Smart or Stoopid is a neat quick
Smart or Stoopid is a neat quick intelligence test. (thx, mark)
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Entries for January 2007
kottke.org 5.0.0.1
Apologizing for not posting much lately is liable to get a fellow burned at the stake around these parts but since I’m feeling a little chilly today, I figured why not. Things outside kottke.org have been taking up much of my attention for the last week or so and they’ve made posting here regularly and with gusto more difficult than usual. Apologies.
But also, and more relevantly, I’ve been working on a number of improvements for kottke.org and I’m finally rolling some of them out. On the front-end, the part you see, the changes are relatively minor but things are working differently now on the back-end. I’m still using Movable Type to edit the site, but now there’s a layer of PHP that takes what MT spits out, works some magic, and presents it to you folks, an arrangement that is probably a little nuts to anyone who knows their bangs from their octothorpes, but it promises to allow me more flexibility with how I want to present things around here.
Anyway, here’s what’s new:
- Slight changes on the front page, including dates for the short entries and separate listings for each movie “review”.
- Monthly archives are now combined. Instead of going to separate pages to see the December 2006 entries for movies, books, remaindered links, and main entries, all entries are presented on one page. Books and movies are still available on their own pages.
- A pared down the archive page to remove the superfluous monthly archives, as well as little changes to pages here and there for the same reason.
- Something fun: a page of random posts from the kottke.org archives, featuring lots of broken links, really poor writing, but also some nice posts from back when. The posts randomize every time I update, which is every hour or two during the day.
That’s it for now. There will be more over the weekend, I hope, including some looooooooooooooooooong overdue changes to the RSS feeds and remaindered links. As always, your bug reports, questions, and concerns are appreciated and may be directed to [email protected].
If Roger Federer keeps going the way
If Roger Federer keeps going the way he’s going, he could one day be considered the greatest sportsman in history.
Update: Via email, a nomination for Pakistani squash player Jahangir Khan, who engineered a 5+ year unbeaten streak during which he won the International Squash Players Association Championship without losing a single point. (thx, abbas)
Update: Also via email, a vote for darts champion Phil Taylor, who has won 13 world titles, including 11 out of the last 13. (thx, krush)
How to photograph cool smoke pictures. Or
How to photograph cool smoke pictures. Or you can skip the smoke altogther and make smoke-like images with Processing. (thx, shay)
Designers often have the design disease, where
Designers often have the design disease, where you “can’t stop looking at things through your designer eyes”. “But it’s not just books, it’s everything. You’ll choose wine by the design of the label and you’d stay [at a hotel] because of the sign.” (via emdashes)
Update: Bruce writes: “A parallel affliction to the Design Disease is Climber’s Complaint, wherein someone who takes up rock climbing begins to see every object and architecture as potentially climbable. Similarly, Skater’s Disorder afflicts those for whom every surface is seen to exhibit some measure of skate-worthiness.”
Lego reproductions of some well-known photos.
Lego reproductions of some well-known photos.
Update: Another set from a different person, this time representing well-known paintings. (thx, derek)
Finally, a book unafraid to speak the
Finally, a book unafraid to speak the truth: MySpace for Dummies. I keed, I keed.
A pair of fine sports-related headlines from
A pair of fine sports-related headlines from The Onion: Confused Bill Simmons Picks The Departed To Win Super Bowl and Bears Lead Rex Grossman To Super Bowl. “All season long, the Bears have shown that they can win, even in the presence of Rex Grossman.”
Tupper’s Self-Referential Formula is an equation that
Tupper’s Self-Referential Formula is an equation that when graphed, displays the formula itself.
Update: In computing, a quine is a program which “produces its complete source code as its only output”. (thx, sam)
1993 New Yorker piece on Barry Diller’s search
1993 New Yorker piece on Barry Diller’s search for his future and that of television, cable, and technology. This article is a time capsule of the optimism surrounding technology in the early 90s. Note that no one saw the internet coming then…the word doesn’t even appear in the article even though most of the things hoped for by the media barons came to pass on the web without their involvement. This interesting exchange between Diller and Steve Jobs happens about halfway through: “After studying NeXT’s brilliant software and graphics — ‘It’s the most magical computer,’ Diller says — he recalls telling Jobs, ‘You’ve made this thing too hard. It shouldn’t be this hard.’ ‘No,’ Jobs answered. ‘It’s like learning to drive. It takes two months.’ ‘No, it takes very little time to drive,’ Diller said. ‘A computer is not that — it’s hard. Why make it harder?’”
Running the Numbers, a great new series
Running the Numbers, a great new series of photography from Chris Jordan, is kind of a combination of Chuck Close and Edward Burtynsky, with a bit of Stamen thrown in for good measure. (via conscientious)
Human slingshot video. I so want a
Human slingshot video. I so want a four-wheeler and a big backyard! (via cyn-c)
The top 100 fonts as determined by a
The top 100 fonts as determined by a panel of designers and type experts. Top 10: Helvetica, Garamond, Frutiger, Bodoni, Futura, Times, Akzidenz Grotesk, Officina, Gill Sans, and Univers. A PDF of the results (with photos, in German) is also available. (via type for you)
How to extract stem cells from a
How to extract stem cells from a placenta and store them for possible future use, all from the comfort of your own home. The cost runs in the thousands of dollars but it’s totally doable at home.
A report encompassing the work of thousands
A report encompassing the work of thousands of climate experts says that “global warming will happen faster and be more devastating than previously thought”. “The really chilling thing about the IPCC report is that it is the work of several thousand climate experts who have widely differing views about how greenhouse gases will have their effect. Some think they will have a major impact, others a lesser role. Each paragraph of this report was therefore argued over and scrutinised intensely. Only points that were considered indisputable survived this process. This is a very conservative document — that’s what makes it so scary.”
The making of an Al Qaeda operative
One of the most interesting articles I’ve read in the New Yorker in recent months is Raffi Khatchadourian’s piece on Adam Gadahn, an American who is a member of Al Qaeda and “one of Osama bin Laden’s senior operatives”. In it, Khatchadourian describes how a kid from Southern California coverts to Islam, becomes a radical activist, and ends up making anti-American videos in Pakistan for ObL. Near the end of the article, we’re told about the work of forensic psychiatrist Marc Sagemam, whose study of Al Qaeda members and their motivations formed the basis of his book, Understanding Terror Networks (on Google Book Search):
Sageman discovered that most Al Qaeda operatives had been radicalized in the West and were from caring, intact families that had solidly middle- or upper-class economic backgrounds. Their families were religious but generally mainstream. The vast majority of the men did not have criminal records or any history of mental disorders. Moreover, there was little evidence of coordinated recruitment, coercion, or brainwashing. Al Qaeda’s leaders waited for aspiring jihadists to come to them — and then accepted only a small percentage. Joining the jihad, Sageman realized, was like trying to get into a highly selective college: many apply, but only a few are accepted.
Perhaps his most unexpected conclusion was that ideology and political grievances played a minimal role during the initial stages of enlistment. “The only significant finding was that the future terrorists felt isolated, lonely, and emotionally alienated,” Sageman told the September 11th Commission in 2003, during a debriefing about his research. These lost men would congregate at mosques and find others like them. Eventually, they would move into apartments near their mosques and build friendships around their faith and its obligations. He has called his model the “halal theory of terrorism” — since bonds were often formed while sharing halal meals — or the “bunch of guys” theory. The bunch of guys constituted a closed society that provided a sense of meaning that did not exist in the larger world.
Within the “bunch of guys,” Sageman found, men often became radicalized through a process akin to oneupmanship, in which members try to outdo one another in demonstrations of religious zeal. (Gregory Saathoff, a research psychiatrist at the University of Virginia and a consultant to the F.B.I., told me, “We’re seeing in some of the casework that once they get the fever they are white-hot to move forward.”) Generally, the distinction between converts and men with mainstream Islamic backgrounds is less meaningful than it might seem, Sageman said, since “they all become born again.” Many Muslims who accept radical Salafist beliefs consider themselves “reverts.” They typically renounce their former lives and friends — and often their families.
It’s easy to see the power of this approach. A recruiter only needs to use the potential recruit’s own feelings of isolation, loneliness, and social alienation against him and after that it’s like a stone rolling downhill. Reading this, I thought about similar the situation sounds to recruitment at college fraternities or the armed forces. Different ends of course, but the technique is similar: give a guy in a tough spot a comforting social framework, some self-esteem, and a bit of responsibility and eventually he’ll go to war with you, sometimes literally. Anyway, fascinating article.
Andy Baio has a report on Oscar
Andy Baio has a report on Oscar nominated films showing up online. Out of the 34 films nominated in one form or another, 31 have been released online. “The average length of time between a film’s USA release and its first appearance online is 12 days.”
Bubble Bobble street art in London. BB
Bubble Bobble street art in London. BB is one of my favorite arcade games ever. (via wonderland)
Is Food Network doing subliminal advertising during
Is Food Network doing subliminal advertising during its shows? This video shows a McDonald’s ad that was displayed for only one frame during a recent episode of Iron Chef America. (via the grumpiest)
Update: Additional information from my inbox: “Thank you for pointing out that Food Network one frame commercial! They do this _all the time_ and the technique was driving me batty: not only is it annoying, I didn’t know if anybody noticed/cared. There is at least one other channel (either HGTV or TLC) that does that exact same thing.” (thx, alex)
Update: Michael Buffington writes: “You sure the single frame ad isn’t a case of local market cable ads getting dropped onto the national feed? When I had cable, I’d see this all the time. A single frame for some well known brand suddenly hijacked by Cal Worthington and his 500 used cars.”
Map of the world as described in
Map of the world as described in George Orwell’s 1984. (via strange maps)
Ben Brown has a built a little
Ben Brown has a built a little site that takes the content from kottke.org’s RSS feeds and adds the ability to comment on them. “Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, Jason does not allow readers to leave comments. Kottke Komments contains the same stuff as Kottke.org, but with comments turned on!” Here’s more from Ben on the why/how. “The site […] is already built to parse, combine, and remix multiple sources of content. BoingBoingBlurbs, anyone?”
Two lists, both alike in dignity: the
Two lists, both alike in dignity: the top 10 best best actress Oscar winners and the top 10 worst best actress Oscar winners. Anyone they missed?
The Oscar nominees have been announced. Compare
The Oscar nominees have been announced. Compare with the top movies as determined by the film critics.
Photos of patterns taken from public transport
Photos of patterns taken from public transport vehicles. Gotta make it ugly enough to hide the stains, I guess.
Interview with Jill Youse, who started the
Interview with Jill Youse, who started the International Breast Milk Project because she has excess breast milk that she wanted to donate to African babies in need. “Breast milk has this fascinating aspect to it. It’s not something you look at in your freezer and say, ‘Mmmm, boy, I’m hungry.’ It’s kind of gross, but it’s also kind of cool, and there’s this element of pride to it. It’s got this ick factor and this awe factor. So I had my baby and I had my breast milk, and I thought that donating seemed like an easy thing that I could do.”
Why is meat the most shoplifted item
Why is meat the most shoplifted item in America? “So, more innovation is required in the battle against meatlifting. Meat-sniffing dogs pop to mind, though some shoppers might object to having a Doberman nosing around their crotches in search of stolen steaks. But you know what they say about civil liberties in a time of crisis.” That must have been a fun article to write.
CEOs of companies whose board members are
CEOs of companies whose board members are socially well-connected get paid significantly more than those who work at companies with less connected board members. “Academics have found little evidence that higher executive pay leads to better company performance, and the recent study of three thousand companies actually found that the firms whose directors were the most well connected — and which paid their C.E.O.s most lavishly — in fact underperformed the market. Markets work best when people make independent decisions about how much a commodity — in this case, the C.E.O. — is worth. They stop working well when people simply imitate what others are doing, or when non-market factors (like how well you get along with the boss) intrude.”
No nofollow
All links on Wikipedia now automatically use the “nofollow” attribute, which means that when Google crawls the site, none of the links it comes across get any PageRank from appearing on Wikipedia. SEO contest concerns aside, this also has the effect of consolidating Wikipedia’s power. Now it gets all the Google juice and doesn’t pass any of it along to the sources from which it gets information. Links are currency on the web and Wikipedia just stopped paying it forward, so to speak.
It’s also unclear how effective nofollow is in curbing spam. It’s too hard for spammers to filter out which sites use nofollow and which do not and much easier & cheaper just to spam everyone and everywhere. Plus there’s a not-insignificant echo effect of links in Wikipedia articles getting posted elsewhere so the effort is still worth it for spammers.
How to use Photoshop to make your
How to use Photoshop to make your car look like one of the characters in Pixar’s Cars.
Celine Dion singing a cover version of
Celine Dion singing a cover version of AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long. Sadly, what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. (via bitterpill)
I like these photos of humans by
I like these photos of humans by Mohammadreza Mirzaei. (thx, bardia)
For the Designing the City of the
For the Designing the City of the Future contest held by the History Channel, New York-based architecture firm ARO developed “a vision of New York recovering from massive flooding in low lying areas of New York as a result of global warming”. Photos of their entry are available on Flickr. “In order to co-exist with fluctuating sea levels, ARO proposed a new building type called a ‘vane.’ Part skyscraper, part viaduct, ‘vanes’ are built in, on, and over flooded streets, reconnecting to the classic street grid and making up for lost square footage.”
Here’s the public’s first look at the
Here’s the public’s first look at the newest Pixar film (after Ratatouille): Wall-E. Looks like it’s about robots and is directed by the guy who did Finding Nemo, in my estimation the best Pixar film to date. (via waxy)
Photograph of every advertisement in Times Square.
Photograph of every advertisement in Times Square. Somehow I thought there would be more.
Character actors who are trapped in a
Character actors who are trapped in a leading man’s body: Kevin Bacon, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Joseph Fiennes. (via quarterempty)
Video: web designers Jeffreys Veen and Zeldman
Video: web designers Jeffreys Veen and Zeldman fight in Wii Boxing. More web designer Miis here and an explanation here.
I’ve been asked to eat crow in
I’ve been asked to eat crow in public on this one: “Rex Grossman, 6/19, 34 yards, 0 TDs, and 3 INTs; or why the Chicago Bears, despite their current 10-2 record and weak NFC, aren’t getting anywhere near the Super Bowl this year.” Mmmm, that’s good crow. Still, the Bears are the worst team ever picked to go 16-0.
Choire Sicha is returning to edit Gawker.
Choire Sicha is returning to edit Gawker. What’s the line from Godfather 3? “…but they keep pulling me back in.” Here’s a post about it on the big G itself.
Diagram that charts instances of the “x
Diagram that charts instances of the “x is the new y” snowclone from 2005. See also: a list I compiled last last year.
Tremble funnyman Todd Levin dons the Non-Expert’s
Tremble funnyman Todd Levin dons the Non-Expert’s hat over at The Morning News to explain how to buy wine. “FANCY SERIF FONT + PARCHMENT LABEL + SOMETHING YOU KIND OF REMEMBERED FROM THE MOVIE SIDEWAYS + $12-$16 PRICE TAG = SUCCESS”
Winning the Nobel Prize gets you more
Winning the Nobel Prize gets you more than $1 million…and two extra years of life.
Increased suicide rate linked to movie
The rate of suicides off of the Golden Gate Bridge increased sharply in 2006, in part because of the local screening of The Bridge, a documentary about Golden Gate Bridge suicides. “The Bridge premiered locally in April. In May, four people jumped to their deaths and another 11 tried to commit suicide. Normally, no more than two people succeed per month, and an average of four others attempt to jump.”
Adam Gopnik on the current health of
Adam Gopnik on the current health of New York City. “This transformation is one you see on every street corner in Manhattan, and now in Brooklyn, too, where another local toy store or smoked-fish emporium disappears and another bank branch or mall store opens. For the first time in Manhattan’s history, it has no bohemian frontier. Another bookstore closes, another theatre becomes a condo, another soulful place becomes a sealed residence. These are small things, but they are the small things that the city’s soul clings to.”
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