Friday, March 13, 2009

Friday Links!

Leading off this week is a link from Jack Kidwell to an utterly fascinating bit of detective work titled In Search Of The Click Track. Author "plamere" wrote a program using the Echo Nest remix SDK to generate a plot of the length of each beat. Then he used this plot to find the drummers who are using click tracks when they record.

The results are incredibly interesting, and if you have any interest in music (or just general cleverness), it's a great read. Plus, the comments section is just as interesting.

Here's a co-link leading off, sent in by Skip Key (and many others). It's a sensational article in Wired titled The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist, and it's riveting reading.

From Jonathan Arnold, a link to stunning, hi-resolution phographs of Otzi, the 5,000 year old iceman.

Here's another absolutely beautiful piece of writing by Lara Crigger titled When the Flood Waters Recede.

From the BBC, a fascinating story about a chimpanzee who planned stone attacks on zoo visitors. Why does this matter? Because there has been very little evidence that animals are capable of planning for future events. Well, until now.

From CNN, a link to the resolution of a dispute that has gone on for almost a century: DNA proves Bolsheviks killed all of Russian czar's children.

From the Edwin Garcia Links Machine, a link to a classic: What NOT To Do When Electronically Robbing A Bank. Also, it's Eye Candy: The Best of Google Street View. One more, and it's about Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch, which contained a secret message.

In response to the "Overheard" post this week, Ty Sleck let me know that there individual city sites for this--like Overheard In Minneapolis.

From Roger, a link to an editorial by former MLB player Doug Glanville. It's called Bling Training, and he talks about the peer pressure of materialism that exists in professional sports. Glanville is a thoughtful and interesting writer, and he's funny.

From Sirius, a link to, well, this:
In the basement of a nondescript building here at Argonne National Laboratory, nickel particles in a beaker are building themselves into magnetic snakes that may one day give clues about how life originally organized itself.

Also, a link to a brilliant (and bizarre) bit of art: an orchestra of Bletchley Park computers. And here's a story about brain scans done on people while contemplating God.

From Jarod, a link to Robot Fight Club, and it's both impressive and very funny.

From Allen Varney, and it's totally ingenious: bicycle built for two thousand. It's an art project using Amazon's Mechanical Turk, believe it or not.

From Sean, and it's reason #280 why I Love The Internet: Scanwiches.

From Mark Trinkwalder, and this screams "future bad science fiction film": scientists extract images directly from brain.

From Jesse Leimkuehler, a link to a discovery of the possible source of Saturn's outer ring: a moon. Also a stunning photo showing the interaction of Prometheus with Saturn's F-ring.

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