February 2018 Archives
February 28
Meet Mal Ortberg
“what's up buddies my book comes out next month and I'm also transitioning (you don't have to buy the book just bc of that though) (transitioning genders in case that wasn't clear) (this is terrifying lol)” Within a few months, Ortberg plans to start using a male name and pronouns publicly. Article from Autostraddle on Ortberg’s book and coming out. [more inside]
CT Scan > Laser > Public Domain > Metafilter
A No-Good Horrible Very Bad Parenting Day. With bees. And rage muffins.
"Some small, selfish part of you cannot believe that you have to put up with this shit." Parent as a Verb: Mommy Rage, a single-link graphic howl from Emily Flake and The New Yorker.
It's Inevitable
Extreme II Pornograffitti (A Funked Up Fairy Tale) was a 1990 funk-tinged 90s melodic metal/rock album that set the idea of the Sophomore Album Slump on its head. A loose concept album about greed and desire [YT album post, 1h5m], the themes it explores sadly haven't evolved much if at all in 28 years. Side A: Decadence Dance [video], L'il Jack Horny, When I'm President, Get The Funk Out [video], More Than Words [video], Money (In God We Trust) [more inside]
Goddamn, dried fruit
A music video for "Dried Fruit," from the "just sexy grooves and funky bass lines" band, Breastfist. CW: extremely large images of dried fruit. From Breastfist's history:
Years passed, more band members, killer shows, cathartic jams, ripping guitar solos, magical stanky synth odysseys, creamy vocal spreads, sweaty dance parties, flightless bird freak outs, trash bag filled with unitards, fans being all “you guys are my favorite band!”, exposed midriffs, adult incontinence products, a mushroom penis, a few Facebook likes, more songs, more years…
HOLD DOWN THE A KEY
DAVID LYNCH TEACHES TYPING. HELLO THERE KIDDO! DO YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO TYPE? PUT YOUR FINGERS ON THE "HOME ROW." USE YOUR "LEFT INDEX FINGER" AND PRESS THE F KEY. [more inside]
Thanks, buddy/Later, gator
Rescued octopuses have been known to thank their benefactors. But stuck gophers and drowned prairie dogs just scamper away.
"Yeah, that's going to really haunt me for a while."
Today, Walt Disney Animation Studios dropped the teaser trailer for Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet. Much like the first film was a love letter/affectionate parody of games and game culture, the trailer shows that the sequel will do the same for online culture. [more inside]
Layout Land
Jen Simmons, Mozilla Designer and Developer Advocate, is publishing a great youtube channel called "Layout Land", full of valuable information and guidance in how to use the latest CSS techniques. It provides detailed information in how to use them, but also how to make sure they are accessible and useful for all browsers and users. Great stuff if you're a web designer or developer.
The Wild Parrots of San Diego
“I’ve seen stand-offs between the crows and the parrots,” he says, “large flocks of each. Mostly, they just yell at each other.” Mixed flocks of naturalized green parrots and parakeets have become a well-known sight around San Diego. Theories abound as to how they arrived. While occasionally noisy and disruptive, they have a variety of fans, including SoCal Parrot, a rescue org (Audubon link, with beautiful parrot photos).
True North Indexed.
Reducing plastic waste, one aisle at a time
Plastic-free supermarket aisle opens in the Netherlands (SL Guardian) Co-founder of campaign leading development says, “There is absolutely no logic in wrapping something as fleeting as food in something as indestructible as plastic. Plastic food and drink packaging remains useful for a matter of days yet remains a destructive presence on the Earth for centuries afterwards.”
Polar Vortex, Volar Schmortex: the UK goes onto red alert
As we canter through the last century of humanity and the north pole becomes the next/last winter tropical destination, so Europe gets very cold. In the United Kingdom, as forecasts proliferate, trains were cancelled, drivers used boiling water and shoppers stayed in as high street chains continue to collapse. At universities, academics protest while ... others ... gathered; in Londonium, bygone creatures are seen and heard, and commuters struggle bravely on. Elsewhere, in moor-cavvie weather, as scandal hits fine dining the city of scary barmaids is being covered while Plowo Nutini is "deployed" and residents prepare. Stay safe: avoid trains, help homeless shelter, check on the elderly and neighbours, feed birds, look after pets and treat staff well. (historical perspective)
You're outta here
Meg Rowley at Fangraphs reviewed all the baseball ejections of 2017, and
breaks them down for us. (My favorite is the Uncle Frank Face in post I.)
The Dream
Why I'm Writing Captain America, and why it scares the hell out of me - Ta-Nehisi Coates on relaunching the iconic character (along with artist Leinil Yu).
Say your prayers, little one / Don't forget, my son /To include everyone
What Music Means When
William Eggleston, photographer, on the music that made him a legend The 78-year-old, whose work has graced album covers for Spoon, Big Star, and Joanna Newsom, talks about the music that has meant the most to him, five years at a time. [more inside]
The original Magic Voice was Jann Johnson
Groot is dead. Long live Groot.
Behind every little fish is a great white lie
This week in Washington is all about testing limits.
Hope Hicks' testimony before the House Intelligence committee tested the limits of executive privilege.
Jared Kushner tested the limits of his provisional security clearance, and flunked.
Robert Mueller's investigation tested the limits set by Republicansby digging into Trump's business deals with Russians and his 2013 activities around the Miss Universe Pageant.
Meanwhile, Americans tested the limits of their prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications.
Hope Hicks' testimony before the House Intelligence committee tested the limits of executive privilege.
Jared Kushner tested the limits of his provisional security clearance, and flunked.
Robert Mueller's investigation tested the limits set by Republicansby digging into Trump's business deals with Russians and his 2013 activities around the Miss Universe Pageant.
Meanwhile, Americans tested the limits of their prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications.
The Dirty Secret of ‘Secret Family Recipes’
The Dirty Secret of ‘Secret Family Recipes’. Surprisingly often, they’re copied from mayo jars and famous cookbooks.
Take your time
Slow Thought: a manifesto (Vincenzo di Nicola, Aeon).
Ratt featuring Marvin Gaye?
I Heard it Round and Round the Grapevine. A mashup of Ratt's "Round and Round" and Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", a combination that works better than one might expect. (slyt)
I’d never heard this noise, and I’ve never forgotten it.
"Set in the haute-couture world of 1950s London, Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “Phantom Thread” brings a renowned fashion designer and a young waitress into a weird codependency. The insinuating and expressive score by Jonny Greenwood — with its blend of Minimalist-like riffs, eerie harmonies, alluring melodic lines you don’t quite trust, and piercing chords that leap about aimlessly — conveys both the posh glamour of the designer’s world and his inner obsessions." How Jonny Greenwood Wove the ‘Phantom Thread’ Score [more inside]
Gibson Guitars on the brink of bankruptcy
Moody's downgrades Gibson's bonds to Caa3. Is the 100+ year-old guitar company falling apart? [more inside]
The struggle for power never really ends
Five Books: The best books on military strategy recommended by Dr. Antulio Echevarria II of the US Army War College. [more inside]
Androgyny Shouldn’t Just Be for Thin People
A step forward in body diversity makes it all the more noticeable when yours is the shape that’s still not being served. [more inside]
Allen, Lisa, Josh, Yanna, Katie, Ramon...
February 27
Bro-ning Man
Things are never quite as scary when you have a best friend
What's a best friend for? They listen when you work through life's big questions. They support your plans for the future. They comfort you just by being there. They help you look your best. They give you space to do your own thing. They don't rat you out to Santa. They affirm your accompishments. And they help you deal with monsters under the bed.
Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs explore the bonds of friendship between a boy and his tiger.
“Trust yourself. Trust the Force.”
Star Wars Rebels [Mid Season 4 Trailer] [Contains Spoilers] “The end begins when Star Wars Rebels returns with its final episodes.” [more inside]
BUTTZZ
Summer Luvin by the Buttzz. Punk/garage/rock from Bloomington, Indiana. Buttzz by the Buttzz at Buttzz Bandcamp. Hat tip to Iggy Confidential.
Wisdom still endures
Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird, has yet again successfully hatched a chick on Midway Island. She is 67 years old, and most Laysan Albatrosses only successfully nest every other year, yet this is Wisdom's 13th successful hatch in a row.
Chandler Robbins, the citizen scientist who first banded her, and then found her again 46 years later, died last year at the age of 98, still working with birds until the last at Patuxent Research Refuge.
A book is a loaded gun in the house next door
It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history: Michael B. Jordan Brings Ray Bradbury's Haunting Dystopia to Life in the First Trailer for Fahrenheit 451. [Trailer]
Campaign Workers Of The Workd Unite!
“Aside from improving wages and working conditions across campaigns, one of the biggest impacts of the CWG’s (Campaign Workers Guild) efforts could be establishing an industry-standard policy for dealing with sexual assault and harassment.“ 3 Democratic Campaigns Now Have Staff Unions. Why Not More? (In These Times)
The Gates Letter
Beauty in the face of pending doom: Gulag Art by Stalin’s Meteorologist
Imprisoned for disseminated false weather forecasts to sabotage socialist agriculture, Alexey Wangenheim sent his family beautiful watercolor paintings of nature with his letters, while continuing to support the Party that imprisoned him in the Solovetsky Monastery, Russia's first gulag. [more inside]
One less appliance to buy
Protests Indoors and Out
Nonprofit Fight for the Future has planned a day of protest regarding net neutrality. Under the name Operation #OneMoreVote, today, Feb. 27, rallies are planned to take place outside key lawmakers' offices around the country (more detail at The Hill). The organization is also pushing for individuals and businesses to contact their local representatives. Why? To use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn the FCC's recent vote to repeal net neutrality. If this CRA can gain one more vote in the Senate, which will need to come from a Republican senator, the measure will move to the House where it again will need a simple majority before being passed to the President. Meanwhile, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is defending the FCC's vote, insisting that "the online experience is going to continue to get better."
Mulletfest 2018
The 'mullet' consists of short hair on the front and sides, and long hair on the back. A festival has concluded in Kurri Kurri, Australia. [more inside]
If you run your mouth on immigration, #ResistanceGenealogy has receipts
Last month, White House official Dan Scavino said chain migration was “choking” America. “So Dan,” genealogist Jennifer Mendelsohn wrote on Twitter, “Let’s say Victor Scavino arrives from Canelli, Italy in 1904, then brother Hector in 1905, brother Gildo in 1912, sister Esther in 1913, & sister Clotilde and their father Giuseppe in 1916, and they live together in NY. Do you think that would count as chain migration?” Your selective memory on your family history will do you no good, because the genealogists are coming for you.
"it seems less clear that the trade-off was worth it."
"I supported Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement. Now I think it may have made things worse."What if the Iran Deal Was a Mistake?, Joshua Keating, Slate [more inside]
CW: Vertigo
MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies Special Digital Collection. It's a presentation of the Center's collection of 20th century art as a 3-D "virtual museum". Start scrolling, branch off onto specific topics, and get lost -- just like in a real museum! (h/t The Outline.)
Is Anyone Here a Marine Biologist?
Ask a pilot
Mentour got started early to become a commercial pilot by 20 and a 737 captain by 25. Now he works as a training captain and makes videos for trainee pilots and curious passengers alike: Do aircraft have horns?, A pilot's worst nightmare?, What can't you walk under the wings?, Dating flight attendants?, How dangerous are bird strikes? , The many reasons why we don't hand out parachutes, Turbulence fears: lost wings versus coffee scalds ... [more inside]
Teen Survivors Lead Gun Control Activism
The teen survivors of the high school shooting in Florida are doing something amazing. They may finally be the ones to change the debate around gun control. Due to their media savvy, they have kept the issue in the news cycle for longer than any other shooting.
There's going to be a march on March 24, 2018 in several cities.
Maybe this shooting is the one that turns the tide. [more inside]
February 26
We do not play out the catastrophe
Female Fisticuffs
A history of boxing, with special attention to women fighters. And here's an article specifically about 18th century female contenders: Georgian Bruisers
The only love they'll find is paradise.
English singer Seal sort of burst onto the scene in 1991 with the ZTT label and Trevor Horn produced album Seal. Side A: The Beginning [video], Deep Water, Crazy [video}, Killer, Whirlpool
No this isn't the album with Kiss From A Rose On it. [more inside]
No this isn't the album with Kiss From A Rose On it. [more inside]
Meet Mr. Toilet
Meet Mr. Toilet Think shit is something you shouldn’t talk about? Think again. Why the “unglamorous” world of sanitation deserves more attention—yes, even from you.
What the Perfect Male Body Looks Like Now
🌊
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is most famous for his iconic Great Wave off Kanagawa. But he produced a huge body of work, including a little-known how-to book: 略画早指南, or Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawings, a manual in three parts. Volume I breaks every drawing down into simple geometric shapes; volume II decomposes them into fragmentary contours; and volume III neatly diagrams each stroke and the order in which they were drawn. [more inside]
When life gets confusing, we get confusinginger.
From the maker of The Soy Bomb™ (which turned twenty years old yesterday) comes Wrixling, "a new form of one-on-one, online Participatory-Psychic-Scrambling! ... Wrixling was created to re-scale, off-rail, and side-soup that negligible entity formerly known as 'self'."'''.`/. Meet your new DirBs.
Cute Pooches In Delicious Dishes
Dogs In Food is a charming Instagram account: It all started with this picture of a Pomeranian peeking out from inside a cream puff, which is a match made in (all dogs go to) heaven. After all, a Pomeranian is already pretty much just a giant ball of fluff, and a cream puff is basically the pastry version of a ball of fluff. We dare you to look at that face and not smile.
“...turns mech vs. kaiju battles into a game of sci-fi chess”
Into the Breach [YouTube] [Launch Trailer] “Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy game, along the lines of the Advance Wars series, where players control futuristic mechs fighting off an invasion of giant, bug-like alien monsters. It’s basically Pacific Rim crossed with XCOM, and it’s from the creators of the addictive spaceship simulator FTL: Faster Than Light. If any of those words sound appealing to you, you’re going to like Into the Breach a lot. The game takes place in a future on the brink of disaster. Much of humanity has been decimated by the kaiju invasion, with isolated pockets of survivors strewn across four different islands. You control a team of three mechs traveling to different districts across the islands, clearing them of bugs before moving on to the next.” [via: The Verge] [more inside]
Mogshade. Bliffert. Sloomy. Plog.
Haggard Hawks is a web site, web log, twitter feed, YouTube channel, etc., by Paul Anthony Jones, devoted to obscure words, language facts, and etymology. [more inside]
"Keep digging! We'll reach God soon!"
Earn Marks, Childish Gambino, Troy Barnes... Donald Glover can't save you [New Yorker]. [more inside]
Let's talk about the new Queer Eye
If you believe Lisa truly cares about something, then you will, too.
In a classic 1991 episode of The Simpsons, Lisa is distraught to learn that her inspirational substitute teacher, Mr. Bergstrom, is leaving her. With his train ready to leave the station, Mr. Bergstrom writes Lisa a note. "Whenever you feel like you’re alone, and there’s nobody you can rely on, this is all you need to know," he says. Lisa opens the note as Mr. Bergstrom’s train disappears into the distance. It reads, "You are Lisa Simpson." Why Lisa Simpson Matters (cw: eating disorders)
ШАΛАШ
Sounds of Siberia - "How Novosibirsk’s Shalash record label created a beautiful audio world" [more inside]
"Instead they are given commemorative gold-coloured shoes. And cake."
Doing okay. In the Winter Olympics just concluded, Norway (pop. 5.3 million) surpassed USA's record of most medals won at a single Winter Olympics with 39 (14 gold, 14 silver, 11 bronze). “This is our moment, when we can show the world what we are. Although without boasting too much about it, of course. That wouldn’t be very Norwegian.” Their success is based on grass roots sports, and a “no jerks allowed” team policy. “We’re a small country and we kind of all know each other”. Curling pants and when to steal a painting. 'He also admits Norway is blessed with many advantages for Winter Olympics dominance, like snow, a history of excellence in sports like biathlon and cross-country skiing, and free health care, which helps keep young athletic talent in good shape.' (Fanfare)
February 25
Sridevi (1963-2018)
Bollywood superstar Sridevi Kapoor has died after suffering a massive cardiac arrest at a family wedding. She was 54. Sridevi was known for her decades-long career, versatility, charm and killer dance moves. Her work spanned many languages and industries. She acted in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. [more inside]
The Apples in stereo's Robert Schneider Left Music for Math
The Apples in stereo's Robert Schneider Left Music for Math. Schneider’s domain these days is a small cubicle in the math department at Emory University, where he is a researcher, a teacher, and a sixth-year graduate student. Shortly after I first met him, he showed me around his workspace. Books with titles like Riemann’s Zeta Function and Fermat’s Last Theorem sat neatly in a tall stack with a few comic books. Photos of groundbreaking mathematicians—Srinivasa Ramanujan, G.H. Hardy, Leonhard Euler—were thumbtacked to a partition, just above a shot of Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson.
[more inside]
"I'm so sorry you were so alone.” Those seven words undid me.
Monica Lewinsky: Emerging from “The House of Gaslight” in the Age of #MeToo. On the 20th anniversary of the Starr investigation, which introduced her to the world, the author reflects on the changing nature of trauma, the de-evolution of the media, and the extraordinary hope now provided by the #MeToo movement.
Against Popular Culture
...a fast-toughening stance by France against migrants...
A French Outpost in Africa Strives for Safer, and Stricter, Migration: France is screening asylum applicants before they resort to a dangerous Mediterranean crossing. A select few get plane tickets to Europe. Everyone else is told to stay home (SLNYT, by Adam Nossiter).
Ten ways to get this dog off your trail
"Danger, danger!"
Lost in Space [Netflix] [YouTube] [Official Trailer] The Robinson family, part of a highly trained mission to establish a new colony in space, is unexpectedly pulled off course forcing them to crash land on a lost planet.
This is not exactly what happened but it is basically what happened
Okay, so: Latin has this word, sic. Or, if we want to be more diacritically accurate, sīc. That shows that the i is long, so it’s pronounced like “seek” and not like “sick.”
Do this at least 12 times.
A strange little ditty called "Whistle Bait"
Larry Collins (previously) is not only a ball of fantastic musical energy: in 1958 (at age 13) he arguably cut the first punk record.
'Let’s hear it again!’
You've got to get it right
Paula Abdul parlayed her experience choreographing music videos for a lot of 80s powerhouses into putting out an album of her own which was a giant hit in 1988: Forever Your Girl [~44m]. Side A: The Way That You Love Me [video], Knocked Out [video], Opposites Attract [video], State Of Attraction, I Need You [more inside]
Money for nothing
The Great Big Spotify Scam. Music Business Worldwide tells how two playlists swindled the Spotify's royalty pool in at least one million Dollars - legally. [more inside]
Nodesort
Window Wanderland
"Window Wanderland transforms everyday streets into magical, outdoor galleries, where you never know what's around the next corner!" A citizen art project turns nighttime windows on streets into luminous windows on worlds. [more inside]
In Donald Trump, Evangelicals Have Found Their President
My reporting suggests Donald Trump is on a spiritual voyage . . . "This president’s effect on our cultural norms has been shocking. His critics would call it appalling; evangelicals say it’s immensely satisfying: They’ve seen a culture deteriorate quickly in the past decade, and they’re looking for a bold culture warrior to fight for them. Showing that God does indeed have a sense of humor, He gave them Mr. Trump. " [more inside]
A deep ocean of secrets
The Much Better Movie Hiding In 'Titanic'; or, clues hinting at a far bolder direction James Cameron ultimately backed out of taking.
Are you kids good at running and screaming?
This is America: 9 out of 10 public schools now hold mass shooting drills for students. "Are you kids good at running and screaming?" a police officer asks a class of elementary school kids in Akron, Ohio.
His friendly tone then turns serious.
“What I don’t want you to do is hide in the corner if a bad guy comes in the room,” he says. "You gotta get moving." [more inside]
The man who painted Totoro's forest
Kazuo Oga is mainly know as the background artist of Studio Ghibli animated films. Here's a demonstration of him working. Using poster paints. (A shorter version) [more inside]
Luke Towan builds realistic dioramas in H0.
February 24
Who will win the Golden Halo?
Every year during Lent, Episcopalians and other liturgically minded Christians participate in Lent Madness, which pits saints, martyrs, and other holy people against one another in sometimes brutal mano-a-mano fantasy smackdowns. Past champions include Florence Nightingale (who ultimately vanquished Franz Jägerstätter), Dietrich Bonhoeffer (prevailing in a thrilling faceoff with Julian of Norwich), and perennial favorite Francis of Assisi (in a nail-biter with fighting Irish Brigid of Kildare). [more inside]
Catfishing Strangers to Find Myself
Older Queer Voices
Sassafras Lowery wrote at Older
Queer Voices
We Know How To Do This - “If you don’t remember a time when your government hated you, those of us who do will help you learn how to survive it.” [more inside]
We Know How To Do This - “If you don’t remember a time when your government hated you, those of us who do will help you learn how to survive it.” [more inside]
How do you practice landing a space shuttle without launching one?
The Space Shuttle has been compared to a flying brick. How do you practice landing a flying brick? In a customized Gulfstream II with thrust reversers all the way down. [more inside]
The mighty Ursus Mark VIII is on display in a North Bay hock shop
Troy Hurtubise's dream of fighting a grizzly in home-made armour still haunts him. So does his fame (cw: some talk of suicidal ideation). Previously: Troy Hurtubise and his inventions. [more inside]
Jorji: Good look Blue yeis Wery toll
Count Macula
Hazel Scott is haunting me.
Hazel Scott was piano genius and prodigy, star-performer, civil-rights activist, and first black person to host a television show in America. Whatever Happened to Hazel Scott? is a video essay on her life, career, and cultural impact. [more inside]
More nudity than expected
Disney's musical adaptation of Frozen opens on Broadway. Twelve new songs. A darker tone than the animated movie. Will it find success on broadway? Probably.
West Virginia Wildcat
“As soon as we called the work stoppage for Thursday and Friday our locals took it upon themselves to start working with churches and food banks and different places to provide day care for the parents who needed it, to provide meals for the many students who get their hot meals at school.” West Virginia Teachers Walk Out (Dissent) - All public schools in all 55 counties of West Virginia are closed until at least Tuesday as the teachers strike for smaller class size, higher pay, and benefits. Local support is high (The Guardian). An Open Letter to the State of West Virginia From Its Students (The Nation).
"Not today, asshole!"
Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild
Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild by Kathy Fish.
A list of collective nouns for these times.
🙌🏾
First look: All 150+ Emojis for 2018 [YouTube] “The final emoji list for 2018 has now been published, and we here at Emojipedia have created images to show how we think these might look! 🙌 All 157 new emojis for 2018 are in this video, and we created our designs in an Apple-like style. Popular additions include redheads, curly hair, softball, kangaroo, and more. All humans support skin tones. The list for Emoji 11.0 was finalized on February 7, 2018 and these emojis should hit phones in the second half of 2018.” [more inside]
The theme from Carl Sagan's Cosmos is in there somewhere
Vangelis took a bit of a sideways step when he built a studio and recorded his 1975 album Heaven And Hell, a single unified work which draws strongly from classical music [full album ~43m] than progressive rock. Heaven And Hell Part I [~22m]: Bacchanale; Symphony To The Powers B (Movements 1 and 2); Movement 3 (from "Symphony To The Powers B); So Long Ago, So Clear (featuring Jon Anderson) [more inside]
words words words
Me vs An Post
Everyone needs a hobby. Dave Curran's is trying to drive the Irish postal service mad. Me versus An Post: Featuring bricks, puzzles, hand drawn maps, invisible ink, scratch offs, cheerful and accommodating ringmasters (literally) and an attempt to resolve a territorial dispute between Canada and the US via postcard.
What's there to say about silent movies?
Perhaps nothing that would be any more illustrative than seeing the images yourself. So here's A Time in Film: 1878-1899, 1900-1909, 1910-1912, 1913-1914, 1915-1916, 1917-1918, 1919, 1920, 1921. These may not contain clips from all the great movies from the era, but they provide an excellent start and the videos are worth seeing even if only as an end in themselves. An ongoing series of 3 to 5 minute videos covering the silent era and perhaps beyond.
February 23
A Second Look at TempleOS
Several years ago, MetaFilter had a famous thread where MeFites interacted with the creator of a unique operating system called LoseThos (previously). The creator, Terry Davis, now calls his work TempleOS, and released version 5.03 last year. [more inside]
Ethiopia & West Africa: Churches of Rock & Mud
By the 5th century, christianity's mystical aspects drew the young. As the religion grew, a series of spectacular churches and monasteries were built high atop mountains or excavated out of solid rock, many of which are still in use today.
Over in West Africa, mosques were being built of mud. Because islam did not arrive in an invasive flood, the architectural style was mixed with local style to create a vernacular mosque style. West African Mosques
“People hated me so much”
We’ve Always Hated Girls Online: A Wayback Machine Investigation: A former fan searches for a teen girl who was once internet famous for her coding skills [more inside]
In Praise of Negative Reviews
O.L.U.
If you've been to the Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres at Chartres, Santa Maria de Montserrat monastery, the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, or many others, you may have noticed that the Madonna was black - either due to paint, natural materials, age, smoke, or perhaps .... mystical significance.
Is Our Lady of the Underground a Goddess in Disguise? [more inside]
The Flamin' Hot Cheetos origin story
How one visionary Latino has influenced his community and one of the largest corporations in America. Flamin Hot Cheetos were created by son of migrant farmworkers, who grew up not speaking English, and dropped out of high school and became a janitor. He had the idea while watching a street vendor in his neighborhood make elote, or grilled Mexican street corn — corn on the cob covered in cheese, butter, lime and chili. “What if I took the same concept and applied it to a Cheeto?” he thought. [more inside]
From Syria, With Love
Björk's favourite Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman (previously) is now an EDM star, produced by the likes of Four Tet (previously) and Diplo, and his (longish) music videos are... something else: Warni Warni (2013) - Chobi (2017) [more inside]
"We nerds have heart and depth too..."
"Domestic conversion - the metamorphosis of a jetliner into a home" just one of the many sections of the FAQ of airplanehome.com the site Bruce Campbell created to explain how he converted a Boeing 727 and turned it into his home. Too many words? Just watch this short video tour. [via]
Tools for Social Change
A Practical Toolkit to Trigger and Support Social Innovation. You can also get the entire toolkit as a PDF.
Blinded By Your Grace
Stormzy delivers a blistering performance at the Brit Awards, calling out Theresa May's response to Grenfell and suggesting the Daily Mail suck his *bleep* (previously on Twitter). [more inside]
Who are the true Ur-Quan Masters?
In 2013, software developer Stardock announced they were making a new Star Control game, the first in nearly two decades, after they purchased the rights to the Star Control games from Atari (previously)
Or so they thought. [more inside]
Homesick
The landlord opens the door to a tiny room. It radiates the possibility that I have been wrong about everything. Every decision in my life has led me to this point, and I can't believe what it looks like: The space is 10 feet by 9 feet 3 inches. This living room/dining room/office/bedroom/closet is 175 square feet total, according to my calculations. ... I catch my own face in the mirror. I have a hard time looking at myself, here, in an apartment this teensy, at age 34. If I take this place, that mirror is going to have to come down. What It's Like to Live in a Space the Size of a Closet by Paulette Perhach. [more inside]
The new Heathers is "written for aging Fox News viewers"
If you believe that kids these days are fragile “snowflakes,” that political correctness is running amok, and that LGBT people are now society’s true bullies, this new Heathers is the show for you. The premiere of the rebooted cult classic, now airing for free online, takes place in a universe—clearly a fictional one—where the football team is oppressed and yesteryear’s fat, queer, and black victims now rule the school with manicured fists.The new Heathers opens with a slur against intersex people and goes downhill from there.
Yellow mutant cardinal flies over Alabama
A cardinal with a rare genetic mutation has been spotted in Alabama. Normally cardinals turn yellow pigments into red with an enzyme, but this one is different. Here's video of it eating.
We talked face-to-face like it was the 90s again
Increased screen-time for teens impacts psychological well-being , but so does too little screen time. Similarly, phubbing, or phone-snubbing, your partner impacts your relationship. Ditching devices can be particularly hard, as as apps and games are designed to be "addictive" (while Internet Gaming Disorder is a “Condition for Further Study” in the DSM-5, there's no formal designation for "tech addiction"). So what to do? There are lots of options and ideas, from setting new boundaries for yourself and your kids, including "Tech Shabbat" (which isn't a new idea). [more inside]
This is What a Goddess Looks Like
Birth Becomes Her - Winners of the 2018 photo contest on maternity. [NSFW - naked people, babies being born, breastfeeding] [more inside]
Getting Organized
“Marie Miranda cooked potato salad, pastelillos and rice for a group of 30 socialists and Emerald Equity tenants gathered in Alex’s apartment for the DSA Housing Working Group meeting. The socialists came to hear the tenants’ experiences, and tenants came to give powerful testimony of landlord abuse. There was standing room only as people crowded into the living room and leaned in from the kitchen to hear the tenants speak.
One by one, in Spanish, the tenants gave harrowing accounts of abuses spanning decades, including the death of one tenant’s father due to management’s negligence...” Rats In The Hallway (Indypendant) how a group of working class women and the NYC DSA teamed up to fight hostile landlords pushing out rent stabilized tenants. (Article in Spanish, Ratas en el Pasillo)
One by one, in Spanish, the tenants gave harrowing accounts of abuses spanning decades, including the death of one tenant’s father due to management’s negligence...” Rats In The Hallway (Indypendant) how a group of working class women and the NYC DSA teamed up to fight hostile landlords pushing out rent stabilized tenants. (Article in Spanish, Ratas en el Pasillo)
Well, that escalated quickly: Augmented Reality edition
In which Abhishek Singh recreates a scene from The Ring using Augmented Reality, so the friendly character Sadako can follow you around your house. The scene in the US remake, and more in The Verge, Road to VR and Gizmodo. The character on Wikipedia (Maybe don't answer the phone if it rings while you read this FPP).
We remain committed to strong, independent reporting that fills the void
Public radio stations WNYC (New York), KPCC (Southern California), and WAMU (Washington, D.C.) have joined together to acquire key assets of Gothamist and its associated sites LAist and DCist. The acquisition is being funded in large part through philanthropic donations from two anonymous donors. Is this another indication of the rising wave of nonprofit journalism? [more inside]
Walk in, ask questions, get out
Confinement (promo) is an ongoing horror-comedy animated series by Lord Bung based on the stories of the SCP Foundation (Previously). The episodes so far: "The Cannibal" (SCP-082), "The Singing Forest" (SCP-407), "The Robot" (SCP-1360), and "The Girl in the Iceberg" (SCP-1836).
Orcs aren't known for their great cuisine
Cocaine & Rhinestones
Cocaine & Rhinestones is a podcast on the history of 20th century country music hosted by Tyler Mahan Coe. The first season, 14 episodes plus a Q&A show, is now complete. In addition to the podcasts, there are transcripts and research notes for each show. [more inside]
In Search of Warriors
A story told by my grandfather sparked a fascination. Far to the east lies a land, wild and vast, inhabited by the legendary warriors who rescued my grandfather. Mongolia. For fifteen years, I’ve returned to this country, seeking to understand the raw beauty and tenacity that shapes those who call it home.
A stunning photo essay
Neanderthals created cave art
Two papers published yesterday suggest that Neanderthals were creating cave art in Europe thousands of years before modern humans arrived on the continent. As well as using pigments on cave walls, they were painting lines and one, very spine-tingling, hand print. Palaeolithic archaeologist Becky Wragg Sykes on the findings and some more context. [more inside]
M$
February 22
God is far more than male and female
"Transgender people enlarge life and our understanding of spirituality and justice and the nature of God and Christian community," says Jo Inkpin, Australia's first openly transgender priest, who tells her story to the ABC.
Tell the story. Tell the story. Tell it over and over again.
"I believe in non-violence, as a way of life, as a way of living." Get In the Way, a documentary about congressman, civil rights leader, and hero John Lewis is currently streaming on PBS.org.
John Lewis previously on Metafilter: Gun control sit-in in the House. "Because of you, John." - Barack Obama [more inside]
And I feel fine
"The End of the F***ing World" is an extremely dark-humored British TV adaption of Pennsylvania native Charles Forsman's graphic novel TEOTFW [heads up, animal cruelty]. The 8-episode first series appeared first on the UK's Channel 4 in October, and is now on Netflix. [more inside]
The Flame-Haired Woman of the Shadows
Ⓞ Ⓡ Ⓔ Ⓞ
List of Oreo Varieties [Wiki] “The most popular cookie in the United States, based on sales, is the Oreo. For most of its history, owner Nabisco (originally National Biscuit Company) only made the basic version of this cookie. But in recent years, increasingly since 2010, it has expanded to a great many varieties, both domestically and globally. In addition to their traditional design of two chocolate wafers separated by a creme filling Oreo cookies have been produced in many different varieties since they were first introduced, and this list is only a guide to some of the more notable and recent types; not all are available in every country.” [more inside]
"Rule #1 is young men die. And Rule #2 is doctors can't change Rule #1."
'M*A*S*H' Finale, 35 Years Later: Untold Stories of One of TV's Most Important Shows
When the series launched in September 1972, CBS executives thought they had greenlit a comedy. Series creators Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart instead gave the network seriocomic vignettes of universal truths about the human condition. "We helped break the boundaries of the boss coming to dinner and burning the roast," series star Alan Alda (aka Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce) tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Nationalism has a way of oppressing others.
The Opportunistic Rise of Europe’s Far Right. Across the continent, racist groups have used the war on terror to gain a new platform and there is a far-right revival in Central Europe.
Guardian long read; The fascist movement that has brought Mussolini back to the mainstream.
Poland and the Uncontrollable Fury of Europe's Far Right.
The Rise of the European Far-Right in the Internet Age.
Rise of the nationalists: a guide to Europe’s far-right parties.
Guardian long read; The fascist movement that has brought Mussolini back to the mainstream.
Poland and the Uncontrollable Fury of Europe's Far Right.
The Rise of the European Far-Right in the Internet Age.
Rise of the nationalists: a guide to Europe’s far-right parties.
I thought my bully deserved an awful life. But then he had one.
The Opioid Diaries
The Opioid Diaries "Over the last year, photographer James Nachtwey set out to document the opioid crisis in America through the people on its front lines. Alongside TIME’s deputy director of photography, Paul Moakley, the pair traveled the country gathering stories from users, families, first responders and others at the heart of the epidemic. ADVISORY Graphic content could be disturbing to some readers"
START A NEW LIFE, IN THE OFF-WORLD COLONIES
One of the many (many, many) challenges to long-term human habitation of Mars is the lack of an atmosphere, which was stripped away over millions of years due to Mars' lack of a magnetosphere. How to kick off a little climate change? How To Give Mars An Atmosphere, Maybe [more inside]
Newsweek Fighting Its New Owners
"rivers are the lifeblood of the planet, and driftwood the nutrients"
From streams to estuaries to the deep ocean floor, driftwood shapes every environment it passes through. While there's an awareness that temperate rainforests are enriched with nitrogen from the marine environment, delivered by decomposing salmon, less well known is the fact that dead trees from those same forests travel to the sea and become a vital source of food and habitat. Driftwood is in need of a PR campaign, celebrity spokesperson, or publicist at the very least. Driftwood, it turns out, is also rapidly disappearing.The Trees That Sail to Sea by Brian Payton.
actually maybe I'm still sorting this one out
a comic by Edith Zimmerman: My First Year Sober
Extreme model railroading
In North Adams, Massachusetts, plans are afoot for the construction of a $65 million, 83,000 square foot "Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum", in which 2,000 model freight and passenger cars and 107 locomotives will operate in a landscape filled with scale models of the world's most notable contemporary buildings. Video walkthrough of first conceptual model. Building plans are being drawn up by architect Frank Gehry (the Bilbao Guggenheim, LA Walt Disney Concert Hall, Seattle Pop Culture Museum, etc.), while Thomas Krens (former head of the NY Guggenheim Museum, creator of its various spinoffs, and original driver behind the creation of MASSMoCA, also in North Adams) heads up the project, which will open in 2021. [more inside]
"A neverending potlatch"
How can we explain the existence of Gremlins 2: The New Batch? A good place to start is the classic Key & Peele sketch detailing its origins as a Hollywood sequel but, to really dig into the meaning of it, one must consult the Institute for Gremlins 2 Studies. The ruminations regularly posted by the Institute elucidate the hidden symbolism of the gremlins as a challenge to Fukuyama's End of History, revealers of technology's full potential for horror/liberation, and "beings without economy, or perhaps, against economy" who negate the possibility of dialectic. [more inside]
"I think I just need to let some arrows fly."
From this day forward every decision will be my own!
For her third album released in 2006, India.Arie tapped deeply into her personal life and created a minor masterpiece about a strong women dealing with emotional difficulties: Testimony Vol. 1: Life And Relationship (Discogs link with extensive credits) [artist-created YT Playlist missing one song ~55m] [Spotify playlist of full album ~1h] CD track listing part one: Intro: Loving, These Eyes, The Heart Of The Matter*, Good Morning, Private Party, There's Hope [video], Interlude: Living
*fan-made TV show related video, not very good, not of the whole song, only version of album track available [more inside]
*fan-made TV show related video, not very good, not of the whole song, only version of album track available [more inside]
God should have made girls lethal when he made monsters of men
Scott Moir to Ref: "WAKE UP!"
Scott Moir was at the game last night. The gold medal game for women's hockey was played last night, and went all the way to a shootout. In attendance was Scott Moir, of Virtue and Moir, Canadian gold medalists for ice dance, and he was pretty invested in the proceedings. Let's watch the tape!
All the art references in BoJack Horseman.
The animated TV show BoJack Horseman (previously 1, 2) contains dozens of references to classic and contemporary art. Daily Art Magazine has scoured all four seasons and found them all.
Let me talk about this post, which is probably a failure
Its fans call themselves "potheads" and accessorise their pots
As the nation struggles [molten chocolate cake] through the Polar Vortex, failing and closed restaurants, and food pronunciation, hungry Brits [boil an egg] are staying in and using their eBay acquired Instant Pots [coq au vin]. Paula Cocozza tries one for a week, while Jessica Yadegaran happily makes risotto, and in Houston it faces off against the Dutch Oven. While Americans [baby back ribs] grieve over death by Crock-Pot, in Minneapolis Patricia Lopez makes a safer dulce de leche. Elsewhere [Cuban beef stew], Paul Hope faces off the Instant Pot against the Big Green Egg over pulled pork [Sloppy Joes], Melissa Clark is turned by a pork shoulder, and Urvashi Pitre becomes the "butter chicken lady". Though, [lemon pepper orzo] fried chicken replicators may be disappointed.
February 21
But who invented the flat white?
"Five years ago, you would be hard-pressed to find flat whites and avocado toast in New York—a mention of either of those things would probably get you laughed out of your local greasy spoon. But today, you can hardly walk five blocks in Manhattan without bumping into a different “Aussie café,” a new genre of coffee shop that emphasizes carefully crafted espresso beverages (such as the flat white), charming service (“G’day, mate!”), and a menu of fresh and light fare (said avocado toast). The sheer number of them indicates that, at the very least, Aussie cafés have been not just a gustatory success but also a commercial one: Two Hands, Toby’s Estate, Citizens of Chelsea, Banter, Ruby’s, Brunswick, Sweatshop . . . the list goes on. They’re popping up not only in New York, but all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland." - How Australian Coffee Took Over—And Why New Zealand Coffee Could Be Next [more inside]
"Most fails happened when an element fall down earlier than expected."
How the Vietnam War's Napalm Girl found hope after tragedy
Kim Phuc, photographed after a napalm attack in South Vietnam in 1972, is interviewed on PRI.
The Mother of Invention
A new short story from Afrofuturist author Nnedi Okorafor: "The city of New Delta was big, but her neighborhood had always been “small” in many ways. One of those ways was how people stamped the scarlet badge of “home-wrecking lady” on women who had children with married men... Only her smart home spoke (and sometimes sang) to her." [more inside]
“Somebody once told me...”
Smash Mouth All Star • Smash Mouth All Star But Every Word Is Somebody • Smash Mouth All Star But I Take a Bite of an Onion Every Time He Says "Star" • Smash Mouth But Recreated From Windows XP Sounds • Smash Mouth All Star But Every Word Is Sung By Google Translate • Smash Mouth All Star But It's 24 Cartoon Impressions • Smash Mouth All Star but it's Vintage Reggae Style Cover ft. Vonzell Solomon • Smash Mouth All Star But It's a Spontaneous Piano Duet in Public • Smash Mouth All Star But I Add A Clothes Pin To My Beard Every Time He Says "The" • Smash Mouth All Star But Composed In Mario Paint Composer • Smash Mouth All Star But All Notes Are In C • Smash Mouth All Star But It's Even More Beautiful • Smash Mouth All Star But It's Chiptune • Smash Mouth All Star But It's Metal • Smash Mouth All Star But It's Jazz
Where Did All the Advertising Jobs Go?
Dismantling of a dam and restoring an ecosystem
The restoration of the ecosystem in the Elwha River Undoing the dam to restore what’s good for all animals [more inside]
He's either as smart as the devil himself or the luckiest bastard alive.
In 1985, KGB Colonel Vitaly Yurchenko defected to America. He told agents he had terminal stomach cancer and had decided to make the world right in the time he had left. Yurchenko told KGB secrets to the CIA and NSA, including important details about 55 to 60 KGB assets in America and two Soviet moles (Edward Lee Howard and Ronald Pelton) inside US intelligence. But three months in, he learned he didn't have terminal stomach cancer -- just a minor bowel disorder. So Vitaly Yurchenko changed his mind and escaped back to the Soviet Embassy. He told the media that the CIA had drugged and kidnapped him. “The agency had either been completely taken in by a brilliant Soviet intelligence officer, or allowed one of its top Soviet defectors to slip out of its hands.” (Via) [more inside]
Remember the 1998s?
Remember the Discman? Remember the best Discmens? Remember the wackiest Discman? Remember the first Discman? Remember the Data Discman?
"The masculinization of fiction, 1800-1960"
The Transformation of Gender in English-Language Fiction is a long essay by Ted Underwood, David Bamman and Sabrina Lee that uses quantative analysis of over a hundred thousand works of fiction digitized by HathiTrust to look at the proportion of fiction written by women, and the proportion of female characters, from 1780-2007. To the authors' surprise both declined steadily and profoundly from 1800-1960, before rebounding. They also looked at gender divisions between male and female characters over the same period, finding that they had lessened. The Guardian has a short summary of the findings. And for more on gender representation in 19th Century fiction, the authors point to Understanding Gender and Character Agency in the 19th Century Novel by Matthew Jockers and Gabi Kirilloff.
The future will be black. And female. And cybernetic.
Car!
Climbing is a huge part of the mythology and culture of road cycling, both professional and amateur. Legends are born on the slopes of mountains, at least going up them. The fun part, however, is going back down again so join ex-pro riders Si Richardson and Matt Stephens as they descend Mallorca's Sa Calobra. [more inside]
Fast Food, Fair Wages
“The systemic poverty and racism America faces today was not inevitable,” the statement continues. “It is the result of choices made by politicians and corporations.” The revival of The Poor People’s campaign on the 50th anniversary of Memphis sanitation workers’ strike seeks to combine the plight of the working poor, faith leaders, and the fight for a fair minimum wage for fast food workers. Behind the minimum wage fight, a sweeping failure to enforce the law. (Politico) Republicans silent on tip-pooling changes that woukd allow owners to pocket server’s tips. (Eater) [more inside]
Worst Roommate Ever
“You’ve got your whole life in front of you. You’re pretty, you’ve got this house — well, you don’t have this house anymore. This house is my house.” (Warning, disturbing content.)
"Oh!" said his wife. "It's like the War"
Owen Stephens recalls how in 2000/01 he ran a roleplaying session for Wizard of the Coast's then new Star Wars D20 game when an elderly gentleman with actual commando experience showed up at his table. (Hat tip.)
"Joining a whisper network comes with a catch..."
"...it invites participants in on the condition of silence. And because of that, we often miss that whisper networks are a double-edged sword: the same secrecy that protects victims and whistleblowers can shield perpetrators as well." The Verge longform: When Whisper Networks Let Us Down by Sarah Jeong (cw: sexual assault)
A "plain, ordinary preacher from a farm in North Carolina."
The Rev. William "Billy" Graham has died at age 99. Washington Post obituary. Politico obituary.
As a child, he was kicked out of a local youth group for being "too worldly." At age 14, upon the end of Prohibition, his father forced him and his sister to drink alcohol until they got sick, thus creating a lifelong aversion to drugs and alcohol for the rest of their lives.
He rose to prominence after World War II, taking advantage of the new media of radio and TV. Criticized for his centrist views (as well as a registered Democrat), Bob Jones said that "Dr. Graham is doing more harm to the cause of Jesus Christ than any living man." An early integrationist, he was also accused of pandering to southern whites.
Pastor to the presidents, he was a good friend of Richard Nixon and supported the Vietnam War. He also helped George Bush, Jr. stop drinking.
His Crusades reached millions. Here is CNN's 10 things you didn't know about Billy Graham.
God's Bully Pulpit: Time Magazine's feature story on his 75th birthday (paywalled)
And hey, did you know that Mike and Karen Pence follow the "Billy Graham Rule"?
"a back door to the U.S. financial system."
A Chinese Casino Has Conquered a Piece of America
Imperial Pacific’s overnight domination of Saipan has generated deep unease among the island’s citizens, many of whom are convinced that their home has been bought. The company, they believe, set out to take over a little piece of America, politicians and all. Given the billions of dollars at stake, it’s not surprising someone would try. What’s shocking is that, so far, it seems to be working.
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.
This Design Generation Has Failed
And that’s when I decided that we — and by we I mean those of us currently drawing paychecks for professional design services — are design’s lost generation. We are the Family Ties-era Michael J. Fox of the design lineage. Raised by hippies. Consumed by greed. Ruled by the hand of the market. And nourished by the last drops of sour milk from the withered old teat of capitalism gone rabid. Living where America ends — Silicon Valley. Mike Monteiro on the ethical state of design's lost generation.
The Temple of Knowledge
Ronald Clark’s father was custodian of a branch of the New York Public Library at a time when caretakers, along with their families, lived in the buildings. With his daughter, Jamilah, Ronald remembers literally growing up in a library, creeping down to the stacks in the middle of the night when curiosity gripped him. A story for anyone who’s ever dreamt of having unrestricted access to books.
February 20
I hear their screams
Howard Jones released Dream Into Action in 1985 [CD-based YT playlist, ~55m] and it made quite a splash on both sides of the pond and around the world, with several charting singles and gigantic sales. UK Vinyl Side One: Things Can Only Get Better [video], Life In One Day [video], Dream Into Action, No One Is To Blame [video, completely different version], Look Mama [video], Assault And Battery [more inside]
Exhibition of Memories
The Museum of Broken Relationships. "Before flying to Zagreb, I’d put out a call to my friends—What object would you donate to this museum?—and got descriptions I couldn’t have imagined: a mango candle, a penis-shaped gourd, the sheet music from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 3, a clamshell drilled by a dental student, an illustration from a children’s book that an ex had loved when he was young—showing a line of gray mice with thought bubbles full of the same colors above their heads, as if they were all dreaming the same dream."
The Shallowness of Google Translate
Douglas Hofstadter takes a deep dive into why AI techniques don't equate to real undersanding. longread.
Mon Dieu, it's full of...
{gravelly voice} Throughout history, mythical creatures and phenomenon have been spoken of, described, searched for. Often, with no resulting evidence, no video, no photo. The Yeti, the Sasquatch, the Unicorn, non-hipsters who eat Blue Star donuts; the roll-call of unproven legends goes on. But now, deep in the Val de Bagnes of Switzerland, unambiguous photographic proof has emerged of the most mystical, most tasty of them all... (as discussed in the Irish media, a nearby sighting, and another, the anatomy of one, a herd or flock, just over the border in Italy, and a previous sighting of similar)
RIP Thomas, the blind bisexual goose, 1980-2018
Thomas, a goose whose love life has delighted visitors to Waikanae's Waimanu Lagoons in New Zealand for many years, has died. His funeral featured a procession led by a bagpiper and a speech from the local mayor before the diminutive coffin was buried in a grave next to his life partner, Henry the swan. [more inside]
In its house at R'lyeh, dead AI waits Deep Dreaming
The Darkness at the End of the Tunnel: Artificial Intelligence and Neoreaction - by Shuja Haider. A story of: Time travel, a future superintelligence as unavoidably but passionlessly vengeful God, neoreactionaries as the alt-right's intellectual avant-garde, neoreactionaries planning White Flight to Mars, Google's Deep Dream and "the Cathedral", libertarian transhumanism and libertarian fascism, Lyotardian far-rightists, Deleuzian Thatcherism and accelerationism, the Dark Enlightment, superrich supercapitalist super-villains, Silicon Valley hyperracism, Noys, Lovecraft, AI as class disparity amplifier.And it isn't fiction.
Actually, my name is Austin Powers. Danger is my middle name
Dance or die!
Holly Dicker attends the biggest indoor hardcore rave in history to tell the story of Thunderdome and Holland's most significant youth culture movement. Legendary Dutch hardcore rave Thunderdome returns 5 years after their "final" 20th anniversary event in 2012. This is a great read about the history of a scene that inspired passion in a lot of people, as well as a detailed review of the event itself which seems rare in festival / rave culture.
Missouri Fought For Years To Hide Where It Got Its Execution Drugs.
To hide the identity of the new pharmacy, the state has taken extraordinary steps. It uses a code name for the pharmacy in its official documents. Only a handful of state employees know the real name. The state fought at least six lawsuits to stop death row inmates and the press from knowing the pharmacy’s identity. Even the way Missouri buys and collects the drugs is cloak-and-dagger: The state sends a high-ranking corrections officer to a clandestine meeting with a company representative, exchanging an envelope full of cash for vials of pentobarbital. Since 2014, Missouri has spent more than $135,000 in such drug deals. - The secretive company behind Missouri’s lethal injections [SLBuzzfeed]
What is reality, man?
Trypophobia may not be a real phobia. There is no green apple Gummi Bear flavor. Basically,
our senses may not be reliable.
“an endless war without boundaries, no limitation on time or geography”
Stop calling it seaweed.
From Overfishing to Sustainable Farming. The innovative 3D model for ocean farming employs hurricane-resistant anchors on the seafloor at the edges of the farm, connecting with ropes to buoys on the water’s surface. Another rope runs horizontally about eight feet below the surface. The kelp is grown on ropes hanging down off the horizontal rope, creating a vertical growing space. “Next to the kelp, we’re growing scallops and mussels, also vertically, and then further down, we have oysters in cages, and then clams actually down in the mud,” Smith explains. “The vertical-water-column approach reduces the farm’s footprint, and the multiple species create a diversity so that a farmer is protected should anything cause one of those crops to falter or fail in a given season.”
There's no wine at Wendy's
Wendy's Shabbat. The story of some eighty-something Jewish friends and their 97-year-old rabbi, who found an unorthodox way celebrating their Friday night meals. From the new film by Rachel Myers.
Who kills Bambi?
‘People think the deer are lovely. Then they learn more about it’: the deer cull dilemma. The Scottish Highlands have a deer problem. Is shooting tens of thousands of them the only solution?
Cambridge researchers attempt to vaccinate against Fake News
“The idea is that once you’ve seen the tactics, and used them in the game, you build up resistance,” said Sander van der Linden, director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. Researchers at the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab have built an online game designed to reveal the key strategies used in the creation and dissemination of fake news. About the game. Previous related research into the subject from the same institution.
My ready meal is none of your business
Jack Monroe (previous) has responded to a now deleted tweet by Bath Conservatives suggesting Monroe is the poster girl for eating on £10 a week. Monroe's response:
I have lived, waiting in fear for this moment, for almost six years. Waiting, to be upheld as some kind of justification for the deepest incisions of Conservative cuts as they seek to justify their barbaric policies by attaching them to someone who can be used as an example of ‘pulling themselves up by their bootstraps’. [more inside]
February 19
from psy-op pamphlet to stateside souvenier
Afghan War Rugs And The Lossy Compression Of Cultural Coding [Twitter][Spooler (req. login) ] [more inside]
Shattered convictions I thought were reflecting you
CCM artist Leslie Phillips had been marketed as "the Christian Cyndi Lauper", and it didn't sit well with her. The producer for her 4th album, T Bone Burnett, helped her morph her sound and put enough, um, ambiguity in the album that Leslie was able to start a new, secular music career as Sam Phillips. But here is that brilliant, acoustic textured, questioning, and yearning [and receommended for non CCM audiences too] Leslie Phillips album from 1987: The Turning [YT playlist, ~40m]. Side A: River Of Love, Love Is Not Lost, The Turning, Libera Me, Carry You [more inside]
Your Cortex Contains 17 Billion Computers
It's a neural networks of neural networks up in your noggin. (Dr. Mark Humphries for Medium) [more inside]
devoid of verse numbers and footnotes, so it reads less like a textbook.
'Manuscripts' Encourages Readers To Approach The Bible Like A Novel [NPR] “But there's also been a surge of interest in engaging with the Bible in the same way you would a novel, free of footnotes and asides. That's the approach taken by the small team behind Manuscripts, a new version of the Bible in the form of individual pocket-sized volumes – the first of which are coming out this month after a successful crowdfunding campaign. "Our research showed us that people were often intimidated by how it's traditionally been presented; as one big book," says Manuscripts creative director Jacob Scowden. "We wanted to give an ease to it, and reemphasize the effectiveness of reading the Bible as individual books."” [more inside]
No chicken for you! (and no wages for you)
While in the USA they sell scratch and sniff cards, and in Australia serve tanks and discuss naked wrestling, in the UK KFC aren't doing well. Following several days of closures and "everything but chicken" menus, most branches of KFC stay shut. This began when, though warned, KFC switched to a cheaper deliverer - "optimised delivery scheduling" - who promptly could not deliver ("It's pretty complex!"). Speculation on why continues, while KFC staff are being accused of chicken smuggling and "encouraged" to take holidays by KFC. Politicians have been contacted by constituents (some resorting to vegetables), while closures also affect Taco Bell. As ever, Twitter (and dead royalty) is unhappy, though in the not-distant future, a tasty new flavour of chicken may be sold in Britain. Mmm!
Fair go, sport!
“The irony of athletes from Great Britain, which spent £275m on preparations for the Rio games, raising fundamental questions about fairness in a race against an athlete from a country that spent less than £1.9m has somehow been lost” wrote the South African author and commentator Sisonke Msimang. Grauniad link.
Ancient Hill Rice Rediscovered
A staple of African cooking that was thought lost was found in a small field in Trinidad. The fat, nutty grain, with its West African lineage and tender red hull, was a favored staple for Southern home cooks during much of the 19th century. Unlike Carolina Gold, the versatile rice that until the Civil War was America’s primary rice crop, the hill rice hadn’t made Low Country plantation owners rich off the backs of slaves. The search for the missing grain led to Trinidad and Thomas Jefferson, and now excitement among African-American chefs. [more inside]
"This is really scorched earth"
IBM Sues Microsoft's New Chief Diversity Officer To Protect Diversity Trade Secrets: IBM has filed suit against one of its longtime executives, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, alleging that her new position as Microsoft’s chief diversity officer violates a year-long non-compete agreement, allowing the Redmond company to use IBM’s internal secrets to boost its own diversity efforts. [more inside]
Cooking with Ursula K. Le Guin
May it be a refuge and a mirror.
A Silent Place launches. The new project by Jonathan Harris consists of slightly animated, slightly interactive images, displayed slowly and with a meditative soundtrack. The images are drawings of and inspired by Utah-area pictographs. [more inside]
The Mess at Meetup
Meetup was supposed to be different. While much of the tech industry struggled to create inclusive work environments and free itself from the kinds of workplace harassment allegations that have spewed out of major companies like Google and Uber, Meetup was mission-driven, diverse, profitable, and user-focused. But last year, facing increasing competition, Meetup started negotiating an acquisition with WeWork—and everything changed. [slGizmodo]
Ike Did 9/11
Back in 1973, there was a girl from Tennessee
'Dolly Said No To Elvis' by Mark Nevin (ex Fairground Attraction), animated by Heather Colbert ... being the true story of the time a certain singer songwriter turned down The Colonel. It proved to be the right decision.
February 18
Because I do not care to enlarge my menagerie of pets...
In 1889, Tit-Bits magazine offered prizes to single, female readers who sent in the best answers to the question: ‘Why Am I A Spinster?’ Here are some highlights... [sl twitter thread] [more inside]
Let Food Be Thy Medicine
Watch Knife Skills (full video - 40 min), the Oscar-nominated short documentary about the opening of Edwins, a fine French restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, that is staffed almost entirely by ex-inmates with no prior restaurant experience. They have to learn everything there is to know about French food and restaurants in a very short period of time.
The authoritarian equivalent of Whuffie
"𝕎𝔼 𝔾𝕆𝕋 𝔸 𝕁𝕆𝔹!"
Abby and Brittany Hensel are dicephalic parapagus twins from Minnesota with separate heads and joined bodies (previously). After as normal a childhood as possible, they graduated from college in 2012 and became part-time teachers. (via) [more inside]
I'm a little piece of leather but well put together!
We've hosted Jackie Shane on the blue before but she's worth a revisit, especially in light of a lovely 2-CD retrospective box set and some well deserved recognition.
Jackie Shane was born May 15 1940 in Nashville to Jack Crawford and Jessie Shane. When she was 8 she was asked to join the church choir ("I will sing but I will not listen to the minister and I'm not giving him my money. This shyster."). When she was 10 she moved back to Nasville to live with her aunt and started singing in gospel and church groups. By age 13 Jackie had begun to consider herself a woman in a man's body and started wearing makeup to school. [more inside]
Jackie Shane was born May 15 1940 in Nashville to Jack Crawford and Jessie Shane. When she was 8 she was asked to join the church choir ("I will sing but I will not listen to the minister and I'm not giving him my money. This shyster."). When she was 10 she moved back to Nasville to live with her aunt and started singing in gospel and church groups. By age 13 Jackie had begun to consider herself a woman in a man's body and started wearing makeup to school. [more inside]
Maximum heaviosity
Weasel Walter (label honcho, Lydia Lunch collaborator, Flying Luttenbachers mastermind, No Wave historian, bar band impresario, jazz bandleader, improviser, etc.) presents The Beatles' She's So 60 Minutes of Heavy.
Two dogs bathing contendedly in a bowl of warm water.
‘Mutley Cruh! Mutley Cruh!’
It felt like I was putting a big part of myself inside a locker
I am still learning to accept myself as I am. I hope it doesn't take another 50 years. Photo interview series by Jessica Dimmock with trans women in the PNW. Dimmock is careful to explain that the situations are, well, complicated: some of her subjects don’t consider themselves to be trans because, as Dimmock explains, it was not an identity that they felt free to totally embrace. “They’ve been trapped in a timeline and a situation at home that has made it impossible for them...But everyone I photographed is on the spectrum of having a full female identity. There are women inside all of these people.”
The series places the women in the settings in which they found creative ways to steal away and express their honest identities in private,” she explains. “They are intentional and accurate to their stories.”
EBTG - A
In 1992, for their seventh album, Everything But The Girl changed tack entirely and went Acoustic [41m YouTube apologies for commercials] Cassette Side A: Love Ia Strange, Tougher Than The Rest, Time After Time, Alison, Downtown Train [more inside]
February 17
Take it to the bridge!
Punk Rock Church—Cult?
“frenetic yet orchestrated ballet of sword slashes and bullet-speed art”
You've never played a game quite like Bayonetta [GQ] “There’s also a pair of high powered pistols attached to her absurdly high-heeled shoes. Oh, and the game darts between biblical analogy and sexual innuendo quicker than Bayonetta herself can backflip into the air to shoot a horde of angry angels with her deadly Louboutins. That near-the-knuckle approach to sex and sexuality is often gratuitous, especially when you’re forced to watch the nth slow-motion crotch shot while you loudly insist to your girlfriend, “Really, this is not what it looks like.” But the game also takes the time to empower Bayonetta. She’s a fantastic female lead and it’s refreshing to play as her rather than just another one of the bone-headed muscle men that are rife in most action games. She’s absolutely the star of the show, and both games string together some of the most absurdly bombastic set-piece moments you’ve ever seen on screen, in a way that’s so audacious you’ll wonder how it continuously ups the ante.” [YouTube][Trailer] [more inside]
Blackhats
Love the second time around
He woke her in the middle of the night.
"Will you marry me," he asked.
"Of course I will, darling," she replied, a bit saddened.
Truth was, Michael and Linda Joyce had been married for 34 years, but Michael is battling Alzheimer's and he'd forgotten. [more inside]
"Will you marry me," he asked.
"Of course I will, darling," she replied, a bit saddened.
Truth was, Michael and Linda Joyce had been married for 34 years, but Michael is battling Alzheimer's and he'd forgotten. [more inside]
"The first Phoenicians on this beach"
Hanno the Navigator was Carthaginian explorer who traveled south along the African coast in the sixth Century BCE. He left behind an account of his journey, a periplus, which among other things gave the world the word "gorilla", which may have been a kikongo phrase originally. It can be read in English translation on Livius along with scholarly notes by Jona Lendering. Hanno's brother Himilco was also an explorer, venturing north along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Lionel Casson puts Hanno in context of the history of exploration. While reading the links, you might want to listen to folk rocker Al Stewart's 2008 song Hanno the Navigator.
"I thought I'd had one too many wines for my birthday lunch," she said
"I was just trying to enjoy my book when all of a sudden an earthquake happens..." At 14:31:05 today, Britain suffered its largest earthquake for over a decade, being felt across major population centres such as Cheltenham, Manchester, Blackpool, Rhyl and Salford. The 'massive' quake centred on the village of Cwmllynfell (pronounced 'Cwmllynfell') in Wales, at a depth of 7km, and is the 17th in the UK so far this year. "I posted on Facebook immediately." While residents carried on or prioritised, and cats startled, questions have been asked. Please send British tea and moist crumpets.
Don't call it a comeback: Dabrye finishes his x/3 trilogy after 17 years
The final installment in Dabrye's trilogy was worth the wait (Doug Coombe, Detroit Metro Times)
Dabrye is musician Tadd Mullinix's hip-hop producer alter ego. His first album One/Three came out in 2001, a unique hybrid of techno influences (Detroit techno, Warp Records, and kindred labels) and the classic hip-hop productions of Pete Rock, DJ Premier, the Bomb Squad, and J Dilla in particular. His second album, Two/Three, came out in 2006 and featured his hero J Dilla and Phat Kat on the single "Game Over," as well as Waajeed, Invincible, MF Doom, and Guilty Simpson. And then... pretty much silence from Dabrye.That is, until now. Behold: Three/Three, featuring "a dream lineup of both Detroit (Danny Brown, Clear Soul Forces, Nolan The Ninja) and national (MF Doom, Ghostface Killah) MCs." [more inside]
Wolkoff To Pay $150kto each 5Pointz Artist
Gerald Wolkoff Pays for Destroying 45 Works Of Art Judge Federico Bloc orders Gerald Wolkoff to pay maximum damages to the artists whose graffiti art he whitewashed over in 2013.
Farid Ayaz & Abu Muhammad
February 16
Donkey Kong's Timeline Is Truly Disturbing
Be it fridge logic or fanwank, when you think about it the Donkey Kong timeline is truly disturbing.
It's Friday night. There's a bowl just sitting there waiting. Why not?
Robert Plant's 1993 Fate Of Nations was his sixth solo album. It's draws from a lot of influences. Like, a LOT. Side 1: Calling To You [video], Down To The Sea, Come Into My Life, I Believe, 29 Palms [video], Memory Song (Hello Hello) [more inside]
Make comics!
Want to make comics? Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett of Big Red Hair have you covered with their recently updated Resources for Comic Book Creators and comic book writing guide.
LGBTQ activism in the New East
Being LGBTQ is a new series from Calvert Journal that includes Live by night: An evening with Maydana, Ukrainian drag queen and asylum seeker, No Silence:
Growing up LGBTQ in the forgotten world of Transnistria, Secret histories:
LGBTQ life in pre-revolutionary Russia, Horoom Nights: Inside the secretive queer night at Tbilisi’s world-famous Bassiani club, and more... [more inside]
Antiracist Medievalisms: Lessons from Chinese Exclusion
"In the following sketches, I explore how early Chinese Americans created space for antiracist medievalism. Not only did people of Chinese ancestry turn “medieval” tropes and rhetoric against their contemporary detractors, but they also found affirming possibilities to assert a shared humanity and to claim cultural belonging." [more inside]
Love Crime? Is it time for some sweet chocolate Justice?
Since 1976, someone has decorated Portland, Maine, with hearts. Red hearts printed on white copy paper on businesses, cars, and the occasional heart banner on the museum, library or other building. Hearts have spread to other towns. Now, one guy is in a snit. [more inside]
"Panther's Rage" is about T'Challa's failure as a leader
Making the Panther a volunteer schoolteacher in Harlem wasn't an evil thing for the previous writer to do, but it was, as McGregor so pointedly acknowledges, a pretty stupid thing to do. T'Challa isn't an African-American looking for his place in the world, he's an African, all caps, and more importantly, he's the spiritual and political leader of an entire country. If he wants to dick around above the Upper West Side and teach poor kids, that's sweet, but what McGregor realized (immediately, and irritably), was that this effectively meant the character had abandoned Wakanda and all of his people along with it.David Brothers & Tucker Stone write about Don McGregor's classic "Panther's Rage" for The Comics Journal. [more inside]
actually a character wearing a train model as a hat
The right to grieve
"I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know what I’m good for. I don’t know how to come to terms with the fact that I have so much in my head, and so much in my Google Drive, that is basically useless right now. I don’t know how to come to terms with the fact that the life I imagined is not going to happen. I’ve already stopped doing my scholarship, other than editorial work for forthcoming pieces. In a few months, I’ll be done teaching. I don’t know how to come to terms with never doing those things again.
The Final, Terrible Voyage of the Nautilus
Kim Wall went for a ride on a submarine, hoping to write a story about a maker of "extreme machines." She never did. I needed to know what happened. [more inside]
Sworn Virgins
Burrnesha are women who live as men in Albania for the freedom, but the custom is dying out. The strict patriarchy is slowly giving way to a new culture and these sworn virgins are the last of their kind.
And don't even get me started on alligators...
What Color Is a Tennis Ball? — An investigation into a surprisingly divisive question [Marina Koren, The Atlantic]
"The seemingly trivial question tore apart our usually congenial group. Lines were quickly and fiercely drawn, team green against team yellow, as my colleagues debated the very definition of color itself. Swords were brandished in the form of links to HTML color codes or the paint selection at Sherwin-Williams. Attempts to broker a cease-fire, to consider that maybe tennis balls are actually yellow-green—or green-yellow, or chartreuse—were brushed aside. At one point, I lashed out at a colleague who then reminded me we were on the same side."
"The seemingly trivial question tore apart our usually congenial group. Lines were quickly and fiercely drawn, team green against team yellow, as my colleagues debated the very definition of color itself. Swords were brandished in the form of links to HTML color codes or the paint selection at Sherwin-Williams. Attempts to broker a cease-fire, to consider that maybe tennis balls are actually yellow-green—or green-yellow, or chartreuse—were brushed aside. At one point, I lashed out at a colleague who then reminded me we were on the same side."
There is no general theory of networks
Scant Evidence of Power Laws Found in Real-World Networks. Remember when scale-free networks were all the rage? The idea was that real-world networks (including but very much not restricted to social networks) are surprisingly-often well-characterized by a power-law distribution: a node has k connections with a probability proportional to some (negative) power of k. This had implications for every science involving things connected to or interacting with other things! Well, about that...
Tanlines for Children
a creative choice, to say the least, but also cruelly ironic
Guerrero (whose name, in Spanish, means “warrior”) fought the ban, saying that he had merely drunk a tea that included coca leaves—a common enough beverage in Peru, though Guerrero lives in Rio de Janeiro, where he plays for the soccer club Flamengo. But his claim paved the way for his Brazilian lawyers to mount an even more interesting defense, introducing FIFA to its oldest, and highest, character witnesses ever: the Children of Llullaillaco, three mummies named for the icy, twenty-two-thousand-foot-tall volcano in Argentina where they were left by the Incas, five hundred years ago. - As Peru Heads to the 2018 World Cup, Its Star Striker Has Three Inca Mummies to Thank [more inside]
Aren't all dogs ethical? Yes, but these are objectively the most ethical
NYC Ethics Watchdogs! The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board posts the city's objectively most ethical dogs. [SL twitter thread w photos of doggos]
Hello, human person
Can you come up with the same answer as a robot in this word association game?
slow-motion infocalypse
Inside the two years that shook Facebook, and the world
The stories varied, but most people told the same basic tale: of a company, and a CEO, whose techno-optimism has been crushed as they’ve learned the myriad ways their platform can be used for ill. Of an election that shocked Facebook, even as its fallout put the company under siege. Of a series of external threats, defensive internal calculations, and false starts that delayed Facebook’s reckoning with its impact on global affairs and its users’ minds. And—in the tale’s final chapters—of the company’s earnest attempt to redeem itself.[more inside]
you come across a collapsed mall from the Times Before
Couture is weird, and comics creator Jared Pechacek is making it weirder. Electric Lit gathers his collection of tweets turning the 2018 A.F. Vandevorst spring collection into a tale about building community in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
You don't want to know what was in her eye
Abby Beckley had been living on an inactive cattle ranch when she began to have the sensation that something was in her eye. "You know how it feels when you have an eyelash in your eye?" she asked. "That's exactly how it felt, but when I looked in the mirror, I couldn't see anything...I finally couldn't take it any[more]," she said. [more inside]
I'll give you the brightest of stars
M.anifest's new song Simple Love is a slow, luxurious dance through the streets of Tema, Ghana. via okayafrica
Young, gifted and classical
Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a cellist from Nottingham, England. In 2016 he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year award, the first black musician to do so. He's just released his first record-breaking album, which along with classical pieces, has covers of 'Hallelujah' and 'No Woman No Cry'. He also has six siblings who all play to concert standard too.
Online communities reach middle age
Before Usenet and MetaFilter but after email, and launched 40 years ago on February 16th 1978 in Chicago after development that avoided committee inertia, the CBBS (Computerized Bulletin Board System) was created by Ward Christensen (creator of XMODEM) and Randy Suess. It consisted of a homebrew computer with 40k of memory, was managed by a "sysop", eventually contained 20,000 lines of code, and worked well. Announced in Byte Magazine, the sole modem and 300 baud card meant members took it in turns to use, the system restarting with each new call. textfiles.com has some BBS logs and captures: [1][2][3][4]. Problems with the system?? Phone the developers. (2008 FPP, and a busy 2006 "Did you run a BBS?" AskMe)
February 15
Everyone needs one
Find you someone who's as happy to see you as this donkey. Or someone who wants to hug you as much as these animals.
Get Offa My Cloud!
Intimate Photos Escape the Cloud and Redistribute to Random Phone A man sets up a new smart phone for his gran. Looking through the images he has migrated for her, he notices images of someone he works with, a man and child. Verizon has no idea how images made it from the cloud to another party's phone. The folks whose privacy was dispensed out onto the web, are suing. This is some inborne, disastrous glitch. How much do they charge to go fishing in the cloud?
“Everything good about Dead Space comes from its underlying cohesion,”
Dead Space Is My Favorite Horror Game [Odyssey] “The moment I saw my first necromorph in Dead Space is when I I fell in love with the franchise. I first stumbled upon Dead Space when I was looking through my cheat code book glossary. My mom was going to be taking me to the movie store where they also rented out video games and I wanted something new to play. I had an Xbox 360 at the time and didn't have too many games so I was looking to expand. I saw the words "Dead Space" and was instantly hooked. I flipped the pages to that section and scanned over all the black and white pictures. I loved the look of it. So when my mom took me to the movie store, I bolted for their game section looking for this game. I was scanning the shelves until my eyes rested on the title "Dead Space." The cover made me want the game even more. It was a severed arm floating in space. The entire cover encapsulated the title perfectly. I knew I was going to love this game.” [more inside]
Manifestos are important precisely because they are impractical.
Dirty birds drop fowl tweets
You got your swearing in my bird art! No, YOU got YOUR bird art in my swearing! Stop fighting, kids: Effin' Birds on Twitter brings you the best of both worlds. Bonus: The Story Behind the Foul-Mouthed ‘Effin’ Birds’ Twitter Account, from Audubon.org and Andrew Del-Colle.
A University of, by, and for the People, by Sarah Vowell
In 1937, Maurice Hilleman had a job lined up as the assistant manager of the J. C. Penney in Miles City. In Depression-era Montana, Penney’s was top-notch employment, especially to a senior at Custer County High who grew up raising chickens on the outskirts of town. But Hilleman’s older brother pointed out there was that college in Bozeman and suggested Maurice should at least try to get a scholarship. He did, finished first in his class and went on to a graduate program in microbiology at the University of Chicago. Of the 14 standard recommended vaccines — including those for measles, mumps, meningitis, pneumonia and both hepatitis A and B — Hilleman developed eight of them. In a century soaked in genocide, his work saved millions of lives, including, potentially, yours and mine. J. C. Penney’s loss was humanity’s gain.
Barnes & Noble reaches its zero-moment point
You may have heard about B&N's recent layoffs and hiring of a new chief merchandising officer in a brief abstract fashion, but you might not realize it marks a point of no return for the company: The entirely unnecessary demise of Barnes & Noble [more inside]
I don't even have a whole bike
Nike's new Nothing beats a Londoner ad really showcases the diversity of sporting London, including some familiar figures.
Gorilla dating, is it love or science?
Gorilla Match-making There’s no Ok Cupid for gorillas, but a complex science to get the right match!
As He Died To Make Men Holy Let Us Die To Make Men Free
"i see this post more than i see my own family"
"Last Saturday – 12 days ago now – I shared a cringe-worthy video on Facebook: A 6-minute clip of a twenty-something white woman showing off her small, blandly decorated Brooklyn apartment [...] Ever since, this video has been waging a reign of terror over my friends and family, showing up at the top of their feed every single day, over and over and over. They are complaining to me on Facebook. They are complaining to me in real life. They are tweeting me about it and emailing me. Begging me to remove this cursed video that greets them each time they open Facebook.
And of course, they commented on my post. And then people commented on the comments. The more people commented, the more the video showed up on other people's’ feeds. As the rage around this post intensified, so did the comments. Coworkers I sit next to commented. College friends commented. Someone I went to preschool with commented. A vicious, algorithmically delicious cycle."
How I Cracked Facebook’s New Algorithm And Tortured My Friends [Katie Notopoulos, Buzzfeed]
And of course, they commented on my post. And then people commented on the comments. The more people commented, the more the video showed up on other people's’ feeds. As the rage around this post intensified, so did the comments. Coworkers I sit next to commented. College friends commented. Someone I went to preschool with commented. A vicious, algorithmically delicious cycle."
How I Cracked Facebook’s New Algorithm And Tortured My Friends [Katie Notopoulos, Buzzfeed]
I obviously live for the adrenaline rush, and I love live television
"Twenty years after she shocked the world by winning gold at Nagano, the figure skating prodigy is still an Olympic star, matching and maybe even transcending her prior profile as part of a captivatingly dynamic broadcast team with Johnny Weir." Tara Lipinski Hasn’t Lost Her Edge by Katie Baker at The Ringer
Music: A Medium for Empathy or Emotional Contagion?
Matthew Guerrieri On Empathy The crimes and misdemeanors language perpetrates against music are many and various, but one offense is more insidious than most, simply for being so insignificant. It’s a preposition. In English, invariably, we listen to a piece of music. Never with a piece of music. [more inside]
Fresh politics thread.
ICE cracks down in LA, meanwhile immigration legislation progress isn't looking great. [more inside]
Lena Dunham on Her Decision to Have a Hysterectomy at 31
Lena Dunham wrote a (characteristically) brutally honest and emotional piece for Vogue about having to have a hysterectomy at 31 as a result of debilitating endometriosis - despite desperately wanting to carry her own children someday. [more inside]
And whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me.
Daleswoman Hannah Hauxwell passed away recently aged 91. She was living alone on her family farm, with no water or electricity, when in 1973 she became famous after being featured in Barry Cockcroft's documentary Too Long a Winter, about the north Pennines community. Her quiet, pragmatic acceptance of her life moved viewers, and donations from the public enabled her to connect her house to the national grid and expand her cattle herd. She went on to feature in several more documentaries, including travelogues to Europe and America, and co-author books. Barry Cockcroft returned in 1989 for a poignant follow up film, A Winter Too Many, as Hannah prepared to sell up the farm she was no longer able to maintain. [more inside]
When "see something, say something" fails
Yesterday, a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 and wounding many others. Many people saw it coming but no one did enough to prevent it. What needs to change? [more inside]
Crummy crumb? Try 湯種!
Yudane or yukone, known as tangzhong in Chinese, is a bread baking technique that begins with a water (or milk) roux, heating flour and liquid to 65C to gelatinize the starches. It produces loaves that are tender, springy, moist, and resistant to staling, with a significantly different crumb. Its most famous application is in Hokkaido Milk Bread, but is also useful for bagels, rolls, and any application where a tender crumb or long shelf life is desirable. [more inside]
Why Silicon Valley billionaires are prepping for the apocalypse in New Z
Why Silicon Valley billionaires are prepping for the apocalypse in New Zealand: how an extreme libertarian tract predicting the collapse of liberal democracies – written by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s father – inspired the likes of Peter Thiel to buy up property across the Pacific. A Guardian long read, by Mark O'Connell. [more inside]
February 14
This goes to sixteen
Misplaced Childhood
Hey, they released it this way intentionally, and here's what Marillion told us about each side of their 1985 prog-ish concept album Misplaced Childhood: Side One [20m40s]: Pseudo Silk Kimono, Kayleigh, Lavender, Bitter Suite: a. Brief Encounter, b. Lost Weekend, c. Blue Angel, d. Misplaced Rendevous, e. Windswept Thumb, Heart Of Lothian: a. Wide Boy, b. Curtain Call [more inside]
Bob McDill, Country Music Star You've Never Heard Of
He explored the complicated South by reflecting it with detail, heart, and a work ethic that kept him aiming to write a song a week for 30 years. Over three decades, he wrote 31 country songs that went to No. 1. He worked songwriting like a 9-to-5 job and saved every legal pad he ever wrote on. Now, those 217 legal pads are in the collection of the Country Music Hall of Fame, teaching young writers how he made those hits. He wrote a song a week, at least.
And then he stopped.
48. Porkins Chronicles (2064)
One Man Rush
“It's all about the characters and their trials and tribulations...”
The Thrill of the Game: Why I Love Sports Anime [Kinja] “One thing to quickly endear me to sports anime was the fact that characters, even villains/rivals don't die(usually, though I've yet to see a character die in a sports anime that I've watched). This means I get to see something that rarely occurs in shonen battle series, the much anticipated rematch. This is something that carries over from my love of real life sports. When one of my teams loses to a rival or a team I just don't like and I'm left all salty, I greatly look forward to a chance at a rematch later on down the road. [...] It feels odd saying one of the reasons I love sports anime is that they are more about the characters than the sport, but it is true. I am a massive fan of shows that are character-focused, and that is largely what sports anime are.” [more inside]
A VPN Designed to Spy On You
Facebook has begun promoting a new "Protect" feature in its mobile app, which will send you to the App Store to download a VPN service called Onavo. Gizmodo: "Millions of people use VPNs to enhance their privacy online. But that is not Onavo’s function....The company is actually collecting and analyzing the data of Onavo users. Doing so allows Facebook to monitor the online habits of people outside their use of the Facebook app itself. " [more inside]
Hurtigruten is the best Gruten
All aboard! Hurtigruten (advert with pronounciation) is a Norwegian cruise, ferry and cargo operator. Their most famous route, the Norwegian Coastal Express, is the 1,200 mile service (in 5 minutes) between Bergen and Kirkenes, stopping at 34 ports including Ålesund, Brønnøysund, Svolvær, Harstad, Tromsø, Hammerfest and Vardo - and then back again. The round trip takes 12 days. Passengers can watch the passing scenery, northern lights, deckhands, or (soon) underwater drone footage. Using 11 cameras, the 134 hour trip was shown in 2011 as a continuous live nationally popular "slow television" broadcast (in 37 minutes, part 1 of 30). Though bridges and tunnels and (soon) tunnels for boats have made coastal Norway more accessible, the route is still popular with locals and tourists.
The brother and sister dog reunion is only a leash tug away
Last week, two almost-identical dogs crossed each other's paths at Pike Place Market in Seattle and were overjoyed. The dog's owners soon discovered, to their amazement, that the dogs were littermates and had come over to Seattle together ... from Russia! (original Facebook video of reunion)
Gâteau Gato Zeotrope
Wait, there's a permanent society for ephemera?
Your daily fall down the rabbit hole: The Ephemera Society of America. As it's been a while since its last mention, let's get caught up on new entries. Mid-century library posters! Victorian fashion alphabet! Medical ephemera! [more inside]
The Chickensh*t Club
In an alarming and comprehensive book published last summer, reporter Jesse Eisinger (previously) asks and attempts to answer Why Executives Don't Go To Prison Anymore?
Why Why federal prosecutors often wimp out in going after financial malfeasance? and why let corrupt bankers avoid jail? So why this book?
Why Why federal prosecutors often wimp out in going after financial malfeasance? and why let corrupt bankers avoid jail? So why this book?
“I’ve been pretty obsessed with the financial crisis and its aftermath and why there were no prosecutions of top corporate officers from any of the financial institutions in the wake of the crisis,” Eisinger said. “It strains credulity that there wasn’t criminal fraud during the crisis and at the height of the crisis. And its strains the credulity of lawyers and prosecutors who I have talked with. This has become a commonplace observation.” “I don’t think fraud was necessarily at the heart of the financial crisis. But that doesn’t mean the crisis didn’t involve an enormous amount of fraud. I think it did.”[more inside]
People's Socialist Atlas
A History of the United American Socialist Republics is a full, 200-page alt-historical atlas. Also see the author's r/worldbuilding post.
.
The overall winner of the 2018 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council science photography competition is 'Single Atom In An Ion Trap'. More winners.
In case you need some adorable, funny, sometimes sad stories right now
Over on Twitter, one Christina asks a simple question: What's a childhood anecdote that says a lot about you?
I am watching it burn
The Times Demonstrates Why Vetting Is Fundamental
On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Times announced that they had made a new hire for their opinion pages: Quinn Norton, a tech journalist who had written for several notable publications such as The Atlantic and Wired. However, it did not take long for critics to point out a lot of aspects of Norton that made her hiring questionable - her ties to major figures in white supremacy, her casual use of bigoted slurs in her tweets, and overall a number of very questionable positions that had many asking the Times a simple question: how did she pass vetting?
By 10 pm that same day, the Times had announced that Norton had been fired. [more inside]
By 10 pm that same day, the Times had announced that Norton had been fired. [more inside]
"Eight Loving Arms and All Those Suckers."
How Angels in America put Roy Cohn into the definitive story of AIDS: This oral history is lightly adapted from The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America. (SL Vulture).
Move over, reality television.
Video shoots? Old news. In 2018, there are dedicated GIF shoots.
Officially recognized as one of the toughest types of dirt in the nation
"Scientists had speculated such a soil should exist but it had never been seen—until this discovery four years ago." The Wauneta duripan in northern Arizona is now "officially recognized as one of the toughest types of dirt in the nation." But how does the competition stack up? [more inside]
Why New England’s amphipods are turning into the scuttling undead
The drama playing out in a New England estuary has all the makings of a Hollywood thriller: unwitting characters carrying out pleasant lives against a bucolic backdrop of branched waterways and rustling grasses when—suddenly!—they’re overtaken by a potent parasite. They turn pumpkin orange and wander away from shelter in zombie-like confusion. Eventually, they’re gobbled whole by winged monsters. [more inside]
'You b----y f-----g flaming p--s country w----s go and f--k your c--t'
'Merely a Warning that a Noun is Coming:' a review by Bee Wilson at the LRB about Christopher Hilliard's book The Littlehampton Libels ('A Miscarriage of Justice and a Mystery about Words in 1920s England') about a poison-pen case in an English seaside town in the years following the First World War, and more generally about attitudes toward 'foul language' when used by women (via reddit).
Towards an Empathic Civilization
The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy - "Where do we go from here? In this feature-length documentary, social and economic theorist Jeremy Rifkin lays out a road map to usher in a new economic system." (previously) [more inside]
February 13
52
One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do, and 42 is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, but 52 is...well... [more inside]
Hey, maybe it's time, maybe it's time to live your life today
Pump the audio through your big speaker system and let DJ Rap give you a strong female [I seem to be posting these a lot right now!] album experience that starts out from dance electronica but ventures far afield through her 1999 (3rd) album Learning Curve: Cassette Side A: Bad Girl, Good To Be Alive, Fuck With Your Head, Bad Behavior[OMG THE PRESENTATION IN THIS BUT IT'S THE ONLY VERSION OF THIS SONG I FOUND I AM SO SORRY NSFW], Everyday Girl [missing], You Get Around [more inside]
Early Jazz in Europe; Old Foik ; Hot R&B
We'll start with the Harlem Hellfighters band at the end of WW I helping Europe celebrate. Then we've got an article about the Harlem Hellfighters Regiment, serving in WW I Europe and the hero's welcome they got in New York City from whites and blacks: Harlem Hellfighters.
Then the awesome musician Elizabeth Cotton: Folk Singer, who almost faded into obscurity.
And finally, a great photo of Wilson Pickett onstage with Jimi Hendrix playing backup: Pickett & Hendrix
Vile Valentines
Aloha, mutants! It’s that time of year once again when couples are forced to spend lots of money on each other while the single folk get to laugh manically whilst eating alone in their dark, empty studio apartments. (More of a laugh-cry, really.) In either case, Valentine’s Day is clearly a holiday for losers. To help make the day a little more bearable, I’ve whipped up some free valentines [here and here] for you to share, email, print out, burn, and curse.
Breaking a 650-Year-Old Glass Ceiling with a Slim Black Rod
Sarah Clarke, the first Lady Usher of the Black Rod, today was given by Queen Elizabeth II her ceremonial black rod. [more inside]
Romantical-type music from Dickie Valentine
Almost 70 years ago, UK teen heart throb Dickie Valentine was made, from the chap born with the name Richard Maxwell. Dickie was named the Top UK Male Vocalist in 1952 while singing with the Ted Heath Orchestra, the greatest post-war British big band, and again after going solo in 1954, the same year that his first wedding drew throngs of fans. Valentine had two hits on the charts in 1955: The Finger of Suspicion in January, then Christmas Alphabet in December, when it unseated (and was then replaced by) an early rock'n'roll single, Rock Around the Clock, which gives you a hint at why Valentine faded from popularity. [more inside]
You think Google is a freedom fighter? Or Twitter?
Digital is killing democracy. Renegade Inc. interviews political scientist André Krouwel about his contrarian views on how technology is hindering rather than helping democracies. [more inside]
If You're Not Watching, You'll Soon Be Part of the Blockchain
In the course of its 23 years of operation, the website Salon sought to bolster its earnings through a variety of means, including the acquisition of THE WELL in 1999 along with the unveiling of a "premium" version of its main site for paying subscribers.
In further pursuit of revenue Salon has now announced it will warn users of ad-blocking software to either enable banner ads on its site, or partition part of their computers for "Salon to use your unused computing power" to mine cryptocurrency. [more inside]
Montani Semper Liberi!
"A West Virginia resident and House of Delegates candidate was physically removed from a public hearing at the West Virginia House of Delegates shortly after she began reading a list of donations made to delegates by the energy industry, during discussion of a bill aimed at easing restrictions on gas and oil-related drilling on private land." She has posted the remarks she had prepared but did not get to finish on her website. [more inside]
Punk is that which gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil
Logan Paul: A Brief Meditation. "They made a kind of monster machine, with every possible lever thrown towards a caustic narcissism, and then they pretend to be fucking surprised when an unbroken stream of monsters emerge."
One Minute Art History
"Filmmaker and educator Cao Shu captures the history of art in an experimental short film that lasts for less than one minute. Throughout the film, the central character goes through the small motions of everyday movements like checking the time and having a drink, with each frame rendered in a different art historical style."
...turning knobs and hitting buttons. Not on a controller, on a screen.
Damn, I Really Like Pressing Buttons In Video Games [Waypoint] “UI games, when done well, are really great at immersion. So, the term “UI Game” isn’t exactly a real, precise thing, so, let me explain: I’m talking about a class of game where your primary means of interaction with the worlds is through an in-game UI. Like pressing buttons or hitting switches on the onscreen HUD, as if going through two layers of obstruction between you and the “physical” world of the game. Think of desktop simulators: like Cibele or Her Story, where all of the action is happening on the other side of the screen, but in this context, in a more sci-fi or mechanical setting. It's as if you are seeing this universe through a ship’s cockpit, or a viewscreen, or a helmet,”
$$$ ... $$ ... $ ... ?
Donald Trump wants to raise the gas tax, previously unthinkable from a Republican, to increase the Highway Trust Fund which is chronically underfunded. As cars and truck become more efficient, what's the best way to fund road maintenance, repair and construction? Make Every Road A Toll Road [more inside]
The Action Is Go
Fuzzy, overdriven, bass heavy, driving kick drums and bluesy riffs - 90s stoner rock bands are back, baby!
Fu Manchu - Clone of the Universe
Corrosion of Conformity (w/ Pepper Keenan!) - No Cross No Crown
Monster Magnet - Mindfucker, out March 23
Fireball Ministry (w/Scott Reeder of Kyuss!) - The Answer [more inside]
Fu Manchu - Clone of the Universe
Corrosion of Conformity (w/ Pepper Keenan!) - No Cross No Crown
Monster Magnet - Mindfucker, out March 23
Fireball Ministry (w/Scott Reeder of Kyuss!) - The Answer [more inside]
#boilingAnalChemicals
Never try to eat a bombardier beetle. Because if the little shit feels threatened is will squirt boiling chemicals from its asshole right in your mouth to make you kindly vomit it back up you beetle eating weirdo.
Neighborhood submits official needs & priorities plan as a comic book
Each of St. Paul's 17 districts is required to submit a "Small Area Plan" about once every 10 years to communicate what their needs and priorities are in regards to housing, transportation, arts, education and land use. These are typically dry, jargon-laden affairs, but the Frogtown Neighborhood Association wanted to do something to get the attention of city leaders and bring more neighborhood residents into conversations about urban development. [more inside]
and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt
Prehistoric wine discovered in inaccessible caves forces a rethink of ancient Sicilian culture. Exploration of intolerably hot and humid caves in Monte Kronio in Sicily revealed several Copper Age storage jars containing organic residue. In one, the residue indicated the presence of pure grape wine from 5,000 years ago, the oldest wine found in the Europe and the Mediterranean. The author speculates that ancient Sicilians may have traded wine with people of the Aegean to obtain metals.
Fuuuuuuuuuck
Windows of San Francisco
"Looking out the window is an underrated activity. Each one is like a never-ending movie about a small, specific place in the world. You never know what kind of characters you’ll see, or what kind of plots will unfold. I tried to capture this feeling with Windows of San Francisco, which features views from 100 different windows around the city. San Francisco is a magical place, enjoy the journey." Windows of San Francisco, made by Jon Murray, Matthew Pullen, Andrew Pullen & Pete Blaszkiewicz
Earthquake-Proof Climbable Bookshelf!
You had me at earthquake proof, climbable floor to ceiling bookcase.
Maybe there's a use for this annoyingly endearing creature
From the Kentish Town post office murder to haunted Tulse Hill Station
Grim London - An interactive map of the historical dark side of the Old Smoke.
DEEP IN YOUR HEART YOU ARE A PIGEON ON A JOURNEY
You created Salt Bae, and now you have to eat his nasty food
Turkish restaurateur Nusret Gökçe, known as Salt Bae for a 2017 viral video which featured him slicing and salting a tomahawk steak in a somewhat unconventional manner, has a spendy new location in midtown Manhattan. Some early diners have not been impressed, but Salt Bae dgaf; he's sprinkled salt for Simone Biles and David Beckham and posed with Diddy. [more inside]
Is it future or is it past?
"Twin Peaks: The Return, or What Isn't Cinema?" - a four-part essay by Nick Pinkerton at Reverse Shot: 1: Where You Find It, 2: Myth Makers, 3: The Art/The Artist, 4: Life Lessons.
"After you." "Oh no, I insist..."
♪ ♫ “This means nothing to me...” ♬♪
“It was too slow, too long and there was a violin solo - the antithesis of a commercial single.” Vienna (alternate, lyrics, extended version), by Ultravox and their replacement lead singer Midge Ure/Father Benny Cake, was created in 1980 and released the following year, being kept from #1 in the UK by Joe Dolce's Shaddap You Face. Inspired by the Walker Brothers, eternally popular and admired by Gary Numan, Ultravox performed it at Live Aid, the song becoming the title track (nearly didn't) of their Kraftwerkesque 4th album. The video - “We invented the music video clichés - cropping the top and bottom to make it look like CinemaScope...” - was allegedly based on Carol Reed’s 1949 film “The Third Man” but was filmed mostly in London. [more inside]
Come for the culture shock, stay for the attention to detail
A long and ongoing thread of (mostly design and UX-related) observations from Japan, by design observer Marcin Wichary (previously: 1, 2, 3).
February 12
Leaning into the life of a dog
"Designing toys is definitely silly and crazy, but we also have a very serious, almost scientific approach to it. Designing dog toys hasn’t really been a category that industrial designers have been trying to break into. It’s been a boring category and we’re aggressively trying to change that."
You've gotta find your way before it's too late
Dionne Farris went from working with Arrested Development [Tennessee] to doing a 1994 solo album which had a pretty big hit with lead-off song I Know [video].. It's a shame the rest of the album didn't garner much attention because Wild Seed-Wild Flower is brilliant: Side A: I Know, Reality, Stop To Think, Passion, Food For Thought, Now Or Later [more inside]
"Shite and onions!"
Ulysses: Good or Bad? "This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first appearance of James Joyce’s Ulysses." [SL LitHub] [more inside]
Biohackers Revolt as CEO Locks Himself In Lab
What The Hell Is Gabberdisco?
An hour long mix of hard beats and pop songs? Yes please!
Cheese quotient is a little lower than might be expected. Pickle quotient is a little higher.
Create, Love, and #Resist
Evan Tyor and Luke McGinnis are roommates who share a 500 sq. ft. apartment in Brooklyn. Each month a bevy of musicians and vocalists cram into their home for the Apartment Sessions. [more inside]
"It took me years to get back in the bath."
Decades ago, a kid didn't listen to his mother, and kept making that face. Today, he's just trying to get through life. Cautionary Tales (Vimeo, approx. 8 min.) (via)
gliding around on his hardwood living-room floor in our socks
“Oddvar Bra, I love you!”
The Ski Pole That Norway Will Never Forget "It seems an unlikely event to be emblazoned in a nation’s collective memory. But if you’re from Norway, and you’re over 50, you almost certainly have a vivid recollection of this: A man named Oddvar Bra is skiing the final segment of the men’s 4x10-kilometer cross-country relay at the 1982 world championships in Oslo. Surging up a hill, he passes and sideswipes the only person ahead of him, Alexander Savyalov of the Soviet Union. Immediately, Bra realizes that the impact has had a terrible consequence. His right pole has snapped in two."
Vintage Propaganda Pepsi Blue
DeWalt Saws In The War Program [SLYT] , a World War II era black-and-white promotional film that showcases the many ways large, industrial scale, radial arm saws could be used in order to speed up wood frame construction. [more inside]
Young Angry White Men
“But the dark engine of the movement is reactionary white male resentment. Alt-right propaganda is designed to nourish the precise grievances recited by the disillusioned and indignant young men that dominate its ranks. It provides a coherent—but malicious—worldview. For a recruit, the alt-right helps explain why they don’t have the jobs or the sexual partners or the overall societal and cultural respect that they believe (and are told) to be rightfully theirs. This appeal is resonating at a moment in the United States when economic inequality is worsening and a majority-minority United States is forecasted for 2044—developments exploited by racist propagandists.” The Alt-Right Is Killing People, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s in-depth investigation into the causes, crimes, and online growth of the racist reactionary movement in the US. (CW for all links, hate speech, Nazi ideology, murder.) [more inside]
Smarkly criticize something that isn't wrestling
Wrestling fans on Reddit are taking a break from talking wrestling to criticize things other than wrestling in the same way they criticize wrestling. Spoiler warnings after the break. [more inside]
“GL-L-L-KSK! KEH-KEEH!♫ FST! FST! RrrrrrrrrrrrKLAGH!♪ CH-CH-ch-ch-mmm”
Animal Crossing is a Dystopian Hellscape [The Verge] “But does something darker lie beneath its cheerful exterior? Animal Crossing has always been a game that is as strange as it is cute, full of odd tics and design choices that raise probing questions about what, exactly, is going on in the larger world of this woodland hamlet. Some might suggest that Animal Crossing is its own answer, an adorable, absurdist experience that exists purely to delight. If you prefer this reading, feel free to exit now. But for those willing to go down the rabbit hole, a closer examination of the series — and, particularly, the recent Pocket Camp mobile game — reveals something much more unsettling: a dark mirror that inadvertently reflects some of the most ruthless and dehumanizing elements of modern society, and how they can degrade our social and ethical bonds.” [more inside]
You give me fever
Why is this the worst flu season in years? Inspired by many questions on the green about the flu this year.
Should I get the flu shot?
Is it a cold or the flu?
How can I keep myself and others safe from spreading the flu?
I'm worried about side effects, should I be? [more inside]
Obama Presidential Portraits unveiled
The official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have just been unveiled at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. [more inside]
wheee!What Was Your Favorite Moment Of This Week’s 20,000 Point Journey
Its entire corpus consists of two dozen texts
Of all the literatures in the world, the smallest and most enigmatic belongs without question to the people of Easter Island. It is written in a script—rongorongo—that no one can decipher. Experts cannot even agree whether it is an alphabet, a syllabary, a mnemonic, or a rebus. Its entire corpus consists of two dozen texts.
Not So Fast, Not Cheap, Not Easy
USAF's Controversial New Plan To Retire B-2 And B-1 Bombers Early Is A Good One – The flying service is making the right sacrifices to ensure the B-21 Raider gets fielded in large numbers while making the B-52 all it can be. (More at Air Force Magazine.)
Why Do We Need to Sleep?
Biologists call this need “sleep pressure”: Stay up too late, build up sleep pressure. Feeling drowsy in the evenings? Of course you are—by being awake all day, you’ve been generating sleep pressure! But like “dark matter,” this is a name for something whose nature we do not yet understand. The more time you spend thinking about sleep pressure, the more it seems like a riddle game out of Tolkien: What builds up over the course of wakefulness, and disperses during sleep? Is it a timer? A molecule that accrues every day and needs to be flushed away? What is this metaphorical tally of hours, locked in some chamber of the brain, waiting to be wiped clean every night? [slAtlantic]
Writing family stories
'A stab at truth': my grandmother and the problem with family histories. Aida Edemariam on writing her grandmother's story through a century of Ethiopian history.
February 11
Changing the world doesn't look like changing the world
Austin Walker, EIC of Waypoint, gives a talk at NYU Game Center (youtube) (audio) addressing the role of games in a time of political struggle, followed by a Q&A with Frank Lantz (of Universal Paperclips fame). [more inside]
"Furry hard!"
Cat curling is not just an Olympic sport (previously), it's also a fun thing to play at home! And because no good post is complete without dogs, please enjoy cats and dogs just trying to get along.
It’s probably better to not know what they’re saying
What is dead may never die
Doesn't take much to rip us into pieces
Tori Amos turned the narrative upside down when her 1992 sophomore album Little Earthquakes [~1h] became a mammoth hit. Cassette Side A: Crucify [video] , Girl, Silent All These Years [video], Precious Things, Winter [video], Happy Phantom [more inside]
The Demon and "Big Daddy" Don Garlits
When the British Royal Family participated in the other games
It's A Knockout (1966-2001 in the UK), adapted from the French show Intervilles, was a strange hybrid of village rivalries, Eurovision and the Olympic Games. In 1987, a charity version [1] [2] [3], organised by Prince Edward and involving several Royals and many celebrities such as Sheena Easton and John Travolta, was televised. Of the presenters, some prospered while others passed away [1] [2] or were jailed. Despite large viewing figures, reviews were unkind and Edward was disappointed with journalists. Later, it transpired that Meatloaf and Prince Andrew fought by a moat over Princess Ferguson. Since then, Royals have largely shied away from reality TV, though Edward continued various media projects to this day.
Ain't no rules says a dog can't run for governor of Kansas.
Three candidates have now registered for the Kansas governor race who are too young to vote. While most of these see themselves as radical outsiders, the most recent to throw his hat in the ring believes standards should be raised in candidate requirements:
“Maybe it’s 18 (years old), but just some way to make sure we don’t have like a dog run,”[more inside]
We try not to have all our eggs in one basket.
It's not an uncommon problem in Alaska groceries: A whole shelf meant for bananas was almost completely empty one day last week at the Fred Meyer store in Midtown Anchorage. Keeping fresh produce that's grown thousands of miles away in stock here is a delicate system that grocers have been perfecting for years. Still, one 24-hour delay — recently, a cargo ship needing a repair and stuck in Tacoma, Washington — can send swift ripples through the food supply chain. [more inside]
Protests Erupt Across Canada After Gerald Stanley Acquitted
Canada is currently working to heal its relationships with First Nations people, but this was dealt a severe blow on Friday when a jury decided to acquit white farmer Gerald Stanley of all charges in the 2016 shooting death of Colten Boushie, a 22 year old indigenous man . [more inside]
Battling RSI with a Dragon
Very long Read: Operation Elop by Harri Kiljander
The English language translation of Operation Elop is finally done! The contemporary account of the fall of Nokia is now available under Creative Commons license on Medium. (via)
“You don't look like a Magic player.”
Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts [TCG Player] “Most of us don't attend a tournament space to meet a boyfriend or be patronized and coddled. We just want to play Magic on the same footing as everyone else. One of the most intimidating facets of participating in a Magic tournament is being immediately “othered” simply by virtue of being female. It's hard to break into an in-group because we aren't “one of the guys.” We are rarely asked to play side games or trade, and we have far less social capital to influence meaningful interactions that will help improve our standing in the game. We are subjected to behaviors, microaggressions, and questions that make us feel awkward and uncomfortable. As a male, you might not see why asking “Did your boyfriend teach you to play?” is so harmful. But think about this: would you ask a male peer, “Did your girlfriend teach you to play?” Definitely not.” [more inside]
Canada's clearest home science videos
The Canadian National Science and Engineering Council has opened a video contest for young scientists to explain their work to the public. Some videos have surprisingly high production values. Learn about how our sense of touch works, how body implants are engineered, or how astronomical impact craters are dated.
He bought quite a few lottery tickets
February 10
Her first best friend
Nicole adopted an elderly dog. But she seemed oddly familiar.
"They came to the store and realized some of their dreams"
Two words: department stores | While there were plenty of lower-class women moving through city streets in the 19th century... it was rare to see a middle-class housewife strolling the town square alone. Other than women laborers, prostitutes were the only ones walking the pavement, so any bourgeois woman that went outdoors unaccompanied would be seen as a “public woman,” or streetwalker. So how did women eventually break free from their domestic existence? [more inside]
Sun's Gone Dim
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Icelandic composer of scores for Arrival, Theory of Everything, and Sicario, along with a rich catalog of work, has unexpectedly died at age 48. Sun's Gone Dim, Flight from the City
Rats are awesome!
Rats get a bum rap from people who have never met one. They love to play with other species—including cats [upbeat country music]! A Brooklyn cat café uses them to socialize kittens. And they are clicker-trainable: Rat Tricks I [upbeat acoustic guitar], Rat Tricks II [upbeat rock music].
The New Yorker paper jam article
Why Paper Jams Persist ...Midway through the printing process, the paper was supposed to cross a gap; flung from the top of a rotating belt, it needed to soar through space until it could be sucked upward by a vacuum pump onto another belt, which was positioned upside down. Unfortunately, the press was in a hot and humid place, and the paper, normally lissome, had become listless. At the apex of its trajectory, at the moment when it was supposed to connect with the conveyor belt, its back corners drooped. They dragged on the platform below, and, like a trapeze flier missing a catch, the paper sank downward. As more sheets rushed into the same space, they created a pile of loops and curlicues—what the jam engineers called a “flower arrangement.”
If I Can't Be My Own I'd Be Better Dead
Never intended to be released but instead was an exercise for the band to regroup after their 1993 tour, Alice In Chains' quasi-acoustic 1994 release Jar Of Flies was one of the most successful EPs [YTplaylist, ~30m] ever released. Cassette Side A: Rotten Apple, Nutshell, I Stay Away [video] [more inside]
How Black Panther is bringing out the global African
From all natural hair to all African clothing - Black Panther the movie - has been showcasing African culture, heritage, style, and music - so rare an experience that there's a movement on to get children of all ages out to the cinema.
“The thing that really touched black folks and Africans around the world is its imagery. Its use of wardrobe, its aesthetics, the colours, the design – that. People found their stories in that.”via
The worst pies in London...or what's left of them
The Whitechapel Monster, a giant block of grease from the sewers, has arrived at the Museum of London. The "solid calcified mass of fats, oils, faeces, wet wipes and sanitary products" went on display at the museum on Friday: "The Fatberg! exhibition will tell the story of the nine-week battle to remove the massive blockage and its journey from the Victorian sewers in Whitechapel to the sealed display case it now rests in." Vyki Sparkes, the curator of Fatberg!, explains how one goes about procuring, handling, displaying, and interpreting such a specimen for museum visitors. The fatberg previously and previouslier.
Witnesses to the nineteenth century
Interviews with various septuagenarian, octogenarian, nonagenarian and centenarian Americans in 1929 1, 2 (mlyt)
Thumping and Picking
Larry Graham tells the story of how he invented slapping and popping, creating much of the sound of Sly and the Family Stone.
The Lost Words
The Lost Words is an award-winning book illustrated by Jackie Morris (twitter) and written by Robert MacFarlane (interview). Each entry is a nature-related word, such as acorn, adder, blackberry, bluebell, dandelion, kingfisher, magpie and otter, deleted from the Oxford University Press Junior Dictionary. On the design of the book, the language of nature (by the author) and a related exhibition. A successful crowdfunding campaign by Jane Beaton means a copy of the book will be in every school in Scotland. Reviews in Shiny New Books, Goodreads, the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Washington Post. Robert's tweets frequently describe old words about nature and history.
For all you influencers and thought leaders
A handy Davos jargon explainer from the BBC, and accompanying reader reactions. Don't miss the helpfully captioned illustrations.
Some notable SF/F from 1942
At Worldcon 76 in San Jose this August, the 1943 Retro Hugo Awards will be presented for works of SF/F from 1942. An announcement video has suggestions. The Hugo Award Book Club has discussed options for novel and graphic story. FANAC has prepared material helpful for judging fan categories (including work by a key figure on whom #MeToo helped shine more light). Many works of fiction eligible for the award are available online. [more inside]
BONUS: Goat DLC and Goat story.
Them’s Fightin’ Herds [YouTube][Game Trailer] “Them's Fightin' Herds is exactly what it looks like: a fighting game where all the characters are four-legged animals, a few of them ponies. Its "original universe" was designed by My Little Pony producer Lauren Faust, and it's billed as a spiritual successor to Fighting is Magic, a direct, fan-made adaptation of the cartoon which was shut down by Hasbro in 2013. It looks like a standard four-button fighting game at first blush, albeit with pony magic flare, but there is at least one novel system: juggle decay, wherein "opponents become gradually heavier during a combo."” [via: PC Gamer]
It's still an important shared experience to me, damn it!
When news broke that WWE would be bringing back the Starrcade name, a lot of people took notice. When it turned out it was going to be only for a house show (i.e. not televised), there was more than a little grumbling and head scratching. Uproxx writer Brandon Stroud wrote about Starrcade, what it meant to him and his family growing up, and what it meant to see the revival of the show with his parents. [more inside]
“I call it my Wonder Woman impression.”
Reg E. Cathey, 1958-2018.
"Not only a fine, masterful actor -- but simply one of the most delightful human beings with whom I ever shared some long days on set. On wit alone, he could double any man over and leave him thinking. Reg, your memory is a great blessing." - David Simon
February 9
Burn the land and boil the sea. You can't take the [canon] from me.
Firefly canon to expand with series of original books: "EW can exclusively report that Titan Books and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products have teamed up to publish an original range of new fiction tying in to Joss Whedon’s beloved but short-lived TV series Firefly. The books will be official titles within the Firefly canon, with Whedon serving as consulting editor. The first book is due in the fall." [more inside]
Enjoy your electric village experience!
“I was liking all of Maxine Waters’s tweets and lost track of time.”
He calls me into his office and closes the door… to promote me. He promotes me again and again. I am wild with ecstasy. New Erotica for Feminists (SLMcSweeny’s)
Telescope Building with John Dobson
“I didn’t know they would name a school after someone like that.”
The school board of Salt Lake City Utah has voted to rename (Andrew) Jackson Elementary in honor of Mary Jackson, one of the NASA engineers featured in the book/film Hidden Figures with wide support from students, parents, and the community.
"To watch Robin is to sense the complete control he has over his body."
I admit that, as a skater, when I’m watching I just go, ‘For God’s sake, just slow down.’ When I was competing and choreographing for competitors, my whole thing was, if you fell on every jump or if you took every jump out, would your routine still be interesting to look at? I want to bring the beauty back.
As the 2018 Olympics kick off and figure-skating fans settle in for ‘quad watch’, let’s take a moment and revisit the artistry, musicality, and graceful athleticism of Robin Cousins. [more inside]
As the 2018 Olympics kick off and figure-skating fans settle in for ‘quad watch’, let’s take a moment and revisit the artistry, musicality, and graceful athleticism of Robin Cousins. [more inside]
Maybe there's nothing natural about motherhood
Photographs from any aerial platform are welcome
The winners of the 2017 SkyPixel Photo Contest have been announced.
Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Autism, Depression disorders share genes
Second breakthrough in two years for humankind's commonest mental illnesses.
Published in Science today, Gandal et al. show correlations in gene expression between Schizophrenia and three other major mental illnesses: 70% for Bipolar disorder, 45% for Autism spectrum disorder and 30% for Major Depressive disorder.
This research comes exactly two years after Sekar et al. published an in-depth discovery that a known gene from the immune system was over expressed in the brains of Schizophrenics. 'Complement Component C4' gene flags connections between neurons for destruction in a late-adolescent process that called "synaptic pruning" and which is devastatingly overactive in Schizophrenia (previously). In the years ahead will these two findings merge into a scientific picture that our brains are profoundly shaped by our immune systems in late childhood?
"I'm not sure what Walt would think..."
They stroll through Disneyland in packs of 20 or more, motley crews that resemble a cross between the Hells Angels motorcycle gang and a grown-up Mickey Mouse Club with their Disney-themed tattoos and their matching denim vests strewn with trading pins and logos.
Disneyland social clubs, by most accounts, are harmless alliances of friends and family who meet up at the park to share a nerdy obsession for all things Disney. With club names such as Tigger Army and Neverland Mermaids, how threatening can they be? "It's all about the shared love for Disney," said Mark Drop, Jr., 39, who founded a club called Flynn's Riders, after a character in the Walt Disney animated film "Tangled."
But a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court has revealed a dark undercurrent to the pastime. The head of one club has accused another of using gangster-like tactics to try to collect "protection" money for a charity fundraiser at the park.
A part of everything is here in me
John Denver's 1972 album Rocky Mountain High [YTplaylist ~40m]: Side A: Rocky Mountain High, Mother Nature's Son, Paradise, For Baby (For Bobbie), Darcy Farrow, Prisoners [more inside]
The sound of an extinct bird
The huia is an extinct New Zealand bird whose last confirmed sighting was in 1907. There are no audio recordings of an actual huia. And yet we know what it sounded like. [more inside]
Rice and Racing in Luzon
The Banaue RiceTerraces are on the UNESCO Heritage list and are spectacular. Added to the now-annual Imbayah Festival are the scooter races. Mind you, these are hand-carved wooden scooters with no brakes, coming down the mountain into the town full of festival goers. Watch this: Racing Wood Scooters
No, you won't see the Tesla Roadster
happy friday everybody
Life inspires art inspires life: the anime
As the Japanese figure skating duo of Suzaki Miu and Kihara Ryuichi started their routine, some very recognisable music started playing... [more inside]
Most of the world loves Ed Sheeran
See the most popular song in 3000 world cities. This visualization with clickable links allows you to explore the biggest hits from last month globally. There are some to be expected like Perfect and Havana but some fun surprises like Troll in Russia.
One Woman A Day in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
Drawing upon the films, books, comics, and more, Amy Richau is determined to highlight one woman a day for a year who has been featured in some way in Star Wars. [more inside]
February 8
Dystopia for Sale
How a Commercialized Genre Lost its Teeth (Brady Gerber, Literary Hub).
“Don’t reinvent the wheel, just realign it.”
Why is Civilization 5 still more popular than Civilization 6? [PC Gamer] “It's hard to make a new strategy game that can compete with Civilization—even when that new strategy game is also Civilization. When Civilization 6 released on Steam in October 2016, it peaked at more than 160,000 concurrent players, quite a feat for any new game. But after the excitement of its first month, Civilization 6 has failed to surpass Civilization 5 in terms of regular players, according to Steamcharts. It’s gotten pretty close in recent weeks as expansion hype for Rise and Fall builds, but Civ 5 still holds the edge. Similarly, community members reported that Twitch viewership between the two games tended to favor Civ 5 prior to press and streamers receiving pre-release code for the expansion (though we were not able to independently verify this). Why is this? Why are 4X fans (at least on Steam) still sticking to the old warhorse rather than moving on to the new hotness? Is it discontent with changes made in the newer iteration? Is it the price difference? Was Civ 5 just that good?” [more inside]
How Delivery Apps May Put Your Favorite Restaurant Out of Business
“We know for a fact that as delivery increases, our profitability decreases,” she said. For each order that Mulberry & Vine sends out, between twenty and forty per cent of the revenue goes to third-party platforms and couriers...For a sense of why a thirty-per-cent delivery-service charge is so problematic, consider that in the restaurant world, notorious for its slim profit margins, an industry-standard budget apportions thirty per cent of revenue for the cost of ingredients, thirty per cent for the cost of labor, and the remainder for “everything else”—rent, utilities, insurance, supplies, credit-card fees, and profit. (slNewYorker)
Afterimage Requiem
Afterimage Requiem is a large-scale visual and sound installation by Kei Ito and Andrew Paul Keiper that probes the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and their intertwined family histories. The exhibition includes 108 human-scale photograms made using sunlight, light sensitive paper and Ito’s body evoking those lost in the bombing, and a 4-channel sound work that portrays the places and processes of the bomb’s production, and includes field recordings made at atomic heritage sites in New Mexico and Chicago. [more inside]
Prices slightly higher in the territories
In January, Statistics Canada (a.k.a. Statscan) began crowdsourcing cannabis pricing data from the currently-illegal-but-soonishly-to-be-legal Canadian market. Statscan has been asking Canadians: "Please help us improve our estimates by telling us what you paid for your latest purchase of cannabis" via an online survey. It now publishes that crowdsourced data on its Cannabis Stats Hub, along with other health, justice, pricing and economic data related to cannabis in Canada. For more discussion of the challenges inherent in collecting data on cannabis consumption, see: Experimental Estimates of Cannabis Consumption in Canada, 1960 to 2015 and A cannabis economic account - The framework.
drink mee pray without spilling or you will [pay] thre shilling
Puzzle jugs were intended as pub or dinner party games, in which you had to figure out how to drink out of one without pouring the alcohol all over. Michelle Erickson, ceramicist, shows how she made one while artist in residence at the V&A.
" Even a future legend needs a starter mountain, "
How New Zealand made Edmund Hillary, the man who conquered Everest , by Spencer Hall
There is another sign here: “POWERFUL CURRENTS: SWIMMING ALONE HERE IS DANGEROUS!!! DO NOT SWIM HERE ALONE!!!” And right past that sign, on the far, far edge of a city built on a ring of volcanoes, walks a lone morning swimmer in a bikini, toweling off and heading to the parking lot. It all seems very safe and also sort of not safe at all.
Jimmy Buffett does not live the Jimmy Buffett lifestyle (SLNYT)
Landfall
NPR First Listen: Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet debut the recording of a 2013 work that reflects on Hurricane Sandy. Listen to Landfall now before it's released. [more inside]
TFW a Twitter bot solves a video game mystery
"Something pretty fun happened yesterday that I wanted to share with you all: a bot on Twitter accidentally provided the clue that finally solved a 28-year-old mystery about a DOS game that never shipped." [more inside]
By October of last year, the site hosted nearly 50 million pages of Amer
Aberdeen bar hosts Scotland’s first dementia-friendly discos
Anne Duncan, 63, came up with the idea because she loves to dance with her husband Bill, 69, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s seven years ago. She said: “We still thoroughly enjoy dancing. It transports Bill into a place where he was before his illness, so for us it is especially poignant. It is an enjoyable feeling when we dance – there is nothing to worry about in the whole world. It is amazing.”
Facebook: Killing Comedy?
What advice would you give to a comedian who starting up right now? I would say go to Palo Alto, go to One Hacker Way, walk into the front door of Facebook, and demand to know what the hell they’re doing. Someone told me that crazy people show up at Facebook every day because it ruined their lives, usually because of a personal reason, and I’m so close to being one of those crazy people. But instead of “Why did my wife leave me because of you?” it’s like, “Why did you destroy the internet comedy scene?”
The road to Lisbon
The most important public vote in 2018 is, of course, the Eurovision Song Contest in three months time. 43 countries will participate; ticketing is open. Nations are in the process of deciding their contestant and song; the UK has just chosen theirs, as have Malta, the Czech Republic and a few others. Sadly though, the dancing lobster has already been eliminated after their Swedish qualifier performance. Controversy over last year's contest continue to bubble, while the winner recovers from surgery. [more inside]
[S]tories that the superhero genre is just not designed to tell
Tegan O'Neil reviews issues #13-20 of Mike Grell’s Green Arrow series from 1989 - "But suddenly we see here, within the context of Green Arrow’s career, a larger dynamic at work. The guy who went to Woodstock and though the Freedom Riders were just the bee’s knees is suddenly really upset about street crime. [more inside]
The 14+ Blows
Map (with mop) vs Pickup Truck... play by play commentary by John Curley of KIRO radio (slyt)
"If we write women out of history, we never know the truth of things."
This is How a Woman is Erased From Her Job by A. N. Devers is the story of how The Paris Review's second ever editor, Brigid Hughes, was pushed out of her position and written out of the magazine's history. The Paris Review was recently embroiled in scandal after its latest male top editor was featured prominently on the Shitty Media Men spreadsheet and left the magazine. After her ouster Hughes went on to found and edit the excellent magazine A Public Space.
February 7
A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels
Morgan the dog runs a snowblower and vacuums (& fetches beer too)
As most of British Columbia digs itself out from under a record-breaking snowfall, one family has it made: their six year old Newfoundland dog, Morgan, is trained to clear their driveway with a snowblower (she recently graduated from using a shovel). She knows other tricks, too: "She can cook hotdogs on fires, she can get beverages out of coolers, she can go in the fridge and get a beer for me...and she vacuums," said Morgan's owner, Dean Edwards of Sunnybrae, near Salmon Arm, BC. Morgan is also trained in water rescue and is a registered therapy dog for local seniors' homes. [more inside]
Science Needs You!
Zooniverse [previously] currently has 73 active projects they need your help with—ranging from transcribing the handwritten correspondence of anti-slavery activists to annotating the Tate; from tagging animals captured on camera traps throughout Africa, zooming in to cordon off cell nuclei in electron microscope snapshots, or zooming out to explore our home galaxy's wierdnesses . There's something in there that will that pique your interest and send you down the rabbit hole of searching and tagging. Why? Because you are still a better spotter of stuff than a computer at these tasks, you will be doing a mitzvah for the corpus of SCIENCE!, and you may see a heckin' fuzza cheetah kitteh along the way.
John Perry Barlow has died.
Barlow, a Lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, died in his sleep. Barlow met Bob Weir, founding member of the Dead in 1971 and began a songwriting collaboration that would last until 1995, penning lyrics for “Cassidy”, “Mexicali Blues”, “ Looks like rain” and other tunes.
In 1990 he, John Gilmore (cypherpunk, Usenet alt., Cygnus) and Mitch Kapor (Lotus) founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation to “defend civil liberties in the digital world.”
In 2012 Barlow founded the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
He was a great protector of human rights and a true hero of the internet.
On a personal note: I met him once at a TTI Vanguard conference, on which he served as a a board member. He was as charming and fascinating as you might imagine.
Trying to defeat the Culture would be like trying to eradicate a meme.
Why the Culture Wins: An Appreciation of Iain M. Banks by Joseph Heath, Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto.
“In Thailand, they have this thing called the Dog. You see the Dog wherever you go, hanging around by the side of the road, skulking around markets. The thing is, it’s not a breed, it’s more like the universal dog. You could take any dog, of any breed, release it into the streets, and within a couple of generations it will have reverted to the Dog. That’s what the Culture is, it’s like the evolutionary winner of the contest between all cultures, the ultimate basin of attraction.” “I’m in,” I said.
Modesty Blaise is Still a Heroine
At 15, the author found Modesty Blaise, the story strip heroine. Modesty Blaise, the ex-criminal and adventuress, has been an icon for women (and men) since it began in the mid-1960s and lasted for almost 40 years. She provided this author with an image of a women who was unafraid and was the boss. As the author says, "for the first time, I imagined what it would be like to be physically unafraid in the world, to walk down any city street I wanted, at any time of night, and not give a second’s thought to the special care a girl has to take. I thought about what it would be like to be deeply loved by a man, deeply known, but still be the main character in my life story, the only one with her name in the title." The author has most of the particulars of Modesty's story correct. [more inside]
Mural, Mural on the Wall.
Stunning Street Art courtesy of the Museum of Public Art. Despite the name the Museum is not your typical air-conditioned gallery. Check out the video. [more inside]
Your own personal panopticon
The House That Spied on Me - "Thanks to the Internet of Things, I could live in my very own tech-mediated Downton Abbey. That’s the appeal of smart homes for most people, and why they are supposed to be a $27 billion market by 2021. But that wasn’t my primary motivation. The reason I smartened up my house was to find out whether it would betray me."
THE DIMMED LIGHTS ENCOURAGE CYBERPUNKS TO GATHER … YOU LOSE 10 HAPPINESS
CHOOSE YOUR PLAYER
LINDA is a business magnate who made her fortune franchising juice bars and is now a judge on ‘Orca Tank.’ She knows in her heart she has what it takes to flip a local mall.
MAXIMILLIAN is a tech-savvy angel investor who made his fortune monetizing reaction GIFs. He wants to put some of that money in a traditional mall to diversify his wealth.
COLTON inherited millions and became independently wealthy when he sold his Beanie Babies collection at the height of the craze. Buying a mall and turning it around would finally prove to his parents that he’s an adult.
BARBARA wrote a massive one-hit wonder in 1983 called ‘It’s Your Birthday II’ and amassed a small fortune. She wants to invest it in a mall.
The American Mall Game: A fully playable mall strategy experience for the year 2018
LINDA is a business magnate who made her fortune franchising juice bars and is now a judge on ‘Orca Tank.’ She knows in her heart she has what it takes to flip a local mall.
MAXIMILLIAN is a tech-savvy angel investor who made his fortune monetizing reaction GIFs. He wants to put some of that money in a traditional mall to diversify his wealth.
COLTON inherited millions and became independently wealthy when he sold his Beanie Babies collection at the height of the craze. Buying a mall and turning it around would finally prove to his parents that he’s an adult.
BARBARA wrote a massive one-hit wonder in 1983 called ‘It’s Your Birthday II’ and amassed a small fortune. She wants to invest it in a mall.
The American Mall Game: A fully playable mall strategy experience for the year 2018
“Their speech is like no other in the world:"
On a small Greek island, practitioners of an ancient whistling language are holding onto their culture as it slowly dies out.
Antia is home to the last whistlers of Greece. Sfyria, as the whistling language is called in Greek — it comes from the Greek word sfyrizo, to whistle — is not technically a language; linguists refer to it as a speech registrar, like shouting or whispering. It’s the same as modern Greek — the grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure all remain intact — but the sounds come out in high-pitched musical notes. Each letter of the alphabet is individually whistled (alpha, beta, gamma), and strung together to create an ariose warble.[more inside]
the notion that they’ve turned the weathermen against us seems unlikely
The BBC is launching a new look for its weather map - and Scots will be happy to know that the map of the UK will now be flat. Says the BBC: With this new modern look, lots more data and the latest in technology and forecasting science, this is the biggest change to BBC Weather, both for UK and international audiences, for more than ten years.
John Carpenter's "Logitech"
Monster Breeder
Breed some monsters Monster Breeder is a simple in browser game made by Neil Cicierega in which you must catch, and then breed some monsters. Previously.
I did not even want enough to want to want again
My wanting was the leash that pulled me through my life. It kept leading me to the right things.
Until one day the leash was off. I can’t identify what occasioned it, I don’t think it even works that way—with a single, switch-throwing moment—but at some point in the last year my urgency to sustain or possess something (an emotional state, a relationship, a milestone of financial success) evaporated, and my me-ness along with it. I can still put one foot in front of the other, but without conviction. I recall what goals used to be important to me—making a home in a city I love, establishing myself as a writer, arranging a life of regular adventure—but those lures aren’t baited anymore. I am radically disincentivized. [Heads up: some discussion of depression and ideation.]
What makes a murder 'perfect'?
What elevates it to a crime so gruesome and compelling that it deserves its own podcast? In new true crime podcast 'A Very Fatal Murder,' David Pascall heads to Bluff Springs in the heart of small-town America, where the small town is reeling from the death of 17-year-old Hayley Price. Review here.
Debt Jubilee Now!
“The idea of canceling student debt is not just some crazy idea out of left field, but is actually something that could be done, and done in a way that has a moderately positive economic impact,” Marshall Steinbaum, a fellow and research director at the Roosevelt Institute and a coauthor of the report said in an interview.
“The way this and similar polices are often discussed is in a mode of ‘well can we really afford this?’ and the answer is definitely yes.” Let’s Cancel Student Debt And Grow The Economy (Mic)
“The way this and similar polices are often discussed is in a mode of ‘well can we really afford this?’ and the answer is definitely yes.” Let’s Cancel Student Debt And Grow The Economy (Mic)
"BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ORANGUTAN?"
there’s something endlessly hilarious to me about the phrase “hotly debated” in an academic context.
The Last Scan
Despite spending the majority of last decade as a piece of unwanted trash left on the curb, there are now desperate measures being taken to keep CRT monitors and televisions alive. Vintage arcade games need them, and you'll need to keep one around if you want to use that old Zapper. If you can't think of anything else, why not turn one into an oscilloscope? [more inside]
A start, not an end point.
Science journalist, blogger and author Ed Yong has spent the last two years trying to fix the gender imbalance in his stories. [more inside]
Rethinking JT in the age of #metoo
Justin Timberlake seems lost in the woods. No longer can a star like Justin Timberlake — a white artist who has spent his career connecting with black music and popular culture, a straight male artist who has released countless dance-floor seductions that sometimes veer into pushiness, let's say — expect for people to just accept this point of view.
Regardless of your feelings about Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl halftime show (I enjoyed at the time), NPR gives an interesting perspective on his Super Bowl performance, his new album, and how the time just "is not right" for JT.
The most badass photograph ever taken in New Zealand
Boxers, a hairdresser, a stuffed kiwi, an accordion player, a gun, a newspaper, a lute, and a stack of whiskey bottles. Charles Anderson discovers the story behind this portrait of a unique part of New Zealand history (The Spinoff) [more inside]
Honey, I shrunk the video store
With video-rental stores consigned to recent history, British artist and movie enthusiast Andrew Glazebrook (fb only) decided to open his own, armed with little more than glue and discarded candy boxes. In painstaking detail, right down to the drink-stained counter, charity donation tin and membership forms, he has recreated all the grime and glamour of long-forgotten classics like Cannibal Holocaust, Dolls and Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce on a tableau less than six inches high. (via)
February 6
“I love playing bad and incorrect music at people for my own amusement”
That was too loud!
One sandwich to rule them all
Hello. Building on the domestication of fire, stable agriculture, invention of cheese and the slicing of bread, the greatest innovation of humanity is without question the cheese sandwich. These can be uncooked, or open, or toasted or grilled. Offering popular versions and other variations, sandwiches can also be tiny, substantive, or earrings or Christmas tree decorations. Other ingredients could include balsamic blueberry, fried egg, apple, olives, mac and ham, spinach, bacon and avocado, pickle, haggis, cucumber, clementines or smoked reindeer. Or twenty slices of American cheese. Makers can be competitive or award winning, speak in Welsh, or serve you from a truck; just respect the dish and its history, even if you were expecting something else. [more inside]
The White Darkness
Puukko Knife Making
Note to self
“She wishes to continue this work and the freedom...."
$559M Lottery Winner Fighting to Remain Anonymous "A woman who won $559.7 million in last month’s New Hampshire Powerball lottery has filed a complaint requesting she be allowed to remain anonymous despite the fact that under state law, lottery winners’ names, towns, and prize amounts are public information." [more inside]
No, that wasn't the Beatles
The Searchers, best known for songs like Love Potion No. 9 and their cover of Needles of Pins released a stunning album called "Love's Melodies" in 1981. [more inside]
Food as I had always known it was now in the past.
My last meal was either chicken and rice, piled with Mom’s brown gravy, or chicken stir-fry; I seem to remember the latter, but a blog post I wrote soon after says the former. What I know for sure: It was a Thursday, dinner involved rice, and the few bites I managed to force down were wrong. My mouth felt overly large, chunks of food bouncing every which way and not where or when I expected. My tongue seemed thick and wide. And at its sloping base, a feeling of tubal claustrophobia. I corralled the bites backward and downward, but when I tried to swallow, my throat retched forward. Not like vomiting, not an expulsion. A rejection.Kayla Whaley talks about how she lost the ability to eat solid food as a result of Spinal Muscular Atrophy in her column for Catapult.
Flat screen legend
Ovi, are you reading this? Do you game?
"Other than destroying Nik Ehlers in Call of Duty, I think the best thing to happen to me last year was falling in love with Winnipeg." Patrik Laine, Left Wing for the Winnipeg Jets: Winnipeg Is Good
This is an absolute tour-de-force henchman performance.
One of the most delightful things about Ronin is that Frankenheimer fills the movie with spycraft by characters who are at all times acting as conspicuously as possible. None, though, have as much panache as this top-notch henchman (listed in the credits as "Dapper Gent" just an unbelievably pure henchman character name) who has gone above and beyond by wearing an overcoat without putting his arms through the sleeves. A Comprehensive Review of the Henchmen and Heavies of Ronin
"Who died and left Aristotle in charge of ethics?"
"The Good Place" [spoilers for Season 2] (which has the best acting ensemble on TV), one of the best shows on TV right now and "
something uncomfortably appropriate for our apocalyptic era" [more inside]
I, for one, welcome our mutant crayfish overlords.
The marbled crayfish or marmokrebs evolved from the slough crayfish 25 years ago in someone's aquarium in Germany. A recently identified mutation caused it to carry three sets of chromosomes in its eggs, which allows the large, attractive mudbug to clone itself — which it does in great numbers across Europe and Africa, threatening local species and potentially disrupting ecosystems.
Housing Is A Human Right
As reports reveal that homelessness in the US is on the rise, people ask why isn’t homelessness seen as a national crisis? (Curbed) Homelessness surged 75% in L.A in 6 years, a disaster activists call ‘years in the making’ ( LA Times). Meanwhile, There Are 2 Vacant Investor-Owned Homes for Every Homeless Person in America. A visual catalogue of every empty storefront in NYC’s West Village. The NYC Community Land Trust movement wants to go big and take the power away from developers and landlords and return it to residents and neighborhoods. [more inside]
It's a BFD
SpaceX will attempt to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time today. The launch window is from 1:30 to 4:00 PM Eastern. You can watch it live here. An animation on Youtube depicts how the launch will work if everything goes according to plan. The payload is Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster carrying a space suit-clad dummy. David Bowie's "Space Oddity" will play in the vehicle during the launch. The car is destined for an elliptical orbit around the Sun, taking it into the vicinity of Mars.
Especially this cat
Cats are weird. That is all.
How Was Your Day?
"It's not a film you can really say you like." In this award-winning Irish short based on a short story by Nollaig Rowan, a new mother struggles with "the initial excitement and subsequent grief that sometimes accompanies giving birth to a child with disabilities." CW, premature birth, difficult emotions. [more inside]
The “World’s First Dog Tap House” Is Finally Here
Fido's is a 40-tap beer hall with a play area for adoptable rescue dogs. Sadly Quite rightly, you can't adopt dogs right there and then:
"We've talked about that," he says. "[Oregon Friends of Shelter Animals] won't let anybody adopt while they're here. There's a two or a three step process. But I joke about this: We don't want anybody here with a couple drinks, then you wake up in the morning with a leash in your hand and somebody licking your face."
Feminist fights for the next century
End domestic violence, vanquish trolls and defeat body shame [...] One hundred years after suffrage, there is still so much to campaign for. Women including Jo Brand and Archie Panjabi set out the change they would like to see by 2118 – from unisex loos to challenging the dominance of male desire. [slGuardian]
February 5
So, about this whole Furry thing... tweet from @MomsOfFurries
FURRY FRIENDS, WE NEED SOME HELP! Could you guys share some terms for young Furries to avoid and parents to be on the lookout for? We ❤️ you all, but we're trying to help them find accounts and YT channels that are Safe for Young Furries.#SFYF #momsoffurries #welovethisfandom [SL tweet and attached thread.) [more inside]
Ten Guitars & the Māori Strum
How an Engelbert Humperdinck B-side became New Zealand’s unofficial national anthem. The Secret Life of Ten Guitars (RNZ, 24’11, radio programme) [more inside]
A virtual trip to the Ghibli Museum
If you can't make it to the Studio Ghibli Museum (Museo d'Arte Ghibli) in Japan (Google streetview), you can take a (low resolution, mostly text) tour or see someone else's video recording of a tour (no audio, but good video, with some stroboscopic animations), or enjoy three audience recordings of the exclusive shorts: Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess (Vk.com), Water Spider Monmon (Daily Motion), and Mei and the Kittenbus (Daily Motion, with English subs). If that last shuttery video is hard to watch, enjoy the soundtrack and two similar (YouTube) but different videos (Bili Bili) with stills of the short.
Prolific character actor John Mahoney passes away at age 77
“The theater is my brothers, my sisters, my father, my mother, my wife." The actor died Sunday in Chicago after a brief hospitalization, Paul Martino, his manager for more than 30 years, reported. The cause of death was not immediately provided. Mahoney had never married, and did not have any children. Born in Blackpool, England, he made Chicago his adopted home. [more inside]
the most 90s thing to come out of 2018
The song and music video of the remix of Bruno Mars' Finesse with Cardi B sounds and looks like it came directly from 1992, but it was released in January 2018.
Intel smart glasses
Hands-on with Intel's new smart glasses. By shining a low-powered laser into your retina, the glasses can get all sorts of information without pulling out your phone. previously
Couch to 80k words in 10 minutes of writing per day
What the heck is going on at Newsweek?
Last month, agents of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office raided Newsweek's headquarters and seized more than a dozen of the company’s servers. Last week, BuzzFeed News reported that the company had engaged in “fraudulent online traffic practices." That same week, Newsweek Media Group co-founder and chairman Etienne Uzac and his wife Marion Kim, NMG's director of finance, both stepped down - amid increasing allegations about their ties to a controversial fundamentalist Christian church. And today, it was announced that Newsweek had gutted its editorial staff, firing Editor in Chief Bob Roe, Executive Editor Ken Li, and several reporters - all of whom had recently been reporting on Newsweek's recent legal troubles.
Rustic pâté, after Frank
The cast-iron terrine took up space on the shelf for more than seven years, sitting there like a big blue brick, inert and largely undisturbed. Maybe I’d dusted it a few times, during seasonal cleaning frenzies. But I’d never once used it for its appointed purpose: to make pâté. Making pâté was Frank’s thing, not mine.
28 Years Later
The Berlin Wall fell 10,316 days ago—meaning that as of today, it's now been gone for as long as it stood. Coincidentally, on the eve of this anniversary came news that a previously forgotten 260-foot segment of the original wall had been rediscovered in the northeast Berlin neighborhood of Pankow. [more inside]
Japanese Prints of Western Inventors, Artists and Scholars
We have to put the whole show on the field in six minutes.
Ever wondered what it takes to produce a concert-like experience in a football stadium with only 6 minutes to set the stage? Let sound engineer Patrick Baltzell tell you all about it... [more inside]
Da-Da-Da
Nearly 17 years ago Metafilter was introduced to Tunak Tunak Tun. And now, AN EPIC METAL VERSION by Bloodywood. [more inside]
"I’ve been declared unqualified to speak truthfully about my own life"
In the SFF world of the last several years, the so-called "Sad Puppy" and "Rabid Puppy" campaigns (previously), ostensibly about ethics in science fiction--but more often involving targeting authors and fans from marginalized groups--have been causing controversy. An anonymous blogger named Camestros Felapaton has become known for extensive and well-sourced criticisms of the Puppies and the authors that are responsible for organizing them. In a post at a collaborative blog run by several Puppy authors, Puppy organizer Brad Torgersen publicly accused the husband of author Foz Meadows of being Camestros. Based on some initial "detective work" of Lou Antonelli, who previously tried to sic law enforcement on author David Gerrold, the Puppies began a series of increasingly disturbing attacks aimed at both Camestros and the Meadows family. [more inside]
The Man Who Tried to Take the Violence Out of War
Gene Sharp, 1928-2018. The founder and former director of the Albert Einstein Institution dedicated his life to the study of nonviolent political struggle, and his books have been used as virtual how-to manuals by pro-democracy activists around the world. ("I would rather have [Sharp's book Civilian-Based Defense] than the nuclear bomb," Audrius Butkevicius, the former Lithuanian defense minister, once said.) Appreciation for Sharp from Slobodan Djinovic and Srdja Popovic (leaders of the anti-Milosevic movement in Serbia), Timothy Gee, and Jesse Walker.
Well, for once, the rich white man is in control!
This is the latest chapter in the US Politics megathread. POTUS says memo vindicates him. Members of both parties in Congress say it doesn't. Several Eagles players are declining the White House celebratory trip after winning SuperBowl. Release the memohounds!
February 4
Muslim women’s voices and our bodies are reduced to proxy battlefields
Muslim Women, Caught Between Islamophobes and ‘Our Men’ Muslim feminist, Mona Eltahawy writes about the difficulty Muslims face in confronting sexual assault and abuse allegations in the community in the face of internal patriarchy and external Islamophobia. Since this op-ed, Tariq Ramadan has been charged with rape. [Previously]
A tale of two plasties
Rotationplasty is an autograft wherein a portion of a limb is removed, while the remaining limb below the involved portion is rotated and reattached.
Gabi Shull was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2011 and had the operation so she could continue dancing. Now sixteen years old, she's the national spokesperson for The Truth 365, a childhood cancer advocacy group.
Sean Prendeville was diagnosed at ten years old with a very aggressive osteosarcoma; his journey has been more difficult.
Gabi Shull was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2011 and had the operation so she could continue dancing. Now sixteen years old, she's the national spokesperson for The Truth 365, a childhood cancer advocacy group.
Sean Prendeville was diagnosed at ten years old with a very aggressive osteosarcoma; his journey has been more difficult.
The CRPG Book Project
For over four years Felipe Pepe has been working on a 500+ page book reviewing 400 CRPGs, going over their history from early PLATO amusements to the latest 100+ hour Bethesda open-world monstrosities. At last his efforts have reached a conclusion, and he's giving the ebook away free on his website.
Trust me, you're gonna love it!
Buckley, Kerouac, Sanders and Yablonsky discuss Hippies
We sing live eight shows a week, check it
The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, otherwise known as the Tonys, have been awarded since 1947. The awards ceremonies have been televised since 1967 and are notable for their opening numbers, which reached an apotheosis between 2011 and 2013, when Neil Patrick Harris hosted for three successive years. [more inside]
Just my nose butter
A Sense of Scale
Monster Size Comparison. Robot Size Comparison. Dinosaurs Size Comparison. Spaceship Size Comparison. Galaxies Size Comparison. All from MetaBallStudios [last link contains a link to a NSFW video]
Water, water, everywhere
In less than 90 days, Cape Town may become the world’s first major city to run out of water. [more inside]
A curious look back
"NASA’s Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada gives a descriptive tour of the Mars rover's view in Gale Crater. The scene from 'Vera Rubin Ridge' looks back over the journey so far, including buttes, dunes and other features along the route." Also check out Curiosity's selfie, taken on Sol 1943: From the South Rim of Vera Rubin Ridge: "Having spent 1943 sols on the surface of Mars, Curiosity is in its 6th Earth year on Mars, but it is in its 3rd Mars year of exploration. That means Curiosity has encountered this season of the year twice before." The ridge is named for the late American astronomer Vera Rubin (previously), who was responsible for discovering evidence of dark matter (also previously).
“Superb!”
A Parliament of Owls [New York Review of Books] “Humans have always noticed owls. One of the earliest examples of Paleolithic art is an owl engraved on the wall of the Chauvet cave in France.1 Among the peculiarities of owl physiognomy is that owls have both eyes facing forward, unlike most birds. They can also turn their heads 270 degrees (making up for their inability to move their eyes). It has been easy to imagine that these creatures of darkness, mostly experienced as an ominous cry in the night or a disconcerting stare during the day, have personalities, and malign ones at that. [...] The truth about owls is less fantastical but no less interesting than what humans project onto them. Owls’ remarkable physical attributes were shaped by the imperatives of the hunt. They are impressive killing machines, capable of dispatching other birds or animals larger than themselves. Central to this are big legs and claws, wing feathers designed for silent flight, and highly sensitive eyes and ears. Owls have acute binocular vision and, contrary to legend, can see in daylight.” [more inside]
SPOCK: Check the circuit. TYLER: All operating, sir.
Signal Loss: Mapping "video errors" in Star Trek.
Collected examples from each of the Star Trek series where audiovisual signal loss is conveyed. [more inside]
Wistful Korgis
In 1980, Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime climbed the charts to become The Korgis only top 5 hit song. [more inside]
February 3
Coming Soon to an Olympics Near You ...
Ice cross downhill is the "fastest sport on skates" and basically involves 4 skaters speed skating down a bobsled course, with jumps. (You will not be surprised to learn it's sponsored by Red Bull.) Videos incoming! [more inside]
One task was to initial that you initialed off another task
'Seeing someone cry at work is becoming normal': Employees say Whole Foods is using 'scorecards' to punish them.
The new system, called order-to-shelf, or OTS, has a strict set of procedures for purchasing, displaying, and storing products on store shelves and in back rooms. To make sure stores comply, Whole Foods relies on "scorecards" that evaluate everything from the accuracy of signage to the proper recording of theft, or "shrink." [more inside]
The search for Jackie Wallace
The search for Jackie Wallace A New Orleans football legend reached the pinnacle of the sport. Then everything came crashing down. This is the story of his downfall, redemption, and disappearance. [more inside]
Some recommended SF/F from 2017
The 2017 Locus Recommended Reading List is out. Rocket Stack Rank breaks down the short fiction lists according to whether several other sources also recommended the story (e.g. Gardner Dozois, Jonathan Strahan, Neil Clarke, Jason McGregor, and Charles Payseur). Incidentally, none of the r/Fantasy "Stabby" Award winners made the Locus list, but many nominees did. Additional short fiction recommendation lists from A.C. Wise (part 1 & part 2), Maria Haskins, and forestofglory are also available. 2017 SF/F short fiction on MeFi previously, previously, previously, previously, and previously.
Mountain Ocean Desert Night
Benjamin "Bejamin" Everett was a painter and now paints digitally, mostly of wild places. Four galleries:
Mountains
Oceans
Deserts
Night
"When I was born, I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother”
The one-liners were impeccable, unimprovable. Dangerfield spent years on them; he once told an interviewer that it took him three months to work up six minutes of material for a talk-show appearance. If there’s art about life and art about art, Dangerfield’s comedy was the latter — he was the supreme formalist. Lacking inborn ability, he studied the moving parts of a joke with an engineer’s rigor. And so Dangerfield, who told audiences that as a child he was so ugly that his mother fed him with a slingshot, became the leading semiotician of postwar American comedy. How someone can watch him with anything short of wonder is beyond me. - Letter of Recommendation: Rodney Dangerfield (SL NYTIMES) [more inside]
"you met a fucking forest nymph"
Pleated Jeans has a new feature:
These aren’t the most hilarious memes. These aren’t the dankest memes. These aren’t the newest, hottest memes. Heck, some of them aren’t even actual memes. These are meant to pick you up when you are down. This is a safe place to come every week and feel good. You deserve it. I love you. (titular meme)Bonus: Literally Just 20 Funny Posts About Loving Mac N’ Cheese
From the first step, the concept is kept
Christian pastors and rabbi bless new late term abortion clinic
On Jan. 29, 2018--the same day the Senate rejected the Trump-backed bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks--four Christian pastors and a rabbi gathered to bless Dr. LeRoy Carhart's new Bethesda, Maryland abortion clinic, one of the very few in the United States to offer late-term abortions. Dr. Carhart previously performed abortions at a different clinic, until the owner sold the property to an anti-abortion group in 2017. The staff of the clinic and visitors from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice sang hymns, including the Jewish prayer for healing, “Mi Shebeirach,” in the lobby...“We give honor to all of these women who choose to come to this space,” said [Rev. Cari] Jackson...“We sanctify this space, and we honor this as holy.” [more inside]
photo roulette
The Space Between
"Coaches had touched me a million times, always spotting, holding, stretching, pulling, pushing, twisting. But none had ever touched me like this. I could feel the tips of her fingers digging deep into my cheeks. This woman who had caught me when I was falling, who had saved my life dozens of times, was now squeezing my face in her hand as though she wanted to crush it. I knocked away her hand and said: 'That's it! I quit!' Then I walked out."
In "Quitting Gymnastics Taught Me that Failure Is Golden Too", Michelle Kaeser reminisces about her pursuit of athletic glory and reflects on the space between what she imagined she could accomplish and what she was actually able to.
Mort Walker, 1923-2018
Mort Walker, creator of the deathless comic strips Hi and Lois and Beetle Bailey, died on January 27. Josh Fruhlinger, who is generally in the business of making fun of zombie legacy comics, offered a remarkably respectful look back at the way Beetle Bailey changed (yes, it did change).
“An ideal demo walks a fine line between limitation and replayability.”
The Three Essential Ingredients Of A Great Video Game Demo [Kotaku] “It may be a rare sight today, but a demo is one of the best things an upcoming game can do for its audience. Of course, not all demos are created equal—the best demos generate excitement and set expectations for what’s to come, while the worst demos convince us not to buy. What makes a great demo? What is a demo, really? Speaking in the strictest sense, a demo is a limited version of a game that people can play to get a better idea of the game itself. This can range from E3 demos, which may not be representative of the final project and aren’t accessible to the general public, to timed trials like ReCore’s, where players can do anything for a set amount of time. We could argue that shareware releases of games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D were a kind of early demo too!” [more inside]
the invisible code
'Fiction is outperforming reality': how YouTube's algorithm distorts truth An ex-YouTube insider reveals how its recommendation algorithm promotes divisive clips and conspiracy videos. Did they harm Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency?
Un Pueblo De Nada
Kentucky Route Zero is an ongoing independent video game, a "magical realist journey through subterranean Americana." In preparation for the final act, developers Cardboard Computer have released another free interlude to the game. Previous interludes (all free, and available for Mac, PC and Linux) have included a VR stage play, a virtual art gallery, and a callable tourism hotline for an underground river. The most recent is a surreal live action cable access show, with a video game companion piece from the point of view of the show's producer. [more inside]
February 2
A rabbi, a priest, and two Protestant ministers . . .
Actually, this is not a joke. The Four Chaplains and the sinking of the USAT Dorchester. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. [more inside]
I'm posting a Bruce Hornsby album
For his second solo album (post "and The Range", fifth album overall), Bruce Hornsby recruited Debbie Harry, Bela Fleck, Pat Metheny, Chaka Khan, Jerry Garcia and many others to create an album that is as wide-ranging and surprising in its subject material as it is in its musical styles and virtuosity -- 1995's Hot House. Side A: Spider Fingers, White Wheeled Limousine, Walk In The Sun, The Changes, The Tango King [more inside]
1. Don't pick up the phone
On July 7, British pop singer Dua Lipa released a video for New Rules. In a recent Vice essay, author Emily Bootle argues the song distinguishes itself from other empowerment anthems: “From Christina Aguilera’s Stronger to Little Mix’s Shout Out To My Ex, there is a whole world of music that celebrates the failed relationship as a character-building experience, and interprets heartbreak with unbridled optimism... But New Rules is different: it’s a song about what we can provide for ourselves. It maintains a neutral perspective, finding empowerment not in optimism, but pragmatism.” [more inside]
The dinosaur’s undersea burial preserved its armor in exquisite detail.
The more I look at it, the more mind-boggling it becomes. Fossilized remnants of skin still cover the bumpy armor plates dotting the animal’s skull. Its right forefoot lies by its side, its five digits splayed upward. I can count the scales on its sole. Caleb Brown, a postdoctoral researcher at the museum, grins at my astonishment. “We don’t just have a skeleton,” he tells me later. “We have a dinosaur as it would have been.”
From Women Doctors to Women Criminals
We begin with the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, which opened in 1850. There are many photos of women students at class, at autopsy, at home. And there's considerable discussion of how much they had to put up with from the male students and from the media and current culture. Nevertheless, they persisted. [more inside]
Bone-rattling Skeleton racing and other delights of the soul
Why Skeleton Racing Is So Brutal on the Body. "Corners are where skeleton racing is the most physically brutal. A tight turn can produce G-forces, or “pressures,” of up to five times normal. (For perspective, consider that astronauts lifting off on a rocket experience only about three G-forces.) “We compare it to a contact sport,” says Matt Antoine, a member of this year’s U.S. Olympic skeleton team. Part of the challenge is how quickly the pressures hit: In a few milliseconds, your head suddenly feels as heavy as a bowling ball, and keeping it upright — and away from the ice — is a struggle." [more inside]
“You can have everything, and still you have nothing”
"The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs" is the first single of Wye Oak's fifth album. [SLYT] [more inside]
Making Plans for Nigel
"I feel like I’m not doing enough"
"Martins seems to have needed light like she needed air"
A Visit to South Africa’s Strange, Astonishing Owl House is an article by Rosa Lyster [previously] about the art and life of outsider artist Helen Martins, and the museum of her work, The Owl House [previously discussed in 2002]. The Helen Martins Museum website has a gallery with high resolution photographs of her work and a few more can be seen here.
Justice for Barb. No, Billy. No, Wiebe!
After extensive analysis of the videos, King of Kong's Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong high score, the famous "King of Kong" tape, has been vacated by Donkey Kong Forums. He is alleged to have used a MAME emulator for his scores, instead of an authentic arcade cabinet, as well as possibly using additional software to assist his runs. In King of Kong, he successfully challenged Stephen Wiebe's scores on the possibility that Wiebe's cabinet's board had been modified. (Billy Mitchell did not hold the current high score and the challenged score is still on Twin Galaxies.)
The great British Jaffa Cake bait and switch
Scandal haunts the supermarket aisles of Britannia. Previously phallically packaged, Jaffa Cakes (MetaPreviously), part of the national diet (posh variations), a present for teachers or reward after donating blood, are being (again) sold in boxes of 100 for only £3.50 (or 3.5p, less than 5 US cents, per cake). Many of the newly repackaged cakes have gone, some people are well stocked up, but the sole chain outlet oft runs out, leaving shoppers to buy smaller boxes... of only ten to a pack (previously twelve). This is part of a wider trend, though Jaffa Cakes (size issue) are better on some metrics because it's complicated. Though healthy, please eat slowly and decently; alternatives (raspberry, cake, donut, light snack, Polish, Halloween, ice cream) exist, and the future.
a “no_one” that is nevertheless a thing
Death in the Village - an elegy by Anthony Oliveira on Toronto's LGBT community processing disappearances, murders, a serial killer, police tensions and the comments section.
Ghost Hotels and 21st Century Flophouses
The High Cost Of Short Term Rentals In NYC (PDF) A 3 year study by McGill University on the effects on Airbnb in NYC came to some startling conclusions. Among them: Top 10% of hosts get 48% of revenue - In predominately black neighborhoods, hosts are 5 times more likely to be white - Airbnb has increased median rents by $380- 4,700 ‘ghost hotels’ set up to avoid regulation and remove long term rentals from the market.
The Nut King and the Pomegranate Queen in the Land of W♥nderful
A Kingdom from Dust. Stewart Resnick is the biggest farmer in the United States, a fact he has tried to keep hidden while he has shaped what we eat, transformed California’s landscape, and ruled entire towns. But the one thing he can’t control is what he’s most dependent on — water. [more inside]
Urban Bird Feeders Are Changing the Course of Evolution
Traditional wisdom dictates that birds don’t become dependent on a free lunch, but more than 50 million Americans are conducting an unwitting experiment on a vast scale. Author Emily Voigt joins them from her Manhattan high-rise and finds that there is such a thing as a finch Brooklyn accent. (SL Atlantic; delightful read even if you aren't a birder.)
How do you mic a cat? (absolutely serious)
Dressing for Two
The prudish, sexy, shaming, expensive history of maternity clothes [slRacked Long Read](TW: miscarriage).
The holodeck becomes intensely Hawaiian
A bot attempts to write a Star Trek TNG episode. Yes, Episode 279 (Here's Looking at Q) is pretty great.
February 1
Hacking the mooframe on the Nebraska cyberfrontier
Following on from his earlier article on US farmers hacking their tractors with Ukrainian pirated software (previously), Jason Koebler has teamed up with Lara Heintz to make a short documentary for Motherboard about some of the people involved: farmers, tractor repairers as well as the politician who introduced a "right to repair bill" (previously).
Be kind. Read more books. Eat ice cream.
When a palliative care pediatrician in South Africa saw too many negative stories appear on his Twitter feed, he decided to share some positive, inspiring thoughts from his patients. He surveyed several patients and none of the children, aged between four and nine, said that they wished they had watched more television, or spent more time on Facebook.
presented without comment
Like it's literally as thrilling now as it was then. Oh wait, that's a comment.The B-52's (1979) [40m]: Side A: Planet Claire, 52 Girls, Dance This Mess Around, Rock Lobster [video] [more inside]
50 choices
To Be or Not To Be , by Masha Gessen
Theology With Dirt Under Its Fingernails
Farminaries: How faithful stewardship is escaping the seminary classroom and rooting itself in the soil. Kendall Vanderslice's article for Christianity Today explores the growing intersections of seminary education, ecology, agrarian studies, injustice, hunger, health, and homegrown tomatoes (YT; musical accompaniment from Guy Clark). [more inside]
You create a system when the need is high enough.
Inside the Top-Secret Abortion Underground (slMotherJones)
Renata is part of a growing underground movement of people across America who have taught themselves to help women terminate pregnancies without a doctor. I talked to dozens of these clandestine providers, and our conversations offer a rare glimpse into a world that is shrouded in secrecy and fear. Some urged me not to write about their work. But their efforts reveal a new aspect of how the war on reproductive rights has played out, and how a new generation of activists has come to believe that it’s reasonable to handle this aspect of women’s health care outside a medical setting. And they are determined to give more women that opportunity, no matter the legal risk.[more inside]
Color Perception: Werner's Nomenclature
Werner's Nomenclature of Colours: a Pre-Photographic Guide for Artists and Naturalists is how colors were perceived and described in the 19th century.
A spirit monkey that is very hairy and gets engulfed in rage
In 2017, a US board game studio launched a crowdfunding campaign for a game named Rising Sun, set in feudal Japan and involving battles between mythological monsters. The campaign was successful, unlocking numerous stretch goals in the form of exclusive monsters. One of those, which made it into the game, was the Kōtahi, a fearsome monkeylike demon. Only after the game went out, a Japanese user noticed that there is no such creature in Japanese folklore. It turned out that “Kōtahi” was not actually Japanese, but instead Maori, and was the name of a guy in New Zealand, a friend of whose edited the Wikipedia list of legendary creatures from Japan as a joke, defining his friend as “a Manawa Bradford, a spirit monkey that is very hairy and gets engulfed in rage”.
Dog eat dog? When did you see that?
Neoliberalism: The force isn’t with you… "Verhaeghe’s argument for good authority over state-sponsored violence is simple: Only by strengthening the power of horizontal groups within existing social structures such as education, the economy and the political system, can we restore authority to its rightful place. This, he explains, is one of those functions that cannot be left to the so-called ‘free market’."
"Who Do We Think We Are?"
It’s What’s for Dinner, Scott Korb
Each semester for the past five years, I’ve set out to discuss the suffering and killing and deaths of animals as part of a freshman-level food-writing course I call “Setting a Fine Table,” so named for a favorite line from M.F.K. Fisher.
They grew up poor. They had to learn the rules of being rich.
Losing Sight
A 4-Year-Old Girl Was the Sole Survivor of a U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan. Then She Disappeared. [more inside]
These trying times - taking a collective moment for self-care
A collection of useful links for different aspects of self-care. Exactly what it proclaims to be. [more inside]
Paris, Reviewed
In 2013, Patricia Lockwood asked the obvious. A year later, the Paris Review answered, but their verdict felt punfunctory and biased. Finally, five years later, the Paris Review has, through the power of crowd-sourcing, provided a researched and annotated answer: ⭐⭐⭐⭐★.
What Amazon Does to Poor Cities
Alana Semuels writes in The Atlantic about the impacts of Amazon distribution centers on the poorer communities where they are located. In San Bernardino, the unemployment rate dropped from 15% to 5%, but the percentage living in poverty went from 23.4% to 28.1%. [more inside]
Dystopic dancing
Into the Dark is a music video for the new single by teenage indie duo Between Mountains from the rural Westfjords region of Iceland. The video portrays a society where dark-suited people must mimic everything their brightly-clothed betters do. Dancing ensues. The group, comprising Katla Vigdís Vernharðsdóttir and Ásrós Helga Guðmundsdóttir came to prominence after winning last year's Músíktilraunir, a national battle-of-the-bands. Their winning performance can be seen here (scroll down). They also performed for Seattle based KEXP last year, which can be seen here. While normally using keyboards and vocals, they do also sometimes break out an accordion.
Squirrels Were Purposefully Introduced to American Cities
"Squirrels aren’t natural city slickers. In 1856 the sight of one in a tree near New York’s city hall so shocked passersby that a newspaper published a report about the “unusual visitor.”
Around that time, the tree-dwelling rodents were being released in America’s urban areas to “create pockets of rural peace and calm,” says University of Pennsylvania historian Etienne Benson, who studied our relationship to squirrels over the course of five years.
First they were introduced to Philadelphia, then to New Haven, Boston, and New York City. Park visitors were encouraged to feed them, and security guards ensured their safety."
A Small Treasury of Live Raga Performances by Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dag
Lou Reed's Street Hassle: "I don't have to choose, so I won't"
Writer Damien Love marks the 40th anniversary of Lou Reed's Street Hassle LP and its 11-minute masterpiece of a title track with an excellent essay, a shorter version of which was published in Uncut magazine in October 2016. [more inside]
Cats Play Hungry Hungry Hippos
What it says on the tin. [SLYT]
LIDAR magic
A Mayan megalopolis "In what’s being hailed as a “major breakthrough” in Maya archaeology, researchers have identified the ruins of more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features that have been hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala."
“It is the mind that makes the body.”
Black History Month reading list: [The Guardian] “At the start of the month dedicated to African American history, here’s our rundown of what to read.” [more inside]
"A magazine for lesbian and gay liberation"
"The Body Politic was conceived in a basement (not the last it would know), born in an Annex apartment, named in a downtown Victorian flat (possibly; accounts vary), and raised for a time in a backyard shed." Published from 1971 until 1987, it was "Canada's first significant gay publication." Now, every issue of the magazine is hosted by the Canadian Human Rights Museum in an online collection. [more inside]
Annihilated
The Problem With Annihilation’s Messy Release - why the latest film from Ex Machina's Alex Garland will not be getting an international release. (previously) (full trailer)
Concussion Protocol
It’s not a headache. It’s not “getting your bell rung.” You don’t have a bell. It’s a traumatic brain injury. Data artist Josh Begley edited together a 5m30s video of every concussion suffered in an NFL game this year. [more inside]
Soccer Football USA USA USA
The greatest football club in the world has a player featured in the New York Times. He is from the USA and has a few thoughts about the USMNT failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. (H/T 7Segment) [more inside]
Hey, Vern! Ya got nothing to lose but your chains!
How Ernest Goes To Camp Made Me A Socialist (Twitter thread) Come for a fun little bit of critical theory; stay for the reminder of what a nice guy Jim Varney was.
A Poster Child For Letting Go
Atlanta musican K Michelle DuBois dives into her record collection (literally) in her new video for "Reckless Needs."
The State Of SNAP
“I resented myself for being poor. My pride kept the EBT card, untouched, in the back pocket of my wallet for almost a year. Using it was an admission of failure. It meant giving up my financial autonomy, and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.“ How I Stopped Being Ashamed Of My EBT Card - Janelle Harris, Buzzfeed. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue’s preview of the new farm bill hints at increased restrictions on SNAP and food assistance programs. New, cashier-less Amazon Grocery stores don’t accept SNAP. What Americans get wrong about ‘food stamps’ according to an expert. Protect the food stamp program by giving them to everyone, even pets. [more inside]
Hunter and Bears, obviously
pick two of the options here. They will defend you; the rest come to kill you. The options are: 50 eagles, 10 crocodiles, 3 bears, 7 bulls, 1 hunter, 15 wolves, 10,000 rats, 5 gorillas, and 4 lions. Your picks are wrong and bad and you should feel bad.
"A proven bowel conditioner"
A wry disgruntlement will forever unite those of us who were children during the height of the nineteen-seventies natural-foods movement. It was a time that we recall not for its principles—yes to organics, no to preservatives—but for its endless assaults on our tender young palates. There was brown rice that scoured our molars as we chewed, shedding gritty flecks of bran. There was watery homemade yogurt that resisted all attempts to mitigate its tartness. And, at the pinnacle of our dietary suffering, worse even than sprout sandwiches or fruit leather or whole-wheat scones, there was carob, the chocolate substitute that never could.
One of the most arresting works of biography you'll read in a long time
We previously met this subject and author in the Secret Life of a Crime Scene Cleaner. Tonight in Melbourne, part-time legal consultant and first-time book author Sarah Krasnostein, won Australia's richest literary award for her work The Trauma Cleaner, the 'complex and tender memoir' of Sandra Pankhurst. Judges said the title is "not just the compelling story of a fascinating life among lives of desperation, but an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together." [more inside]
conversation piece
As a work of art by Sonia Boyce the painting 'Hylas and the Nymphs' by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse has been removed from the 'In Pursuit of Beauty' room - featuring many paintings of female nudes - of the Manchester Art Gallery. It has been replaced by a notice explaining why: to prompt conversation how artworks are displayed and interpreted in the gallery. (Some links possibly nsfw)
"You have to live with the mystery. That's the answer in my books."
It's the centenary of the birth of the poet, novelist, short-story writer, biographer & critic Muriel Spark (d. 2006). To mark the occasion, all 22 of her novels are being re-published in new hardback editions; and there's an exhibition about her ('The International Style of Muriel Spark') at the National Library of Scotland. [more inside]