leftover night (or "smorgasbord")

i think i should do this more often so that it won't be as big as this, but...
i'm going to clear out my blog ideas bookmarks.
MOST OF THEM... right now... get ready:

first off, a clear picture of jupiter:

ahh, how nice. and now, teh links:

brain reacts to a hand transplant
weird light sculpture photos here and here
beautiful post it note cascade video
russia newspaper predicts u.s. apocalypse
urb's top ten rap debate songs.
article has funniest. title. ever.
steal back your vote comic.
sheriff refuses to evict people.
martial law imposed if bailout not passed.
8 hacks to make firefox much faster.
the green-collar economy book.
sensors powered by trees.
1 in 4 mammals face extinction.
nytimes ownership gossip.
top ten reasons to become a "new radical".
yet more crow intelligence here and here.
florida gop voter fraud again.
site claims bloggers can make a difference
dems look at policies that wrecked economy.
very interesting color i.q. test... it's hard!
victoria reynolds weird, meaty artwork
cutup collective's baltic work.
rabbi's against the existence of israel video
7 people with real mutant superpowers
do you know about the overton window?
bill o'reilly defends obama... wow.
oops, missed this call to action.
sort of obsolete palin articles here and here.
scholarly article on hedonism.
amazing spraypaint art technique.
drawing every person in new york city.
funny little nature boats, pooh sticks!
trash formed into awesome shadow art.
portable cardboard table... nice design.
guerilla marketing reverse grafitti.
3d, light and geek grafitti.
tile patterns of the alhambra analysis.
awesome layered glass painting of xia xiaowan.
illusions with record covers.
book reccomendations from 17 leading scientists.
boost your memory with the palace technique.
rare brain disease effects creativity, also "bolero"
top ten strange phenomena of the mind.
i don't know if i believe this, but...
the anatomy of sarcasm.
trains that don't stop moving?
teese cheese and ice scream.
i have no idea why i have this link.
vectors for free.
how to trick your printer into using it's ink.
how to get free airport wi-fi.
10 creative ways to deal with junk mail.(make paper!)
how to persuade customer service reps to help you.
25 ways to simplify your life with kids.
article on sharing parenting duties... we do this.
beautiful oak photograph.
9 ways to start a fire without matches.
thousands of starlings do weird things together.
the almiqui... bizarre!
plants prefer their relatives.
urban homesteading article.
marijuana experiment movie and law attempt.
study on inequality and the effects of physical pain
organizing without organizations.
sensible units.
blind 5-year old piano prodigy.
the bodhisattva vows.
geek out about colors
orange jews.
writing excersise prompt.
pirate bay breaks 12 bazillion users.
the unapologetic mexican.
independent bookstore book finder.
call the future.org
online radio guide.
interesting online graphics programs.
everything someone found funny for one year.
dear-god.net, an interesting community blog.
good online arabic-english dictionary.
world's largest flashcard exchange.
make and save images of stacked cubes... album cover anyone?

and if you only ever watch one video on this site, watch this one:



i can't take it anymore... time to stop. anything good?
UPDATE: from the comments, patrice adds some links...

monkey's using robot arms or "what my brother does in Pgh
Off-beat bride. I'm not really an endorser of weddings, but the photos on the cite are always fun to look at. Basically my form of reality TV/Lifetime TV
tiny
twistori
Just Seeds Updates
quick and good
Geek Fun
Surveying the Interstices of Art and Medicine, Death and Culture.
cute
yum
the the other half does
favs
great investment, great guys who designed it, good cause that they put $ to
endless amusement
he was a trainwreck
OH goodness
a friend's new website
next project

Read more...

awesome piano scale resource

i've always really liked this piano scale resource site. it's super-intuitive, exhaustive and has funny names of chords like "enigmatic", "pelog", and "roumanian minor" (which is a beautiful scale...)

Read more...

states renamed for countries with similar g.d.p.

states renamed for countries with similar g.d.p.
click image for the big version...

via strange maps

Read more...

synchronous breathing

do as one. from laura's post about it:

"it's a breathing synchronizer. you watch this soothing icon expand and contract as you breathe in synch with people all over the world (when i was using it, 193 people were logged on, with a map showing where they were located.) you can even choose to customize the display with a color, a meditation timer, and a few other widgets, or clear the screen so you're just looking at this thing.

there are a few other "rooms" available for different meditation exercises, but you have to donate in order to get access to them, which is particularly sketchy since they don't really say what the donations go to. still, you only have to donate a dollar for a month of access, so i might try it. and anyway, the free one is cool. of course you don't need something like this to meditate, but sometimes it helps. now if it just had a soothing cheesy soundtrack..."

i can provide the cheesy soundtrack... two of my favorite "chillout/downtempo" electronic tunes.

(mp3) irresistable force - "the lie-in king" from it's tommorow already
(mp3) dj food - "minitoka" from kaleidoscope

breathing is a bridge to "god" (and health)

Read more...

cornstarch, water and bass video proves conclusive awesomeness of physics

and boingboing...

Read more...

100 awesome things

for her 100th blogpost, laura has really excelled... her list is loaded with great stuff. i think it's a meme waiting to happen. go play... it's an hour of fun following her links.

oh, and i'm totally doing this soon, not for my 100th post (long gone), but soon!

Read more...

scan - islamic geometry how-to

from the incredibly intricate, instructive, "islamic design - a genius for geometry" by daud sutton (one of the "wooden books" i just got) i've looked at some other great books on islamic patterns like keith critchlow's classic "islamic patterns - an analytic and cosmological approach", but this book seems to go more into the construction of the patterns from a geometrical perspective, and while it touchs on some of the symbolism and metaphysics, it is less absorbed in this aspect than the critchlow book. get out your compass and straight edge! (or adobe illustrator...)

NOTE: click on these for very legible 2000 pixel - wide versions.

eight fold rosettes:


making things fit:


self similarity:


muqarnas:

Read more...

tiny drum - sequencing site

if you've never played with a sequencer, or don't know what one is, try out the simple but fun tiny drum site. it's pretty easy (and only takes a few seconds) to make a pretty melody like some tracks of aphex twin's still awesome selected ambient works vol.2.

Read more...

not your ordinary chess

this online chess game is beautiful... it visualizes the force of the pieces, and you can see the machine think. it takes a little longer for the computer to move, but that's o.k. you need breaks during chess.

i was taught (advanced) chess by richard farrar, whom i have only been able to find this tiny jpg of one of his paintings... maybe somehow i'll track him down... a lovely fellow.

Read more...

great use for a ton of rice

i was really moved by this video on boingboingtv of stan's cafe's piece, "of all the people in all the world. " it uses 1 ton of rice (actually!) to show statistics about people visually. 1 grain of rice = 1 person. beautiful... (btw, it's been buggy about embedding properly, so if you can't see it try clicking here...)



here is the official video:

Read more...

resonatta

this resonance emulator is pretty sweet. load the page, and it goes, you can click and drag on the moving image and it will effect the resonance patterns. this looks like a 4d interactive psychedelic version of some of the images in "harmonograph - a visual guide to the mathematics of nature" (from the excellent wooden books publishers) that laura's father john shaffer (click his name for a link to an interview about his book on st. winifred's well) got me for chronikah.

Read more...

can you get 100%?

play this game... it will only take a minute. see how many you can place before you start getting them wrong. i was proud to get almost the entire middle, and then all the -stans, but embarassed to have serious trouble with non-coastal africa and non-war torn middle east.
it's a challenge!

Read more...