September 29, 2012
Conan O'Brien interviews Hunter S. Thompson
Along those lines: Charles Bukowski - Worst Hangover Story.
-.. .. -.--
Renovations on HMS Victory turn to traditional hemp and pitch to keep out the water; modern synthetic alternatives weren't up to the job (I couldn't figure out how to type sempahore into the subject heading).
Chelsea Wolfe - Appalachia
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
September 28, 2012
Call the Sweeney Todd
A pop-up human butchery and morgue is set to appear in Smithfield; a promotion for the next iteration of Resident Evil.
Looks like marketing. Feels like foreshadowing.
House Ryan - "A man chooses."
Some Game of Thrones house sigils for video game families.
Bourbon > whisky
Gavin McInnes: Ten things I hate that everybody loves (via Kathy).
September 27, 2012
Calculating machines
"Johann Helfrich von Müller (January 16, 1746 – 1830) was an engineer in the Hessian army who conceived the Difference Engine in 1786. He has also designed - among other things - a large and powerful burning mirror, a sun clock, an air pump, an air gun, a barometer, a range finder device, etc."
Vaisravana, King of the North
''In a discovery that sounds uncannily like the plot of an Indiana Jones film, researchers have discovered that the 1000 year old Buddhist statue found by a Nazi expedition in 1938 is made from a meteorite".
September 26, 2012
Global bacon shortage
"New data shows the European Union pig herd is declining at a significant rate, and this is a trend that is being mirrored around the world. Pig farmers have been plunged into loss by high pig-feed costs, caused by the global failure of maize and soya harvests."
By contrast: The existence of cupcake dispensing machines.
Understanding the Modern Gamer 9.2012 | North America
"This Google whitepaper examines the changes in video gamer digital behaviors through the lens of millions of tablet, desktop, and mobile searches. It also explores the meaningful link that exists between online engagement and game sales. Our research uncovers the following key trends:"
Kylie Minogue - Flower
Cover your assetts: "Simulacrum & Hyperbole, Series 1 British artist Katerina Jebb made this film of Kylie Minogue for her imaginary TV channel Lucid TV Paris. It is part of the exhibition titled" Simulacrum & Hyperbole ". The series was presented at Trading Museum , Comme des Garcons Paris." (hat tip to Mr. Hawk)
September 25, 2012
Nick Abrahams - Ekki Mukk (Sigur Ross Valtari Mystery Film Experiment)
Featuring Aidan Gillen.
Sigur Rós - Ekki múkk from Sigur Rós Valtari Mystery Films on Vimeo.
Allach Tarot
Boris Kobe (1905-81) was a Slovenian architect and painter who became a political prisoner in the concentration camp of Allach, a sub-camp of Dachau, near Munich, Germany.
Images at the link.
September 24, 2012
Karakuri
Beautiful devices. With apologies for promoting the network and their farm team, if only indirectly.
The Casual Vacancy
"A rare chance to see an interview with JK Rowling. The Harry Potter author talks about insomnia, the Scottish referendum and what her most favourite recent novel has been."
Martian eclipse
Curiosity sends back an image of a transit of Deimos (Phobos also makes an appearance).
September 23, 2012
September 22, 2012
Gabriel Over the White House (1933)
"... @verumserum says it's as weird and creepy and prog-porn as it sounds -- he says he kept waiting it for it to get less weird (I guess-- to explain late in the film that fascism is not, in fact, a panacea) but it never does."
September 21, 2012
Eve's Wireless (1922)
''The phone even has a lid which makes it the first flip-phone we are aware of, although it is probably not going to win any design awards. ...
"The footage appeared in Eve's Film Review issue 41, a cinemagazine for women which was run by Pathé between 1921 and 1933."
Related thought: Is this Apple's Mapgate?
September 20, 2012
The Birth of a Tool (Axe making by hand)
The music: Don Iver - Holocene.
In the game of thrones
"Don't you ever do anything that isn't motivated by politics?" Garion asked him. For some reason, Zakath's flippant explanation of his act irritated him.
"Not that I can think of," Zakath said. "Politics is the greatest game in the world, Garion, but you have to play it all the time to keep your edge."
Silk laughed. "I've said the exact same thing about commerce," he said. "About the only difference I can see is that in commerce you have money as a way of keeping score. How do you keep score in politics?"
Zakath's expression was peculiarly mixed - half amused and half deadly serious. "It's very simple, Kheldar," he said. "If you're still on the throne at the end of the day, you've won. If you're dead, you've lost - and each day is a complete new game."
- David Eddings, Demon Lord of Karanda (1988); this quote from the first paperback edition, pg. 108 (1989).
The last pre-digital counterculture
Wired interviews William Gibson on the emergence of punk.
September 19, 2012
Project Habakkuk
Project Habakkuk was a proposed fleet of iceberg aircraft carriers meant to provide air cover against U-boats for convoys dashing across the Atlantic gap. The "berg ships" were to be 2000 feet long with 40 foot thick hulls constructed from Pykrete, a machinable blend of frozen water and wood pulp.
CBC's Ideas podcast tells the story, including a cameo by Winston Churchill in his bath tub.
I dwell with her
A fragmant of papyrus has emerged demonstrating that at least some early Christians belief Christ was married to Mary Magdalene.
And per se and
The history of the ampersand, formerly the 27th letter of the alphabet.
Packwood - Bats
Packwood - Bats from Packwood on Vimeo.
From Bayden Packwood Hine's debut EP, Packwood. Engineered by Chris Vallejo (Josh Pyke, Passenger) at Linear Studios in July 2011 and mastered by Sean Magee (Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd) at Abbey Road Studios in London in August 2011, my copy of the EP just arrived from Australia. Canadian tour, please!
Live:
Also: Packwood at Tumblr.
September 18, 2012
The illusion of life
Some prehistoric cave paintings - including twenty at Lascaux - were animated by torchlight (video at the link).
Mind. Blown.
The Art of Manliness
Seven lessons on appearance learned in the United States Marine Corps.
Pietro Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana
La Scala Theater Orchestra. Herbert von Karajan, conducting (1965). Performers: Adriana Martino, Carlo Bergonzi, Fiorenza Cossotto, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Maria Grazia Allegri.
September 17, 2012
Netflix exec
Canada's bandwidth caps "almost a human rights violation."
For great justice
A bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover, by boosting the level of amines which clear the head..
September 15, 2012
The emperor's new phone
"I'm a Mac cultist, but I won't be rioting over this blasphemous video.
From wine to whiskey
An infographic on the life of a cask.
(Hat tip to The Campblog.
September 14, 2012
Science fiction's greatest "failures"
"We're all using technology and trading ideas that only make sense in a world that's had Star Trek and Blade Runner."
Related: Shooting The Prisoner.
Performance capture
"It’s a total game changer, in terms capturing performance, which is why we call it performance capture, not motion capture.”
Bacon number
Google now has Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon functionality (hat tip to the Sister of the Flea).
Sugarland - Life in a Northern Town
Sugarland:Life In A Northern Town from Risen Magazine on Vimeo.
September 13, 2012
Singularity & Co
The Brooklyn bookshop saving out-of-print science fiction, one ebook at a time.
September 12, 2012
RIP: Sean "Vile Rat" Smith
"He was on jabber when it happened, that’s the most fucked up thing. In Baghdad the same kind of thing happened - incoming sirens, he’d vanish, we’d freak out and he’d come back ok after a bit. This time he said ‘FUCK’ and ‘GUNFIRE’ and then disconnected and never returned."
Under a Leicester car park
Archaeologists searching for the grave of Richard III have unearthed a skeleton with a curved spine and an arrow in its back.
Jupiter Impact Video
George's Astrophotography: "Here is a 4 sec. clip of an impact on Jupiter I recorded on 10 Sept. 2012."
September 11, 2012
BBC Radio 3 - Isaac Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy (1973)
Isaac Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy was adapted in eight hour-long episodes by the BBC, first broadcast in 1973. Sound design by the immortal BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Skyrim media
Female Ancient Nord cosplay.
Also: Prachov Rocks, Czech Republic.
September 10, 2012
Monika Delgado & Mickey Todiwala - Fragments (2012)
FRAGMENTS from Mickey Todiwala on Vimeo.
Stuck in the '80s - Episode 272
Seven years they've been doing Stuck in the '80s and they waited until now to offer a tribute to Highlander. Why?
The link takes you to Steve Spears' Tampa Bay Times blog and from there to the podcast/iTunes. I listen to the show via Tunein.
September 08, 2012
Topical
"...Jean-Pierre Dupuy proposed a convincing critique of John Rawl's theory of justice: in the Rawls model of a just society, social inequalities are tolerated only in so far they also help those at the bottom of the social ladder, and in so far as they are not based on inheritied hierarchies, but on natural inequalities, which are considered contingent, not signifying merit. What Rawls doesn't see is how such a society would create the conditions for an uncontrolled explosion of resentment: in it, I would know that my inferior status is fully justified, and would be deprived of blaming my failure on social injustice."
- Slavoj Zizek, How to Read Lacan
It rains both on the just and the unjust. But mainly on the just.
"James Franco got a masters degree in filmmaking from NYU last May, and is even expected to teach a class on directing short films at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts this fall, which is surprising because he skipped 12 of his 14 classes on directing and received a “D”."
Man cave
"Silvio Berlusconi's summer retreat on Sardinia's exclusive Costa Smeralda, which gained notoriety for parties with topless models, features an underground cave, complete with an emergency escape exit to the sea."
September 07, 2012
If you must label the absolute, use it's proper name
"The pressure in Mount Fuji's magma chamber is now higher than it was in 1707, the last time the nearly 4,000-metre-high Japanese volcano erupted, causing volcanologists to speculate that a disaster is imminent."
Arafel
The Department of Defense Cheetah robot can outrun Usain Bolt.
September 06, 2012
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003)
"Interstella 5555 is a feature-length Japanese animated musical film originally released on December 1, 2003. The film is the visual realization of Discovery, an album by Daft Punk. Each track from the album has been animated as an episode in the story of the abduction and rescue of an interstellar pop band. The film was produced by the creators of the Discovery album, along with Toei Animation, under the supervision of Leiji Matsumoto."
Music list
1 "One More Time"
2 "Aerodynamic"
3 "Digital Love"
4 "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"
5 "Crescendolls"
6 "Nightvision"
7 "Superheroes"
8 "High Life"
9 "Something About Us"
10 "Voyager"
11 "Veridis Quo"
12 "Short Circuit"
13 "Face To Face"
14 "Too Long"
Shepard's Prayer
"Shortly before the launch, Shepard said to himself: 'Don't fuck up, Shepard...' This quote was reported as 'Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up' in The Right Stuff, though Shepard confirmed this as a misquote. Regardless, the latter quote has since become known among aviators as Shepard's Prayer."
Cognitively related: Space whisky.
September 05, 2012
The pose. The form. The thrust.
The Motya Charioteer, as warmed by hyperbole.
He's just getting warmed up.
Deceit Perfume
The invention, called Deceit Perfume is intended to camouflage the smell of gunpowder by spreading odors over “vast areas.”
Flybuddy2
Chinese researchers have unveiled a system that allows you to control drones with your thoughts. What could go wrong?
September 03, 2012
In the Eye of the Ring
An Introduction to the world of symbols in Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung.
Can't talk, maple syrup drill
Why does Canada have a Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve?
Via Reddit.
Opening moves:
- US moves to seize strategic corridors to Alberta and the Prairies, embargoes Halifax and Vancouver. Toronto is amphibiously invaded across Lake Ontario. Ottawa is occupied, nuclear submarine fleet deploys into Arctic.
- Canada throws entire army into "the Vermont gambit"; seizes American maple syrup manufacturing and assets (along with John LeClair)
YOUR MOVE AMERICA.
September 02, 2012
The medium is the massage
"Why on EARTH are McLuhan’s works not in ebook form? That’s a sick gag to pull on the man’s legacy."
Some small steps
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Observer sends back photos of the Apollo 11 landing site. You can see Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s footsteps.
Also: Yet another image made possible by the heroic era preceding this new Dark Age. The Earth from 11 billion miles out.