March 2016 Archives
March 31
Cornhub. Hot. Sexy. Buttery. So very very very nsfw.
Shucking. Popping. cobbing... nsfw! Very very nsfw (seriously) but so very sensual, alluring, and enticing... true art!
Hear that lonesome whipporwill...
The illegal birdsong cafes of Istanbul -- "In Istanbul, men keep birds locked away in cages to encourage ever more mournful songs – and then gather to listen to their sorrow. Two photographers [Cemre Yesil and Maria Sturm] teamed up to chronicle this secretive subculture"
Everybody's a Critic
The company’s latest undertaking, which moved out of beta four months ago, is News Genius, which seeks to bridge the gap between journalism and commentary by showcasing the annotations made to the biggest news stories of the day...Anyone who puts information about themselves on the Web is consenting to a certain amount of scrutiny. But that consent becomes less cut and dry when content providers explicitly place limits on that scrutiny—for example, by disabling comments—and News Genius and the Web Annotator essentially override those restrictions. [more inside]
Your opinion is ALWAYS correct
I want to fly like an eagle, to...a telemark landing?
British ski jumper Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards famously placed last in both the 70m and 90m ski-jumping events at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, despite setting one British ski-jumping record, and becoming a crowd favourite. He's now the subject of the recently-released biopic, Eddie the Eagle (trailer here). [more inside]
Cherelle Baldwin found not guilty
Woman Accused Of Murdering Her Abusive Ex Goes Free After Almost 3 Years Behind Bars. This is an update to the post last March about Cherelle Baldwin, who had been in prison for 21 months at the time for killing her abuser. Today, after nearly three years behind bars, she was set free. [Via Democracy Now]
la chouette d'or: 8377 days and still hidden
La choutte d'or, the golden owl, is the prize in a scavenger hunted created by Max Valentin in 1993. It's still hidden, 23 years later, and here is a reddit thread devoted to it.
20 Years of Help-lessness
I was 20 years ago today techie Christopher B. Wright used his copy of Microsoft Paint for OS/2 to awkwardly draw a comic about "the software biz". Two decades of irregular updating and failed spin-offs later, Help Desk continues, basically unimproved in its art, with today's interesting plot twist.
Whispering your way to 'brain orgasms'
what makes a villain great?
Trekspertise makes The Case For Gul Dukat, throughout all of Deep Space Nine
How to Hack an Election
Spreadsheets In Space Prepare for Battle
59 ideas to stop domestic violence homicide
Transgender Day of Visibility 2016
It Needs to be Seen and more stories to celebrate the 2016 International Transgender Day of Visibility.
Glas and All That Jazz
"Glas won master film maker Bert Haanstra a well-deserved Academy Award® for Best Short Documentary in 1959. The film contrasts the production of hand made crystal from the Royal Leerdam Glass Factory with automated bottle making machines in the Netherlands. An industrial film with a bebop heart, its lyrical use of light and sound still looks and sounds fabulous, nearly 60 years after it was made." [more inside]
"Never throw out a woman. You never know if she is a teabag."
Inspirational advice. (SL Mallory Ortberg)
“Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?”
Groundbreaking visionary of contemporary spatial design, Dame Zaha Hadid has passed away. The British designer had a heart attack while in hospital in Miami, where she was being treated for bronchitis. One of the most sought-after architects in the world, Iraqi-born London-based Hadid was first woman to be awarded the prestigious RIBA gold medal in her own right, and the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize.
The Death of Moral Relativism
From the Cold War to the War on Terror, conservatives have protested the “evils” of moral relativism for decades, and now it may be a relic of the past. But although conservatives got what they wanted, they didn’t get what they expected. It’s hard to say for sure whether they’re better off now than they were before. It depends on how you look at it. Or, as some might say, it’s all relative
It had never occurred to me that Asian-American heroes might exist
The first time I saw her she wasn’t even skating. I was flipping through the handful of channels our TV could pick up with its rabbit-ear antenna when I glimpsed her waving from the tallest podium at the 1991 World Figure Skating Championships, dazzling in rhinestone-studded hot magenta, with her high hair-sprayed bangs and million-watt smile. She’s Asian, I thought. There’s an Asian girl on television, and everyone is cheering for her. - What I Learned From Kristi Yamaguchi by Nicole Chung
four times less
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Solo said. “We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships and the USMNT get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.” Five members of the World Cup-winning USWNT have filed a wage discrimination complaint against US Soccer for being paid less than then men's team "despite the women’s team being more successful and, at the moment, more profitable."
A new banana promises to cure blindness in East Africa
"In the winter of 2014, students at Iowa State University received emails asking them to volunteer for an experiment. Researchers were looking for women who would eat bananas that had been genetically engineered to produce extra carotenes, the yellow-orange nutrients that take their name from carrots. Our bodies use alpha and beta carotenes to make retinol, better known as vitamin A, and the experiment was testing how much of the carotenes in the bananas would transform to vitamin A. The researchers were part of an international team trying to end vitamin A deficiency. The emails reached the volunteers they needed to begin the experiment, but they also reached protesters. “As a student in the sustainability program, I immediately started asking questions,” said Iowa State postdoc Rivka Fidel. “Is this proven safe? Have they considered the broader cultural and economic issues?” ... Fidel told me she and her friends had found it nearly impossible to extract information from researchers, or from the Gates Foundation, which is providing funding for this project. Too often conversations about these kinds of issues simply reverberate within their respective echo chambers. So to bridge the gap I took the gist of the students’ questions to people at the Gates Foundation, scientists working on the banana, and the one person who may have done the most to fight vitamin A deficiency — an ophthalmologist who has no interest in either promoting or bashing GMOs." [more inside]
The Ballad of Fred and Yoko
"...and then halfway through, HERE COMES THE DUMPSTER OF POOP."
What do you get when you mix a good liberal arts education, surprisingly good automotive journalism, and toilet humour? Regular Car Reviews. Regular Car Reviews is a Youtube Channel run by two car guys from Pennsylvania.
Toilet humour, non sequiturs, modified acoustic covers of 90's classics, and surprisingly good automotive history and journalism about cars (the odd motorcycle, and one airplane). [more inside]
And now, it's goodnight from me...
Entertainer Ronnie Corbett, best known as one half of the Two Ronnies, has died 31st March 2016 aged 85. [more inside]
"Draw a picture of a whale"
Mark Twain reveals his surefire method for memorizing the reigns of the English monarchs. [more inside]
Imre Kertész has died.
Imre Kertész, the 2002 Nobel Prize Winner For Literature has died. Kertész, a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, was Hungary's only winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. He was awarded the prize,
"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". [more inside]
The Sisters of the Valley
Of course, not ALL nuns grow weed. In fact, we’re pretty sure most nuns DON’T grow weed. But these nuns are no ordinary nuns. These nuns are The Sisters of the Valley, the subject of a fascinating series of photographs taken by photographers Shaughn Crawford and John DuBois. [Possibly NSFW as discusses marijuana use] [more inside]
Bug-Eyed Monsters via the Martens Process
Robert Martens, whose homegrown animations (including adaptations of the Mars Attacks cards, Herbie Popnecker, Jack T. Chick and Struwwelpeter) have been featured here previously, has used his distinctive style of limited animation to create UFOLOGY 101 - Space Spooks and Looney Goons, a weird and charming satirical anthology animation about the history of UFOlogy. References include the celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg in 1561, the claims of George Adamski, and the better-known incidents involving Roswell and Jonestown.
March 30
My cellie is dead. I killed him.
The Deadly Consequences of Solitary With a Cellmate. "The 4'8"-by-10'8" space was originally built for one, but as Menard became increasingly overcrowded and guards sent more people to solitary, the prison bolted in a second bunk. The two men would have to eat, sleep, and defecate inches from one another for nearly 24 hours a day in a space smaller than a parking spot, if a parking spot had walls made of cement and steel on all sides. With a toilet, sink, shelf, and beds, the men were left with a sliver of space about a foot-and-a-half wide to maneuver around each other. If one stood, the other had to sit."
"What you see is not what you think"
Perception , the latest mural from French-Tunisian 'calligraffti' artist eL Seed, sprawls across more than 50 buildings in Cairo's Mansyiyat Naser neighbourhood, home of the city's informal garbage collectors and one of the poorest areas in the city. Aerial video of the piece. [more inside]
“Soul food is in the marrow of our bones...”
The State of Soul Food in America: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future by Adrian Miller [First We Feast] What does soul food mean in 2016? A roundtable of experts discusses the emerging movements and obstacles the cuisine faces. [more inside]
Colour Your World
Shut Up About Harvard
"It’s college admissions season, which means it’s time once again for the annual flood of stories that badly misrepresent what higher education looks like for most American students — and skew the public debate over everything from student debt to the purpose of college in the process." FiveThirtyEight would like to remind us all that, despite what media and cultural representations of college would make you think, most American students are not 18-22-year-olds attending selective four-year institutions. [more inside]
You Took That Sweater From A Dead Body
Remember Hardy Boys #58: Fucking Run, The Sun Exploded? Or the Sweet Valley Twins classic, Go Apologize To God? Relive these and other classic young adult titles, thanks to the literary archivists at Paperback Paradise.
The Bribe Factory
The Company That Bribed The World - It was the company with jet-set style and dirty hands. From the tiny principality of Monaco, Unaoil reached across the globe to pay multi-million dollar bribes in oil rich states. The beneficiaries? Some of the biggest companies in England, Europe, America and Australia.
Come on out and dance, If you get the chance
Nine years ago, when she was 27 and unhappily selling real estate, Gina Locklear went to her parents with a proposition.
Now 36, she's leading the latest million selling trend. Meet the Sock Queen of Alabama.
Now 36, she's leading the latest million selling trend. Meet the Sock Queen of Alabama.
Mugs of NPR
Of course the dog is in charge.
The Reckoning
Claire Wilson was eighteen years old and eight months pregnant when the path of her life was changed forever. Single link Texas Monthly.
The Most Notorious Nazi Israeli Hitman
How Otto Skorzeny, Hitler's favored commando, ended up as a murderous agent in Israel's Mossad. In the 1960s, suspected war-criminal Skorzeny, was recruited for the long-running and global practice of extra-judicial killing against scientists believed to be aiding the enemies of the Israeli state.
Rethinking Mental Illness in Honor of World Bipolar Day
Today is World Bipolar Day. The international event, held annually on March 30, coincides with the birthday of late artist Vincent van Gogh, who many believe had bipolar disorder. Actress Patty Duke was one of the first famous faces to speak out about her experience as a bipolar individual, which makes her passing yesterday a particularly poignant loss for others living with and advocating for a better understanding of mood disorders and mental illness. [more inside]
❯ /mnt/c/Users/Kirkland/Downloads
Ubuntu on Windows -- The Ubuntu Userspace for Windows Developers A team of sharp developers at Microsoft has been hard at work adapting some Microsoft research technology to basically perform real time translation of Linux syscalls into Windows OS syscalls. Linux geeks can think of it sort of the inverse of "wine" -- Ubuntu binaries running natively in Windows. Microsoft calls it their "Windows Subsystem for Linux". [more inside]
Close Enough for Government Work
How many digits of pi do we really need? Thirty-nine.
19 Times Someone Gets Thrown Into the Vacuum of Space
The doughnut recipe at the end has become my new culinary challenge.
Truffles and Toffee Crisps: cooks on the ‘good’ food they hate – and the ‘bad’ food they love (slTheGrauniad)
Put your passengers first. Drive Phone Free
Please drive phone free (SLYT) The New Zealand Transport Authority publishes a PSA about driving phone free. Quirky.
The Citizen Kane Of Of Wasted Teenage Metalness
Heavy metal definitely rules! Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Dokken, Ozzy, Scorpions. They all rule! Heavy Metal Parking Lot was one of the earliest, pre-Internet viral films, a slice of a simpler time in mid-80s America. Deadspin asks: what actually was it all about, and where did those teenage metalheads end up? [more inside]
March 29
The Mastermind
"My immediate reaction upon discovering this connection was a sudden and irrational fear: Le Roux was something new, a self-made cartel boss whose origins were not in family connections but in code. Not just any code, but encryption software that would play a role in world events a dozen years after he created it.
I stared at the address on the screen, a post-office box in Manila, left now with a still larger mystery: What had turned the earnest, brilliant programmer into an international criminal, with a trail of bodies in his wake?" [more inside]
Extinct Siberian unicorn: not quite as magical as you might hope
While it's quite exciting to hear that the extinct 'Siberian unicorn' may have lived alongside humans, except it's more exciting to see Elasmotherium sibiricum as depicted by Heinrich Harder, which is more like the elusive tiny unicorn pony that lead police on a chase (thanks Horse Channel!) than a large, hairy relative of the rhinoceros that was neither particularly horse-like nor mythological.
The Quinoa-Free, Gluten-Sized, Up-Calorie New Organick Style Compendium
Sacred Birds: Jesus Was a Cockatoo
Artist and painting instructor Kelley Vandiver has reinvented cardinals, hummingbirds, blackbirds, bluebirds, chickens, and lots of parrots as religious figures in iconic paintings. [more inside]
Your speakers are going to E*X*P*L*O*D*E
Capsule’s Pride (Bikes) is a new mixtape of Akira-themed remixes from Toronto, CANADAAAAA!-based producer Bwana that has just been released by Glasgow-based LuckyMe Records. If you don’t want to stream it on Youtube while watching minimal music videos derived from the manga’s art, why not download it here (scroll down) and listen while browsing through the Otomblr.
A fine day
The New York Public Library has digitized the diary of one Elizabeth De Hart Bleecker as part of their Early American Manuscripts Project. Bleecker wrote about her life in New York City for seven years, beginning in 1799 when she was eighteen years old and ending in 1806.
The day the music died
What if we could broaden it to think that there's multiple virginities
'Girls & Sex' And The Importance Of Talking To Young Women About Pleasure One of the things that was really great was in talking to a gay girl I asked her, "When did you think that you had lost your virginity?" And she said, "Well, you know, I really have thought a lot about that, and I'm not really sure." She gave a few different answers and then she said...
Miracles From Hollywood - Faith-Based Films Get Big
"Faith-based dramas" (i.e., Christian wish-fulfillment stories) are making their way to multiplexes and attracting a lot of eyeballs and dollars. From the 2008 surprise indie hit Fireproof (starring Kirk Cameron as a porn-addicted firefighter who reconnects with his wife thanks to God) to this month's Miracles From Heaven (starring tabloid A-lister Jennifer Garner as a mother whose child is miraculously cured of a debilitating disease), the overtly evangelistic genre is increasingly mainstream. The AV Club takes a look at whether the new wave of faith-based filmmaking can transcend propaganda. [more inside]
The Emergency Egress
Balcony Seats to the City: "Officially of course, the urban fire escape is primarily an emergency exit, but in New York, this prosaic adornment of countless five- and six-story apartment houses has assumed myriad other functions: faux backyards, platforms for criminal getaways, oases for marginalized smokers and makeshift bedrooms popular during an age before air-conditioning." [more inside]
Luckiest Girl Alive
I know that I made the mistake of thinking that living well is the best revenge ... If I were a victim of the other horrific crime in my book, I would talk about it openly. I wouldn't pretend like it hadn't happened to me, like I don't still hurt about it, like I don't still cry about it. Why should this be any different? What I know, an essay by Jessica Knoll.
Also, in the NYT, Jessica Knoll Reveals the Rape Behind Her Novel, ‘Luckiest Girl Alive’.
(There are not enough trigger warnings in the world for this difficult, brave essay and the article about it.)
3d printed magnetic fields!
3d printed magnetic fields! "Think of Polymagnets as programmable magnets. By combining many magnetic fields, CMR’s technology transforms ordinary magnets into precision-tailored magnetic systems we call Polymagnets."
RIP Patty Duke
Patty Duke, star of both stage and screen of The Miracle Worker, well known for her dual roles in The Patty Duke Show, and spokesperson for people with bipolar disorder (discussed in her excellent autobiography Call Me Anna), has died at age 69.
“You cannot have both . . . Joke and Art,”
Terry Southern, The Art of Screenwriting No. 3 Interviewed by Maggie Paley [The Paris Review] [more inside]
Man In Tree charged; $50,000 bail
Cody Lee Miller, a possibly homeless individual who became famous for sitting in a tree in downtown Seattle for a little over 24 hours, inspiring the #ManInTree hashtag, was charged yesterday with third-degree assault and first-degree malicious mischief, after an initial promise that he would not be charged by SPD spokesperson Patrick Michaud. (While in the tree, he threw pinecones and an apple at approaching officers and stripped some branches of the tree by hand.) His bail has been set at $50,000 and he remains in King County Jail. [more inside]
Before the internet, these “wishful Amish” wrote to newspaper editors
Can an Outsider Become Amish?
Up until that summer, ... Alex’s knowledge of the Amish was derived solely, like any ‘90s child, from the Weird Al Yankovic song “Amish Paradise,” and from the few times his family drove by them while on their way to drop him off at summer camp in Northern Pennsylvania when he was a kid. But he entered his senior year of high school ... with the Plain people in his mind. He bought Twenty Most Asked Questions About the Amish and Mennonites and “hauled it around with [him] everywhere;” he’d occasionally wear button-down shirts and slacks to school and when other students would ask him if he had some sort of presentation that day, he’d cheerfully respond, “Nope, I’m just dressing Mennonite!”
White Folks Who Teach in the Hood
Dr. Christopher Emdin talks to PBS Newshour about what he calls a pervasive narrative in urban education: a savior complex that gives mostly white teachers in minority and urban communities a false sense of saving kids. Also linked in the article is this one on the same topic from another perspective.
RIP Myngheer and Demoitie
After the terrible events of March 22nd, the survival of the Belgian Classics season was a relief to many sports fans. Unfortunately, it has been a terrible week for the sport, as two Belgian cyclists have now died in separate incidents. [more inside]
Yo, Is This Ageist?
“Our society is so ageist that younger people don’t want to sit next to older people because they think they’re boring, and older people might think they have nothing to say to younger people." So says Ashton Applewhite, a blogger that has just published a book about ageism.
March 28
Making Food Feel Safe Again with an Eating Disorder Cookbook
Cole Kadzin at Broadly writes about Eating & Living: Recipes for Recovery , a cookbook with recipes and stories contributed by fellow survivors of eating disorders.
PANOPTICOPS
How Aerial Surveillance Has Changed Policing — and Crime — in Los Angeles Geoff Manaugh rides along with the LAPD's Air Support Division.
Is This the End of the Era of the Important, Inappropriate Literary Man?
"I talked to a woman who asked for anonymity because she’s still associated professionally with the University of Iowa. 'When I got to Iowa,' she told me, 'I was like, who the fuck are these people? And where are the adults?'" Jia Tolentino on Thomas Sayers Ellis, VIDA, and the "tradition" of bad behavior from powerful men in the creative fields.
One long table
Life is always struggling to predominate and art naturally suffers.
Sickle, Bandolier and Corn Tina Modotti was a Silent screen star
when she modelled for, and became the lover of Edward Weston.
They moved to Mexico and he started to teach her photography. [more inside]
They moved to Mexico and he started to teach her photography. [more inside]
Wild Bill Hagy
Wlliam "Wild Bill" Hagy started out as just another Orioles fan from Dundalk who loved his Budweiser in Section 34 of the upper deck at Memorial Stadium.
But with his sloping gut, fluffy beard and straw hat, he cut a striking visual. And eventually his O-R-I-O-L-E-S cheers, replete with dramatic contortions of his out-of-shape body, became the emotional fulcrum as crowds at Memorial urged the baseball team to improbable comebacks in the late 1970s and early 1980s. (SLYT)
Victorian sense of humour
How would you react if you received one of these weirdly wonderful Easter or Christmas cards? The BBC shows us a collection of the cards that were exchanged during Victorian times.
Klingons, Yogurt and Uncle Tom's Cabin
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union. AV Club is commemorating the occasion by having a "Cold War Week", which launches today with a Cold War Pop Culture Timeline.
"Listen to your mother and get a warehouse."
Here's What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe (SLYT) A scosh long but very charming, what it says on the tin.
Can I help you?
NBC golf commentator David Feherty tells
a charming little story about the time he met Keith Richards.
still better than using punchcards tho
Internet person SethBling has successfully coded Flappy Bird inside of Super Mario World, by hand, by playing SMW on actual Super Nintendo hardware in a very peculiar way. Full hour-long process. SethBling's notes for the process. (Previously, on MetaFilter: injecting code in SMW; glitching SMW.)
Go to bed, sheeple, it's late!
The Not Face
Ohio State University researchers have identified a facial expression that is interpreted across several languages and cultures as negative, combining anger, disgust and contempt. It combines a furrowed brow, pressed lips and raised chin. In American Sign Language, it can even be used in place of a sign or gesture for "not."
HubSpot is leading a revolution. HubSpot is changing the world.
My Year in Startup Hell. Dogs roam HubSpot’s hallways, because like the kindergarten decor, dogs have become de rigueur for tech startups. At noon, Zack tells me, a group of bros meets in the lobby on the second floor to do push-ups together... On the second floor there are shower rooms, which are intended for bike commuters and people who jog at lunchtime, but also have been used as sex cabins when the Friday happy hour gets out of hand. Later I will learn (from Penny, the receptionist, who is a fantastic source of gossip) that at one point things got so out of hand that management had to send out a memo. “It’s the people from sales,” Penny tells me. “They’re disgusting.” [more inside]
How did Little Five Points get weird?
A brief history (and potential peep into the future) of one of Atlanta's funkiest neighborhoods (slCreativeLoafing)
Girls Who Steal
As girls, we grow up learning not to trust other women, because we're told there are only so many opportunities to go around, only so many good men to be had, only so much beauty to be shared. We are lied to.
From Afrofuturism to Virtual Reality
Good riddance, gig economy
Watching You Watch Jeremy Bentham
The Panopticam sits atop the (in)famous auto-icon of philosopher Jeremy Bentham at University College London. While it's "a tongue in cheek comment on Bentham’s ideas of his Panopticon 'inspection house,'" the project is also intended "to test algorithms to count visitor numbers to museum exhibit cases using low cost webcam solutions." Of course, this means that Bentham has his own Twitter feed. For Bentham's upkeep, see the page on conservation; previous MeFi adventures of the auto-icon here.
True glamping
When Neile Cooper could no longer make a living selling her stained glass windows, she decided to make a cabin entirely out of windows to showcase her work.
"Every time I go back home, I am so sad to see the community is dying."
The original Jewish ghetto is turning 500 years old this year. Venice will be commemorating the anniversary with nine months of events, including a mock trial featuring the main characters from The Merchant of Venice arguing their case before U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. [more inside]
Bright eyes, burning like fire...
Watership Down: Parents left 'horrified' as Channel 5 airs 'traumatic' film on Easter Sunday [more inside]
March 27
Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, 1923-2016
Once described by Time Magazine as "arguably the most influential Roman Catholic woman in America”, Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA, founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), died on Easter Sunday. [more inside]
supernova
The Early Flash Of An Exploding Star The brilliant flash of an exploding star’s shockwave—what astronomers call the “shock breakout”—has been captured for the first time in the optical wavelength or visible light by NASA's planet-hunter, the Kepler space telescope.
Hydraulic Press Channel: let's get crushing!
"For the Hydraulic Press Channel, we have Easter for our press. We have this lovely basket, chocolate bunny and chocolate egg. Let's see what happens." (Warning: heavy metal intros, natch) [more inside]
“...women exist primarily in terms of their relationships to the men...”
wiggly jiggly doggy butt
This dog uses 137 muscles to aww you with its cute butt.
Is Sugar the New Tobacco? How to Regulate Toxic Foods
This article [pdf] explores the health risks associated with added sugar. It then examines how, if at all, sugar should be regulated, by considering tobacco regulation as a possible model. [more inside]
Canada, Politics, Feminism, Fatherhood
Liz Plank sits down to talk with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in NYC during his recent visit, and asks him (among many other things) what he thinks about 28% of 2000 Americans polled saying they'd try to move to Canada if Trump won the 2016 election, about multiculturalism and diversity, about gender equality, and about balancing fatherhood and politics.
A Study of Perceptions
The Lunch Date is a ten-minute short film directed by Adam Davidson. It won the 1990 Short Film Palm d'Or at Cannes, the 1991 Academy Award for Best Short Subject, and in 2013 was placed in the Library of Congress. h/t Open Culture’s list of free movies
Lahore Under Attack
BBC: "At least 69 people have been killed and scores injured in an explosion at a public park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials say.
The park was crowded with families, some celebrating Easter. Many victims are said to be women and children.
Police told the BBC it appeared to be a suicide bomb. A Pakistan Taliban faction said it carried out the attack.
Pakistan's president has condemned the blast and the regional government has announced three days of mourning."
boulders and bones
boulders and bones (2014) by the ODC Dance Company of San Francisco (Highlights.) "Inspired by the work of visual artist Andy Goldsworthy [previously] and set to a live score commissioned by acclaimed avant-cellist Zoë Keating [previously], Way and Nelson’s fearless choreography touches on transformation in both art and nature. RJ Muna’s cinematic mise en scene, which traces the shifting light, changing landscape, and building process of Goldsworthy’s installation, takes us through the chaos of creative process to the clarity of realization." [more inside]
"Yes, it's James Iha."
"For the first time in 16 years, guitarist James Iha joined his former Smashing Pumpkins bandmates Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin onstage" last night in Los Angeles. [more inside]
Can't hurt to try, right?
Poet & Novelist Jim Harrison has died.
Comes highly recommended by the Lagosians
نَظري
March 26
Maybe I should have marinated the chicken a little longer
Excessively Candid FoodNetwork.com Recipe Reviews (SLNewYorker)
Consequences of unconscious racism
Perhaps the most insidious form of undercover racism is the racial empathy gap, a phenomenon backed by a massive amount of scientific evidence showing that all of us see other races as less sensitive to pain than ourselves.--Princess Ojiaku in Aeon.
“They have something to say.”
Curious Journey - The 1916 Easter Rising [YouTube] [Documentary] In 1973, Kenneth Griffith, the renowned documentary maker, gathered together a group of veterans of the Irish Rising. Almost half a century after the terrible events they lived through, this highly diverse group - branded terrorists by the British in their youth and now highly respected citizens - gave their own vivid account of what it was like to live through those turbulent times. [more inside]
Who wants to go into the sun with [the hero that Gotham deserves]?
Cherry MX switches sounds
Thinking of getting a cherry mx mechanical keyboard? Here's how the various switches actually sound (asmr warning). Listen to these sweet switches on actual keyboards.
You smell tomato, I smell a rat
The fight against food fraud : From meat to spices, is anything we eat what we think it is?
They banged themselves out
The Independent Newspaper goes out of print on a scoop.
As its final print run goes to press, the paper’s longest-serving editor recalls the highs and lows of its 30-year life – including his ‘proudest moment’ when it was attacked by Tony Blair – and ponders the future of a beleaguered industry.
From the inside
As its final print run goes to press, the paper’s longest-serving editor recalls the highs and lows of its 30-year life – including his ‘proudest moment’ when it was attacked by Tony Blair – and ponders the future of a beleaguered industry.
From the inside
Night owl? Embrace it and improve your health.
If you’re just not a morning person, science says you may never be. Morning people and night owls are born that way. It's time we accepted that. An "abnormal" circadian rhythm has been linked with ADHD, mental illnesses, and chronic disease. What if embracing your natural circadian rhythm is the real missing key to improved health? [more inside]
Keep The Park Way Down In A Hole
It's never to late to be a student of poetry: 20th National Poetry Month
This April is the 20th National Poetry Month in the United States and there are many ways to celebrate.
Here is the 2016 Multimedia "Dear Poet" project call to students and teachers to learn more about poetry. Here are the 2015 instructions. [more inside]
Now I am Become
In Search of Johns' Kingdom A short documentary commissioned by The Calvert Journal, about a shadowy Russian music collective. For fans of Grimes, Aphex Twin, Dirty Beaches, Prince Rama. [more inside]
I had only one thing in mind, one place to be...
Here's a lovely and touching short film (14 minute) by the visual artist JR, featuring Robert De Niro. It's called Ellis. [more inside]
Renting A Friend In Tokyo
March 25
Way to give the people what they want, Connery
he should have eaten the other five
This Week In UFOs
After the damp squib that was the X-Files miniseries, UFOs have had a mostly good week. Star quarterback Aaron Rodgers admitted he saw one and Hillary Clinton pledges to get to the bottom of the mystery. Renewed interest in UFOs even reached the petty criminal demographic as a display piece was stolen from the UFO Museum in Roswell, NM this week.
Never Pay For Food Again In NYC
In 2010, U.S. supermarkets and grocery stores threw out 43 billion pounds, or $46.7 billion worth, of food, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). [more inside]
How the 'risk' of making The Night Manager paid off
BBC: It's been a ratings smash , caused meltdown on social media and an online leak of the last episode has made global headlines. But is the success of the TV adaptation of John Le Carre's The Night Manager down to its star names - or the enduring appeal of the spy? [There are no actual spoilers in this piece, although there are a couple of images from later episodes.]
“Oh, what a big gun you have.”
NRA [National Rifle Association] Rewrites Fairytales to Include Firearms. by David Barnett [The Guardian] The US pro-gun lobby is entertaining its younger members with its own take on classic fairytales, but they have a unique twist: firearms. The National Rifle Association’s nrafamily.com website is featuring the pro-firearms stories:
Little Red Riding Hood (Has a Gun) &
Hansel and Gretel (Have Guns) by Amelia Hamilton. [more inside]
Early american life insurance: goat rituals and tree stump headstones
Woodmen of the World was a fraternal society formed by the conveniently named Joseph Cullen Root, who wanted to form a group that would "clear away problems of financial security for its members," in a time before Social Security, when life insurance could actually be a threat to people's lives. How do you expand your membership and ensure members pay their dues? Lodge initiation devices, initially created by Ed DeMoulin and his brothers, Erastus and Ulysses, whose workshop became known locally as the Goat Factory. And tree-trunk shaped headstones were a nice benefit for members who had passed. They're parts of Goat Rituals and Tree-Trunk Gravestones: The Peculiar History of Life Insurance [Via Presurfer] [more inside]
Latenight mansplaining
Canny political players, not pawns or victims
Writing women characters into epic fantasy without quotas, an essay by SFF writer Kate Elliott. [more inside]
In Defense of the Trend Piece
This past weekend saw the latest eruption in a long-running campaign to shame the New York Times into no longer publishing trend pieces in its Styles section. It’s a tradition that goes back more than a decade—remember Jennifer 8. Lee’s canonical “man date” story or Warren St. John’s paradigm-shifting “Metrosexuals Come Out”?—and one that owes its longevity to the tantalizing sense of superiority many readers of trend pieces experience when scolding the often lovely and exuberant reportorial form as an affront to serious journalism.
An odd disturbance at the head end
Archaeologists who scanned the grave of William Shakespeare say they have made a head-scratching discovery: His skull appears to be missing.
Paige has a lot of jawn to do
Red Lake County, Minnesota
After calling it "the absolute worst place to live in America" this past August (MeFi discussion), Christopher Ingraham and his family are moving to Red Lake County, Minnesota. [more inside]
A Riddle from 538
Not blackface but black faces. Well, blackface too.
He wanted to do not “Shuffle Along” but the making of “Shuffle Along” (official title: “Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed”). He would tell the story of the original creators and cast and how they pulled it off ... Interesting approach, you say, sounds great. But to make it work, you couldn’t stint on the dancing and the songs. Those were what made the show go: syncopation, fire, artistry.
The moving story behind America’s first penis transplant
A lot more people stand to benefit if the transplant is successful:
Though Johns Hopkins is only planning to offer the operation to combat veterans for now, a lot more people stand to benefit. Foremost among them are cancer survivors and transgender individuals looking to gain a functional penis.
An Ascot ting
UK Garage Horse Racing (SLYT)
“It’s a good school. It’s capable of being a better school.”
A proper reckoning
Feminist economics deserves recognition - "In 2014 only 12% of American economics professors were female, and only one woman (Elinor Ostrom) has won the Nobel prize for economics.[1,2,3] But in terms of focus, economists have embraced some feminist causes. Papers abound on the 'pay gap' (American women earned 21% less than men for full-time work in 2014), and the extra growth that could be unlocked if only women worked and earned more. A recent paper, for instance, claimed that eliminating gender discrimination in Saudi Arabia could bring its GDP per person almost level with America's. (Feminists, of course, consider gender equality a worthy goal irrespective of its impact on GDP.) That raises a question. Does 'Feminist economics', which has its own journal, really bring anything distinctive?" [more inside]
"If the Internet could see the two of us like this it would have FITS"
When io9/Gizmodo writer Katharine Trendacosta asked "What Is Your Favorite Single Comic Book Panel?" she got plenty* (including some 2-panel to full-page sequences, but we'll overlook that). Some were classic moments, some iconic motifs and others just something else, but the largest number were funny... comic books being comedic (NOT just Deadpool and Squirrel Girl and often unintentionally), so she posted a follow-up with her picks for The 30 Funniest Single Panels in Comic Book History and got even more in the comments. [more inside]
An awful lyre
The seal was a remarkable find, bearing the name of an unknown princess and the only depiction of an ancient Israelite harp. Good enough to be depicted on Israeli coinage? Almost too good... The Trouble With the Maadana [more inside]
March 24
Slaughter at the bridge: Uncovering a colossal Bronze Age battle
1, 2, 3, 4 Channels Working Overtime
Chiptune XTC covers:
(via Chalkhills on fb.)
Of Smoothies and (Internet News) Cycles
LIGHTS UP
Buzzfeed: “Gwyneth Paltrow drinks $200 smoothies for breakfast!”
Vanity Fair: “Actually, they’re just $10.52 smoothies.”
Washington Post: “Whatever! It’s a good excuse for us to make a video and talk about the theoretical health benefits.”
fin.
Buzzfeed: “Gwyneth Paltrow drinks $200 smoothies for breakfast!”
Vanity Fair: “Actually, they’re just $10.52 smoothies.”
Washington Post: “Whatever! It’s a good excuse for us to make a video and talk about the theoretical health benefits.”
fin.
The Harvard Library That Protects The World's Rarest Colors
The Drew Review: Child Sexual Exploitation in Sheffield and Yorkshire
(TW for all links) BBC: A review of South Yorkshire Police's handling of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the region has criticised the force for its inadequate response. The report, by Professor John Drew, said the force missed opportunities to address the issue and senior officers prioritised other crimes.
The 107-page review was commissioned by the region's Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings. [more inside]
Freeze or you're a goner
Why Cryonics makes sense [SMLWbW (Single Massive Link Wait but Why)]
Here, let me show you what I can do
Alex Trebek: (into mirror) Who is alex trebek
[ordering cake over phone]
"and what would you like the cake to say?"
[covers phone to ask wife]
"do we want a talking cake?" —@KeetPotato
The 100 Funniest Jokes in the History of Twitter*
*according to GQ Magazine
"and what would you like the cake to say?"
[covers phone to ask wife]
"do we want a talking cake?" —@KeetPotato
The 100 Funniest Jokes in the History of Twitter*
*according to GQ Magazine
Yeah, that's a concern.
Shouldn't there be a statute of limitations on all Tom Green movies?
James Myers, Jr. of Concord, NC was arrested on Tuesday after police stopped him for a broken brake light and, upon running his license, were surprised to discover an outstanding arrest warrant for him. From 2002. For failing to return a rented VHS tape (VHS was a video storage format popular in the United States at one time). That tape? Tom Green's 2001 opus, Freddy Got Fingered. (Trailer)
Bedrock City in Bad Decline
Neural Godwin
It is easier to care for a smaller person
Should parents of children with severe disabilities be allowed to stop their growth? (SLNYT) When children with severe disabilities that rely on caregivers for every basic need enter adulthood the simple tasks of caring for them can become prohibitively difficult for parents. A small group of doctors and parents believe arresting their growth could be for the best, but is it ethical?
How he got away with it
I didn't know how to protect myself if that meant disappointing men.
"Just recently, I began to see what I lost. It wasn't a job, a wife, a house. There was no tangible evidence of my fall, no record of my mistakes to be expunged. There was only the wreckage of my early adulthood, the loss of my unstoppable nature, and the empty hole where once my confidence grew. There was only a string of decisions to run and run again, to hide from ambition, to leave the theater forever, and to disown my dedication as a childish fantasy. And the reinforcement of my suspicion that I was only visible when I was wanted, and that nothing about me would ever eclipse my objecthood." (Content warning for child sex abuse)
Why it's getting harder to prosecute white collar crime.
"They also don’t really have the will. They’re really nervous about it, very trepidatious." Jesse Eisinger outlines why we're seeing fewer successful actions against corporate and white collar misdoings in the United States.
Highlighted is the Thompson memo of 2003. [more inside]
Highlighted is the Thompson memo of 2003. [more inside]
On totems
Sarah McCarry writes an essay about being called out for inappropriate use of Native American imagery
BroDog
Opinions of BrewDog tend to go one of four ways. The evangelists think the company can do no wrong. The haters cannot get past the relentless self-promotion, and loathe everything BrewDog stands for. The compromisers argue that yes, they might on the whole be happier if BrewDog toned down the language and cut the stunts, but hey, they brew such great beers you have to forgive them.... The final group, let’s call them the sceptics, reckon the beer and the hype are, in fact, inseparable. The aggressive, outrageous, infuriating (and ingenious) rise of BrewDog
"The Hair" is everywhere
The Hair: Why nearly every woman on TV has the same hairstyle.
be better and grow further
"The ONLY site with the longest list of Podcasts of Color, from all over the world covering news, racism, comedy, sports, relationships & friends chatting about a variety of subjects. Come find a new podcast to try, you need more in your life."
Johan Cruyff, inventor of the Cruyff Turn, dies at 68.
One of the only football (soccer) players to have invented a move that is known by his name: The stunning Cruyff Turn. "The move became instantly world famous, seared indelibly on the brain, stored forever and available for replay on your mind’s eye-player." In slow motion.
Basics
Wikimedia and Facebook have given Angolans free access to their websites, but not to the rest of the internet. So, naturally, Angolans have started hiding pirated movies and music in Wikipedia articles and linking to them on closed Facebook groups, creating a totally free and clandestine file sharing network in a country where mobile internet data is extremely expensive.Vice
Things. Organized. Neatly
Bon appétit!
RIP, Joe Garagiola
Baseball may indeed be a funny game, but it just got a little less so. The major league catcher turned longtime NBC broadcaster passed away yesterday at the age of 90.
March 23
Let's Ride
Kid goes downhill on a trike (SLYT)
The Squawker Might Squeal
A Parrot in the Witness Protection Program ... and other fascinating tales of some non-humans who have witnessed crimes. A Terry Pratchett joke in real life. (Previously).
I've liberated my modules
Node Package Manager (npm) is the largest ecosystem of open source libraries in the world, used as part of NodeJS to develop and serve web applications. Earlier this week, this ecosystem went kablooey when one an integral library went way. [more inside]
RIP Cool Moose
Rhode Island has its own Perennial Candidate - Robert J. Healey. He founded the Cool Moose Party, and many candidates have enjoyed the rush of charging at the two-party Status Quo on a well organized but ultimately doomed third party ticket.
In 2014, he spent less than $40 on his campaign as the Gubernatorial candidate for the Moderate Party. Forty. Dollars. Less than. He won 21% of the vote for Governor.
He passed away in his sleep at his Barrington home, age 58.
RIP. Coach Reeves
Ken Howard , best known as Coach Reeves on the late, lamented 1970's sports dramedy The White Shadow, and head of the Screen Actors Guild has passed on at age 71.
"He was a genius who is now being exploited outrageously."
Pablo Picasso left more than 45,000 works when he died in 1973 (not to mention $1.3 million in gold). His estate is worth billions, and his heirs wage a constant battle to keep control. [more inside]
A loaf of Dad, a Jug of Vine
Duane Roelands has made 200 vines of the best jokes ever. (single link vine.. links. via mefightclub)
People are important. Organizations are important. Devices. Social media
At Blandly we believe that you need a rich set of perspectives to build the perfect bland. That’s why we’ve incubated a company culture that grows unique bland outcomes. We are an eclectic team of avid outdoorswomen, comic book collectors, whiskey nerds, fixed-gear bicycle aficionados, Rosicrucianists, and bacon lovers.
"She was her best self when she was trying to be the Supergirl within."
An Open Letter To Supergirl Stars Melissa Benoist and Chyler Leigh, From An Adoptive Mom:
"But it’s our oldest daughter that has gained the most from Supergirl. She identifies strongly with Kara Danvers. Like Kara, our girl has long blonde hair; she wears glasses; she was adopted. And just as Kara does, our girl misses her first family, and she struggles with feeling alien at times." (Spoilers for season 1 of the CBS TV series Supergirl.) [more inside]
Not much writing, oddly
“There’s a lot to be worried about.”
A Comics Geek's Verdict on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice by Jordan Hoffman [The Guardian] Ben Affleck is great and Wonder Woman nearly steals the show, but there’s plenty in Zack Snyder’s mash-up to make superfans fret. Including, film-maker’s Kryptonite!: very bad writing. [Warning: Reviews Contains SPOILERS!!] [more inside]
Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s son to burn £5m punk memorabilia
“A general malaise has now set in amongst the British public. People are feeling numb. And with numbness comes complacency. People don’t feel they have a voice anymore,” [Corré] says. “The most dangerous thing is that they have stopped fighting for what they believe in. They have given up the chase. We need to explode all the shit once more”.
Related article, at bbc.com.
What what
The butthole is one of the finest innovations in the past
540 million years of animal evolution. Why watching comb jellies poop has stunned evolutionary biologists.
Partner Intelligence Group
I’m typing this on February 27, 2016. Today was my last day at Facebook. I turned in my badge and my laptop and I walked onto Willow Road with a flash drive containing the images you’ll see below. [more inside]
A Private Little War
Between 1975 and 1977, Paramount and Gene Roddenberry planned to make a Star Trek movie, but it turned out to be anything but easy. What would it be about? Plot ideas included time travel, snake people, God, black holes and the titans of ancient Greek mythology. Writer after writer took a turn at coming up with a story, leaving behind a string of rejected screenplays. In March 1978, Paramount president Michael Eisner announced a film spin-off. The race to make Star Trek: The Motion Picture was on. (Via) [more inside]
"Fitbit for your period": the rise of fertility tracking
Planking
Does Engineering Education Breed Terrorists?
Why do so many terrorists have an engineering background? Is there something about the way engineering students are taught to think? Or are people who prefer clearly solvable problems drawn to engineering? Scholars in a variety of disciplines are trying to understand what makes people turn to terrorism. An anthropologist argues that universities and governments make it difficult to study the socio-cultural backgrounds of terrorists because of human subjects research policies. Nevertheless, since 9/11 a growing number of social scientists are addressing the issue. These are just a few examples.
Obituary.
"Depression stole decades of our lives together. Depression lies. I have to tell the truth." Eleni Pinnow writes in the Washington Post about the obituary she wrote for her sister, Aletha.
March 22
Legalize It All: How to Win the War on Drugs
"We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” - John Ehrlichman, a senior aide to Richard Nixon. [more inside]
Another whirl on the Sovereign Citizen carousel?
On March 21, a court unsealed the last name on the Malheur indictments: Jake Ryan, who is charged with digging a latrine trench through sacred Paiute grounds. [more inside]
An animal that looks like a food or a food that looks like an animal?
Duckling or plantain? Labradoodle or fried chicken? (The first viral one.) Puppy or bagel? (The most viral one.) Sheepdog or mop? Chihuahua or muffin? Shiba Inu or marshmallow? Parrot or guacamole? Kitten or ice cream? Shar pei or towel? Sloth or chocolate croissant? Trump or dead chicken? Pita bread or my cat? Cat or pancake? Pomeranian or pancake? Dalmations or ice cream? BBQ chips or Fall leaves?
The Oregonian and The Portland Mercury briefly profile Karen Zack, the meme’s creator. Additional coverage from NPR, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, Tech Insider, and BuzzFeed.
The Oregonian and The Portland Mercury briefly profile Karen Zack, the meme’s creator. Additional coverage from NPR, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, Tech Insider, and BuzzFeed.
Andrew S. Grove, Intel Chief Who Spurred Semiconductor Revolution, Dies
Sowing the seeds of (self)-love
Today, Nebraska unveiled a new license plate design to commemorate the state's 150th anniversary. It's a simple design, particularly when contrasted with past plates. The sole design feature is that of The Sower, the statue that's mounted on top of the State Capitol in Lincoln.
Being the Internet, there's already reaction to the new design, particularly as to what The Sower appears to be doing with his hand.
Beyond the languages I claim as my own
Jalada, a pan-African writer's collective, has just published their first Translation issue. Thirty three writers from across fourteen African countries came together to create this work of art, an entire issue showcasing a previously unpublished story by Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
(Previously) [more inside]
The Augustus Countdown
If we can’t make our republican system of government work, eventually the people will clamor for a leader who can sweep it all away "The historical model I keep invoking is the Roman Republic, which didn’t fall all at once when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon or his nephew Octavian became the Emperor Augustus, but had been on such a downward spiral of norm-busting dysfunction for so long (about a century) that it was actually a relief to many Romans when Augustus put the Republic out of its misery. In “Countdown” I pointed out the complexity of that downward trend: about half of the erosion in Rome was done by the good guys, in order to seek justice for popular causes that the system had stymied." [more inside]
post-traumatic stress and the expansive anatomy of empathy
"...parrots, among the oldest victims of human acquisitiveness and vainglory, have become some of the most empathic readers of our troubled minds. Their deep need to connect is drawing the most severely wounded and isolated PTSD sufferers out of themselves. In an extraordinary example of symbiosis, two entirely different outcasts of human aggression — war and entrapment — are somehow helping each other to find their way again." What Does A Parrot Know About PTSD? [NYT] [more inside]
Speeding up your favorite Brum news website
The Birmingham Mail, a tabloid newspaper covering England's second city, has an 'online news portal' with a reputation for being a bit slow. Not to fear, Brummie news addicts! A Chrome Extension, announced by a local alternative media website, now usefully blocks some of that deeply annoying slowing-down-the-browser content. With data, they explain why.
More info about screws than you could possibly require
“the tear is an intellectual thing”
The Luxury Of Tears by Matthew Sweet [1843: The Economist] The old idea that people in developed countries suppress their emotions is being overturned. As Matthew Sweet discovers, we cry more as our societies get richer.
Rob Ford Dead at 46
Procrastinating Metafilter Post
Brussels Under Attack
Brussels explosions: Many dead in airport and metro terror attacks BBC: "Many people have been killed or seriously injured in terrorist attacks at Brussels international airport and a city metro station, Belgium's PM says.
Two explosions hit Zaventem airport at about 07:00 GMT, and another struck Maelbeek metro station an hour later.
The government has not confirmed casualty numbers. Brussels transport officials say 15 died at Maelbeek and media say up to 13 died at the airport.
Belgium has now raised its terror threat to its highest level.
The attacks come four days after Salah Abdeslam, the main fugitive in the Paris attacks, was seized in Brussels."
Supersonic flight - from a startup
Startup aerospace company Boom is hoping to bring back civilian supersonic transport. Faster and cheaper than the Concorde at $5,000 for Mach 2.2. [more inside]
March 21
How Jennifer Garner Went Full “Minivan Majority”
As Matt Damon explained in The Guardian, “Ben’s wife, Jennifer Garner, sells a shitload of magazines in the midwest. Magazines that — Ben explained this to me — you and I have never heard of, but that appeal to the mom in the midwest, who for some reason identifies with Jennifer and wants to know what she’s doing as a mom.”
Because they are in Haydn
The Forward recounts the Strange and Violent History of the Ordinary Grogger (also known as a ratchet), and why they are rarely found in orchestras.
Courtesy notice: the Microkorg is due in one week
Are you looking to try out some classic synthesizers? Perhaps you're trying to find that perfect fuzz bass tone or psychedelic delay/loop pedal. Well come on down to Guitar Center the Ann Arbor District Library! [more inside]
Our Baby Doffer
Oh fudge! You cussin', fargin' bastidge.
Colonels Of Truth
Draw my shiny metal ass!
Toonz, the animation software used by both Studio Ghibli (for Princess Mononoke all the way up to The Wind Rises) and Rough Draft studio (for the production of Futurama) will be made free and open source to the animation community beginning March 26, 2016.
Measuring and Understanding Dance
It's difficult to convey complex civic problems in 140 characters
SF BART's twitter account admits that their infrastructure is failing and delves into the details: "We have 3 hours a night to do maintenance on a system built to serve 100k per week that now serves 430k per day." [more inside]
authors and the truth about money
It is clear that authors, like other creative people looking to make a living doing what they love and are good at (bringing joy to many people in the process), are going to have to look to new ways of supporting themselves. But self-publish? No way.
Death by gentrification: the death that shamed San Francisco
San Francisco had been a place where some people came out of idealism or stayed to realize an ideal: to work for social justice or teach the disabled, to write poetry or practise alternative medicine – to be part of something larger than themselves that was not a corporation, to live for something more than money. That was becoming less and less possible as rent and sale prices for homes spiralled upward. What the old-timers were afraid of losing, many of the newcomers seemed unable to recognise. (slTheGuardian)
Good evening, Stockholm!
After a series of national selection processes, all 43 contestants for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest are set. Two familiar faces (last year's winner, Måns Zelmerlöw, and 2013 host Petra Mede) will guide us through two semis and a Grand Final while hopefully also making sense of a new vote-counting system. Come for the camp, stay for the geopolitical intrigue. [more inside]
Baltimore: The Third Rail
"Three weeks later, his administration released a revealing map showing how the money for road upgrades would be allocated around the state. Not only did the governor’s map show no money for Baltimore City. It did not show the city at all. By some Freudian slip, the city of 620,000 people had mistakenly been swallowed up by the Chesapeake Bay. Disappeared."
Grieving the white void
"I was a conscious, left-leaning, intelligent, and compassionate White person. How could I allow the casual racism going on around me to continue unchecked? How could I, too, be host to that parasitic racism?" (SL medium, by Abe Lateiner)
Kraft changes their mac and cheese; doesn't tell anybody
A new formula that removed artificial preservatives and swapped out artificial dyes for a combination of paprika, annatto and turmeric had been under development for three years. “We’ve sold well over 50 million boxes with essentially no one noticing,” said Greg Guidotti, vice president for meal solutions at Kraft Heinz. (SLNYT)
A land of endless waiting and palpable erosion
"This is big science performed on the tiniest of scales"
We weren't ashamed to be corny.
The script was for a retelling of Antigone set in an African American town in the 1930s, and it thoroughly impressed Carli. "The writing shook me, it was so good," she said. The women tried and failed to produce the film with Miramax, at which point Carli had her lightbulb moment: "What do you think about Britney Spears?"--Not a Hit, Not Yet a Cult Classic: Shonda Rhimes on the Making of 'Crossroads'
No cows were tipped in the making of this video
Betessläpp: like the last day of school for cows. Assuming the last day of school had huge cheering crowds.
I wouldn't care if it was designed by a fascist if it looked this good
AI learning to play video games
Besides GO, AI are learning to play video games. Without being told the rules beforehand. Watch AI learn and succeed at video games: Pong & Tetris, Breakout, Flappy Bird, 2048, MAR/IO, and in the future Starcraft and other RTS, or any game (previously)
Australia decides: 2016
War! The ruling Liberal-National coalition is under fire across multiple fronts: bullying, tax, negative gearing and superannuation, and the budget. And other things.
So Australia's is probably heading off to the ballot box on July 2, after what will be an exhausting two-month campaign. [more inside]
“It's fierce, an' it's wild..."
RIP Barry Hines, author of A Kestrel for a Knave that was adapted into the British film classic Kes. He also wrote the screenplay for Threads. [more inside]
I'm Cartooning It (pada-pa-pa-pa)
As part of its job recruitment program, McDonalds in Japan have released a (pretty adorable) anime ad. (More character info here though it's all in Japanese.) People are lovin' it - and there's a fandom already.
March 20
A classic matchup
Sweden versus Norway. A classic biathlon matchup on Scandinavia's most famous course.
Prepare to die. Again.
Dark Souls III [YouTube] [Trailer] Dark Souls III is coming April 12, 2016! The opening cinematic from Dark Souls III sheds a tiny beam of light onto the mystery of where and when Dark Souls III takes place. [Previously.]
One Weird Trick for Keeping Female Employees From Quitting
Pay Women More! A new global study of women in their 30s found they don’t leave jobs because they’re worried about family obligations. They leave because employers won't pay and promote them. “Surprisingly,” reads the report, “young women identified finding a higher paying job, a lack of learning and development, and a shortage of interesting and meaningful work as the primary reasons why they may leave.” [more inside]
And are tasty with ketchup.
Hey, sexy mama... Wanna kill all humans?
David Hanson and his lifelike robots (the pilfered Philip K. Dick head most famously) have been on the blue a number of times, but they have finally advanced to the point of wanting to destroy humanity. [video]
Much easier if you are a man, and have a wife who raises the children
The Tough Legacy of Ulrike Meinhof
“I think there’s a very common narrative about women being motivated by sexual or emotional dependence on men,” Katharina Karcher, a research associate at the University of Cambridge, told me. She was “shocked” at similarities between media coverage of Meinhof and Beate Zschäpe, a member of the far-right National Socialist Underground that committed a series of murders of immigrants between 2000 and 2007.
SUBJECT 3 PRONE ON KITCHEN FLOOR
This House Has People In It. Footage demonstrating the capabilities of AB Surveillance Solutions, a company whose technicians will solve any surveillance problem you have, for the life of the problem. (The lifespan of some problems may exceed that of our technicians, this is perfectly normal.) Log in to get a quote. (Previously.)
There Is Light Here As Well
"Growing up in this home, I was ensconced in blackness — and as an adult, I now see and appreciate the ways that affirmed my identity. I finally saw Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when I was 24, and I was shocked that it was lauded as a 'staple of teen comedy.' I had always thought that the classic tale of Chicago youth skipping class was Cooley High. I didn’t learn whiteness as a default, or the limitations placed on those who exist outside of it, until I was much, much older." Jasmine Sanders (@ToniAliceZora) writes for Buzzfeed on growing up in one of Chicago's poorest black neighborhoods. [more inside]
San Andreas Streaming Deer Cam
San Andreas Deer Cam is a live video stream from a computer running a hacked version of Grand Theft Auto V, hosted on Twitch.tv. The hack creates a deer and follows it as it wanders throughout the 100 square miles of San Andreas, a fictional state in GTA V based on California. [more inside]
The revolution is meow, brothers
Purristan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these cats got wedged into this nation-state, or why.
As Seen In D.C.
LobbyWOW! turns political bribes into totally legal campaign contributions! LobbyWOW! is perfect for any issue, and works on politicians from any party. You’ll say WOW every time! Get LobbyWOW! and turn your millions into literally billions! (SLYT)
The best election all year
‘Boaty McBoatface’ Is Currently Leading An Open Vote To Name The New £200 Million Royal Research Ship An open vote allowing the public to name a new £200 million Royal Research Ship belonging to the Natural Environment Research Council has produced one particularly marvellous favourite — the RRS Boaty McBoatface.
It even has a twitter handle Mcboatfacepride [more inside]
Cameron, Corbyn, The City and Steampunk
Despair Fatigue - How hopelessness grew boring. The big lie of austerity, how the crushing of the working classes was commodified, the rise of Corbofuturism and how it might shape a radical 21st century.
Breaking up is easy...if you have the right vessel
And it’s even easier with a bit of international cooperation: Time lapse video of USCGC Bristol Bay and CCGS Samuel Risley working together to break ice from Sarnia to Windsor, Ontario, in one day. Further inland, Amphibex icebreaking machines are used to break ice on the Red River in Manitoba to prevent flooding from ice jamming ahead of spring. That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to icebreaking... [more inside]
March 19
From Arachnophobia to Argo, Goodman is our greatest supporting actor
FiveThirtyEight Chief Culture Writer Walt Hickey runs the numbers and determines that John Goodman is America's greatest supporting actor. [more inside]
Peeling apart dreams: Death of FP-100C
For many analogue photographers, peel apart film was their instant film of choice. FujiFilm, citing poor sales (and resurgence of their integral films), has decided to discontinue their line of FP-100c pack film.
There has been recent buzz around former Impossible Project Founder, Florian Kaps, about meeting with FujiFilm executives. As of now, more than 18,000 signatures have been registered for Change.org's 'Save Fujifilm FP100C Instant Films' petition. Will the film survive? [more inside]
*Face* the future
Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos We present a novel approach for real-time facial reenactment of a monocular target video sequence (e.g., Youtube video). The source sequence is also a monocular video stream, captured live with a commodity webcam. Our goal is to animate the facial expressions of the target video by a source actor and re-render the manipulated output video in a photo-realistic fashion. - Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory
I try to see the beauty in everything.
Tom Harrell is a jazz man and an inspiration to those who play with him. He once said, "The hardest part of playing the trumpet is the physical act of making the sound." He used to play with Horace Silver, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished trumpeters alive today. He also has a condition called schizophrenia.
Two College Degrees Later, I Was Still Picking Kale for Rich People
While buying groceries for rich people, I realized upward mobility in America is largely a myth. (slBuzzfeed)
The Obama Doctrine
In the Atlantic's April cover story, Jeffrey Goldberg interviews President Obama about his foreign policy philosophy and ultimately, its lasting legacy. [more inside]
“Truly no, I am not Elena Ferrante,”
Who is Elena Ferrante? Novelist issues denial as guessing game goes on. by Rosie Scammell [The Guardian] Unmasking the true identity of the pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante has become Italy’s favourite – and increasingly farcical – literary parlour game. The latest writer forced to deny that she is the creator of the critically acclaimed Neapolitan novels is Marcella Marmo, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Naples Federico II. [more inside]
Sorted!
"SORTING is an attempt to visualize and help to understand how some of the most famous sorting algorithms work. This project provides two standpoints to look at algorithms, one is more artistic.. the other is more analytical aiming at explaining algorithm step by step."
A Farewell to the Dog Who Helped Him Off the Streets
Raymond Goynes went uptown to see Sonja one last time on March 8, a sunny Tuesday morning. He let himself into her owner’s penthouse duplex in Hell’s Kitchen. Sonja, an 11-year-old wheaten terrier, was sprawled on the wool kilim rug in the living room. Her head rested on a towel.
“Look who it is, look who it is!” Sonja’s owner, Mary Kilty, cried.
“Miss Sonja!” Mr. Goynes called out. For the first time in an hour or so, the little tan dog raised her head.
“Look who it is, look who it is!” Sonja’s owner, Mary Kilty, cried.
“Miss Sonja!” Mr. Goynes called out. For the first time in an hour or so, the little tan dog raised her head.
We got him
Having evaded capture and been the 'most wanted man' in Europe for the four months following the Paris attacks Salah Abdelslam was arrested yesterday 500 metres from his childhood home in the now infamous Brussels suburb of Molenbeek. [more inside]
We Were Promised Airships
How to use a modem
From a suburban British house in 1984, Julian (password: 1234) demonstrates a modem while Pat (seemingly not allowed to touch the keyboard) lists her uses of the "communal" BBC Micro. Turn on your recorders as this TV clip ends with a data transmission! But how, in bygone online times, have modems been used... [more inside]
Steve Wozniak Answers Your Questions
Steve Wozniak hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) at reddit which attracted a lot of (good) discussion. Posts previously about Woz here, here, here, here, and here. Steve even stopped by AskMe once with a very gracious and interesting answer.
Tucson's Xixa traces its heritage from Peruvian Chicha and SW US rock
In 1965, Peru had its first cumbia hit, with Los Demonios de Mantaro's La Chichera, localizing the Columbian music style (Cumbia previously). Los Compadres del Ande added some electric organ, foreshadowing the sounds of Juaneco y su Combo and others who would bring electric guitars, which opened the door for what would become known as Chicha. Decades later, The Roots of Chicha compilation would inspire first Chicha Dust to cover those original songs, and then Xixa to blend Chicha and the Southwest US sounds of Giant Sand and Calexico, as heard in their new album titled Bloodline (video for title track) and Cumbia del Paletero (live).
Casting Evita.
"The playing field needs to be aggressively leveled - possibly razed." Chicago theatre artists respond to an open letter to the Marriott Theatre regarding the casting of Evita, which only included one actor of Latin heritage.
How gentrification really changes a neighborhood
I knew the price of my new home in Kirkwood, just not what it would cost the neighbors who’d lived there for generations An examination of the racial and economic cycles of change in one Atlanta neighborhood, with a nice touch of soul searching and empathy.
haha cool, ok, we’re friends now, big guy. no problems
March 18
From Assult to Ziel
We hand-picked 30000 last names out of more than half a million, so you could easily find the perfect last name for a character! [more inside]
Real ninjas don’t tell you they’re ninjas.
Get ready, on Monday
One comet to swerve closer to Earth than any other comet in centuries An emerald-green comet will brush the Earth Monday, followed one day later by a kissing cousin that will swerve closer to the planet than any other comet in nearly 250 years.
The first member of the pair, known as comet 252P/LINEAR, is a bright green color from the carbon gas it’s puffing out, says the University of Maryland’s Matthew Knight. 252P will slide past Earth at a distance of roughly 3 million miles. That’s well beyond the moon but near enough to put 252P in the top 10 of closest-approaching comets. [more inside]
100 years ago today, the beginning of the end on WWI's eastern front
"It was an affair that summed up all that was most wrong with the [Russian] army." Largely forgotten by the west, the Battle of Lake Naroch (March-April 1916; Wikipedia) broke the Russian army's will to fight Germans. Eager to help their western allies being slaughtered at Verdun, the tsar's forces attacked a weak spot in the German lines in Belarus. Although the Russian army began with massively greater troop superiority, the offense was a spectacular failure, due to gross strategic and tactical incompetence. The results: awful casualties and no terrain gained. [more inside]
“When a rich man steals, he becomes a minister.”
Brazil in Crisis Brazil is suffering its worst economic crisis in decades. An enormous graft scheme has hobbled the national oil company. The Zika epidemic is causing despair across the northeast. And just before the world heads to Brazil for the Summer Olympics, the government is fighting for survival, with almost every corner of the political system under the cloud of scandal. (SLIntercept)
A Serving of Scores
Love the music from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels? No? What about from Hell on Wheels or Making A Murderer? Perhaps Jane the Virgin? The composer behind these shows is Kevin Kiner and on his website, he's uploaded selections from his work on the above shows and a few more to listen to for free.
Can I Toast Whole Wheat in That?
From July 2007 to April 2013, Arstechnica writer Jeremy Reimer wrote a series of articles covering the History of the Amiga.
Now almost 3 years later, part 9 has been released. It covers the game changing (pun not intended but this is the Amiga) Video Toaster.
"How audacious."
The British Film Institute has compiled a list of 30 best LGBT films of all time in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their Flare festival. BFI has placed Todd Haynes's Carol at the top spot, forcing Slate to ask, is it really the best LGBT film of all time? [more inside]
Pizza launching unit does not appear on the feature list
Autonomous vehicles have been extolled as the first step in a new driverless future, and now New Zealand and Domino's Pizza are experimenting with robotic, autonomous pizza delivery. Capable of carrying 10 pizzas and with a 20 mile km range, the Domino's Robotic Unit (DRU), described as "cheeky and endearing," was developed with technology from Marathon Robots, who also produce robotic live-fire targets. No word on whether a combination target-shooting/pizza-delivery unit will be forthcoming.
In a fight between nurses and doctors, the nurses are slowly winning
Florida and West Virginia have joined the list of states that allow "advanced practice" nurses to practice what have traditionally been physician-only medical procedures, including prescribing drugs. The changes in West Virginia came about largely via an alliance of the AARP, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, and the liberal West Virginia Citizen Action Group..
Is this Prime?
The Is this prime? game tests you as you sort numbers into prime and non-prime. Click Yes or No or type Y or N on the keyboard. Uses JavaScript. [more inside]
Johnny Ramone's last interview
"He's almost a father figure, or a mentor to me," says Robert Carmine, the twenty-one-year-old singer for Rooney, who one night slipped Johnny a demo tape that Johnny liked. "He never had a kid. The Ramones were his baby that he was obsessed with. When he retired, he needed something else to focus on, and that's his friends and his wife. He's given me a lot of great advice: Play to the back row, not the people in front; get a straight mike stand, not a boom stand; own your section of the stage; watch the money; learn what other people did that was cool. He's turned me on to such great old music, like Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.
"He's a much kinder person now than when he was in the band," Carmine continues. "But the thing with Joey is ongoing. We watched the documentary together in his house, and he couldn't stay in the room when they were talking about the Joey stuff. He's still got that pain and anger that he can't quite let go of and become the person he's mostly become."
τ
Step aside Nutella; there's a new spread in town
As Easter approaches and the thoughts of many turn to chocolate, Mars has usurped news of the Creme Egg crodough by announcing that Twix is now on sale as a spread. Available in Asda (the UK version of Walmart), the press release describes it as a “delicious chocolate and caramel spread with crunchy biscuit pieces” that can be “spread over warm toast or a crumpet, dunked with a breadstick, or topped on a cake or waffle”. Early reviews are cautiously positive. [more inside]
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you yo-yo with K-Strass
In 2010 Kenny 'K-Strass' Strasser took the morning news airwaves by storm with his Yo-Yo mastery and environmental wisdom! Enjoy 20 minutes of a compilation of clips with the Zim Zam Yo-Yo Man sharing about his life, and .. um .. yo-yo stuff (plus an ad for Yo-Yo Balls). Things didn't go so well for K-Strass, so Eric Stringer, the Garth Brooks of yo-yos, stepped in, but that didn't mean K-Strass was down for the count. He came back in 2012 for a spot on Team Coco Live, but without the yo-yos. [more inside]
Resource Guide to Coming Out as Bisexual
Resource Guide to Coming Out as Bisexual. A PDF pamphlet released by the Human Rights Campaign for Bisexual Health Awareness Month with the cooperation of BiNet USA, the Bisexual Resource Center, and the Bisexual Organizing Project. [more inside]
"He’s not a normal gator. He has never been a normal gator."
A Florida woman (unknown if there is a relation to Florida man) said state officials are making her give up her beloved pet alligator — a gentle giant named Rambo who is potty trained, understands sign language and loves to dress up in costumes — because he’s grown too big.
Too "Joycean". This wasn't meant as a compliment
On the day after the greatest American Irish holiday, take a moment to celebrate the fact that you can finally read the greatest Irish novel in American! Er, . . . . english!
Woman Disappears During Live TV Interview. Aliens Suspected.
Out Here, No One Can Hear You Scream
The dangerous culture of male entitlement and sexual hostility hiding within America's national parks and forests. (slHuffPo/Highline) TW: disturbing stories of assault
The Billion Dollar Spelling Mistake - Digital criminals digital world
Following on from this recent post regarding the Hatton Garden heist with a value thought to be in the region of £35M (~$50M US) comes another Bank heist - this time on an all together much larger scale. Last month hackers thought to have utilised run of the mill script kiddie malware breached weak security controls at the Central Bank of Bangladesh. Multiple transfer requests totalling nearly $1 billion were then sent to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, allowing $81 million to transfer before one of the routing banks Deutsche Bank queried with CBB after noticing a spelling mistake on a fake end party ; Sri Lankan NGO Shalika Fandation not Foundation. Bank Chairman Atiur Rahman has unsurprisingly quit after trying to hide the loss from the Government and Board of Directors until the story leaked to a newspaper in the Philippines.
Sleep warm, Frankie
Francis Wayne "Frank" Sinatra, better known as Frank Sinatra Jr, died March 16th 2016 aged 72 of a heart attack while on tour in Florida. [more inside]
The mighty medieval capital now lost without trace
This is the story of a lost medieval city you’ve probably never heard about. Benin City, originally known as Edo, was once the capital of a pre-colonial African empire located in what is now southern Nigeria.
From the Series : Stories of cities
From the Series : Stories of cities
At this point we had no idea what that meant exactly.
January 2012 I received a call from Disney: The director Byron Howard, writer Jared Bush and production designer Dave Goetz pitched the premise for a movie called "Savage" (which should become "Zootopia" later) to me and I thought it was a genius idea: An animal movie with a twist: Humans have never existed and instead animals have evolved to human capacity and they had created a city built by animals for animals. Matthias Lechner, Art Director Of Environments for Zootopia, shares an extensive collection of concept art for ideas developed and discarded. A fascinating look at the creative process, showing the evolution of surviving concepts and glimpses at worlds that might have been. [more inside]
March 17
Toward Truthiness: "After the Fact"
"The era of the fact is coming to an end: the place once held by 'facts' is being taken over by 'data.'...No matter the bigness of the data, the vastness of the Web, the freeness of speech, nothing could be less well settled in the twenty-first century than whether people know what they know from faith or from facts, or whether anything, in the end, can really be said to be fully proved." Jill Lepore's essay for The New Yorker, "After the Fact," looks at the current state of American politics as a symptom of a bigger question: Whose reality is it, anyway? [more inside]
"The Replicant project was reportedly shut down in December"
Dark Arts in the Classroom
Psychic High School is the leading transdimensional day and boarding school for psychic youth of all ages and dispositions.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
“My God, that fiddle sounds incredible.”
The Violin Thief by Geoff Edgers Philip Johnson was a promising musical prodigy. Then he stole a teacher’s prized Stradivarius. [more inside]
Secret Trash Museum. Way cooler than it sounds.
Fascinating Photos from the Secret Trash Museum in a New York Sanitation Garage. (sl Atlas Obscura)
Do not eat
Heat egg in grandfather's mouth: Easy Recipe For Warm Egg Near Blue Square You Can Make In Just 4 Months! [more inside]
"Your sweet, sweet daughter”
Laura Lee, a vibrant young woman whose life was a series of firsts, died in her sleep last month at 33. "The death has left not only her family mourning, but thousands of people across the country, some who knew Lee and others who simply admired her as a trailblazer. On Saturday, the family will hold a funeral service for Lee in Fairfax County, but already the tributes have begun."
She inspired those with Down syndrome as unstoppable — until she wasn’t. (SLWaPo)
“What’s your son going to think?”
“What will your kid think?” and “Are you worried your son is going to hate you when he grows up?” and “Are you going to let him read it?” and “What’re you going to do when your kid Googles you?” are all questions that, even when offered lightheartedly and in a spirit of ostensible support, feel less like genuine questions and more like a chastening. “Remember, you’re a MOM” and “Remember, you have a mother” both mean “Remember, you’re a woman, and there are consequences.” The Patronizing Questions We Ask Women Who Write by Meaghan O'Connell
“They were analog criminals operating in a digital world.”
April 2015: The vault at the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit of London's Diamond district is ransacked by thieves. They score an estimated £14 to £35 million in cash, jewels and other valuables. The media calls it "the greatest heist in British history" and speculates about the acrobatic feats the gang must have used. London’s newspapers are filled with artists’ renderings of the heist, featuring hard-bodied burglars in black turtlenecks doing superhuman things. Experts insist that a foreign team of navy-SEAL-like professionals must have masterminded the theft. Nope. [more inside]
Canon (Australia) Blue
Greatest Living Americans Bracket
"America is home to more than 100 people. These are the 64 greatest and most important. We did not forget anyone. Fill out the bracket, hit Submit, and find out how correct you are."
The Future Is Looking Bright
Artist Ariel Hart has created a Tarot deck inspired by Lisa Frank. Full size major arcana available at Huffington Post.
How do you see me?
How do you see me? (SLYT) Let's change the way we look at people with Down syndrome. AnnaRose is a nineteen year old from NJ. She's a full time college student who works part-time at a physical therapy center and enjoys basketball and swimming through the Special Olympics NJ. AnnaRose, as many people with Down syndrome, only wants to realize her potential and live a meaningful, beautiful life.
Official State Fossils Rock!
Ed Yong, science writer for The Atlantic, rounds up the various official state fossils, from Colorado's claim on Stegosaurus to Florida's accidental choice of agatized coral, which is actually the state stone. [more inside]
tweet tweet
It's time for some bird cams! Watch some bald eagles get ready to hatch at the DC Arboretum, check out some freshly hatched bald eagles in Minnesota, monitor four falcon eggs the atop the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg, Pa (and follow along @falconchatter), keep an eye on the two peregrine falcon eggs at Pitt, or simply enjoy the variety of wild birds feeding outside the Cornell Lab.
Don't look down
Italy. One 50 metre double line. 16 hammocks. 22 people. And, relax. Some background to the photo shoot.
A humaner Sea World
SeaWorld has announced a partnership with the Humane Society to end its orca breeding program, and the elimination of their theatrical shows that involve orca whales. [more inside]
Whitewashing the Green Rush
Raise what's left of the flag for me, with animated horses
Random audio-visual mash-up du jour: What's Left of the Flag by Flogging Molly, set to video clips from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, which doesn't originally have nearly such rousing music (score by Hans Zimmer, with more songs by Bryan Adams).
Tut plus two
Back in November of last year, archeologist Nicholas Reeves announced that in analyzing high resolution scans of Tutankamun's tomb (KV62) that there was almost certainly rooms beyond the four currently known hidden behind the plaster coated walls of the burial chamber. [more inside]
Now that's magic
Paul Daniels, internationally renowned magician and television performer, has died aged 77 after a diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumour in late February 2016. [more inside]
sources of obligation, sources of value
an introduction to fiat money (pdf) by Steve Randy Waldman:* - "Self-reinforcing bootstrap dynamics hold as strongly for a king's token as it would for any other thing, but much more stably so, since the king can reinforce and assure the stability of his token so long as he retains the political capacity to coerce or persuade payment of tax." (via) [more inside]
March 16
They belong in a museum
As news arrives of a fifth Indiana Jones film arriving in 2019, here's a look back at the Indiana Jones films that never were.
Amazing sand artistry
Artists in Vietnam Can Create Photorealistic Designs Using Sand (narration in Russian). Commentary from a tv show in English. [more inside]
sinking down
How to market a budding industry
Pot businesses are, above all, businesses, and they’re responding as businesses do: with marketing aimed at convincing longtime pot users that their brand is better than the others—and, just as important, at increasing demand by encouraging curious nonusers to try their product first. --The Art of Marketing Marijuana [SLTheAtlantic]
The woman for whom a (micro)nation was founded
Princess Joan of Sealand (née Joan Bates) has died after a long illness, spending her last days in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. The Principality of Sealand (previously) was declared an independent nation by Roy Bates on September 2, 1967, making the former carnival queen Joan a princess on her 38th birthday. Her Royal Highness is survived by her daughter Penny and her son Michael, who serves as the Prince Regent of the abandoned nautical military fort.
USA Football/Soccer :(
ESPN estimates nearly a third of young Americans play soccer, so why can’t a sports powerhouse of 320m people produce a Messi – or even a João Moutinho?
Unproblematica
The classification of Illinois's state fossil, the Tully monster, has been a mystery since its discovery in 1958. But now a team at Yale has determined that it is a vertebrate ancestor of the lamprey, after studying over a thousand fossils and noticing the presence of a notochord, among other distinctively vertebratey features. The (paywalled) Nature paper is here.
"I want to make this sport legal."
Just when you think you've heard all the grizzled-fighter-taking-one-last-swing-at-redemption stories, along comes Gunn — the first bare-knuckle boxing champion the U.S. has seen in more than 120 years. Undefeated in 71 fights, Gunn rules the circuit, a nationwide underground network of pro boxers, mixed martial arts fighters, and accomplished street brawlers who enter the ring without gloves for as much as $50,000 cash. It's dangerous and bloody and illegal almost everywhere. And if things go Gunn's way — for once in his life — it just could be the next major fight sport. Bobby Gunn: Champion of the Underworld
Cryptowall being served by ads on major sites like BBC and NYT
Ars Technica reports that the tainted ads may have exposed tens of thousands of people over the past 24 hours alone. According to a blog post published Monday by Trend Micro, the new campaign started last week when "Angler," a toolkit that sells exploits for Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and other widely used Internet software, started pushing laced banner ads through a compromised ad network. Spiderlabs has found ads with more than 1200 lines of obfuscated code designed to slip past security software. Malwarebytes reports that the surge started this weekend, and includes sites like msn, nytimes, bbc, aol, my.xfinity, nfl, realtor.com, theweathernetwork.com, thehill, and newsweek. Affected networks included those owned by Google, AppNexis, AOL, and Rubicon. [more inside]
Thunderbirds Are Gone
Sylvia Anderson, ex-wife and co-creator-producer with Gerry Anderson of all the "Supermarionation" series (as well as a couple 'full-sized-actor' shows), and best known as the voice of Thunderbirds' Lady Penelope, has passed away at the age of 88.
Love black? A suriken whiz? Super silent sneakery skills? Nunchuk this
It's Back (Sort Of)
Nina Simone's Face
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the trouble with the upcoming Nina Simone biopic:
"Simone was able to conjure glamour in spite of everything the world said about black women who looked like her. And for that she enjoyed a special place in the pantheon of resistance. That fact doesn’t just have to do with her lyrics or her musicianship, but also how she looked."
[more inside]
"...and do equal right to the poor and to the rich..."
At 11am Eastern time, President Obama will nominate Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to the Supreme Court. Judge Garland is a centrist who was previously considered by the President for SCOTUS nomination in 2010, during the selection process which gave us Justice Sotomayor. He is reportedly "well known, well respected, and tremendously well liked in Washington legal circles; even Republicans have nice things to say about him." [more inside]
What's next?
An episode-by-episode discussion of The West Wing, one of television’s most beloved shows, co-hosted by one of its stars, Joshua Malina, along with Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder.
the pipes the pipes are calling
“if he were a man of strong mind, it only gave him fits; but a person of mere average intellect it usually sent mad.” That's what Jerome K. Jerome said about bagpipes in Three Men in a Boat. But here's 16 Songs Actually Improved By Bagpipes according to A.V. Club.
(He Talks in His Sleep)
“Oh, that doesn’t complete my collection at all! No! Oh no! Well let’s see, I have a dodo, and a rock, and a phoenix...oh dear! A pterodactyl, yes, the unicorn, the griffin, dear, oh yes, well a mermaid doesn’t count, she’s out in the pool! No... well, if she ever gets out I’m gonna mate her with the centaur! Yes! What do you think?! Certainly! Well, I don’t know. What do you think? Well, if you don’t mate them you know they’ll die off!”The Dream World of Dion McGregor [more inside]
March 15
So much hairspray
“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
The Mass-Market Edition of To Kill a Mockingbird Is Dead by Alex Shephard [The New Republic] Harper Lee’s estate will no longer allow publication of the inexpensive paperback edition that was popular with schools. On Monday, February 29, a judge in Monroe County, Alabama sealed Harper Lee’s will from public view. The motion was filed by the Birmingham law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, which was acting on behalf of Tonja Carter, Lee’s lawyer and the executor of her estate. [more inside]
Rule 303
Harry "Breaker" Morant, Lieutenant in the Bushveldt Carbineers, in 1902 was convicted by court-martial of the killing of prisoners in present-day South Africa during the Boer War. He was executed by firing squad and his story was memorialized in the film bearing his name. More than a century later, Australian lawyer Jim Unkles is fighting to clear his name. But should he be pardoned? [more inside]
Do we have a source on this? Uh-huh, a bunch of drunken frat boys.
What if food had feelings?
Sausage Party, the first R-rated CG animated movie (SLYT, NSFW)
Cook and cook and keep on cooking
Bon appétit! Twitch.tv is launching a new Food Channel by marathon streaming all 201 episodes of Julia Child's groundbreaking TV series "The French Chef." [more inside]
"I have failed in my quixotic quest to Unsuck DC Metro"
For the first time in its 40-year history (which it celebrates on March 27) apart from hurricanes and snowstorms, the entire 117 miles of the Washington Metro will be shut down for at least 29 hours starting at midnight tonight for inspections. [more inside]
The time is just coming up to...very late indeed.
All 29 episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Sound, the radio precursor to David Mitchell and Robert Webb's celebrated television sketch show. [more inside]
Podcast Catalog - the IMDB of Podcasts
Podcat allows you to explore podcasts and their episodes. People, production companies and podcasts can be searched and are cross-referenced.
Dr. Shark Bird vs. Rusty Justice
The 2016 Name of the Year bracket is here! Who will succeed 2015 winner Amanda Miranda Panda as the 2016 Name of the Year? (Previously.) Will it be Taco Pope? Oozi Cats? Lt. Sharlene Sprinkle-Huff? The Key & Peele-worthy Shuntayvious Primes-Willes? Could the final match place Dick Tips against Sweet Orefice? Place your bets now! [more inside]
This is not just buying five more years
"Reels of classic films tend to melt into goo; philanthropist David W. Packard won't let that happen"
"UCLA was looking for a modest little place to move to, and I got involved and turned it into something monumental," Packard, 75, said during an extended tour of the facility. "It's a labor of love and a labor of craziness. I could have just built an adequate facility, but it didn't cost that much more for it to be something wonderful."
REM Out of Time and Losing their Religion
"March 12th marks the 25th anniversary of Out of Time’s release, which will be celebrated this fall in the form of a deluxe reissue from the band and Concord Music Group. Pitchfork decided to celebrate in our own way, speaking with R.E.M.’s Mike Mills — as well as friends and collaborators on the album and beyond — to recount Out of Time’s creation and the band’s central shift in the early ‘90s." An Oral History of R.E.M.’s Out of Time
4 short links about a particular thematic structure
32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
22 Short Films About Springfield
10 Short Films About Wakko Warner
Several Thousand Short Films About Glenn Gould [more inside]
22 Short Films About Springfield
10 Short Films About Wakko Warner
Several Thousand Short Films About Glenn Gould [more inside]
Wasps AND spiders. You've been warned.
Guy Finds Wasp Nest Full Of Dead Spiders In His Wall, Resists Burning Home To The Ground (SLDistractify, via)
Hearings, Magistrates, Chauffeurs
With trepidation, Weßel ordered a scan, which showed a typed carbon copy, with corrections in Koestler’s handwriting. The date on the title page, March 1940, was the date on which Koestler is known to have finished the novel. There was no doubt. Weßel had stumbled across a copy of the German manuscript of Koestler’s masterpiece. The implications of Weßel’s discovery are considerable, for Darkness at Noon is that rare specimen, a book known to the world only in translation. [more inside]
Dave, The Bracket
There are more than 100 Daves or Davids in the world! Here are 64 of them.
Narrow down this bracket to the best Dave, hit Submit, and find out how right you are. [more inside]
Narrow down this bracket to the best Dave, hit Submit, and find out how right you are. [more inside]
Jay and Miles and Chris X-Plain the X-Men
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men (previously) has hit its 100th episode and has a very special guest star... Chris Claremont.
Sequences, mostly of eighteen things
The history of the Novaya Zemlya effect, a polar mirage
In 1596, Willem Barentsz and his crew went searching for the Northeast passage for a third time. It did not go well, and the crew was forced to spend a winter on Novaya Zemlya. On November 3 they saw the sun go down, and did not expect to see it again until February 8. However on January 24, 1597, three of the crew caught a glimpse of the sun. Three days later, Barents himself saw the sun, "in its full roundness, just free of the horizon." They had witnessed what would be know as the the Novaya Zemlya effect (YouTube of such an event; PDF with history and details). [more inside]
Orthoprint, or How I Open-Sourced My Face
What is to stop someone, who has access to a 3D printer, from making their own orthodontic aligners? "So what does one need to do this themselves? Knowledge of orthodontic movement, a 3D scanner, a mold of the teeth, CAD software, a hi-res 3D printer, retainer material, and a vacuum forming machine. "
Scuttling the ghost ship
Viking, the last boat of the "Bandit 6", has been captured and scuttled by the Indonesian authorities. [more inside]
What Do The Sex Pistols And Doctor Who Have In Common?
March 1985, England. The long-running BBC TV show "Doctor Who" was seemingly at its nadir* of its then 22-year history. The end of February saw the shock announcement that the sci-fi/fantasy show would be "axed," though in reality, it was about to be placed on an 18-month hiatus. [more inside]
Mountains of Books
New Snowcapped Mountains and Swirling Vortexes Excavated from Vintage Books by Guy Laramée. [more inside]
Election 2016: Rubio and Kasich's last stand
The 2016 Apocalypse Presidential Election continues: Five states vote in primaries on Tuesday, March 15th. Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump will undoubtedly gain some delegates, while the other two will likely face their last stands: Marco Rubio in Florida, and John Kasich in Ohio. Candidates are taking desperate measures, like recommending each other, to stop Trump, while violence escalates at Trump events. Meanwhile, the Democratic race has tightened between frontrunner Hillary Clinton and her opponent Bernard Sanders as they prepare to split almost 800 delegates Tuesday... [more inside]
Man Alive! How did I ever get along with five?!
what to expect when you're expecting to go to jail
Alex Cavendish is an ex-prisoner who blogs about all aspects of UK prison life. Whether you want to prepare yourself mentally, are wondering what to pack, worried about weight gain, or need tips on cooking dinner in your cell, Alex has (incredibly detailed) answers to your questions. [more inside]
perfect lattes and avocado toast
Walk into a tasteful design store, carefully curated fashion boutique, or immaculate Airbnb loft anywhere in the world, and you're likely to find [Kinfolk]'s pristine pages laying in wait, the way bibles nestle in hotel drawers to comfort sinners. All the ideals that now make the publication so instantly recognizable were already present in Nathan's fairy-tale proposal: close friends, home-cooked meals, and a nostalgia for a simpler way of life. [...] Yet for all its ubiquity, the magazine retains a central air of mystery.
March 14
Mission accomplished
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria, describing Russia's objectives as "generally accomplished". [more inside]
Shapeshifter
The Sneaky Life of the World’s Most Mysterious Plant "It looks so ordinary, this vine. But it’s not. It is, arguably, the most mysteriously talented, most surprising plant in the world."
It's almost costless. We just need to feed the cockroaches.
When our robot servants revolt, do we really want them to be a swarm of internet enabled roaches? [more inside]
How 'Dark Money' Shapes US Politics
Jane Mayer takes on the Koch Brothers [1,2,3] - "For decades, billionaire libertarians Charles and David Koch have spent millions trying to reduce the size of government and slash regulations, making the brothers a target of the political Left and campaign finance reformers. But few people have dug deeper into the Koch empire and family history than New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer, author of the new book 'Dark Money'. Among other revelations, she alleges that the brothers hired private detectives to investigate her after she published articles critical of them. We talk to Mayer about the book and about what the rise of Donald Trump means for the Kochs and their allies." (previously)
120 Years of Film (MLYT)
Last year, it was 120 years since the Lumière brothers [previously: 1, 2] filmed workers leaving their factory. Here are various tributes to cinema. [more inside]
There are two aspects about masks; one is cult and the other is culture.
FESTIMA a festival of African masks recently held in Dédougou, Burkina Faso.
Some pbase galleries and a night mask video from a few years back.
Yeah—we weren’t planning on ever stopping
Skating Polly have released a video for Pretective Boy, from their upcoming album The Big Fit. It's quite lovely. [more inside]
Peter Maxwell Davies, 1934-2016
One of the great composers of our time, Peter Maxwell Davies, has died. Some of his best known works include 8 Songs for a Mad King, Kommilitonen!, and 10 fantastic symphonies. The great anti-establishment composer was perhaps most well known, however, for a 2005 incident regarding eating swans that fell on his island home. Rest in peace, Max! [more inside]
Xena and Gabrielle are not just gal-pals
NBC's upcoming Xena: Warrior Princess reboot will skip all of the homoerotic innuendo this time, but not for the reason you expect. This time around, Xena will simply be openly gay.
Masturbating for Science
Are You Orgasming Without Even Knowing It? I was determined to lose my sex-in-a-brain-scanner virginity.
The Broderers Of St Paul’s Cathedral
Like princesses from a fairy tale, the Broderers of St Paul’s sit high up in a tower at the great cathedral stitching magnificent creations in their secret garret. [more inside]
You work with the temperament you’re given
Some babies are just easier than others. (SL New York Times Well blog)
Nigerian Army couple who are both generals
TrollBusters: online pest control for women writers
Winner of a top prize at the 2015 New York Hack-A-Thon, TrollBusters "provides just-in-time rescue services to support women journalists, bloggers and publishers who are targets of cyberharassment. We use our virtual S.O.S. team to send positive memes, endorsements and testimonials into online feeds at the point of attack. We dilute the stings of cyberbullies, trolls and other online pests to support you, your voice, your website, your business and your reputation." Recently, GamerGate [previously on MeFi] has magnified the sense of urgency behind anti-troll strategies for women. [more inside]
“I am a radicalized goat hell-bent on jihad” is sadly not an actual line
A deep dive into the FBI's bizarre anti-extremism browser game: Don’t Be a Puppet: Pull Back the Curtain on Violent Extremism [more inside]
Gravity’s Rainbow: A Love Story
There’s a dirty secret tucked away in Thomas Pynchon’s novels, and it’s this: beyond all the postmodernism and paranoia, the anarchism and socialism, the investigations into global power, the forays into labor politics and feminism and critical race theory, the rocket science, the fourth-dimensional mathematics, the philatelic conspiracies, the ’60s radicalism and everything else that has spawned 70 or 80 monographs, probably twice as many dissertations, and hundreds if not thousands of scholarly essays, his novels are full of cheesy love stories. [SLTM]
Under the Crushing Weight of the Tuscan Sun
I have sat on Tuscan-brown sofas surrounded by Tuscan-yellow walls, lounged on Tuscan patios made with Tuscan pavers, surrounded by Tuscan landscaping. I have stood barefoot on Tuscan bathroom tiles, washing my hands under Tuscan faucets after having used Tuscan toilets. I have eaten, sometimes on Tuscan dinnerware, a Tuscan Chicken on Ciabatta from Wendy’s, a Tuscan Chicken Melt from Subway, the $6.99 Tuscan Duo at Olive Garden, and Tuscan Hummus from California Pizza Kitchen. Recently, I watched my friend fill his dog’s bowl with Beneful Tuscan Style Medley dog food. This barely merited a raised eyebrow; I’d already been guilty of feeding my cat Fancy Feast’s White Meat Chicken Tuscany. Why deprive our pets of the pleasures of Tuscan living?
No, really, pi is wrong.
Life, uh, uh, finds a way
Meet copperhead, a new, weird spaceship that was recently discovered by enthusiasts of Conway's Life.
The Martha Stewart of French Canada
Ricardo Larrivée is slowly but surely building his empire outside Quebec. You can access his magazine here in English or in its original French.
His Food Network Canada show and also his Radio-Canada show aussi.
“Of course, there's still a nuclear site with three damaged reactors.”
Five Years Later, Cutting Through the Fukushima Myths by Andrew Karam [Popular Mechanics] Radiation expert Andrew Karam, who covered the disaster for Popular Mechanics in 2011 and later traveled to study the site, explains everything you need to know about Fukushima's legacy and danger five years later. [more inside]
"In short, they commuted but didn’t associate."
Happy π Day! And do you know what that means? Math puns today! Every day! In competitions, even. Don't like puns? Try other forms of math humor (or over-explain them to businesspeople)!
20 Quatloos on the Glowing Tubes!
Prop Reuse in the Star Trek Universe I can upcycle this mad computer as a cloaking device! Just put a bird (of prey) on it!
What else have we missed about the primes?
Cut to the chase exercise demos and calorie info
March 13
Hilary Putnam (1926-2016)
Hilary Putnam, one of the most important analytic philosophers of the last hundred years, died today from mesothelioma. [more inside]
"When You're Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression"
A guy walks into another guy, and examines privilege ... and the rage when it is denied. All this anger we see from people screaming “All Lives Matter” in response to black protesters at rallies… All this anger we see from people insisting that THEIR “religious freedom” is being infringed because a gay couple wants to get married… All these people angry about immigrants, angry about Muslims, angry about “Happy Holidays,” angry about not being able to say bigoted things without being called a bigot… [more inside]
"Who's Out There?"
Orson Welles, sitting in a dark library and smoking a cigar, narrates the 1975 28-minute long NASA documentary "Who's Out There" on the subjects of Mars, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life and civilizations. Also featuring Carl Sagan.
Party like it's Strasbourg 1518
Medieval Music - 'Hardcore' Party Mix -- "The most rhythmic, upbeat, party medieval music out there, put together in a mix." If you need something to cool down after that 40 minute set, YouTuber VacnaPaul also put together a two hour "daydream mix" of fantasy music, from the video game scores by Jeremy Soule.
Paramount Drops Release of "The Little Prince" One Week Before Release
“All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.” Variety reports that Paramount has decided to not release the film adaptation of the beautiful and classic "Le Petit Prince" in the U.S. despite glowing reviews and a very successful overseas release. The film features the voices of Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, James Franco, Marion Cotillard and Benicio Del Toro .No reason was given for the decision to drop the U.S. release however the film’s director, Mark Osborne, noted that the film will be released later in 2016, with a new distributor: [more inside]
Chrome Music Lab
Google’s Chrome Music Lab [Chrome recommended, not sure if it is required] is a collection of Chrome “experiments,” all featuring Web technologies like WebGL that run inside the Google Chrome browser. Google said that it created the experiments as part of Music In Our Schools month, but the experience should appeal to adults and kids alike: It’s like a Web-based Exploratorium for sound.
needs more yaylı tambur
From Television To '10 Cloverfield Lane', A Composer Plays With Surprise - "When a film starts, 'you have anywhere from two to 10 seconds to get the audience's attention', score writer Bear McCreary says. He gained this and other advice from his mentor [Elmer Bernstein: 1,2 (previously)], whom he met by chance." (previously: 1,2)
From the guns of babes
Toddlers were responsible for more gun deaths than terrorists in the US in 2015. Gun rights advocate Jamie Gilt was recently shot in the back by her 4 year-old son, who used a loaded gun she'd left with him in the backseat of the car. These numbers don't seem to include deaths from older children, like the 11 year-old who shot and killed an 8 year-old last year, because she wouldn't let him play with her puppy.
Womanhood is a culture held together through our physical pain
After Neil deGrasse Tyson made a tweet claiming that any species with painful sex would have gone extinct, other scientists chimed in with examples of animals with particularly torturous sex. Most poignant, though, was this response by Abby Norman about dyspareunia, a medical condition involving painful vaginal penetration, as well as the pressures on women to satisfy their male partner over their own needs and health. (Warning: Abby Norman's piece has some possibly-graphic medical photography.)
March 12
Off he strode with a thrumpety trump, trump, trump, trump
From Tana River, Morgan trudged 20 kilometres on the first night and then hid in thick forest the following day, before continuing his march under cover of darkness. He maintained this pattern for the next 18 days.
Morgan is a 30-year-old bull elephant, the first elephant to return to Somalia in 20 years, using an old migration route. [more inside]
New York Times Tells Us the Future of Music
Had Bernie been Bernadette
The heartbreaking truth about American patriarchy: I never spoke about the Democratic candidates because it was so hard for me to reconcile not that I preferred Bernie but that my heart was broken for this woman I do not yearn to vote for. My heart was broken because even if we play by all the rules the boys set up, the boys demonize us for playing by the rules. Even if we fight for decades to have a spot, ultimately everybody decides, “Nah, thanks anyway, we’re going with the old white guy again.”
Silky Man-management: Hilary Mantel, on the art of surviving Henry VIII
"If Tudor is measured on a scale, and scored by size of beard, love of jousting and trouble with wives, Charles Brandon would come near the top, second only to the king he served. ... [His] power as a court favourite endured till death removed him in 1545. A long run, on ground slippery with blood: how did Charles do it?" Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, reviews Charles Brandon: Henry VIII’s Closest Friend for the London Review of Books.
“When Diesel says he loves you, he seems like he means it.”
A Powerful Collective Rooting for You: On Vin Diesel’s Facebook by Muna Mire [The New York Times] Vin Diesel’s hugely popular Facebook page is a community for inspiration and fellowship. [more inside]
Everyone becomes a Wizard
Why do lesbians and bi women always die?
Ylva’s Steffi Achilles posted a piece asking that television stop killing our queer heriones and Autostraddle took the opportunity to enumerate All 90 Dead Lesbian and Bisexual Characters On TV, And How They Died. [more inside]
Dorothy on Adolf
In 1931, journalist Dorothy Thompson interviewed Adolph Hitler, asking "Will Adolf Hitler come to power? And if he does--will it make any difference?" [PDF] and concluding that " If Hitler comes into power, he will smite only the weakest of his enemies. But perhaps the drummer boy has let loose forces stronger then he knows."
Ten years later, after she became the first American journalist expelled from Nazi Germany and her prediction had proved rather spectacularly wrong, she asked "Who Goes Nazi?" [more inside]
Another one bites the dust
“It’s not a human move. I’ve never seen a human play this move,” he says. “So beautiful.” Go—a 2,500-year-old game that’s exponentially more complex than chess. As recently as 2014, many believed another decade would pass before a machine could beat the top humans.
Now, Alphago, Google’s artificially intelligent Go-playing computer system has beaten Lee Sedol, one of the world’s top players thrice to win their 5 match series.
When AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol in the first game, the result was shocking to many, but doubts still remained about its strengths and weaknesses.In the second game, Lee’s play was much better. His game plan was clearly to play solid and patient moves, and wait for an opportunity to strike.Even though Lee never found that opportunity, it was a high quality game and it gave hope to everyone supporting ‘team human’. Game three crushed that hope. [more inside]
Speaking Machines: the history of synthesizing speech
Replicating the sound of human voices with any sort of control goes back to Vox Humana, one of the oldest organ stops, dating back at least as far as the late 1500's. Then there's a dip into the uncanny valley with Joseph Faber's Euphonia, before we got to Perfect Paul and beyond, to building custom voices. BBC's Radio 4 had a half-hour special on this topic, titled Klatt's Last Tapes - History of Speech Synthesis, and you can read more, plus a transcript, here. [more inside]
RIP Moonie, a.k.a. Bruiser Woods
The 2016 celebrity death toll continues, as Moonie the chihuahua, star of the first two Legally Blonde movies, has passed away at the age of 18. Reese Witherspoon -- a supporting actress in the LB movies whose role was mostly to carry Bruiser around -- broke the news on her Instagram feed. [more inside]
What Ever Happened To Richard Simmons?
Yo La Tengo WFMU All-Request Marathon TODAY
https://wfmu.org/ Yo La Tengo are once again playing requests for pledges beginning at 3pm US EST TODAY on WFMU. Every year, Yo La Tengo perform requests live on-air in exchange for pledges, to help keep freeform noncommercial radio station WFMU (91.1 FM in Jersey City, NJ) on the air. This year is no exception. They will begin playing at 3pm US EST today, and will be playing listener requests for several more hours.
A very specific mixtape
Enter your name and birthday here, and you will get a personal Spotify playlist. (This is from a fathering site, so it prompts you to use your children's names/birthdays, but beware - the songs are not screened for child safety).
Plastic-Eating Bacteria
Newly discovered plastic-eating bacterium can break down PET - "A team of Japanese researchers, led by Dr Shosuke Yoshida from the Kyoto Institute of Technology, have discovered a new species of bacteria that produces a never-before-seen plastic-eating enzyme... Human-manufactured PET has only been around for around 70 years, suggesting that this trait has evolved only relatively recently." [more inside]
"Safeguard our right to privacy"
"Law enforcement must be legally able to collect information ..." – Barack Obama, at sxsw. (Full video of talk.) Contrary to the official change.gov agenda item of "Safeguard our right to Privacy," President Obama has come out in favor of law enforcement. This comes at the heels of an article stating that NSA intercepts will be shared with other intelligence agencies, bypassing parallel construction.
Conway's Game of Pi
John Horton Conway, known for his Game of Life among numerous other mathematical contributions, is partnering with Pizza Hut to release three original math problems at 8 AM EDT this coming Pi Day (March 14th), "varying in level of difficulty from high school to Ph.D. level". The first person to respond to each question with the correct answer will win 3.14 years of free pizza.
March 11
Tell 'em they're dreamin.
"The idea of owning a free-standing home on a quarter-acre block. It’s just not feasible."--The Guardian reports on the Death of the Great Australian Dream. [more inside]
Funky Nassau
The name of this band is The Beginning Of The End. The Bahamas, 1970s. Three brothers and a friend, two albums of junkanoo-influenced funk: [more inside]
"day by day she would weave at the great web"
"Older than bronze and as new as nanowires, textiles are technology — and they have remade our world time and again" [more inside]
"What he doesn’t control he likes to destroy"
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's FY2017 budget, which cuts close to $1 billion from New York City’s budget, includes a surprise $485 million dollar cut to the CUNY system, more than 30% of its operating budget, despite this year's near-record budget surplus. Some see this as another blow in the ongoing feud between Cuomo and NYC mayor Bill De Blasio, others think this is about retribution for the CUNY faculty union's refusal to endorse Cuomo in last year’s unexpectedly competitive Democratic primary against Zephyr Teachout (which might also explain why Cuomo's plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 for state university workers specifically excludes CUNY employees) while others think this is part of a plan to take over CUNY and merge it with the state university system. [more inside]
Online safari in South Africa
Walk around South Africa online with Google Street View. Safari means journey in Swahili. See some of the wildlife in Kruger National Park, meander along the top of Table Mountain, around the Kirstenbosch Gardens or along Cape Town's beautiful beaches. There are some people who can never afford to physically come to South Africa and see these places in their lifetime, and hopefully this will give them the opportunity to experience it a little bit. [more inside]
CASTING CALL | THE PROJECT
The case of the bomb-making, inappropriately defecating boss.
"He testified, rather, that he had “put his own feces into a bag and put the bag into a co-worker’s lunch.” So there was a bag. I mean, he’s not a total barbarian. On the other hand, there was no bag involved when, as he also testified, he once “sat on a catwalk and defecated toward a co-worker in the ditch below him.” (I assume “toward” means his aim was off, thankfully.)... You may be surprised to learn that these are arguably not the worst things this guy did." (h/t Ask A Manager)
This is why you always look down.
Photographer Sebastian Erras take photographs of gorgeous Parisian tiled floors. With his photos of tiled floors in Barcelona and Venice he also plays tour guide with a travelogue and downloadable maps. (Note: Barcelona and Venice content is hosted on the UK site, so if given the option stay on the co.uk domain.)
“Would he have a Twitter account bragging about his accomplishments?”
Where Patrick Bateman Would Be Today by Bret Easton Ellis [Town & Country] Twenty-five years after American Psycho was published as a Bloody Lampoon of the Go-Go '80s, the novel has been turned into a musical. The author considers his protagonist's enduring legacy in an age of even crazier money. [more inside]
Who Rescued Whom?
Dr. Straitslove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Be-Bop-A-Lula
The Walk of Life Project. Hypothesis: "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits is the perfect song to end any movie. (via Paleofuture)
RIP Keith Emerson
Keith Emerson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer Keyboardist, Dead at 71 [Rolling Stone obit] "Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come," Carl Palmer says of ELP bandmate [more inside]
"On Toad’s birthday Frog closed their Series B funding."
Frog and Toad are Co-Founders. Frog and Toad co-found a startup, and learn important lessons about friendship. The author captures original Frog and Toad author Arnold Lobel's distinctive storytelling cadence. (Best enjoyed in limited doses.)
#historybegins
American hockey star Hilary Knight talks with The Hockey Writers about the state of women's hockey on the cusp of the first-ever National Women's Hockey League championship series. It all comes down to this: the Isobel Cup, which opens tonight as the heavily favored Boston Pride take on the scrappy underdog Buffalo Beauts. All games stream free at the league's Cross-Ice Pass.
free up some disk space...
The David W. Niven Collection of Early Jazz Legends, 1921-1991 650 tapes · 1,000 hours · 1,378 WAV files · 637 GB · 691 JPEG scans of cassette liner cards & literature. Meticulously Collected, Compiled, and Narrated by David W. Niven, 1930-1993.
What do deep-fried atrocities have in common with truffles?
Do you get nostalgic for the days when the tag "barely legal food porn" was applied with discretion to things more interesting than burgers with 1000 slices of cheese? Well, yearn no more; after more than 5 years' hiatus François-Xavier is once more updating the incomparable FXcuisine.com [more inside]
There Are Many Ways To Say I Love You
Singer and educator François Clemmons is probably best remembered by several generations of Americans as Officer Clemmons from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. On their weekly segment on NPR's Morning Edition today, StoryCorps featured an interview with Clemmons about his original reluctance to play the part in the racially-heated days of the late 1960s, his realization of the importance of presenting a black role model to children, and ultimately his life-long friendship with Fred Rogers. [more inside]
They Say What Everyone Is Thinking
"Savage has this down to a kind of science. And it works. His fans treat him like a philosopher-king. The Amazon reviews for his books are brimming with regular people hungry for a straight shooter who calls it like he sees it. It’s an easy performance to fall for." - Kaleb Horton on Michael Savage. The Trump appeal, and reaping what ring-wing media sows
It's the Topps!
"I like making things I feel should exist, like these faux vintage wax pack wrappers."
Getting the drop on a drop bear
The well-documented foodie lifestyle in the megalopolis of Los Angeles is extending now to the native fauna: P-22, the celebrity mountain lion currently living in Griffith Park and bored of its usual deer and raccoon fare, allegedly bypassed an 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire at the LA Zoo and ate a koala (warning: brief description of koala leftovers). This has sparked a debate about whether the mountain lion/puma/cougar should be relocated or left alone. [more inside]
Ken Adam, Designer of Bond Villain Lairs, Is Dead
Sir Ken Adam, who designed those iconic sets for Bond films, as well as the car for the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, not to mention Dr. Strangelove's War Room, has passed away. He also won Academy Awards for Art Direction for Barry Lyndon and The Madness of King George.
World's largest cruise ship, "Harmony of the Seas"
World's largest cruise ship, "Harmony of the Seas" The 120,000-tonne, 16-deck ship set off on Thursday from Saint-Nazaire, western France for a three-day offshore test.
Harmony of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, set off on Thursday on its first sea trial from Saint-Nazaire, western France, with just two months to go to delivery.
The city’s STX France shipyards began building the €1bn ($1.1bn) mammoth for US shipbuilder Royal Caribbean International (RCI) in September 2013.
Thousands of people gathered at the dock to watch as the 120,000-tonne ship was helped out to sea by six tugs.
Hello, Cleveland! Rock 'n Roll!
For a number of us, a contested convention is a completely foreign concept, given that the last one occurred over twenty years ago. So Slate has provided an extremely detailed guide to the history of contested conventions and the absolute clusterfuck that a contested GOP convention might turn out to be.
My Year In San Francisco's $2 Million Secret Society Startup
Mikhail Lesin was bludgeoned to death.
Four months after Lesin's death, a US coroner reports that former Russian media oligarch Mikhail Lesin died of blunt trauma to the head, neck, torso, arms, and legs--not a heart attack. At the time of his death in a Washington, D.C. hotel, it was reported that there was "no evidence of foul play". [more inside]
March 10
Museum of Lost Objects
A series of ten articles at the BBC News Magazine by Kanishk Tharoor and Maryam Maruf tracing the stories of ten antiquities and cultural sites that have been destroyed or looted in Iraq and Syria: (1) The Winged Bull of Nineveh; (2) The Temple of Bel; (3) Tell of Qarqur; (4) Aleppo’s minaret; (5) The Lion of al-Lat; (6) Mar Elian Monastery; (7) Al-Ma’arri: the unacceptable poet; (8) The Genie of Nimrud; (9) The Armenian Martyrs’ Memorial Church in Deir al-Zour; and (10) Looted Sumerian Seal, Baghdad. [more inside]
Open
Pardon me. Du bist Bertolt Brecht, recht?
"I was going to write up a little essay about the way Hamilton incorporates Brechtian performance techniques and whether Brecht still packs any punch in the twenty-first century.
But then for some reason it became a rap battle instead."
...But for you - only five million francs
Coral Bleaching in American Samoa
You're running out of time to see one of nature's most spectacular sites, writes Tom Philpott in Mother Jones. American Samoa is just one of the locations affected by a massive coral bleaching event. [more inside]
Hey, No Pressure...
Singer-songwriter Ray Lamontagne released his new album Ouroboros this week. Produced by Jim James, of My Morning Jacket fame, Lamontagne's 6th studio album lends new artistic credibility to the 42 year old artist's oeuvre. Comparisons to Pink Floyd aren't completely unfounded... the cover of Ouroboros seems to show, among other things, the dark side of the Moon.
Hoof Capsule Removal
This is just a youtube video of a lady pulling the hoof right off of the disembodied foot of a dead horse, as an educational demonstration of equine anatomy and a lesson in the proper care of hooves. Warning: exactly what it sounds like.
Paul had no interest in salad. For him, it was always about the dressing
The Clickhole brings us an oral history of the Newman’s Own food company, its flagship dressing, and its distinctive founder.
I Know You’re Lonely for Words That I Ain’t Spoken
Bruce Springsteen: 41 Years on Thunder Road, a supercut of the Boss performing his iconic song, from the famed 1975 Hammersmith Odeon show to a New Jersey show earlier this year. (via The Morning News, whence comes the post title as well)
Too Awesome For This Poor World
As if they weren't awesome enough individually, Neko Case, k. d. lang, and Laura Veirs have released a new song from a forthcoming album to be released this June.
Joseph Heath on the benefits of risk-pooling and the social safety net
Privatization and demutualization. A concise explanation of the efficiency gains of health insurance and public pensions, from Canadian philosopher Joseph Heath. Heath points out that the "social safety net" provides tremendous gains from risk-pooling, completely separate from redistribution or reduced inequality. [more inside]
Jody, Jodi, Jodie, Jodee, Jodey, Joedee, Joedey, Joedi, Joedie, Joedey
Jody Rosen explores what it felt like growing up a boy with a "girl's" name, a Jody instead of a "Colin" when Jody is both the "country girl doll" star of 1970s toy commercials and "the wily sexual scavenger" woman-stealing man of traditional call-and-response, R & B classics, and military chants. [more inside]
Restless and hungry: good books to tackle before you turn 30
30 Books You Need To Read Before You Turn 30 (Huffpost Arts & Culture, Katherine Brooks) /
33 books everyone should read before turning 30 (Business Insider, Richard Feloni and Drake Baer) / 30 works of Canadian fiction to read before you're 30 (CBC) / 30 Books by Women to Read Before You Turn 30 (Bustle, Gina Vaynshteyn) / 30 Books Every Man Should Read By 30 (slideshow or thumbnails, Esquire, Sam Parker and Claudia Canavan)
Michelle Obama and Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau attend dinner with husbands.
We can look at each facial hair property returned by the Face API
Analysis of coder stereotypes by facial analysis of github profile pics, including an in-depth look at correlations with different kinds of facial hair.
Brew Your Own Penguin...
Scottish brewing outfit Brewdog have open-sourced all their beer recipes, scaling them down for home brewing. 215 recipes in total, and yes, it includes both "Sink The Bismarck" and "Tactical Nuclear Penguin".
Dog mama gets reunited with her puppies
Scared dog + lost puppies = happy dog. With pics and video.
On the internet, it is always day somewhere—and night somewhere else.
A Journal of Insomnia is an interactive documentary that only comes alive at night. Make a nighttime appointment to experience a sleepless night through stories, images and webcam videos shared by the insomniac of your choice. [more inside]
The Peterson Farm Blog
We are glad you are here! This blog was created for us to address the many questions people have about farmers and modern day agriculture. We hope that our blog will be a source of answers for people who are searching for the truth! ... This blog will focus mainly on family farmers like us who live in the Midwest and grow typical Midwest crops and livestock (wheat, corn, soybeans, sorghum, cattle, etc). There are countless other farmers out there who grow all sorts of different things (fruits, veggies, nuts, etc.) and raise all sorts of different animals (swine, poultry, dairy, etc.), but since my expertise lies solely on Midwest USA farmers, that’s what I will generally be referencing! The point to take away here is that we need to appreciate all farmers, no matter what kind they are, and we should all do our best to thank those who help grow our food! [more inside]
More dinochicken advances
Scientists have genetically modified a chicken to make its fibula tubular all the way down, just like a dinosaur. A different group of scientists previously modified a chicken to give it dinosaur teeth. Previously, and previously-er.
March Sadness
A tournament bracket of sad songs from 1980-2001. Vote for matchups and let's argue about sad music instead of politics. [more inside]
Carl will be here soon
Brian the spider
Say hello to the newly discovered Australian spider named Brian*, that can - obviously - surf, swim and eat toads up to three times its size. But it's not harmful to humans (unlike these fellas). Plus the recent warm weather down under has been a bit of a boom to our eight legged friends there. Warning: Spiders. [more inside]
At least 50 per cent
On International Women's Day, the National Film Board of Canada announced that at least 50 per cent of all productions and 50 per cent of spending will be allocated to films directed by women. [more inside]
What's so Civil about War, anyway?
The second trailer for Captain America: Civil War has dropped. The film, the longest yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will clock in at 2 hour and 26 minute and comes out on May 6 in the US. [more inside]
I sang it in Iceland, in Greenland, England, Germany, in Czechoslovakia
Second Sound Barrier Trailer
#Bam4Ham
On Monday, the cast of Broadway's Hamilton will be going to the White House today to test a pilot version of its educational program as well as perform a concert of “Hamiltunes” for the kids and the First Family. [more inside]
How to replicate the origami figures in Blade Runner
Kenneth Thompson searched the internet to find a place to purchase one of Gaff's unicorns from Blade Runner, and when he couldn't find any he decided to make it himself. And while he does sell them, he has provided free instructions and videos to help anyone make their own Blade Runner origami unicorn or chicken. Includes bonus matchstick man instructions.
"but it coordinates even better with deindustrialization and despair"
Thomas Frank, perhaps most notable for using his home state of Kansas as a case study for the transformation of the United States by the Republican Party's embrace of the Southern strategy and the Reagan revolution, now draws out the difference between the treatment of Trump's appeal by the mainstream press versus what Trump seems to emphasize in his speeches.
Millions of ordinary Americans support Donald Trump. Here's why (SLGrauniad)
[more inside]
Millions of ordinary Americans support Donald Trump. Here's why (SLGrauniad)
[more inside]
A crash course in the history of black science fiction.
42 black science fiction works that are important to your understanding of its history. Nisi Shawl has assembled a rich syllabus of novels and story collections, from 1859 to 2015. Some fantasy and horror along with the strictly science fictional.
"All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure"
Disaffection pays dividends
A USB stick containing the registration details of 22,000 ISIS members from 51 countries has been obtained by Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondant for Sky News. The source is Abu Hamed, a disaffected former Syrian Free Army convert to ISIS and was apparently the USB was stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security police. [more inside]
You have to get out of that neighborhood if you want decent children
Memphis Burning
To understand racial inequality in America, start with housing. Here, in the nation’s poorest major city, the segregationist roots go deep.
This is the first article in an ongoing series, “The Inequality Chronicles.”
To understand racial inequality in America, start with housing. Here, in the nation’s poorest major city, the segregationist roots go deep.
This is the first article in an ongoing series, “The Inequality Chronicles.”
First Listen Live: Esperanza Spalding, 'Emily's D+Evolution'
Fulfilling the performance-art vision of her spirit-muse Emily, Esperanza Spalding played the music of her forthcoming album Emily's D+Evolution in concert at BRIC House in Brooklyn, N.Y. [1h3m video] on Thursday, March 3. WFUV and NPR Music presented a live video webstream of the performance as part of the First Listen Live series. [more inside]
March 9
Digital Humanism
The Digital in the Humanities: An Interview with Franco Moretti - "the term 'digital humanities' (DH) has captured the imagination and the ire of scholars across American universities. The field, which melds computer science with hermeneutics, is championed by supporters as the much-needed means to shake up and expand methods of traditional literary interpretation and is seen by its most outspoken critics as a new fad that symbolizes the neoliberal bean counting destroying American higher education. Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes lies a vast and varied body of work that utilizes and critically examines digital tools in the pursuit of humanistic study. [more inside]
Hell's Club, Part Two: Another Night
Horror and moral terror are your friends ... - Tell that to my little friend! There is a place where all fictional characters come to meet, again. (Previously, the "original motion picture") (via Filmmaker Magazine)
Katamari Damacy is pretty much the same.
"Four."
“Can you imagine a situation where a celebrity sex tape would not be newsworthy?” asked the lawyer, Douglas E. Mirell.
“If they were a child,” Mr. Daulerio replied.
“Under what age?” the lawyer pressed.
Gawker founder Nick Denton and former editor Albert J. Daulerio take the stand.
“If they were a child,” Mr. Daulerio replied.
“Under what age?” the lawyer pressed.
Gawker founder Nick Denton and former editor Albert J. Daulerio take the stand.
"You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!"
Dr. Pimple Popper
"American community uses the slang term No-Maj, short for ‘No Magic’."
JK Rowling has been accused of appropriating the “living tradition of a marginalized people” by writing about the Navajo legend of the skinwalker in new story. [The Guardian] [more inside]
12 Things About Being A Woman That Women Won't Tell You
"Hey, I'm not going to womansplain feminism to the readers of Esquire! That's not happening on my watch! You're sophisticated, 21st century men with a copy of the El Bulli cookbook, a timeless pair of investment brogues and a couple of Joni Mitchell albums — for when you want to sit in your leather armchair, and have a little, noble, necessary man-cry." [slEsquire, Caitlin Moran]
"Stimpy! ACTIVATE THE PLOT DEVICE!"
It's always a great time to look back at the joy and wonder that was (is) Ren & Stimpy!
The madness! The pain! The tangents!
Still respected and celebrated as one of the most influential shows of the animation renaissance of the 90s, Ren & Stimpy love is still strong, and creator Jon Kricfalusi is still doing some great work.
And let's not forget the adverstisers!
A tale as old as time...
"To them we were cartoons come to life"
VancouFUR, Vancouver's principal furry convention, occurred at a hotel that was also housing Syrian refugee families (many with small children). The kids loved it, and so did the convention attendees.
The Secret Service will rest easier without you around on our south lawn
15 seasons.
282 Episodes.
13 years.
Thousands of experiments and explosions.
White House visits, including a failed solar death ray.
And at least one Metafilter debate answered on air.
Goodbye, Mythbusters. [more inside]
282 Episodes.
13 years.
Thousands of experiments and explosions.
White House visits, including a failed solar death ray.
And at least one Metafilter debate answered on air.
Goodbye, Mythbusters. [more inside]
Sausage roll nation
Colorlines - White Privilege II
Colorlines (w/ Jay Smooth) talks about White Privilege II, the Macklemore/Ryan Lewis single, with the artists. The article has context, but here's the direct video also.
Have you ever wondered what a loggerhead turtle's esophagus looks like?
Six-Time Tony Winner Returns to the Great White(?) Way
Shocking As It Is to Believe, the Theater May Be in a New Golden Age One reason: Audra McDonald, Broadway’s greatest voice, is back.
"[C.E.] has been rejected by every single game publisher on the planet."
The story of Cosmic Encounter is about a flash of creative genius in the early seventies, followed by four decades of struggle to see that vision fully realised. Despite the rapturous critical acclaim Cosmic Encounter has accrued in the 39 years since its first publication, it has not been followed by commercial success. Indeed, the creators of the greatest boardgame in existence have never made a living off it. The making of Cosmic Encounter, the greatest boardgame in the galaxy
You have one hour. Good luck.
The team that brought you the Real Life First Person Shooter has struck again with Real Life Hitman which is even more impressive. Behind the scenes.
Teach your children well
Grenade in a toaster oven (SLYT)
woe is the millennial, bringer of slack and turpitude
the 30-year economic betrayal dragging down Generation Y’s income, its time for the 2016 monthly millennial news roundup, money spent in waste according to the politbureau, millennials, the new pointdexters snitchin' away to get ahead, investors scurry to understand them, shallow and lazy says the critics, swimming against the economic tides says some, suck it up and bootstrap says some others, and someone else says its the polar opposite.
thankfully, Dave Mustaine says it like it is.
No wool, no vikings
Is the Competitive Bridge World Rife with Cheaters?
Billionaires, partying until the early morning, and Internet sleuthing: A recent scandal that rocked the world of high stakes contract bridge has it all.
The Quest For The Real-Life Treasures of Atari’s Swordquest
"Life is good, sept the parts that suck"
Someone buying this property will obtain a piece of cultural history
The new triangle trade
March 8
A History of Rock in 15 Minutes
Ocus Puzzle
Beatles producer-arranger George Martin is dead at 90
Ringo tweeted the sad news early this A.M. His accomplishments are too numerous to mention. But he signed them and believed in them, and made them sound so much better. What he helped create at Abbey Road Studios lives forever.
R.I.P.
The surprisingly gripping discussion of Minesweeper world records
Minesweeper: a competitive sport Did you know Minesweeper had major competitions for rankings? And that there is a surprisingly large controversy about them in the community? And how many hours did you spend flagging mines?
The Cats Who Came in From the Cold
Tinykittens is a Canadian cat rescue that Livestreams foster kittens (previously). Now playing: Sable and Neelix, a tortie and tabby tuxie respectively, both pregnant, with Sable due any day now. Right now, four feral cats are in residence at TKHQ, all of them from the same colony... and two former ferals waiting on adoption. This is where things get interesting. [more inside]
April 24th is coming
A completely not safe for work trailer for season 6 of Game of Thrones has arrived, along with intensive speculation about what's going on in it. [more inside]
"While our numbers are not great, we are mighty."
Eight Democrats are filibustering the latest attempt to legalize anti-same-sex-marriage discrimination, known as SJR 39, which "Prohibits the state from penalizing clergy, religious organizations, and certain individuals for their religious beliefs concerning marriage between two people of the same sex". The filibuster has been going since Monday afternoon, and you can listen here.
Second Wachowski filmmaker sibling comes out as trans
Lilly Wachowski, 48, sibling of Lana, 50, came out in a statement to Windy City Times, after being threatened with outing by other media.
This dog isn't just a family pet - he's a lifesaver
Jedi is a diabetic alert dog who keeps watch over Nuttall's seven-year-old son, Luke, who has suffered from type 1 diabetes since the age of two. Jedi is trained to monitor Luke's blood sugar to keep it from getting too low or too high, and to let Nuttall know when something is not right.
depressed binge HoC rinse repeat
...binge-watchers reported higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression than their non-binge-watching counterparts. The study found 77 percent of participants watched TV for two hours... link to paper: Viewing Patterns and Addiction to Television among Adults Who Self-Identify as Binge-Watchers
AlphaGo and AI progress
The first game between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol is scheduled to begin at 23:00 EST tonight, in Seoul. There will be a livestream with commentary in english. Since the Deepmind Go-playing computer's previous victory against Fan Hui, Go professionals and AI researchers alike have had time to consider what it means. [more inside]
Cyclists chased by an ostrich
Irate ostrich hits 50kph in awesome high-speed pursuit of cyclists [RT] - "So we were on our training ride, around Cape Town, South Africa. The route was following the Cape Argus racing course with a detour to Cape of Good Hope. The road through the national park is quiet and a little deserted. Suddenly I heard a noise on my left and saw a big ostrich in the bush, most likely a female." (via)
"I guess I think of that Sid Meier as another person."
The Man Who Made A Million Empires by Colin Campbell [Polygon]
Not many creators have the brazen audacity to slap their name in the actual titles of the things they create. John Lennon didn't call his 1971 album, "John Lennon's Imagine." Mrs. Dalloway isn't called "Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway." James Cameron has so far managed to keep his name out of all his movie titles. But a lot of Sid Meier's games flash the words "Sid Meier" right there in the title. Most famously: the Sid Meier's Civilization series, which has sold more than 33 million units over the past 25 years. The most recent is 2010's Sid Meier's Civilization V. It's one of the greatest strategy games ever made.
Syntax and Bird Calls
8,000 vintage Afropop songs, streaming online
An amazing treasure trove of 8,000 Afropop tracks. The British Library just released this archive as part of their first online sound project within their Endangered Archives Programme (EAP). The recordings are from the state-supported Syliphone label and were released between 1958 to 1984. [more inside]
Bobos in Existential Crisis
A senior editor at The Economist poinders, painfully, what it exactly he (and others like him) finds so compelling about being a workaholic: Why Do We Work So Hard?
Is group chat making you sweat?
RIP E3?
At 20 years old has the concept of the Electronic Arts Expo expired? [Warning Wired.com link] In 2003 MeFi discussed the possible death of E3, yet it's still happening in 2016. But after this year will any of the big software or hardware names be in attendance? [more inside]
Print is back in fashion
Transplantable human bone and cartilage made with 3D printer that creates a matrix in the desired shape and injects cells that can integrate with the patient's blood vessels on implant
No two days exactly the same
Communitymanagement.org : a community for community managers : "If you manage an online community and would like to learn from other community managers, this is the place. Built by community managers, for community managers, and completely free. Come here to ask questions, share challenges, and network with fellow CMs." From Mefi's own gone2croatan (Community Manager/Co-Founder). via MetaFilter Projects. [more inside]
How to Get Motivated
How to Get Motivated (the Poster) [1980x1080.png]. Here are the instructions. Based upon the Procrastination Equation.
![How to Get Motivated (the Poster) [1980x1080.png].](https://alexvermeer.com/wp-content/uploads/howtogetmotivated-1920x1080.png){kind=link}
There is an app for everything. Including death.
Death apps promise to help people curate their afterlives From The Guardian: Death apps promise to help a person organize his or her entire online life into a bundle of digital living wills, funeral plans, multimedia memorial portfolios and digital estate arrangements. It could be the mother of all personal media accounts, designed to store all of a person’s online passwords in one spot, for a successor to retrieve after he or she dies.
What the Koran really says about women.
Queen of Cups
Harley is an umbrella cockatoo. She loves cups. No, wait, maybe she hates cups? Anyway, Harley has a ton of cups. (mlYT)
Everything That You’ve Come to Expect
Up close and a little too personal with The Last Shadow Puppets. As I walk away, I try to suppress my ballooning sense that something wasn’t right back there. Is it normal to be asked up to a male musician’s room — even as a joke? Or cheek-kissed, repeatedly high-fived, and stared down? Even if he’s entirely harmless (and I’m sure that he is), is this the sort of thing that I should let go for the sake of my job? After music journalist Rachel Brodsky interviewed the U.K. orch-rock duo, she came away with a very different article than she'd set out to write.
Tell me how do I feel
The BBC teams up with the Orkestra Obsolete on the anniversary of New Order's Blue Monday to find out what it would sound like played on a diddley bow, hammered dulcimer, harmonium, zither, musical saw, and singing glasses.
Well, my spin classes won't save me from death but I like them.
Getting fit in middle age: a marathon addict, a couch potato and others share their pain. Included: How to get fit after 40.
(dlTheGrauniad)
To erase the line between man and machine
Erotic souls kicked toward saintliness chained in a mad dead house
Max Nelson is writing a series on prison literature for The Paris Review. The first entry from 15 September 2015 concerns Dostoevsky's "Notes From a Dead House", the latest so far, from 25 February 2016, deals with Austin Reed's "The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict". [more inside]
More bunny than badass
Harvest Moon: PC
Stardew Valley is a farming, fishing, mining, exploring, crafting game from Concerned Ape. Think a little Harvest Moon, Terraria, Animal Crossing and Minecraft, but also a little more than those. The game is currently topping the charts of Steam. Critical reception has also been great, seeing the game as an evolution of the Harvest Moon formula with several major improvements. Others highlight the somewhat addictively relaxing nature of the game.
1:41:07
Nathan Sexton finished his first half marathon this past weekend in Chattanooga, Tennessee, finishing at a 7:44-mile pace for 13.1 miles. Last summer, Sexton was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer that brings an average life expectancy of 15 months.
“They could sell doorstops when they couldn't sell skillets”
Among the most prized objects owned by Southern families are the cast-iron skillets passed down from generation to generation. The ones in your kitchen probably came from Lodge Manufacturing Co., in the tiny eastern Tennessee town of South Pittsburg. Most of us know well the memories contained in those old skillets, but we know very little about the integrity of the people who make them. A visit to the Lodge foundry certainly has lessons to teach us about the South and its culture. But more importantly, Lodge also exemplifies something remarkably rare in today’s business world: a family-run company that has built a booming, global business without selling out its hometown. —Chuck Reese of the Bitter Southerner with a surprisingly touching piece of corporate portraiture.
The Vast Bay Leaf Conspiracy
In search of confirmation, as well as freedom to ignore the bay leaf portion of future recipes I might encounter, I reached out to a number of chefs and asked them, “Are bay leaves bullshit?”
March 7
The Southern Strategy and the devil down south.
"Goldwater discovered it; Nixon refined it; and Reagan perfected it into the darkest of the modern political dark arts." An excellent piece on the history of the Republican party’s racial politics since the Civil Rights Movement era, and how the 'Southern Strategy' and its dog-whistle appeal to racism paved the way for the current unpleasantness within the Grand Old Party. [more inside]
The List
When juveniles are found guilty of sexual misconduct, the sex-offender registry can be a life sentence.--Longform by Sarah Stillman in the New Yorker.
The positive and uplifting sounds and story of Black Coffee
Nkosinathi Maphumulo is a South African musician better known as Black Coffee. He has been devoted to making music since an early age, and even though he lost the use of his left arm in a car crash while growing up in a poor township, he has gone on to become a superstar in South African music. More than a marathon-session DJ (going so far as to DJ for 60 hours), he created a multimedia stadium show, where he played with a 24 piece orchestra and additional live percussion, keyboards and singers, who all spoke with love for the unique South African experience they created. [more inside]
Return to Oz: the most controversial magazine of the 60s goes online
Everything the establishment hated most was in Oz, the enfant terrible of the underground press. Now, 45 years after its famous obscenity trial, the entire archive has been published on the web
"That'll do, pig. That'll do."
The Cult of Ignorance in the USA
Expressing the imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious
Oh So Surreal: - Pop Surrealism and Lowbrow Art; featuring interviews and work from artists as diverse as
Mr Mead | SSSdolls | Joseph Loughborough | Nicomi Nix Turner | Millie Brown | Filthy the Bear | Jean Paul Bourdier
and many more.
Click through the categories
or scroll down the sidebars and be amazed or disgusted or meh.
The Procrastinator’s Clock
Every clock at New York's Grand Central Station runs one minute fast by design. It's not an uncommon psychological trick: an informal poll of the Straight Dope message board turns up dozens of people who set their clocks 1, 15, or 30 minutes ahead to encourage punctuality and "create" more time. "The problem with this" (points out Crooked Timber) "is that if you’re half-way rational, you’ll correct for the error, making it useless. So the solution is to have a probabilistic clock, where the clock is fast, but you aren’t sure how fast it is within a given and relatively short time range." [more inside]
Here's the Jump Cut/Cross Cut/Smash Cut
She wanted to do her research; he wanted to talk feelings.
Sexual harassment in science generally starts like this: A woman (she is a student, a technician, a professor) gets an email and notices that the subject line is a bit off: “I need to tell you,” or “my feelings.” The opening lines refer to the altered physical and mental state of the author: “It’s late and I can’t sleep” is a favorite, though “Maybe it’s the three glasses of cognac” is popular as well.
Let’s do things a bit differently and in a bit more civilised way.
During a session with students at Goldsmiths, University of London Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn was asked for his opinion on whether sex work should be decriminalised, he said: “I am in favour of decriminalising the sex industry. I don’t want people to be criminalised. I want to be [in] a society where we don’t automatically criminalise people. Let’s do things a bit differently and in a bit more civilised way.”
But some of his backbenchers are unhappy with this position. [more inside]
Body armor for fur babies
Do you walk your dog in areas where there are coyotes or hawks? Are you worried about taking your small dog to the dog park or the beach, where there are so many incidents of larger dogs injuring or killing smaller dogs? Do you own a larger dog that won't stop picking on your smaller dog? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then your small dog needs CoyoteVest™ body armor.
↑↑↓↓←→←→BA
The Forgotten Politics Behind Contra's Name by Matt Morey [Kill Screen]
Do a quick Google search of “contra.” Browsing the first few pages, you should see a saturation of links about the videogame—the now-primary version of the word—sprinkled with other definitions. Next in the deck is contra as preposition: “against, contrary, or opposed to,” suitingly enough. Then, a “contemporary New York cuisine” restaurant; contra-dancing, a folksy flirty form adaptable to many musical styles; the second album by Vampire Weekend; and eventually, peeking through before being closed out again, you’ll stumble upon the elephant in the room.
“Winifred, did you hear I mentioned your name, you little twat?”
Fan made beats Phantom
Farewell to my face
If you’re expecting me to end this essay on an uplifting note—“I’ve come to appreciate my inevitably middle-aged face, which shows proof of hard-won wisdom and a well-lived life”—you can forget it. I will never not blanch at photographs showing the accents grave and aigu on either side of my nose, not to mention my multi-circumflexed forehead. That’s decrepitude, not character.Nell Beram: I’m Middle-aged and I Look It — But Don’t Ask Me to Like It
how many hot dogs should i eat within a given week
The most heroic word in all languages is PASTRAMI ON RYE
So on the night of the New Hampshire primary, MSNBC's Chris Hayes accidentally referred to the democratic socialist senator running for President as "Bernie Sandwiches". There was much guffawing, punnery and memeing. And now it's a game, for iOS and Android. The staff from All In w/ Chris Hayes is reportedly entranced. (Note: the Bernie Sanders caricature in the game comes from DonkeyHotey, though it's used without attribution.)
There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem
"The search for scientific bases for confronting problems of social policy is bound to fail, because of the nature of these problems. They are 'wicked' problems..."[pdf] [more inside]
In preparation for International Womens Day tomorrow
Turbocharging the snail
Little Labors
The Only Thing I Envy Men is an essay about women writers by Rivka Galchen, taken from her book Little Labors. The book focuses partly on writing by Japanese women, especially the 11th Century writers Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu, authors of The Pillow Book and Tale of Genji respectively. The latter has recently been retranslated, and was the subject of a lengthy article in the New Yorker by Ian Buruma.
Al Gore and Bill Gates on Investing in Clean-Energy 'Moon Shots'
The case for optimism on climate change - "I'll finish with this story. When I was 13 years old, I heard that proposal by President Kennedy to land a person on the Moon and bring him back safely in 10 years. And I heard adults of that day and time say, 'That's reckless, expensive, may well fail.' But eight years and two months later, in the moment that Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, there was great cheer that went up in NASA's mission control in Houston. Here's a little-known fact about that: the average age of the systems engineers, the controllers in the room that day, was 26, which means, among other things, their age, when they heard that challenge, was 18." (via; previously) [more inside]
March 6
There will be Netflix on Mars
The future of space travel demands better communication. The pokey pace at which our current Martian spacecraft exchange data with Earth just isn't enough for future inhabitants who want to talk to their loved ones back home or spend a Saturday binge-watching Netflix. So NASA engineers have begun planning ways to build a better network. The idea is an interplanetary internet in which orbiters and satellites can talk to one another rather than solely relying on a direct link with the Deep Space Network, and scientific data can be transferred back to Earth with vastly improved efficiency and accuracy.
may God bless the children of Israel and the children of all the nations
Remembering a Great U.S. Judge Doron Weber remembers Federal Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who died in February after serving 30 years as a judge for the U.S. District Court of Manhattan.
OS X Ransomware
First OS X ransomware detected in the wild, will maliciously encrypt hard drives on infected Macs. [more inside]
Black hole paint
Artist Anish Kapoor has been granted exclusive rights to use Vantablack, which is so dark it makes everything look two-dimensional, useful for military and space technolgies, as well as making urinal cakes. [more inside]
Yankees vs. StubHub
"Two weeks ago the Yankees announced they will eliminate the print-at-home ticket option this season. Hard-stock tickets and mobile barcodes will be the only way into Yankee Stadium."
Give us this day our daily WTF
Most blessed Father..... five international auditors wrote to Pope Francis on 27 June 2013, three months into his papacy, ‘there is an almost total lack of clarity in the accounts of both the Holy See and the Governorate.’ (via LRB).
Part of the auditing committee and the only woman was Francesca Chaouqui (read the comments) another was Lucio Balda, presently in jail.
Meanwhile two other Italian journalists refused to answer the Vatican prosecutor’s questions. The spinners say The truth of the Vatileaks scandal is that there is no scandal.
Part of the auditing committee and the only woman was Francesca Chaouqui (read the comments) another was Lucio Balda, presently in jail.
Meanwhile two other Italian journalists refused to answer the Vatican prosecutor’s questions. The spinners say The truth of the Vatileaks scandal is that there is no scandal.
Nancy Reagan (1921 - 2016)
Thinking in Slow Motion
You betcha
New Looks for Old Books
Recovering the Classics is a crowdsourced collection of original covers for 100 great works in the public domain, designed to increase interest and access to classics in e-book format. [more inside]
Where ships go to die
The Kids
Judges, academics, pundits and activists keep wondering how children are impacted by gay marriage. Maybe it’s time to ask the kids. A rich media photo essay coupled with audio interviews, by Gabriela Herman. [more inside]
“They tell their friends, ‘My mom’s a truck driver!’”
Road Runner: A Week On The Road With A Female Trucker by Jessica Ogilvie [Buzzfeed] When most Americans think of truckers, they imagine big, burly men — not Melissa Rojas. The Michigan-based mom is one of less than 6% of long-haul drivers who are women. Though weeks on the road can sometimes bring more frustration than freedom, she wouldn’t have it any other way. [more inside]
Cognition without Cortex
“Delay of gratification, mental time travel, reasoning, metacognition, mirror self-recognition, theory of mind, and third-party intervention.” A review article published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences describes certain bird species demonstrating these complex cognitive functions. [more inside]
Replication study fails under scrutiny
A much publicized study (previously) suggested that more than half of all psychology studies cannot be replicated. A new study finds that the replication study was full of serious mistakes and its conclusion is wrong. [more inside]
Watch THIS
Neighbo(u)rhood Watch signs in Toronto have been vandalized improved with pictures of Pop Culture 'watchers'. More pics of signs at The Celler
The best afternoon teas in London
March 5
Shoaling, refraction, convergence, interference
What makes an epic wave. Learn how 20 meter (and taller!) waves form thanks to “The Nazaré Wave” short video, featuring high school students from Escola Secundária de Gama Barros (Sintra, Portugal) [more inside]
Bangor Maine Police Department Facebook Page
"Sorry to bother you, but I just have to tell you, I love your voice."
Stand up comic Tig Notaro tells a story about Taylor Dayne. Jon Dore tells Tig Notaro a story about Goldilocks. (Tig Notaro, previously 1, 2, 3)
Seven miles deep, the ocean is still a noisy place
NOAA reports: "For three weeks, a titanium-encased hydrophone recorded ambient noise from the ocean floor at a depth of more than 36,000 feet, or 7 miles, in the Challenger Deep trough in the Mariana Trench near Micronesia. Researchers from NOAA, Oregon State University, and the U.S. Coast Guard were surprised by how much they heard." The hydrophone recorded the sounds of whales, ships' propellers, typhoons, and an earthquake. [more inside]
Float. Fly. Eat.
Boat plans collected by Svenson from assorted 50s and 60s magazines such as Mechanix Illustrated free for download. Sailboats, Hydroplanes, Ski boats, Cabin Cruisers, Rowboats, Houseboats, Runabouts (inboard and outboard), Paddle boats, Utility boats, Novelty boats and other information. Also free model airplane plans. [more inside]
Hypocrisy is the Homerage vice pays virtue
Movie References in The Simpsons (SLVimeo; NSFW)
They cannot choose not to decide
The Girl Who Listened To Rush is a new song by Nerf Herder, full of love and references for the titular trio.
Take your mind off of everything
Evgeni Plushenko is your sex bomb This is a very fun figure skating video from 2001. Here is a Evgeni Plushenko compilation by the Huffington Post from 2014 for further diversion.
Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera
SF author (and Mefi's own) Charles Stross is thinking about the cliches in Space Opera and tries to put together a complete list of the hoary genre tropes that literary (no TV or movies) Space Opera is prone to.
"Politicians. Businessmen. Nobody’s watching them anymore."
As newsrooms disappear, veteran reporters are being forced from the profession. They dedicated their lives to telling other people’s stories. What happens when no one wants to print their words anymore?
Early Computers: Applications, Computer Graphics, Look at Future Uses
The Incredible Machine (1960s, slyt)
Cherry, the mechanical king
As developers, we all have preferences in the tools we use for work: a powerful machine, one (or two) large screens, having the freedom to choose our OS, our IDE, etc....
Yet in most companies, we rarely pay the the same level of attention to keyboards.
Scott Kelly wasn't up there alone, you know
Dust to dust
Francis Bacon's final painting 'Study of a Bull', never publicly seen before, has been found in a private collection and will now go on show for the first time.
Beautiful birds flying free. That's all.
Historia de un Oso
Bear Story won the Best Animated Short Oscar 2016. It is an allegory of Chile in the '70s. [more inside]
"I am a woman. I am a feminist. And I am angry."
Six candidates, eight days, eleven states: Election 2016 continues
It's another day of multi-state voting in the live version of House of Cards otherwise known as Election 2016. On the Republican side, four candidates remain: Rafael Edward Cruz, John Richard Kasich, Marco Antonio Rubio, and Donald John Trump. On the Democrat side, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton and Bernard Sanders continue their fight. As the math becomes clearer, and with several months still to go before potentially feisty party conventions, the odds [Oddschecker] [PredictWise] remain on both Clinton and Trump as the favorites to win their respective nominations. More on today's voting from ABC, Fortune and USA Today, while on the horizon, in-person voting begins in Florida... [more inside]
RIP Pat Conroy
March 4
Whoa
Notes: please make this iconic.
"Her wide eyes glow a bright blue and bright blue sparks of overflowing energy are rushing out of them. A huge WAVE OF FIRE splits around her and DISPERSES as if it’s hitting an INVISIBLE SHIELD, leaving her unharmed." Terese Nielsen takes us through her process in creating the art for an upcoming reprint of Force of Will (scroll down for story), one of Magic: The Gathering's most iconic cards. [more inside]
Theft of literary, academic, or cruciverbal work
The structure of a crossword puzzle can be broken down into several characteristic elements, the most distinctive of which are its theme and its grid. With numerous independent puzzles published daily in various periodicals and in syndication one might expect these elements to be repeated occasionally through circumstance, but a recent analysis of tens of thousands of individual puzzles found far more replication than chance would explain in the puzzles produced by Timothy Parker for USA Today and Universal Uclick.
Four Victorian Songs Analyzed by Joanna Swafford
Songs of the Victorians is a website about four songs composed in Victorian England. The history behind them reveals forgotten details of the era: Juanita was composed by Caroline Norton, a pioneering feminist; The Lost Chord was a poem by Adelaide Anne Procter first published in a feminist journal, then set to music by (yes that) Arthur Sullivan; a part of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Maud, which employs the cryptographical language of flowers, is set to music by Michael William Balfe and Sir Arthur Somervell, the former allowing performers to disguise or emphasize the disturbed emotions of the original, the latter makes the mental distress plain. The website was designed by digital humanities blogger and professor Joanna Swafford as a prototype for Augmented Notes, a system for highlighting sheet music visually while playing a sound file.
Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson eats about 821 pounds of cod a year as part of a 5,000-calorie per day bodybuilder's diet. What happens when a civilian tries to eat like The Rock for a month?
TFW you miss a Muton when u had a 96% hit chance
Procedural Snake Eyes is a blog post about varying outcomes and experiential feels in procedural generation, in particular in the tactical spycraft masterpiece Invisible, Inc. and the recently-released XCOM 2, by Rogue Process (gamejam demo!) developer Mike Cook.
A Virtual Cycloid Drawing Machine
Your device will probably die before the piece is complete.
4d6, drop the lowest
How do Strength ability scores in 1E AD&D translate into real life?
You can do it. I did it, so you can do it. Just follow my lead.
Venus Williams - Why I'm Going Back To Indian Wells - Where she will follow in Serena's footsteps. Background on the Williams sisters at Indian Wells.
Not computer graphics
Los Angeles news helicopter films a formation of V-22 Ospreys as they pass through the city [more inside]
So much of life happens in cars, so buy a good one.
Refereeing football/soccer. It's dangerous.
"Any kind of performance is valuable, because every person is valuable."
Gaelynn Lea is the winner of NPR Music's 2016 Tiny Desk Contest for her haunting composition, "Someday We'll Linger in the Sun" [more inside]
Why we post
“Why We Post” project has just been published by nine anthropologists, led by Daniel Miller of University College, London via
Dawn Porter's Trapped documentary opens today
Dawn Porter's Trapped documentary about the effect of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws opens in NYC, LA and DC today, more theaters around the US next week. [more inside]
Bud Collins, 1929-2016
"Chris Evert once stepped off Centre Court at Wimbledon after a tough defeat, and her first comment to Collins in the postmatch interview on NBC was, 'Nice pants, Bud.' The clothes did not make the man, though. With Collins, it was all about the words — spoken, printed or the interpretation in between."
Bud Collins died at his home today in Brookline, Massachusetts. [more inside]
The fabulous ruins of NASA
Remnants of the American space race, photographed from Florida to California. "There is a spiritual quality to Launch Complex 34. The launch pedestal with its large round opening to the sky gives it the look of some ancient astronomical archaeological ruin, something like Stonehenge."
From a new book.
From a new book.
Birds Pay Protection Money to Big Alligator
The gruesome price birds in the Everglades pay for using alligators as bodyguards.
Over time, a study released Wednesday says, egrets, herons, ibises and storks that nest on islands developed a strategy. They nestle on tree limbs near alligators, which chase and sometimes eat nest raiders. For that service, alligators demand a heavy price — some of the birds' offspring. That's right: child sacrifice.The study: Presence of Breeding Birds Improves Body Condition for a Crocodilian Nest Protector.
Giving overlooked books another chance at fame
Sometimes a good book comes out that doesn't receive the attention it merits. To give them a second chance, there's the Phoenix Award -- given to a children's book published twenty years previously. This year's winner is Frindle, by Andrew Clements, first published in 1996.
"Sonic was alive and breathing, and Sonic was our friend."
Sonic the Hedgehog's Long, Great, Rocky History by Blake Hester [Polygon]
Sonic the Hedgehog has stood as an institution for Sega for more than two decades, a cultural icon with mass marketing abilities. He has appeared in dozens of games, numerous action figures and hundreds of comics. He’s had five television series and even his own tubes of toothpaste and cans of spaghetti. To date, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has collectively sold over 140 million copies, with some games regarded as some of the best of all time and others some of the worst.[more inside]
'No one knows anything about the movie'
Comedy actor Thomas Lennon describes what it's like to play a cameo on elusive director Terrence Malick's latest film Knight of Cups.
"...one of the scariest things they saw as children."
Children of the Stones (previously) is the revolutionary 1977 British children's television drama telling the story of an astrophysicist and his son who arrive in the village of Milbury to study the giant Neolithic stones which surround it, and the community which is held in a strange captivity by the psychic forces generated by the stones. For BBC Radio, writer and comedian Stewart Lee explores the ground breaking television series and examines its special place in the memories of those children who watched it on its initial transmission in a state of excitement and terror. [more inside]
Ask and it will be given to yinz; seek and yinz will find
Y'All Version: Now you can read the Bible using the English second person plural of your choice! Options include Southern (y'all), Western (you guys), NYC/Chicago (youse guys), and Pittsburgh (yinz).
The new media and the editorial wall
Vox, buzzfeed, Vice, even Cracked are part of a new ka-tet of internet journalism. Some showing success by doing both click-bait listicles and actual investigative journalism WashPost talks about problems between advertisers and what stories get covered at Vice (SlWashPo)
The 40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time
UWP needs some friends these days
Remember when Valve founder Gabe Newell called Windows 8 and its Windows Store a "catastophe" for the industry? Now another founder of a hugely important PC software company has come out against the Windows Store in a Guardian op-ed. [more inside]
For it behoves us to guard a book much more carefully than a boot.
Cristian Ispir explores 14th-century bibliophile Richard de Bury's advice on how to take care of books — or rather, how not to.
Shiny
This feels too much like the late 80s/early 90s
Independent Lens documentary Wilhemina’s War [55m30s]: AIDS is one of the leading causes of death for black women in the rural South, where living with HIV is a grim reality. In Wilhemina’s War, Wilhemina Dixon, her daughter Toni, granddaughter Dayshal, and her 92 year-old mother, all the descendants of sharecroppers, live in South Carolina. Wilhemina cares for Dayshal, 19, who was born with HIV.
What's changed and changing about (American) politics?
The three party system - "There are three major political forces in contemporary politics in developed countries: tribalism, neoliberalism and leftism (defined in more detail below). Until recently, the party system involved competition between different versions of neoliberalism. Since the Global Financial Crisis, neoliberals have remained in power almost everywhere, but can no longer command the electoral support needed to marginalise both tribalists and leftists at the same time. So, we are seeing the emergence of a three-party system, which is inherently unstable because of the Condorcet problem and for other reasons." [more inside]
A new podcast, and now this…
Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys’s 5-year old son Egypt has produced his first rap beat. It’s been used on track five of Kendrick Lamar’s new album untitled unmastered, which is out now after being teased earlier this week by Top Dawg Entertainment label head Anthony Tiffith. The record exec also told fans to thank LeBron James for encouraging the drop. Two of the album’s tracks were first performed on episodes of The Colbert Report and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Tracklist and lyrics.
March 3
This is the simple story of one man's enduring passion.
It will end where it began. According to one of the definitions of 'bega
This is how it begins. I mean, THIS is how it begins. I mean, THIS is ho-- oh, for crying out loud. THI-- THIS is how it begins. And this is how it ends: Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie has been greenlit. (Some background.)
The ground begins to move at 11:44 AM on a Thursday in April.
Never, ever photograph anything you feel lukewarm about.
Lisette Model took up photography in 1933 after studying painting as a student of Andre Lhote.
Her first teacher was the now little remembered Rogi Andre briefly married to André Kertész (previously) and perhaps best now known for her pictures of Jacqueline Lamba (later Jacqueline Breton) naked and underwater. It was Rogi Andre who told her Never, ever photograph anything you feel lukewarm about, only what you are passionately interested in.
In 1938 Lisette moved to Manhattan and there became a photographer of New York.
More on Lisette Model via the wonderful masters of photography blog.
Her first teacher was the now little remembered Rogi Andre briefly married to André Kertész (previously) and perhaps best now known for her pictures of Jacqueline Lamba (later Jacqueline Breton) naked and underwater. It was Rogi Andre who told her Never, ever photograph anything you feel lukewarm about, only what you are passionately interested in.
In 1938 Lisette moved to Manhattan and there became a photographer of New York.
More on Lisette Model via the wonderful masters of photography blog.
42 steps to conquering executive function problems (in 68 easy steps).
Step 63: Panic. All jesting
aside, executive function
skills are important. The ability to start new tasks, switch easily between tasks, pause before responding to something, and plan for the future all seem like small, simple things. But many people struggle painfully with them, especially when difficulty with them is treated as a personal failing. (Turns out it's more complicated than that.)
A brief cultural analysis of Trader Joe's
Nothing ſucceeds like long s
This Chrome extenſion replaces the unſightly "terminal" or "ſhort" s with the elegant "long" ſ according to the rules of ſtandard uſage. [more inside]
Rent a flat, run a shop (no word on whether there's a cat)
Planning a trip to Scotland and want to get away from boring old Edinburgh, maybe just catch up on your reading? Think about staying in Wigtown, "Scotland's National Book Town". Specifically, think about staying in an apartment above The Open Book, an actual book shop. It's only £28 per night, with a minimum stay of 6 nights. Oh, and one other requirement: you will be running The Open Book, with the help of professional booksellers and volunteers. [more inside]
New hosts for America's Test Kitchen announced
As foretold by comments in this previous thread, CCO Jack Bishop announced today that Julia Collin Davison and Bridget Lancaster are the new hosts of America's Test Kitchen. [more inside]
Men's College Basketball
George Mason. Cinderella. Ten Years After.
“Rose Quartz” and “Serenity” present a far more nefarious situation.
The Propaganda of Pantone: Colour and Subcultural Sublimation. Pantone’s choice of “Rose Quartz” and “Serenity” as the 2016 Colour of the Year is the most insidious move by this colour-industrial-complex since “Blue Iris” in 2008. As with “Blue Iris”, Pantone has once again mined the subcultural landscape and used their monopoly within the creative industries to propagate their colour properties to the world.
Previously & more.
The right to die
On the evening of April 20, 2000 , Al Purdy drank a glass of Chilean wine laced with Rohypnol. Murphy’s Law offered one last demonstration of its quirky power: the wine was corked. He sipped it anyway, in the company of his love of almost 60 years. There was no rush, no timetable. The last piece of music he heard was Paul Robeson’s best rendition of “Ol’ Man River”—his favourite singer performing one his favourite songs. [more inside]
the most beautiful and perfectly finished floating church in the world
The Floating Church of the Redeemer 1848-1853.
"It was the sight of the floating gothic church making her way up and down the Delaware River, with banners flying from her 75′ foot steeple, that inspired New Jersey’s Bishop George Washington Doane to write the missionary hymn Fling Out The Banner. The church could seat as many as 600 worshippers for a Sunday service. This number rarely must have been reached, as the families of mariners and longshoreman frequently left early due to seasickness." [via] [more inside]
"It was the sight of the floating gothic church making her way up and down the Delaware River, with banners flying from her 75′ foot steeple, that inspired New Jersey’s Bishop George Washington Doane to write the missionary hymn Fling Out The Banner. The church could seat as many as 600 worshippers for a Sunday service. This number rarely must have been reached, as the families of mariners and longshoreman frequently left early due to seasickness." [via] [more inside]
Rise Up and Sing Along with YouTube
Want to be part of a singalong, but don't know the tunes? Presenting the YouTube playlists for the Rise Again Songbook, a one-stop shop for group sing-ins: Ballads & Old Songs; Peace; Hope & Strength; Country; Dreams and Mystery; Family; Dignity and Diversity; and British Invasion. [more inside]
Internet on Fleek
Internet Map 2015 Such great beauty you have internet!
A eulogy for the Futures
Remember this scene in Ferris Bueller's Day off? Those were the open outcry commodity trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade, which were founded in 1848 and finally shut down last July, replaced entirely by computers.
These were four guys (and one woman) in the funny coloured jackets: An oral history of the pits. (Compiled by John McDermott for MEL Magazine, a medium publication) [more inside]
"All we can do is hold our hearts."
Building a hydro-electric dam on a bed of water-soluble gypsum was never the best idea, but engineers kept it under control for thirty years by filling any holes that appeared in the bedrock with cement (a process known as grouting). Now the repair workforce has fallen by 90%, the bedrock is getting weaker, the sluice gates are jammed, and spring meltwater threatens to burst the dam and send a wall of water twenty metres high flooding towards the cities downstream. [more inside]
Not if, but when
Hell and High Water. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country. It’s home to the nation’s largest refining and petrochemical complex, where billions of gallons of oil and dangerous chemicals are stored. And it’s a sitting duck for the next big hurricane. (Non-interactive text version)
Need An F-4 Phantom?
New Zealand flag referendum enters final stage
New Zealanders have begun voting in the second stage of a referendum on whether to change their national flag. The alternatives are between the current flag, with the Union Flag emblem, and a new variant with the iconic Silver Fern. The referendum will run through March 24. Previously.
Scot Campbell Paints Windows
Who needs vinyl letters or printed posters? Portland artist Scot Campbell paints store windows the old-fashioned way, and shows you how he does it. (MLYT)
That stuff went everywhere
The Paper-less Doll
To promote the upcoming Toronto Comic Arts Festival, renowned Canadian webcomicker Kate Beaton (previously here) made a poster showing her as a paper doll with various Festival-attending outfits (including some cosplay - maybe her cutest work since Fat Pony). To make it more appropriate for a Star of the Internets, cartoonist/game-designer Kim Hoang made it into the interactive online TCAF Kate Beaton Dress Up!
The dental drill predates the wheel -- but was it safe?
Despite our rapidly advanced dental technology, the idea of dental drilling still scares many of us today. Now imagine your teeth being drilled by Neolithic tools and our ancestors suddenly appear a great deal braver than us. They must have known the true fear of a trip to the dentist.For BBC Earth, Colin Barras investigates the evidence for the existence of dentistry in prehistoric times.
The Most Important Election Of Your Lifetime
March 2
Remakes
Barcelona-based editor Jaume R. Lloret reveals what it means to be faithful in a remake by examining scenes from 25 films alongside their newer versions. (SLV, via)
How brave are you?
Coming soon to a Los Angeles skyscraper near you: a 45 foot long glass slide, a thousand feet in the air. How brave are you?
The Miscarriage Taboo
From The Atlantic: A culture of silence can make it even harder for women to make sense of losing a pregnancy.
Hey, I don't believe that any system is totally secure.
How a chance viewing of Wargames by President Reagan led to America's first policies on cyberwarfare.
Good luck finding parking.
Atlas Obscura brings us a photo-essay of seven places in Europe where humans exhibit an adventurous spirit, ingenuity, and engineering chops.
I've made a lot of special modifications myself
He Loves To Eat Hair
“To begin with I was hoping it was just a phase.”
What should we do about paedophiles? by Sophie Elmhirst [The Guardian] They have committed unspeakable crimes that demand harsh punishment. But most will eventually be set free. Are we prepared to support efforts to rehabilitate them? [more inside]
We haven't won this one yet, aliens could still invade and endorse Dole.
Two decades ago, the world wide web was relatively young and quiet. Now it's not a bad idea to buy up domains to prevent others from mis-using them, but back then that sort of online prank was unknown. Brooks Talley and Mark Pace were among the first to register such joke domains, setting up buchanan96.org (now cyber-squatted and blocked from displaying by robots.txt) clinton96.org and dole96.org, not to be confused with dolekemp96.org (previously). 4president.us has more screenshots of the official '96 pages, if you want to peak back at how presidential candidates presented themselves online twenty years ago.
"This is the best coffee I've ever had."
And then I get to tell it to you over and over again
The Plot to Take Down a Fox News Analyst
"We think kids are so fragile. Tell them the truth. They are resilient."
Researchers have found that students who learn about famous scientists' personal and scientific struggles outperform students who only learn of those scientists' achievements. [more inside]
How microdosing helped me kick my internet habit
Bob Dylan's Secret Archive
The George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of Tulsa have acquired a huge trove of documents, tapes, and film from Bob Dylan. The (NYTimes) article describes many of the goodies.
How non-compete agreements can work against you
"That Seemingly Harmless Paper You Signed When You Were Hired Can Bite You in the Ass"
Stephanie Russell-Kraft talks about her experience with a non-compete agreement:
Stephanie Russell-Kraft talks about her experience with a non-compete agreement:
Legal experts have spent far too much time debating the enforceability of non-compete contracts, a line of questioning that inherently favors employers because it places the burden on individual employees to challenge their bosses in court. Jonathan Pollard estimates that only about 10-15 percent of the agreements he comes across in his practice are enforceable. But that doesn’t stop the rest from causing damage.
This whole country's just like my flock of sheep
"Those morons out there? Shucks, I could take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them as caviar. I could make them eat dog food and think it was steak. Sure, I got 'em like this... You know what the public's like? A cage of guinea pigs. Good night you stupid idiots. Good night, you miserable slobs. They're a lot of trained seals. I toss them a dead fish and they'll flap their flippers." That may sound like Donald Trump talking, but it's actually Andy Griffith, as huckster demagogue Lonesome Rhodes in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd. WaPo examines the movie that foretold the rise of Trump. [more inside]
What a bum rap for a nice, sensitive guy like me
How a bit of detective work tracked down the original source of a sample that had mystified fans of the EDM/progressive house anthem "You are Sleeping".
Reading and rereading Frank Miller, 30 years after Dark Knight Returns
It's hard to imagine Frank Miller anticipating that his story, with that introduction, would ever fall into the hands of an 11-year-old, mixed-race girl. Susana Polo (Twitter) begins with reading Batman: Year One at 11, then follows Miller's output, and her career and life, from there.
(SLPolygon)
(SLPolygon)
League 1 America: The Soccer Revolution That Never Was
We need to talk about Dylan
17 years after Columbine, the mother of one of the killers tells her story. A Washington Post review of "A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy" by Sue Klebold. [more inside]
As Bugs Would Say, "What a Maru"
Anime Maru is a site that combines two of the internet's favorite formats: Anime and Fake News. Kind of an Otaku Onion. If you have any doubts, check out the site's list of the Top 27 Anime Series of All Time which include some fictitious entries (#5. Attack on Death Notepunch-Man) and some that are not very anime (#17. National Hockey League). Knowledge of the medium is required to get some of the jokes, but not nearly all.
The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed
34 years after the first book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series was published, he announced that the film adaptation has begun production. The gunslinger? Idris Elba. The man in black? Matthew McConaughey.
March 1
Your Revolution
Amazing Marble Machine Music
Amazing Marble Machine Music [slyt]
human experience in the built environment
Medina Wasl is a small, prototypical Iraqi desert town with a market, a mosque, and the occasional car bomb. It's just down the road from Ertabat Shar, a small, prototypical Afghan mountain town with a market, a mosque, and the occasional truck bomb. They are the simulated battlefields[main link] of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, in the Mojave desert. They offer tours. [more inside]
John McAfee Reveals How He'd Crack An iPhone
A Crash That Shattered a Group of Friends
The Accident. Three decades ago, a fatal car crash shattered a small town and a group of friends.
I reflexively thought, Don’t let it be Jax, and repeated that in my mind, imploring some higher power as my dad drove me beneath the sodium points of light on the highway. In the zero-sum of that moment, it didn’t even occur to me what the inverse meant: Let it be Seger. And how guilty I’d feel for years after about it.
DUNSÖNs & DRAGGANs
You smack the AKTAD with your hammer. You score a critical hit and the AKTAD is partially disassembled!
[via mefi projects -- actually, a friend shared it on FB, and I found it here when I was getting ready to post!]* [more inside]
Two stories of Holmes County basketball
In The Gyms of Holmes County, Matt Tullis explains that, "In Holmes County, they get this idea of teamwork. And it starts with the Amish and Mennonite communities that call the county home." In Higher Education, Gary Smith writes, "Berlin's new basketball coach, the man with the most important position in a community that had dug in its heels against change, was an unmarried black Catholic loser. The only black man in eastern Holmes County."
Kilo for kilo, it is more costly than gold.
The scent from heaven; a tale of one of the world’s most expensive commodities from its end users in the Middle East to its source in the forests of Southeast Asia.
Agarwood
This sweet woody fragrance is used in some of these better known commercial perfumes.
This sweet woody fragrance is used in some of these better known commercial perfumes.
A Radio Legend like no other.
Charlie Tuna dies at 71 Charlie Tuna, a disc jockey known to generations of Los Angeles-area radio listeners, has died at age 71 [more inside]
"Welcome to the Desert of the Real"
it is anticipated that thousands of sites are awaiting discovery
The REMAINS of Greenland project is attempting to locate and preserve archaeological sites in Greenland before they are lost to the destructive effects of climate change. [via]
A Supreme Court justice riding a unicorn.
First there was the tumblr, then there was the book, now there’s a Ruth Bader Ginsburg coloring book. It’s not a nominee, but in the meantime.
Blue moon, now I'm no longer alone
RIP Lennie Baker, 69. He was the saxophonist for Sha Na Na for 30 years. Rolling Stone obit. Recent performance with Bowzer and Johnny Contardo. Early video of his signature lead vocal, Blue Moon.
The invention of the shopping cart and how it changed shopping
This collection of six Saturday Evening Post from decades past depict a significant change in grocery shopping, from the time when grocers picked and weighed all items for the shopper, to the modern "self-service" stores we know today, including the now ubiquitous (to the point of invisibility) tool that lead to this change. The shopping cart (or shopping carriage, buggy or trolley, seen here in its original form) is far from glamorous, but when he invented the combination basket and carriage, Sylvan Goldman changed how people shopped: an Oklahoma Story. [more inside]
Welcome to the Now Age
Xtreme Now began while the Larson sisters were living on a black metal utopian commune on Vȫrmsi, a remote island off the coast of Estonia during the summer of 2012. There, Taraka had a near death experience ... which sparked a recurring sense of time-schizophrenia, or the physical sensation of existing in multiple time periods simultaneously ... “In the year 2067, I witnessed an aesthetic landscape where art museums are sponsored by energy drink beverages and beauty is determined by speed. I saw a vision of ancient tapestries stretched across half-pipes and people base-jumping off planes with the Mona Lisa smiling up from their parachutes. I saw art merge with extreme sports to form a new aesthetic language of ‘Speed Art.’ I realized that time travel was possible via the gateway of extreme sports, and I wanted to make music that would provide the score.”Mantra-obsessed, freak folk, ghost-modernist former skate-punk Krishha commune kids Prince Rama return with their most direct pop artifact yet, the extreme-sports inspired Xtreme Now (review). The album, due for official release on 4 March, can be streamed in its entirety on Stereogum. [more inside]
Windows on Earth
"How was your day?"
Death by Text: A teenager sent her depressed boyfriend hundreds of messages encouraging him to commit suicide. Does that make her his killer? [New York Magazine] [more inside]
Exiled to the 'Man Chair'
The Most Frustrating Writing Webpage
The Most Dangerous Writing App The Most Dangerous Writing App is a webpage / web application that simply deletes everything you have written if you don't keep writing. [more inside]
Italians Compare the Arrival of Starbucks to the Apocalypse
#StarbucksItalia WIRED Here’s how Americans do coffee: We stroll into shops and order our lattes, often sprinkled with a dose of cinnamon or mint syrup, and hang around, sipping luxuriously on our drinks. We enjoy the Wi-Fi and the cushy couches. Sometimes, we’ll bring our laptops and try to get a couple hours of work done. This isn’t how it works in Italy.... [more inside]
We Use 'em to Spot Terminators
Fido vs Spot [SLYT]
The Weight of James Arthur Baldwin
Phil Collins: My Life in 15 Songs
Genesis, "Invisible Touch" (1986)---This is one of my favorite Genesis songs. There was a Sheila E. record out at the time, I think it was Glamorous Life, and I wanted to write my own version of that. I had decided to stay in the band even though my solo career had taken off. When you're in a band, it's family. There's the road crew and their families to think about. If you just flippantly say, "I'm leaving," they're like, "We've just bought a house with a mortgage." You can't do that to people.
2:35 - "What do you think this is? Real life?"
400 Fourth Wall Breaking Films
A Supercut to, if not end all Supercuts, at least seriously discourage them. 14½ minutes, plus a 2½ minute scrolling list of all the movies featured (and a brief 'post-credits' scene, obviously)
A Supercut to, if not end all Supercuts, at least seriously discourage them. 14½ minutes, plus a 2½ minute scrolling list of all the movies featured (and a brief 'post-credits' scene, obviously)
Super Tuesday: it's going to be huge
The March 1st round of voting in US primaries and caucuses is today. Since 1988, no candidate has won his party’s nomination without winning Super Tuesday. With early voting and absentee voting already happening, the people of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia will turn out for both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans in Alaska will hold caucuses, as will Democrats in Colorado. Democrats in American Samoa also nominate. On the Republican side, with 661 delegates to be allocated today, Donald Trump currently holds the delegate lead. On the Democrat side, with 865 delegates to be delegated today, Hillary Clinton currently holds the delegate lead. (A more visual delegate tracker) The actual POTUS election odds continue to make Hillary the favorite, from Donald with the rest at long odds. Politico has more information on today, as does the Wall Street Journal and 538. With variable weather for voters, Nate Silver being cautious about assumptions and Obama's surprise endorsement of Trump, it's all to play for.
