Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour
July 20th, 2010
The sixth and final volume of everyone’s favorite nerdy graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim was released today. As you can see, it’s awesome. Buy buy buy.
Solar Sailing
July 17th, 2010
The Japanese spacecraft Ikaros successfully deployed its solar sail and it seems to be working! For those of us who misspent our youths reading Clarke and Asimov and Heinlein, this is some exciting stuff.
Social Networking Groups
July 12th, 2010
Google researcher Paul Adams posted a thoughtful presentation critiquing how social networking sites currently model relationships and groups. Executive-summary-summary: poorly.
Veganomicon
July 7th, 2010
I finally caved and purchased a copy of the Veganomicon. I think I may actually like this cookbook more than Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home, which is saying something.
Today was pineapple-cashew-quinoa stir-fry. Delicious. Someone less lazy than myself posted the recipe, complete with pictures. You should go make it.
Radiohead Needs More Ukelele
July 2nd, 2010
Amanda Palmer (of The Dresden Dolls fame) will shortly be releasing Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele, a more-or-less self-describing EP. She’s made her cover of Idioteque available for your online listening delectation.
Seriously, this just happened
June 17th, 2010
A German student created a major traffic jam in Bavaria after making a rude gesture at a group of Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang members, hurling a puppy at them and then escaping on a stolen bulldozer.
From honest-to-god Reuters by way of Tyler Cowen.
Fishy Scholarship
June 12th, 2010
Now, I’m no expert on Babylonian mythology, and some of my information on this is a bit fragmented and sketchy, but apparently there was a myth in which a lot of Mesopotamian law and culture had been handed down by anthropomorphic fish-people before the Flood, after which the fish presumably became less talkative. In commemoration of this legendary past, Babylonian and Assyrian priests and scholars (on at least certain occasions) supposedly wore actual fish costumes. They wore a big fish-head miter and robes with scales and fins. At least, that’s the story I’m putting together from a brief reference in this episode of In Our Time and this JSTOR article.
Now, if anyone has any other reputable information about fish-dressed Babylonian scholars — or decent access to JSTOR, at least — I’d be thrilled to hear about it. This is the kind of bizarre history I like best. I’ve also never been so disappointed with modern academic regalia.
Nigerian Oil Spills
June 4th, 2010
I don’t usually discuss political topics on this blog, but this article seemed worthy of mention:
It is impossible to know how much oil is spilled in the Niger delta each year because the companies [Shell, most notably] and the government keep that secret. However, two major independent investigations over the past four years suggest that as much is spilled at sea, in the swamps and on land every year as has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico so far.