Category: Links Dump

On Writing and the Internet: Data Is the New Alcohol « Lev Grossman “A lot of writers have been ruined by addictions in the past. Heroine, alcohol, etc. Me, I don’t have big — big — problems with drugs and alcohol. (I have in fact, over the past 6 months, moderated my drinking, something I… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-24

Scanning Electron Microscope Submissions | SEM Image Galley by ASPEX “Do you have a sample you’d like to send us to have scanned by one of our Scanning Electron Microscopes or our Tabletop SEM? Just download the sample submission form below, fill it out, and mail it in along with your sample, and we’ll post… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-23

slacktivist: Big shoes “But what I think people meant about [Manute] Bol’s “killer instinct” was that he never seemed to take the game of basketball quite seriously enough. He hadn’t chosen this game, it had chosen him. It discovered him in that Sudanese village and plucked him out of it, whisking him halfway around the… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-22

Lost Myths ” Lostmyths.net is a website featuring myths uncovered by writer Claude Lalumière (Tesseracts 12, Witpunk, Objects of Worship) and illustrator Rupert Bottenberg. As cryptomythologists, they study imaginary myths, just like cryptozoologists study imaginary creatures. […] The site features gods and deities from pantheons unsuspected until now and stories about some heretofore unknown players… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-21

Jason Sanford: Why science fiction predictions hold back the genre “In many ways, the idea that science fiction is about predicting the future is a remnant of the genre’s past. During the 1940s and ’50s, genre promoters pitched SF as a way to inspire and teach people about science and technology. And during the era… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-20

www.dumpert.nl – Hoe amerikanen voetbal kijken A good spoof of American sports television, applied to soccer. the titles are Dutch, but the video is in English. (tags: soccer sports world television silly) World Cup 2010: Brick-by-brick fussball – England 1-1 USA | Video | Football | guardian.co.uk “An animated recreation of England’s first match against… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-18

The Virtuosi: How Long Can You Balance A (Quantum) Pencil “In this post I’d like to address a fun physics problem. How long can you balance a pencil on its tip? I mean in a perfect world, how long? No really. Think about it a second. Try and come up with an answer before your… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-17

The A-Team steers clear of Hill Street and avoids St Elsewhere and Cheers “The A-Team premiered in 1983, a year after Cheers and St Elsewhere, two years after Hill Street Blues, a year ahead of Miami Vice, the fall after M*A*S*H said goodbye, farewell, and amen. There had always been well-written, well-directed, and well-acted television… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-16

In the Hunt for Planets, Who Owns the Data? – NYTimes.com “Astronomers everywhere, who have been waiting since Kepler’s launch in March 2009 to get their hands on this data, will be rushing to telescopes to examine these stars in the hopes of advancing the grand quest of finding Earthlike planets capable of harboring life… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-15

In Defense of Evolutionary Psychology: Why They’re Asking The Wrong Questions : The Thoughtful Animal “Evolutionary Psychology suffers from a PR problem, which can be mostly blamed on ignorant (even if well-intentioned) members of the population who don’t know what they’re talking about. Evolutionary psychology attempts to describe the evolution of the mind and of… Continue reading Links for 2010-06-14