Art
ddobbs | June 14, 2010
A still from Visconti's The Leopard, via NYRB
This is not new, but seems to me overlooked (and underlinked) in the blogosphere: The New York Review of Books â a long, longtime favorite of mine â has a blog stable that offers a nice variety of goodies. The current line-up gives a sense of the range: a piece on Mexican art by Alma Guillermoprieto; Sue Halpern's beef about the iPad, which I elaborated on earlier; pieces on the Vatican, Iraq, and Pakistan; and a leisurely travel post on Palermo that begins, "Everything in Palerno is slow except the traffic, which is as confusing as a…
grrlscientist | June 13, 2010tags: A Story Told With Sand, art, performance art, sand animation, storytelling, wow, Kseniya Simonova, streaming video
Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. This is the most unique piece of performance art I've ever seen.
grrlscientist | June 13, 2010tags: Atheists Don't Have No Songs, Steve Martin With The Steep Canyon Rangers, atheism, 2010 New Orleans Jazzfest, comedy, satire, humor, funny, offbeat, streaming video
This video was filmed at the recent 2010 New Orleans Jazzfest. It features a silly song, "Atheists Don't Have No Songs," performed by Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers. I think atheists need to fix this little problem (not having any songs) don't you?
ddobbs | June 11, 2010Â
Â
A clever fellow named Eric Fischer tapped Flickr geotag data to map where locals and tourists take photos in major cities. Above -- the wiggly Thames declares it instantly to lovers of this city -- is London, where I'm moving (for a time, anyway) in just a few weeks. Blue denotes photos taken by locals, red by tourists. H/t Ferris Jabr, BoingoBoingo, and Kottke
ddobbs | June 11, 2010Â
Â
Unbelieveble! Department, via SciencePunk: Â Giant mayfly swarm caught on radar
NYRB reviews what sounds like an especially moving memoir from Andre Agassi.
Whatever It Takes Department, via Ed Yong:Â Superstitions can improve performance by boosting confidence.
The climate-change doubt industry and its roots - http://bit.ly/an4cAr, via @stevesilberman
RitaRubin: Study: Have bad habits? U r more likely 2 blame health problms on your genes. 'Cause u can't do anything 2 change them http://bit.ly/ad6iRy. Damned interesting if true.
techreview: Genetic Testing Can Change Behavior http…
pharyngula | June 9, 2010It's a calibrated infographic illustrating the highest highs and the lowest lows on the planet. Bring in the kids and have them scroll up and down for hours.
It includes the Deepwater Horizon. Boy, that thing was way, way down there.
grrlscientist | June 8, 2010tags: Graphic Depiction of Gulf Oil Spill, environment, infographic, Deepwater Horizon, BP, British PetroleumTransOcean
Below the fold (due to its large size) is an infographic depiction of the Gulf oil spill, including a timeline of the spill, the numbers of lives impacted, and last but not least, a graphic that compares this leak to others. You'll be astonished to see just how small this spill is compared to the Iraq war "spill" where more than 500 million gallons of oil were intentionally dumped into the environment. The scale of our greed is truly sickening.
Data sourced from BBC.…
grrlscientist | June 5, 2010tags: I Will Survive, silly, humor, funny, satire, parody, A Little Nightmare Music, Aleksey Igudesman, Richard Hyung-ki Joo, Igudesman & Joo, music video, streaming video
A hilarious reworking of the pop hit song, "I Will Survive," by the brilliant comedy music duo, Igudesman & Joo, a Silly Saturday special video.
You can learn more about this talented musical duo by visiting their website, Igudesman & Joo.
sciencepunk | June 3, 2010Nature is big. Really big! The US National Weather Service revealed this image taken last Saturday showing a massive swarm of newly-hatched mayflies erupting from the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wisconsin.
The swarm was captured using doppler radar, which is used to track the direction and velocity of distant objects (it's the same type of technology used by traffic police in speed guns). The National Weather Service says:
The bugs are showing up as bright pink, purple, and white colors along the Mississippi River mainly south of La Crosse, WI. After the bugs hatch off the water…
pharyngula | June 2, 2010This is a thoughtful contemplation of online personas and what they mean to people. It also has some useful implications: "What will happen if Dublin is invaded by zombies?", indeed. I worry about that all the time.
Avatar Days from Piranha Bar on Vimeo.
grrlscientist | June 1, 2010tags: Why Twilight is Popular, epipheo studios, social commentary, entertainment, books, Twilight series, successful book formula, streaming video
This amusing animated video describes why Twilight books are so popular. For those who don't know, the Twilight series is the story of a "regular girl" who is dating a vampire -- the typical "girl meets boy and falls in love" story.
This video was created by epipheo studios, which has a video-filled site that you will find interesting.
The author's discussion of her Twilight book series, how she came up with the idea and other details (including…
grrlscientist | May 31, 2010tags: The Maniacal Drummer from Hell, music, performing arts, Rick K And the Allnighters, Sharp Dressed Man, Knoebels Grove, Pennsylvania, weird, humor, funny, offbeat, streaming video
The drummer in this music video is either amazing or ridiculous. Since he's quite good, I am thinking he's probably amazing. I wonder what Günter Grass thinks of him?
grrlscientist | May 31, 2010tags: Paleontology, birds, Genyornis newtoni, rock art, aboriginal peoples, Archaeology, Australia, Niwarla Gabarnmung, Arnhem Land, Flinders University
Australia's oldest painting?
A red ochre rock art depiction of two emu-like birds (Genyornis newtoni?)
with their necks outstretched.
Image: Ben Gunn [larger view]
An Australian Aboriginal rock art may depict a giant bird that is thought to have become extinct some 40,000 years ago, thereby making it the oldest rock painting on the island continent. The red ochre drawing was first discovered two years ago, but archaeologists were only…
grrlscientist | May 30, 2010tags: BestiFlokkurinn, Besti Flokkurinn, politics, Reykjavik, Iceland, social observation, Jón Gnarr Kristinsson, ferrets, humor, funny, satire, offbeat, streaming video
"We are the best" -- this satirical video is made by Iceland's Best party, endorsing comedian Jón Gnarr Kristinsson for Mayor of Reykjavik in 2010. Among his campaign promises? Iceland's very own polar bear, wow! (Nevermind that the last polar bear was a self-delivered visitor that was shot almost immediately after it stepped onto land)
Jón Gnarr Kristinsson speech at the end looks eerily of Hitler, then I discovered that…
pharyngula | May 30, 2010Here's an almost impressive compendium of evolution t-shirts. I say "almost" because, dang it, most of them are variations on the infamous March of Progress image, which I detest.
That thing feeds on and is the source of some of the most common misconceptions about evolution. Please, graphic designers, if you want to create something about evolution, just throw the Zallinger image out and do something different. I know it's a powerful piece of work with iconic status, but it's also misleading.
ddobbs | May 28, 2010
Â
A press release about Snails on methamphetamines works for me.  The story is about memory. The jokes are about snails:
Â
Snail Joke #1
A turtle gets mugged by a gang of snails. Cop is interviewing the turtle afterwards, still at the scene. Turtle still flustered. Cop asks, "Just start at the beginning."
"I don't know," says the turtle. "It all happened so fast."
Â
Snail Joke #2
Guy opens his front door and grabs the paper off the porch. There's a snail on it. He gives a flick of the wrist, and the snail sails off the porch into the garden.
Three weeks later there's a knock at the…
gboustead | May 28, 2010Image courtesy of the Cajal’s Butterflies of the Soul gallery at The Beautiful Brain.
Noah Hutton is founding editor of The Beautiful Brain, an online magazine that explores recent neuroscience findings through monthly podcasts, essays, reviews, and galleries, with particular attention to the dialogue between the arts and sciences.
Some of our greatest triumphs as a species have come from those who saw little difference between being a scientist and being a humanist. From Leonardo’s visionary notebooks to Herschel’s lunar poetry, science has provided a necessary resource for some great art;…
grrlscientist | May 27, 2010tags: Doctor Who Theme Song Accompanied by Tesla Coils, music video, DIY, Do-It-Yourself, science, physics, music, performing arts, weird, offbeat, Tesla Coils, ArcAttack, Maker Faire 2010, streaming video
The musical group, ArcAttack, constructed a set of Tesla Coils that they use to perform "an electrifying" live performance at Maker Faire 2010, held in San Mateo, California. Maker Faire is an event created by Make Magazine to "celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset."
According to the filmographer, the HVDJ pumps music through a PA system…
ddobbs | May 27, 2010
At Biophemera, Jessica Palmer takes a look at Mechanical Brides of the Uncanny. Actually a couple look to me a bit like cans. 
Like most junk science that just won't die, the polygraph stays with us. Even Aldrich Ames could see the polygraph was junk. NB, those who don't shy from no-lie fMRI. From the wonderful Letters of Note.
Ben Carey Notes that Enemies Can Be Good for a Childâs Growth. This should not surprise.
And in one of those science stories that's so fun I almost don't care whether it's true, the Times examines A Pattern of Sibling Risk-Taking in the Major Leagues. I should…
grrlscientist | May 26, 2010tags: Katusoittaja, busker, travel, culture, Kamppi, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day, photography
Katusoittaja
Photographed in the Kamppi neighborhood of Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 18 May 2010 [larger view]
Canon SX100 IS.