Sunday 18 December 2011

10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting - this is really today’s

Dresses of Tsarina Alexandra Romanova via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Chris
Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova (1872 – 1918), was Empress consort of Russia as spouse of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of the Russian Empire. Alexandra is best remembered as the last Tsarina of Russia, as one of the most famous royal carriers of the haemophilia disease and for her support of autocratic control over the country. Her notorious friendship with the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin was also an important factor in her life. Wikipedia
Thank you to Grand Ladies where you can see many dresses like this one. Such elegance.
1894 Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, born Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine in Russian court gown by Ilya Galkin (location unknown to gogm)

Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
“We live in a world where information is potentially unlimited,” says George Dyson. “Information is cheap, but meaning is expensive. Where is the meaning?”... more

Microbial home: fuelling the kitchen with methane from waste via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
This concept design for a “microbial home” centered around a methane digester hub that feeds gas from your food into various appliances has a nice, bodgy, Rube Goldberg feel. We can call it methanepunk (not perfect, but better than “fartpunk”).
The Microbial Home is viewed as a cyclical biological machine where wastes like sewage, effluent, garbage, wastewater are filtered, processed and recycled to be used as inputs for the various home functions. The project includes various aspects like a Bio Digester Island and Larder in the kitchen, Urban Beehive, Bio-light, Apothecary, Filtering Squatting Toilet and Paternoster Plastic Waste Up-cycler.
The Microbial Home (via Beyond the Beyond)

Prizma Puzzle Challenges via the How-To Geek by Asian Angel
In this game your mission is to successfully create energy bridges between two points on an isometric grid before running out of energy.
Read Asian Angel’s walkthrough here or go straight to the game here
This one looks as though it requires a bit more intellectual effort than most of the freebies.

Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
fMRI's and free will. Imagine a neuroscientist knowing what you'll decide before you do. Is consciousness a biochemical afterthought?... more

Dead Sea Scrolls Available Online via Big Think by Big Think Editors
With Google as its partner, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem will launch a new website that allows the public to examine the Dead Sea Scrolls in fine detail. “The site provides searchable, high-resolution images of the scrolls, plus explanatory videos and background on the foundational texts.”
Read More

Support for Tsunami Recovery in Galápagos Islands
The powerful tsunami resulting from the devastating March 11th 2011 earthquake off the coast of Japan struck the Galápagos Islands several hours later, damaging a number of coastal buildings. Funding from the World Heritage Centre's Rapid Response Facility helped repair and re-equip the Charles Darwin Research Station's marine conservation centre.
Help preserve World Heritage today!



Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
“I'm getting old,” says Bernard Lewis. But his memory remains sharp. Just ask him about swapping Marx Brothers films with the Shah… more

Antibiotic resistance is older than antibiotics via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
This came out while I was travelling, but I wanted to post it here in case you missed it. It is very cool, in that “maybe cool isn’t the right word” sort of way. Our modern antibiotics are really just purified and pumped-up versions of naturally occurring compounds, right? So, it makes sense that, long before we started using them as antibiotics, bacteria had already started building defenses against the natural compounds. In other words: Antibiotic resistance is older than the use of antibiotics

Infestor via the How-To Geek by Asian Angel
In this game two factions on a human colony are about to have the fragile peace they enjoy shattered by a new biological weapon known as Infestor. Are you ready to use Infestor to defeat the enemy?
Asian Angel’s walk through is here or you can, of course, take a leap into the dark and start playing it here.


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