Das Tumblr zu Ex-Innenminister Friedrichs wichtigen Dingen: „’Als Innenminister hatte ich wichtigere Themen als die NSA-Affäre.’ Als Landwirtschaftsminister sowieso!“ (via Fefe)
spOnline International hat ein spannendes Interview mit Ai Weiwei, in dem er einige ziemlich haarsträubende Details zur Überwachung des Künstlers durch das chinesische Regime erzählt. Unter anderem hat er einem der Spitzel, die ihn auf Schritt und Tritt verfolgen, die Memory Card aus der Kamera geklaut und darauf fanden sich völlig sinnlose Detailaufnahmen, zum Beispiel jeder Winkel des Eingangs eines Restaurants, in dem er gegessen hatte.
SPIEGEL: What do the people who observe you want to find out, what don’t they know yet?
Ai: A year ago, I got a bit aggressive and pulled the camera off one of them. I took out the memory card and asked him if he was a police officer. He said “No.” Then why are you following me and constantly photographing me? He said, “No, I never did.” I said, “OK, go back to your boss and tell him I want to talk to him. And if you keep on following me, then you should be a bit more careful and make sure that I don’t notice.” I was really curious to see what he had on that memory card. […]
Ai: I was shocked because he had photographed the restaurant I had eaten in the previous day from all angles: every room, the cash till, the corridor, the entrance from every angle, every table. I asked myself: Gosh, why do they have to go to so much trouble? Then there were photos of my driver, first of him sitting on a park bench, then a portrait from the front, a portrait from the back, his shoes, from the left, from the right, then me again, then my stroller.
Interview with Ai Weiwei: ‘My Virtual Life Has Become My Real Life’ (via Reddit)
Schönes Projekt namens The Birdies meiner Lieblingsstrickerin – ich hab’ ‘ne Lieblingsstrickerin! – Tracy Widdess von Brutal Knitting und Piotr Buczkowski, die zusammen Vogelkostüme für Kids gebastelt haben. Der Eisvogel oben ist der Knaller.
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Knitted Monster Masks
Knitted Monsterhead with Guts
Warner hat ein offizielles Box-Set der 1966er Batman-Serie mit Adam West und Burt Ward angekündigt. Den Film gibt’s schon lange, die Serie erschien aber nie offiziell (hier ein 2008er Bootleg), weder auf VHS noch DVD, selbstverständlich wegen Rechtebullshit. Die Meldung wurde durch ‘nen Tweet von Conan O’Brien (!) geleaked, Warner hat sie dann in einer Pressemitteilung bestätigt und sollten sie die Serie auch remastered auf BluRay veröffentlichen, werde ich ziemlich sicher zuschlagen.
The 1960s live-action “Batman” TV series will finally get a home video release this year, as first announced by talk show host Conan O’Brien on Twitter, and later confirmed by a press release from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The show will be released as a complete box set — encompassing all three seasons, which originally ran on ABC from 1966 to 1968 — with no further details offered at this time other than it’ll be out “later in 2014.”
Beloved by some and reviled by others for its lighthearted, campy take on the DC Comics title character and his allies and villains, a home release of the show has long been hampered due to multiple rights issues and complications. For years, the 1966 “Batman: The Movie” has been the only project associated with the show available for legal purchase.
COMPLETE ’60S “BATMAN” TV SERIES TO GET LONG-AWAITED HOME RELEASE
Untersuchungen über Korrelationen zwischen Kreativität und Wahnsinn gab es in den letzten Jahren einige, die hat man jetzt spezifiziert und auch für Comedians gilt, dass sie überdurchschnittlich oft Symptome von Schizophrenie und einer Bipolaren Störung zeigen. Was nicht wirklich verwunderlich ist: Gute Comedy entspringt meist einer persönlichen Darkness (uhh, dark!), siehe Roger Chapman, George Carlin, Louis CK oder Lenny Bruce (Bild rechts), letzterer gilt als Erfinder moderner Standup Comedy.
“The creative elements needed to produce humour are strikingly similar to those characterising the cognitive style of people with psychosis – both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,” said Professor Gordon Claridge from Oxford University’s department of experimental psychology. He is also one of the three co-authors of the findings, which are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
“Although schizophrenic psychosis itself can be detrimental to humour, in its lesser form it can increase people’s ability to associate odd or unusual things or to think ‘outside the box’. Equally, ‘manic thinking’, which is common in people with bipolar disorder, may help people combine ideas to form new, original and humorous connections,” Claridge added.
Successful comedians display symptoms of psychosis, study says
Related: Genau zu diesem Thema ist gleichzeitig ein so mittelokay gezeichnetes Webcomic durch den Feedreader gerutscht: THE FART PARTY’S OVER: „Her success as a professional funny person grew hand-in-hand with depression and alcoholism, until she found herself lying in a rehab clinic, drawing fart jokes, and wondering if this was really the life she’d always wanted.“
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Schizophrenie und Kreativität are one
Das kreative Schizo-Gen
Artikel über Kreativität und Wahnsinn
Wie nennt man das nochmal, wenn ein halbes Jahr nach Snowden diese Dame mit genau einem Gesichtsausdruck in einer „love story of epic, epic, epic proportion“ aka einem Remake der 1956er Verfilmung von Orwells 1984 die Hauptrolle spielt? Ist das nur Real Life Idiocracy oder schon die Apokalypse?
Man kann sich direkt vorstellen, wie sie in Hollywood beim Brainstorming so beisammen sitzen und rummeinen: „Ey, dystopische SciFi ist total angesagt grade und da war doch dieser Snowden, lasst uns eine romantische Version von 1984 filmen und die Tante aus Twilight besetzen, wird der Burner!“ Oh, the humanity.
The 23-year-old actress has signed on to star opposite Nicholas Hoult in the upcoming futuristic love story Equals. […] “I can’t believe I agreed to do it,” Stewart told The Associated Press on Monday, Jan. 14. “I’m terrified of it. Though it’s a movie with a really basic concept, it’s overtly ambitious.” […] “It’s a love story of epic, epic, epic proportion,” she added. “I’m scared.”
Equals is an adaptation of the 1956 film 1984, which itself was based on George Orwell’s classic novel about rebellion in a futuristic society.
Kristen Stewart to Star in Romantic Adaptation of “1984″ With Jennifer Lawrence’s Boyfriend Nicholas Hoult (via io9)
„Frank Dancevic […] collapsed during the second set of his first-round match […]. He also said the heat had caused him to hallucinate: ‘I was dizzy from the middle of the first set and then I saw Snoopy and I thought, ‘Wow Snoopy, that’s weird,’” Dancevic said.“ (via Boing Boing)
Im Golders Green Crematorium in London haben Diebe versucht, die Urne mit der Asche von Siegmund Freud zu klauen. Hat wohl nicht geklappt und es blieb beim Versuch, wie der Überfall verhindert wurde, steht nicht im Artikel:
“Callous” thieves have tried to steal an urn containing Sigmund Freud’s ashes in a raid on a north London crematorium. The burglars “severely damaged” the 2,300-year-old urn that contains the remains of Freud and his wife Martha. […]
“Even leaving aside the financial value of the irreplaceable urn and the historical significance of to whom it related, the fact that someone set out to take an object knowing it contained the last remains of a person defies belief.”
Sigmund Freud’s ashes targeted in Golders Green Crematorium raid (Pic: Urn of Sigmund and Martha Freud, Wikimedia)
Das Tumblr zu Ex-Innenminister Friedrichs wichtigen Dingen: „’Als Innenminister hatte ich wichtigere Themen als die NSA-Affäre.’ Als Landwirtschaftsminister sowieso!“ (via Fefe)
A Highly Unlikely Scenario, by Rachel Cantor, takes place in a world where computer programs walk among us, the police wear Chipmunk Patrol sashes, and quasi-religious philosophical groups battle for converts via fast food restaurants.
This dystopia comes replete with a Leader whose food preferences are kept secret to preserve unity, though a neo-Maoist book group claims the Leader has seized control of the Menus. From that description, readers may think they know what kind of book they're reading, but long before they can get their bearings Cantor is spinning out a plot about medieval Jewish sages, the Voynich manuscript and an elementary schooler who does awesome karate kicks.
Leonard is a Listener, as determined by his Neetsa Pizza Pythagorean Mentor, meaning he spends his nights answering the irate phone calls of clients-in-pain and offering them compassion via coupons. He also babysits his nephew Felix, of the awesome karate kicks, every day after school while Felix's mom Carol works at Jack-o-Bites, a Jacobite eatery or hangs out with her neo-Maoist book club. Leonard's life is uneventfully small as he toils in his home office until he gets a phone call on the complaint line from Marco Polo.
Leonard, who is not terribly worldly, has no idea who his caller is, but with the guidance of a medieval Kabalist, who sounds like Leonard's dead grandfather, Leonard finds himself sucked into a world of metaphysical time travel, Latter Day Baconians and Tibetans (who, the very mention of, can short out phones and computers). Leonard bumbles his way through with little more than his belief in Pythagorean principles and his ability to listen. He also gains an ally in a beautiful woman with prophetic powers and no need to wear freckle dot makeup.
Cantor's first novel never takes an obvious turn when a stranger one might do and the result is a plot that bounces, soap-bubble like, above a world that is equal parts absurdity and whimsy. The book is packed with strange details and odd moments. Cantor has a firm grasp on building a familiar yet surprising world with language – cubits and lucre their more common synonyms. Combined with the Leonard's "young man goes out into the world to seek his fortune" story, the whole thing has the air of a fable translated from a very foreign language.
A Highly Unlikely Scenario or, A Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide to Saving the World is neither a heavy or dark book, even when the future hangs in the balance. But its anti-grittiness, its sheer sense of wonder and fun make it even more unlikely. Sometimes, all anybody needs is a good listener.
Sit through the agony of the Entertainment Tonight intro to their on-set visit to Godzilla, and you'll be rewarded with star Bryan Cranston, who is not only completely filthy and completely affable, but he also does a damn fine impression of his gigantic co-star.
I know stars more or less have to be enthused about their projects while being interviewed by the press, but Cranston just seems so genuinely happy to be involved and pleased with how the movie handles the big G that it's making me even more excited for the film. I'm not sure about this Sally Hawkings lady, though. Whenever actors gets romantically involved during a shoot, it tends to complicate filming...
Nathan Yau over at FlowingData has turned 100 of the most memorable movie quotes ever into chart form — and they are absolutely fantastic.
The quotes were selected by the American Film Institute in celebration of their 100-year anniversary eight years ago, but there's something about seeing the frequency of where ET's calls are placed to ("home" or "other") in bar graph format that really drives the point home.
Here's all 100 of them:
Images: Nathan Yau / Flowingdata.
Michael Hindes of West Springfield, MA, was sorting through boxes of his grandparents' old photographs when he happened upon 26 harrowing photos of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster of 1986. To his knowledge, these photos have never been publicly released.
All photos featured with permission from Michael Hindes.
Hindes had been searching for photographs to include in a memorial service for his grandmother, who passed away last week. "We were all going through boxes and boxes of photos to find pictures to display," Hindes wrote in the reddit thread where he originally posted the photos. "I just happened to get the box with the Challenger pictures at the bottom, which was kind of special for me because I am the biggest NASA fan in the family."
In an e-mail to io9, Hindes clarified that the photographs had been captured the morning of January 28th, 1986 by a friend of his grandfather, who worked for NASA as an electrician on the Agency's hulking, spacecraft-schlepping crawler transporters. "The man who took the pictures was part of [my grandfather's crew]," Hindes told io9. "He gave a copy of the set to my grandfather." The photos later became jumbled up with others, and were forgotten about for years – until Hindes came upon them just a few days ago.
To Hinde's knowledge, these photos have gone unseen for years, and have never been published. As for the identity of the original photographer, he says his grandfather "simply does not remember the name anymore, as it was so long ago," though he hopes that he will be able to come forward as news of these newly discovered photographs spreads. Hindes tells io9 that he has reached out to NASA to see whether the Agency has copies of these images on file, but has yet to hear back.
Below you will find all 26x photos; a composite image of the first 19 photos, assembled by redditor llort_gnik; and a stabilized GIF, compiled by redditor MisterCommodore.
"I'd like to mention that the Reddit thread was really quite moving," Hindes included in his email to io9. "I'd invite people to read the hundreds of stories that so many people took the time to share. It's nice to know that the Challenger disaster is still such a part of people's hearts and minds."
GIF by redditor MisterCommodore.
Composite image by redditor llort_gnik.
The house call is long dead. But will over-the-phone and online doctor's appointments replace it?
Mother Jones took a look at the practice of skipping the in-person doctor's appointment in favor of a phone call, an email, or even the very occasional Skype-appointment to get a prescription — and some of its advantages and disadvantages:
It's hard to say how commonly doctors prescribe a patient antibiotics without an in-person visit; there isn't much data on the practice, and there are no hard and fast rules governing it . . . A physical examination gives doctors much more information than a phone call or email; in person, the doctor can, for example, assess a person's coloring, check for swollen glands, and palpate the belly. For patients who really don't want to (or can't) come into the office, both Levy and the CDC recommend a compromise: The doctor can write a prescription that the patient can fill in a day or two if symptoms don't improve. This method is common in Europe, but Levy says that so far, few American doctors have embraced it. They should, Levy says. I'm inclined to agree: Considering the growing number of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," the dearth of new drugs in the pipeline, and the high cost to our health care system of prescribing unnecessary antibiotics, it's safe to say that these powerful drugs should be used as sparingly as possible.
Right now, the over-the-phone appointment is limited mostly to antibiotics. The Skype-appointment (though Mother Jones notes it hasn't really taken off yet) seems like it would have a lot of potential for being used along with in-person visits. Perhaps it could be used for checking-up on patient progress after the appointment, or evaluating whether a patient needs to come in for an in-person visit.
So, what do you think? Is a virtual doctor's visit something you've tried or would like to try? Tell us about it in the comments.
Image: Luis Louro / Shutterstock.