Monday, June 30, 2003

Ebay No Longer Gold Mine


Posted by MacDood
link
On ebay, "the average selling price of collectibles has fallen by 38 percent since 2000.... [M]aking matters worse for sellers of collectibles, only 45 percent of items put up for auction were sold this year, down from 55 percent last year and 72 percent in 2000." [Comics Worth Reading]

William Shakespeare


Posted by MacDood
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"Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

Scientology is Scientastic!


Posted by MacDood
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When I read this 1976 Scientology picture book, I was skeptical until I reached the page about the computer programmer. It's like looking in a mirror! (06-25) [Cruel Site of the Day]

Pre-Columbian Mickey


Posted by MacDood
link



Wonderful gallery of modern iconography rendered as pre-Columbian sculpture.

LinkDiscuss


(via Geisha Asobi)


[Boing Boing]

Saturday, June 28, 2003

Harry Potter and the AntiChrist


Posted by MacDood
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Pastor Joseph Chambers: "If you do not believe in playing the devil's games, ... you are called a muggle and these books paint you as a loser or a know-nothing nobody. Thats talking about us, the Bible-believing Christians." (06-21) [Cruel Site of the Day]

Friday, June 27, 2003

Why do people believe in God? Why do most people on the earth believe in a supreme being of some sort, especially one who fails to manifest himself to us? [Kuro5hin.org]

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Enough with humans. Let the flowers talk.


Posted by MacDood
link
Katinka Matson's scanned flower art : technology lets the flowers speak. "...imagine a painter who could, like Vermeer, capture the quality of light that a camera can, but with the color of paints. That is what a scanner gives you.... In her flowers one can see every microscopic dew drop, leaf vein, and particle of pollen—in satisfying rich pigmented color....." (scroll down for images) [metafilter.com]

Gay Handshake


Posted by MacDood
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Beware of the Homo Handshake! Will "Gaydar" finally meet its demise? [metafilter.com]

Terrorizing popstars with an accordion


Posted by MacDood
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Joey DeVilla roams the world with an accordion strapped to his back, deconstructing popular music with it (he led a procession of newly millionaired Slashdot founders down Broadway one night, playing Fatboy Slim on the accordion). He's had the good (?) fortune to run into various pop-stars on the way, and he confronts them with his squeeze-box, faking out rendiitons of their hit singles and singing along with great enthusiasm. Here're four anaecdotes about four popstars' reactions to this practice:

"Joey! It's Chris from Sloan!"


Once again, Sloan may not be familiar to people outside Canada, but they were -- at least until their current album, which ain't so hot -- a band with a knack for really good songwriting.

"Play some Sloan! Do you know any Sloan? Play some Sloan!" she screamed.


I started playing their first big single, the grunge anthem of unrequited university love, Underwhelmed:


She was underwhelmed if that's a word
I know it's not 'cause I looked it up
It's one of those things I learned in my school...

Chris' face first showed curiosity. Then it showed recognition. Followed by shock. And then we didn't see his face at all.

"He's...he's running away!" said Meryle, who burst out laughing.

"Come back, you coward!" I yelled. "Even Alanis would've faced me!"

LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing]

Monday, June 23, 2003

You say you want a revolution


Posted by MacDood
link
Michael Ledeen recalls a Turkish General commenting on the problem of allying with the United States, saying, "You never know when the Americans are going to turn around and stab themselves in the back." Now that the conflict in Iraq is cooling down, the difficult part begins. The next step will be to build a democratic government in Iraq. However, those in Tehran are fighting against this, as if with their last breath. "We can never do Iraq by itself. Iran cannot have a free Iraq and Afghanistan. We will never have peace without Iran taken care of," Ledeen, a resident scholar in the Freedom Chair of the American Enterprise Institute, told Ted Koppel on Nightline. A democratic Islamic country next door would only embolden the citizens of Iran at a time that some say is oddly similar to the pre-1979 climate. Some nations seek to engage the Iranian mullahs, but that will only legitimate the mullocracy and prolong their existence. The United States should instead turn its back on Tehran, including the reformers inside the government, and provide assistance to those seeking to bring democracy to Iran. [Kuro5hin.org]

Why do people believe in God?


Posted by MacDood
link
Why do people believe in God? Why do most people on the earth believe in a supreme being of some sort, especially one who fails to manifest himself to us? [Kuro5hin.org]

Click Here


Posted by MacDood
link
What is hypertext? It's one of those things that make the web so wonderful, but how many of us have stared into the various, intricate patterns in the rich tapestry of hypertext and pondered them? We've certainly come a long way from the 'click here' days of old. The term hypertext was coined by Ted Nelson in 1965, according to the World Wide Web Consortium. The W3C org describes hypertext as, "Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear. Hypertext is text which contains links to other texts." Simple, huh? Well, at least on the surface. [Kuro5hin.org]

Thursday, June 19, 2003

Hulk vs. the Terminator


Posted by MacDood
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Hulk vs. the Terminator: Ho'od Win? Popular Science deals briefly with the physics involved. [Comics Worth Reading]

Massive WWDC Rumor Roundup


Posted by MacDood
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MacRumors.com has posted a massive rumor roundup of all the major rumors surrounding Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference, which starts next week. There's been talk of 970 PowerMacs, PowerBooks and Panther... seems like the biggest uncertainty is whether the 970 PowerMacs will ship or not.


Like Pixels? Check out MacDesign [MacMerc]

Introduction to the Theory of Relativity Part II: Special Relativity


Posted by MacDood
link
This is the second of a series of elementary, informal, and mostly equation-free articles descibing the Theory of Relativity in physics. The series will have four installments: Part I: History This described the history of ideas in the development of relativity. Part II: Special Relativity This describes Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. It assumes a familiarity with Part I but assumes very little in the way of prior understanding of physics. Part III: General Relativity This will give at least a taste of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which extends the Special Theory to cases involving acceleration and gravity. Part IV: Implications, Controversies, and Miscellany This will address implications of the Theory of Relativity, controversies both old and modern, and anything else that isn't covered in the first three installments. [Kuro5hin.org]

Weblogs are ten years old


Posted by MacDood
link
I was reading this totally funny thing, a History of the Internet, and it mentions weblogs as being invented in 2001.



At first I didn’t think about that, but then I did, and I realized—for all the talk about weblogs these days, weblogs are actually very old.



In fact—I did some quick checking, and I think weblogs were invented ten years and four days ago. Check out the June 14, 1993 date at the bottom of the archive for What’s New with NCSA Mosaic.



Happy tenth birthday to weblogs!



More modern weblogs date back to 1997. For instance, here are the first posts for Scripting News and CamWorld.



The first weblog authoring software that I know of is NewsPage, from May 1997. [Inessential.com]
SARS Digital Folk Art "Z": Kenn Brown, global flavor, thank you.


At left, an exclusive contribution (link to full-size) created by Kenn Brown, a Vancouver-based SciFi and fantasy illustrator whose work has appeared in publications such as Wired Magazine (that cool cover for the 12/02 "Science and Religion" issue), Scientific American, New Scientist, GQ, and many others. Check out his nanotechnology spread for Focus Magazine, on newsstands in Italy this week. His current projects include cover illustrations for a three-volume Sci-fi anthology edited by Ben Bova, published by Tor Books.


Chronicle Books editor Alan Rapp shared this photo with BoingBoing co-editor David Pescovitz (see this website if you don't get the joke). More stuff from readers:

Australian blogger Andrew Bulhak shot these photos (one and two) of masked mannequins in a Melbourne storefront. Sean spotted a SARSparilla ad and the Official SARS Website which will totally flip out and kick your ass.


Charles V. painted this for you, e-mail him to purchase prints.


Eli the Bearded points us to this story from North Korea claiming creation of a wacky new anti-SARS drug made from ginseng, gold, and platinum. Charlie O in Seattle submits this on-stage snapshot of indie band Melt Banana's guitarist: "I didn't get a chance to ask him if this was just for the stage, but he played the whole set in a facemask."


Canadian BoingBoing reader Kean Soo writes: "I only recently discovered sarsart.org, but wish I had found it sooner. I've already been exposed to some of the direct-and-less-than-savoury discrimination as an Asian living here in Toronto. Since then, I've been obsessed with SARS, and since I've been keeping a semi-daily journal comic online, I figured I would write about it in some way. It isn't finished, but I do have one panel that I turned into a wallpaper."



Blogger kaminogoya from Osaka, Japan found the provocative photo at left (Link to full-size image). If anyone knows who took the shot, please let me know.


Taiwanese blogger Wei-Chung Yang says, "I noticed that your project doesn't include any works from Taiwanese artists, so here are some of mine. I created a comic series that combines the two hottest issues in Taiwan right now - SARS, and the hugely popular TV show, Taiwan Thunder Fire, whose protagonist also plays a starring role in my blog comic. His name is Liu Wen-Tsung the Beast, played by Taiwanese actor Ching Young. Liu Wen-Tsung is a 'never-nice' guy -- he bankrupted his own father, and killed a bunch of people for personal gain. But he's cool, tough, and loved by the TV audience, hence his nickname 'the Beast' . So, my comic is called The Diary of the Beast about SARS."View Wei-Chung Yang's amazing contributions here.


Discuss. Read about it in The South China Morning Posthere (600k JPEG). Future contributions will be added to the SARS Art Project Archive website, and we may post brief updates on BoingBoing from time to time. Much gratitude to each of the artists and bloggers who contributed, and to Sean Bonner for building sarsart.org. Very special thanks to Reverse Cowgirl for introducing us to many of the illustrators and artists who generously created original works exclusively for this project. Susannah, this wouldn't have happened without you.

[Boing Boing]

Saturday, June 14, 2003

Posted by MacDood
link
Geoff Cohen's posted another provocative and fascinating essay about the limitations of Turing Machines.


First, there's the issue of whether a computational model can, in any amount of time, solve a certain problem. Recall that it was Turing's proof that there are problems that the Turing machine cannot solve, notably the Halting Problem. This is an extension of Godel's incompleteness principle. Keep this in mind: Turing's accomplishment was not showing the universality of the machine, although he did do that; it was in showing the fundamental limits of it.


Now even given two models that can solve a problem, there's still performance questions. This isn't a trivial difference; a model that can solve a problem in polynomial time really is fundamentally more powerful than one that takes exponential time. And there are tons of computational complexity classes above the standard P and NP that represent problems that deterministic and non-deterministic Turing Machines can solve in polynomial time. Just for one example, the class of problems that can be solved by a Turing Machine that can, in turn, use another Turing Machine as an oracle is more powerful than a single Turing Machine.

LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing]

Introduction to the Theory of Relativity Part I: History


Posted by MacDood
link
This is the first of a series of elementary, informal, and almost equation-free articles descibing the Theory of Relativity in physics. The series will have four installments: Part I: HistoryThis describes the history of ideas in the development of relativity. Part II: Special RelativityThis will describe Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. Part III: General RelativityThis will give at least a taste of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which extends the Special Theory to cases involving acceleration and gravity. Part IV: Implications, Controversies, and MiscellanyThis will address implications of the Theory of Relativity, controversies both old modern, and anything else that isn't covered in the first three installments. [Kuro5hin.org]

Web Zen: Scary Evil Clown Zen


Posted by MacDood

(1) scary clowns

(2) save the evil clown

(3) evil clown generator

(4) clown tree

(5) clown hat
Link, Discuss (Thanks, Frank)
[Boing Boing]

Martha's Jail as envisioned by photoshoppers


Posted by MacDood
Jim says: "Here's an awesome Photoshop contest for Martha Stewart's jail cell."LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing]

Wednesday, June 11, 2003

polylog


Posted by MacDood
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polylog: Forum for Intercultural Philosophy. "polylog seeks... an intercultural dialogue among philosophers as well as other interested scholars and members of society – in a philosophical polylogue. The project pursues this aim by providing a virtual platform for the world-wide discussion of topics in intercultural philosophy. Intercultural philosophy is not thereby intended as a new theory, discipline, or school to be established. Rather, the diversity of intentions and approaches should be met with the greatest possible openness as well as academic seriousness – as much as possible in the appropriate form and manner." There are a lot of great articles on this site. [Via wood s lot, which linked to Toward a Buddhist Vision of Social Justice, a comparison of Buddhism and the philosophy of John Rawls.] [metafilter.com]

Silly super strings


Posted by MacDood
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The official String Theory website. Fo' all your supa string needs. [metafilter.com]

Meet the 40 Most Wired Companies


Posted by MacDood

link

These masters of innovation, technology and strategic vision are reshaping the global economy. By Kevin Kelleher from Wired magazine. [Wired News]

Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Walt Disney Helped Wernher von Braun Sell Americans on Space


Posted by MacDood

link

Space.com Jun 10 2003 11:02PM ET... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

"Robots" movie in the works from creators of CGI pic "Ice Age"



link

Posted by MacDood
The trio responsible for 2002's computer-animated feature "Ice Age" --- 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky Studios and director Chris Wedge-- announced last night in NYC that they're teaming up again to create another CGI film, "Robots." Release is slated for March, 2005. Confirmed voices on board includes Halle Berry, Ewan McGregor, Mel Brooks, and Drew Carey.




Mattel, Burger King, Kellogg's, Keebler, Hewlett-Packard, HarperCollins and Vivendi Universal Games have signed on as promotional partners for the film's release. Set in a world composed entirely of robots -- designed by William Joyce ("Rolie Polie Olie") -- the Lowell Ganz- and Babaloo Mandel-scripted project centers on Rodney Copperbottom (McGregor), a young genius inventor who dreams of making the world a better place. Berry voices Cappy, a sexy executive rebot with whom Rodney is instantly smitten. Other lead voices include the nefarious corporate tyrant Ratchet (yet to be cast), who locks horns with Rodney, and Big Weld (Brooks), a master inventor who has lost his way. Other characters include a group of misfit robots known as the Rusties.
Update: the movie's official url hasn't been announced, but in a bored moment of idle whois-ing, I queried robotsmovie.com -- and 20th Century Fox Films owns it. Link to Hollywood Reporter story,
Discuss [Boing Boing]

Killer Star Wars casemods



link

Posted by MacDood



Amazing Star Wars-themed casemods: Darth Vader shown at left (Hey! Note the OS!), Falcon Battleship, and my favorite: Rebel Forces. Discuss (Thanks, David!)
[Boing Boing]

"Impeach Bush" Spreads
From the Indymedia-set to the New York Times's Op-Ed pages: "impeach Bush" spreads. [Kuro5hin.org]

Friday, June 6, 2003

Jurassic Park IV, Tyrannus Wimpus


Posted by MacDood
MSNBC Jun 6 2003 9:04PM ET... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

She has Bette Davis eyes


Posted by MacDood
"I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

The Top 250 Logos


Posted by MacDood
Nice Logo, Dude, But Not On My T-Shirt, Thank You Very Much: 250 of those we hated, got sick of, been utterly indifferent to...and still love. Many missing. Which one(s) would you wear for free? [Via geisha asobi and oink.] [metafilter.com]

OSXFAQ - Macrimination


Posted by MacDood
Macrimination - Zen and Your Macintosh [OSXFAQ]

Molly is choosing this guy out!


Posted by MacDood
Well-known Brits talk about the books they hate. Worst of the worst is the Lord of the Rings.

There have been many contenders, but for inspiring life-long loathing and contempt, nothing beats The Lord of the Rings. The childish storytelling, the valetudinarian mythologising, Tolkien's lack of any feel for language, description, landscape, emotion or confrontation, the desire to garotte Pippin and Merry in a dark alley ¬ how can so many readers have put up with such codswallop for so long? -- John Walsh: Author and Independent columnist


I've never understood the point. It's strange, weird and frightening, and makes me feel like I'm on the sidelines of a joke I don't understand. -- Alain De Botton: Author and philosopher


Anything about Gandalf, and those little things with hair between their toes. I hate that sort of portentous, phoney, medieval-magical way of writing. -- Sir John Mortimer: Author and creator of Rumpole

LinkDiscuss [Boing Boing]

Thursday, June 5, 2003

Will Power


Posted by MacDood
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

Todd McFarlane's Twisted Oz Figures


Posted by MacDood
I never envisioned sweet little Dorothy like THIS, blindfolded, branded, and in bondage, even after reading Alan Moore's LOST GIRLS. [Comics Worth Reading]

Not Infinity!


Posted by MacDood
Many mathematicians, math geeks, and other strange beings, have jabbered on and on about "infinity", infinite sets, and what-not. They've said a lot about what infinity is; but today, I'd like to tell you what infinity is not. This article hopes to clear up some common confusions and misconceptions surrounding "infinity" which may have led the less mathematically-inclined to think that math is contradictory and confusing. Hopefully, it will also introduce a bit of what infinity is, so that normal people can understand it without their brains turning into a pretzel1. A subsequent article will delve deeper into the subject and clear up even more misconceptions that people may have about infinity. 1Shaped like ∞. [Kuro5hin.org]

The hidden facts of our cabal


Posted by MacDood
The neo-conservative team that rules our planet is shrouded in secrecy. Where did they come from? What are their real names? How many of them are wearing wigs? I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but there is one thing that we do know about these people: They all have children... And behind each child lies an act so deplorable, so ridiculous and vile, that I have trouble naming it. This little-known phenomneon, that our leaders are engaged in and obsessed with, is known on the street as 'sex'. [Kuro5hin.org]

so, like F B like I


Posted by MacDood
The FBI is hiring teenage girls to teach its undercovers to convincingly impersonate jailbait in chatrooms and catch pedophiles.



"They, like, don't know anything," said Mary, 14, giggling.

"They're, like, do you like Michael Jackson?" said Karen, 14, rolling her eyes at just how out of it adults can be.


Probably the youngest instructors ever in an FBI classroom, the girls have become an invaluable help to Operation Innocent Images -- an initiative that tries to stop people from peddling child pornography or otherwise sexually exploiting children, FBI officials said. The Washington Post agreed to withhold the girls' last names to protect them from harassment on the Internet and elsewhere.

LinkDiscuss



(via Kottke) [Boing Boing]

don't mess with geeks, lnowledge IS power


Posted by MacDood
A 17-year-old high-school student busted two local cops who pretended to the FBI agents and dropped by her place to grill her over a blog entry in which she made a joke about the school server being hacked.




The afternoon that Erin Carter was interrogated by two FBI agents, the Chapel Hill High student and a friend went to have the officer’s business card, which bore the organization’s name, laminated.


Looking back, she considers that a good move.


The two Chapel Hill police officers are under investigation for having allegedly misrepresented themselves as FBI agents and have been placed on administrative leave with pay pending further investigation, Chapel Hill Police Chief Gregg Jarvies announced Thursday.

LinkDiscuss



(Thanks, Zed!) [Boing Boing]

This morning on The Current, a CBC radio show, Bob MacDonald (the CBC's science commentator and host of the brilliant show Quirks and Quarks), was asked to justify the expense of the space program. Among other things, he said:



"It costs NASA less to send a probe to Mars than it would cost Hollywood to make a movie about it"
LinkDiscuss



(Thanks, paulbel!) [Boing Boing]

Monday, June 2, 2003

10 favorite Buffy episodes from TeeVee


1. The one where Buffy slays a bunch of vampires. 2. The one where one of the main characters gets... [TeeVee]

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. Harry Knowles reviews a shot-for-shot remake of Speilberg's classic movie done, over the span of seven years, by 10-11-12 year olds. Speilberg, upon seeing it, was "astonished" at its "ingenuity and imagination." There's even a preview. [metafilter.com]

Pixar's newest kid flick good enough for adults, Finding Nemo was proceeded by a "classic" Pixar short, KnickKnack. The weird thing is that they felt compelled to change 2 characters (the "bathing beauty" and the mermaid) from a ridiculously geometric, cartoony bosomy shape to flat chested. What gives here?
This reminds me of the changes Spielberg made in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and of course, the regrettable Greedo shooting incident in Lucas' Star Wars: A New Hope.
My question is: When is it right to change an existing work, for whatever reason? [metafilter.com]

The origins of the Star-Spangled Banner may come as a surprise to many Americans. The tune was originally that of an old English drinking song about a gentlemen's club, the Anacreontic Society. Of course, the words may have changed, but the song remains the same.



Thanks to Adbusters for the spark. [metafilter.com]

Sunday, June 1, 2003

News.Com: Microsoft to abandon standalone IE. This means that to get a new version of the browser you'll have to install a new version of the operating system? Also, what about the Mac version of IE? Again, Web developers never asked to be Microsoft developers, now they think we should be Windows developers. Oy. [Scripting News]



The Unh project: colleted comic-panels with "guttural moans."LinkDiscuss




(via The Adventures of AccordionGuy in the Twenty-First Century)




[Boing Boing]