March 31, 2015
If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.
Incumbent President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan today conceded defeat in last weekend's election, and called President-Elect Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him. The election has generally appeared to be the fairest in Nigeria's history and mostly free of the bloodshed of Jonathan's 2011 defeat of Buhari; this transition will mark Nigeria's first transfer of power to an opposition party after an election. Buhari's presidency will be his second administration as leader of Nigeria after acting as the head of a military junta from 1983 to 1985. [more inside]
A Brief History of the ATM
"Never before had electronic equipment been so exposed to the elements. [T]hey could easily jam or run out of product. They could erroneously dispense several bank notes instead of just one—all without the owner's knowledge. They were activated by plastic or paper tokens that would only activate for the operating bank and, in some cases, only that particular bank location. Some banks would keep the token in the machine and return it to the customer (by post) once the account had been debited. As a result, early ATMs were standalone, clunky, unfriendly, and inflexible."
It's April 1st in Japan
A Handmaid's Tale
On Monday, a judge in the State of Indiana sentenced a young woman to twenty years in prison for the crime of having an unauthorized miscarriage. [more inside]
kakkoii
Margret: Chronicle of an Affair – May 1969 to December 1970
The briefcase was found three decades after the affair took place. The contents of the suitcase: an extraordinary collection of found materials that chronicled the adulterous relationship between a businessman and his secretary in the late 1960s and 70s.
Prank. Not Even Once.
Tidal
Yesterday, Jay-Z's streaming music service Tidal was launched. The press event featured over a dozen celebrity musicians as signing "owners" of the service (each reportedly received 3% equity in exchange for exclusive content), and, by some accounts, was a bit awkward and content-free. At $19.99, the subscription plan is double the cost of competing services like Spotify, and no "freemium" plan is offered. The justification is two-fold: 1. Artists should be compensated fairly for streaming; and 2. The service's high-fidelity, lossless streaming is far superior to the current standard (320 kbps AAC, as Spotify and Rdio currently provide.) You can take an online blind test between 320 kbps AAC and Tidal's lossless streaming, to see if you have the "equipment and ears" for lossless music. Is there really a noticeable difference, or is this snake oil? Will the artist-forward approach change the conversation and ingrained habits of streaming music listeners? Is Tidal a sort of streaming for the 1% rather than for struggling independent musicians? Is it a walled garden for artists at the expense of fans? Or is this all simply a great vertical move for Jay-Z's Roc Nation label? So many questions.
Facebook is tracking us all, even non facebook users
Facebook tracks the web browsing of everyone who visits a page on its site even if the user does not have an account or has explicitly opted out of tracking in the EU, extensive research commissioned by the Belgian data protection agency has revealed.
"My friend here Mr. Burke is going to trounce you all with a vengeance."
"these women paved the way for a more just and compassionate world"
10 Badass Sikh Women in History
Oftentimes, women’s contributions are overlooked because, for the most part, it is men who write history. In India, women of the Sikh faith have fought, ruled, taught and served for centuries. They have managed organizations, guided communities and led revolts. These accomplishments are admirable in their own right, and they are even more impressive when viewed in the context of the intense patriarchy and cultural misogyny against which these women were working.
“Is this for a class?”
It's the Leaning Tower of Cheese-A
We've had many leaps and bounds in 3D printing technology over the last few years, but this video finally answers the question which will surely bring us to a new frontier of the industry: what happens when you put spray cheese in it? [more inside]
Thirty crore speakers, seven lakh words
A group of volunteers has broken the record for most words added to Google Translate in a day. [more inside]
"Entertainment is a business, no matter what it means to us"
"The Boys, in many ways, is about how to kill the unkillable – and unsurprisingly, an analogue for Superman is at the center of the story. But Superman, I can see them killing. Kryptonite, magic, red sun radiation, just being bigger and tougher, or just realizing that he is one man who can be in one place at one time, and can be managed. There are enough stories about Superman getting killed that we know it’s possible. But Superman’s owners? Not the culture that he’s part of, but the Warner Brothers Corporation that claims him as IP? That dodges through legal maneuvers and drags out court cases, that intimidates and strongarms, all in the name of securing the brand of Superman even as they could care less what Superman stands for as a character?"
A lengthy meditation on The Boys, the ultraviolent, ultratransgressive and problematic-but-still-fascinating superhero comics epic as written by Garth Ennis.
African Game Development
Aurion looks to be a standard and mechanically unremarkable retro action RPG with heavy Japanese design influences. But its design and feel are unmistakably fresh, offering a bold color palette and interesting unit designs. Its fiction is rooted in stories of exploitation and division, and in a desire for harmony.This review of Cameroon's Kiro’o Games latest release is just one of the increasingly visible ways Africa's game developers are beginning to gain traction in their domestic and international markets. Last fall, Lagos hosted the inaugural West African Gaming Expo, bringing together startups, gamers, developers and investors for the first time. Games range from mobile only, extremely local - smash the mosquito or drive your matatu like a maniac - to educational - to full fledged RPG like Kiro'o's Aurion. Women are as much a part of this nascent industry, breaking barriers and encouraging others to join. Watch this space.
The Legend of Korra Saved My Sanity
"... one of the most startling things about this show is that fact that women in Legend of Korra are not required to be likeable." [more inside]
“They may be beneficial.”
Headgear Rule for Girls’ Lacrosse Ignites Outcry [New York Times]
Worried about the risk of serious head injuries in a sport where the players wield reinforced sticks and rifle shots with a hard, unyielding ball, Florida last month became the first state to require high school girls’ lacrosse teams to wear protective headgear.
Game of Thrones Catch-up Machine
With the new season of Game of Thrones less than two weeks away, you may benefit from the Game of Thrones Catch-up Machine, courtesy of lovereading.co.uk.
DO NOT ABUSE OR ENJOY THE BILL BELICHICK OFFSEASON SIMULATOR.
BILL BELICHICK OFFSEASON SIMULATOR. "This must be emphasized from the outset: The Bill Belichick Offseason Simulator is a tool, and not a toy. It does not exist to amuse you. It is meant to train prospective football coaches in the art and science of managing the travails of the offseason. Any fun you may have, or amusement you may find, while piloting this simulator is purely accidental, and should be reported as a software bug." (From Jon Bois, in case it's not immediately apparent.)
"We don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents."
In the 80's and 90's, Robert Norman "Bob" Ross gave us The Joy of Painting. In each minimalist, 30-minute show, he would create an imaginary landscape using a wet-on-wet (or alla prima) oil painting technique while gently teaching viewers his methods. His signature, soothing comments described the "happy little clouds," "almighty mountains" and "happy little trees" that he was creating with his brush. Of the 31 seasons and 403 episodes that aired on PBS, the Internet Archive currently has the first 19 seasons (247 episodes) available for stream and download. [more inside]
Women and social networks at work
Women often have decreased access to professional networks and mentors for a variety of reasons--men are more likely to mentor and sponsor other men, informal social networking often centers around gendered activity, women may simply not have the time to do after-work socializing. This is unfortunate, since networks and mentoring are incredibly valuable for female professionals and entrepreneurs. The obvious solution has been to encourage early-career women to network more and "better" and highly-placed women to mentor and support younger women, but this has had mixed results. It turns out that highly-ranking women do disproportionately mentor and support lower-ranking women--but only if they aren't "tokens" at their level of their own workplace but instead part of multiple women at that level. [more inside]
Hey hey hey I'm a cat hey hey hey hey hi hello hey I'm a cat pet me hey.
"Are you in the eighth grade?"
This week in The Dissolve’s Forum section, Noel Murray and Alan Sepinwall discuss Midnight Run and what makes the 1988 film an enduring favorite. This is not the first time Sepinwall has written about his favorite movie.
Midnight Run, previously, by our very own AlonzoMosleyFBI
Midnight Run, previously, by our very own AlonzoMosleyFBI
"The explanation is the music."
Electronic musician Charles Cohen is interviewed for this year's Festival Présences Électronique in Paris, which follows with a roughly ten-minute clip of him performing (previously and more previously)
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