Links posted in December 2008
December 31, 2008
Monkeydamus: Predictions for 2009 Curious Prophetic George - Any Predictions for 2009? [more inside]
Sir Terry: Terry Pratchett, the compassionate satirist, gets his K. [more inside]
One World, Many Minds: Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom.
December 30, 2008
Hobo Stripper. "I live in a van. Yeah, down by the river. And I dance nekkid for money. Weird, I know, but it's my path, and it's full of beauty and bliss. I hope my writings will inspire you to look inward to your own bliss. If you want to live in a van or be a stripper, then wow, I've got some tips for you." [Via Susie Bright (nsfw) at Boing Boing]
December 29, 2008
Fuck You, Penguin. A blog where I tell cute animals what's what.
Rembrandt Q&A . A photographer chats with Rembrandt about lighting a scene.
December 28, 2008
Liposuction Doctor Used Fat from Patients to Power His Car
Curious George: Help my bored puppy get smart
.
My new 10 months old Border Collie is going bananas with boredom because I can't go play on my bunged up foot. Help me figure out what sort of tricks I can teach her while stuck in a chair or a walker.
[more inside]
Difficult to say while drunk. tinyurl used because actual URL is 143 characters long
Business as usual at General Motors? They are selling a 49% stake in YULON motors, a Taiwanese company that manufactures the top import into Japan, and winner of a long list of awards for manufacturing, pollution abating, goodness and graceness. All of this give away has been announced a day before the first $4 billion loan rolls into their vaults from Bush and Company (I mean the United States). [more inside]
December 27, 2008
Badass Asteroid Destroys Earth in High Definition
December 26, 2008
2.6 Million Cubic Yards of Toxic Coal Ash Slurry Released in Tennessee Dike Burst.
Twenty million gallons a day. That's how much has been leaking from the Rondout-West Branch Tunnel originating in the Catskill Mountains and supplying much of New York City's water. Teams of divers live in a pressurized tank far below ground for a month at a time, working on repairing things, and breathing a helium-rich air mixture that makes them squeaky voiced. [more inside]
December 25, 2008
Ho Ho Ho!
.
What's under YOUR tree? Looking forward to tasty delights? Spending time with loved ones?
Why are you on line today of all days?
Playwright, actor and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter is dead of cancer at age 78. New York Times obit here, coverage from The Grauniad here; Nobel lecture here. [more inside]
15 Skilled & Sublime Nature Photographers. [Via]
December 24, 2008
December 23, 2008
Elf Yourself! Upload up to 5 pics of people you know and watch them perform hot dances moves in an elf suit. Utterly ridiculous but undeniably hilarious.
Mount Mabu and its wildlife. "It was one of the few places on the planet that remained unmapped and unexplored. But now Mozambique's Mount Mabu has started to yield its secrets to the world." [Via]
Posing as a Bidder, Utah Student Disrupts Government Auction of 150,000 Acres of Wilderness for Oil & Gas Drilling. "He didn't pour sugar into a bulldozer's gas tank. He didn't spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. But wielding only a bidder's paddle, a University of Utah student just as surely monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that thousands of acres near two southern Utah national parks won't be opened to drilling anytime soon."
December 22, 2008
SVG is the Future of Web Application Development.
AJAX brought us web 2.0, but scalable vector graphics and javascript will bring us the next generation of web-based, fully interactive applications. Pay special attention to Sun's Lively Kernel, which gives you a good glimpse of what this technology can do for the web.
Note that the Lively stuff will not work in IE, which still doesn't support SVG. Safari works best, FF almost as well.
Richard Cheese Lounge Singer Extraordinaire, with his backup band, Lounge Against the Machine. Interpreter of divergent songs such as NIN's Closer, Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice and a delightful Mambo of U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. His albums are available thru the iTunes store as well as via the above link. Finding his music made my weekend, I hope it brightens your Monday.
The Art of R.S. Connett. [Via]
December 21, 2008
Curious Snowed-in George: How about that weather, eh? On this, the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, nearly all of Canada and most of the northern US is experiencing wild storms and record low temperatures. [more inside]
The Jesus Christ dinosaur hypothesis for the evolution of flight. [Via]
December 20, 2008
Curious, George: Why does Firefox hate jpgs?
Usually if there's a link to a jpg image, Firefox just opens it in a tab for me. But periodically, only for some specific jpgs, it prompts me whether I want to save the image or choose a specific program. Only some images, not all. This happens both in FF 3.0 in XP, and in FF 3.1 beta on OSX.
What the hell, man?
In Repeat of Milgram’s Electric Shock Experiment, People Still Pull the Lever.
December 19, 2008
Curious George: Santa hacks. What's the best way for Santa to give a bird as gift? [more inside]
Ice: A Victorian Romance is an exhibition of fifty-five rare books and journals, which were originally displayed at the Linda Hall Library, May 1-September 13, 2008.
Fugly-Ass Christmas Sweaters Of The Day Is it ok to say "ass" on the new, kinder, gentler MoFi?
Sketching the Earliest Views of the New World. "The watercolors that John White produced in 1585 gave England its first startling glimpse of America". [Via]
A day's worth of mothering in 2 minutes
Majel Barrett Roddenberry: 1932-2008 She played Nurse Chapel in ST:TOS, Lwaxana Troi in TNG, and the voice of the computer in every variant. She was also married to the Creator, and was cast in the role of Number One, when Star Trek was originally proposed. I, for one, am very saddened by her passing.
December 18, 2008
2008 in pictures A repository thread for end-of-year news photo links. [more inside]
Could it be that Microsoft has mole engineers who intentionally plant security holes? Or else, how could EVERY version of IE be so flawed? Every single version, every time?
December 17, 2008
Once again,
Slate's explainer has its annual list of questions that it dare not answer, for fear of a massive drop in IQ, EQ, and quality of readership.
How many can be answered here instead?
Earth Atmosphere "Breathes," Thanks to Solar Winds.
The New York Times 8th Annual Year in Ideas. ...including Goalkeeper Science, Minicattle, the National Ten Percent Off Sale, Positive Deviance (not what it sounds like) and the Rising Tide Tax System... [more inside]
No Cake 4 Hitler Adolf Hitler Campbell's parents custom birthday cake request was denied by a New Jersey supermarket. His little sister, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, was also disappointed by the decision.
December 16, 2008
A Complete Field Guide to the Faces of Keanu Reeves Go to the "Watch the Slideshow" button for ACTING GENIUS!
Rom-Coms can ruin your love life! A study by the Family and Relationships Laboratory at Heriot-Watt University explores how the portrayal of romance in popular media affects the way people experience their real-life relationships. The study is on-going: take part!
Dear Santa... Since we don't have online access to a mall Santa, let's send our wishes via MoFi. What's on your Christmas list?
The Natural History of Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids. [Via]
December 15, 2008
С Рождеством Христовым, Comrades!
Soviet Aerospace Christmas Cards
via
Pink Millipedes.
Fascinating until it strikes!
And on a facetious note, the perfect fashion accessory for Paris.
Ghosts of Nature A collection of beautiful albino animals, along with a good amount of accessible scientific info on albinism. The peafowl are gorgeous. [more inside]
MonkeyFilter redo And no, I don't mean a site facelift. I'm going to start cracking down. If you are a member here, or you are thinking of becoming a member here, please read this. [more inside]
December 14, 2008
Top ten self surgeries - listy fun. With added "gah! and "äieee!" and more "gah!"
December 13, 2008
The Ghosts of Antarctica: Abandoned Stations and Huts.
How do we know
... what we know? In simplest terms.
[more inside]
If it's not too late, watch the moon rise tonight. The moon is at its perigee tonight: the point at which it's closest to earth in its egg-shaped orbit. At moonrise it appears even larger. It also means tonight's high tide will be extra-high.
Wishing you all a Communist Christmas [Flash animation; music] That Santa wore red and had a beard like Marx you know.
December 12, 2008
Awake. Abstract Expression of Tibetan Buddhism. [Via]
Large Mexican firm Buys Bakery. That's the story. But that's not the headline. *snicker*
December 11, 2008
The Single-Link Video Thread
Occasionally, I come across a video I think Monkeys would find interesting, but which falls into an awkward category. There’s no thematically-related thread to post it in or it’s too interesting to bury in a older related thread, but I don’t feel it’s significant enough to warrant an FPP of its own.
I know opinion is divided on single-link video FPP’s; heck, even my own opinion is divided on the matter. So, I thought I’d put up this thread for a couple of videos I wanted to link, and for a place for others to do the same if they want.
Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before.
Wonder Woman and the Phallic Symbol
Because fighting crime can be hard.
A suggestive, but entirely SFW collection of old WW comic book covers.
42 Magnificent Works of Modern Earth and Land Art.
December 10, 2008
It's December 10th. Did you call in Gay today?
Twilight: a review. (With bonus added sex scene, so text may be NSFW.)
December 09, 2008
Munch a Bunch The character ofJohn Munch (played by Richard Belzer) has appeared on more TV series (TEN!!!) than any other in history, according to IMDB and Wikipedia 1, Wikipedia 2. via
Charger Escape Sweet wee point'n'click game, fer GramMa (and other horsey monkeys).
Austenbook (spoilers.)
Oliver Postgate Dead. The creator of Bagpuss, the Clangers and Ivor The Engine (amongst others) has died. These were some of the best loved children's TV shows in the UK for pretty much everyone over the age of 30. [more inside]
Lost Tribes of the Green Sahara.
December 08, 2008
Is it getting warmer in here? An 11 minute animated video that does a very nice job of explaining climate change..
The Palm Pistol: a gun "designed for people who have trouble firing a normal handgun due to arthritis and other debilitating conditions." Its manufacturers are trying to get it classified a medical device to allow a purchaser a rebate under Medicare.
This online advent calendar from MoFi member dirtdirt makes me smile.
Thank You President George W. Bush A website where you can 'thank' George Bush for all he's given us over the past eight years. Be sure to sign your 'name', or some other heartfelt message. [via teh 'kette]
The Simpsons rip off = child porn. A NSW Supreme Court judge has ruled an internet cartoon in which lookalike child characters from The Simpsons engage in sexual acts is child pornography. [more inside]
And now, a singing crocodile dressed as a cowboy teaches you to meditate. [Via]
December 07, 2008
Dreams. A spot the difference game, which has different, er, differences each time you play. I quite like the artwork.
Has an alien comet infiltrated the solar system?
December 06, 2008
Pin-up queen Bettie Page in hospital after heart attack.
What every nativity scene needs. HOPEFULLY, I sneak this one in before homunculus beats me to it...
December 05, 2008
Mystery jelly engulfs Scotland Well, OK, pops up a bit all over the countryside.
Happiness is contagious: in a social network, if one person is happy, it increases the chance of their friends being happy, and the friends of their friends being happy. So smile and make all of MoFi happy!
OJ Simpson is going to jail which begs the question: if OJ was to go to jail, and there not be a media frenzy around to hear it, would it still be news? No doubt, he's sitting around somewhere, waiting, muttering to himself "O tempora o mores!" Indeed, OJ. Indeed.
Tricycle Program Gets Rolling like anything tricycle-related needs further description. Pah!
December 04, 2008
Anonymous, George: Facebook Nightmares
Perhaps this seems like a silly question. Long story short, a former "friend" from junior high/high school has requested to add me as a friend on Facebook.
The problem is: I'm having bad dreams about it.
[more inside]
2081 is now a soon to be released movie based on the short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut from the collection Welcome to the Monkey House. One reading is that it's not so much a satire against liberal egalitarianism as it is one against envy and guilt as they effect human potential... [more inside]
Worshipping les Canadiens. A course at Université de Montréal, examining the idea of the Montreal Canadiens (now in their hundredth season) as a religion, or more accurately, of sport as a substitute for religion. [more inside]
December 03, 2008
Prop 8 - The Musical with John C. Reilly, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jack Black as Jesus. [more inside]
Alarm Clocks for the Waking-Challenged Fun blog post roundup of clocks that give you that extra kick in the pants to get up. [more inside]
There's a big debate being promoted over the web by someone using the handle "spork," who claims to have built a wind-powered vehicle capable of traveling faster than the wind while moving in the direction of the wind. [more inside]
The strange phenomenon of fungi that shine in Japan. [Via]
December 02, 2008
The 10 best US tv shows you're not watching. [linked article leads to PDF] Sure, we know about 30 Rock, but what of the others? (Personally, the Americanization of Life on Mars is growing on me, after a shaky start. The cast is golden.)
Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2008. [Via]
December 01, 2008
Handfed - Above the Sea. Lovely music video, but possibly NSFW. [Via]
Please Don't Bomb Nobody This Holiday by the Dan Band, whoever they are. (SLYT)
