Monday, August 10, 2009

Pixel

Pixel is a Kongregate game where you move with the mouse and click to shoot. You collect points by destroying enemies and collecting pixels. Hitting a pixel will cause it to shoot back out of your ship.

Comes with bonus pixely-sounding electronic intro music, and exciting drum music later on. It's more fun than that picture looks.


PS: Yeeeeeey birthday! (From Kottke)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm

Happy TED SUNDAY!Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm is a TED talk where author Mary Roach talks about all those dirty things: masturbation, sex, and orgasms.

According to TED,
" 'Bonk' author Mary Roach delves into obscure scientific research, some of it centuries old, to make 10 surprising claims about sexual climax, ranging from the bizarre to the hilarious. (This talk is aimed at adults. Viewer discretion advised.)"


(From my love of TED)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The Last Abortion Doctor

The Last Abortion Doctor is an Esquire magazine article by John H. Richardson about the last late abortion doctor left in America (Dr. Warren Hern). Pretty dramatic words. I usually try to keep it light on TOTI, but I think we can all agree you shouldn't shoot doctors.

Exerpt:

"The young couple flew into Wichita bearing, in the lovely swell of the wife's belly, a burden of grief. They came from a religious tradition where large families are celebrated, and they wanted this baby, and it was very late in her pregnancy. But the doctors recommended abortion. They said that with her complications, there were only two men skilled enough to pull it off. One was George Tiller, a Wichita doctor who specialized in late abortions.

They arrived in Wichita on Sunday, May 31. As they drove to their hotel, a Holiday Inn just two blocks from the Reformation Lutheran Church, they saw television cameras. They wondered what was going on, a passing curiosity quickly forgotten.

But when they got to their room, the phone was ringing. Her father was on the line. 'There was some doctor who was shot who does abortions,' he said.

They turned on CNN. Dr. Tiller had just been killed, shot in the head as he passed out church leaflets. In their shock, they mixed up the clinic and the church: We were supposed to be there. What if it had happened while we were there? What if he couldn't complete the procedure?

Now there is only one doctor left.
...

This is the day he sees patients for the first of three visits, giving them the seaweed laminaria, which slowly dilates the cervix, and his normal caseload has been doubled by Dr. Tiller's patients — including two with catastrophic fetal abnormalities and a fifteen-year-old who was raped, all in the second trimester, all traumatized by the assassin who calls himself pro-life, a phrase he cannot utter without air quotes and contempt. "

 

(From the web )

Friday, August 7, 2009

Slaughter Your World

Slaughter Your World is a Youtube video showing a violent cartoon parody of the song "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. It introduces/builds up the character. The short is supposedly part of the "Looking For Group" Feature Film.


(From my cousin D.)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

How Different Groups Spend Their Day

How Different Groups Spend Their Day is an infographic by the New York Times. According to the Gray Lady: "The American Time Use Survey asks thousands of American residents to recall every minute of a day. Here is how people over age 15 spent their time in 2008.

According to Jen, who sent this in:
"This is a prime example of an interesting reseach question, as well as a lesson on graphic design. I don't dispute the results, or the design, just the color choice.

Honestly, the colors chosen represent what I imagine to be the inside of a septic tank, mixed with a barren dessert, and then a dark blue. Still, if you can get past the lack of catchy colors, it's worth looking at."


I loved clicking around. Good find.
PS: I was disappointed to find that "Not in lab..." was not actually about the 5% of time scientists are sleeping at home.

(From JenK)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

C'est la vie

C'est la vie is a webcomic by Jennifer Babcock.

In her own words:
I graduated from UCLA in June 2004 with a BA in history and art history and have no idea what I’m going to do for a living. Currently, I'm a graduate student at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts studying Ancient Egyptian art history. I'm hoping that by continuing my education, I can buy some time before I find a "real" job.



While enrolled at UCLA, I wrote “C’est la Vie” for the university newspaper, The Daily Bruin, where it was discovered by Universal Press Syndicate in its first year of publication. “C’est la Vie” as it exists today is a result of the partnership between me and UPS, in the hopes of creating a feature that could be embraced by a wide audience. I signed a contract with Uclick, the online division of UPS in March of 2005, and "C'est la Vie" is now a daily feature on www.ucomics.com.


(From Guy)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

There, I Fixed It

There, I Fixed It is a website about epic jury-rigs kludges. One image after another of things that really should not exist. According to the authors, "We celebrate these iconic images of mankind’s eternal struggle to hammer square pegs into round holes (with duct tape.)" 

You can contribute pictures of your handiwork to thereifixedit@gmail.com.

(From Rolf)

Monday, August 3, 2009

Baby pictures in lost wallets increase the chance they will be returned

Baby pictures in lost wallets increase the chance they will be returned is an article on Boing Boing explaining that Edinburgh researchers report that "lost" wallets which included baby pictures had the highest return rate, with 88 per cent of the 40 wallets being sent back.

I would print out and place this very picture in my wallet right now, if only I hadn't just burnt my father's new printer due to my forgetting that the printer is 110V, and the wall plugs here are 220V. WHOOPS. 

(From Boing Boing, picture from here.)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

Happy return of the TED Sundays! Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success is a TED talk about the downsides of meritocracy and a nicer view of success.

I like it, but maybe I just have a thing for the accents. Bonus: 3 funny literary jokes in there. Enjoy!

(From my ipod)

Saturday, August 1, 2009

'Fountains of Wayne Hotline,' by Robbie Fulks

'Fountains of Wayne Hotline,' by Robbie Fulks is an article on Spinner.com. Okay, article is a little generous. It's more like an explained link to a song about how to make a Fountains-of-Wayne-style song (in the style of Fountains of Wayne, of course). Click through for the song.  Or fine, you know, take the FLV file from here. 

Spinner epxlains the tune:
"In 'Hotline,' Fulks imagines himself calling a telephone crisis line where panicked songwriters and producers in a pinch can get access to Fountains of Wayne-sanctioned operators. The pop technicians on the other end proceed to talk the distraught songsmiths down from their musical ledge, suggesting solutions such as "employ the radical dynamic shift" and "slather the holy hell out of the thing with a semi-ironic Beach Boys vocal pad." All this is set to music, including an announced "slightly distorted melodic solo," that would fit snugly on the Fountains' resplendent 'Welcome Interstate Managers' album from 2003 (with Fulks twisting his usual twang into a dead ringer for FOW's Chris Collingwood)."
The whole thing kind of caters to musicians and Fountains of Wayne enthusiasts. The telegraphed vs. gratuitous inside joke is explained by Metafilter reader unSane:
"The ninth is a whole tone above the octave, so a C9 would be C-E-G-D (usually with a Bb thrown in there) and a CAdd9 would be a straight C-E-G-D. In either case the D is the ninth. A telegraphed ninth would mean the D had been established as a strong tone before the ninth chord was hit whereas gratuitous coloration would be a ninth chord where the D had never featured as a significant tone in the melody before.

It's an insidery joke because most non-musicians (and a lot of musicians) would have no idea whether the ninth had been telegraphed or not, but to anal harmonizers it would be equally obvious whether the ninth was a throw-in or if it was an integral part of the melody.

I can remember an similar bitch-session in the pages of either NME or Melody Maker where Roddy Frame was ripping Edwyn Collins a new one for simply moving a diminished shape up the neck of the guitar, which is kind of a neat trick the first time you discover it but gets old pretty fast even if you are only about 17 at the time, as Roddy must have been."
Now you  know, and it's probably not funny anymore. Oh well.

(From Metafilter)