Saturday, August 31, 2013

I used to want to live for a long time...

Darkside is an radio play based on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Watch the animated video trailer here and listen to it here.

If you've got an hour and half to spare and are a fan of British progressive rock (Genesis, Yes, Crimson, Floyd, Tull, etc.) this is for you: BBC Prog Rock Britannia.

I don't know whether this video is new or not, but it shows the effects of the 2011 Japan tsunami in horrible detail. Watching it, you get the impression that some people in the beginning of the video had no idea what was coming.

From the Things I Didn't Know You Could Hear department, listen to Robert Frost read The Road Not Taken.

Brewers giveth and brewers taketh away. First we get rehydrating beer. And then we have Backcountry Beverages' beer concentrate from which water has been removed for easy transportation.

Andy Gilmore's math art.
Although a lot of the data in these maps makes me scratch my head, you can lose yourself in these 40 maps that explain the world. My favorite is the map of how the U.S. is predicted to split into 4 countries. Bye bye, East Coast - hope you like the EU. Just for more fund, Worldmapper is full of maps. If you like scifi and maps, here's a map of the Star Trek universe.

Frute Brute is back!
The Racial Dot Map shows one dot per person colored by race across the U.S. It's interactive and highly visual. On the other hand, this district by district map of the religious affiliations of members of the U.S. House of Representatives is quite frustrating - color choices, lack of interactivity to drill down, etc.

I suppose visiting the Disney Animation Research Library would be like finding the holy grail.

Why there is no Hitchhiker's Guide to Mathematics for programmers. tl;dr

The Walter Koessler project aims to publish about 1,000 recently-discovered photos from WWI taken by a German officer.
Don't search - find the worst videos at Booo Tube.

When googling for Chuckie Cheese's don't google for Chucky Pizza. The result may surprise you.

Queen. Victoria's. Underwear.
New? I can't remember. Periodic table of the Muppets.
This list of 7 leadership lessons from a Navy SEAL includes one that is quite damning. "In the world of business, the ethical leader is sometimes a rarity, and truly esteemed." If ethical business leaders are rare, there's something wrong with how people obtain leadership positions.

The National Airborne Operations Center are modified 747s that provide military leadership an airborne platform to direct operations during a crisis like a nuclear attack. This photo essay takes you inside one of these histrionically named doomsday planes.

Back in the day they used to go over Niagra Falls in a barrel, but in 1932 they actually flew one: the flying barrel.
Each year the Beloit Mindset List tries to give the rest of us an idea of where incoming college freshman are coming from.  "Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger."

Learn to program: Idiomatic Python.

Must see: Space Shuttle concept art. I love this stuff.
Playtime: Javascript cloth simulation. Pull on it or tear it. Try to stop.
Do not click this: OMG Cats in Space.

...now I'll settle for taking a long time to die.

3 comments:

Francis Shivone said...

As I write this I am listening to the BBC Prog Rock video. 67 - 70 was the golden era, in my view. Procul Harem, Cream, Beatles and the like. My boys and I discuss rocks degredation, because they were Dave Matthews guys which I like, too.
I think rock is over except for the commercially viable but thin-skinned country version. Jazz, the kind you like, I don't get, even though I recognize that it is well played and artistic.

I'm not a prude but when any art form gets to the purely prurient, sensational stage, it's over. Read: M. Cyrus. It's not sexy, it's silly.

Love the maps. I don't think the breakup of the USA is far-fetched.

Gotta go, will be back for the remainder. Good links.

John said...

Sounds like you predate me by a few years. I cut my teeth on Genesis and expanded from there - Yes, King Crimson, etc.

I don't think rock has degraded. It's just that the "good" stuff doesn't equate to radio airplay (or would it be download?). I'm listening to a lot of good rock now from independent labels that's quite good.

I'm not too familiar with Dave Matthews but what I've heard didn't do anything for me. And I know that some of my musical tastes (like painting) are on the fringe of convention. I assume you're referring to the Berserk! review I just posted.

Maps for me are geographic versions of the periodic table. I like how all that information can be "mapped" into another shape.

John said...

Actually, having listened to Berserk! again today after having watched the prog rock video in yesterday's blog post, I think Berserk! has some of the qualities of late 1960s psychedelia and improvisation.