homemade guitars

Juldet, a man in my village made his guitar (he makes sweet jimbays)

Music Thing: Ten awesome homemade guitars

(what is a jimbay?)

stray bullets

Is the US too big to fail? Why are investors rushing to purchase US government securities when the US is the epicentre of the financial crisis? This column attributes the paradox to key emerging market economies’ exchange practices, which require reserves most often invested in US government securities. America’s exorbitant privilege comes with a cost and a responsibility that US policy makers should bear in mind as they handle the crisis. A bit arcane, but worth it, if you can slog through. (via)

A way with words: Lexical wizard Henry Hitchings on the crazy history of our language It's rather nerve-racking, interviewing an acknowledged master of the English language. I tell Henry Hitchings that I feel as though I'll have to take extra care with my choice of words. "Don't," he says briskly, as he ushers me into his book-lined 13th-floor Bermondsey flat. Fortunately, his attitude to language is anything but stuffy, snobbish or prescriptive.

Art sleuth: Museum director also helps nab the bad guys She now routinely goes once a month to The Fortress, the vault where U.S. Customs keeps valuable confiscated goods, ''just to see what they have.'' She reviews photos of artifacts on her computer, and, if she determines more investigation is warranted, she goes to see the items in person. If they are valuable, Damian and the government follow up with an archaeologist from the country to which the artifacts belong. If the case merits prosecution, they contact government authorities as well.

Restaurateur tracks down bill dodgers on Facebook An Australian restaurateur left holding a hefty unpaid bill when five young diners bolted used the popular social network website Facebook to track them down -- and they got their just deserts. (via)

'Mummy, can I phone the pirates?' One of the biggest frustrations facing journalists is being unable to get through to people on the phone. But as Mary Harper discovered, contacting the Somali pirates on the Sirius Star turned out to be child's play. (via)

also:
Shipwreck in Antarctica: Part 1 - Discovering we are sinking (via)
William Friedkin: We're all Dirty Harry now
A Year of Parking Tickets (map of NYC with block-by-block stats - one block had over 10,000) (via)
How to: Transfer Music from One iPod to Another
Quiz: TS Eliot
Patti Smith’s favourite books (via)
Huge glossary of drug slang (via)

viddy:
Lucian Freud on 'Diana and Actaeon'
1964 U.S. anti-China propaganda
Kerouac Scroll Unrolled (via)
Fifty People, One Question: New York (seemed somewhat more superficial and materialistic than the first) (via)
Interesting new synth interface
Orbital to reunite! (plus video of Chime from their farewell set - they are amazing live, more than this video could possibly convey)

Dorkbot Alba's Waldflöte vs Kazookeylele - Dueling Banjos

Stuart and his kazookeylele
Dorkbot Alba's Waldflöte

via Oddstrument.com

stray bullets

Slow news day today, but we have a few items to mull.

More Miss Marple than 007: the true face of British espionage Like 007, they were licensed to kill, but they would never have dreamt of carrying a gun. “Obviously if your back was to the wall you would have done what was necessary,” Lady Ramsay says. “But we weren't like Rosa Klebb, we didn't have special shoes with poisoned daggers.” Her own firearms training was not a success. “The instructor told me, ‘You're not supposed to close your eyes every time you pull the trigger'.” Lady Park kept her gun in the safe. “In the Congo, I frightened an unwanted visitor away by pretending I was a witch. I shouted out of the window, ‘If you do not go away, your feet will fall off'. That was far more effective than a gun.” Much cooler than the mythology.

also:
Mark Twain's travels in India (via)
New Milky Way Map Reveals A Complicated Outer Galaxy
Canada seeks historic shipwrecks
The Fauxmaxion Map an interactive interpretation of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion World Map. (read more) (via)
How To Hot Wire Your Car

viddy:
Phillip Glass composition for Sesame Street
Sesame Street - How Crayons Are Made
The Daredevils Who Chase One of the Sky's Greatest Mysteries
Romanian Gypsies (photomontage)

Bill Evans was born on this day in 1929. Bela Lugosi died on this day in 1956.

stray bullets

Never bet against a pro “The more you do something, the more it is embodied in you,” Grafton says. “It doesn’t just change your muscle memory, it changes the way you see the world around you.” (via)

Tech visionary Wayne Green: Still on a mission Starting in the early 1960s with an army of can-do, build-it-yourself amateur radio fans behind him, Green encouraged readers of 73 magazine (73 means "best regards" in ham radio lingo), his first and longest-lived publication, to push the limits on the electronic bits and pieces that would evolve into today's e-mail systems, cellular networks and PCs. Interview with the founder of 73 and BYTE magazines.

Moustache protector, anyone? Weird inventions on show A grenade that puts out fires, a self-pouring teapot, periscope spectacles, a peach peeler and a moustache protector are among oddball inventions on show at the British Library. (via)

also:
Top 10 Cell Phone Etiquette Rules People Still Break (via)
Frank Deford: The Swimming Legend You Never Heard Of
How to Tap a Phone Line
How to Shoot Light Trails (via)

viddy:
Dynamic Painting - San Base's Amazing Computer-Generated Art
Cleveland Smith: Bounty Hunter (starring Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi)
The Meters - Tippi-Toes

stray bullets

Anthrax Evidence Called Mostly Circumstantial The evidence amassed by F.B.I. investigators against Dr. Bruce E. Ivins, the Army scientist who killed himself last week after learning that he was likely to be charged in the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, was largely circumstantial, and a grand jury in Washington was planning to hear several more weeks of testimony before issuing an indictment, a person who has been briefed on the investigation said on Sunday. (also) (also) all (via)

Falcon 1 suffers another setback Lost aboard the Falcon was the U.S. military's Trailblazer satellite, two small NASA payloads and a cache of cremated human remains, including the ashes of astronaut Gordon Cooper and Star Trek actor James Doohan. (via)

For Wealthy Brazilian, Money From Ore and Might From the Cosmos “I AM connected to the divine, to these forces here,” João Carlos Cavalcanti, the Brazilian mining magnate, said as he swept an arm out across the lily pad-covered lake behind his $15 million mansion. (via)

Lunch with Heather Perry (self-trepanner) It didn't take that long at all, probably about 20 minutes. Eventually I could feel a lot of fluid moving around. Apparently, there was a bit too much fluid shifting around, because they'd gone a little bit too far and I was leaking some through the hole, but this wasn't especially dangerous as there are three layer of meninges before you get to the brain. (via)

also:
Franz Kafka’s porn brought out of the closet (via)
Moscow's House of Fairy-tales (ht)
Blogging Merit Badge (out of stock) (via)
Make bookends from old vinyl records (via)
KLF - The Manual (How to have a Number One the easy way) (via)

viddy:
Balls Deep--Sewers of Bogota: Part 1 of 5 (don't miss it) (via)
How Buildings Learn - Uploaded by Stewart Brand Himself
Ask an Astronomer - What Will Happen to the Earth When the Sun Dies?
Iain Banks interview (audio)
20 Ways to Die Trying to Dunk a Basketball (via)

stray bullets

Texters hurt as they walk, ride — even cook ER docs warn of serious injuries, deaths from text-message mishaps. I've seen people walk into phone poles and out in front of moving vehicles while texting. (via)

More Performance and cognitive enhancement “Within the next few years, we’ll see the second generation of these drugs,” says Mark Gordon, an endocrinologist in Los Angeles. “Like all second-generation drugs, they will be stronger, longer-lasting, and have fewer side effects.” (via)

Floatation tank horror A 30-year-old became the first person ever to drown in a floatation tank, an inquest heard yesterday. James Richardson, of Woodley, died in Floatnation in Oxford Road after taking the drug ketamine – used to tranquillise horses. Well, I can scratch that off my list of things to do before I die. (via)

also:
How to build a free computer from spare parts
76-year-old experimental music legend Pauline Oliveros on WFMU
Are figs really full of baby wasps?
19 Portrait Photography Tutorials (via)
The 7 Biggest Asshole Computers in Science Fiction (via)
Montana Meth Project does not pull any punches. (via)

viddy:
Intriguing Bigfoot video (real or hoax, it's pretty good)
Social engineering: How to Get Into Any Club (this method probably won't work forever, but it is worth a look) (via)
419 - the Nigerian Scam trailer (via)
Iran Missile Test (yeah, that one)
Darth Vader Meets Wolfman Jack!

Homemade record sleeves

guardian.co.uk:

This is probably for Lou Reed's self-titled debut album, but we hope the pretty flowers are hiding Metal Machine Music underneath

images: Stephen Fowler

via Nag on the Lake

Charles Mingus Cat Toilet Training Program

Charles Mingus Cat Toilet Training Program

No, really... it's true. He says he did it and it looks like it would work.

via DAVELOG v3 (One of my favorites right now. RSS all four of his feeds, they're really good. I get numerous haw!s and hmmms from them every day.)