Chinas Ghost Cities
Superinteressanter Beitrag von Adrian Brown über Chinas Geisterstädte, von der Regierung dort alleine dafür hochgezogen, um die Wirtschaft am Brummen zu halten, was langfristig eine riesige Immobilienblase entstehen lässt, die früher oder später platzen wird. Die Bilder einer riesigen, beinahe komplett einsamen Stadt sind extrem beeindruckend, kenne ich so nur aus Video-Projekten wie Los Angeles sans Cars oder von Ian Visits Fotografie von Abandoned London am Weihnachtsmorgen.
Vast new cities of apartments and shops are being built across China at a rate of ten a year, but they remain almost completely uninhabited ghost towns. It’s all part of the government’s efforts to keep the economy booming, and there are many people who would love to move in, but it’s simply too expensive for most.
Video journalist Adrian Brown wanders through malls of vacant shops, and roads lined with empty apartment buildings… 64 million apartments are said to be empty across the country and one of the few shop owners says he once didn’t sell anything for four or five days. So are the efforts to boost the economy going to end up having the opposite effect and creating a financial crisis for China?
China’s Ghost Cities (via Swen)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Setting Up Shop in the Apocalypse
Hong Kong Umsiedlungs-Panoramas
Netzpolitik startet Digitale Gesellschaft
Markus von Netzpolitik launcht am Mittwoch zum Start der re:publica-Konferenz in Berlin die Interessenvertretung Digitale Gesellschaft, hier deren Twitterfeed, hier die Facebook-Seite. Von spOnline:
Deutsche Internetaktivisten wollen eine neue Interessenvertretung gründen. Auf dem Bloggerkongress re:publica will der Mitveranstalter Markus Beckedahl ( netzpolitik.org) zur Auftaktveranstaltung am Mittwoch in Berlin einen neuen Verein namens “Digitale Gesellschaft” vorstellen. Der Name ist Programm, zu den Kernthemen gehören Urheberrecht, Open Data, Internetsperren, Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Lobbytransparenz und Netzneutralität.
“Digitale Gesellschaft” – Beckedahl plant Organisation für Bürgerrechte im Web (via Netzpolitik)
Engine powered Pogo Sticks
io9 über die Geschichte des Hop Rod, einem motorisierten Pogo Stick:
It seems that the first US patent for an internal-combustion powered ‘Pogo’ stick was issued to inventor R.J. Mays back in 1950.
The jumping machine was intended to run on gasoline, and, according its creator was “…highly efficient and amusing in operation.” It’s not altogether clear whether May’s power-stick ever went into production, but a similar(ish) device, which was granted a US patent ten years later, did. According its inventor Mr. G. Spitzmesser, the stick – known commercially as ‘The Hop Rod’ was “…extremely safe and harmless and of tremendous entertainment value.”
Flashgame: Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars:
Flashgame: Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars, hier ein Walkthrough auf Youtube. (via MeFi)
Doku: Inside LSD – Vom Trip zur Therapie
Vor rund einem Jahr hatte ich über die National Geographic-Doku „Inside LSD“ gebloggt, die wurde mittlerweile von Arte unter anderem Namen ausgestrahlt (ich habe sie an dem LSD Candy-Clip erkannt) und ein sehr psycheledischer Mensch hat sie bei Youtube hochgeladen.
LSDs inventor Albert Hofmann called it “medicine for the soul.” The Beatles wrote songs about it. Secret military mind control experiments exploited its hallucinogenic powers. Outlawed in 1966, LSD became a street drug and developed a reputation as the dangerous toy of the counterculture, capable of inspiring either moments of genius, or a descent into madness. Now science is taking a fresh look at LSD, including the first human trials in over 35 years.
Using enhanced brain imaging, non-hallucinogenic versions of the drug and information from an underground network of test subjects who suffer from an agonizing condition for which there is no cure, researchers are finding that this “trippy” drug could become the pharmaceutical of the future. Can it enhance our brain power, expand our creativity and cure disease? To find out, Explorer puts LSD under the microscope.
Die Doku hatte ich aus den Related Videos der anscheinend ebenfalls sehr sehenswerten Solar-Doku „Mit der Sonne um die Welt“ gefischt: „Die Nutzung von Sonnenenergie ist eine der großen Herausforderungen dieser Zeit. Vor zehn Jahren beschlossen die beiden Schweizer Bertrand Piccard und André Borschberg, der Welt gemeinsam zu beweisen, dass Photovoltaik auch zum Fliegen taugt. Sie entwickelten das Flugzeug “Solar Impulse”, mit dem es ihnen gelang, 24 Stunden lang nur mittels Sonnenenergie zu fliegen.“ (via Swen)
Sunday Morning Matinee with Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff
YouTube user deb4tlj hat sieben Filmklassiker bei Youtube hochgeladen, drei Stummfilme mit Lon Chaney und jeweils zwei Filme mit Bela Lugosi und Boris Karloff. Letztere habe ich alle gesehen, unter anderem dabei: Island of the lost Souls, nach dem mich neulich erst das Vomitationseinhorn gefragt hatte. Den gibt’s oben, mehr Infos und Links auf Metafilter:
Island of Lost Souls is the first film adaptation of The island of Doctor Moreau: A Possibility, written by H. G. Wells and published in 1896. This film was denied a rating in England three times, and finally given an X rating in 1958, specifically for graphic scenes of vivisection.
Hier der Plot:
After his ship goes down, Edward Parker is rescued at sea. Parker gets into a fight with Captain Davies of the Apia and the Captain tosses him overboard while making a delivery to the tiny tropical island of Dr. Moreau. Parker discovers that Moreau has good reason to be so secretive on his lonely island. The doctor is a whip-cracking task master to a growing population of his own gruesome human/animal experiments. He does have one prize result, Lota the beautiful panther woman. Parker’s fortunes for escape look up after his fiancée Ruth finds him with the help of fearless Captain Donohue. However, when Moreau’s tribe of near-humans rises up to rebel, no one is safe…
An Extended Saturday Matinee with Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff
Tilt-Shift Timelapse-Skiing
(Vimeo Direktski, via Underwire)
Hübsches Tilt-Shift Timelapse-Video von Tristan Greszko von einem Tag am Hang im Jackson Hole Backcountry.
Josephine Baker Vulva-Plushy
Vulva Love Lovely macht tolle Vulva-Plushies und Vagina-Jewelry und verkauft die in ihrem Etsy-Shop, unter anderem obige Josephine Baker. Morticia Addams gibt’s auch. Toll! (via Laughing Squid)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Knitted… WHAT?!
Uterus Pillow
Neuroscience of Politics
Vor drei Jahren hatte ich hier einen TED-Talk vom Psychologen Jonathan Haidt, der dort die psychologischen Unterschiede zwischen Konservativen und Progressiven erklärte. Jetzt hat eine Studie noch dazu unterschiede in der Hirnstruktur der beiden politischen Lager ausgemacht, nach der bei beiden unterschiedliche Gehirnregionen unterschiedlich stark ausgebildert sind. Und so können Linke besser mit konkurrierenden Informationen umgehen, während Konservative Gefahren schneller erkennen. Superinteressant!
Individuals who call themselves liberal tend to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, while those who call themselves conservative have larger amygdalas. Based on what is known about the functions of those two brain regions, the structural differences are consistent with reports showing a greater ability of liberals to cope with conflicting information and a greater ability of conservatives to recognize a threat, the researchers say.
“Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual’s political orientation,” said Ryota Kanai of the University College London. “Our study now links such personality traits with specific brain structure.”
Political Views Are Reflected in Brain Structure, Liberal vs. Conservative: Does the Difference Lie in the Brain? (via Dangerous Minds, Bild: Brain ventricles 4)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Konservativ vs. Liberal, psychologisch betrachtet
Vintage Pinups and their Models
Vor einem halben Jahr hatte ich ein Blogposting mit ein paar Pinups und ihren Models gepostet, das Blog wurde mittlerweile gelöscht, dafür habe ich aber die Quellen der Bilder gefunden. Hier gibt’s eine dicke Galerie auf Photobucket mit jeder Menge dieser Pics und die stammen sehr wahrscheinlich irgendwo von Elvgren Pinups. (via Gizmo)
Voinas giant Penis wins russian Art Prize
Vor ein paar Tagen wurden Mitglieder der russischen Künstlergruppe Voina von Polizisten auf einer Demo verprügelt, heute beschmeisst sie das „Ministry of Culture and the National Center for Contemporary Art“ mit einem Kunstpreis und Geld, und zwar für ihren riesigen Pimmel in St. Petersburg. Von der NYT:
The radical art collective Voina has won a contemporary art award sponsored by Russia’s Ministry of Culture and the National Center for Contemporary Art for a project that consisted of a 210-foot penis painted on a drawbridge in St. Petersburg, said Andrei V. Yerofeyev, a member of the jury that awarded the prize. […]
Among the arguments they put forward was that the penis had already gained such a wide audience via the Internet that ignoring it would also be making a statement. “No one wanted to look like a conformist,” said Mr. Yerofeyev, a prominent intellectual who has long championed Voina, which means war.
The support is mutual. When Mr. Yerofeyev was prosecuted for fomenting ethnic and religious hatred by staging an exhibit that scandalized the Russian Orthodox Church, members of Voina infiltrated the courtroom with electric guitars and an amplifier and suddenly climbed up on the benches to perform a punk-rock song called “All Cops Are Bastards.”
Radical Art Group Wins Russian Ministry Prize (Falls Ihr auf die Paywall der NYT stosst, das NYTClean-Bookmarklet hilft.)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Voinas Girls kiss Policewomen in the name of Art
Interview with Voina (who stole Chicken in a Vagina, errected a Penis on a Bridge or fucked for Art)
Rebelart: Interview mit Voina, Throwers of Cats, Stealers of Chicken, Raisers of Pimmelbrücken
Artists steal a Chicken in a Vagina (NSFW)
Streetart: Die Pimmelbrücke von St. Petersburg
Vatican praises St.Hackers
In einem Artikel hat ein Tech-Experte des Vatikan, Antonio Spadaro, Parallelen zwischen Hacker-Ethik und Katholizismus gezogen.
Hacker mentality implies a joyful application of intelligence to problem solving, rejecting the concept of work as repetitive, burdensome and stupid, Spadaro wrote. Hacker ethics rejected a capitalistic, profit-oriented approach to work, eschewing idleness but favoring a flexible, creative approach that was respectful of the human dimension and natural rhythms, he said.
In addition, hacker philosophy fosters creativity and sharing, and is both committed yet playful. “Under fire are control, competition, property. It’s a vision that is … of a clear theological origin,” writes Spadaro. He argues (rather vaguely) that many of these characteristics are also, as odd as it may seem, characteristics of Catholic philosophy.
