USGS data for the 8.2 Indonesian earthquake
USGS data for the 8.2 Indonesian earthquake. No word on any tsunami activity yet…let’s hope it stays that way.
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Entries for March 2005
An magnitude 8.2 earthquake just happened off the
An magnitude 8.2 earthquake just happened off the coast of Indonesia on the same fault line as the 9.0 back in December. “‘There is a potential for some wave activity,’ said Julie Martinez, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center, in Golden, Colo.”
100 favorite fictional characters chosen by notable literary folks
100 favorite fictional characters chosen by notable literary folks.
Adobe is announcing a new version of Photoshop soon
Adobe is announcing a new version of Photoshop soon. “Adobe says it added numerous features to Photoshop CS2 in response to requests from users and the changing needs of the digital imaging industry.”
Is this me in a protest video from the RNC?
Is this me in a protest video from the RNC?. I actually can’t tell, but it sure looks like me. The only weird thing is the bag…the one I have is not exactly like that.
Pretending to be a cook
Progress on learning to cook like a proper human being has been slow because I’ve been so busy the past month or so. But baby steps are better than no steps at all and in the past weeks, I’ve tackled cheeseburgers and pancakes. (Ok, you can stop snickering…I said *baby steps*!)
The first time I tried frying up a burger, I filled my apartment with the thick smell of burning cow flesh. Ok, medium heat then. After that initial misstep, I got it down. Burger goes in the pan, flip it once or twice, slap on a piece of cheese, and stick it on a bun with lettuce, sliced raw onion, thinly sliced tomato (there can be no going back to thickly sliced tomatoes now that I’ve done thin), mayo, and ketchup. I’ve eaten better burgers, but I’ve never had one that was more satisfying than one I’ve cooked myself. I can’t wait until summer rolls around…I’m going to get a little grill and have some friends round for a BBQ** in the backyard.
The pancakes, oh, the pancakes were way yummier, fluffier, and moister*** than I would have ever expected from a novice cook working without a measuring cup on a halved recipe. I’m a fucking pancake-making natural!
** Hello to my readership south of the Mason-Dixon. When you grow up in Wisconsin, BBQ (or barbeque) means any meal cooked on a grill, regardless of the presence of slow-cooking, smoked meat, or some kind of sauce. Apologies to you and your delicious cuisine for my unfortunate regional vernacular.
*** Oh, it’s a word alright.
Spanish shoemaker Camper has opened a hotel in Barcelona
Spanish shoemaker Camper has opened a hotel in Barcelona.
Tutorial: screenprint your own tshirts on the cheap
Tutorial: screenprint your own tshirts on the cheap.
An account of how a little amateur
An account of how a little amateur detective work helped a guy catch some identity thieves. “It seems that just this morning, the thieves made a purchase at a Denny’s Restaurant at [a local zip code].”
The new issue of “This is not
The new issue of “This is not a Magazine” is a 5 MB Powerpoint presentation. Highlights include an analysis of the perfect Vogue Italia photograph and the political career of George W. Bush as high-calibre contemporary performance art.
The Smoking Gun has a violent Flash
The Smoking Gun has a violent Flash animation done by the teen who killed 10 people in northern MN. He also listed Gus Van Sant’s Columbine-inspired movie “Elephant” as a favorite.
Fascinating interview with Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones
Fascinating interview with Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones. Their dedication to their craft is inspiring: “I put together a list of words so that for every possible letter combination there is a word that contains it somewhere in the middle of it”.
A great account of a computer programmer’s
A great account of a computer programmer’s job switch to being a bicycle courier.
Do organisms have the capability to “bypass
Do organisms have the capability to “bypass unhealthy sequences from their parents and revert to the healthier genetic code possessed by their grandparents or great-grandparents”. “Pruitt speculates that the plants carry a previously undiscovered store of the related molecule RNA, that acts as a backup copy of DNA. Such molecules could be passed into pollen or seeds along with DNA and used as a template to correct certain genes.”
Jeff Veen rightly rips into the entries
Jeff Veen rightly rips into the entries in interactive design competitions. I can’t even look at the results of these contests anymore because they’re often so bad and non-web.
Gelf Magazine is examining some suspicious sourcing
Gelf Magazine is examining some suspicious sourcing from a Wired News reporter.
Transparent screens pool on Flickr
Transparent screens pool on Flickr. Making it look like laptop, computer, and cell phone screens are transparent.
On the NASCARing of Boing Boing and
On the NASCARing of Boing Boing and what the hell are they up to anyway?.
Today’s New York Airfare Report
Today’s New York Airfare Report. This looks like essential reading for finding travel deals to/from the NYC area.
The Mona Lisa gets her first day
The Mona Lisa gets her first day off in more than 30 years. “In short, Mona Lisa has become like so many pop icons: a prima donna who puts outrageous demands on her handlers.”
Bloggie Howser, M.D.
After I posted about the DVD for season one of Doogie Howser, M.D. being the worst DVD release ever last week, a reader emailed me the following:
Remember how each episode of Doogie Howser ended with him typing a diary entry into his PC?
So … he had an electronic journal that was read by millions. Not a particularly conventional distribution medium, but wouldn’t that technically make him the first, if not among the first, blogger?
Awesome! Doogie, you trailblazer, I’m sorry I bashed you.
Update: I’ve gotten two emails about prior art on this. Pete asks if Mr. Belvedere would count since he wrote in a journal during every show, and J. Curtis believes that Captain Kirk was one of the first audio bloggers (or perhaps podcasters?) for doing his captain’s log each episode.
Iceland grants citizenship to former chess prodigy
Iceland grants citizenship to former chess prodigy and current fugitive Bobby Fischer. Fischer is wanted in the US for “breaking international sanctions by playing a match in Yugoslavia in 1992” and has been stranded in Japan since July without a country.
Google is displaying ad keywords on AdSense publishers’ sites
Google is displaying ad keywords on AdSense publishers’ sites. Another attempt by Google to turn ads into content (as opposed to everyone else who just wants to make ads *appear* to be content).
More fun unauthorized art: a plaque placed
More fun unauthorized art: a plaque placed next to a museum fire alarm that read, “Untitled, 1993. Red plastic.”. The “artist” took photos of the work, made up postcards, and they were sold at the gift shop.
More Banksy mischief: last year he erected
More Banksy mischief: last year he erected an unauthorized statue in Clerkenwell Green. “It shows the figure of justice - whose statue overlooks the Old Bailey in London - with US dollar bills stuffed into her garter and a plaque on the plinth saying: ‘Trust no-one.’”
Steven Johnson about why he doesn’t blog
Steven Johnson about why he doesn’t blog during the book writing process. “[Blogging while writing a book is] like trying to compose a new melody in your head while standing in the middle of a full-throated choral group.”
Interview with the PBS Online developers about their Trackback implementation
Interview with the PBS Online developers about their Trackback implementation.
A previous Banksy unauthorized art placement took
A previous Banksy unauthorized art placement took place in the Natural History Museum in London. “The graffiti artist Banksy has managed to smuggle in his latest work, a dead rat in a glass-fronted box, into the Natural History Museum where it was exhibited on a wall for several hours.”
Thoughts of a Dreamer, the Livejournal of
Thoughts of a Dreamer, the Livejournal of the teen who killed 10 people in northern MN.
Stealing gallery space
This is the best thing I’ve seen on the web in the last few weeks. An artist from the UK named Banksy went into four of NYC’s most prominent museums — the Met, the Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum, and the MoMA — and installed four of his own pieces of art:
Dressed as a British pensioner, over the last few days Banksy entered each of the galleries and attached one of his own works, complete with authorative name plaque and explanation.
He says - “This historic occasion has less to do with finally being embraced by the fine art establishment and is more about the judicious use of a fake beard and some high strength glue.” Banksy continues -“They’re good enough to be in there, so I don’t see why I should wait”
Staff at the New York Met discovered and removed their new aquisition early Sunday morning while Banksy’s discount soup can print took pride of place in the MoMA for over three days before being torn down.
As of now, the other two pieces currently remain firmly in place.
Be sure to click through to see the photos. As far as I’m concerned, this is probably more interesting than most of whatever else is happening in the art world right now and instead of tearing it down, the MoMA should move it into their contemporary art collection. Thanks to cityrag for the link.
Doing permalinks in Flash
Doing permalinks in Flash. Back button still doesn’t work properly, but this is a good step in the right direction.
Ridiculously detailed bitmappy poster of London from eboy
Ridiculously detailed bitmappy poster of London from eboy. They also have NYC wrapping paper, but would love to see a poster.
New technology could send data over human
New technology could send data over human skin to all sort of different devices. “It may soon be possible to trade music files by dancing cheek to cheek, or to swap phone numbers by kissing”.
Quick micropatron gift note
I’ve begun the process of informing the winners of the micropatron gifts via email. So if you contributed $30 or more during the fund drive, watch the email address you have listed at PayPal for an email in the next couple of days.
For the rest of you, here’s a fun board game that combines Tetris with Go.
A post of mine made it into
A post of mine made it into the “Trackback” sidebar in the April 2005 issue of Wired. My 24 yo self can die happy now.
Fascinating look at how all kinds, shapes,
Fascinating look at how all kinds, shapes, and sizes of life adheres to quarter-power scaling laws. “In subsequent decades, biologists have found that the 3/4-power law [relating mass to metabolic rate] appears to hold sway from microbes to whales, creatures of sizes ranging over a mind-boggling 21 orders of magnitude.”
Riding Shanghai’s maglev, the world’s fastest train
Riding Shanghai’s maglev, the world’s fastest train. “Four minutes of gravity-simulator-style acceleration later, in which the taxis on the parallel highway lose ground slowly, then quickly, then disappear as fast as if they were parked and you were whipping by at 220 miles per hour, you reach the peak speed for the tiny 20-mile run.”
Postings to a neo-Nazi message board by
Postings to a neo-Nazi message board by the MN teen who killed 10 people. “Once I commit myself to something, I stay until the end…”
Ajax is now supported by default in Ruby on Rails
Ajax is now supported by default in Ruby on Rails. “We’ve gone ahead and more or less removed the need for hand-written client-side javascript entirely”.
Superstar CEOs underperform the market after they win awards
Superstar CEOs underperform the market after they win awards. “A study of a hundred recent corporate crises suggests that bosses who are charismatic autocrats are ‘a major source of organizational decline.’”
Nothing to say about the article, but
Nothing to say about the article, but that’s a rather unfortunate headline.
pb is writing Yahoo! Hacks for O’Reilly
pb is writing Yahoo! Hacks for O’Reilly. Paul, you’ve become a book writing machine!
Kristan Horton is remaking scenes from Dr.
Kristan Horton is remaking scenes from Dr. Strangelove using ordinary household items.
The most expensive album never made
The most expensive album never made. The story of Guns N’ Roses’ last album, many years in the making but never completed.
Eyebeam fellowship
When I started thinking about taking kottke.org full-time, one of the things I wanted to do was not work out of my apartment most of the time. But office/work space in NYC is expensive and I figured I wouldn’t have room in the budget for it. There was also the matter of the proper environment. I just didn’t want to exchange working alone in my apartment for working alone in an office. A smallish workplace with like-minded folks focused on similar projects was my goal.
So, I’m pleased to report that starting sometime later this month, I will be an Eyebeam R&D Senior Fellow for the next year or so. Eyebeam aims to be a center for art and technology and with recent projects like Fundrace, ForwardTrack, and ReBlog, there’s quite a bit of overlap in what Eyebeam and I are interested in. They are not supporting me financially and I won’t be officially working on any projects for them, but I will be working in their new R&D space in Chelsea. The hope is I’ll not only have a physical place to work but that both parties will benefit from my presence in that space. That is, if some of their chocolate gets into my peanut butter (and vice versa), that would be a good thing.
So thanks to Eyebeam for their support of my personal digital exploration and am looking forward to working with the other researchers, artists, and fellows. Here’s their post on the subject.
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