tweet of the day
How long do countries have until their populations disappear?
It never really occurred to me, until just now, that this could actually happen.
quote out of context
And then, obviously, because I am perverse, I was put off it by its ubiquity and other people’s enthusiasm. Others’ loss of perspective about its merits made me lose my own. Maybe I was trying to lower the average human opinion of the oeuvre closer to what it deserves by artificially forcing mine well below that level. Incidentally, this is where the parallels with my view of football end: even if that were a struggling minority sport only played by a few hundred enthusiastic amateurs, I would still consider it an overrated spectacle that lures vital funding away from snooker.
hat tip: Sarah
Thinking of you, Clusterflock!
Jeff and Casey Time
Jeff Roberts and Casey Muratori, creators of my favorite podcast in the world, have started a new animated improv comedy project called Jeff and Casey Time:
It’s animated by David Hellman, who did the artwork for Braid, and Raber Umphenour, who I’ve never heard of but he’s probably awesome too.
Ain’t no Sunshine
A voice deep, lush and powerful enough to make me devout.
from the comments
This car is mad crescent fresh, I want this in baby blue with crushed diamonds up in the paint job. I want white leather seats, soft as silk. I want it. I am Johnny Depp flying across the desert at night, trying to get to Vegas and write my story. If I crash the first one I’ll buy another one, hell I might have two laying ar ound just in case I want to try and drive both at once like an old timey chariot race. One will be retrofitted for English driving practices, then I will stand, one foot on each of the doors, and drive two cars at once. Fly on, my blue steeds.
quote out of context
The basis for rejection is flawed. Many high-profile structures would fit within the strangely contrived rule against invoking the imagery of phallus shaped buildings. One element of the mark that apparently offended the PTO was “the circular design at the base of the design and the shape of the design at the top. None of these elements are present in a traditional design of a tower or obelisk.” (Office Action at 2). One can only infer from the rejection that it is meant to imply that the “circular design at the base” represents testicles and the “shape of the design at the top” to represent the “dome” of the penis. It is important for the Examiner to keep in mind the aforementioned teachings of famed psychoanalysts – simply because a structure is phallic in nature, does not mean it is a penis. One may invoke the symbol of strength, the phallus, without it being a literal tallywhacker.
via Popehat
Van Dyke Parks on the life of the artist
I have had VDP on the brain ever since his new 45s arrived from Bananastan. Little vinyl discs with big ol’ holes in the middle. And sleeve art by Ed Ruscha and Art Spiegelman.
Asked in a recent interview about his roles as composer, performer, instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and lyricist, VDP responded to the question, “What do you think is your greatest strength as an artist?”
. . . the tensile strength and the very definition of an artist is something that I would place at the top of a vertical hierarchy. To be an artist is to suffer and to lead a life without shelter. It takes a great amount of derring-do, self-reinvention, imagination, familial loyalty, sacrifice, economic uncertainty, and the right to be wrong, the right to fail in order to achieve something of noticeable value. So I would say of all those categories the way that I would like to view myself is as an artist. And that is in my mere survival as a musician for these last — just a moment here, let me do the mathematics — 58 years I have supported myself by being a musician.
(Thanks to Ju Ju Pongo for the link.)
Cadillac Ciel Concept
How do you feel about this car?
phase space
I don’t have the background to properly explain this, but a new theory of physics called phase space (that potentially aligns quantum mechanics and general relativity) gives us this:
Relativity prevents anything that falls into a black hole from escaping, because it would have to travel faster than light to do so – a cosmic speed limit that is strictly enforced. But quantum mechanics enforces its own strict law: things, or more precisely the information that they contain, cannot simply vanish from reality. Black hole evaporation put physicists between a rock and a hard place.
According to Smolin, relative locality saves the day. Let’s say you were patient enough to wait around while a black hole evaporated, a process that could take billions of years. Once it had vanished, you could ask what happened to, say, an elephant that once succumbed to its gravitational grip. But as you look back to the time at which you thought the elephant had fallen in, you would find that locations in space-time had grown so fuzzy and uncertain that there would be no way to tell whether the elephant actually fell into the black hole or narrowly missed it. The information-loss paradox dissolves.
Is this something?
Software or (solar-powered) hardware modifications for hybrid/electric cars that offer the purchaser a selection of motor and/or muffler noises appropriately synchronized with accelerator use.
quote out of context
Chimpanzees are born slightly smaller than humans, on average — around 4 pounds — and so comparative anatomy would argue for growing the embryo in a human uterus.
animation test clips out of context
(via @Coudal)
from the comments
It’s as though all of the world is so new to her that the transformation of a part of Glasgow into Philadelphia doesn’t register.
Jack Layton (July 18, 1950 — August 22, 2011)
In the May 2011 Canadian federal elections, Layton led the NDP to a historic total of 103 seats and formed the Official Opposition. The success of the NDP in the election was unprecedented, making Layton the most successful leader electorally in the party’s history in terms of seats won.
Destruction Party trailer
This guy’s kind of small, so head over to our website to see the full flavor.
Excited. Nervous. Sleepy.
Working on a feature script.
Moammar Gadhafi has been overthrown
“It’s over, frizz-head,” chanted hundreds of jubilant men and women massed in Green Square, using a mocking nickname of the curly-haired Gadhafi.
Mrs. Bells
When my Papa, Stancel, was around 13 and living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, he got caught kissing the sister of his best friend, Pukey Bells. Pukey got mad at Stancel and wanted to fight him, but Stancel never wanted to fight because it would mess up his nice clothes. So he went home and got his older brother, Mason, who, despite being about a foot shorter than Stancel, always fought his fights for him. Mason knocked Pukey out on his first swing (probably because of the brass knuckles he wore as an equalizer to make up for his lack of height). Pukey’s mother got upset that Mason knocked out Pukey, so Mason knocked out Mrs. Bells, too. He said he felt kind of bad about that, but he didn’t see that he had much of a choice.
Glasgow/Philadelphia World War Z
Some drawings of George Square, Glasgow which has been transformed into Philadelphia for the filming of World War Z.
‘Hey kids, it’s time to play your favorite game: Guess. That. Crazy. Outlier country!!!’
(thanks, Lex)
from the comments
Daryl’s quote brings to mind Jon Huntsman’s recent newsworthy antics, mainly that he’s distancing himself from his opponents by saying that he trusts scientists’ expertise from everything ranging from global warming to evolution. Strange to see how this has become controversial, but again, I think the bottom line is that A) conservatives also tend to be very religious and science often makes claims that contradict religion and B) conservatives don’t like to be told what to do. Palin et al. often frame the debate around environmental regulations by saying “they want to restrict how you do a, b, and c” – it’s a rhetorical fallacy that never accounts for the actual science or reasoning behind regulations, but it’s been pretty successful so far.
I recently saw that a reporter was questioning Rick Perry on how, if he selectively believed what the scientific community claims, how he could be trusted to responsibly support the scientific community in keeping America on the forefront of technological advancement. Not surprisingly, he didn’t really have an answer.
from the comments
Casey, that’s a response I’ve encountered before with respect to Husbands. It’s really not a likable film. I guess maybe my own appreciation for it exists within a pretty large context of my overall admiration of Cassavetes.
The scene in which people are challenged to sing a song and the one woman is bullied is especially painful to watch.
I suppose that what it comes down to for me is that there’s a kind of raw emotional truth to the film, even though the whole donnée is kind of ridiculous — especially when the three guys go off to London. Because I am such a fan of Cassavetes, though, I view the film as one part of an enormous, rambling whole.
I do have to say that I’m kind of humbled that you bothered with it at all — based, I’d guess, on my mentioning it. And I appreciate your taking the time and energy to speak of your response. I really mean that; I’m not just saying it in a “thank you for your reply” kind of way.
google+ post of the day
What started the assault is in dispute, the Herald-Leader reported. Westmoreland said it was over a riding mower that he sold to Holt. Holt said it was over a woman.
Harvey Westmoreland of Lawrenceburg had said Holt cut off his beard and forced him to eat it while Hill allegedly held a sickle blade to Westmoreland and his brother during the May 2009 incident.
Holt could not say why he made Westmoreland eat his beard other than that things “got out of control” after some heavy drinking.
This is two years old, but you deserve to know.
