Author Archives: Mark Frauenfelder

Time lapse of stop-motion puppeteer at work

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Photographic proof of the isolator

Thanks to 50 Watts for posting this photo of The Isolator from Hugo Gernsback’s Science and Invention in 1925. See the cover I posted yesterday. (Via A Great Disorder)

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How the first image of the whole Earth was taken

Kevin Kelly says: “The very first image of the whole Earth was made in 1966. It was fax quality, sent back by the Lunar Orbit 1. Most remarkable was the ingenious contraption that took a picture, developed the film, scanned it and transmitted it back,… Continue reading

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Ready Player One: the best science fiction novel I’ve read in a decade

(Read a PDF with the first three chapters of Ready Player One.)
It seems like every decade or so a science fiction novel comes along that sends a lightning bolt through my nervous system: Philip Jose Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971). Will… Continue reading

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How Algorithms Shape Our World, Fascinating TED Talk by Kevin Slavin

[Video Link] Via Laughing Squid, this TED talk by game developer Kevin Slavin:
Kevin Slavin argues that we’re living in a world designed for — and increasingly controlled by — algorithms. In this riveting talk from TEDGlobal, he shows how these … Continue reading

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Two entertainingly awful TV commercials

It’s funny because they have pompadour toupees! (Via Daily Dot)

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Police medic wields magic wellness stick

“Primum non nocere.” Unless you have a cool-looking baton and you just can’t help yourself.

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Stolen Camera Finder

Matt Burns created this website to help you find your stolen camera. It looks on the web for other photos with the same EXIF ID.

Stolen Camera Finder

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Home value chart updated 1890-2011

Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture says:

In 2006, just as the Housing market was peaking, the NYT ran this graphic of the 100-year Case Shiller chart. It showed how radically overvalued Housing had become.

Two years later, TBP reader Steve Barry upda… Continue reading

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Right-left symmetry photos of Qaddafi

Muggum is a .99 iPhone app that generates two symmetrical side-by-side portraits — one from the left side of the face, and one from the right. Here’s both sides of ol’ whatshisface.
Make ran an article that shows how to do this on a PC.

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