Cameron’s House from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, where Cameron famously destroys his father’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California, is on the market. Now you too can park a really expensive car in a garage somewhat inexplicably suspended over a forrest.
Cameron's House
The Sotheby’s listing shows a $1,650,000 asking price.
Google Labs has a new toy to play with: the Google Books Ngram Viewer. The tool graphs how frequently words and phrases appear in all the books in Google’s library, dating back to 1500.
As one simple example, a search for war will show some things anyone with a decent high school education would expect: the word was used far more frequently around 1916 and 1944 than at any other time on record. Meanwhile, a search for “hamburger” shows an inexplicable (at least to me) sharp uptick in use of that word between 1930 and 1940, consistent usage levels for 25 years, and then another dramatic climb lasting into the present.
What makes the tool especially interesting is that you can plot multiple terms on the same axes in order to draw comparisons. Here’s a search for “war,peace” that shows something a bit more subtle. After a slight uptick in use of the word “war” leading into 1970, use of both “war” and “peace” fall dramatically — both to lower levels than we’d seen in 200 years.
War and Peace
Every search I’ve tried has had interesting characteristics that suggest something about our society — or at least about what people are writing about it. See how often “Russia” and “USSR” have been used. Limit a search to just British English books and compare uses of London and New York over time. Search for “potato,rice,corn” and see which side dish is mentioned most often. Politics, entertainment, history, and fantasy can all be graphed. And while it’s not always obvious what the data are telling us (if anything), it sure is an addictive toy to play with.
Mark this date for posterity: we have officially entered The Future.
A company called James Law Cybertecture International (Special Projects) Ltd (whose terrible name we will overlook) has announced a product called the Cybertecture Mirror: Reflective window into a digital life.
The Cybertecture Mirror
The “mirror” aspect of this product is that light reflects off its surface to provide users with a picture of themselves. This technology has been known to mankind for generations.
But the “cyber” aspect is that it’s an Android-powered computer that can project onto the mirror’s surface realtime data like the weather, the owner’s current (and historical) weight, and messages from various social networks. And, being Android-powered, the extensibility is almost endless.
Now when you wake up and face your mirror in the morning, you can — as has been dreamed in decades of science fiction — see an up-to-the-minute picture of the world at large.
The only downside I see is that some percentage of the people you contact on Facebook may now be answering while naked after getting out of the shower. And that’s just a little creepy.
In a TED Talk in July, designer David McCandless highlighted some interesting data, including data from Facebook analyzing when people end their relationships.
Breakups on Facebook
Plotting the information in 10,000 status updates shows what times of year see the most breakups, and it looks like we’re headed into one of the worst seasons. Apart from the strategically placed highs and lows (e.g., hardly anybody breaks up over Christmas) what I find most fascinating is the apparent constant, inescapable breakups that are happening every day of the year.
I’d love to see what the graph of people beginning relationships looks like. I’m betting some parts of it overlap (suggesting people are breaking up because they’ve found someone else) while others may show gaps indicating more people tend to be in (or out of) relationships at a particular time of year.
These data are reminiscent of those on the OkTrends site I found in April. Neither is an exercise in inarguable statistics from random samples, but for the people who are included (i.e., those who self-selected to use Facebook or OkCupid) we get a truly fascinating picture of their social lives we may never otherwise have seen.
(via The Atlantic, via designer Mathias Mikkelsen).
The Ballerina Project showcases photographs of ballerinas posing in everyday locations throughout New York City and Boston. It’s an enthralling mixture of the surreal beauty of ballet and the very different beauty of a historic city.
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Dane Shitagi is the photographer behind the project and describes it this way:
The New York City Ballerina Project grew from the idea of New York City as a magnet for creativity; each photograph is a collaborative work of dance, fashion design and photography played out against the city’s landscape.
One of the most striking features of the photographs is the almost complete lack of other people in the background. The dancers pose in apparent isolation, reminiscent of the magical departure from reality that ballet always seems to bring.
After discovering The Four Quarters earlier this year, I’ve checked in periodically to find new videos on their YouTube channel from time to time. The Canadian a cappella group just recently out of high school covers a delightful and spectacular mix of doo-wop tunes and Broadway favorites, all in four part harmony.
Their new CD, A Pocket Full of Change, became available through Crystal Ball Records just three days ago, and they’ve posted a new (and entirely perfect) arrangement of Mr. Sandman:
I suggest you immediately buy the new CD. For $17.45, how can you not?
I’ve always understood that big buildings use lightning rods to attract lightning strikes away from smaller buildings nearby, but understanding that in theory isn’t the same as seeing it in action in this photograph that Alain Aguilar contributed to The Big Picture last week (of a storm in May):
Lightning, from The Big Picture
The entire series of storm pictures is fascinating.
"UP!"
While baby Mila Enersen is sleeping, her mother imagines what Mila might be dreaming and enacts it in reality.
She might be a rock star, be surrounded by giant candy, or have an imaginary friend. Mrs. Enersen explains, “I use only few minutes per picture, including creating idea, implementation and editing, ’cause I don’t want to disturb her sleeping and most of my time is for my family.”
This reminds me of an Eddie from Ohio song titled Hey Little Man (recreated there by Madrigals at the Messiah Methodist Bazaar).
"A Space Odyssey 2010"
Are you gonna dream about the colors of the rainbow and the pot of gold that’s waiting at the end
May luck be by your side and the spirit be your guide
And may you know the blessing and may you know the joy and may you know the love of a true friend
(via Kottke)
I normally despise all things pertaining to Twitter, so it has perhaps taken me longer than others to discover that Charles Darwin is on Twitter now.
The posts are a real-time account (time delayed 176 years) of Darwin’s travels, culled from the Beagle Diary and from other journals, notes, et cetera that Darwin left for posterity. Upon first following the link I expected to find satire, but the reality is so much more interesting. It’s actually possible to get a sense of Darwin’s thoughts and the timeline of his voyage.
These sad updates, for example, were posted on April 7th:
What will become of me hereafter, I know not; I feel, like a ruined man, who does not see or care how to extricate himself
It is a comfortable reflection to me, that a ship – being made of wood & iron – cannot last for ever & so this voyage must have an end.
Behind the scenes of this delightful operation is David from metaburbia, a software developer in the United Kingdom.
This story appeared today on Yahoo! News:
Can You Hear Me Now?
Wouldn’t an even more impressive story have been about the earlier climber who, after ascending Mount Everest, built a cellular phone tower?
(It was actually a satellite phone, but it’s funnier to think of a cellular tower atop Everest.)
