Links posted in April 2008
April 30, 2008
59 images of galaxies interacting with one another, newly released to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 18th anniversary. Images available for download here. As featured in today's APOD.
No, **you** are NOT lesbians ***WE*** ARE Lesbians and we're fightin' for it!
RIP Albert Hoffmann - he made a vast discovery. A vast one, I tell you. [more inside]
Cognitive surplus is a concept that produced an "aha!" moment for me. Many blogs have covered Clay Shirky's presentation at Harvard of his new book Here Comes Everybody (no sniggering!). Via.
Hubert's Freaks - This is the story of Bob Langmuir, a brilliant but troubled rare-book dealer whose headlong pursuit of an archive from a 1960s Times Square freak show leads to the discovery of a trove of hitherto unknown photographs by the great American genius Diane Arbus.
April 29, 2008
To Die For I’d been told that trust was the most crucial element involved when choosing a fugu chef. It was like selecting a heart surgeon or a private pilot. “The fugu chef has your life in his hands,” one of my Japanese friends had said. Which is why my first impulse, upon greeting Mr. Naohisa Hashimoto, is to turn around, in the most diplomatic possible way, of course, and run screaming back to my hotel.
One-Woman Animated Feature. Sita Sings the Blues is a new feature-length animated film. Aside from its gorgeous art and music, it's remarkable in that all the animation was done by one woman, both by computer and by hand. [more inside]
International Tapir Day is not today. Love a tapir anyway!
Men Who Explain Things Smart women and the men who have no concept of such a thing. [more inside]
Invite a doggie into your home when the crotchfruit is tiny, and they won't sneeze when they get bigger. [more inside]
April 28, 2008
What brought me to France
in the first place was a story I'd heard about François Mitterrand, the former French president, who had gorged himself on one last orgiastic feast before he'd died. For his last meal, he'd eaten oysters and foie gras and capon — all in copious quantities — the succulent, tender, sweet tastes flooding his parched mouth. And then there was the meal's ultimate course: a small, yellow-throated songbird that was illegal to eat. Rare and seductive, the bird — ortolan — supposedly represented the French soul. And this old man, this ravenous president, had taken it whole — wings, feet, liver, heart. Swallowed it, bones and all. Consumed it beneath a white cloth so that God Himself couldn't witness such a barbaric act.
I wondered then what a soul might taste like.
[more inside]
Raymond Scott
was a musician and composer you may not have heard of but if you've ever watched Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies, you've heard his music.
[more inside]
April 27, 2008
The beautiful white horses of England
The Uffington hill figure
More on hill figures
Wiltshire White Horses
More from the air
[more inside]
And you thought YOUR landlord sucked... Don't rent from Kip and Nicole Macy.
"A college student was last seen having a night on the town. He was partying with friends when they became separated. No one is sure how he ended up in the water. This is the disturbing path that almost all of the cases listed on this blog have taken." - Speculation that several disappearances in the Chicago and Great Lakes area are the work of a serial killer targeting young college men. via The Chicagoist
You don't want it, he can't have it back.
Conference on World Affairs. Founded in 1949, free and open to the public, discussing many many issues that affect us today. Notables who've spoken at it include R. Buckminster Fuller, Henry Kissinger, Roger Ebert, Andy Ihnatko, and Arthur Miller. [more inside]
Lost Films is the project of a single photographer, but spans the work of many. He acquires old cameras that still have film in them, or comes across exposed but undeveloped film. The film is developed and what prints can be salvaged are made. Though they're mostly family snapshots, there's something fascinating and lovely about these glimpses into the lives of ordinary people and the decades they lived in.
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913. A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
Live Webcast of a Collossal Squid Dissection Coming Up - lets go watch them chop this fat bastard up. [more inside]
TED: Ideas worth spreading. It is what it says "Inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers". This site has astounded me on more than one occasion. It's made me cry and left me speechless on more than one occasion, too. [more inside]
Curious George I need some help, monkeys. Remember "The People's Court"? I'm talking old school, with Judge Wapner. At the beginning of each episode, there is a voice-over that begins with something like... "The people you are about to see are not actors..." I need the full text of that voiceover, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Help me, monkeys!
April 26, 2008
Play chess differently with fog of war, specific line of site, and your pieces randomized on the home row.
Attila the Hummm.
The singing Hun, that's mine recollection.
And falling off a lot of horses.
Glued-to-the-Screen-George: Doctor Who Series 4 The fourth series of Doctor Who has been running for a few weeks now, and I have found myself very impressed so far. I know that a few Monkeys are loyal Who followers, have you been enjoying it as much as I have? [more inside]
April 25, 2008
Why do so many baseball players have August birthdays?
Autonomous Robotic Jellyfish Jellyfish robots that are autonomous.
monkey want comix What are your favorite smart daily/weekly comics? Here are a few of mine. It seems like I used to have more than this though, at least enough to last through a cup of coffee.
Al Jaffee's fold-ins for Mad magazine in interactive click and drag form. [more inside]
Hobotopia reveals the real origin of the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats. I found the series charming.
It's A Flee Country!
Former CIA analyst Chalmers Johnson, who coined the geopolitical usage of the term "Blowback", says in this Good Magazine piece that the time has come to give up on America.
[more inside]
Joan's Mad Monarchs This is an old site, but it's a good 'un, and I've never seen it here on MoFi. [more inside]
Air Monkey. Trash bag street art by Joshua Allen Harris.
Oh dear, timesuck alert. Race your little car against other little cars by typing movie and book quotes. It's a little biased if you're good at remembering quotes, like I'm not. [more inside]
April 24, 2008
"I imaged a powerful reversal of the urinal drain would be like an elephant and used this as the theme," says the designer. It can clean a urinal in 10 seconds and save 8 litres of water per urinal. Clever and pretty.
Humans nearly went extinct 70K years ago, scientists claim. [more inside]
Curious George: Posting Let's talk about FPPs, monkeys. How, and where, do you find yours? Are there any particularly good FPPs that you think serve as emblematic of MonkeyFilter at its best? In general, what sort of subject matter/site etc you consider worthy of bringing to the MonkeySphere? And what do you consider unworthy? [more inside]
Curious George
A while back I saw a link on Reddit (I think) to a picture that was a map of various mathematical objects. In the center of that map was a group of connected boxes labeled "Integers", "Rational Numbers", "Real Numbers", "Complex Numbers" and a circle around them going to a note that said "You are here". The rest of the map outside the circle were more esoteric mathematical objects and their relationships showed by linking lines, as well as their links to the "YAH" group.
Well now I can't find that. Can a million monkeys with keyboards bang out the url or google search terms I can use to find that again?
[more inside]
The Lesson: Don't Eat the Feet It was compared to the Alien Chestburster (original movie scene... and there will be cake!), or maybe a variation of the "Never Give Up" icon, but this find by a California Animal Rescue team is kind of awesome yet ewwwsome. [more inside]
Barbie Massacre
Barbie Massacre is a photo blog run by six nice ladies who enjoy staging grisly crime scenes with Barbie® and other dolls.
N. S. F. W.
Searchme. I typically roll my eyes at Web 2.0 stuff, but this is actually kinda groovy.
April 23, 2008
Apitherapy in Indonesia.
Perhaps a very promising MS treatment, such as The Bee Lady promotes? A National Geographic episode of bee sting therapy heats up the debate as to whether bees have souls or not. Just don't try to steal a hive.
Bzzzzzzzz...
Tree funnies.
Click this link and you will see
A stoned out, half baked drunken tree.
Very promising cancer treatment based on an incredibly simple idea from a retired radio engineer, John Kanzius. [more inside]
The Dictionary of Victorian London is a collection of contemporaneous texts and illustrations describing just about every aspect of London as it was during the 19th century. Victorian fast food, cross dressing, visions of the future, and a hog's head more. [more inside]
Bobby Fischer's final manoeuvre. The fight over what the greatest chess player ever left behind.
Biographicon - for everyone's biography, including yours.
'How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone' While not in the same realm as Free Range Kids, idle parenting calls for parents to give kids back their stress-free playtime.
Forget the Film, Watch the Titles "On SubmarineChannel, we love a good main title. That's why we started this online collection in 1997 of the most stunning and original film title sequences. Some are engaging and wildly entertaining, some are funny, exhilarating or simply deadly beautiful. Some are oozing with visual treats, while others hit you hard with their bold and audacious style."
It only tells the hour,
but that's amazing enough. Artist Christiaan Postma uses more than 150 clockworks to create a clockface that spells out each hour. I love the animation.
(Shamelessly stolen from Boing Boing)
Surgeons give hope to blind with successful 'bionic eye' operations. [Via Disinformation.]
April 22, 2008
A game of universal inebriation, teamwork, clones as pets, and sex0r in space, sprinkled liberally with teh funnay. [more inside]
Full-Time Freelancing: 10 things learned in 180 days For those of us who work from home, every day is Casual Friday. But it's not all sweatpants and joy - working from home is HARD! [more inside]
'Lawnchair' Larry Walters got an Honourable Mention in the Darwin Awards. It looks like Rev Adelir Antonio de Carli, a Roman Catholic priest from Brazil, might not be quite so lucky.
You Walk Wrong. "It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the human foot. But we’re wrecking it with every step we take." [Via Neatomrama.]
PWN TEH N00BZ- ForumWarz is the Internet in game form. Your goal is to become a horrible troll who raids 'net communities and shuts them down just for the lulz. You know, just like the real Internet! [more inside]
Mofi has seemed to be fading for a while, If you don't read tracicle's blog, maybe you should. [more inside]
April 21, 2008
Marijuana 101 - Wanna become a licensed California cannabis dispensary? Here's the class to take.
Plan 59 is a treasure trove of mid-twentieth-century images. [more inside]
April 19, 2008
London stank as bad as one of my posts yesterday: almost as bad as the famous Great Stink of 1858. [more inside]
Curious George Acquires a Kitty We acquired a kitten from a friend today. She is five months old, housetrained (thankfully), needs to change her diet for the sake of my sense of smell, and has the coolest orangey eyes. [more inside]
April 18, 2008
"Open Source Living is a community-driven dynamic archive of Open Source software spanning all major platforms."
self-cutting generator birds are dying. i'm gonna go write about this in my livejournal.
A leaflet on alternative medicine produced by the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health has been condemned by Britain's first Professor of Complementary Medicine. [more inside]
101 Great Mostly Pretty Good Quotes About Computers and Programming.
But Wait There's More! Yep, 101 More Quotes and an extra added bonus, the second list as originally published in Spanish, because it's fun to read Isaac Asimov and Emo Philips in another language, and it'll also piss off Lou Dobbs.
[more inside]
April 17, 2008
April 16, 2008
Noddy, the World's Tallest Horse is Still Growing. [more inside]
28 Hours in Jyväskylä
Filmed at locations in and around Jyväskylä, a city in Central Finland. The idea was to show city life in a way that no-one normally experiences it - in time-lapse, often shot from roofs and masts.
[crossposted to the blue]
April 15, 2008
Are Bill and Ben The Oldest Twin Horses in the World? - The 24-year-old equine brothers are hoping to trot into the record books with their claim to the title.
'I did heroin once, just to be sociable' Extract from Mark E Smith's autobiography. Enjoy his wedding gift to Marc Riley and views on this and that. Earlier extract here.
April 14, 2008
Free Range Kids: Why I let my 9-year old ride the subway alone [more inside]
John Archibald Wheeler, RIP [more inside]
April 13, 2008
mean cat song, not for the easily terrified!
SLYT (I hate that acronym, but it's easier than typing Single Link You Tube, but I think I just defeated the purpose of that)..exactly as described.
[more inside]
On the Nature of Time: Implications for Advanced Intelligence and SETI - 'What if what we consider to be "real time" - how fast we move, talk, think - happens to be a glacial pace compared to other lifeforms?' [more inside]
April 12, 2008
They'd never get away with this in Regina. The Brits find themselves in a hole they can't get out of.
Rather depressing superheroes of Manchester.
April 11, 2008
April 10, 2008
Steele's Rudimentary Economics - Disguised under the cover of 'Rudimentary Economics' is hidden a scrapbook of newspaper clippings from 1885. [more inside]
April 09, 2008
the apocalypse is nigh ...because your cat's current hairstyle SUCKS.
An Editorial in Biological Psychiatry takes a stand for medical research, and against acts of terrorism that target medical researchers. The 87 authors of the editorial say they wish to not only declare their stance against these increasingly violent acts, but also to emphasize the important role of non-human primate research.
Multiple Sidosis. A SLYT post full of happy music and WIN. A slow burn, but IMO, well worth the wait.
April 08, 2008
Some things to ponder. What It Feels Like...to Have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. What It Feels Like...to Be Buried in an Avalanche. What It Feels Like...to Be Really, Really Short. What It Feels Like...to Be Really, Really Tall. What It Feels Like to...Have Leprosy. What It Feels Like...to Be Shot Out of a Cannon. What It Feels Like...to Swallow Swords. What It Feels Like...to Touch Fake Boobs. [more inside]
Disney's goin' 3D They're equipping movie theatres with digital 3D projection systems to try and combat couch potatoes and their deluxe home theatre systems.... It'll only add US$3 or so to the price of a ticket. Are you gonna go for it?
Monkey girls prefer dolls, but monkey boys go for cars.
My Frog has no Lungs - how does it breathe? By osmosis, bitch. First lungless frog found. Evar. [more inside]
See, there's a line that needs to be drawn. And I'd say it needs to be drawn, oooh, over THERE. Not here. Eight year olds do not need bikini waxes. Just....no. (Link (should be) SFW).
April 07, 2008
Tuesday Flash: Magic Pen based on Crayon Physics. Here's the directions.
I'm off to see the whizz-bang ..
the wonderful whizz-bang of ..
It's exciting. Well, maybe! That H. Bo' thingie fascinates me.
Chance to win year's dung supply in a fund-raiser for horse welfare charity HorseWorld. [more inside]
April 06, 2008
Stories
The first two of six. Over the coming weeks a secret seventh will unravel, with a prize of 1,300 books on offer to those smart enough to work it all out.
Not me, anyway.
Charlton Heston Passes Away at the Age of 84
April 05, 2008
How does the mind store information? What kinds of memory do people have? How easy is it for you to remember certain things? In the following experiments, you can learn something about human minds. Or, you can skip that and read about the human memory model. I forget what it was I was going to say.
April 04, 2008
Pedal car deemed safe. A judge has decided that a human-powered car is safe for use on the streets of Toronto. The modified Buick was powered by the pedaling of the driver and up to three passengers and was complete with hand brakes and candle headlights.
Many, possibly every episode of Rainbow Quest - Lost treasure now found, like a coprolite at the back of a stenchy old cave. Rainbow Quest was a late sixties folk music program, mostly unrehearsed, on which host Pete Seeger brought just about every great folk act and sang every great folk song you can think of. I can't think of any. [more inside]
April 03, 2008
Coprolites found in an Oregon cave lie to rest the theory that Clovis people were the first humans to inhabit the "Americas". So much for Captain Picard being the "grandfather" of all "Americans"... [more inside]
Daily caffeine 'protects brain' - brain is said to be 'thankful'. [more inside]
Disney has a fist in every pie. (Main link is a Slate article about one man's full-immersion experience in Florida's Disneyworld resort.) Grown women can now walk down the aisle in Disney Princess-themed gowns, as can their bridesmaids and flowergirls. Once they start having babies, they can decorate the nursery with Princess-themed cribs and changing tables. Disney promotes healthy eating and brands its own produce through i-Farms. They even have a town: Celebration, Florida.
April 01, 2008
Can we Wii and Pii if we are a Shii? At last, a chance for women to cash in on the heretofore men-only sport of target peeing. Somewhat NSFW (seems to be a recent trend of mine, but at least I'm not posting two a day like some preverts).
Monkeyfilter will kill us all. [more inside]
The Indian Wars are not over. Back in December, the "Lakotah Freedom Delegation" visited numerous embassies in Washington DC to announce the unilateral withdrawal from treaties with the US, and to declare the independence of the Republic of Lakotah. [more inside]
Tai Chi could help diabetics control their blood sugar. Tai Chi is a slow, relaxing form of exercise that even the very old can start learning. (via reddit) [more inside]
For the Love of Opera Gloves is a site dedicated purely to...yes. Opera gloves. I recommend the General Index for easier navigation. For starters, perhaps, might I point you to the Etiquette of Opera Gloves?
Cedric Saves The Day?
Cedric the Tasmanian Devil may hold the key to beating a cancerous disease threatening his species with extinction. Let's hope the boffins are right.
No comment from this guy yet.
