It's tough reading Ebert writing on reincarnation, the reality of existence, and quantum tunneling. He explores Wikipedia and, I suppose, seems encouraged by the weirdness:
"This is completely impractical, but even if one could theoretically do this, it would destroy any evidence that the original measurement took place (including the physicist's memory)."
Vanity Fair comes up with this description for Tim and Eric:
"It's like… Eugene Ionesco doing a Sacha Baron Cohen prank, if Ionesco was a big Flight of the Conchords fan… and on crystal meth."
Wax Stag is from the UK. He makes great, sublime, intelligent instrumental music. I found him a few times this week: first on that new ISO50 playlist, then when Bibio raved him up on the Fork. The record has been making me more productive all day. Full-frontally recommended.
Unbelievable videos, too:
I'm listening to the Radio Zero #59 podcast right now, and it is fondue. That's my new term for "smooth and creamy and sublime and warm."
You're welcome!
Poster Pocket Plants are greening the heck out of Toronto... via poster! They cut out triangles from posters and wheat-pastings, cone the cut-outs up, fill with dirt, and plant vertical gardens. Via Fabrik and Torontoist.
Ray Kurzweil is a futurist who believes that the exponential growth of technology predetermines the existence of molecular robots, reverse-engineered brains (with "thousands of times more efficient biology"), and elaborate, sensory-enabled virtual realities... all by the 2020's. Here's his site. Thanks to Matt. I'm definitely about to scratch more of this surface.
I visited A-Z Greens Hotel last night for a vhcle.com party. The hotel was the star (though Wallpaper and hell of models did good work, too). I can't find any good pics of this place yet, so let me explain: it's an old motor lodge that has been vacuumed up through a sort of post-modernizer. The rooms are neon and Beetlejuice-ian, with angular furniture and a bold lettering system (see above). There was a pool somewhere, and an adventurous-looking lounge/cafe/bar area. The whole place felt ambitious.
Ghostly is one of my favorite organizers of music (I try not to say label anymore). Gallons of interesting instrumental music. They launched a cool app for the label called Discovery, previewed above. It's free, and when you search around for songs it creates a webpage playlist for later reference.
I love reference points.
Via ISO50.
Top three descriptions of Star Trek (The Original Series) season one episodes (from Wikipedia):
1. Dagger Of The Mind: At Tantalus V, a rehabilitation colony for the criminally insane, the inmates have taken over the asylum using a neural neutralizer, which is used to remove (or implant) memories from a subject's mind. One colony administrator, Simon van Gelder, escapes to the Enterprise, leading Captain Kirk to investigate the colony. While on the surface, Kirk is brainwashed and taken prisoner, but is helped by Dr. Helen Noel, a colleague from the Enterprise who joined him on the planet. Spock performs a mind-meld with van Gelder to counteract the effects of the neutralizer, healing his mind and allowing van Gelder to take over the colony after Kirk and Noel's rescue.[36]
2. A Taste of Armageddon: On Eminiar VII, the Enterprise finds a civilization at war with its planetary neighbor. Unable to discern any signs of battle from orbit, Captain Kirk leads a landing party to the surface where he discovers the entire war is fought by computer. Even though the war is simulated, citizens who are listed as virtual casualties still report to termination booths to be killed for real. After the Enterprise is destroyed in an attack simulation, Kirk must fight to keep his crew from death.[36]
3. The City on the Edge of Forever: After accidentally overdosing on a powerful stimulant, Dr. McCoy acts erratically and disappears through the Guardian of Forever, a newly-discovered time portal on a remote planet. Kirk and Spock follow after learning that McCoy somehow changed history. Arriving in the 1930s, the duo meet Edith Keeler, a New York social worker who gives them a place to stay. As the days pass, and McCoy is nowhere to be seen, Kirk finds himself falling in love with Keeler... but Spock discovers that Keeler must die to restore the timeline.[36]
Holy smokes. Check out Areaware for essential home decoration opportunities. The decals are especially exciting. For a mere $850 I could have a rabbit hole for a wall. All I need is a home!
Two part interview on Beck Hansen's new site. Great sentence: "You know, the yo-yo is a sixteenth century Philippine weapon."
Verbatim from Wired:
I woke this morning and instinctively checked my favorite aggregator site, ycombinator. The 48th most popular link was Examples of Extreme Minimalism in Web Design. I opened it in a new tab, making it one of 14 tabs open. About a half hour later, I clicked to that tab and perused.
The 30 sites used as minimalist design examples were all interesting. Some were novel, others were related to design. A few were just useful. It was a great bit of organizing on the authors part.
Finally I clicked By Joe, and found Joe Davis' site (seen at the top of the post; it's completely gorgeous). He seems like a clever fellow. A musician, designer, etc. His site is like a map within a map of inspiring distractions.
Maybe it's because I prefer my whiskey straight, but I don't see the point of Coca-Cola. It's funny to think the world would really be no worse off without the existence of Coke. Sure, trillions of dollars and millions of jobs would never appear. But based on the events of the last 18 months, we know that jobs, cash, and inessential industries disappear anyway. From the Dish.
If you're going to advertise for something, take a cue from Julian Casablancas. Here's the promo for his Mogis-produced solo record. Cool-weird.
"For instance, if you keep dreaming about elevators, then every time you get in an elevator during the day, you should perform a reality check—thereby increasing your chances of doing the same thing in a dream."
From Slate's exploration on lucid dreaming.
Excellent drawings from Rich Fairhead on Creative Review. He did a show called "God's Sketchbook" recently. Genius.
Beautiful article on creating ecologically sound indoor water systems right here. These systems grow marketable fish by filtering the waste via edible plants, which clean the water used again by the fish.
Watch the video (couldn't embed).
I will echo chamber the AV Club noticing Todd Barry's webpage of suggested email signatures.
Sample:
That guy who manages the vegetarian restaurant got a pretty severe haircut.
- Todd Barry, on the vegetarian restaurant manager's new haircut.
I didn't know Sheryl Crow had a son.
- Todd Barry, on finding out that Sheryl Crow had a son.
This is easily one of the finest examples of band merchandise I've seen. Cast Spells is the solo-ish project of Maps & Atlas' Dave Davison. Good music.
But this shirt stands tall on it's own. Great colors, font, fabric (it's this hyper-soft American Apparel material). Great, odd message, too. Best $15 I spent between midnight and 1 am today!
