Best 50 Astronomy Pictures of 2008 – The M104 Hubble Remix is stunning.
Strategic Bombers are from Mars
Fuck You, Penguin
Fuck You, Penguin – A blog where cute animals get told what’s what.
5mCCs
I’m not a big fan of Kevin Poulsen’s writing, but he’s put together a solid article for the latest Wired: One Hacker’s Audacious Plan to Rule the Black Market in Stolen Credit Cards
He worked for two straight days; when he tired, he crashed out on the apartment’s foldaway bed for an hour or two, then got up and went back at it. Butler sent an email under the handle Iceman to all the thieves whose accounts he had usurped. Whether they liked it or not, he wrote, they were now members of his own site, CardersMarket.com. In one bold stroke, Butler had erected one of the largest criminal marketplaces the Internet had ever seen, 6,000 users strong.
It’s funny, good hackers never get caught because they were defeated in some cyber-battle or because they left a door open behind them somewhere, they only get caught because they’re greedy or they love to talk.
Auditorium
Auditorium – Extremely cool audio/visual puzzle game. Move the flow around to make music happen.
A Minimalist’s Guide to Using Twitter
A Minimalist’s Guide to Using Twitter – When I first signed up for Twitter a few months ago, I followed a bunch of people I knew and was instantly fed with a stream of new “tweets” from all the people I was following. I read through all the tweets, but the stream just kept coming. Then I learned the secret of Twitter: don’t try to keep up.
Feraios is Greek for ‘irony’
Incredible photos of the Greek riots:
A statue of Rigas Feraios, a Greek writer and revolutionary who died in 1798, stands vandalized with an anarchy symbol outside the Athens University on December 12, 2008.
Mannequins burn during riots in the northern Greek town of Thessaloniki
(Thanks to a certain rabbit of the night.)
A Want to Believe
Eliza Gauger introduces us to Eric Fortune:
Eric Fortune’s introspective paintings make me a touch melancholy. Part of that is the content: iconic girls in balletic poses with implied, sad goals, rendered with milky color. But it is also the very existence of such a person as Mr. Fortune, who is 32 years old and until a few days ago, totally unknown to me. Bratty yahoos like the kid who recently vomited on a Mondrian (Google it; I refuse to give that bore any more linkage) are more widely recognized as “artists” than the ramen-supping drudges who can pluck scenes like this from their live, nude brains. On demand, even. As if function, skill, and work ethic were somehow antithesis to appreciation.
But I am not yet bitter. Merely tangy.
(via ECTOPLASMOSIS!)
Are you proud of me?
Snowflakes as you’ve never seen them before
Snowflakes as you’ve never seen them before – These snowflake photos were taken by Kenneth Libbrecht of CalTech, using a specially-designed snowflake photomicroscope.
Extra Hyper Korg DS-10 performance
Extra Hyper Korg DS-10 performance – Ridge Racer composer Nobuyoshi Sano, Black Mages member Michio Okamiya, and Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda perform a live all-Korg set!
Now we are all sons of bitches.
Stunning and detailed photography of the US nuclear arsenal, by Paul Shambroom:
More: missiles, warheads, bombers, submarines, command centers, new warhead designs.
For bigger and/or higher-quality copies of any of the watermarked photographs, just fiddle with the URL a bit.
(Via MeFi.)
Hacked And Frayed Spy Flash Drive
Hacked And Frayed Spy Flash Drive – A little piece of hacker genius.
xo
70 Beautiful Dual-Screen Desktop Wallpapers
70 Beautiful Dual-Screen Desktop Wallpapers – Some really gorgeous work here, if you ignore the ‘gaming’ section.
The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway
The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway – Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? What was chosen in its place? Why is Helvetica used now, and when did the changeover occur?
Super Balance Articles II Turbo
Super Balance Articles II Turbo – 20 articles written by the lead designer of the new Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Very interesting info about design, game balance, and how not to piss off a community of tournament players who have memorized SFII’s moves down to the frame.
Baconnaise!
King Prong
A National Geographic expedition to a tiny South Pacific island has discovered scores of new species, including over 600 types of crabs.
The distinctive hexagonal shell, long legs, and claws of this delicate-looking feather star crab help it blend in with its host, the crinoid or feather star.
The crab dwells in the center of the feather star, where it grabs food particles from its filter-feeding host’s arms.
Over 150 scientists from 20 countries participated in the survey of Espiritu Santo in the South Pacific, scouring caves, mountains, reefs, shallows, and forests collecting species. Out of over 10,000 species collected, the researchers are predicting that as many as 2000 may be previously unknown to the scientific community.
More photos and info: Crabs! Not-crabs!
(via Zooillogix)
First time anyone’s caught the sample in No Exit, too.
A new review of Bone Music, this time from the Grave Concerns e-zine:
What really sets apart Khan’s work from most of his contemporaries in the dark electronic scene is a fondness for more traditional sound sources. While there’s no shortage of electronic ambience and computer-generated percussive sounds, there’s also plenty of mostly unadorned rock and classical instrumentation. “Waiting for Gira” backs its rumbling percussion with the heavy throb of low-end bass guitar, for example, and “Friends of Father” sees what sounds like old-school guitar distortion and clattering snare drum emerging from a fuzzy wash of static. This more organic sound translates especially well to Khan’s use of rhythm. Often, his beats sound less like programmed sequences than tribal percussive ensembles, especially on the ominous “International Dark Skies,” which evokes imagery of some midnight voodoo conjuration, and title track “Bone Music,” which despite the morbid imagery of its title is actually possessed of a sense of fun not unlike Einsturzende Neubauten’s mellower instrumental experiments.