The best explanation of vision, light, and the electromagnetic spectrum I’ve ever heard. Take a few minutes.
As I talk to more and more scientists as sources for stories, the best ones are always this excited, can always relate their work to the non-scientific.
More on Richard Feynman here.
( via 3quarks. )
Major military battles of the last 70 years, as portrayed by food:
Shockingly comprehensive. Yes, it all means something. A cheat sheet to decode what food stands for which nation is here. This page lists the battles in order.
(via clusterflock)
Breaking a near 4-month hiatus, here is the coolest thing I have seen since my last post: the Eisenhower Highway System presented as a subway map.
Genius. Not only sweet design, but genuinely useful. Can’t tell if this guy sells it as a poster or a t-shirt, but I’d buy.
link to the sweetness, from Chris Yates.
I missed these when they first came out, but they’re comedy GOLD.
From WSJ:
Almost three years after the show’s end, two videos featuring the show’s main character, the loathsome boss David Brent, suddenly surfaced on the Web.
But the BBC series, which concluded in 2003, isn’t making a surprise comeback. The segments, which appeared on video-sharing Web sites like Google Video and YouTube, were commissioned by Microsoft in 2004 as parody “training videos” to be shown only to Microsoft employees. They appear to have been leaked to the Web[.]
Leaked to the web, eh? Sign me up! I’m about to become an uncle, and finding these vids is, I’m thinking, roughly what it’s going to be like to see a newborn nephew come around the corner of a hospital corridor.
Part 1
Part 2
Wired’s EiC Chris Anderson rips apart those subscription cards you always find on the floor of library bathrooms:
I want to highlight the subscription offers that magazines send through the mail. They’re full of lies.
Surprise, surprise.
- there is no such thing as a “special courtesy rate”
- “guaranteed savings” is a meaningless phrase (and indeed you can often find magazine subscriptions cheaper through an agent—check eBay—or a credit card loyalty program)
- it makes no difference if you reply by the “reply by” date
- “statement of benefits itemization” are just empty words meant to invoke an invoice
- all those “free” or “included” things are just the regular content that’s in the mag for everyone.
Business is business. Reminds me of this post in Marginal Revolution on oil opt-ins. Not everyone will buy it, but the idiots among us will, and that’s enough.
link (via boingboing)
The National Books Critics Circle is starting a “Best Recommended List,” which they’ll put out every month.
Polling our nearly 800 members, as well as all the former finalists and winners of our book prize, we asked, What 2007 books have you read that you have truly loved?
Nearly 500 voters—from John Updike and Robert Hass to Carolyn Forche, Anne Tyler, Julia Alvarez and Cynthia Ozick—answered the call. Over 300 of our member critics voted as well. Starting in 2008, we plan to offer our Best Recommended List every month.
Makes a lot more sense than the Best-Seller List. What do I care what reader McGhee bought last week?
You can find the first list here. I haven’t read any of them, but I am making a trip to the library this afternoon…
It’s like slipping into an electric blanket.
Mmmmmm. May as well get something for your money
2girls1cup is the LOLcats of the moment. I’ve been curious, and even got a few seconds into the video, but clicked out at the last moment. Just couldn’t do it. That’s why I’m so grateful for this highbrow critique of the film: I get a play by play with no indelible images. No night sweats. No cup envy.
This notion of blurring will evolve into a diluting and contamination of sorts by :40, where the vomit of disgust begins to obscure even the original thematic feces of the work. It is worth noting that the secondary character does not vomit into the cup (while our original character does), yet vomits directly onto the other woman. This further develops the motif of the masculine invading lesbian relationships - does one woman have a monopoly on the feminine cup, while the other woman becomes masculine, and begins to fill the role of the oppressor as she symbolically vomits down onto the kneeling lover? Even this notion isn’t safe from the postmodern genre-confusion, as the roles are reversed and the other’s mouth is vomited into in return.
I can’t stress enough that I have not seen this video, don’t plan to, and don’t recommend it. If you yourself are considering such a thing, watch a few videos on youtube of other people watching it first.
Looks scary, doesn’t it? Google 2girls1cup to find it. I’m not providing a link for your asses. You’ll regret it.
The review is worth reading, and you can find it here. Also, looks like some frat boy did a little cut-and-paste and turned it in to a film class. Nice work, Lamda Phi.
link to a humble critique of 2girls1cup.
link to fratty mcghee’s latest effort (via boingboing)
UPDATE: Now with extra grandma. (via bb again)
