The Brydge
this was a Kickstarter project to make a good keyboard for the iPad and looks like they are finally ready to ship – they are saying they will ship by Christmas.
Security Flaw In Common Keycard Locks Exploited In String Of Hotel Room Break-Ins
Ho-lee shit. This is from Brave Robotics, a Japanese company that says “We can build 1/12 scale transform robat for you.” Yes please! (thanks y)
•Mitt Romney’s Final Share of the Popular Vote Will Probably Be Close to 47%
Rob Ford’s Out of Office: What Happens Next?
a lot hinges on the stay of penalty
Mayor Rob Ford kicked from office, found guilty of conflict of interest
HOLY F. Did not at all expect the judge would rule this way. Also, not sure it’s great news – plays right into his re-election campaign, where he blames all his blunders on a left-wing conspiracy.
Alleged harassment over Twitter leads to criminal charges for Toronto man
the guy who does the “Honesty is the best poetry” signs
The Independent Film Plot Summary Generator
Devastated by mental illness / the loss of a loved one / a traumatic accident / the war in Iraq, protagonist(s) discovers / must overcome their fear of / must learn to accept: a teenage call girl / life in the circus / a long-lost family member / bike couriers.
Poll suggests Olivia Chow could beat Ford and Vaughan in three-way race
“She obviously does well in the old city of Toronto, but she also does well in the suburbs. It also shows that, even with another credible centre-left candidate in the race splitting that vote, Chow can win.”
Talk from Spacing founder Shawn Micallef re: urban-suburban divide in Toronto. No stunning new points, but interesting in conjunction with this Grid article which posits that Toronto’s “creative class” members are moving to Hamilton. They’d rather do that than live in Scarborough?
•Cars parking in critical Jarvis 5th lane
“The Great Toronto Bait & Switch is complete”
The Making of The Chronic
great article via the funk, which just turned 8.
Films Dispense With Storytelling Conventions
Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott discuss an experimental streak in recent film output. Contains mention of “mind-game film” as a category
Empire Jedi Writer Lawrence Kasdan Onboard For Sequel In New Trilogy
a good sign.
Oliver Stone’s Alternate States
Oliver Stone has a history documentary series on Showtime that Harper’s likes:
Stone and Kuznick should continue the worthy battle for an alternative historical discussion in the United States. The desire to believe that America is exceptional and inherently good has harmed and endangered this country. Let those who disagree with them—and there will likely be many—speak up sincerely and armed with facts, and in so doing help to expunge romance and myth from our conception of our nation.
The Quiet Ones
Two words: in-ear headphones.
Cure for Cancer, Flying Cars
Remember Dr. Evangelos Michelakis and the Albertan cure for cancer? Y just sent me the following from 2007-ish:
So the generic drug dichloroacetate, or DCA, cures cancer in mice, but no pharmaceutical company will fund clinical trials because they can’t patent it and thereby make the kind of money off it they are accustomed to.
What’s happening now? This article wonders that, and concludes the drug is
Stalled, due to lack of interest, according to Dr. Michelakis. “We have not initiated another clinical trial with DCA in cancer,” he told me in an email this week, “It was my hope that other centres, independent of us, will be inspired to do similar trials, but I have not seen any signs that this is the case.”
However, commenter FlyingSnow points out there is an “ongoing” trial at the UofA (I fear this is the same study that the Albertan town funded – it has been ongoing since 2007), and another ongoing trial in Florida. Not being familiar with clinical trials, drug testing, or anything medical at all really, I’m not in a position to judge whether this means the drug is any more likely a) to ever be released or b) to actually work.
But man, it’s like hearing they had developed flying cars but weren’t going to make them because Detroit wasn’t interested. YOU BASTARDS!!! Oh, wait.
The flying car is being tested, and should be ready in 2013 at a cost of $279,000.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if the cure for cancer happened in our lifetimes – that seems like a perfectly normal thing to think, and it would be. But then, there is no “We beat AIDS” day. It may not be cured exactly, but it is a hell of a lot better than in the 80s, and we only barely register it.
Let’s try and remember to be excited about these things when they happen, even if the flying car is way overpriced, and even if the cure only kinda works on most but not all cancers. Let’s be amazed at the future, especially when it becomes the present.
A sad announcement from Tiny Speck
Glitch is closing.
<blockquote> <p>We are grateful to have had the opportunity to play with you. The game was absolutely preposterous. And yet, we kind of liked it.</p> </blockquote>
War for TV: inside the fight for the living room
series of posts on The Verge about cable alternatives & the future of TV that is right up my alley. The Boxee interview is good, as is the piece on remotes, and the profiles of the ecosystems are fascinating too.
I’m going to write up some thoughts about the cord-cutting experience soon, as we canceled our cable a couple months ago.
via – “I wonder if Mickey is mousercised”
•Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
“Windows 95 would like to install itself inside of you.”
Google vs. Samsung
Samsung makes much more profit from Android than Google does
Stanley Kubrick's daughter Katharina Kubrick, and grandson Joe, interviewed on Reddit
Canada sees risk in U.S. oil boom
“America’s rising oil output is ‘nothing short of spectacular’ and will exceed that of Saudi Arabia or Russia by 2020”