June 2008
Wed 18th Creationism vs. Evolutionism: “Pictured below, we see how an open-minded approach to these conflicting theories can lead to the resolution of a major problem in each.” 1 Comment
Wed 18th In vestimentis ursum – “there’s a robot beneath the fluff.” A creepy look at the innards of electronic soft-toys. 0 Comments
Tue 17th It’s Raaaaaaaay. 0 Comments
Fri 13th
1 Comment
Thu 12th
Studies show that people who sleep between 6.5 hr. and 7.5 hr. a night, as they report, live the longest. And people who sleep 8 hr. or more, or less than 6.5 hr., they don’t live quite as long. There is just as much risk associated with sleeping too long as with sleeping too short. The big surprise is that long sleep seems to start at 8 hr. Sleeping 8.5 hr. might really be a little worse than sleeping 5 hr.
Mon 9th
…it should be possible for any resident to walk within ten minutes to the places that are the real reason for his living among strangers. The rule is not as demanding as Americans might think: Paris, Rome, Florence, Madrid, London, and Edinburgh all conform to it.
Mon 9th Nicholas Spice and Ritchie Robertson examine the imprisonments of Elisabeth Fritzl and Natascha Kampusch through the lens of Austrian literature. 0 Comments
Fri 6th
Come all you weary, who move through the earth,
Who’ve been spurned at fine restaurants and kicked out of church;
I’ve got a couple of loaves, so sit down at my feet;
Lend me your ears and we’ll break bread and eat.— Thrice, Come All You Weary
Fri 6th Remember Segregation. That hits pretty hard. (via) 0 Comments
Thu 5th
The term ‘trans-simian’ comes from the shortening of ‘transitional simian,’ a concept Dr. Klomp has developed to describe an individual who is in an evolutionary transition from simian to post-simian, though Klomp himself admits that he is not entirely clear what a true post-simian would be. Characteristics exhibited by a trans-simian include augmentation of one’s natural abilities with ‘tools,’ as well as one’s mental capacities with what has been dubbed ‘culture.’
— “Enough is Enough”: A Thinking Ape’s Critique of Trans-Simianism
Seems a pretty sharp critique of the trans-humanist movement. 0 Comments
The Cavern: 12. The Road Home
Melissa stopped for diesel in a small, single-street community at the base of the rolling hills, where they met the plains. She got some funny looks; no surprise, really, a lone, attractive woman driving a big-rig. Well, they could screw off. She was probably a better truck driver than they were. She finished fueling, and pulled out of the station and across the bridge back onto the main road.
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The Cavern: 11. Up and Out
Jay awoke and groaned. He went to rub his throbbing head, but his hands were tied behind his back. He opened his eyes and looked around. No interrogation cell, this.
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May 2008
Fri 30th Seriously badass scientists. At the start of the article I was disappointed that ‘grizzly bear rodeo’ didn’t actually exist. By the end I’d forgotten all about it. 1 Comment
Fri 30th How and where not to do The Fishstick. Sublime. 0 Comments
Never Hate. Only Ever Destroy.
I came across these today; Giles Bowkett‘s two cardinal rules:
- Never hate, only ever destroy.
- Forgive everything.
He says of them:
Obviously, I don’t hold to these rules as perfectly as I’d like. They’re more perpetual goals, really. If I held to them perfectly, I’d be some strange Web 2.0 combination of Jesus Christ and Lord Shiva, a fire-breathing, forgiving, perpetually-twittering angel of death.
The rules appeal to me. My paraphrase would be roughly ‘deal with things as thoroughly and quickly as possible, then get over it and move on,’ which doesn’t seem a bad general principle. (Although it’s beginning to smell a bit Nietzschean.)
Thu 29th The Story of Stuff is a 20 minute video examining the system that gives us all our consumer toys (or ‘toxic contaminated junk’), and how corporations ‘externalise the true costs of production’ to give us lower prices. Via Gus. 1 Comment
Punctuated Band Names
- !!! (pronounced ‘chk chk chk,’ not ‘bang bang bang’ as I had assumed)
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who are not actually a metal band
- …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, who are also not a metal band
Anti-Punctuation honourable mention:
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters “abbreviated as ATHFCMFFT.”
Wed 28th
There were also two reported instances of police officers, dressed as protestors, purposefully instigating clashes. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, the NYPD orchestrated a fake arrest to incite protestors. When a blond man was “arrested,” nearby protestors began shouting, “Let him go!” The helmeted police proceeded to push back against the crowd with batons and arrested at least two. In a similar instance, during an April 29, 2005, Critical Mass bike ride in New York, video footage captured a “protestor”—in reality an undercover cop—telling his captor, “I’m on the job,” and being subsequently let go.
