Interesting Links for 21-11-2011

[andrewducker]

• OWS in an alternate universe
  (tags: occupy watchmen comics funny )
• The co-op business model: share whatever you've got
  (tags: sharing Business advice )
• A very nice visualisation of a Bach cello piece. Click the "?" in the corner for an explanation
  (tags: visualization bach music maths )
• Oddly, Texas can teach the UK a thing or two on criminal justice
  (tags: texas crime rehabilitation )
• Go on tour? How old fashioned! Mariah Carey broadcasts holograms instead.
  (tags: MariahCarey music technology )
• It looks like setting targets for schools and hospitals is actually a good thing
  (tags: measurement targets education healthcare uk politics )
• What happens when you crack an egg 100ft under water?
  (tags: diving scuba eggs video )
• The longest, strangest forgery spree the American art world has known
  (tags: art forgery usa weird )
• Walking through doorways causes forgetting
  (tags: doors architecture memory psychology )
• Self-Help for Nerds. (Cue numerous disagreeing comments over the definitions of "nerd", "geek" and "dork")
  (tags: geek advice )
• Amazon leaves girl gamers out in the cold. (Message to marketing departments - please _think_)
  (tags: amazon gaming women )
• Brent Spiner on perceptions of Star Trek
  (tags: StarTrek acting BrentSpiner )
• Interesting stuff on The Great Dying, when volcanos nearly wiped out all life on Earth.
  (tags: life earth volcano geology )

Comments

[pigwotflies.livejournal.com]

The Bach thing is both very clever and intensely annoying to listen to for anyone who knows the piece, because the timing and phrasing is just off what a human player would play.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"Amazon leaves girl gamers out in the cold."

Well no - only people (of either gender) who would prefer to play a female character. That's not the same thing at all.


While I would expect a substantial number of male gamers to never want to play as a girl (they're probably the sort who feature regularly on that Fat, Ugly or Slutty website), I would expect far fewer girl gamers to never want to play as a bloke, if only because the girl gamers would miss out on more games.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I love that underwater egg video. However,

"When the divers broke the egg, the result was not a gloppy mess, but rather the egg remained in a ovoid shape until it, well, disappeared!"

That seemed unlikely and you couldn't really see from the video -- you could see a whole yoke but not really the white -- the source claims "The reason that the egg looks yellow is the fact that raw egg whites are nearly transparent, so it’s hard to make them out on video". Alas, if you check on youtube there are other, better focussed, underwater egg videos and you can see that the white actually becomes a bit of a gloppy mess but the yolk stays whole. (which tallies with my expectations from numerous attempts to make great poached eggs).

I'm going to have to try this but it's going to be a while before I'm diving anywhere where I can get to 30 or 40 metres depth with any kind of good light.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I'm such a foodie, I was thinking "That poor fish, it will never get another hen's egg."

As for the music visualization, I was wondering how it would work if it were based on a version well played by a human being, with the shapes of the circular tracks shifting to bring the balls around at the right emotional moment-- this would be much harder to program, but might be fun to watch.