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Minimizing the ivory without sounding vaguely chinese...
How irving berlin's music got to the page. Apparently he couldn't read music, and ????? get this ????? he liked to play on the black keys because they were harder to miss. amazing stuff from the always fascinating Straight Dope.
10 years ago...
For those of us who don't care to surf the wayback machine ourselves, a sampler plate of the internet of '96.
Can I borrow a cup of Beatles?
Neighborrow is a new media sharing service which takes your copy out of circulation when a friend borrows it, thereby getting around nasty copyright issues. Good idea!
Rated R for Explicit Tit-for-Tat
Game Theory in Film. Does all great drama contain game theory elements?
Fiji Versus Cleveland: Cleveland wins
Would you rather drink Fiji Bottled or Cleveland Tap?
Open Question:
Please feel free to comment, and elaborate:
Would you rather listen to your favorite song, covered by the worst musician or singer you can think of, or the song you hate most, covered by the best performer? Assume basic competency for both; for instance, your tone deaf uncle doesn't count.
Turing must be rolling in his grave
I have long asserted that the arms race between spammers and webmasters will ultimately lead to AI. To get past this (tongue-in-cheek) captcha, they'll need to make a robot that can effectively ogle.
The Darth Sessions
Take a man with a distinctive voice and a long ouevre, whose most recognizable part has his mouth behind a mask, and you have the makings of an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0rwG39Jzk">internet classic.</a>
N.O.S.C.R.U.F.
"Let's end the trend of prickly, scratchy, stubbly faces. We're not going to shave until men do." (Somehow I don't think this campaign would work in Europe.)
-1 points for egregious use of comic sans, +1 point for the fact that the women are attractive, body hair or not. The movie's cute too.
Bruce Fanfic
A book based on Meeting across the River from Born to Run? Freakin' sweet. Via MeFi
Veruca Salt Violet Beuregarde must be a friggin' genius.
Insulin mops up glucose in the bloodstream, and chewing causes the release of insulin, because the body is expecting food. Insulin receptors in the hippocampus may be involved in memory. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that chewing might improve long-term and working memory. In an experiment, one-third of 75 adults tested chewed gum during a 20-minute battery of memory and attention tests. One-third mimicked chewing movements, and the rest did not chew. Gum-chewers' scores were 24 percent higher than the controls' on tests of immediate word recall, and 36 percent higher on tests of delayed word recall. They were also more accurate on tests of spatial working memory. Chewing gum elevated heart rate significantly above that in the sham chewing and control conditions. This response may improve cognitive function due to increased delivery of blood to the brain. But attentional tasks, which might be described as assessing purer aspects of "concentration," were unaffected by chewing gum. Thus, chewing gum may improve performance in certain memory tasks. Nevertheless, teachers typically ask students to stop chewing gum when they enter the class.From Efficient Learning for the Poor , via Truck and Barter
Beating Blinky
How to win at Pac Man. Actually you can't win, because after 255 levels it crashes. So, how to crash pac-man by playing 255 levels. Also, did you know the ghosts have different "personalities?" Via kottke.
Pork Festival is right...
Even people connected to some of those businesses or events are baffled at their inclusion as possible terrorist targets. ???Seems like someone has gone overboard,?? said Larry Buss, who helps organize the Apple and Pork Festival in Clinton, Ill. ???Their time could be spent better doing other things, like providing security for the country.??Homeland Security's list of Terrorist Targets.
Mein Kat
Cats that Look like Hitler. Art Speigelman, your metaphor has proven not-so-metaphorical.
Oooh now this is cool!
Performancing is a new blog editor, written as a firefox plugin. And I'm tryin' it out. So far, so good.
It only works if you think in Russian...
Some illustrations, based on slavic woodcuttings, of contemporary movies. Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, and The Terminator are pretty clear. Can anyone identify the others?
