deciding who kills whom

I've thrown a decent number of links to stuff about the video game industry up here (surprising, as all I own is an Atari Flashback), but here's another good one on video game writing

obama and race

Whenever I teach, I get bombarded with students who claim that in today's world, race does not matter because there is no racism. One of the interesting things about this year, with Obama running for president, is that it's really easy to find stuff to prove said students wrong. Here's a couple:

• A Reuters poll that says Obama's race is in fact an issue
  
• How about racist anti-Obama buttons?
  

photos of NYC when it was Gotham

I'm in the midst of a New York City visit now and am still taking my own phots, but here are a crapload of old New York photos...and, in case you like them, even more!

next slide...

Wired continues their run of brilliant advice with How to make a presentation like Al Gore...which luckily doesn't get into how to lose an election like Al Gore. As a teacher, I've seen my share of utterly dreadful powerpoints, so it's nice to see some good advice...many people need it.

fun with cameras

You can do neat things with photography ... that is, if you are madly skilled and just plain brilliant. Check out Alexey Titarenko's City of Shadows. Mmmmmm....long exposure...

one drop?

Is racism really a thing of the past? Did you know that the state of Alabama only legalized mixed race marriages last week? Slate has a good article covering what miscegenation laws say about us as a culture

more kitchen help

Here are ten marvelous bits of advice for novice cooks. I look at "everyone should cook" as a great crusade...for no other reason than I'm tired of grocery store clerks, when finally confronted by me buying actual elements of food rather than freeze-dried or frozen food simulations, making me explain (1) what the food element is, and (2) what you use it for.

floaters

My friend Andy especially will be thrilled to find out airships are making a comeback. The article says that they probably won't ever be used for mass transit again, which is a shame, because I wanted to travel like Indiana Jones...when he was cool and not fighting space aliens.

take my website...please!

Instant Rimshot is one of the most pointless web pages I've found in some time. I also find it insanely funny for some reason. My spousal unit looks upon this as direct evidence on how easily amused I am...but it's a fascinating misuse of technology.

on this date in history

On June 10, 1943, the Biro brothers patented the ball point pen. If this isn't a reason for academics to celebrate, I don't know what is.

he died as he lived

When the designer of the Pringles can recently passed away, he was cremated and buried in one of his own cans. I find this very cool, and I need to hurry up and do something worthwhile myself so I can incorporate it into my funeral plans.

making childhood obsessions classy

If there's one thing the web's good at, it's giving a display space for weird art. This is something I truly love. So, here's two of my favorite weird art sites of recent times:

• Diem Chau does carvings out of old crayons. These are surprisingly lifelike, intricate, and delicate. And they can be yours, although they are kinda expensive.
  
• Balakov recreates famous photos in lego. These are very cool, and you can buy prints...reasonable, too.
  

up in the sky

In a friend of mine's book, he reflects that the future ain't what it used to be. Remember what they said, in the 30s, 40s, 50s, & 60s, what the future would look like? And how none of it came true? I remember seeing something in a 1979 Reader's Digest that flying cars would be available by 1989.

Anyway, Wired has the NASA seventies vision of future space stations...and they're much cooler than what we have.

making us dumberer

It seems the rite of passage for every single new medium to be blamed for the great decline of intelligence, culture, whatever. And while the internet has certainly been blamed for this kind of stuff in the past, there's an interesting debate over on Slashdot about an article about a book that claims that Google makes you stupid. Follow all the links, and then experiment by inserting "Wikipedia," "video games," "television," or create your own!

seeing is believing?

It was true in the days of simple airbrushing, but one of the strangest things about living in the age of computers is that it's so easy to alter photos that you can never really trust any digital image...so much that "photoshopping" is a common verb. So, how do you tell when you've been faked? Scientific American offers 5 ways to spot a fake photo.

card tricks

A cool article on Solitaire as the best time-waster ever. Personally, I'm a Tetris man when it comes to my procrastination.

the man responsible for video games

Shigeru Miyamoto is a video game designer behind much of the products of the Nintendo corporation. The New York Times recently profiled him, calling him the Walt Disney of video games.

mysterious boom

The absolute best freak occurance in history must be the Tunguska event, a mysterious 1908 explosion over Siberia that had nuclear bomb-like properties. No one is 100% sure what caused the blast, although it seems to be a haven for wacko theories (my fave is that it happened after a failed test of Tesla's broadcast power). It has shown up in fiction ranging from Ghostbusters to Warren Ellis' retelling of the Galacticus trilogy. Now, however, a bunch of scientists have released a new study of the crater. Very cool stuff.

there's gotta be a way to use this while teaching

A friend of mine was trying to convince me that there are sounds only teenagers can hear. I suspected this "friend" was just trying to make me feel old (which, incidentally, should be an Olympic sport). However, it's true. So to what use is our Freedom and Liberty country folks putting this knowledge? Some mad scientist/fascist has developed a device that emits this teen-only sound for use to drive away teenage loiterers. Yes, fascism wins again.

musical swimwear

Passing the line between titillating and just plain weird is Oooooouch.com, which allows you to use bikini babes as a musical instrument. I know, this sounds wrong on more levels than I can imagine...but it feels so right.

ascii

The ever-cool Wired has a very cool piece on ASCII art. I like the idea of minimalism, but I will never fool myself into thinking I'm able to actually do this.

good news for glum bastards

A German scientist has determined that smiling can be bad for you. I am officially using this as after-the-fact justification for my at-work demeanor.

kitchen help

Found this great bit of advice for novice cooks. It is not vegetarian, but if you eat meat, there's good stuff here. My fave line: "You can't be an adult if you can't cook, and you can't cook much if food makes you say ew."

he's as popular as I was in high school

And here's another thing that I'm not alone in thinking: Historians rate our current president as the worst ever. And it comes with handy dandy charts...it's almost as good as USAToday!

up, up, and yawn

Superman is never cool. Personally, I've always found him to be dull beyond belief at best and dangerous at worst. There's very little to like philosophically about Dark Knight 2, but Superman first as a stooge of an evil dictator and then as a dictator/god himself sums up the worst parts of Superman. But you want more detail? Here's why Superman will always suck...and it's good that I'm not the only one who knows this.