Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Monday, March 29, 2010

More Trouble With Blaintology

In the spirit of Josh's last post; getting called on your bullshit can be painful, like so:

Would you like to learn more about Blaintology?

When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go on then — kill me,” he said.

Plenty more found here.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Elegant

http://yourworldoftext.com/love
You can go there without the /love at the end, or add your own /evil, /sex, /whatever

Each destination starts as a blank wall, you drag yourself around in there, and you can write whatever you like wherever you like in regular monotype.

It's simple and elegant, and awesome.

Friday, March 26, 2010

BFD

There's something lovable about Joe Biden for me. His spontaneity? His goofiness? His good-natured lack of propriety, perhaps? Whatever it is, I think it's pretty well embodied in this clip here.

I'm also loving that Obama wasn't the least bit offended by it, and that one of his first reactions was to put it on a t-shirt.


(Thanks again to Chris Cactus!)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

Since not everyone has read the comics, although they should, the movie looks spectacular!

Also didn't realize they got such an awesome cast to play the seven evil ex-boyfriends.

August is such a long way away.

Some Criticism


The stereotypist (John Campbell of pictures for sad children) takes a look at Star Trek: The Next Generation. He totally accurate and not kind.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Speaking of Numbers...

The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.

Ada Lovelace, Notes on Menabrae’s Memoir on the Analytic Engine

Happy Ada Lovelace Day! Cheers to the original computer programmer!

Nature by Numbers

I have a few quibbles with the inferential leaps people make about the Fibonacci number, phi and related ideas (for instance, fudging examples), but I cannot argue with the quality of the following video — it is a stunning visualization of the the relationship between the Fibonacci sequence, the Golden ratio, the Golden Angle, Delaunay Triangulation and Voronoi Tessellations:



This Made Me Smile

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.



How many can you recognize? It's not a competition, just a fun test of your art history knowledge.

FSM Art.

I spent a moment this morning making fun of somebody's "helpful" description of a technical problem, with JohnnyLogic. Part of my railing included a Google Search of the word "This".

"This" resulted in the exploration of a page of evidence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Rationalist Anthem

Friday, March 12, 2010

In Communist Russia, Song Sings YOU.



A backlash to nihilism, perhaps?

(Thanks, Chris Cactus!)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Pumpkin

Friday, March 5, 2010

Rapping From Quarantine

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Attack!!

TV Science vs an "Actual Science" TV Show


Read the whole comic.

Solar Cell With >90% Efficiency!

Created at Caltech:
"These solar cells have, for the first time, surpassed the conventional light-trapping limit for absorbing materials," says Harry Atwater, Howard Hughes Professor, professor of applied physics and materials science, and director of Caltech's Resnick Institute, which focuses on sustainability research.

The light-trapping limit of a material refers to how much sunlight it is able to absorb. The silicon-wire arrays absorb up to 96 percent of incident sunlight at a single wavelength and 85 percent of total collectible sunlight. "We've surpassed previous optical microstructures developed to trap light," he says.