Art Maps and Walking Tours of 22 Cities
Bugaboo Daytrips is a gorgeous site featuring 22 strollable daytrips in major cities worldwide (not just US Only), all laid out on beautiful artistic (yet still helpful) maps with downloadable PDFs for taking with you on your wanderings. For those terrified of being marketed to, it should be noted that Bugaboo is a baby stroller company, although the site is by no means of restricted interest to parents only, and bugbaoo’s presence on the site seems confined to the URL. Also note that unfortunately for those alergic to it, the site is designed entirely in Flash. On the other hand, the maps & art are really awesome, so you should do yourself a favor & get over it this time. Via.
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We have a high-speed video camera.
Granular and Disordered Media. Condensed Matter Physics. Balloon jump. Balloon burst.
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Red vs Blue to end
Red vs. Blue, the first and funniest long-running machinima series, is about to publish its grand finale, a 100th episode with a twist ending. Red vs. Blue has been running since April 1, 2003, a single hilarious storyline about the two rival armies in the video game Halo.
Having labored on the series for four years, Red vs. Blue creator Michael “Burnie” Burns, who remains the series’ writer, editor, director and lead voice talent, wants to make sure fans aren’t let down.
The 15-minute final episode will be “the biggest one we’ve ever done,” says Burns, “but The Sopranos stole our ending, so we had to change it completely…”
“We didn’t even know what machinima was,” says Burns. “We played a ton of Halo at LAN parties because Xbox Live didn’t exist yet. The humor of us yelling across the room led to Red vs. Blue..”
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MIT reverses autism in mice
MIT researchers can reverse some symptoms of autism and mental retardation in mice by suppressing a specific enzyme. The research, conducted at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, is due to be posted on PNAS Online some time this week. Here is the MIT article. The specific symptoms reversed included hyperactivity, purposeless/repetitive movements, attention deficits and learning/memory challenges. The research was funded by the FRAXA Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the National Institutes of Health. According to the CDC, the genetic causes treated by this particular technique (called FXS) affects one in 4,000 males and one in 6,000 females of all races and ethnic groups. I would be interested in hearing about reactions that might be taking place in the various autism-related communities.
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PuzzleFilter
Puzzability is a puzzle writing company created by three former editors of Games Magazine. Start with their puzzle sampler and come back for a set of regularly updated games. Puzzability is also responsible for creating the New York Times’ intricately crafted Op-Ed Puzzles. Unlike the Times’ daily crosswords, these wonderfully elaborate puzzles are available in a free archive.
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Chris Benoit, 1967-2007
Coming weeks after the fake (and illegal?) "death" of WWE supremo Vince McMahon, police have confirmed the deaths of Canadian pro wrestler Chris "Wild Pegasus"/"The Dyname Kid" Benoit, his wife and son. Relive his greatest hits through the just-posted tributes on YouTube: [1] [2] [3] [4] .
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Poets’ Graves
Poets’ Graves. An international collection of…..wait for it…..poets’ graves. Fascinating bios, a forum and a nice selection of classic poetry.
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The Beautiful Function
Möbius Transformations Revealed [yöutube alert]
See also: Stereographic Projection Demo.
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Yank, Doolde, Dan and Dee
Who was Garry Owens?
That�s right, he’s an American radio announcer, but kids all over the world grew up with his distinctive voice
He probably better known for his work as the voice of this great American cold war warrior, and grist to this gratuitous youtube post.
Roger
Ramjet
and his
Eagles
Fighting for
our freedom
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Oh mah tailbone!
Oh mah tailbone! Classic episodes of Deputy Dawg. Hen House Hassle; Seize You Later, Alligator; Dog-Gone Catfish; and Aig Plant. Oh, mah cotton-pickin’ tailbone!
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The Record Industry’s Decline
The Record Industry’s Decline. "The record companies have created this situation themselves," says Simon Wright, CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group, which operates Virgin Megastores. Rosen and others see that 2001-03 period as disastrous for the business. "That’s when we lost the users," Rosen says. "Peer-to-peer took hold. That’s when we went from music having real value in people’s minds to music having no economic value, just emotional value."
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the Amazing Roswell UFO Festival
LOOK UP! (or down, if you happen to be reading from one of these. The annual "Amazing Roswell UFO Festival" happens this weekend, and it looks like people – er, visitors – are coming from all over! Who knew back in 1947 that this little incident would be the start of an entire sub-culture? Well, for me the fascination started with two of the the greatest UFO movies ever. For my grandparents, it started with one of the greatest radio broadcasts ever. But hey, there’s no need to rely on fiction when we have one of the most insanely great UFO videos of all time provided by none other than the Mexican Government! Seen anything strange in the sky yourself lately? If so, you’d better report it here.
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Digital Skin Grafting
"In this film, director Shanker wanted to change Rajini’s wheatish complexion to a white European complexion. It has taken 25 dedicated CG technicians almost a year to achieve this 6 ½ min. feat."
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From a better vanished time?
Classic Car Restorations – I was particularly taken by the Model A and the parade ground car of Stalin.
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The CIA’s Family Jewels
In 1973 CIA director James Schlesinger asked "employees to report activities they thought might be inconsistent with the Agency�s charter." You know, illegal stuff, black ops, the works. The resulting top secret documents are called the "Family Jewels." Today they were released. Press release with link to documents.
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Dana Gioia says, “I don’t think that Americans were smarter then, but American culture was.”
Fifty years ago, I suspect that along with Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax, most Americans could have named, at the very least, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Arthur Miller, Thornton Wilder, Georgia O’Keeffe, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Not to mention scientists and thinkers like Linus Pauling, Jonas Salk, Rachel Carson, Margaret Mead, and especially Dr. Alfred Kinsey.
The prepared text of the speech delivered by Dana Gioia at Stanford University Commencement on June 17, 2007.
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Flying High
London Flyers. Paris Flyers. Punk Flyers. More UK Flyers. Belgian Flyers. German Flyers. Greek flyers. Academic Flyer. Flickr Flyers.
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Farms Fund Robots to Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers
Farms Fund Robots to Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers
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Arrr?
Introducing rPhone – Industry insiders at PiratePalooza have the specs on the first iPhone killer.
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Contraption
Contraption. Yes, it’s a single link video post. Yes, it’s explicitly a viral. Yes, parts of it appear to be faked. It’s still awesome.
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Shields down
Robert Watt, Canada’s Chief Herald is retiring. He has held the office since its inception in 1988 and has developed an
international reputation for practicing an old world art in a new world context. Among his more interesting designs are those for the municipality of Delta, British Columbia, an Ottawa synagogue and the personal coat of arms for our Haitian-born Governor-General, Michaëlle Jean.
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Electrostatic Machines
This fellow reads up on electricity generating machines in old books and then builds them.
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Build your own game console kit
ThinkGeek is selling this sweet-looking DIY video-game console kit for $200. If your kids are going to spend the summer indoors getting pasty, at least they can learn a trade:
Written by best-selling game development author Andre’ LaMothe, the included book is your complete guide to developing games, graphics, and media applications for the Propeller Powered Hydra Game console. The book assumes you have only basic programming experience. It covers all aspects of the Propeller chip from its architecture to using the Propeller Tool IDE for programming in both Spin and assembly language, with numerous demo programs to use as starting points for your own games.
Included on the CD is all the source code and executables for all the included games, demos, tools and examples. Additionally, “Hydra Tiny BASIC” based on the “Tiny BASIC” specification originally published in “Dr. Dobb’s Journal” in 1975 is included. With this classic version of BASIC you can write programs directly on the Hydra without the need for a PC! Simply load BASIC into the Hydra or on the included game cartridge and you are up and running with nothing more than your TV and keyboard.
RobDurdle.com 
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