…Like as the ink-fish, they say, eludeth his pursuers…

Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand A-Year

Mr. Titmouse did, to a great degree, bedizen his back – at the expense of his belly; whereas, the Corinthian exquisite, too often taking advantage of station and influence, recklessly both pampers his luxurious appetite within, and decorates his person without, at the expense of innumerable heart-aching creditors. I do not mean, however, to claim any real merit for Mr. Titmouse on this score, because I am not sure how he would act if he were to become possessed of his magnificent rival’s means and opportunities for the perpetration of gentlemanly frauds on a splendid scale. -But we shall perhaps see by and by.

Samuel Warren, in Ten Thousand A-Year

It’s a social disorder, it’s a conversational disorder, the fact that we can’t apply enough pressure to these ideas, that it’s taboo to do so. And there’s the fact that there is a core of truth to religion that we should be interested in. There’s the fact that people do have transformative experiences. If Jesus really was who they said he was, or Buddha likewise, it’s possible perhaps to be the Tiger Woods of compassion.

Sam Harris (in an interview with Bill Maher)

This is a better, longer version of the robot arms I posted on CrunchGear some time ago. I like the throwing and catching of the cell phone, and the high-speed target acquisition (moving the white ball around). Of course, it means we’re all dead once they deploy these as weapons, but hey.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Content with poverty my soul I arm,
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.

Horace (trans. Dryden)

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My Education – “Concentration Waltz”
5 Popes

Some post-rock reminiscent of earlier albums from Mogwai, Tarentel, and GY!BE. A great, lo-fi progression of noisy instrumental rock.

Long exposure of a helicopter landing, from the February 1949 issue of Life Magazine. By Andreas Feininger, and archived at Google. Fantastic picture.

Woah! Dresden Codak, which I found through one of my favorite webcomics, Hark, a vagrant, has one of the coolest art styles I’ve seen in ages. Click the above to zoom in, or click here for the whole comic, which is actually both interesting and funny.

Ha! This one’s great, too. Just figured out what I’m doing all afternoon (apart from working).

Photo I took for my ramen post. I’ve never really done food photography before (plus I don’t cook) so this was a new experience.

Please don’t sneeze on the international standard

Please don’t sneeze on the international standard

This is interesting. The international standard for a kilogram (as well as other measurements) is actually based on a single object, defined as being exactly a kilogram, which is kept very safe at a center near Paris. The thing is, since the object is defined as the kilogram, it doesn’t matter what weight it actually is. If it changes weight over time somehow, the actual quantity known as a kilogram changes. This appears to be happening.

Interestingly, if you were to sneeze on the kilogram, or hack a piece of it, by international law you would have just revised the definition of a kilogram. All the weights in the world would have to change in order to reflect your new sneezed-upon weight. Scientists are working to create a constant instead of a weight, but until then the risk remains.

The Art of Memory is a blog covering minimalism in music and film. There are many film frames and great art finds, all of which are gathered at this superb Flickr page. I shuffled through 50 pages of collected art, photos, and ephemera and found some really amazing stuff.

It’s associated with Invisible Birds, a relatively new record label focusing on natural and minimalist music.

It is said (though not confirmed) that Otto von Bismarck challenged Rudolf Virchow to a duel. As the challenged party had the choice of weapons, Virchow chose two sausages, one of which had been inoculated with cholera. Bismarck is said to have called off the duel at once.

Wikipedia – Dueling

Download The Pirate Bay

Download The Pirate Bay

Worried that TPB may disappear overnight? It’s a real risk, so why not help out in the backup effort? A user has collected all the torrents on the site (about 850,000 – another 1.2 million are not hosted on TPB) into a single torrent totaling 21.3GB. It’s still only got one seeder (the guy) but having a few copies of this around will mean that imitation and temporary Pirate Bay-ish sites will have much of the original’s content to start with.

God damn.

So the birthers, the anti-tax tea-partiers, the town hall hecklers – these are “either” the genuine grass roots or evil conspirators staging scenes for YouTube? The quiver on the lips of the man pushing the wheelchair, the crazed risk of carrying a pistol around a president – too heartfelt to be an act. The lockstep strangeness of the mad lies on the protesters’ signs – too uniform to be spontaneous. They are both. If you don’t understand that any moment of genuine political change always produces both, you can’t understand America, where the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and where elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests.

In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition
Rick Perlstein, The Washington Post

Some excellent Prince Valiant frames for you. Click for large versions.

Heh heh. That human isn’t gonna make it. We’re snacks!