The normalisation of horror

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Fun-filled distraction for concentration camp staff (pdf). Far-reaching influence of breakfast cereal. "We need to consider that [Osama] bin Laden in launching 9/11, he and his compatriots may have anticipated, and indeed invited American intervention, wishing to draw them into their territory and defeat them like they did with the Soviets", says Afghanistan expert Dan Plasch. Which is exactly what Bin Laden said in 1996 in an interview with then-journalist Abdul Bari Atwan (video).

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Jill Tarter (astrobiologist) and Will Wright (the Sims, Spore) discussing human evolution and extraterrestrial life. David Foster Wallace gives a commencement speech that talks about everyday drudgery. Some people are using pranks to wake themselves and others from the routine. Were bad weather and economy the real reason for witch lynchings? Crowdsourcing works. Counterproductive: repression in a free country.

The nature of mirrors

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Story of the two schoolboys who spent seven years remaking Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. View from the ground; a journalist in Iraq. The technological revolution that is changing the nature of war. The irrationality of deciding whom to vote for. The hidden legacy of Nikola Tesla. Brain cell versus (image) the universe. That is not how you do it, you fail.

I am your computer

Friday, August 29, 2008

How to write a sestina. Getting a computer to write about it itself. Full text of The Policeman's Beard was Half Constructed, written (sort of) by AI bot Racter. The terror of sleep paralysis. More on sleep paralysis. Some information on decision trees and machine learning. Great anecdote on neural networks.

Porcelain porcupines

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Interview with Jason Fortuny, 'professional internet troll. Proprioception, the internal sense. There is a name for the almost-black you see in absence of light. There is an actual condition called the Exploding Head Syndrome, but it's not what you might think. Disruption of the sleeping cycle, deliberate sleep deprivation, and taming sleep permanently. The dissimilarity in birthrates. Cover designers of famous writers. Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. Satirical WWI (images) maps of Europe. The urgent issue of national security that the US didn't deal with.

A bit of brain before the weekend

Friday, August 8, 2008

WWII bombing run based on travel guide to Britain. The British accidentally sink ships with 7,000 concentration camp victims. More than you should ever know about the serial comma. Enjoy the short popularity of intelligent music. Euphemisms used to talk about Iraq policy. The online traces of the alleged anthrax killer. "Neither the campaigners nor the police would comment, because they’re made of Lego and therefore can’t talk."

The lugubrious, absurd and brilliant

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Terribly awful journalism. The joy of pursuing the absurd, people who read dictionaries. What is the role of character in society? Life at the bottom of the ocean. Amazing photos of the still virgin Large Hadron Collider. A quest to getting one's head around memory. More on memory palaces. A discourse between Benjamin Franklin and... the gout. Review (with pop-up ad) of a new book about Kafka. Article on the moral opposites of Dostoyevski and the Marquis de Sade. Geniuses aren't necessarily born that way. The lugubrious way of life of behaviour-modifying parasites. Mind Muphry's Law and think twice before you correct someone's spelling. The deceit of Amazon reviews. A dedicated pastry chef if there ever was one. Who really were the 'responsible' parties of the Love Canal disaster? Britain, like any country, has hordes of deeply befuddled people.