A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Author Archives: Mark Twain, probably

Sep 12 2012
Mark Twain, probably

NJ woman denies causing penis injection death

NJ woman denies causing penis injection death

Distressing story that’s not really safe for any context reported by Samantha Henry for the AP:

[Justin] Street, a father of two, had gone to [Kasia] Rivera on May 5 seeking a penile enlargement procedure, which prosecutors say Rivera advertised for in fliers posted at local businesses. Rivera, who performed the procedures in her apartment, allegedly with no medical license or training, administered a silicone shot to Street’s penis, according to prosecutors.

Street died the next day. His death was ruled a homicide following an investigation and a medical examiner’s determination that he died of a silicone embolism.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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Sep 11 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Some pretty cool music makers are Family FUNKtion and the Sitar Jams, three brothers who groove the heck out with percussion, guitar, an SH-101, and sitar of course. They performed a medley of “Supermandala” and “That” with some free jamming in the middle.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Sep 10 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Pretty cool animation by students at Gobelins: Distance.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Sep 09 2012
Mark Twain, probably

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to be able to play as an elephant in Grand Theft Auto IV. Now I can settle for the second-best thing: watching someone else do it.

All of the animations in this video are simply magnificent. Running, cruising in a convertible, falling (watch the legs), and my personal favorite: swimming.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Sep 08 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Mattel has a series of iPad games called Apptivity. They’re intended for use with figures, which you place directly on the iPad surface to control the game.

Cultures across the planet have been making toys for thousands of years. Lots of us grew up playing with toy cars.

What do you do with a toy car? You drive it. You drive it on the floor, on a playmat, between toy buildings, on tracks, etc.

With Apptivity, you can now also drive it on a magic window that goes anywhere. Consider that for a minute.

This is the future. We are living in the future.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Sep 07 2012
Mark Twain, probably

My current desktop picture is this photo, “Camel Thorn Trees, Namibia”, taken by Frans Lanting for National Geographic:

Tinted orange by the morning sun, a soaring dune is the backdrop for the hulks of camel thorn trees in Namib-Naukluft Park.

It’s one of several photos by Lanting that accompanied Alexandra Fuller’s piece “Africa’s Super Park,” but this is the one that stood out to me because how is this real

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Sep 07 2012
Mark Twain, probably

“There is nothing sadder than a 40 or 50-year-old man struggling with a mask that they have to be tough and constantly aggressive”

“There is nothing sadder than a 40 or 50-year-old man struggling with a mask that they have to be tough and constantly aggressive”

Speaking of Junot Díaz, here’s another interview this time with Nicholas Wrote in The Guardian:

He says his remarkable use of language – his Spanglish is just one example of worlds colliding – was part of an attempt to unite the various parts of himself. “I was from a very strict and conformist family, so it wasn’t even permissible to cohere between home and the streets. Then came college and so on. In artistic terms it took a lot longer to work out than it should have. There are protocols in writing that are used to simplify things. It takes a while for an artist to work out that they can be broken. One of the contradictions of America’s insane capitalism is that you will meet people like me who have lived in three or four worlds. Maybe it’s to do with the fact that I’m straight and male, but I never saw any value in sealing off my background. I was critical, but I never felt one of the options was to entirely reject it. But it did take a long time for me to talk to my friends at home about the kind of books I read and the kind of politics I was interested in at college. It also took a long time for me to take my home into this larger and more intellectual world.”

Dude just rocks so much. Read his books — there are only two and they are both amazing.

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Sep 06 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Why does Social Security need 174,000 bullets?

Why does Social Security need 174,000 bullets?

Stephen Ohlemacher wrote some words for the Associated Press:

It didn’t take long for the Internet to start buzzing with conspiracy theories after the Social Security Administration posted a notice that it was purchasing 174,000 hollow-point bullets.

Why is the agency that provides benefits to retirees, disabled workers, widows and children stockpiling ammunition? Whom are they going to use it on?

“It’s not outlandish to suggest that the Social Security Administration is purchasing the bullets as part of preparations for civil unrest,” the website Infowars.com said.

Not outlandish at all.

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Sep 06 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Missing: Voyager 1 yet to find the boundary line of the Solar System

Missing: Voyager 1 yet to find the boundary line of the Solar System

Matthew Francis, writing on Ars Technica:

Where exactly are those edges of the Solar System? According to theory, the boundary of the Solar System is marked by a region known as the heliopause, where the solar wind—particles streaming from the Sun—meets the plasma of interstellar space. In this region, beginning about 90 times the distance from Earth to the Sun, models predicted that the solar wind’s particles would be deflected by the interstellar material, much as water is pushed aside by the bow of a ship.

However, new measurements provided by the venerable Voyager 1 probe have failed to find the expected flow, deepening the mystery of the boundary between our Solar System and interstellar space. This adds to an earlier surprise, when Voyager’s instruments measured zero outward velocity in the solar wind, a measurement that has now held constant for over two years. In a Nature paper, Robert B. Decker, Stamatios M. Krimigis, Edmond C. Roelof, and Matthew E. Hill concluded that Voyager 1 is not actually close to the heliopause, despite expectations. The researchers further suggested that the models for interactions between the solar wind and interstellar plasma may require reevaluation.

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Sep 05 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Anonymous claims to have stolen Mitt Romney’s tax returns, demands $1,000,000 in Bitcoins for ransom

Anonymous claims to have stolen Mitt Romney’s tax returns, demands $1,000,000 in Bitcoins for ransom

There’s no way this is real, right? They even have a counter-ransom going — pay $1,000,000 and they’ll release the files immediately instead of on September 28th.

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