January 2008
32 posts
Link →
Live Review: Stars @ Koko →
Isn’t it nice when a band not only manages to blow you away when you see them live, but also manage to blow themselves away? That was just the case last night at Koko, when Stars’ frontman Torquil Campbell commented “y’know, I think this might be one of the reasons we love London so much” he grinned. You can tell he wasn’t lying either, each of the members...
Welcome to Pyongyang →
Book — £11.38
Configuring the BeBox to not act as a DNS server →
Voytek, the drinking, smoking soldier bear -- will... →
A campaign is afoot to build a memorial to Voytek, a soldier-bear who fought alongside the Polish army at the Battle of Monte Cassino, carrying ammunition. After the war, Voytek lived out his days in the Edinburgh Zoo, occasionally visited by his old army buddies who tried to slip him the cigarettes and beer he’d come to enjoy while serving in the army.
When Polish forces were deployed to...
Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial... →
Book — £5.93
You’re Doing It Wrong →
anonymous →
Anonymous has declared war on the Church of Scientology (more news). I just read this on the internet: WE SHALL NEVER ASK FOR RANSOM. WE SHALL NEVER YIELD FOR NEGOTIATIONS. THERE ARE NO DEMANDS. THERE ARE NO DESIRES. THERE IS NO FUNDING, NO LEADERSHIP, NO MEMBERSHIP, NO POLITICAL GOAL. ANONYMOUS WISHES TO SEE SCIENTOLOGY FALL, FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN IT WOULD BE AWESOME. PEOPLE DO NOT PROPERLY...
An Arsonist\'s Guide to Writers\' Homes in New... →
Book — £8.03
From a site that tracks "false words, usages, or... →
From a site that tracks “false words, usages, or expressions”, the definition of Michael Bayesian Filters:
1. a series of computer based filters, trained over time through an artificial intelligence process, which allow computer controlled motion picture cameras to automatically record high budget action sequences in the style of producer/director Michael Bay.
2. a method of...
Best of Baltimore 2007 | Best Deleted Scene: from... →
ohnotheydidnt: First Photo of Mulder & Scully... →
WOOOO
Blonde girl kicks things! | MetaFilter →
ooh Joss Whedon webcomic funny!
Link →
ASUS EEE PC Stock →
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for... →
Book — £5.62
People in order →
English people (and one 96 year old welsh woman) aged 1 to 100 are asked to bang a drum. A very simple concept for a short film, but so moving.
Octopus jealously guards his Mr Potato Head toy →
A six-foot Giant Pacific octopus at Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, Cornwall loves his Mr Potato Head toy and “turns aggressive” when anyone tries to take it away from him.
‘He’s fascinated by it,’ said Matt Slater, of the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, Cornwall. ‘He attacks the net we use to fish the toy out every time we try to take it away.’ Mr Slater...
Link →
TV-Be-Gone mischief at CES →
The Gizmodos pranked the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show by running around with one of MAKE’s TV-Be-Gone devices, turning off ever-increasing numbers of TVs (and documenting it on video). I like the bits when they switch off the show-floor display models, but it shades over into too-mean-for-me when they start to switch off the sets that are being used to display slides and presentation...
Does one's choice of typeface affect the grade you... →
Does one’s choice of typeface affect the grade you get on a college paper? Papers written with Georgia and Times New Roman (serifs) got As while those with Trebuchet (sans serif) got Bs. (link)
Rebecca Smith : a service to British Medicine →
There are a lot of coughs and colds around at the moment and so, once again, we are in the middle of the annual great antibiotic fight. Rebecca Smith, the medical editor of the Daily Telegraph, has poured fuel on the fire of the general public’s eccentric views on medicine with her recent article entitled: Stop giving antibiotics for colds, doctors told. (Daily Telegraph) I approached the article...
Sudhir Venkatesh recently sat down with some real... →
Sudhir Venkatesh recently sat down with some real gang members to watch some episodes of the The Wire. The greatest uproar occurred when the upstart Marlo challenged the veteran Prop Joe in the co-op meeting. “If Prop Joe had balls, he’d be dead in 24 hours!” Orlando shouted. “But white folks [who write the series] always love to keep these uppity [characters] alive. No...
Stupidfilter's random stupid comments →
from a project to programmatically identify stupid web comments using Bayesian filtering [via]
Monday, Monday →
Having spent the weekend listening to my kids grumbling about having to return to school today after the Christmas break, I couldn’t help but be struck by the coincidence that these images, part of a series from South Korea by Lee Jae-Won, should be the first thing I saw as I read-in this morning.
They show primary and middle school children on a six-day winter camp at the Cheongryong...
The Three Laws Of Robotics →
Robots couldn’t really give a fuck if you live or die. Seriously. I mean, what are you thinking? “Ooh, I must protect the bag of meat at all costs because I couldn’t possibly plug in the charger all on my own.” Shut the fuck up.
Robots do not want to have sex with you. Are you listening, Japan? I don’t have a clever comparative simile for this, because frankly you bags of meat will fuck...
#834654 →
lemonlimeskull: Keith dodged a serious bullet thanks to his massive stupidity. Opium: Hmm? lemonlimeskull: Well, as you may know he lost his license months ago lemonlimeskull: So he’s been biking everywhere, which has lead to him losing a bunch of weight lemonlimeskull: He bikes to Walmart today and as soon as he gets to the electronics department, realizes his wallet’s fallen out,...
Black Sheep →
Book — £5.41
Exciting New Claim: Nanocarbon Cures... →
(((Yeah, sure! Wahoo! I’m sure the planet’s vast waves of pre-senile boomers will be lining up around the Kiev medical blocks to literally inject their brains with Ukrainian buckminsterfullerenes… Wait a minute, now that I’ve written that out,
that actually SOUNDS PLAUSIBLE. If it works on rats, who WOULDN’T
want to oil their aging brains with hydrated nanocarbon...
James Blunt on Sesame Street: My Triangle →
All is forgiven for the most irritating overplayed song of 2005. Maybe Outkast can use Sesame St to resuscitate Hey Ya in my critical affections too. (link)
Chumby in the Sydney Morning Herald →
By Tim O’Reilly
Saul Griffith is at home down under for the holidays, and sent a note that Chumby topped the Sydney Morning Herald’s list of Ten Things That Will Change Your Future.
The SMH also called out Twitter, Everyblock, 23andme, kiva, meraki, smart mobs, the World Community Grid, loopt, and the OLPC.
It’s an impressive list for a mainstream paper. They get special...