LCC

ARE YOU BEING CUTE IN THERE?!?!

More bears.

News of Kiera Wilmot's arrest has seriously unnerved me. She is the Florida high school student who was experimenting with common household chemicals in science class that resulted in a minor explosion. There were no injuries and no damage to school property; however, she was taken away in handcuffs, formally arrested and expelled from school.

I acknowledge that too little information has been provided on the case. ( UPDATE: Here is the link to the Incident Report filed by the Compliance Officer at her school.) We have NO idea what was happening in the class. Where was the teacher? Were students involved in a laboratory activity at the time? ( UPDATE: We now know she was not in class, but was on school grounds before the morning bell rang.) I have spent time in the high school classroom. I know the shenanigans (and havoc) these pre-adults can cause. It is no laughing matter. Even if this were a prank, say something akin to my generation's idea of setting off smoke bombs in the hall during the passing of classes, my gut reaction stands. ( UPDATE: It seems it was NOT aprank. It was a curious kid trying something she saw on the Internet, the toilet cleaner and aluminum project. It still counts as science and as an experiment in my book.)

This comic is my attempt to exorcise Rstevens from my brain, which is impossible, because he sits on my shoulder and whispers. He is relentless.

TCAF is nearly here! I’m going to have 96 volumes of the brand-new SFAM 2 available for sale. Come get one, won’t you?

Here are 50 Great Jon Stewart quotes. Actually, I think a couple of them were uttered by correspondents on The Daily Show and a lot of them were probably invented by writers on that program…but you get the idea.

Though the topic was already treated here, here and here, another cinema-related strip, to welcome the fact that Guillermo Del Toro is again trying to start his "At the Mountains of Madness" adaptation (check the Playlist article here). Let's hope the strip is not predictive, once more... Thanks to Bobby D. for the übber-fast correction.

There have been many comic strips that run for a long long time, but rarely does a single entry take on a prodigious life of its own. Randall Munroe has been publishing xkcd since 02005 - not a bad run – and regularly stretches the medium’s definition. Entries can range from a single panel, to massive informational charts. From the beginning of the strip, time, and vast quantities of it, has been a common theme. One recent foray into this subject matter garnered the strip a mention, alongside Long Now, in The Economist because it’s been updating for almost a month now.

“Time,” as the piece is called, started off as a single panel with two people sitting on a beach. xkcd’s punchlines are generally hidden in the image’s title text, but in this case it simply says “Wait for it.” Every half-hour the image is updated, forming a very, very slow animation. (Most animated films, for instance, move along at 24 frames per second; this is more like .0006 frames per second.) The characters have been building a sandcastle and fortifying it against a rising sea since March 25th, 02013. You can see the whole thing, sped up, on Explain xkcd, a wiki created about the comic.

The eventual fate of the sandcastle and its creators, as well as the ultimate length of this story, remain unknown. Wait for it.

Last week Long Now board member Brian Eno unveiled two new installations at Montefiore Hospital in Hove, England. The pieces are designed to be soothing for patients in the hospital and provide a sense of respite from the harsh realities of its clinical environment. In the lobby of the new hospital, Eno’s 77 Million Paintings will be on permanent display. The artwork, like the chime sequence for the 10,000 year clock, uses generative music techniques pioneered by Eno to ensure endless unique combinations of video and music to relax the viewer.

The other work in the hospital is a quiet room for patients of the hospital that plays a new ambient album by Eno entitled Quiet Room for Montefiore. The album will only be able to be heard in the hospital, somewhat of a hurdle for serious Eno fans. News of the installation has spread quickly, and Eno’s spokesman has confirmed that four other hospital architects are currently in conversation with Eno about putting similar rooms into the hospitals they are currently building. In talking about the new turn, Eno notes that this projects flowed quite naturally from his previous works:

“It seemed a natural step for me to take as I’ve been dealing with this idea of functional music for quite a few years.”

For those that won’t be able to make it to England, Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings will also go on display in New York at the Red Bull Music Academy from May 3rd until June 2nd.

A recently released interview from Alfred Dunhill also gives a glimpse into Eno’s general philosophy and approach to art:

meh…

“The ugly underbelly of academia.” Long hours, low pay, dim prospects: Has the Ph.D. become a Ponzi scheme?… more»

It’s a big image, so it’s going below the fold.

(via)

Guns sure have been in the news lately, huh? Regardless of your opinion of  guns, you have to admit they sure were invented by someone! I imagine it went a little… like this.

Thanks for stopping by! See you on Monday.

Be sure to grab a book on your way out.

Submitted by: postninegagcom
Posted at: 2013-04-13 14:16:57
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/7085821

The sun, on account of the mist, had a curious sentient, personal look, demanding the masculine pronoun for its adequate expression. His present aspect, coupled with the lack of all human forms in the scene, explained the old-time heliolatries in a moment. One could feel that a saner religion had never prevailed under the sky. The luminary was a golden-haired, beaming, mild-eyed, God-like creature, gazing down in the vigour and intentness of youth upon an earth that was brimming with interest for him.