just a little dancing goat with a hipster friend

via

hey, did you read that scientology story in the new yorker?

in the latest issue, there is a 28-page-long expose, inspired by director paul haggis's 30+ year involvement in the church, which ultimately ended in his leaving. it took me about 3 hours to read, but it really is quite riveting. it even made the approval matrix! i really liked the end of it.



above is an interview with the author on npr's fresh air, detailing the incredible amount of fact-checking that accompanied the publishing of the article.

did you ever stop to think...

...how did egypt actually turn the entire internet off?

Because the Internet’s legendary robustness and ability to route around blockages are part of its basic design, even the world’s most renowned network and telecommunications engineers have been perplexed that the Mubarak government succeeded in pulling the maneuver off.

But now, as Egyptian engineers begin to assess fragmentary evidence and their own knowledge of the Egyptian Internet’s construction, they are beginning to understand what, in effect, hit them. Interviews with many of those engineers, as well as an examination of data collected around the world during the blackout, indicate that the government exploited a devastating combination of vulnerabilities in the national infrastructure. (via)

reminds me of.

congratulations, watson!

that robot schooled ken and brad. this article has a lot of extra watson info, including some possible real-life applications of the language-recognition technology developed during his creation.

“I had a great time and I would do it again in a heartbeat,” said Mr. Jennings. “It’s not about the results; this is about being part of the future.” 

For I.B.M., the future will happen very quickly, company executives said. On Thursday it plans to announce that it will collaborate with Columbia University and the University of Maryland to create a physician’s assistant service that will allow doctors to query a cybernetic assistant. The company also plans to work with Nuance Communications Inc. to add voice recognition to the physician’s assistant, possibly making the service available in as little as 18 months.

“I have been in medical education for 40 years and we’re still a very memory-based curriculum,” said Dr. Herbert Chase, a professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University who is working with I.B.M. on the physician’s assistant. “The power of Watson- like tools will cause us to reconsider what it is we want students to do.” (via)

ready for warm-ups

PS1 announced the winner of the young architects competition for this summer. i think it looks pretty cool. especially the above drawing. see it all here: interboro

via

a little tennessee-based news

ATLANTA (AP) — A tuberculosis outbreak among workers at a Tennessee elephant sanctuary is being blamed on the pachyderms.

Elephants can carry TB, and there have been reports of them spreading it to people who touch them. But three of the eight workers infected with TB in 2009 weren't in direct contact with the elephants.

The three worked in a building next to an elephant barn at the refuge in south-central Tennessee.

Investigators believe the TB bacteria spread through the air when the elephants sneezed, or through pressure washing or dust from sweeping the barn.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report Wednesday in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. (via)

i didn't even know we had one of those.

keekerz speakerz

patrick wolf - the city



katy perry (feat. kanye west) - e.t. (remix)



yeasayer - crazy (seal cover)



toro y moi - new beat

professional puppehs!

every best of breed from this year's westminster, as photographed by the nytimes. this will take care of the next 5 minutes of your life.

omf what an idiot.

check out watson. he's such a dummy.

i dont mind at all.

i found this video, and love pretty much everything going on in it. i think it's clear that 'born this way' is an homage to 'express yourself'. and everyone should just shut up about it from now on.

take a glimpse...

....into the future.

BusTime – the MTA's real-time bus information pilot – has arrived along the B63 bus route in Brooklyn. The program is the latest initiative to alert riders to the status of their commute in real time, with actual bus locations available on the web, by text message and on your Smartphone.

If this pilot is successful, MTA BusTime will be expanded across the city, starting in Staten Island where every bus is set to receive the new technology this year.

MTA BusTime will take the guesswork out of waiting for the next bus through enhanced global positioning system devices, installed on 30 buses along the B63 route, that triangulate bus locations in real time. Accessible through cell phones and other electronic devices, all bus customers have to do is text us a code that will be prominently displayed at their bus stop. They will immediately receive a return text with the real-time locations of the next several buses.

The MTA is also working with area merchants along the route, who will soon be installing LCD signs that will display bus locations in real-time. So, bus customers can sip on their morning coffee or pick up a newspaper while knowing when their next bus is going to arrive.

Electronically-savvy customers can also use their Smartphones to snap a picture of a two-dimensional barcode we've installed at every B63 stop. A barcode-reading app can then interpret this information, and take you directly to our mobile website.

Our MTA BusTime website is accessible from any computer with an Internet connection. The site presents map-based moving images representing the real-time location of every B63 bus in service. The same information will be available through Smartphones, on a simplified website we've designed specifically for mobile phone browsers. (via)

that is in. sane.

conan announcing bonnaroo lineup?

jicyc. can you believe this will be the 10th?

me neither. are you going?

fired UP.

wanna hear something disGUSTing? did you know that in new york city, if you want to play tennis at public park courts, you have to purchase a permit for $100 annually? i know. and listen to this: currently, the parks department is moving forward with a plan to increase the annual permit cost to $200. two. hundred. that's double.

leading the opposition is the mccarren tennis association, who famously raised money independently last year to resurface one of the seven courts at mccarren park, because the city has not done so in over 30 years. the USTA took notice, and granted them $56,000 more to finish the resurfacing the other courts. (before / after) now they are focusing their efforts on the parks commissioner, in an attempt to kill this measure, which will be voted on in a couple of weeks.

you can read an op-ed in the brooklyn paper here, written by one of the group's founding members. and if you feel like expressing yourself, shoot the parks department a quick message here.

what is phyllis doing?

she got herself dry-docked in fort loudon lake.

thanks dad

UPDATE: fixed.

i get it now. its about bay windows!

new york, by gehry. i want to snark all over this.