Sponsor

2016/05/25

Neatorama

Neatorama


Sound Blaster: The Sound Card that Enabled Multimedia

Posted: 25 May 2016 05:00 AM PDT

Neatorama is proud to bring you a guest post from Ernie Smith, the editor of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog.

Sound cards like the Creative Sound Blaster were the missing element that computers needed to take on multimedia. Then, they faded from view. Here’s why.

(Image credit: Brtkr)

Before we embraced MP3s as the official noise of the internet (taking the place of screechy modems), it took a while before the synthesized notes of our musical past could be modulated through the inner-workings of a computer. Some of our earliest computers, for example, could only make very basic bleeps and bloops. But in 1989, everything changed when a Singaporean company called Creative Technology hit upon the perfect approach for synthesizing sound. Here is an ode to the Sound Blaster, the PC peripheral that helped turn the modern computer into a multimedia powerhouse—as well as the company that busted through by breaking some major cultural rules in its home country.

The business oversight that created the market for sound cards

The IBM PC was created squarely for the business market, and while such machines were far more powerful than most video game consoles of the day, two places where they fell flat were video and audio.

The reason? At the time of the machine’s initial release—particularly before clones came about—there was no real business case for a computer to support a wide array of graphics and sound. The graphics-heavy GUI as we know it was still years from becoming commonplace, and it wasn’t like you needed robust sound capabilities when writing documents or crunching numbers.

While early IBM PCs had speakers, they effectively existed only to allow for error messages—and as a result were heavily crippled. As developers got their hands on these devices and moved beyond purely business programs, they eventually figured out ways to stretch this incredibly limited palette of sound using a hack called “pulse width modulation.”

This eventually allowed for the PCs to make 6-bit digitized sounds—not enough, say, to play a pop song through your speakers, but plenty to make music for your average King’s Quest game.

IBM, nor many early clone-makers, were really interested in improving the sound element much for the business computers, but they did try to make overtures to the home market. IBM’s PCjr, released in 1984, had better sound capabilities, thanks to its use of the Texas Instruments SN76489 chip. You may not have owned a PCjr, but you’ve probably come across a SN76489, as the chip was used in many video game systems—both of the arcade variety and in home consoles like Sega Master System and Genesis. But the PCjr’s lack of compatibility with PC software, along with its inability to play games very well, killed the machine on the market.

IBM’s failure to improve the sound on its early machines left an opening for others to step into. At first, this meant buying a machine that wasn’t IBM compatible. Atari’s early computers, for example, used a capable sound chip it affectionately named “Pokey”. Later, Commodore’s Amiga, with its four-channel “Paula” chip, helped the computer build its reputation as a multimedia heavyweight.

Eventually, though, peripheral developers in the PC world spotted an opportunity of their own.

The good old days weren't that great

A Yamaha YM3812 chip could make only nine sounds simultaneously, due to FM synthesis. If you wanted access to a series of percussion sounds, you could lose three of those tones and put the drum sounds in its place. This Yamaha chip became the de facto standard for sound cards throughout the late ’80s and ’90s, thanks to its use in both the AdLib and Sound Blaster sound cards. David Murray, the YouTuber known as “The 8-Bit Guy,” pointed out last year that a number of Yamaha keyboards in the late ’80s used this very same computer chip.

(YouTube link)

Why the Sound Blaster broke through

The Sound Blaster wasn’t the first attempt to create decent sound on an IBM PC. In fact, it wasn’t even the first attempt by its creator, Creative Technology, to take on this market—it made its first attempt in 1987 with the launch of its Creative Music System, then in 1988 with its Game Blaster card.

Nor was it the only major player in the market. Also in 1987, a Canadian company called AdLib was the first major player to the musical computing market, and its device proved an early success. These cards relied on the Industry Standard Architecture, or ISA, expansion slots that had been common on IBM PCs since their 1981 release.

The complexity of this approach might sound a little surprising to those who missed the early PC era. Unlike a USB device that you might plug into your laptop, these expansion slots (which you had to open your machine to access) were fairly large and could generally just do one or two things. So one card might be a modem, and another might add a printer port to your machine. Desktop machines tended to only allow for two or three of these cards, while a tower could take half a dozen or more. But because you were plugging these cards directly into the motherboard, the result was a notable speed boost compared to an external device.

Complicating matters at the time was that peripherals didn’t just work when you plugged them in—they required complex drivers, often a new one for every single program you installed. It was pretty much the opposite of “plug and play.”

Anyway, as we mentioned earlier, AdLib’s card relied on the Yamaha YM3812 FM synthesizer chip, which allowed it to create high-quality synthesized music. However, it couldn’t play any type of audio file you threw at it, because it didn’t support pulse-code modulation, or PCM. (PCM is the secret sauce that allows digital devices, like CD players or computers, to handle analog audio.)

Creative wasn’t the first mover in the sound card market, but much like the clone-makers of the era did, the company took advantage of the fact that most computer chips weren’t proprietary. In other words, the AdLib wasn’t using unique chips, so Creative used those same chips and improved on AdLib’s offering slightly, launching a fully compatible card with PCM support.

And because Creative was building its devices in Singapore rather than Canada, its production costs were a lot lower. It wasn’t perfect—it could only play sound samples in mono, not stereo—but it was a huge leap forward for computer audio, especially on the PC. And Creative did it using off-the-shelf parts.

(Here’s what it sounded like, by the way.)

On top of this, Creative made some smart strategic moves—it worked with a bunch of major game publishers to ensure that they supported the Sound Blaster natively, and also made drivers widely available to developers. Further, Creative added a game port on the back of the sound card—taking advantage of the fact that most computers of the era didn’t have game ports—which gave gamers an incentive to buy.

The result was that, within a year, the Sound Blaster had become the de facto standard for the PC industry, and over the next few years, the company was able to iterate on this initial success, creating a product line that led its market for more than a decade.

No U-turn Syndrome

“In Singapore, the no U-turn without sign culture has permeated every level of our thinking and every segment of our life. This no U-turn has created a way of life that is based on rules. When there is a U-turn sign or when there is a rule, we can U-turn. When there is no sign, we cannot U-turn. When there is no rule, we cannot do anything. We become paralyzed.”

— Creative Technology founder Sim Wong Hoo,writing about the “No U-Turn Syndrome” that he claimed had permeated Singaporean culture. Sim’s point, first explained in his 1999 book Chaotic Thoughts From the Old Millennium, is essentially his way of arguing that people from Singapore are often waiting for someone to tell them that to do before they take any action—something he argues shows up in driving, as Singaporeans won’t take a U-turn unless explicitly told. Sim, who built a reputation as a business maverick in the culturally-conservative Singapore, argues that the mindset of inaction is incompatible with the modern business world. “We are moving faster and faster into many uncharted territories, where there are no rules,” he adds. “We do not want to be paralyzed by waiting for the rule to be formulated before moving—it will be too late.”

These days, Creative is still active in the technology space, though perhaps with a smaller profile than it had during its ’90s heyday. It was an early competitor in the MP3 player market, hoping to take on the world with its Nomad device, but things changed one day when Apple decided it wanted to get in on the market itself.

Not that Creative didn’t have passionate supporters.

“No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame,” Slashdot founder Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda infamously remarked about the iPod at the time.

As for its bread and butter, the Sound Blaster is still a centerpiece of the company’s offerings, though a decision by Microsoft to effectively stop supporting hardware-based sound cards starting with Windows Vista—as well as improved computing power in general—turned sound cards, once a key purchase for any PC owner, into something that was no longer necessary. If you have a headphone jack, why do you need a dedicated sound card? Most people didn’t have an answer.

Creative got around this problem by classing up its offerings—going back to its roots as a luxury for gamers. And because most people these days are more likely to own laptops or tablets than towers with room for extension cards, most Sound Blasters the company sells these days aren’t sound cards in the traditional sense. Instead, they’re more like mini-amplifiers that you put on your desk or in your pocket. They often support Bluetooth, and some of them, like the Sound Blaster X7, sell for hundreds of dollars.

(Image credit: Dinopkk)

Recently, Creative announced an elaborate speaker system called the X-Fi Sonic Carrier that it plans to sell for an absurd $5,000 when it gets in stores.

“The X-Fi Sonic Carrier is the epitome of high-end home theatre and high-end audio systems, made for people who appreciate the finer things in life,” Sim Wong Hoo said of the device. “It redefines the boundaries of the state of the art in the category. It is truly a work of art.”

Sure, it sounds over-the-top, and it probably is, but this guy has earned the right to sell $5,000 speakers. Don’t expect him to make a U-turn now.


A version of this post by Ernie Smith originally appeared in the Tedium newsletter, which tries in vain to make dull topics slightly more interesting. You can follow along on Twitter or Facebook.

AMERICAN LAGER - Drink One With The Captain!

Posted: 25 May 2016 04:00 AM PDT


AMERICAN LAGER by Fernando Sala

Do you enjoy the taste of freedom? Want to live a life free from the hate and discontent those imported lagers bring into your life? Then you need to grab a case of Cap's American Lager, with the star spangled smoothness and golden glory you've come to expect from beer made right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. When you sip on the Captain's American Lager you're sipping on history, and portions of each sale go to building up a defense fund to send HYDRA back to whatever cave or planet they came from. So take it from Cap- if you're looking to get drunk like a red-blooded patriot then you need to be sipping on American Lager. Please drink responsibly.

Advertise Cap's newest patriotic enterprise with this AMERICAN LAGER t-shirt by Fernando Sala, it's the fun way to celebrate your freedom and support Cap's cause in the impending Civil War.

Visit Fernando Sala's Facebook fan page, official website, Twitter and Instagram, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more powerful designs:

DONKEYMINDKILL PIGSDARK YOGAARROW'S CRUNCH

View more designs by Fernando Sala | More Comic T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Rod Serling on Kamikazes, Japanese Taxis, and <i>The Twilight Zone</i>

Posted: 25 May 2016 04:00 AM PDT

Blank on Blank is an ongoing video series by PBS that vividly animates the audio tracks of interviews of famous people. In the past, they've done Tom Waits, Bill Murray, Kurt Vonnegut, Dolly Parton, and Jimi Hendrix, among many others.


(Video Link)

For this video, Blank on Blank presents a 1963 interview with Rod Serling in Australia. In in, the creator of The Twilight Zone describes serving as a paratrooper during World War II, riding in the backseat of a Japanese taxi, and growing up with a reputation of dishonesty. Serling says, "Some liars go to prison and others write television shows."

-via Geek Tyrant

The Coney Island Sideshow That Saved Babies

Posted: 25 May 2016 02:00 AM PDT

In the early 20th century, you could see exhibits at Coney Island featuring people with physical anomalies, cultural exhibits that were ”human zoos,” and premature babies in incubators. That may seem weird now, but people flocked to see the babies, because they were miracles. Prematurity often meant a short life back then, and hospitals rarely had the time or facilities to save them. Martin Couney's Infant Incubator exhibit went the extra mile to save their lives. If a parent had nowhere else to turn, it made sense to commit their struggling baby to a sideshow.  

Each incubator was more than 5ft (1.5m) tall, made of steel and glass, and stood on legs. A water boiler on the outside supplied hot water to a pipe running underneath a bed of fine mesh on which the baby slept, while a thermostat regulated the temperature. Another pipe carried fresh air from outside the building into the incubator, first passing through absorbent wool suspended in antiseptic or medicated water, then through dry wool, to filter out impurities. On top, a chimney-like device with a revolving fan blew the exhausted air upwards and out of the incubators.

Caring for premature babies was expensive. In 1903, it cost about $15 a day ($405 or £277 today) to care for each baby in Couney's facility.

But Couney did not charge the parents a penny for their medical care - the public paid. They came in such numbers that Couney easily covered his operating costs, paid his staff a good wage and had enough left over to begin planning more exhibits. In time, these made Couney a wealthy man.

Martin Couney had more than just the incubators going for him. He believed in the power of breast milk and cuddling when medical experts did not, although he was also a showman, and dressed the babies in oversize clothing to make them look even smaller. Read about Couney and his sideshow nursery at BBC Magazine.  -via Metafilter

(Image credit: New York Public Library)

Cop Replace's Little Boy's Stolen Pokémon Collection with His Own

Posted: 25 May 2016 12:00 AM PDT

(Image: Fox 8 Cleveland)

9-year old Bryce of Cleveland, Ohio has been collecting Pokémon for 3 years. His impressive collection is his pride and joy, carefully purchased and preserved.

Then someone stole it.

Bryce was carrying his collection in a binder to a friend's house. Then another kid robbed him and ran off with the collection.

Bryce's mother called the police. The responding officers were James Grotenrath and Ken Kirk. Grotenrath, at 26 years old, is young enough to have enjoyed Pokémon when it first came out. He had been building his own collection for many years.

But in an incredible act of generosity, Officer Grotenrath gave the whole thing to Bryce. Fox 8 Cleveland (autoplay video) reports:

He returned to his house, and gave up his own Pokemon collection as well as other cards he had stored.

"It's a banned card of Pokeman and there's only about ten of these in the world and I have one of them," explained Bryce.

"It's a priceless item, but it's better to see someone else smile, and in my book, like my partner says, it's just happy to see a citizen smile instead of always frowning upon us and looking the other way," said Grotenrath.

The police were also able to find the thief and return most, but not all, of Bryce's original collection.

-via Nerd Approved

How To Caramelize Sugar Without Melting It

Posted: 24 May 2016 11:00 PM PDT

Caramelizing sugar can be a real pain, and yet it's an integral skill for bakers and makers of all things sweet to learn if they want to add some nutty brown goodness to their culinary creation.

If you want to add caramelized sugar to your recipes but can't stand the process then you're about to become a fan of Stella Parks from Serious Eats, who figured out how to caramelize sugar by roasting it:

Consider the above photo exhibit A—neither brown sugar nor turbinado, but granulated white sugar that I caramelized without melting. It's dry to the touch, and performs exactly like granulated white sugar.

Except, you know, the part where it tastes like caramel.

That opens up a world of possibility, as it works flawlessly in recipes for buttercream, mousse, or cheesecake, which can accommodate only a small amount of caramel sauce before turning soupy or soft. It's also ideal for desserts that would be ruined by caramel syrup, which is by nature too hot for fragile angel food cake, and too viscous for soft candies like marshmallows or nougat. And, compared to caramel powder (made from liquid caramel, cooled and ground), it won't compact into a solid lump over time.

Read How To Make Caramel Without Melting Sugar here

-Via Boing Boing

Who Wants to Be a Cat Millionaire?

Posted: 24 May 2016 10:00 PM PDT


(Rachel J. Corey)

Mr. Cat has carefully worked his way up from $100 to a $1,000,000 pot. He can walk away with enough money to buy a fresh couch to scratch every day for the rest of his life. But he has to first correctly answer the impossible question for cats and cat owners.

-via Tastefully Offensive

Rescued Baby Beavers

Posted: 24 May 2016 09:00 PM PDT

A group of hunters saw a female beaver in a trap in Saskatchewan, and knew her babies must be near. They found a litter of four beaver kits, only a couple of days old, and took them to Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation & Education Centre. Medical intervention saved the babies, and they will be raised at the center until they are two years old. See more pictures of the adorable baby beavers at Buzzfeed.

Check out Salthaven’s Facebook page for an amazing variety of animal babies that have been rescued.

<i>Star Wars</i> Dogfights Fit Perfectly with <i>Top Gun</i> Music

Posted: 24 May 2016 08:00 PM PDT


(Video Link)

Kenny Loggins's performance of "Danger Zone" became famous when it was included in the soundtrack of the 1986 movie Top Gun. It's instantly recognizable as a song about skilled men fearlessly risking their lives and having fun while doing it.

So it fits well with the thrilling dogfighting scenes in the 7 Star Wars movies. Weston Wong compiled the best of those combat sequences and set them to "Danger Zone." Now I can easily imagine Tom Cruise piloting an X-wing fighter.

-via Laughing Squid

Heroes Who Died Protecting Precious Knowledge

Posted: 24 May 2016 07:00 PM PDT

(Image Link)

If the forces of hatred and stupidity have their way the world will be bombed back to the Stone Age where ignorance will be the norm and violence mongers and religious zealots will reign supreme.

Luckily there are plenty of brave and intelligent people like Khaled Al-Asaad and the Monuments Men who are willing to fight, and if needed die, to preserve humanity's stores of knowledge and culture.

Modern heroism doesn't come much more direct than the bravery exhibited by Khaled Al-Asaad, the Syrian archaeologist who remained at the site of the ancient city of Palmyra to protect it from ISIS.

(Image Link)

Khaled stayed until the bitter end stashing the historical artifacts discovered in the city, and he ultimately gave up his life concealing their whereabouts from the forces of stupidity.

And speaking of stupidity- the Nazis, those jerks who acted like they were changing the world for the better when all they were really doing is killing and destroying for the sake of Der Fuhrer's stupid cause.

(Image Link)

The smart men and women from the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Program had one simple mission- rescue important works of art from the Nazi fire.

However, this was easier said than done during wartime, which British historian Ronald Belfour discovered when he was killed by a shell burst while moving parts of a medieval altarpiece behind enemy lines. 

Huchthausen was similarly killed in action while trying to protect a cache of priceless art, and even though he was gunned down before the art could be moved soldiers were later able to locate and save it all thanks to his hard work.

Read Unreal Heroes Who Died Protecting Human Knowledge here

Young Chimpanzee Has Fun Sliding down a Hill

Posted: 24 May 2016 06:00 PM PDT


(Video Link)

This young bonobo at the Twycross Zoo in the UK has discovered the. Best. Game. Ever! It's called Sliding Down the Hill. To play, climb to the top of the incline in the enclosure, then slide down on your back. Do it forwards or backwards, but backwards is better.

He has fun doing it over and over again and tries to get his parents involved. They're less interested in playing the game. Perhaps, like humans parent, they're just too tired.

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

Reviews of Some of the World's Weirdest Beers

Posted: 24 May 2016 05:00 PM PDT

If you're into craft beers, then you know there are a lot of seriously weird beers out there. The thing is, some of those brews are actually amazing, while others are just plain nasty. Bon Appetit recently went ahead and taste tested some of the most bizarre brews on the market -from the one made with yeast out of the brewer's beard to the one made with a sheep dung-smoked whale testicle. They give you a good idea of which of these beers are actually good and which are just gimmicks -though each of these companies almost certainly has die-hard fans who will defend their brand until they die, so don't be surprised if you hear someone disagree entirely.

The Dark Merc Returns - And He's Hungry For Justice

Posted: 24 May 2016 04:00 PM PDT


The Dark Merc Returns by Saqman

He was a madman, a motor mouth and a total mess when he took his mask off, and by the light of the moon he would leap into the fray and take apart the bad guys one limb at a time. He was Deadpool The Dark Merc, and his mission was simple- kill enough a-holes to build up a healthy appetite, then go dig in to a plate full of tacos and chimichangas. But there was just one problem with Wade's plan- some Joker from Gotham had wandered into the wrong funny book, and he refused to pack up his clown white and go!

Comic book mashups don't come much cooler than this The Dark Merc Returns t-shirt by Saqman, slip it on and feel the power to break the fourth wall coursing through your veins!

Visit Saqman's Facebook fan page and official website, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more geek-tastic designs:

La Petite ReyArkham BankPlayGotham Catty

An Inconceivable Story

View more designs by Saqman | More Comic T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

This Phone Is So Long It Requires 2 People to Operate It

Posted: 24 May 2016 04:00 PM PDT

Gather around, kids.

A long time ago, we didn't have smartphones. We didn't even have cellphones. We had phones that would only work if you plugged them into a special outlet on the wall. And none of them could operate SnapGram or InstaChat or whatever newfangled things you use nowadays.

This is what we had to use. It's called a rotary phone. You dialed numbers (there were no contacts) by turning the wheel, often while wearing an onion on our belts, which was the style at the time. And now designers Søren Pors and Apama Rao have faithfully recreated the original design in a functional sculpture called The Uncle Phone.

-via Fubiz

Combat Juggling

Posted: 24 May 2016 03:00 PM PDT

Humans have a tendency to turn any activity into a competition. Otherwise, we wouldn’t ever see an eating contest. This one looks like a lot more fun. Combat Juggling is not exactly new, but it still hasn’t gained a foothold in the U.S. The goal is to keep three pins in the air while at the same time trying to cause your opponent to drop his.

(YouTube link)

The A.V. Club tells us

The video documents what is said to be the “semi-final” of combat juggling at an event called NJF 2016 Fight Night. For the uninitiated (read: nearly everyone), that’s Nederlands Jongleer Festival, an annual juggling convention held on the Feast Of The Ascension in the Netherlands. So combat juggling, it turns out, is a Dutch diversion.

Oh, I believe Americans would flock to it, if we didn’t have to learn to juggle first.  

Incredibly Talented Teenager Turns Herself into Makeup Monsters

Posted: 24 May 2016 02:00 PM PDT

Lara Wirth of Melbourne, Australia is a self-taught makeup and special effects artist. Though she's only 16 years old, she's clearly already a master of her craft. If you'd like to learn how to make your own, you can watch videos in her helpful instructional YouTube channel.

-via Laughing Squid

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Posted: 24 May 2016 01:00 PM PDT

This is just a picture of two people hugging. It has a nice beach background. But wait, something is a little off about their legs. The more you look, the stranger it gets. How did her legs end up on the other side of his body?  

They didn’t. And it hasn’t been Photoshopped. It’s an accidental optical illusion. Click here for an explanation.

If you can’t figure it out, this outline will clue you in. See, she’s not wearing capris at all! She’s probably wearing a dress.  -via reddit

The Crazy Restaurant Where Your Food Is Delivered on Tiny Rollercoasters

Posted: 24 May 2016 12:00 PM PDT

(Photo: Alton Towers)

It's called the Rollercoaster Restaurant--and for good reason! This restaurant at the Alton Towers resort and amusement park in Staffordshire, UK has  tiny rollercoaster tracks between the kitchen and each dining table. After the kitchen staff cooks your food, they place it in steel pots which attach to the metal tracks. Then they send your food rushing down to your table.


(Video Link)

-via Laughing Squid

The Best Apps to Use While on the Toilet

Posted: 24 May 2016 11:00 AM PDT

Some people still prefer to read magazines, books and newspapers while passing the time on the John, but for those who prefer something a little more technologically advanced, it's all about playing on your cell phone or tablet. The only problem is that some apps take too much time or require too much effort for typical bathroom sessions. If you're looking for the right app to use while you're going #2, this list is a lifesaver (you may even bookmark it so you can just download the apps while in the can). The ideas include everything from reading material to games and even sites to help you improve your movie streaming suggestions.

Trapped in a Restroom Stall

Posted: 24 May 2016 10:00 AM PDT

(YouTube link)

She went into the ladies’ room and used the handicap stall, which has a door that opens out. While she was in there, someone used the diaper-changing table on the wall and didn’t fold it back up. The table prevented the stall door from opening wide enough for her to exit. A comedy of errors.

This is not so much a tragedy but an illustration of poor design. Poor design, in this case, resulting from retrofitting a small public restroom with 1. a handicap stall, and B. a diaper changing table. She wasn’t all that worried about getting out. It wasn’t too long before someone else came in, and even if it were, she had a phone. Remember, please return the diaper-changing table to its upright position before exiting the facilities.  -via Digg

Mosaic Portraits Made of Tiny Hand-Painted Portraits

Posted: 24 May 2016 09:00 AM PDT

Look at this painting of the face of Marilyn Monroe.

No, closer:

These are tiny images of President Kennedy, who was allegedly one of her lovers.

Kim Dong Yoo is an amazingly precise artist. He makes paintings that are image mosaics of tiny figures--the same one for each painting. These aren't computer generated. He does them all by hand. You can see more of his work here, including paintings of Audrey Hepburn made of tiny Gregory Pecks and John F. Kennedy made of tiny Marilyn Monroes.

-via My Modern Met

The Happy Chewbacca on TV

Posted: 24 May 2016 08:00 AM PDT

Candace Payne, who went viral with her unboxing video featuring that Chewbacca mask, was on The Late Late Show with James Cordon last night. They did a skit in which Payne recreated her original reaction while she was supposed to be driving Cordon someplace. He was a bit annoyed at the delay. Then a surprise guest shows up to calm things down.

(YouTube link)

But even better was the short interview afterward. Payne shows that she is just as delightfully joyful in front of an audience without as script as she is elsewhere. 

(YouTube link)

If you’re going to the Dallas Fan Expo in June, keep an eye out for Payne. She’ll be the one laughing. -via Buzzfeed

Soviet And Post-Soviet Life As Seen Through The Lens Of Sergey Chilikov

Posted: 24 May 2016 07:00 AM PDT

The Soviet era seems like the bleakest and most depressing time to live in Russia, but the country has been through so many bleak times it's hard to keep track of them all.

However, the sunny days that came after the Soviet era seem to be sticking around, and there was a noticeable shift in the mood of the people after the Soviet Union was dissolved.

Photographer Sergey Chilikov was there to document the color returning to the cold, sterile country as the Iron Curtain fell, but even before the fall he'd spent decades shooting amazing pics which capture the spirit of the Russian people.

A founding member of the creative group Fact, Sergey shot candid images considered subversive by the Soviet regime, mostly because his subjects are often showing some skin.

Sergey's images show us that even during the dark and oppressive Brezhnev era the Russian people knew how to have a good time, enjoying each other's company as a way to shake off the Soviet blues.

See The Giddy Freedom Of Post-Soviet Life Through The Lens Of Sergey Chilikov here (Contains NSFW imagery)

Teenager Walks in Public for the First Time at His High School Graduation

Posted: 24 May 2016 06:00 AM PDT


(Video Link)

Micah McDade of Okmulgee, Oklahoma was born with cerebral palsy. He uses a wheelchair throughout his daily life. But he decided that he wanted to make a big change for his high school graduation: he wanted to walk across the stage to receive his diploma.

So he trained for months for this one special moment. And when his name was called, McDade rose from his wheelchair and walked several steps--the first time he had ever walked in public. The Telegraph reports:

And so, without telling his classmates what he was preparing, Micah put in months of preparation ahead of Friday’s ceremony, building on the countless surgeries he’s had through his life to improve his mobility.

To deafening cheers, Micah was helped up from his chair and made his way across the platform, with the help of staff and a walking frame.

His parents Mark and Anisa McDade told reporters they couldn't be prouder, and wept with joy as they stood cheering along with the crowd.

Victor Gabriel Rocine and His Heads

Posted: 24 May 2016 05:00 AM PDT

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!

by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff

Victor Gabriel Rocine’s Heads, Faces, Types, Races, published in 1910, is a book about people who, in Rocine’s opinion, need their head examined—examined in the way that Rocine considers proper for examining heads. Rocine (fig. 2) introduces his subject with exuberant turgidity:

There is perhaps no science that can do more good for the people, in the various avocations of life, than phrenology, when it is thoroughly understood. A phrenologist who is well versed in his science, can do good to the public, the individual or the nation, in hundreds of different ways…. This is an age of specialists and inventors. When the talent or genius of a man is discovered and directed, he succeeds.

Rocine lavishes attention and detail on different parts of the head. Consider his treatment of the forehead. The table of contents lists 16 separate subsections about foreheads. Four of Rocine’s forehead varieties—the low, the high, the square, and the retreating—are shown here in figures 4, 5, 6, and 7.



Rocine imagines how a face would look if it ran up against a vertical line. Sometimes he imagines a face tipped forward to bump up again the line, sometimes tipped back. It depends on the face. He explains that this tells much about a person (figs. 8 and 9):

Figure 8. Rocine saw significance in an imagined vertical line.

If a man recedes from the vertical line, at the upper forehead, he lacks the faculties of deductive reasoning and originality. If he recedes from the vertical line, at the lower part of the face, it indicates a weak circulation and a fault-finding disposition. If the forehead and chin are even with the vertical line, it indicates harmony of development, giving us a vertical face, an even and straight forehead. All uncultured people, coarse and cruel, and all of the lower animals recede from the vertical line, as seen in the snake, cat, monkey.

Rocine develops means of assessing a person’s character. The assessment requires that one pay careful attention to subtle variations of the lineaments of the head (fig. 10).



Concerned that others might be less careful than he, Rocine warns against trying to infer too much from features that can reliably indicate only certain kinds of information. Rocine singles out the nose as a prime example (fig. 11). “It is unscientific,” he writes, “to determine character and talent from the nose alone, though it has its meaning.”



The Lingering Mystery About Rocine
Rocine’s legacy, slight though it may be, includes a tiny mystery that might intrigue some of his followers, if they exist, and if they care about tiny mysteries.

Page 174 of the book shows a collection of drawings: four ears arranged in a square, with a fifth ear in the middle (fig. 12). The caption says: “The first ear, ‘uncultivated,’ is the ear of Prendergast, the murderer. The fifth ear is that of Britt, the pugilist; the third ear is that of ex-President McKinley.”

Though Rocine refers to each ear by number, nowhere does he tell his readers—who can and perhaps must depend on Rocine for their advanced knowledge about heads—what numbering scheme he is using.

Figure 12. This image is the source of puzzlement. In his caption to it, Rocine referred to some of the ears by number—yet nowhere did he state which of the many numbering schemes he used.

Some readers might number items strictly on the basis of “right to left, then up to down,” others might use a clockwise system, others might do their numbering in a counter-clockwise scheme. Both the clockwise and counter-clockwise factions would perhaps be uncertain, in reading Rocine’s book, as to whether Rocine uses a numbering system that spirals inward (with the middle ear here being the final, i.e., fifth ear) or spirals outward (with the middle ear being, thus, the first).

This is a curious lacuna in the methods of a researcher of the scientific type (fig. 13) whose level of thoroughness and thoughtfulness is evident almost everywhere.

Reference
Heads, Faces, Types, Races, Victor Gabriel Rocine, Vaught-Rocine publishing company, Chicago, 1910.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the January-February 2016 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Keep a civil tongue.

Label Cloud

Technology (1464) News (793) Military (646) Microsoft (542) Business (487) Software (394) Developer (382) Music (360) Books (357) Audio (316) Government (308) Security (300) Love (262) Apple (242) Storage (236) Dungeons and Dragons (228) Funny (209) Google (194) Cooking (187) Yahoo (186) Mobile (179) Adobe (177) Wishlist (159) AMD (155) Education (151) Drugs (145) Astrology (139) Local (137) Art (134) Investing (127) Shopping (124) Hardware (120) Movies (119) Sports (109) Neatorama (94) Blogger (93) Christian (67) Mozilla (61) Dictionary (59) Science (59) Entertainment (50) Jewelry (50) Pharmacy (50) Weather (48) Video Games (44) Television (36) VoIP (25) meta (23) Holidays (14)

Popular Posts