May
28
New blog post up:
The Recursive Muffin
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May
25
Omgthatartifact is a truly incredible blog, but I am reposting this for the modifying phrase “with Decapitator with Human Heads”. It sounds so much like something at a fast-food place:
“Can I get the Chicago burger?”
“You want that with the decapitator and the human heads?”
“Yo, yeah.”
Nose Ornament with Decapitator with Human Heads
Moche, 100-300 AD
The Cleveland Museum of Art
May
16
The Grove shopping mall in LA has announced that Filipino boxer-turned-politician Manny Pacquiao is banned from the premises following his remarks against gay marriage. Since Pacquiao lives in General Santos City in the Philipines, and it is unlikely that he’s ever set foot in the Grove previously, this is just a rhetorical gesture.
It interests me, though, because the concept of businesses excluding customers on an ideological or identity basis is an old one. Incarnated as private segregation in the South, it was a major target of the civil rights movement (arguably the major target). That struggle made a powerful argument at the level of society: it’s intolerable if a given group of people is never allowed into the shopping mall. On the other hand, the civil rights movement never really sold their argument at the individual level: why can’t a business owner refuse to enter into a transaction with any particular customer, for any reason they like?
Such discussions have usually been strictly theoretical; moments like the Grove/Pacquiao soundbite keep them alive.
May
10
One of the greatest music videos of all time. To which the romance-free corporate realists at Polaroid added:
Shaking or waving a Polaroid picture to help the development process originated in the early days of peel-apart film. After peeling the negative, the image needed to dry before it could be handled, so waving the photo helped it to dry more quickly.
When using the integral films (600, Spectra, 500, SX-70/Time-Zero, i-Zone) that are used in our most popular current camera models (Polaroid One, OneStep, JoyCam, etc.), the image develops and dries behind a clear plastic window and never touches the air, so shaking or waving has no effect.
In fact, excessive shaking or waving can actually damage the image. Rapid movement during development can cause portions of the film to separate prematurely, or can cause “blobs” in the picture.
The best way to ensure a perfectly developed image is to simply lay the picture on a flat surface immediately after it exits the camera. Shield it from the wind and avoid bending, twisting, or otherwise disturbing it during development. Image development time for Polaroid integral films is 3-5 minutes — after an additional 5 to 10 minutes, the photo’s colors will become richer and fuller.
I think reading this comment complements the video perfectly, like Dark Side of the Moon / Wizard of Oz.
May
6
David Frum’s article on the GOP’s reality problem is from back in November, but it’s still awesome.
May
2
“Walden: A Game will recreate the world of Walden in a 3d environment where players can follow in the virtual footsteps of Thoreau and conduct their own experiments in living deliberately.”
Best. Troll. Ever.
Apr
29
Apr
26
Demonyms are the names for the people from a given place. Most demonyms are formed either by removing -land or -stan, or else by adding some variant of -ian, -ish, -i, -ois, -er, or -ese. These are the major irregulars.
Apr
25
Time-lapse videos of people aging are an amazing new technological possibility. (See this TED talk for the state of the art.) Most of them are relatively short, but Frans Hofmeester has patiently recorded his daughter on a weekly basis for her first 12 years. When I watch the video, I have two thoughts, which are at cross-purposes.
First, I think, goddamn, I hope they keep doing this until she’s through puberty / midlife / menopause….what an incredible document of humanity.
Second, I think…woah, there are some serious consent issues here.
Harvard vs. The Journals
This is a fascinating story about a topic very dear to my heart. Harvard’s libraries are now paying $3.5 million a year for journal subscriptions, and they are tired of it. They have asked their faculty to stop publishing in restricted-access journals(!!!) and resign from positions on the boards of those journals(!!!!)
I am so pleased.
I’ve always been a huge open-access fan, but my frustrations with the current system were really solidified a few years ago. S asked me to help compile the articles for a class she was teaching at Mt. Holyoke. So I am sitting there in the Mt. Holyoke library, with virtual access to the UVM and Clark libraries, as well as the entire five-college system: Smith, Amherst, etc. You might think that I would be viewed, at that point, as “in the club”—past whatever firewalls are supposed to protect science from falling into the hands of the public for free.
Oh no.
I was still only able to obtain copies of about 2 articles in 3. This was not because the other articles were not “in the system”, but because various firewalls and pay-for-play schemes were still there, even on the twelfth floor of the ivory tower. To get all the articles S wanted—this is, remember, in order for a professor at a well-endowed university to teach a class—would have cost about another $400. (Further rant here).
This is insanity, and very bad for scholarly research. We already have the tools to fix this problem; props to Harvard for stepping up.
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