Impressive cinematography. Spare, effective soundtrack. I may change my mind about westerns.
Psycho Killer
Idiosyncratic artist and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne’s journal is ridiculously good. He writes about art, current events, literature, music, physics, video games and apparently attends concerts by Sufjan Stevens, Jenny Lewis, Joanna Newsom and Arcade Fire.
The Next Goldwater
Image stolen from Shepard Fairey, text from some hippies that Tom Wolfe was hanging out with in the 60s.
Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene
Using Photographs to enhance videos of a static scene (via Daring Fireball). I can’t wait for the Final Cut plugin.
An Inconvenient Thesaurus Entry
Climate change is too benign a term to impel emission reduction. How about climApocalypse or thermageddon?
It’s Trilogy Time
Since it’s a slow news month, I don’t care about the olympics and the conventions aren’t for another two weeks, I think I’ll kill time by watching some of my favorite fantasy and sci-fi trilogies.
I’ve started with history’s longest New Zealand travel advert, which has remained improbably high on IMDB’s top 250 for the last 5–7 years. Although each movie improved on its prequel, the SFX are beginning to show their age. Characters are still wooden and prone to make absurd non-sequitur pronouncements.
Speaking of non sequiturs, digital travel guide publisher Schmap selected my photo of the Pavillon Colbert for their Paris travel guide (hover over the Musée du Louvre and cycle through the photos if you don’t see it right away). I’m also happy to see creative commons licensing for making content sharing simple.
Lastly, some wanton math humor:
Images of the Day: Science!
Click through for more nerdy goodness.
Speaking of hadrons
While we’re talking about the LHC, Sean at Cosmic Variance discusses some of the discoveries it might yield. After reading that I had to spend a good half hour on Wikipedia reminding myself what elementary particles are bouncing around these days.
I know everyone’s already seen it, but I’m compelled to review it anyway. Batman has been rescued from the scrap heap of overdone superhero franchises, largely thanks to Chris Nolan’s deft direction and Heath Ledger’s amazing turn as the Joker. Aside from the tedious denouement and Christian Bale’s weirdly gravelly voice, the film is thoroughly enjoyable.
Hors d’œuvre
Because every new WordPress upgrade breaks K2, my previous theme, I’m working on a new home-grown alternative. Until it’s ready for prime time, here are some random items of interest:
- Some people still believe the earth is flat. Oddly, this misconception isn’t as old as many think.
- NYT’s Solzhenitsyn obit is 8 pages long.
- McCain makes his first visit to the internet, which, according to corrupt Senator Ted Stevens, is a series of tubes.
- Iran’s scientists may be on the verge of developing nuclear ballistic missiles, but they suck at photoshop.
- And in case you missed Trinity Day, here’s some background information on the detonation of the first atomic bomb.
- Beginning 9 August, The Orwell Trust will publish George Orwell’s diaries online, 70 years to the day after he wrote each entry.
- Bowser’s minions stage a mutiny.
- Typefaces have a conference to discuss membership requirements. Much funnier than it sounds.
I for one welcome our new hadron overlords
Even if the LHC doesn’t create an earth-consuming black hole, photographs reveal it to be the most sinister-looking technological artifact in Switzerland.
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