Catch of the Day

Dendroica

By Scott Langill

Sphyrapicus varius (more popularly known as the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker)

An aid to identifying North American birds by sight or by sound designed to help people participate in nature survey and monitoring programs. You can browse lists of species found in a particular region. Free registration lets you develop your own custom list of species for study and then quiz yourself, based on songs or photos or both. As a registered user you can also submit your own photos or sound recordings. If you need a lot of scientific and habitat data about a particular bird, this site is not for you. But if you want to identify that bird that’s been vying with the squirrels for your bird feeder seed, this site is for you.

Dendroica

How to pull out a tooth with a rocket…

By Scott Langill

Looks like informed consent to me

Where no tooth has gone before.

How to pull out a tooth with a rocket…

YoWindow

By Scott Langill

Virtual analog weather

YoWindow is a free desktop weather widget. YoWindow works like your window, very simple. A seasonal landscape reflects the actual weather, sun, and moon phase at your location. You can see real rendered cloud coverage, rain, snow, mist, and even the grass swings to the wind. You can download YoWindow as a screensaver but if you don’t want to do that, just click on ‘Watch weather in your city’ in the right upper corner. You can choose virtually any place on earth to watch (21,000 locations). For weather forecasts you can point at any time you wish or scroll the time.

YoWindow

Lexicalist

By Scott Langill

Why are people in Louisiana talking about "Chitown"?

Based on techniques used in artificIal intelligence, Lexicalist reads millions of words of chatter on the web to learn who’s talking about what. See what age groups, genders, and geographic populations use different terms and slang. See where the buzz is coming from about teabaggers, cloture, and Obama. They also feature collections of comparative demographics, currently fast food in America and popular TV shows. And why are people in Oklahoma and Alaska talking about militias?

Lexicalist

Star-Spangled Stravinsky

By Scott Langill

Stravinsky's Mug Shot?

Viralling around the net this week was the photo above and a description of how composer Igor Stravinsky was arrested on April 15, 1940 by the Boston police for “violating a federal law that prohibited the reharmonization of the National Anthem.” In fact the concert was in January 1944, there is no federal law prohibiting the reharmonization of the Star-Spangled Banner, and Stravinsky was not arrested. The East Coast premiere of Stravinsky’s arrangement had gone well at Cambridge’s Sanders Theater on the 13th and at Boston’s Symphony Hall on the 14th. However, on the following day at Symphony Hall the Boston Police did notify producers that the arrangement was in violation of a Massachusetts law regarding “National anthem; manner of playing.” The piece was dropped from the program that day. The incident did soon established itself as a myth in which Stravinsky was supposedly arrested for playing the music; a myth which continues to propagate, now on the internet.

No stranger to controversy, the riot at Stravinsky’s debut of the Rite of Spring on May 29, 1913 in Paris remains unparalleled in music and has spawned its own myths.

However, the origin of the arrest photograph remains a mystery as of this writing. Orchestral and vocal versions of Stravinsky’s Star-Spangled Banner are linked below. As a patriotic bonus I’ve included a link to the Guckenheimer Sauerkraut Band’s unforgettable Stars & Stripes.

Stravinsky’s mug shot

Chapter 264: Section 9. National anthem; manner of playing

Stravinsky’s Star-Spangled Banner Orchestral Version

Stravinsky’s Star-Spangled Banner Vocal Version

Guckenheimer Sauerkraut Band – Stars & Stripes

Geek Chic

By Scott Langill

Retro Skull Cocktails

Spoonflower lets you print custom fabric on-demand. No minimum order, $18-$32 per yard, natural fabrics. You can order fabric designed by other users. They also have fabric-designing contests you can enter and/or vote in.

Spoonflower

Shit My Kids Ruined

By Scott Langill

Hide those car keys

The strongest visual birth control on the market today. User contributed photos. Contribute, it’s therapeutic; or, evoke memories of your own misspent youth.

Shit My Kids Ruined

Heeyaaah!

By Scott Langill

Killer Priest: Yes, yes, he is an evil man...

The YouTube channel called Baddest Fight Scenes EVER! easily has enough ninjas, Bruce Lee, and flying guillotines to last a weekend. Martial arts at its b-movie best. They did forget the “Best fight scene of all time” though.

Baddest Martial Arts Fight Scenes EVER!

Baddest Fight Scenes EVER! – Killer Priest

Baddest Fight Scenes EVER! – Duel to the Death

Best fight scene of all time

20 Greatest Monty Python Sketches

By Scott Langill

The Lumberjack Song

Gnews’ The Life of Python has posted over an hour of classic Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketches. If you’re missing some of your personal favorites like the Piranha brothers, Fish Slapping Dance, Confuse-A-Cat, Upperclass Twit of the Year, Exploding Blue Danube, or Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days try The Monty Python YouTube Channel or Python Online which are linked to at the bottom of the Gnews piece. Also if you happen to be in England this May 9 there will be a live replay of “The Philosophers’ Football Match”.

The Life of Python

Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days

Replay of “The Philosophers’ Football Match”

What does your web site sound like?

By Scott Langill

I think Catch of the Day sounds better than The Week Behind

The Codeorgan analyses the ‘body’ content of a web site and translates that content into music. The Codeorgan uses a complex algorithm to define the key, synth style, and drum pattern most appropriate to the page content.

Codeorgan