Monthly archives: July 2010

links for 2010-07-31

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  • Amazon Reveals New Kindle: $139 For Wi-Fi Version, $189 For 3G
    Amazon today unveiled the new Kindle e-reader, though it was not personally revealed by Bezos, as we heard rumored. The new device has a 6″ display like the old Kindle, but is the newer type of E-ink display found in the Kindle DX Graphite. There are other differences, but the main one would be price: the brand-new Kindle will be sold at $139 for the Wi-Fi only version, undercutting even the bare bones readers out there.
    ….
    The 3G version will sell for $189. For the UK, the prices will be £109 and £149.
    (tags: amazon Kindle ebooks)
  • How Vinyl Records Are Made–And How to Pirate A Vinyl Record | DO IT: Projects, Plans and How-tos
    A while back, the site qj.net ran a piece on how to “pirate” a vinyl record. Sadly, the link is broken, but thanks to the Wayback Machine, I’ve pulled the archived copy up and am attaching it here for posterity:

    Posted May 14, 2006 at 06:49AM by Anna S.Listed in: Misc. Gadgets

    So you thought you’ve pirated everything huh?

    (tags: vinyl howto copy)

links for 2010-07-28

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  • Dogtown Redux: ‘Cannonball’ Examines the Ills and Opportunities of The Great Recession – Matthew Newton – Annals of Americus – True/Slant
    Cannonball is a short film focused on a very specific side effect of The Great Recession: A glut of foreclosed homes in Fresno, California, and tons of empty swimming pools that have attracted legions of the city’s skateboarders. Armed with sump pumps and skate decks, the subjects in Cannonball provide a unique look at the nationwide fallout of the economic crisis. Instead of seeing the country through the eyes of those who have lost so much, we instead see the opportunities these losses have created.
    (tags: shortfilm skateboard)
  • If the Earth Stood Still
    If the earth's gravity alone was responsible for creating a new geography, the huge bulge of oceanic water—which is now about 8 km high at the equator—would migrate to where a stationary earth's gravity would be the strongest. This bulge is attributed to the centrifugal effect of earth's spinning with a linear speed of 1,667 km/hour at the equator. The existing equatorial water bulge also inflates the ellipsoidal shape of the globe itself.
    (tags: earth maps simulation geography)

OO gauge number plate transfers.

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These sheets of transfers have number plates for 160 vehicles on them. Even better, you can specify where in the UK you want them to be for. Tell me the area your layout is in, or specify two two letter area codes (AO and RM are Cumbrian, for instance), and I will customise the sheet to suit. For the 1963-72 plates you’ll also need to specify the letter suffix for the year. Each sheet costs £5 plus postage.

links for 2010-07-25

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  • The Good Machine No-Budget Commandments | Truly Free Film
    One day, way back when, I went into to speak to a NYU grad class and I felt I would feel more substantive if I had something to hand out (btw I believe The Savages director, Tamara Jenkins was in that class). That was the start of the Good Machine No-Budget Commandments. James and I revised them here and there, and I am pretty sure, that Mary Jane and Anthony tossed more than a suggestion or two.
    (tags: film filmmaking)
  • BBC News – Penis photo posters seized by police in Lewes
    A person who put up enlarged photographs of male private parts around a town in Sussex is being sought by police.

    Several large images of a man's penis with a yellow bow tied around it have been taken down from car parks and places close to schools in Lewes.

    (tags: penis)
  • パーティクル崩し | wonderfl build flash online
    (tags: flash games breakout pixel)
  • Artificial gut frees sewage-eating robot from humans – tech – 19 July 2010 – New Scientist
    In the bid to create such autonomous robots, researchers turned to biomass as an energy source. By being able to feed themselves, robots could be set to work for long periods without human intervention.

    Such food-munching robots have been demonstrated in the past, often generating power with the help of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) – bio-electrochemical devices that enlist cultures of bacteria to break down food to generate power. Until now, though, no one had tackled the messy but inevitable issue of finding a way to evacuate the waste these bugs produce.

    (tags: robots)
  • THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD — Peer-to-Peer Edition
    "We have been impersonating people in power in to make political points for over a decade. The Yes Men Fix the World is our second feature film. It's won a bucket of awards and accolades, but we're still broke. We are hoping that people who share it will donate some money so that we can do even more outrageous actions.

    How outrageous? Outrageous enough to get us sued! Not long ago The US Chamber of Commerce took us to court for impersonating them. That is why on this special p2p version of the Yes Men Fix the World, we have included an exclusive video that the US Chamber of Commerce does not want you to see. You can only see this surprising film on the exclusive VODO p2p release.

    (tags: torrent YesMen)

Trailer Time

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Machete.

“Sol” – Teaser from Obsidian Collective on Vimeo.

Sol.

Sharktopus.

Faster. Be warned, this embedded video may loop and play you adverts.

The Goon.

Red.

Megamind.

Psycho Hillbilly Cabin Massacre.

Down Terrace.

La Soga.

Battle For Terra.

Danny Trejo’s Vengeance.

Psychosis.

Priest.

Drive Angry.

links for 2010-07-23

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  • Forget Brainstorming – Newsweek
    Brainstorming in a group became popular in 1953 with the publication of a business book, Applied Imagination. But it’s been proven not to work since 1958, when Yale researchers found that the technique actually reduced a team’s creative output: the same number of people generate more and better ideas separately than together. In fact, according to University of Oklahoma professor Michael Mumford, half of the commonly used techniques intended to spur creativity don’t work, or even have a negative impact.
    (tags: creativity ideas brainstorming)
  • Bruce Campbell To Star In Burn Notice Prequel Movie Bleeding Cool Comic Book News and Rumors
    Announced on the Burn Notice panel at Comic-Con today, a prequel movie to the series that will focus on Sam Axe, Bruce Campbell’s character, on his final mission as a Navy SEAL. The film will be set largely in Latin America, but it remains to be seen if it will be shot there.
    (tags: BurnNotice)
  • Illicit Thrills: The Seizure of 2000AD «
    Last night it was reported that the entirity of the UK-originated stock for 2000AD, one of the best comic publications in the world (“The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!”) was seized by the DEA as it was headed for San Diego for Comic-Con this weekend.
    (tags: 2000ad comics)

links for 2010-07-21

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  • Bizarro fiction: it's terribly good | Books | guardian.co.uk
    Shatnerquake is a comparatively mild example of the Bizarro fiction genre. Bizarro fiction defines itself as the literary equivalent of the cult film section in a video store, taking inspiration from films such as Repo Man and Eraserhead. It aims to satisfy the demands of readers who are looking for weird, in the same way other readers go looking for action or romance. Starting a decade ago with the work of indie publishers Raw Dog Screaming Press, Afterbirth Books and Eraserhead Press, the genre now has over a dozen small publishers, its own convention and an increasing cult status among readers and writers who know weird when they see it.
    (tags: writing books publishing)
  • Amazon: We sell more books in Kindle format than hardcover. – Boing Boing
    Amazon today released an announcement boasting that sales of the Kindle device have tripled since the unit price dropped from $259 to $189. And with that, a related piece of news. Founder Jeff Bezos: "While our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books–astonishing when you consider that we've been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months."
    (tags: amazon kindle ebooks)

How do you hang a wall

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Written in a notepad somewhere- to be put into a folder I need to start of story ideas- is something along the line of “How would someone steal a valuable piece of graffiti?”

It turns out the answer is straightforward- they’d just chisel out the section of wall and cart it away. This is what happened to a Banksy piece in the huge, long abandoned Packard plant in Detroit. The group that took the wall section- a local arts collective- claim they only did it to protect the art. Others aren’t so sure. Matters are made more complex because ownership of the property isn’t clearcut. Maybe it belongs to a man serving time in California, maybe the owner is the mystery name on documentation, or perhaps the city has the right to reclaim the site for its own ends.

Says Luis Croquer, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, “This may be unprecedented, because in most other cities, you wouldn’t be able to take a wall home… What does it mean to move a wall? And beyond legality, who does the wall really belong to, and now does the art belong to the gallery? To everybody? To nobody? We’re operating in this space where there’s this lawlessness that opens up possibilities that would be much harder to encounter in other cities.”

links for 2010-07-19

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links for 2010-07-18

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Trailer Time

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The Expendables. Trying a little too hard, but still looking like very silly fun.

Eat Pray Love. The film The Expendables wants to beat up.

A Cadaver Christmas Trailer 2 from Joe on Vimeo.

A Cadaver Christmas.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World. A “remixed” trailer. Interesting idea.

The Social Network.

The Town.

Essential Killing.

Tales From Earthsea.

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel.