December 2007
Are There Really Continents of Floating Garbage? →
Yes.
“But when he was tihnkin, zomg, a WallCat frm Ceiling Cat was liek, “Oh...”
– Matthew 1:20 in cat pidgin. Sadly, the language seems to be all over the place in terms of spelling, grammar and even idioms; it would have been interesting to present it as people spontaneously creating a language, but really, it’s more like everyone has their personal version of a code for...
Screengrab! :: Firefox Add-ons →
Removing one more trouble from my life, this extension captures entire webpages, without me having to scroll, print screen, scroll, print screen, stitch together in image editing program, save.
Cheer-Up Cartoon Playing Cards →
These look to be from the 1950’s or so and are signed “Washaw” the best I can tell. Anyon[e] know anything about these?
Via Drawn.ca.
Idi Amin →
“Which state leader was also a boxing champion in his country?” I was asked the question in a friendly quizbook-from-the-library-as-family-entertainment kind of quiz. Probably would’ve answered correctly, too, if I’d gotten around to watching The Last King of Scotland. Anyway, if anyone ever asks you, you’ll know that Idi Amin was Uganda’s heavyweight boxing champion...
1 tag
Copyright 'Allah' →
A Malaysian Catholic newspapeer has been sued for using the word “Allah” to refer to God. I guess you can expect absurdity in a country that issues fatwas against genies, vampires, mermaids, phoenixes and ghouls.
THE FIRST CITIES:Why Settle Down? The Mystery of... →
On Çatalhöyük, which once had a decent claim as the oldest city in the world, dating from around 7500 BC and with a population that might have reached 10 000 (it’s still probably the largest known neolithic settlement, at least in terms of population). There’s even more at Metafilter (there goes my day!).
Inside Norway's ''Doomsday'' Seed Vault →
A mountainside near the town was chosen as the home for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a “doomsday” seed bank that will store backup copies of as many as three million different crop varieties in case of a worldwide catastrophe.
The high-tech vault, which will open for storage in February 2008, is going to “put an end to extinction [of] agricultural crops,” said Cary...
2007 Logo Trends →
Has commentary, too (hat tip).
Baby hatch →
Baby hatches are basically hatches in a wall, insulated and hooked up with some kind of alarm system, into which women can deposit their children as a last resort if they can’t or won’t take care of them. The idea is hundreds of years old, but reincarated in Hamburg, Germany, in 2000, after five babies were found abandoned in a short time span, three of them dead. If you understand...
Netscape Browser to Die a Quiet Death in February... →
It’s still alive?
IP Spotting - How interesting is your IP address? →
Mine is apparently 21 interesting, which makes about as much sense as 35 awesome. What’s yours?
Bhutto Front Pages →
Newsdesigner.com collected international and American papers’ takes on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, giving an interesting look into how different news outlets choose to frame the same news stories. Some go for symbolic headlines in bold type such as “Hope takes a bullet”, others choose to focus on the facts, and leave the analysis for the main text (or others), for...
“I’m nostalgic for conversations I had yesterday. I’ve begun...”
– Kicking and Screaming (1995). The quote almost made made want to see it, but then I saw the plot outline:
Following graduation, a handful of college students do nothing and talk about it wittily.
If I were a pretentious intellectual I’d call it post-ironic.
“If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content...”
– Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Composition. In other words, an author should ask himself whether the positives of writing a longer piece suitable only for reading in multiple sittings outweighs the negatives of having the real world intrude on the reading experience in-betwen sittings.
What’s In A Name? →
Pseudonyms like “miss representation” or “Xman” or “Pesky Illustrator” or “Inaudible Nonsense,” or even the passionate, erudite “DesignMaven,” are not cute, they are cowardly. This indictment holds true for those who only use their first names as well (the many known only as Nancy or Chris, Dan or Steve). If a blogger or responder does not have the courage to own up to his or her ideas then why...
Ach, those damn 110 year old kids! →
These two mischievous boys have become firmly implanted in my idea of Christmas, since they’re only sold in normal stores (as opposed to specialist ones, of which there are sadly none in my immediate vicinity) for Christmas. Amazingly, they’re still funnier than most crap out there.
Obituary: Benazir Bhutto →
BBC’s obituary. Damn, that was quick. Looking forward to if/when The Economist gets around to doing one.
Benazir Bhutto 'killed in blast' →
Analysts note that Rawalpindi, the nerve centre of Pakistan’s military, is seen as one of the country’s most secure cities, making the attack even more embarrassing for the government of Gen Musharraf.
Yeah, I bet Musharraf is real embarassed. Oh, gee, my staunchest rival was killed! Oh noes!!!1!
“Reading a book on general physics should be like going to a magic show.”
– Motion Mountain: The Adventure of Physics.
Motion Mountain - The Adventure of Physics : The... →
How does a rainbow form?
Is levitation possible?
Do time machines exist?
What does ‘quantum’ mean?
What is the maximum force value found in nature?
Is ‘empty space’ really empty?
Is the universe a set?
Which problems in physics are still unsolved?
This site provides a free physics textbook that tells the story of how it became possible, after 2500 years of...
The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters →
Time and again, it’s demonstrated that the best way to predict who will do good is to look at who’s more determined and puts in more effort.
“Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I...”
– From the original interview with Will Smith, before a bunch of media latched onto the quote and made a scandal out of it.
Kinds of Type Systems →
Ever wonder just what a statically, strongly, latently, structurally typed programming is? Find out.
Heard the one about reading in dim light being bad... →
The Guardian dispels seven medical myths (via).
Interview with "Persepolis" Co-directors Marjane... →
Persepolis is on my “must watch” list, has been for some time.
Sorry, drooling geeks
2008 won’t be the year of the semantic web. Saying this year will be is like saying this year will be the year of Linux on the desktop. Both are slow, slow processes that may or may not eventually meet their goals, but they will only do so over time, not in the span of a single year. Just a friendly FYI.
Soldiers Against War — The Story of the World War... →
More on the Christmas Truce (thanks AZspot). I’m inclined to agree with the soldier quoted in this piece, who observed (about the truce), “Never … was I so keenly aware of the insanity of war.”
Freaking Impossible Mario →
Damn you, Livejamie, I won’t get peace this Christmas until I finish this stupid game. Someone replaced Mario with a cat, gave him an infinite supply of lives, then recreated the Mario level designs for maximal wicked difficulty. This is a video; the game can be downloaded here.
On a cheerier note, I’m playing the real deal (Mario Galaxy on Wii) too, and it’s every bit as fun as...
World War I Christmas Truce →
Awesome, plain and simple. Too bad it couldn’t last.
Picturing Business in America →
You’ve probably seen them. Maybe you’ve wondered about them. First invented in 1979, The Wall Street Journal’s distinctive portrait heads, known as “hedcuts” or “dot-drawings” have attained the status of an American icon, readily identifiable with one of the country’s best-known business publications.
Wall Street Journal’s “hedcuts” (hand-drawn head-portraits of people for use...
MIT spinoff's little green laptop computers a hit... →
The higher-than-initially-advertised price and a lack of the Windows operating system, still being tested for the XO, have dissuaded many potential government buyers.
What? You don’t pass on OLPC because it doesn’t run Windows. You just don’t. M’kay?
There is so much wrong with demanding support for an expensive, sucky, proprietary OS for an open laptop originally aimed...
I want _why (who coined the term “tumblelog” and wrote the craziest programming book ever) to start a tumblelog.
Merry Christmas, Winter Solstice, ...
…or any other variety you happen to celebrate. As can be expected, posting frequency may dip a little below normal today and the next few days. On the other hand, I have more free time on my hands, so it may jump up like crazy. But then there’s the fact that there’s just less interesting content being produced and found on the internet these times…
In any event, you know...
Is there an opposite to absolute zero? →
Summary: no one knows, but hey, the reporter got to talk to some physicists, and got lost along the way.
Would You Bet $100,000,000 on Your Pet Programming... →
No one would bet $100,000,000 on my programming abilities, no matter what programming language I used.
Nor should anyone else bet so much on one person.
Stuart Jeffries on the fight of philosophers →
Amusing story about two philosophers that, in their very non-philosophical personal fight carried out in book reviews, blogs, interviews and in person remind us that philosophers are, after all, only human.