inside]
Match It For Pratchett
, by Pat Cadigan (his Livejournal blog). Donate to Alzheimer's Research Trust to match Terry Pratchett's US$1 million donation.
[more inside]
March 18, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90 :-( You'll be remembered by the nerds of the world! [more inside]
A Life 4 Sale
Ian is fed up with his life, and is ready to sell it all. So he says... [youtube]
Grand Central Freeze. Some static talking point, I think!
Dakota the Dinosaur Mummy getting ready for her big show. More info here and here.
Say It Ain't So! Septics To Re-make Spaced!
Top-notch Brit Sit-com Spaced is about to be buggered to buggery by our friends across the pond.
[more inside]
The Big Dog Quadruped Robot is Evolving
- FLV video with sound -
We've talked about Boston Dynamics' Quadruped Robot before (but the video link is dead now). Here's an update. It runs, it jumps, it dances to the sound of a model airplane engine: it crosses the uncanny valley. Hello, biological entities, this is the future.
March 17, 2008
3-17-08 Never Forget: The leprechaun invasion has begun. (Youtube)
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor talks about her "stroke of insight," when in her late 30s she experienced a stroke in her left hemisphere which left her partially paralyzed; unable to read, speak or understand spoken language; and affected her memory. [more inside]
You become responsible, forever, for what you have strafed. A former Luftwaffe pilot claims he may have shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince.
Questionaut - a flash game my the makers of samarost
Antique spectacles
has a lot of interesting images of early specs, plus 'interesting topics' which really are, and much beside. See also...
How the BBC rendered their spinning globe logo in 1985
- A live picture of a spinning globe had been shown before BBC programmes since the Sixties. When colour came to BBC 1, a curved mirror was added behind the globe, and the effect this produced continued to be seen on screen for over fifteen years. But technology had moved on and time was running out for this mechanical symbol.
A solid state device had generated the symbol on BBC 2 since the end of the Seventies. Subsequently, electronic clocks on both networks had replaced the mechanical clocks. And in early 1984, work began on a project to generate a digital symbol for BBC 1 too. Here is the story of those great men & women, etc..
Birmingham is the weirdest place to live in the UK - we all knew this, comes as no surprise, right? Almost two-thirds of Brummies believe in the supernatural after reports of giant hailstones hitting city streets and Martians dropping in for mince pies at the Rowley Regis home of Jean Hingley in 1979. Also, The Bull Ring. It's actually the 10th Circle of Hell, it's just been outsourced.
The 14 Precepts of Engaged Buddhism By Thich Nhat Hanh.
March 16, 2008
Consumers to Providers: Do You Know Who I Am?
Poll Finds That Customer Service and Recognition Trump Privacy, Pricing.
"There's a whole generation of people coming up that will vote with their feet . . . They say, 'I expect Bank of America to know me this well. I'm on Facebook, and everyone knows me. They know I like cheese ravioli.' "
[more inside]
Neanderthals (Probably) had Language Comparable to Modern Humes
March 15, 2008
Torchwood Babiez for Torchwood/Doctor Who fans.
Yes, it is very cute. Go on, you know, you want to...
First four pages in links above. Via this Big Blue thread, headspace's comment.
New Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart portrait found
March 14, 2008
Google Sky, peoples. [more inside]
Tommy Westphall's Mind: A Multiverse Explored. An incredibly intricate diagram and key showing how 282 TV shows link to the St. Elsewhere universe via character crossovers, and therefore only existed in the mind of one autistic child. [more inside]
March 13, 2008
Samurai-Sword Maker's Reactor Monopoly May Cool Nuclear Revival
via and I couldn't disagree
[more inside]
The world's smallest republic has run out of money.
Bear convicted of stealing honey. Rash of pic-a-nic basket thefts continues.
Eurovision is coming, let the piss-taking begin. [more inside]
Space Robot to join International Space Station. [more inside]
Museum of the Improbable
The Museum of the Improbable was a collection of original, limited-edition, science-fiction and fantasy-themed 3D models.
From mid-2005 to mid-2006, the models were available for sale and download. As of June 2006, the models are no longer for sale.
Dolphin leads beached whales to safety. Not that I'm surprised by this sort of behavior. But still, wow!
March 12, 2008
One quarter of teenage girls in the U.S. have an S.T.D. [NYT] “The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure [...] and teenage girls are paying the real price.”
Islands of the World, from WorldAtlas.com. [more inside]
Status Quo fan hangs himself after wife left him for Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt
- it wasn't until December 2003 that, quite naturally & normally for any red blooded male, Mr Hewitt agreed to let Rick sleep with his wife - as long as he could join in. I mean, this *is* Rick Parfitt we are talking about.
Warning: Daily Fail
[more inside]
Photoshop disasters My favourite is the mutant hand, well suited to the MoFi bodice ripper.
Eyeing the Evolutionary Past: "As we survey nature, the eyes of various creatures reveal the underlying means by which a single attribute can express itself over millions of years."
March 11, 2008
Alpha Centauri may have an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone.
The heroic Englishman China will never forget Bravery, determination and sacrifice in war-torn 1940s China.
March 10, 2008
Human, all too human? [NYT] New York Governor Eliot Spitzer linked to a high-end prostitution ring. Stay tuned for devastating puns.
Thou Shalt Not Blog if Thou Art Boring
Thou Shalt Not Ride Invisible Bike, For Such is Surely Sorcery LOL
Thou Shalt Not Talk Loudly on Thine Cell Phone in Public Lest I Smite Thee on Thy Bottom and Don't Think I Won't
[more inside]
Top 5 Amazing Kinetic Sculpture Videos
Teaching Crows to do Useful Stuff - The goal of this project is to create a device that will autonomously train crows. Crows and ravens often score very highly on intelligence tests. Crows Have Human-Like Intelligence [more inside]
March 09, 2008
Britain makes camera that "sees" under clothes I'm pretty sure a technological breakthrough of this magnitude is too important a subject to warrant tarnishing the subsequent thread with any sort of puerile comment. Thank you for your restraint. [more inside]
Practicing self-control consumes real energy. [Via Mind Hacks.]
Incredible Imitations by the Lyre Bird... also the all-time most popular Attenborough clip, and why not? [more inside]
March 08, 2008
Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer?
- The behavior of the computer replicates, with shocking precision, the cellular events unfolding inside a mind. "This is the first model of the brain that has been built from the bottom-up," says Henry Markram, a neuroscientist at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the director of the Blue Brain project. "There are lots of models out there, but this is the only one that is totally biologically accurate. We began with the most basic facts about the brain and just worked from there."
[more inside]
March 07, 2008
Creeptastic! Your Friday Flash Fun for today
Cities sans signage make for the creepy look. [via]
Man buried alive saved by positive thinking, Buddhist meditation, and air trapped in his hat - 'Doctors were astounded, saying that a person could normally not live longer than five minutes in a similar sealed space. One local doctor said: “It’s a miracle that he’s alive after being buried for two hours.”'
March 06, 2008
Who knew that spreadsheets, flickr, and music would work so well together?
You've probably already seen LivePlasma, which shows how musicians influence each other. Now you can get into their brains!
Venn diagrams, bar graphs, and pie charts show the process that some of the world's greatest songwriters use when they agonize while writing lyrics.
[more inside]
Sex researchers say: Under 3 too short, over 13 too long.... minutes, I mean minutes!!!!
Did chimp and human ancestors interbreed? - The earliest known ancestors of modern humans might have reproduced with early chimpanzees to create a hybrid species, a new genetic analysis suggests. Fundies are gonna love this.
March 05, 2008
Rumours that Patrick Swayze has only 5 weeks to live. [more inside]
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the world's first major virus for Macs. Video link here. Sheer I-wish-I'd-thought-of-that genius. Pranksters ahoy!
truck spills
What a mess!
WARNING - some involve animal deaths.
[more inside]
Henry the Hexapus of Blackpool - picture here.
March 04, 2008
titlepage
passionate conversations about books
Curious George: Uphill Both Ways? Where did the expression come from that goes something like, "When I was a kid, we had to walk barefoot to school in the snow, and it was uphill both ways!"? [more inside]
March 03, 2008
Top 15 Misconceptions about Evolution
How to spot a Tagger In most cases, the difference between graffiti being art or a crime is PERMISSION! via.
it's ok, you're safe now. [more inside]
65th Pictures of the year. Some heartbreaking. Others...
March 02, 2008
Dating culture is dead - instead, young New Zealand women are regularly getting drunk and cruising around in packs looking for men to have sex with. 'Nuff said. Present company excepted, of course.
...when they pry my cold, dead fingers off my clock's pendulum. I refuse to feel old until Win2x is in the dustbin.
March 01, 2008
Kevin Budden
passed away on 29 July, 1950. He died from the venom of a taipan that he was trying to capture alive so that an anti-venom could be developed.
Foolish adventurer or or self sacrificing hero? The debate continues 58 years on....
Curious George: Irrational Fears. I was discussing irrational fears today with a friend. She mentioned that she has an irrational fear of holding a newborn baby and accidentally pushing her fingers right through into its head, since she knows the skull is still relatively soft. I admitted that I have an fear that anyone coming towards me on a bicycle is going to deliberately swerve into me and hit me, so I tend to freak out silently in such situations. So now I'm curious, Monkeys o' Mine, what are your irrational fears?
