RedDyeNumber4’s Cuil Theory, narrated by Roy Kelly.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.
Victoria Stanell for Beautylish:
As part of his newest exhibit at the Palais de Tokyo, French artist Fabrice Hyber sculpted a massive cubic meter of red lipstick sitting atop a cold cement slab. The sculpture, entitled “1M3 de beauté” is part of a larger exhibition called “Matières Premières” (raw materials) showing through the holidays.
So, uh, yeah. A cubic meter of lipstick.
One of the coolest ideas I’ve ever heard in my life is, oddly enough, a bike trail. Specifically, the Route of the Hiawatha trail in northern Idaho. It gets that name not directly from a person or a poem, but rather the Hiawatha trains that ran along the Milwaukee Road railroad system while it used to operate.
If you’ve inferred that the bike trail has this name because it runs across the old railroad lines, you are correct. The photo accompanying this post is taken from the official gallery and shows some bikers going over one of the trestles. Just look at that.
Someone I met at a wedding I attended earlier this month was telling me about this trail. I don’t know how to ride a bicycle, but it really, really made me want to learn.
Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific
Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific
From the abstract of the paper “Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific” by Benjamin K. Tippett:
In 1928, the late Francis Wayland Thurston published a scandalous manuscript in purport of warning the world of a global conspiracy of occultists. Among the documents he gathered to support his thesis was the personal account of a sailor by the name of Gustaf Johansen, describing an encounter with an extraordinary island. Johansen’s descriptions of his adventures upon the island are fantastic, and are often considered the most enigmatic (and therefore the highlight) of Thurston’s collection of documents.
We contend that all of the credible phenomena which Johansen described may be explained as being the observable consequences of a localized bubble of spacetime curvature. Many of his most incomprehensible statements (involving the geometry of the architecture, and variability of the location of the horizon) can therefore be said to have a unified underlying cause.
Yup. That’s right. H.P. Lovecraft’s 1928 story “The Call of Cthulu” analyzed with general relativity. Click through to read Tippett’s blog post about the paper. Happy halloween, folks.
Apparently the Austrian composer Johann Albrechtsberger composed several classical works that include the mouth harp. Why? I’m not sure. But the world is a better place for it.
This is the first movement of his Concertina in E flat for violin, viola, cello, piano, and mouth harp.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
So Juan Carlos Casado took this totally amazing and real photo of an aurora in Greenland in August. Astronomy Picture of the Day posted it (go there and you can mouse over the photo to see constellations highlighted), but that is insufficient. This picture needs to be everywhere. On all the things. Forever.
Penguin and Random House talk of merger
Penguin and Random House talk of merger
Important news, however that’s not why I’m linking it. Philip Jones deserves a slap on the wrist and a wag of the finger for penning some truly unfunny, painful suggestions for the name of the resultant company.
(Via Nick Harkaway.)
Yakuza 3 reviewed by Yakuza
I totally missed this until now, but in 2010, Jake Adelstein, author of neato book Tokyo Vice, used his yakuza contacts for the noblest of purposes: reviewing the accuracy of SEGA’s video game Yakuza 3:
M: I like the fact that you power up by eating real food. Shio ramen gives you a lot of power — CC Lemon, not as much. It all makes sense.
S: The breaded pork cutlet bento box is like mega power. More than ramen. That’s accurate.
K: Kiryu is fighting all the time. He’s gotta be a fucking idiot. No yakuza is going to run around getting into fistfights like that. Especially not an executive type. He’ll wind up in jail or in the hospital or dead, maybe even whacked by his own people for being a troublemaker. These days, he’d probably get kicked out before even going to jail. Guys like that start gang wars and nobody wants that now. When a yakuza gets into a fight, it’s serious business.
One of the most amazing things I’ve ever read.
Nick Harkaway on Writing
I just recently finished Nick Harkaway’s wonderful “Angelmaker”. I won’t even attempt to describe it but I will say that you need to go read it right now.
Here’s Harkaway writing in the Weekly Lizard, with some great advice on writing: take the brakes off. “Abandon shame and embarrassment and what your mother told you was impossible”. You also get to take a little peek inside his wonderful brain.
Recall: Sunscreen could burst into flames on skin
Recall: Sunscreen could burst into flames on skin
James O’Toole is the latest person keeping me awake at night. Writing for CNNMoney:
Energizer Holdings, the consumer goods conglomerate that produces Banana Boat products, announced Friday that certain of the brand’s sunscreen sprays may potentially burst into flames on users’ skin if they come in contact with a flame or spark before the spray is completely dry.
That’s right: sunscreen will now set you on fire. It’s seeming pretty prudent to be afraid of everything on the planet.