March 2010
Adam Curtis on the Yanomamo tribe - BBC →
fuck yeah! Adam Curtis :
The film tries to explain who or what made the mysterious geoglyphs. After dismissing Erik von Daniken’s theory that they are alien runways, the film suggests that they are the product of a drug-taking shaman culture - and that they are really giant drawings that show the visions the shamen had when astral flying on psychoactive drugs over the desert...
Tree rings reveal two droughts that sealed the... →
the area hasn’t yielded much in the way of historical texts after the 13th century. But texts aren’t the only way of studying Angkor’s history. Buckley’s reconstruction relies on a very different but more telling source of information – Fujian cypress trees.
The trees in question grow in Bidoup Nui Ba National Park in neighbouring Vietnam. They’re a while away from Angkor in Cambodia but...
“From 30,000 feet, creating looks like art. From ground level, it’s a to-do list.”
– Ben Arment
How to Erase Fear--in Humans: Scientific American →
In January, a group of New York University neuroscientists led by Daniela Schiller reported in the journal Nature that they had created fearful memories in people and then erased them. Besides being rather cool, the result provides new insight into how to treat traumatic memories in people.
Apple - iPad - Guided Tours →
Is it me or the famed “marble” UI rumours we had just before snow leopard kicked in ended up in the ipad ? I’m liking the look of that safari interface.
Space Shuttle Runs On One Megabyte Of RAM -... →
Well, as usual, software is king.
Iceland: the world's most feminist country | The... →
Iceland’s recent ban on strip clubs explained as a feminist political stand.
Johanna Sigurðardottir is Iceland’s first female and the world’s first openly lesbian head of state. Guðrún Jónsdóttir of Stígamót, an organisation based in Reykjavik that campaigns against sexual violence, says she has enjoyed the support of Sigurðardottir for their campaigns against rape and...
“I like a man who grins when he fights.”
– Churchill
Why Obama Used 22 Pens to Sign the Health Care... →
A very simple explanation for that quirky Washington tradition :
The rationale is fairly simple. The pen used to sign historic legislation itself becomes a historical artifact. The more pens a President uses, the more thank-you gifts he can offer to those who helped create that piece of history.
“Three step guide to photography: 01: be interesting. 02: find interesting...”
– Clayton Cubitt
Quantum film threatens to replace CMOS image chips... →
QUANTUM FILM `O__o’
Just as photographic film was mostly replaced by silicon image chips, now quantum film threats to replace the conventional CMOS image sensors in digital cameras. Made from materials similar to conventional film—a polymer with embedded particles—instead of silver grains like photographic film the embedded particles are quantum dots.
The Somali Pirates' Business Model | UN Dispatch →
A basic piracy operation requires a minimum eight to twelve militia prepared to stay at sea for extended periods of time, in the hopes of hijacking a passing vessel. Each team requires a minimum of two attack skiffs, weapons, equipment, provisions, fuel and preferably a supply boat. The costs of the operation are usually borne by investors, some of whom may also be pirates.
via DF
“You can no longer trust data or information when facts are played hob with like...”
– Harlan Ellison
CNNMoney: 3D movie tickets set for epic price hike →
Erf, I enjoy 3D stereo when it’s not jury-rigged, stapled and duct taped at the end of the pipeline in comp (Alice in Wonderland as opposed to Avatar), and asking families 63 dollars for it feels a lot like being swindled for snake oil.
ericalba:
neonmarg:
“At one AMC theater in New York, the price for a family of four to see a 3-D screening of Dreamworks Animation’s “How to Train your...
How Pixar Creates Great Films and Balances Art,... →
a writeup on Ed Catmull’s session at the Economist Innovation Conference in Berkeley.
He believes in the old saying “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission,” but his corollary is that it’s better to fix errors than it is to prevent them, something that he believes many managers do not get.
Redesigning Portal: Valve’s Artist Speaks →
Nothing was on there for fashion. The constraints we had were that this girl was supposed to be dressed by machines, so any markings on the suit would have been on there for readability by the computer. She was never supposed to look as if she’d been designed. But that’s something we fought with – to make her still appealing to the player, but not look over designed. Anything that...
“I’ve made no secret of my deep and abiding loathing for MSWord. “It...”
– Craig Clevenger, on MSWord.
