I Make-a-the-Music
The best game for Nintendo DS was not Nintendogs, as much as I liked that one. It was a little-known experimental music interface called Elektroplanton, with which you would use…
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Joshuah Bearman
128 posts
Joshuah Bearman has written about CIA missions, jewel thieves, deranged private investigators, aspiring Fabios, bitter rivalry among dueling Santa Clauses, and the metaphysical implications of being the world's greatest Pac Man player. His article for Wired became the movie Argo.
OK Computer!
First the IBM 704 sang it, then a malfunctioning HAL 9000, and now the internet. It’s Daisy Bell — or, a Bicycle Built for Two Thousand. That would be the…
Put it on my Tab
We knew that monkeys paid for sex as soon as they learn what money is. But that’s in a lab, a controlled setting, where who knows what kinds of tricks the…
That Old Philogelos—Up To His Old Tricks!
Classicist Mary Beard has discovered a joke book from the 4th century AD, filled with rib-ticklers from the late Roman Empire. Just like today, the old egghead is a source…
Border War Goes Both Ways
Last year, my pal James Verini wrote an extensive piece in Portfolio about the problem — and related policy hypocrisy — that allows the entire discussion of “border protection” to…
A Tree Grows in Detroit
If you thought there was an odd brilliance in Steven Soderberg setting Out of Sight‘s stirring first love scene against snow settling over the ruins of Detroit, and that Robert…
Copula Mori
Just getting around to reading Wired’s recap on the Gaussian Copula, or the formula that destroyed the world banking system. Or, really, the formula that allowed the world banking system…
Fifty Years into Raymond Chandler’s Big Sleep, Marlowe Still Speaks
Such is the subject of some fine summarizing in this week’s LA Weekly, which deserves ongoing props for going down with a fight and continuing to publish worthy writing on…
So Many a Second
Nifty website alert! So Many a Second creates visualizations of statistics so you can perceive the scale of the number. There are categories, like environment (trees cut down is a…
Destructo Swarmbots On the Verge
First there were cyborg rats. Then came electroneural Shark and Awe. All part of DARPA’s ongoing effort to weaponize the animal kingdom, which is all part of DARPA’s ongoing effort…
Everyone’s Talking About The GI Joe 2.0 Trailer
All thanks to Mark Allen, who showed me this collection of repurposed GI Joe PSAs years ago. Yes: before YouTube! The reggae one was always my favorite. I’m glad there…