Link Dumpage for 2009-02-10
Notable links enjoyed today:
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"If you listen closely, you’ll find that the earth is full of sounds. Some are things that you hear every day, some are truly remarkable and some sounds hail from origins completely unknown. What follows here is a list of “sonic mysteries” for your pleasure - many of them include audio." Includes the Bloop, Hum, Hell Hole, Mistpouffers, and the Slow Down.
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"On Saturday morning, December 13, 2008, research director and amateur photographer Brook Tyler was walking across Sheridan Creek in the Rattray Marsh Conservation area in the Greater Toronto Area when he stumbled upon a strange feature within the thin ice covering the waters: “It was a perfectly round circle with about two inches of slush and water around the sides, and it was spinning. I was so excited to see if I could capture the movement”, so he took some photos... " Video available too.
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"Fiction - including poetry - should be taken just as seriously as facts-based research, according to the team from Manchester University and the London School of Economics (LSE). Novels should be required reading because fiction "does not compromise on complexity, politics or readability in the way that academic literature sometimes does," said Dr Dennis Rodgers from Manchester University's Brooks World Poverty Institute."
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I never knew it had a literal name. "Exquisite corpse (also known as "exquisite cadaver" or "rotating corpse") is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled, the result being known as the exquisite corpse or cadavre exquis in French. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. "The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun") or by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed."
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"Part state of mind and part QA philosophy, the term "Egoless programming" was coined by one of my favorite authors, Jerry Weinberg, back in 1971 in his highly influential book, The Psychology of Computer Programming. Weinberg was describing a development environment that involved heavy use of peer technical reviews."
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"The Vela Incident (sometimes referred to as the South Atlantic Flash) was an as-yet unidentified double flash of light detected by a United States Vela satellite on September 22, 1979. It has been speculated that the double flash, characteristic of a nuclear explosion, was the result of a nuclear weapons test."
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I love Ebert. "Employers are eager to replace us with Celeb Info-Nuggets that will pimp to the mouth-breathers, who underline the words with their index fingers whilst they watch television. Any editor who thinks drugged insta-stars and the tragic Amy Winehouse are headline news ought to be editing the graffiti on playground walls. As the senior newspaper guy still hanging onto a job, I think the task of outlining enduring ethical ground rules falls upon me."
