This is where the computer comes to the rescue. Digitize the entire corpus and you can put questions to it and get answers in a matter of seconds. We can, says Wilkens, “look for potentially interesting features without committing months and years to extracting them via close reading.” The Stanford scholar Franco Moretti calls this method of analyzing huge bodies of data “distant reading” (“Graphs, Maps, Trees,” 2005). The Shakespearian scholar Martin Mueller briskly urges humanists to “stop reading” (“Digital Shakespeare or Toward a Literary Informatics”). So much for the old humanist program.
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A trap street is a fictitious entry in the form of a misrepresented street on a map, often outside the area the map nominally covers, for the purpose of “trapping” potential copyright violators of the map, who will be unable to justify the inclusion of the “trap street” on their map.
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If you quiet your mind and allow yourself to stop judging everything you will find that you have more potential for innovation (at work, in the kitchen, in the garage, in the bathroom [this just got weird - bringing it back], with your hobbies, with your thoughts) than you thought before. You were using the same brutal quality filter on yourself that you used on viral videos, talk radio, and blog posts. You deserve better.
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Don’t know why famous people don’t try these kind of experiments more often… Robbie Williams Camera Flash
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The breaking waveforms of Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds are the result of shearing winds up at cloud level. A particular type of turbulence can develop in a layer of cirrus cloud, which happens to form below an inversion between air currents of differing speeds and/or directions. Sea waves break as their bases are slowed down upon reaching shallow water and their crests surge ahead. Cloud waves break in the same way: when their crests are pushed ahead of their troughs by the difference in air currents. (via Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Clouds Over B’ham : The Alabama Weather Blog)
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So looking forward to see this movie in 2012:
“JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious 3 star Michelin review, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar.”
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The project begins with a simple central sphere. Onto the surface of this sphere are placed a large number of charged particles. The charge is random so some are negative and the rest are positive. After giving these forces a few seconds to spread out or coalesce, I freeze the simulation and have each charged particle emit a series of weaker particles whose direction of travel is wholly dictated by the interacting magnetic field surrounding the form. (via Crystalline)
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Here’s a thought experiment: Everyone over age 12 when YouTube launched in 2005 is now able to vote.
What happens when — and this is inevitable — a generation completely comfortable with remix culture becomes a majority of the electorate, instead of the fringe youth? What happens when they start getting elected to office? (Maybe “I downloaded but didn’t share” will be the new “I smoked, but didn’t inhale.”)
Remix culture is the new Prohibition, with massive media companies as the lone voices calling for temperance. You can criminalize commonplace activities from law-abiding people, but eventually, something has to give.
