Archive for 2009
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[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 27, 2009 by admin in Technology
Friday, March 27th, 2009
At least the end of civilization will have a nice light show.
Having been a teen during the death throes of the cold war, sometimes I miss apocalyptic visions and doomsday scenarios. Well, it seems we have no shortage lately. Yeah, global economic collapse. Whatever. And that new Internet worm scheduled for April 1st? Frankly, I’m more worried about the day that Bill Gates activates the mysterious trillions of lines of code in Windows that allows him to take over the world. No, we have a much greater catastrophe awaiting us. Remember the Northeast Blackout of 2003? That was like your porch light burning out compared to the civilization-ending effects of the inevitable space storm coming our way. This New Scientist article suggests that after briefly being enthralled with being able to see the aurora borealis over the equator, it’ll be less than a year before millions of Americans will be dead and the nation’s infrastructure will be in tatters. The World Bank will declare the U.S. a developing nation. All because of the electrical effects of a Solar Superstorm. Although that New Scientist piece sounds a bit melodramatic, the scenarios are drawn directly from a NASA report on the subject. On a positive note, it should be pretty to look at.
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 26, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Thousands of hours of media and archived web content in a shipping container
I’m always a little amazed when I mention the Internet Archive to someone who spends a lot of time on the web, and they haven’t heard of it. If you’re not familiar with the site, it’s an incredible archive of film, audio, text, and even the internet itself. The Wayback Machine lets you visit sites that no longer exist, so we can enjoy lost treasures like RubberBurner.com, where you can learn some “FAST and BASIC facts” about Curry, “A slim and handsome race car driver” (a site which later turned out to be one of the first viral marketing campaigns). If you’re the kind of person who accidently spends hours on Wikipedia, the Internet Archive can be dangerous. The Prelinger Archive, for instance, not only has classic feature films like Un Chien Andalou, Night of the Living Dead, and Nosferatu available for download, but a wealth of often hilarious old commercials like the one featured at left from 1956 called Once Upon a Honeymoon, in which a (probably gay) angel descends from heaven to sprinkle fairy dust on the house of a young couple to ensure they have fashionable new phones before they go on their honeymoon. I’m especially drawn to the film section of the site, because of things like Cinemocracy, where they’ve archived 1940′s propaganda pieces by directors like John Ford, John Huston, and Frank Capra. If you’re a technophile, you’ll also find it pretty interesting that they’re moving the entire three petabyte archive into a shipping container, much like Google’s floating servers. Read the rest of this entry »
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on March 24, 2009 by admin in Music
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
Or are they losing some listeners?
While I’m enthused about the new single by David Byrne and Brazilian Girls that’s being released exclusively on iTunes today, I’m a little bit frustrated by it’s exclusivity (more on that in a minute). I’ve been a fan of Brazilian Girls since their first release in 2005
; their unique amalgam of Latin dance music, hip club stylings, and jazz influences is irresistible, and singer Sabina Sciubba’s poly-lingual antics keep the tunes interesting on repeated listening. It was always a joy at parties when people failed to realize they were headnod-dancing to a tune in which the refrain was “Pussy Pussy Pussy Marijuana”. And David Byrne? Well, as the main mastermind and vocalist of Talking Heads and occasional collaborator with Brian Eno, like him or not, he holds a pretty unique place in contemporary pop. The new tune is pretty fun, it’s an English-language remix of Brazilian Girls’ 2008 tune Losing Myself
that’s been David Byrne-ified so it sounds a little like Talking Heads’ old classic “Life During Wartime”. So here’s my frustration: The new single is being released exclusively on iTunes. I am not (and may never be) an iTunes user, thanks to their shoddy history of DRM issues and insistence that you install a 70MB piece of software before they “allow” you to give them money for the music they’re selling. On top of that, the exclusive preview being offered was via the once-hip (but now a little self-indulgent and steampunk-prone) BoingBoing.net, which linked to a file that was in .wax format. It might as well be in .WTF format, as far as most people are concerned; the linked file might play in Windows Media Player , but most people have told me they couldn’t get it to play at all. I personally found a workaround using the Firefox plugin “FlashGot”. But enough bellyaching, check out the tune, if you can, and here’s the label’s press release. By the way: if you like David Byrne, you might also want to check out the tune Money
from the recent release by N.A.S.A.
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 23, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
Even the Dalai Lama understands the benefits of a well-executed clean and jerk.
Even the Dalai Lama understands the
benefits of a well-executed clean and jerk. |
If you’ve come here looking for our usual Monday Demotivators, maybe you need to rethink things a bit and pick up a copy of Getting Things Done
, or just improve your approach to living in general with some Krishnamurti
or Dalai Lama
. If it’s a little early in the week to be talking about spiritual fitness, that’s okay. All the great masters say you should start with physical well-being anyway. So for the ladies, we have the inspiring Mariko Takahashi’s Fitness Video. If poodles can do it, so can you. For the guys, we have Bas Rutten’s Street Defense Tips. He’ll have you head-butting your way to health and happiness in no time. And for those of you that are such lard-butts that you refuse to leave your chair, and whose idea of weightlifting is to heft another danish to your mouth, don’t worry. There’s Chair Dancing Around the World, which eases you into the idea of actually exerting yourself gently, with (I wish I were joking) paper plates. So c’mon, get motivated! If this little 8-year old punk can get himself airtime on CNN, surely you can get at least get motivated enough to “Clean and Jerk” some paper plates. Read the rest of this entry »
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on March 22, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
Printing your own money, for fun and….well, probably just fun.
I’m no expert on the economy, but I did play Monopoly
as a kid. I learned a lot about money that way. Like how to broker elaborate side-deals with other players that would eventually break them. And how pointless that was, since once you have all the money, it really has no value, ’cause no one wants to play with you. Because you’re a jerk, and have all the money. It also doesn’t do you much good when you go to the store afterwards and have to hustle up real money to buy a candy bar. Given the game’s obvious parallels to reality recently, I’ve been surprised that the game hasn’t popped up in conversation more. Especially in light of things like the Banker’s Rules, one of which is: “The Bank never goes ‘broke’. If the Bank runs out of money it may issue as much more as may be needed by merely writing on any ordinary paper.” Sound familiar? It should, the game first gained real popularity during the Depression, when real money and Monopoly money probably had about the same value. For some amusing takes on Monopoly as reality, start with the Washington Post’s Econopoly, which uses a Flash-based Monopoly board to explain some of the current economic problems. Just click the dice and learn. McSweeny’s has The Economic Crisis Hits The Markson Family Monopoly Board, which tells the amusing tale of a family torn apart by Monopoly and real-world finance. And if you’re actually weird and obsessed enough with simply winning the game, see the disturbingly serious in-depth analysis How to Win at Monopoly – a Surefire Strategy. You’d think someone with that kind of attention to money-making might focus on the real thing. And on a slightly serious note, we might do well to deal with our addiction to US Currency in general. Not only can you print your own Monopoly money, you can print your own real money. After a fashion. Check out concepts like the Complementary Currency Resource Center or TimeBanks, which highlights the fact that time is indeed money. Anybody got a Get Out of Jail Card to sell to Bernie Madoff?
