Links and write-ups about beautiful things from around the web!
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B-I-Bicky-Bi
Thanks to the Alamo Drafthouse’s always-amazing preshow entertainment reels, Marsha and I have had this Three Stooges earworm stuck in our head for the past week. Maybe now you’ll be stuck with it too.
(PS for cartoon fans: this song is the origin of a classic Dale Gribble-ism)
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Central Texas Wildfire Water Tower
Out of all of the photos of the devastating central Texas wildfires, at least this one of my favorite water tower is ominously cheerful.
Detailed info about the extent of the damage is available from the the Texas Forest Service, and here’s information about how you can help.
(Photo credit: Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman)
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STRIPPED: the Comics Documentary
Do you enjoy newspaper comics? Want to learn more about their history and place in the world through interviews with a laundry list of comic artists? Then you might be interested in helping these guys in Kickstarter finish out their documentary: STRIPPED: The Comics Documentary
(Via The Comics Curmudgeon)
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Ad Rock Sneaks in “Cookie Puss” on Nickelodeon
[Alas, video has been removed from YouTube]
DJ Jazzy Jay and Afrika Bambaataa on a 1984 episode of Nickelodeon’s Live Wire, showing kids how to scratch. Awesome enough as it is, but WAIT A MINUTE — is that a 17-year-old Ad-Rock in the audience sneaking in a plug for Cookie Puss at 4:18??!
(Via Dangerous Minds and They Might Be Giants)
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The visibilizing analyzer
The Language Log on how science fiction often misses the mark with predictions of technology (the why is up for debate, of course):
Less than 50 years ago, this is what the future of data visualization looked like — H. Beam Piper, “Naudsonce”, Analog 1962:
She had been using a visibilizing analyzer; in it, a sound was broken by a set of filters into frequency-groups, translated into light from dull red to violet paling into pure white. It photographed the light-pattern on high-speed film, automatically developed it, and then made a print-copy and projected the film in slow motion on a screen. When she pressed a button, a recorded voice said, “Fwoonk.” An instant later, a pattern of vertical lines in various colors and lengths was projected on the screen.
This is in a future world with anti-gravity and faster-than-light travel.
The comments that follow are a great mix of discussion about science fiction writing (why do the galactic scientists in Asimov’s Foundation rely on slide rules?) and 1960s display technology limitations (vector vs. raster, who will win?). I like this site.
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On gunpowder, ice cream, and sound symbolism
From the post Language of Food: Ice Cream, a fascinating article linking the history of gunpowder, ice cream, linguistics, and even a bit of marketing insight:
Something similarly beautiful was created as saltpeter and snow, sherbet and salt, were passed along and extended from the Chinese to the Arabs to the Mughals to the Neapolitans, to create the sweet lusciousness of ice cream. And it’s a nice thought that saltpeter, applied originally to war, became the key hundreds of years later to inventing something that makes us all smile on a hot summer day.
If you like food, language, or science, the full post is worth a read.
(Via Language Log)
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Comedy Is Always Happening
Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening. Steve Martin, from his autobiography Born Standing Up.
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GelSight 3D Rubber Imaging
GelSight, a high-resolution, portable 3D imaging system from researchers at MIT, basically what looks like a small piece of translucent rubber injected with metal flakes. Watch the video to see some of the microscopic scans they’re able to get using this. I love non-showy SIGGRAPH tech demos like this one.
(Via ACM TechNews)
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Spreading the Word About Good Stuff
I had an urge to write. When I saw something that I thought might be publishable, I wrote something. I just wanted to spread the word about good stuff. From the NY Times obit of Daniel D. McCracken, who starting in the 1950s wrote books on computers and programming aimed at non-scientists, a true pioneer in the field. Spreading the word about good stuff is a noble achievement.
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Logically boring
From Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic, which aimed to make logic understandable via quirky syllogisms and illustrated tables:
- No interesting poems are unpopular among people of real taste;
- No modern poetry is free from affectation;
- All your poems are on the subject of soap-bubbles;
- No affected poetry is popular among people of real taste;
- No ancient poem is on the subject of soap-bubbles.
Conclusion: all your poems are uninteresting.