Nice necklace.

From Walter Isaacson's account of Einstein's 1921 visit to the United States:

After three weeks of lectures and receptions in New York, Einstein paid a visit to Washington. For reasons fathomable only to those who live in that city, the Senate decided to debate the theory of relativity. On the House side of the Capitol, Representative J.J. Kindred of New York proposed placing an explanation of Einstein's theories in the Congressional Record. David Walsh of Massachusetts rose to object. Did Kindred understand the theory? "I have been earnestly busy with this theory for three weeks," Kindred replied, "and am beginning to see some light." But what relevance, he was asked, did it have to the business of Congress? "It may bear upon the legislation of the future as to general relations with the cosmos."

Unfortunately, Isaacson doesn't say whether the motion to read an explanation of general relativity into the Congressional Record was passed. As yet I haven't found an online resource that allows me to search the Congressional Record as far back as 1921, so I still don't know whether Rep. Kindred's motion was passed.¹

[Edited to add...] For the record, Isaacson's article is worth reading for much more than the comedic value inherent in the notion of politicians talking about relativity. It's a reminder of just how much of a public sensation Einstein was in his day. Who was the last scientist to have that sort of impact on the public imagination? Carl Sagan? Stephen Hawking? Richard Dawkins? Tim Berners-Lee?²

[Via Give Me Something To Read]

1. I suppose it's just about possible that somewhere along the way Einstein's work might have been used as material in a filibuster, so perhaps it ended up in the Congressional Record by a different route. Or perhaps not: if I were a Senator or Representative intent on blocking the passage of some contentious piece of legislation, I think I'd pick an easier read… ↩
2. The latter probably should get something approaching that level of acclaim, albeit for the tool he created and gave away rather than for any grand scientific theory. ↩

Jay Rosen has a few thoughts about funding journalism:

I was asked to speak recently at a conference organized by Yale University with the title "Journalism & The New Media Ecology: Who Will Pay The Messenger?" This irritated me. The question should have been "who will subsidize news production?" because news production has always been subsidized by someone or something. Very rarely have users paid directly the costs of editorial production. [...]

Rosen goes on to list a total of 19 sources of subsidy. There's no single source of funding that'll fix the problems of the newspaper business – not that those problems are entirely financial in nature anyway – but there are a lot of ideas out there that need to be tested to destruction, preferably before we resort to item #1 of Rosen's list.¹

[Via Memex 1.1]

1. Government subsidy. ↩

Paul Slade relates the fascinating story of London's Treasure Hunt Riots:

Thomas Wright, a West London barrister, came home from his Lincoln's Inn chambers one evening in January 1904 to find a mob of treasure hunters wrecking his front garden. One of them had already dug down to the base of the garden railings and was busy trying to dislodge them to see if a £50 medallion had been buried beneath. Glancing up and down Westbourne Terrace, Wright could see that many of his neighbours' gardens had been invaded too. This had been going on for four days. [...]

[Via Kevan Davis]

17 seconds of concentrated cuteness.¹

[Via Chocolate and Vodka]

1. Yes, it's a kitten video. An awesomely cute kitten video. And your point is…? ↩

Visualizing empires decline would be much improved if it included data for the preceding couple of centuries, so as to show the growth phase of each empire. It's still worth a look, even so.

[Via Anil Dash]

Best. Sleeping Bag. Ever!

[Via iamcal.com]

Is it time for a remake of Forbidden Planet?

J. Michael Straczynski has signed on to write a remake of the 1956 classic sci-fi film The Forbidden Planet. Echoing the story of The Tempest, it envisions an abandoned planet, its inhabitants far advanced beyond humanity and apparently extinguished in a single night two hundred thousand years previously. Their technology churns on without them but when a human expedition lands, it too is wiped out mysteriously, leaving only an old scientist and his daughter as survivors. The story picks up twenty years later as a second expedition arrives, and anything but hilarity ensues.

[...]

There is little early word on the project other than that Straczynski is focusing more of the plot on telling the story of the first expedition, and that Warner is hoping it turns into a franchise (because every studio wants to turn every movie into a franchise) so they're throwing a decent amount of money at the project. [...]

On the plus side, although he's worked quite a bit in comics in recent years JMS has some form when it comes to putting a good science fiction story on screen. What's more, it's been more than half a century since the original; perhaps it's time for a new generation's take on the classic story.

But then, by all accounts The Day the Earth Stood Still didn't work out well for anyone. Nor did Lost in Space. And JMS is only the writer, not the director. Not to mention the notion that the studio sees the remake as the start of a franchise.

This isn't a very good idea at all, is it? Perhaps we'd best hope that this is all a terrible misunderstanding, and that what the studios are actually planning is a big screen adaptation of Return to the Forbidden Planet.

The Death Of The Blog Post showcases attempts by designers-turned-bloggers to enliven their site by providing each post with a heavily customised design instead of forcing all their content into a one-style-fits-all template. The article itself is immensely difficult to read, but that's mostly because it ended up being far too busy and cluttered; some of the screenshots of posts from the various bloggers interviewed look marvellous, much like the magazine articles they're so clearly aping. I can see that the use of a custom design for each post could enhance a site's readability and impact, but I don't think I'll be rushing to update the template round here.

First, because the blogzine approach to design is unsuited to a (more-or-less) daily linklog.¹

Second, because I lack the patience (not to mention the skills and eye for design) to put together a couple of dozen different layouts.

Third, because if ever I did put all that effort in to designing individual posts, creating custom graphics, establishing precisely the right typographic stylings to get my message across and what have you, I'd cry every time I saw in my logs that someone had accessed one of my site's feeds and got all my content with none of the styling.

Having gone to such lengths to create a stylish site, I might just be tempted to stop offering full-content feeds, just to force visitors to come and see the site as I meant it to be seen, dammit!

[Via Michael Sippey]

1. In fairness, the post's author and the various design-minded bloggers linked to all agree on this point. ↩

100,000 years of Japanese history in 8 minutes.

[Via GromBlog]

The Cassini probe's latest flyby of Enceladus has produced some mind-boggling images and animations.

Peter Watts on the fallout from the climate change email hack:

[...] I keep running into recurring commentary on the snarkiness of the scientists behind these e-mails. They're really entrenched, people seem surprised to note. Got a real siege mentality going on, speak unkindly of the skeptics, take all kinds of cheap shots unbecoming of the lab coat. These people can be downright assholes.

No shit, Sherlock. I was a scientist myself for the longest time, and the people I'd gladly drop into a vat of nitric acid start with the Pope and go all the way down to anyone who voted for Stephen Harper's conservatives.

The apologists have stepped up, pointed out that these were private conversations and we shouldn't expect them to carry the same veneer of civility that one would expect in a public presentation. "Science doesn't work because we're all nice," remarked one widely-quoted NASA climatologist. "Newton may have been an ass, but the theory of gravity still works."

No. I don't think he's got it right. I don't think most of these people do.

Science doesn't work despite scientists being asses. Science works, to at least some extent, because scientists are asses. Bickering and backstabbing are essential elements of the process. Haven't any of these guys ever heard of "peer review"? [...]

[Via James Nicoll]

It's hard to pick a favourite from this selection of images from National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009, but if pressed I'd probably go for #12 or #23.

A fine demonstration of the art of customer service jiu-jitsu.

African leaders advise Bono on reform of U2:

An expert commission of African leaders today announced their plan for comprehensive reform of music band U2. Saying that U2's rock had lost touch with its African roots, the commission called for urgent measures to halt U2's slide towards impending crisis. [...]

[Via The Browser]

Blade meets Edward Cullen. Please, someone make this happen.

[Via Alyssa Rosenberg]

Steven Poole finds that years of playing videogames has spoiled him for live action fight scenes:

Often in the cinema, an analytical subroutine of my brain will signal that, in some sense, I have been in a situation like the one currently being played out onscreen, and it's only because the celluloid enemies are stupider and less skilled than any you find in videogames on difficulty settings higher than "I have never played a videogame before in my life" that the heroes get away with it.

Summarize your sex life with a Star Wars quote.

[Via jwz]

Tom Noonan on playing the Tooth Fairy in Manhunter:

Once, [Manhunter director Michael Mann] asked me what would help me to do the part better. There's very little I could have done either way. I do it the way I do it. But I said it'd be great if I didn't have to hang out with any of the actors who are either trying to kill me or I'm trying to kill them, which is pretty much everybody in the film.

So Michael sent out this memorandum to everyone in the cast and crew and the staff that none of the other actors can ever meet me. There has to be complete separation between me and the other actors, so I had a PA to run around for me everywhere. One in front and one behind, so there's no way I can run into anybody. I flew on other airlines. I stayed at other hotels. It was sort of crazy. So the crew at this point is starting to get weirded out by this person, not because of what Michael did, it was to do with me. And nobody was allowed to talk to me except for certain members of the crew. Michael likes creating drama on the set a little bit, which is effective in a lot of ways. When I did the first scene, where I had a stocking over my face, that's the first thing we shot. I could tell the crew was scared of me. I was also huge, I'd been bodybuilding, and I'm big to begin with, and I enjoyed that whole thing.

It's a crying shame that the sound quality on this clip of They Might Be Giants romping through a brassy, uptempo take on Birdhouse In Your Soul is so poor: everyone involved looks to be having a lot of fun.¹

[Via MetaFilter]

1. Can I also just note in passing how ancient I feel when I contemplate the proposition that the 20th anniversary of Flood's release date is almost upon us… ↩