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May 31, 2012

The Questor Tapes (1974)

"The Questor Tapes is a 1974 television movie about an android (portrayed by Robert Foxworth) with incomplete memory tapes who is searching for his creator and his purpose. Conceived by and executive produced by Gene Roddenberry, the script is credited to Roddenberry and fellow Star Trek alumnus Gene L. Coon."

Posted by the Flea at 07:28 AM

Codenamed Buffy

Former Apple software and hardware engineers have been hired to create a Facebook smartphone.

Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor is said to be leading the project, and the new recruits will expand a group working with Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC on a project codenamed Buffy – a reference to the vampire slayer TV series.

News of the Buffy phone first emerged in November. It is expected, like Amazon's Kindle reader, to run on a customised version of Android, according to Digitimes.
Posted by the Flea at 07:27 AM

Beautiful crystal prisons

Micah Lee and Peter Eckersley of the Electronic Frontier Foundation say ”No place, and no system, can be perfect if it denies its citizens the freedom to change it, or the freedom to leave.”

Creatives of the world, unite!: Apple’s new iOS 6 Maps app with 3D mapping is coming this summer.

Posted by the Flea at 07:24 AM

Helicarrier

While I have heard the first rumblings of the obselescence of Blu Ray, this 30 disc Avengers’ Helicarrier Blu Ray Disc Case is tempting.

Posted by the Flea at 07:23 AM

Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera - Moves Like Jagger

Posted by the Flea at 07:22 AM

May 30, 2012

Planet of the Vampires (1965)

"Wikipedia lists a number of inspirations for Ridley Scott's Alien. The Thing from Another World, Forbidden Planet and most obviously It! The Terror from Beyond Space; these I had seen. But it is only this weekend I have been exposed to the Italian schlock majesty that is Mario Bava's Terrore nello spazio (1965), variously known as Demon Planet, Planet of Blood, Space Mutants, The Haunted Planet, The Haunted World, The Outlawed Planet, Planet of Terror, The Planet of the Damned, (perhaps most correctly) Terror in Space and best as Planet of the Vampires."

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Hic sunt dracones

"Two Roman-era shipwrecks have been found in deep water off a western Greek island, challenging the idea that ancient shipmasters stuck to coastal routes."

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Star Wars Trilogy: The Radio Play

If William Shatner played C3PO and Christopher Walken played R2D2.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Orbital - Halcyon On and On

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 29, 2012

Video Game of Thrones

First impressions are promising. It appears the game offers two distinct playable characters.

The first character, Mors Westford, is a ranger of the Night Watch, who specialises in tracking people and has a dog (which, as Sechi demonstrates in one of the later missions, he can possess and control directly when stealth or the ability to get into small spaces is required).

The second character you play is Alester Sarwyck, the heir to Riverspring who mysteriously disappeared 15 years before. He returns (for the funeral of his father) as a sort of fire-priest, with all manner of fire-related abilities; Sechi is keen to emphasise that, because he has been away for 15 years, he has to deal with complex political fall-out.

Useful suggestion from the comments: A "slap Joffrey" minigame.

Posted by the Flea at 08:58 AM

Diegetic Thinking Skill

"Diegetic Thinking Skill is basically when a player is good at imagining themselves as having the same constraints and opportunities their character would have in the game world."

Posted by the Flea at 08:57 AM

The Overthinking Person’s Drinking Game

Drink when ambivalence haunts you.

Posted by the Flea at 08:54 AM

Rachel Brice & Illan at Tribal Fest 12

More at Coilhouse.

Posted by the Flea at 08:53 AM

Christocakes - The Bear and the Maiden Fair

Posted by the Flea at 08:52 AM

May 28, 2012

Quatermass (1979)

"Influenced by the social and geopolitical situation of the early nineteen-seventies and the hippie youth movement of the late nineteen-sixties, Quatermass is set in a near future in which large numbers of young people are joining a cult, the “Planet People”, and gathering at prehistoric sites, believing they will be transported to a better life on another planet. The series begins with Professor Quatermass arriving in London to look for his granddaugher, Hettie Carlson, and witnessing the destruction of two spacecraft and the disappearance of a group of Planet People at a stone circle by an unknown force."

Part 1 - Ringstone Round, Part 2 - Lovely Lightning, Part 3 - What Lies Beneath, Part 4 - An Endangered Species.

Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

Honey intoxication

The honey collected by the Rai people of Nepal has an intoxicating, relaxing effect, thought to result from the grayanotoxin present in the nectar collected from white rhododendrons.

Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

Necrotic pollutants

To clean up the cesspool the Ganges River has become, India has used sewage-treatment farms, pumping stations, purification plants and twenty-five thousand flesh eating turtles.

Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

Kaskade & Skrillex - Lick It

Posted by the Flea at 08:22 AM

May 27, 2012

God's Cartoonist - The Comic Crusade Of Jack Chick (2008)

Posted by the Flea at 09:59 AM

The Cross and the Switchblade (1970)

"The Cross and the Switchblade is a book written in 1962 by pastor David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. It tells the true story of Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence they were involved with. The book became a best seller, with more than 15 million copies distributed in over 30 languages.

"In 1970, a film adaptation was released, starring Pat Boone as David Wilkerson and Erik Estrada (in his screen debut) as Nicky Cruz, the teen gang member whose life was transformed by Wilkerson's ministry. The film has been viewed by an estimated 50 million people in over 30 languages in 150 countries, according to World Film Crusade."

Posted by the Flea at 09:57 AM

Night Ranger - Sister Christian

Posted by the Flea at 09:54 AM

May 26, 2012

That's no moon

Death_Star_BBQ.JPG

Posted by the Flea at 08:18 AM

What fungi sprout in Yuggoth

Irregular orbits of small icy bodies beyond Neptune suggest Planet X, four times the size of the Earth, waits there lurking.

Posted by the Flea at 08:17 AM

Auto China 2012

"Global automakers are showcasing the latest concepts and models at Auto China 2012 in Beijing. Here are a selection of images from the show floor."

Posted by the Flea at 08:14 AM

Nadia Ali, Starkillers & Alex Kenji - Pressure

Posted by the Flea at 08:12 AM

May 25, 2012

More than just a car - a way of life

Citroen_2CV.jpg

When Emile Leray's Citroen 2CV broke down in the desert he took a hacksaw an rebuilt it into a working motorcycle (file this under too good to check).

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Pedigree

Daughter of Isabella Rossellini, granddaughter of Ingrid Bergman, Elettra Wiedemann is new face of Coast.

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Moshe Safdie - Sky Habitat Singapore

Features an impressive infinity pool.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Kylie Minogue - Timebomb

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 24, 2012

All this water is yours

Europas_Ocean.jpg

"Adopting an estimate of 100 kilometers depth, if all the water on Europa were gathered into a ball it would have a radius of 877 kilometers. To scale, this intriguing illustration compares that hypothetical ball of all the water on Europa to the size of Europa itself (left) - and similarly to all the water on planet Earth."

Posted by the Flea at 06:28 AM

In elf news

Icelandic MP Árni Johnsen has taken steps to protect a family of elves by relocating a thirty ton boulder (via Quotulatiousness).

It appears that Johnsen, of the Icelandic Independence Party, was not motivated by purely altruistic purposes. A source revealed to the Review that in 2010 Johnsen was involved in a single car auto accident, in which the MP's vehicle was destroyed. Johnsen, however, escaped from the collision unscathed. It is speculated that Johnsen's miraculous survival, from an accident which would have killed most men, was the work of elven magic.

In Vinland news: Iceland is not going to adopt the Canadian dollar as its currency.

Posted by the Flea at 06:27 AM

Ragnarok couture

Say what you like about the Order Of Fenris, I like the cut of their jib.

Posted by the Flea at 06:24 AM

Deadmau5 feat. Chris James - The Veldt

Posted by the Flea at 06:22 AM

May 23, 2012

Charlene Bagcal - Solace

'Solace' is a fashion film exploring the relationship between a young girl and an Angel of Death (via Haute Macabre).

Posted by the Flea at 08:58 AM

Truly, I'm doing it wrong

Truly, being an academic is one incredible Nazi-fighting adventure after another.

Posted by the Flea at 08:57 AM

Moog Google Doodle

In case you haven't played Google yet today.

Related: Google putting the "G in design."

Posted by the Flea at 08:54 AM

Andrea feat. Costi - Haide Opa

Hat tip to Alex.

Posted by the Flea at 08:52 AM

May 22, 2012

The trial of Lili St. Cyr

Lili_St_Cyr.jpg

From the LIFE Archive, Retronaute features Edward Clarkes photos of the trial of Lili St. Cyr.

Lili St. Cyr received the title of the most famous woman in Montreal throughout the late 1940s into the 1950s. However, Quebec’s Catholic clergy condemned her act, declaring that whenever she dances “the theater is made to stink with the foul odor of sexual frenzy.” The clergy’s outcry was echoed by the Public Morality Committee. St. Cyr was arrested and charged with behavior that was “immoral, obscene and indecent.” She was acquitted but the public authorities eventually closed down the Gayety Theatre where she performed.”
Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

The New Aesthetic

"Perhaps more than any other design discipline, fashion is engaged in an intense dialogue with the past."

But over the past year, a loose group of creatives in London’s East End have given birth to a counter-narrative to the growing tide of heritage and nostalgia, examining the reality of our increasingly artificial and technology-mediated world head-on. Known as “The New Aesthetic,” the movement was born last May with a blog post by London-based writer and technologist James Bridle, who began collecting found images at new-aesthetic.tumblr.com that dealt with the “eruption of the digital into the physical world” and the idea of “seeing like a machine” in an attempt to capture and communicate the possibilities for a more contemporary visual culture.
Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

HumaneWatch - Lawyers In Cages

Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

May 21, 2012

Skyfall trailer

Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

Underworld

the world's subways are converging on an ideal form.

Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

If Diablo 3 were a girl

Hat tip to Dave.

Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

Eruption - I Can't Stand The Rain

Posted by the Flea at 08:22 AM

May 20, 2012

Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower

I'm eating cold pizza for breakfast. Fuck yeah!

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Affinity - All Along The Watchtower

Hammond organ, fuck yeah!

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Bryan Ferry - All Along the Watchtower

Bryan Ferry, fuck yeah!

Posted by the Flea at 08:45 AM

Bear McCreary - All Along The Watch Tower

Cylons, frak yeah!

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Sac State Jazz Singers at Monterey - All Along the Watchtower

A capella, fuck yeah!

Posted by the Flea at 08:43 AM

Bob Dylan - All Along the Watchtower

Isaiah 21:5-9, fuck yeah!

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 19, 2012

Huun-Huur-Tu (Live)

Posted by the Flea at 06:28 AM

I've got a bad feeling about this

At least it's not a sequel.

A press release gave the official word today that [Ridley] Scott’s second Blade Runner project would be a sequel but also that his original screenwriter, Hampton Fancher, is also on board. It says he’ll be there, “to develop the idea for the original screenplay for the Alcon Entertainment, Scott Free, and Bud Yorkin produced” film.
Posted by the Flea at 06:27 AM

Pulsar sound

"This pulsar lies near the centre of the Vela supernova remnant, which is the debris of the explosion of a massive star about 10,000 years ago. The pulsar is the collapsed core of this star, rotating with a period of 89 milliseconds or about 11 times a second."

Posted by the Flea at 06:24 AM

Tiësto feat. Tegan & Sara - Feel It In My Bones

Posted by the Flea at 06:22 AM

May 18, 2012

Atra Taylor - Zizek! (2005)

My review.

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

There went the magic formula

In March of 1962, John Steinbeck wrote a letter to Edith Mirrielees, his creative writing professor at Stanford 40 years earlier.

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Phone Password Breaker

With your email address and password, the police - or anyone else, for that matter - can access your iCloud. I am not sure why this is news...

Posted by the Flea at 08:43 AM

Cat Power & Manny Pacquiao - King Rides By

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 17, 2012

Daphne Guinness Interview by Alex Fury

"In Fashion interview with Daphne Guinness. Joining In Fashion's cast of the industry's most influential characters, Fashion Director Alex Fury speaks with Guinness on aspects of a life rich in the appreciation of art, beauty and luxury."

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Paris is Burning (1990)

Paris Is Burning is a 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the drag ball culture of New York City.

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Me gusta

Oona Castilla Chaplin (born 4 June 1986 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish actress, flamenco dancer, and ballerina.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Crosby, Stills & Nash - Just a Song Before I Go

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 16, 2012

Mikey Please - The Eagleman Stag (2011)

Via Coilhouse.

Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

Chocolate Covered Cosplay

"When you hear the word cosplay, the first image that comes to many people’s minds is a waif-like Asian girl."

Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

You press the button, we do the rest

In a basement in Rochester, NY, Kodak had a nuclear reactor loaded with 3.5 pounds of enriched uranium.

Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

Arash featuring Lumidee - Kandi

Hat tip to Dr. Banner.

Posted by the Flea at 08:22 AM

May 15, 2012

Video Game of Thrones

First impressions are promising. It appears the game offers two distinct playable characters.

The first character, Mors Westford, is a ranger of the Night Watch, who specialises in tracking people and has a dog (which, as Sechi demonstrates in one of the later missions, he can possess and control directly when stealth or the ability to get into small spaces is required).

The second character you play is Alester Sarwyck, the heir to Riverspring who mysteriously disappeared 15 years before. He returns (for the funeral of his father) as a sort of fire-priest, with all manner of fire-related abilities; Sechi is keen to emphasise that, because he has been away for 15 years, he has to deal with complex political fall-out.

Useful suggestion from the comments: A "slap Joffrey" minigame.

Related: Screenshots.

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Winter is coming

But why?

From the comments:

Unfortunately, astronomical causes don't apply - the world of Westeros exists inside of a giant's eye, and is thus on the inside of its eyeball. You can see the Dyson-sphere-esque curve of it in the show's intro sequence. Hence, the variable seasons can presumably be attributed to something that makes a bit more sense, like the Giant's diet or disposition.
Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Paging Annie Wilkes

What happens if George R.R. Martin dies before finishing The Song of Ice and Fire?

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

The magical eyebrows of Emilia Clarke

The rest of the cast scrubs up nicely too.

Posted by the Flea at 08:43 AM

Spoons - Nova Heart (Live)

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 14, 2012

Spiderman - The Canon of Doom (1981)

It could be they mean "cannon" but "canon" is a fitting testament to Doom.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Posted by the Flea at 08:43 AM

Game of Thrones Season 3 is going to be a problem

"Researchers at Ohio State University say bookworms have been shown to adopt the feelings, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of fictional characters they relate to in a phenomenon called 'experience-taking'."

Posted by the Flea at 08:39 AM

Jägermeister - A Seat at The Table

Posted by the Flea at 08:37 AM

Audision - Yellow Sunset

Posted by the Flea at 08:32 AM

May 13, 2012

Convoy - The Movie (1978)

Which reminds me: Somewhere, I should still have my CB Radio board game kicking around...

Posted by the Flea at 08:07 AM

But not the six most ineffective...

The six stupidest video game school commercials.

Posted by the Flea at 08:04 AM

Journey - Don't Stop Believin' (Live in Japan)

Posted by the Flea at 08:02 AM

May 12, 2012

Authors@Google: Tim Harford

"Tim Harford speaks to Googlers in Mountain View on May 25, 2011 about his book Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure."

Posted by the Flea at 06:58 AM

The quintessential capitalist

"I think I gave myself a dare. It was the height of the Cold War. The readers, the young readers, if there was one thing they hated, it was war, it was the military....So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He was a weapons manufacturer, he was providing weapons for the Army, he was rich, he was an industrialist....I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him....And he became very popular."

Posted by the Flea at 06:57 AM

Light from a small, oozing alien planet seen

A NASA infrared telescope spotted light from the alien planet 55 Cancri e, which orbits a star 41 light-years from Earth.

By contrast: The definitive picture of planet Earth.

Posted by the Flea at 06:54 AM

Brazil

In case you really have to flee the authorities...

Posted by the Flea at 06:53 AM

Charlotte Gainsbourg - The Operation

Posted by the Flea at 06:52 AM

May 11, 2012

How to Build A Nuclear Submarine (2010)

Posted by the Flea at 07:49 AM

The Harrier

Sadly, I have not been able to identify the provenience of this one. Loving the soundtrack. Ken Freeman? Clannad, even.

Posted by the Flea at 07:48 AM

Jump Jet (1981)

Remember the Royal Navy?

"BBC documentary from 1981 on the successful development of the Harrier vertical take-off, fixed wing aircraft, telling the story of the development of the design from the first day of its conception.

"Good interview segments with Sir Stanley Hooker, designer of the Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine, and with Bill Bedford, test pilot for the P.1127 prototype."

Posted by the Flea at 07:47 AM

Jack Leroy Tueller - Lili Marleen

Posted by the Flea at 07:44 AM

May 10, 2012

Searchlights, 1940-1945

A-Douglas-Dakota-of-the-British-Overseas-Airways-Corporation-at-Gibraltar-silhouetted-by-searchlights-on-the-Rock-1940-45.jpg

At Retronaut.

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Shelf Hotel

"Rather than design a run-of-the-mill skyscraper for a new hotel in Xian, China, architects 3Gatti decided to put lots of smaller buildings on a gigantic set of shelves."

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

The guarded secret of plants

An artificial leaf has been designed that can turn water into hydrogen energy and oxygen, powered by sunlight.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Space Shuttle Launch Audio

Play LOUD (no music) HD 1080p.

Posted by the Flea at 08:43 AM

Katie Kim - Heavy Lightning

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 09, 2012

Berlin Calling (2008)

Berlin Calling is a 2008 German tragicomedy directed by Hannes Stöhr. The movie depicts the events following DJ and producer Ickarus' (Paul Kalkbrenner) institutionalization for drug abuse. German language film (nsfw - drug use, sexy times).

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Gavin McInnes - How to dress your age

McInnes has an issue with men wearing T-shirts with writing on them but even he makes an exception for "So?" Otherwise, this is sound.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Deadmau5 - T in the Park (2011)

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 08, 2012

Robert Anton Wilson - Aleister Crowley

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

My place is opposite R'lyeh

Antipodes map.

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

We don't need no education

"I single out philosophy and anthropology because those are two fields — along with zoology, art history and humanities — whose majors are least likely to find jobs reflective of their education level..."

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Adam Nordén - Linda's Theme

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 07, 2012

Breathe in. Breathe out.

P0nd is a brief, Flash-based relaxation game. I admit I didn't find it relaxing until I got the hang of breathing. Your space bar mastery will be much improved by the end (trust me on this) (hat tip to Things Are Good).

Related thought: Walden: A Game.

"Walden, a game," was developed at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media Divisions’ Game Innovation Lab and “simulates the experiment in living made by Thoreau at Walden Pond.” The game happens in a real-time, three-dimensional environment and replicates not only the actual geography of Walden Woods, but also the experiment of ascetic living that Thoreau conducted and recorded in "Walden" – an experiment that continues to be emulated by individualistic Americans today. According to the developers, the game “posits a new genre of play, in which reflection and insight play an important role in the player experience.”

Posted by the Flea at 08:48 AM

Your shadow weighs a ton driving down the 101

More real estate porn from California. Good news for the mandarin class.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Facade

An aerial view of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion facade and ride-building is a revelation.

I've never seen this shot before -- I'm riveted by the sight of the ride's apparent structure and the huge, actual structure behind it.
Posted by the Flea at 08:43 AM

Jóhann Jóhannsson - They Being Dead Yet Speaketh

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 06, 2012

Mushmellow - Toxic

Cover tracks always risk descending into parody or merely clever translation of the original into another genre. Ideally, a new interpretation should juice up whatever was best about the original. Our Ukrainian friends understand.

Posted by the Flea at 07:49 AM

Hurra Torpedo - Toxic

Britney Spears meets Norwegian post-industrial.

Posted by the Flea at 07:48 AM

CallmeKat - Toxic

School-girl crush meets lounge.

Posted by the Flea at 07:47 AM

Yaël Naïm - Toxic

Meanwhile, in occupied Paris.

Live.

Posted by the Flea at 07:44 AM

The Fiddleheads - Toxic

Bluegrass is the jazz of country.

Posted by the Flea at 07:43 AM

Britney Spears - Toxic

The immortal classic.

Posted by the Flea at 07:42 AM

May 05, 2012

Lovecraft : Fear of the Unknown (2008)

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

Revelation: It turns out Tennessee Williams published in Weird Tales. Who knew?

Posted by the Flea at 07:08 AM

Original sins

"There's something to be said about the sacred nature of a superhero's origin story."

Posted by the Flea at 07:07 AM

Inez & Vinoodh - Dior: Secret Garden - Versailles (2012)

A film by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, starring Daria Strokus, Melissa Stasiuk and Xiao Wen Ju in La Galeries Des Glaces - Château de Versailles. Music by Depeche Mode: 'Enjoy the Silence'

Posted by the Flea at 07:03 AM

Booka Shade - Regenerate

Posted by the Flea at 07:02 AM

May 04, 2012

Shakespeare's Restless World - A Pedlar's Trunk

Posted by the Flea at 06:58 AM

Gone to Croatan

The British Museum has re-examined a 16th century map of North Carolina and found hints to the destiny of the lost colony at Roanoke in the form of hidden markings showing the location of a fort further inland.

The analysis suggests that the symbol marking the fort was deliberately hidden, perhaps to shield it from espionage in the spy-riddled English court. An even more tantalizing hint of dark arts tints the map: the possibility that invisible ink may have marked the site all along.
Posted by the Flea at 06:57 AM

CSI Hauslabjoch

Ötzi contributes the oldest blood sample ever retrieved.

"Up to now there had been uncertainty about how long blood could survive, let alone what human blood cells from the Chalcolithic period – the Copper Stone Age – might look like," said Albert Zink, of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy, where Ötzi's body is kept at minus 6C.
Posted by the Flea at 06:54 AM

Cuff the Duke - Count On Me

Posted by the Flea at 06:52 AM

May 03, 2012

There is a black hole in the internet and that is 'sound'

The_goddess_Delia_Derbyshire.jpg

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop is being "reborn" through a partnership between the BBC and the Arts Council.

The New Radiophonic Workshop (NRW) will be led by Matthew Herbert, the electronic composer who has collaborated with Björk and been nominated for an Ivor Novello award for his soundtrack work. "What the [original] workshop achieved was the pinnacle of electronic music in this country, and it is all the more extraordinary given that it was conceived in the 50s," Herbert told The Independent yesterday.

Reminder: The Alchemists of Sound.

More importantly: The goddess Delia Derbyshire. Ziwzih! Ziwzih! OO-OO-OO!

Posted by the Flea at 08:49 AM

"Tax Me, for F@%&’s Sake!"

Stephen King argues the wealthy should pay more in taxes. With few exceptions - he takes care to exclude himself - the rich are insufficiently charitable to address his concerns (global warming, paying America's "staggering" war debt, and so forth).

And hey, why don’t we get real about this? Most rich folks paying 28 percent taxes do not give out another 28 percent of their income to charity. Most rich folks like to keep their dough. They don’t strip their bank accounts and investment portfolios. They keep them and then pass them on to their children, their children’s children. And what they do give away is—like the monies my wife and I donate—totally at their own discretion. That’s the rich-guy philosophy in a nutshell: don’t tell us how to use our money; we’ll tell you.

King's alternative: Using state power to force other wealthy people to spend their money the way he demands. Because Leviathan, that's why.

My favourite part of the argument concerns King's two radio stations in Bangor, Maine.

If I hit the movie jackpot—as I have, from time to time—and own a piece of a film that grosses $200 million, what am I going to do with it? Buy another radio station? I don’t think so, since I’m losing my shirt on the ones I own already.

King argues the government would do a better job spending your money than you do. Generalizing from his own experience, he would seem to have a point.

From the comments: A bumper sticker idea.

"I Work.
I Pay Taxes.
I Do Not Receive A Government Check.
I Am The 49%"

Posted by the Flea at 08:47 AM

Peak plastic

If we’re running out of oil, that also means that we’re running out of plastic.*

* I didn't get past the "if". But, it's an interesting point. I, for one, welcome our Bakelite future.

Posted by the Flea at 08:44 AM

Matthew Herbert - It's Only

Posted by the Flea at 08:42 AM

May 02, 2012

Spartacus Chetwynd, et al.

An_Evening_With_Jabba_the_Hutt_L.jpg

This year's shortlist of Turner Prize nominees are Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Paul Noble and Elizabeth Price, two filmakers, an illustrator and a performance artist. Chetwynd, pictured above left, is odds on favourite.

According to the jury, the nominees share “a common sense of humanity and lack of arrogance” and an interest in the 1960s and 1970s - the eras in which they were growing up.

Outrage here.

Related thought: It's not like Alan Moore ever planned to write a sequel to Watchmen.

Posted by the Flea at 07:28 AM

Transit of Venus

Venus transits the Sun on June 5 and 6. A good harbinger for my prospective jury duty.

It will take Venus about six hours to complete its transit, appearing as a small black dot on the Sun's surface, in an event that will not happen again until 2117.
Posted by the Flea at 07:27 AM

The Boundary Effect

A new study shows that walking through doorways makes you forget important things.

Posted by the Flea at 07:24 AM

Wankelmut - One Day

Posted by the Flea at 07:22 AM

May 01, 2012

Once upon a time - James Cameron (1984)

"Mark James Walter Cameron (17 June 1911 – 26 January 1985) was a prominent British journalist, in whose memory the annual James Cameron Memorial Lecture is given."

Christopher Hitchens:

There was a great journalist, a Scotsman called James Cameron who was a big figure in my youth when I was trying to read and imbibe good essayists and good reporters and he said ... in his Dundee accent, I can hear him saying it ...

He said "Every time I roll the paper into the typewriter, I think 'today's the day they're going to find me out'.”
Posted by the Flea at 08:28 AM

1% rule

"The 1% rule states that the number of people who create content on the Internet represents approximately 1% (or less) of the people actually viewing that content (for example, for every person who posts on a forum, generally about 99 other people are viewing that forum but not posting)."

For example, a large 2005 study of radical Jihadist forums by Akil N Awan found 87% of users had never posted on the forums, 13% had posted at least once, 5% had posted 50 or more times, and only 1% had posted 500 or more times.

The "90–9–1" version of this rule states that 1% of people create content, 9% edit or modify that content, and 90% view the content without contributing.
Posted by the Flea at 08:27 AM

Moore's Law lives

Intel's newest line of processors, named Ivy Bridge, are three-dimensional and incorporate features as small as 22 nanometers (as opposed to today's chips with features as fine as 32 nanometers).

Existing transistor designs—little changed in decades—could not simply be made smaller, with 22-nanometer features. That would cause them to become leaky, so that a transistor would allow some current to flow even when set to off. Intel got around that by adding an extra dimension to transistors, which for decades have been made as a stack of flat layers of material on top of one another.
Posted by the Flea at 08:24 AM

Not your father's General Strike

No Work, No School, No Housework, No Shopping.

Well, I had been planning to vacuum...

Posted by the Flea at 08:23 AM

Clock Opera - Once And For All

Hat tip to Beautiful Atrocities.

Posted by the Flea at 08:22 AM