Links Dump
drorzel | August 1, 2009
CHART ATTACK!: 8/1/92 | Popdose
"I just read the following in their Wikipedia entry: "In 2009, Boyz II Men announced plans for a new cover album, that covers 'artists I don't think people would expect us to cover!' according to Shawn Stockman." Can Popdose get in on this? Can we make a list of songs for Boyz II Men to cover? Because I want to start with "Detachable Penis" and just go downhill from there."
(tags: music silly nostalgia culture)
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / The Perennial Hugos Ballyhoo
"There's also a lot of weird disrespect going on every which way,…
drorzel | July 31, 2009
Guided By Voices | Music | A.V. Club
"Dozens of people can say they were members of indie-rock institution Guided By Voices during its 21-year run, but the Dayton, Ohio-based band was chiefly a creative outlet for a music-obsessed former schoolteacher named Robert Pollard. And Pollard was very creative, capable of writing an album's worth of songs in a single day, and recording and releasing them almost as quickly. "
(tags: music avclub culture)
K-State researchers study how children view and treat their peers with undesirable characteristics
Not as badly as you might think. But not well…
drorzel | July 30, 2009
The missing research program for space colonization -- KarlSchroeder.com
"No amount of data about how the human body reacts to zero-G is going to answer the important question, which is: how does the human body react to extended periods under fractional gravity--like the moon's 1/6 G or Mars's .38 G? If there's a potential show-stopper to colonizing other worlds, it's going to be how our physiology responds to fractional gravity, not zero gravity."
(tags: space science medicine blogs physics planets technology)
...My heart's in Accra » Fun and games with human misery
"The best $50…
drorzel | July 29, 2009
The Republic of T. » Sotomayor & The Vulcan Standard, Pt. 2
"It hit me like a slap in the face. It sounded familiar, but different. To me, this fictional family was white. But in the time and place they occupied on the page they weren't "white enough."
"Oh my God!" I exclaimed. My husband, who was reading the same book, looked at me.
I looked up from the page, looked at him, and said with a note of wonder in my voice, "There are different shades of white.""
(tags: race society culture history literature blogs republic-of-t)
OMG QIP=PSPACE! : The Quantum Pontiff
"This solves a long…
drorzel | July 28, 2009
kate_nepveu: Worldcon: online jerkitude
"I'm trying to come up with a list of bedrock principles that apply across all online contexts, and I keep getting bogged down in my lawyer tendencies. So what would you say are the fundamental, applies-anywhere minimum requirements of human decency when it comes to online interactions?"
(tags: internet culture society SF blogs)
Invisible flash takes photos without the glare - tech - 16 July 2009 - New Scientist
"Although the dark flash gives a crisp image without disturbing those in the picture, the results have an odd colour balance that looks…
drorzel | July 27, 2009
KR Blog » The Wilderness of Memory
"[Chabon asks] a valid question, but I can't escape the feeling that it reflects a particularly American idealization of childhood. Growing up slowly is a privilege of wealth, and few children throughout human history have enjoyed a childhood without the privations of hunger, war, or grinding poverty. "
(tags: books literature society culture history class-war kid-stuff blogs)
Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood - The New York Review of Books
"The thing that strikes me now when I think about the Wilderness of Childhood is the incredible…
drorzel | July 26, 2009The del.icio.us automatic blog posting that usually produces the daily links dump posts here has been broken during the recent ScienceBlogs upgrade. The links dump posts from last Thursday on didn't happen, but we've kludged up a way to get that material back. These are the links that should've posted on Saturday the 25th:
Friday Recipe: Chinese Potstickers (aka Jiao Zi) : Good Math, Bad Math
Mmmmmmm.... potstickers.....
(tags: food blogs good-math)
The importance of stupidity in scientific research -- Schwartz 121 (11): 1771 -- Journal of Cell Science
"A Ph.D., in which you have to do a…
drorzel | July 26, 2009The del.icio.us automatic blog posting that usually produces the daily links dump posts here has been broken during the recent ScienceBlogs upgrade. The links dump posts from last Thursday on didn't happen, but we've kludged up a way to get that material back. These are the links that should've posted on Friday the 24th:
Scientists capitalize on extended solar eclipse
Jay Pasachoff leads another eclipse expedition taking students to China. And manages not to mention any of them by name in the press release.
(tags: science astronomy education academia)
Diary of Trade Book (Newton and the…
drorzel | July 26, 2009The del.icio.us automatic blog posting that usually produces the daily links dump posts here has been broken during the recent ScienceBlogs upgrade. The links dump posts from last Thursday on didn't happen, but we've kludged up a way to get that material back. These are the links that should've posted on Thursday the 23rd:
Pimp My Novel: Hammered by Thor
A concise explanation of the infamous Thor Power Tools decision, and what it meant for book publishing.
(tags: publishing business books blogs economics law)
Pimp My Novel: No! Yes! No!: The Schizophrenia of Sell-Through
Why selling too…
drorzel | July 22, 2009
slacktivist: On offendedness
"Taking offense and getting angry aren't exactly the same thing. Anger has to do with the intolerable difference between what is and what ought to be, which is to say, with injustice. Offendedness has to do with my own discomfort with the difference between how I feel and how I'd prefer to feel. Offendedness makes it all about me."
(tags: religion books blogs slacktivist)
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Sunset Grants
"If only there were some sort of short-term stimulus money, something we could apply for to cover the costs of 'teaching out' programs…
drorzel | July 20, 2009
NASA - LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites
"NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks."
(tags: space astronomy history pictures science)
News: What Counts for Tenure - Inside Higher…
drorzel | July 19, 2009
Open Left:: Sotomayor Hearings For The Hearing Impaired
"Oh how I long for the dignified workplace I once had at SNL."
(tags: race politics US law stupid)
Weekend Diversion: A Charity Challenge! : Starts With A Bang
If Ethan gets at least 100 people to donate $10 or volunteer 4 hours for charity, he'll shave his head.
(tags: charity blogs starts-with-bang)
Swans on Tea » Doctor Obvious, Come Here ⦠Slowly
Another example of deception by large absolute numbers.
(tags: science social-science transportation statistics blogs swans-on-tea)
drorzel | July 18, 2009
Clowns Kicked KKK Asses - Neatorama
"âWhite Power!â the Naziâs shouted, âWhite Flour?â the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt âWhite Flourâ.
âWhite Power!â the Naziâs angrily shouted once more, âWhite flowers?â the clowns cheers and threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily."
(tags: politics race evil stupid silly)
drorzel | July 17, 2009
slacktivist: TF: Bruce's sermon, part 1
"There's a monster at the end of this book. And if the authors succeed at what they've set out to do, that monster is you.
That's part of why one should only read these books slowly, in small, weekly doses, while pausing to scream at or mock every page."
(tags: books blogs slacktivist religion ethics society)
Physics Buzz: Crazy (in a good way)
"After a month of cramming for finals and living off raw ramen noodles, there's nothing more appealing
to a college student at the end of May than a long summer doing nothing, punctuated, if you're feeling…
drorzel | July 15, 2009
Bad Boys | Film | A.V. Club
"From this rich central dynamic, all manner of hilarity springs. Smith is fastidious about the upkeep of his expensive sports car. Lawrence is a slob who gets his messy hamburger all over its glistening interior! How will they ever be able to work together? My curiosity was piqued! Incidentally, since Iâm writing about Michael Bay, I feel it is only appropriate to use as many exclamation points as possible, in a futile attempt to convey the mind-bogglingly extreme and in-your-face nature of Bayâs work. Whose face is Bay in? Mine. Yours. Societyâs."
(tags: movies…
drorzel | July 14, 2009
funny-pictures-cat-upsets-your-gravity.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x398 pixels)
Finally, the problem with quantum gravity is revealed.
(tags: pictures silly animals internet physics gravity quantum)
Robert Wright: Why the "New Atheists" are Right-Wing on Foreign Policy
"It must strike progressive atheists as a stroke of bad luck that Christopher Hitchens, leading atheist spokesperson, happens to have hawkish views on foreign policy. After all, with atheists an overwhelmingly left-wing group, what were the chances that the loudest infidel in the western world would happen to be on the right?…
drorzel | July 13, 2009
Confessions of a Community College Dean: College Prep
"In some circles, 'college' is an undifferentiated term for a place that other people go to get the kinds of jobs that other people get. It's probably some kind of racket, though the exact workings are hard to detail.
In some circles, 'college' is a place to find a mate, go to football games, and/or party. It's a sort of way station between childhood and adulthood, with no particular connection to the outside world. It's an expected stage of life â it's just what you do after high school â regardless of whether you have any idea what you…
drorzel | July 12, 2009
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Beyond the Aryth Ocean: Part 1: A review of selected maps in fantasy novels
"[L]etâs take a look at some of the great maps of fantasy literature. This is by no means a complete list of the great ones, or even the most well known. Rather, itâs a list of maps that Iâve pored over for hours during my childhood, and ultimately, have inspired me to imagine my own fantastic worlds."
(tags: fantasy maps books blogs tor SF)
Book review: Unscientific America. : Adventures in Ethics and Science
"It struck me, while reading this book, that the…
drorzel | July 9, 2009
P.G. Wodehouse | Books | A.V. Club
"Logistics and aesthetics stand in the way of anyone wishing to dive into P.G. Wodehouseâs canon. His work sprawls over 90 books published over 75 years, most of which are constantly sneaking in and out of print, many of which have different British and American publication titles. His short-story collections tend to overlap and make each other redundant. But the issue of distance from the material can be even more challenging for novices. People Gateways To Geekerycontinue to read Wodehouse primarily for the structural perfection of his farce plots and…
drorzel | July 8, 2009
Physics Buzz: Watch this!
"Forget the cheesy narrator and hokey graphics. Wobble the camera like you're Michel Gondry filming Eternal Sunshine. Ditch the pseudo-techno soundtrack that makes the kids shake their heads at you for trying to be hip, and go for something understated. Then you might have something as good as Colliding Particles.
The filmmakers behind this unusual web series have thrown pretty much every science documentary convention to the wind, and, in doing so, have hit on something great.(Face it, unless it's David Attenborough we can do without a disembodied voice booming…