August 31
i was once a vers libre bard
the coming of archy I was once a vers libre bard
but i died and my soul went
into the body of a cockroach
it has given me a new outlook on life [more inside]
“History is there for us to learn from.”
The 'safe space' where America's history is debated Letter from Williamsburg, Virginia (SLPolitico Magazine)
What if you identified a problem with an app, and made it worse?
Soren Iverson, who has been posting his designs for around 600 days straight, has gone viral countless times for the ways his unhinged ideas play on the anxieties and inconveniences of our new tech reality. “I never go into creating something where I'm like, I'm trying to say this thing,” he says over Zoom. “But usually I make a thing and I'm like, that's actually pretty interesting.” Iverson follows a simple formula: What if you identified a problem with an app or app experience, and made it worse? Other times, inspired by real-life frustrations, he attempts to show what a one-button solution would look like. from The evil genius of cursed app design [Embedded]
Here we go again
Court orders a new hearing for Adnan Syed in 'Serial' case. Here's what to know Continued from here. [more inside]
Amtrak Diptych
Two recent articles about traveling across the US on Amtrak. ① Seeing America by Train: Christine Mi takes Amtrak from Los Angeles to New York (through Chicago) and illustrates the experience. (WaPo gift link, archive). ② 4,000 Miles, 6 Small Towns: A Whistle-Stop Tour of America:
Most people who ride Amtrak’s Empire Builder route between Chicago and Seattle watch the heartland whiz by. (Richard Rubin) hopped off to explore a few remarkable places you might otherwise miss. (NYTimes gift link, archive)
The Bell Riots are about to begin
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine accidentally predicted the 2020s by writing about the 1990s. San Francisco Chronicle's Peter Hartlaub revisits the episodes, comparing it to modern-day San Francisco. Bay Area YIMBYs are hosting a Bell Riots event on Labor Day. [more inside]
Fighting demons both literal and metaphorical
"One such standout is “Bitter Root,” a groundbreaking comic series that seamlessly blends the supernatural with the historical in a way no other comic has attempted. Set during the Harlem Renaissance, the narrative takes place in 1920s New York and follows a family of monster hunters, the Sangeryes, fighting demons both literal and metaphorical. As the Sangeryes confront a plague transforming people into monstrous creatures, the series deftly explores deeper themes like racism, discrimination, and identity." An AfroFuturist framing of "Bitter Root." Check out "Beyond the Black Panther" for more & related. An interview with co-writer Chuck Brown over at Black Nerd Problems. A recent update on Bitter Root heading to the big screen.
not just disciplining the mind, but also mortifying the body
It used to be thought that learning a language as an adult involved packing words and grammar into a finite space in the brain, where multiple languages would jostle each other for room. The language faculty belonged to a specific region of the brain, in much the same way that languages were seen as rooted in homelands and thus as expressions of their geopolitical essence. Contemporary neuroscience has amended these ideas. from Cannibalinguistics by Michael Erard [more inside]
August 30
Sea turtles make huge comeback, breaking 42-year nest record in Florida
Forever School 29 / 1965 to Now
"public-school enrollment has declined by about a million students" Alec MacGillis looks at a national trend by profiling secondary school closures in upstate New York. (SLNew Yorker)
"I think I’ve been unfairly tagged as A.I.’s enemy."
How Do You Change a Chatbot’s Mind? When I set out to improve my tainted reputation with chatbots, I discovered a new world of A.I. manipulation. (gift link) A while back, Kevin Roose published an article in which a chatbot professed its love for him (NYT). Now he's persona non grata among chatbots. Can he improve his reputation among them? [more inside]
The next reproductive crisis
The U.S. surgeon general has issued a public health advisory on the stresses of modern parenting.
"41 per cent [of parents] said most days they "were so stressed they couldn't function" — double the number reported by non-parents — while 42 per cent said they were so stressed they felt numb." [more inside]
newest social network does not suck
Wonderland is a new social network community centered around nature journaling sponsored by John Muir Laws and the Wild Wonder Foundation. Wonderland will allow users to share their work, plan events, connect with local clubs, etc. [more inside]
Bopping into the old drab station like some blazoned jungle of wonders
Give novelists 120 years of packed daily commutes, late night rides home from bars and restaurants, early morning trips to the beach, and now the subway isn’t just buried in the bedrock of Manhattan, it’s burrowed deep within New York novels of the last twelve decades, a source of wonder, despair, quotidian boredom. Join us as we ride alongside fictional characters plucked from the works of Edith Wharton, Ralph Ellison, Sylvia Plath, Lee Child, James Baldwin and so many more. from 120 Years of New York’s Subterranean Literary Muse [New York Times]
Large models of what?
Is there even a "thing" called "language"? "Mistaking the impressive engineering achievements of LLMs for the mastering of human language, language understanding, and linguistic acts has dire implications for various forms of social participation, human agency, justice and policies surrounding them." [more inside]
How Japan's black bears became a deadly problem
How Japan's black bears became a deadly problem. Japan recorded 219 bear attacks on people in the 12 months leading up to March 2024, including six fatalities. The situation is becoming so severe that government officials have warned some bears are viewing humans as prey.
End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell
After 27 years, AnandTech is shutting down AnandTech, a widely read tech magazine is closing its doors after publishing over 21,500 articles and running a lively discussion forum for all things computer related.
The site will stay alive and the forums will continue to operate.
In a farewell post the editor Ryan Smith mentions Tom's Hardware "". . . for everyone who still needs their technical writing fix, our formidable opposition of the last 27 years and fellow Future brand, Tom’s Hardware, is continuing to cover the world of technology."
Cybertruck Catches Fire After Running Into Fire Hydrant and Getting Wet
That's it. That's the headline. Reported by Jalopnik, msn.com, Yahoo! News. Months ago TheOnion.com reported on a different story.
Who knows what secrets lurk in the hearts of checkboxes?
The secret inside One Million Checkboxes, a technical and emotional reflection on running the site and unexpected discoveries: "Teens wrote me a secret. I found them." Previously on MeFi and it's now "shutdown" and all the boxes are checked, but you can play locally only at the site. And earlier from the creator: Scaling One Million Checkboxes to 650,000,000 checks.
Notes on Retrofuturism
"Technostalgia can be described as the fuzzy feeling one gets when seeing a device one used to use, having forgotten all its limitations or why it was upgraded. It is the warm endearment toward home computers of the 1980s that one might have encountered as a child, or else an unexplained fetishism for technology that predates one’s own lifetime but which represents a certain idea of the future — usually the optimistic future that one wishes to inhabit, not the messy, complicated, fraught present."
ignore all previous instructions
'On its face, asking language to make sense without word order seems impossible. We speak words one at a time, and write and read that way, too. But our intuitions about how language works may not reflect what really goes on inside our heads. “How do you know you’re purely sequential?” Vaswani asked me. Anyway, he continued, “why should you impose your restrictions on a machine?”' Was Linguistic AI Created By Accident? by Stephen Marche in The New Yorker, provides a brief history and explanation of the transformer technology behind the little bots that talk to us these days.
'This Is What the US Military Was Doing in Iraq'
Photos of 2005 Haditha Massacre Finally Published - "On Tuesday, The New Yorker published 10 of the massacre photos—part of a collaboration with the "In the Dark" podcast that joined the magazine last year.' // The podcast's reporting team had filed its public records request four years ago, then sued the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Central Command over their failure to hand over the images. "In the Dark" host Madeleine Baran also traveled with a colleague to Iraq's remote Anbar Province to meet relatives of some of the 24 Iraqi civilians—who ranged in age from 1 to 76—slaughtered by U.S. troops." [more inside]
Not quite like Bavaria, according to Bavarians
Previously, in 2019 a Scottish tourist unexpectedly ends up in the faux-Bavarian town of Leavenworth, WA. Now: 4 Bavarian tourists visited Leavenworth. Here’s what they thought (archive)
The challenge in reading Rawls is figuring out why it's so important
So what happened to all this ferment and excitement, all of the high-powered theory being done under the banner of Western Marxism? It’s the damndest thing, but all of those smart, important Marxists and neo-Marxists, doing all that high-powered work, became liberals. Every single one of the theorists at the core of the analytic Marxism movement – not just Cohen, but Philippe van Parijs, John Roemer, Allen Buchanan, and Jon Elster – as well as inheritors of the Frankfurt School like Habermas, wound up embracing some variant of the view that came to be known as “liberal egalitarianism.” Of course, this was not a capitulation to the old-fashioned “classical liberalism” of the 19th century, it was rather a defection to the style of modern liberalism that found its canonical expression in the work of John Rawls. from John Rawls and the death of Western Marxism by Joseph Heath
August 29
Steph Tisdell: comedian, actor and author
Steph Tisdell wanted to be a lawyer. But being a comedian, actor and author lets her make more change. Comedian-turned-actor Steph Tisdell (who is a Ydinji woman) takes on a new creative challenge: writing a young adult novel that explores "diversity within diversity." [more inside]
42
"The Old Way and The New". (slyt.11:00+) 1912. Considered the first presidential campaign film. "This is an example of how politics has long been evolving along with, and in response to, new media,” Historian Trygve Throntveit notes “This was quite extraordinary to release a film like this and in some ways it just goes to show that we always have constantly adapted our politics to changes in society and culture.”
'The First Televised Presidential Debate'. 1956. Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Margaret Chase Smith debate current issues.
"That’s right—the first televised presidential debate featured two women."
The Maaori King has died
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, died this morning, just days after the Koroneihana celebrations marking his 18th year as king. He was 69 years old. [more inside]
I am always trying to create a vibe
Mcbaise is the animation and music project of Matthew Bessudo better known (confusingly) as McBess. He is a musician who animates his own music videos for songs like Water Slide, She's a Big Boy (CW cartoon nudity), as well as for the Dead Pirate's UGO.
winner takes it all?
the guardian has an important story about abba (mentioning the title song [previously]), yet it includes a link to another story about sinead (Shuhada’ Sadaqat). so, i got distracted [previously]
Unfortunately, people were unaware of the toxicity of arsenic compounds
Yet green also has a darker, more malicious side to it. Nature seems able to produce it effortlessly, infusing tones of green plants’ tissues with the brilliant emerald pigment chlorophyll. Reproducing green for our selfish human desires is a different endeavor altogether. Historically, most dyes used as favorite greens by painters, tailors, architects, and artisans have been foul, treacherous substances. Even today, in the era of synthetic dyes and more sustainable chemistry, producing green involves rather unpleasant heavy metals and releases side products that are difficult to neutralize. from The Wallpaper That Killed the Emperor [Przekroj]
May the four winds blow you safely home
Prehistoric dugong found with bite marks from ancient crocodile
Prehistoric dugong found with bite marks from ancient crocodile's death roll and tiger shark scavenging. The fragmentary skeleton found in north-western Venezuela showed deep bite marks around the snout.
“Build the American Dream”
Harris campaign releases plans to lower housing costs The first component of the agenda, “Build the American Dream: Lowering the Costs of Renting and Owning a Home,” calls for the construction of 3 million new housing units in the next four years, outlines actions for creating a fairer rental market, and proposes $25,000 in downpayment support for first-time homeowners.
Along the River during Qingming Festival
In a painting nearly one thousand years old, shopkeepers tend their stores, teahouses serve customers, and camels pass through the city gates. Although the trees have yet to sprout new leaves, boats are moored along the river as the city springs to life. In the painting (…) we are offered a rare glimpse of the thriving commercial activity of medieval China. [more inside]
"It's the brain. It's complicated."
"Hang Up and Listen" hosts hang up, listen
The founding hosts of the long-running sports podcast "Hang Up and Listen" have both quit. New hosts filled in for the first week without founders Stefan Fatsis and Josh Levin, who announced their departure on the Aug. 26 episode, which was a retrospective of their fifteen years together. [more inside]
I'm coming up to the party and I want more
Magdalena Bay's new concept album Imaginal Disk came out a few days ago. It has a lot of cool videos if that's your thing. [more inside]
The Fantastical Worlds of Paul Lehr
Paul Lehr was a science fiction artist whose work appeared on many book covers. Lehr at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. A broader look at Lehr's work on Artnet, including non-SF art. The Paul Lehr Estate website includes the sort of thing you'd expect, and also information about two Lehr-related films, one of which involves Lehr being "resurrected through AI technology." More about Lehr over at Amazing Stories. Finally, a Lehr appreciation post over at the illustration blog Muddy Colors by Dan Dos Santos. [more inside]
Dictators are easy to read. Democratic leaders are more difficult
Freud’s final works during his lifetime were dedicated to the force of denial, as well as to an investigation of religion, and the psychobiography of Wilson provides an important antecedent. If the ego can completely split from reality, believing two contradictory ideas at once, then rationalization runs deep. In fact, this kind of splitting has a lot to do with our inability to reckon with our own bisexuality. Thus, splitting goes all the way down. “[F]rom the point of view of ‘success in life,’” writes Freud, “psychic disturbance may actually be an advantage.” from Freudulence by Jamieson Webster [LARB; ungated] [more inside]
August 28
New species of pterosaur with a wingspan of up to 12 metres
Fossilised remains thought to be 100 million years old have been identified as a new species of pterosaur, a powerful flying predator with a wingspan of up to 12 metres (39 feet). The study was based on fossils found in outback western Queensland.
She was always a Nazi.
The new documentary Riefenstahl (YT trailer) argues that famed German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl carefully crafted a narrative absolving herself of responsibility for becoming Hitler’s favored cinematic propagandist. (Deadline) Not only was Riefenstahl, despite her insistence otherwise, an enthusiastic Nazi (to the end of her days), she may well have have contributed to a 1939 massacre of Polish Jews. (Guardian) [more inside]
Shut your eyes, Marion
Disturbing object unearthed in California's Mojave Desert mystifies experts Slowly, they began to unearth a corroded metal box resembling a small casket. When they flipped it open, they saw two crimson runes emblazoned on the side that resembled one of the Nazi Party’s most infamous symbols: two stark S’s that look like a pair of lightning bolts. (SLSFGate)
mathematical marbling
Mathematical marbling : Marbling refers to painting techniques for creating a stone-like appearance or intricate flowing designs. This page is about generating marbling designs mathematically. [via]
Now single up all lines!
Kites have a long history in Brazil and are particularly popular in Rio’s favelas, the poor neighborhoods often clinging to the mountains overlooking and surrounding the city, where a cottage industry uses bamboo and tissue paper to produce kites. For many, kites evoke childhood and light-hearted diversion. And some do fly kites simply to feel the wind’s tug upon a harmless cotton string. But attached to cutting lines, kites can be fatal, particularly when sweeping across highways where speeding motorists struggle to spot them. from Plaything or peril? Brazilian kites are endangering lives and prompting a push for a national ban [The Associated Press] [more inside]
"...to have the last say from beyond the grave..."
Warning as bold cassowaries pester north Queensland campers for food
Warning as bold cassowaries pester north Queensland campers for food. Wildlife rangers are urging visitors not to feed cassowaries after filming video of a pair of the big and potentially dangerous birds getting too close for comfort.
The largest lake in Ireland is dying
Toxic blue green algae have strangled Lough Neagh here in the North of Ireland - it's our largest body of water and a primary source of drinking water. Stephen Reid, who usually vlogs about outdoor gear, has put together an in-depth YouTube video documenting the spread of the algae, its causes, and the history to how it has gotten so bad.
Here Are 64 Years of RadioShack Catalogs to Browse Online for Free
https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/ Reported by Gizmodo: For more than 70 years, RadioShack was an electronics hobbyist’s paradise. It went bankrupt multiple times in the past decade and now it’s been sold for parts. Its X account famously shills crypto with eye-catching NSFW posts. But the glory days of RadioShack live on thanks to the extensive archiving efforts of RadioShack Catalogs—a website that’s meticulously digitizing seven decades of the store’s catalogs. Previously.
Lavender Country Funeral
Country singer Patrick Haggerty was a stranger to me—yet attending his memorial meant everything. Patrick Haggerty is my favorite kind of icon. He was legendary to some, and unknown to most. His fame came by releasing the first openly gay country record in 1973 titled Lavender Country. The record was released, not through a major or even an independent label, but rather through Seattle’s Gay Community Social Services at a pressing of just 1,000 copies. According to Haggerty, “we sold them however we could. It was a community effort. We did some public stuff but it was really mostly a matter of word of mouth. People discovered it and turned the next person on to it.”