January 22, 2016
Doing Gentrification Right
rhymes with 'peace rally'
Up until his passing last June at 93, Reese Palley, "a flamboyant entrepreneur, art impresario, adventurer, promoter of eccentric business enterprises around the globe, and public scold on matters as diverse as nuclear energy and how to revive Atlantic City", influential in the San Francisco art scene, seller of Boehm birds and Dali prints, sailor extraordinare, rescuer of communities and torahs ... well, Reese was a hell of a guy, settled in Key West and built a home out of the greatest material ever devised. [more inside]
HOP | SING | EAT
Your frog's name is Gugget. They are a Orange-Banded Tree Frog. Cherish this frog. Begin Frog.
Getting Sauced: a post about condiment packets
The Mysterious, Murky Story Behind Soy-Sauce Packets: How Chinese takeout, a Jewish businessman from the Bronx, and NASA-approved packaging have shaped the 50-year reign of a well-loved American condiment (The Atlantic) [more inside]
I built a tree in my daughter's bedroom
mapping the college curriculum across 1M+ syllabi
The Open Syllabus Project is pleased to make the beta version of our Syllabus Explorer publicly available. The Explorer leverages a collection of over 1 million syllabi collected from university and departmental websites. [more inside]
The Digital Materiality of GIFs
A short exploration of the history, present and future of the Internet's most animated image format, The Digital Materiality of GIFs.
Goodbye, Steven Moffat; hello, Chris Chibnall!
Steven Moffat is stepping down as showrunner of Doctor Who. Chris Chibnall, a longtime Who fan who has written episodes for both Who and Torchwood, as well as acting as showrunner for David Tennant in Broadchurch, will be taking his place. (Here's Chibnall expressing his opinions on Who in 1986.) The bad news is there will be no new Who in 2016, just a Christmas special, and Moffat's last series will air in 2017. The good news for Broadchurch fans is that they'll apparently get a Season Three filmed this year before Who takes Chibnall over, or vice versa.
"Blends both toy and game alike."
This is Griffin McElroy. Welcome to Griffin's Amiibo Corner, a weekly series about a delightful new creation from Nintendo. (2) (3)
Golden Years
Old music is outselling new music for the first time in history - 2015 marks the first year that catalog albums, albums over 18 months old, outsold newer ones in the US.
"I'm really sorry that I deleted your penis"
Someone draws a large penis in the snow in a canal in Gothenburg, Sweden. A concerned citizen removes it when the City decides it is too dangerous to remove due to thin ice. This is what happens next. [more inside]
White Privilege II
On Thursday, Macklemore released his new 8 minute long song White Privilege II, a sequel to White Privilege off his 2005 album. Lyrics to the new song with citations available on Genius.com and commentary from Slate.com.
My Bookshelf, Myself - NYT
Leaders in different fields share the 10 books they’d take with them if they were marooned on a desert island. For his bookshop installation, One Grand, the editor Aaron Hicklin asked people to name the 10 books they’d take with them if they were marooned on a desert island. [more inside]
“The first website we made was www.MakeMyNudesFight.com.”
Finally, courtesy of The Clickhole: An Oral History of Facebook. It features exclusive interviews with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Sean Parker, identical river giants Cameron And Tyler Winklevoss, and many others.
That's some professional breadstick passing
A 15-second Olive Garden commercial is reviewed. While playing 120 times.
I WANT TO MAKE IT RIGHT IMMEDIATELY. I CANNOT GO TO PRISON. I CANNOT.
"They said they were going to put me on hold, and then hung up on me. But I had their #, a 20-minute drive ahead of me, and I do improv."
Comedian Dave Holmes trolls a couple of hapless IRS telephone scammers.
Comedian Dave Holmes trolls a couple of hapless IRS telephone scammers.
I love the smell of Schadenfreude in the morning
From Pickup Artist to Pariah Jared Rutledge fancied himself a big man of the 'manosphere.' But when his online musings about 46 women were exposed, his whole town turned against him.
NASA reduces average payload weight without sacrificing capabilities
For the first time [ever], NASA’s latest class of astronauts is 50 percent female. And, NASA has announced, in 15 years they could all be selected for an inaugural trip to Mars.
Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance
How will we dance in the future? The 1966 German science fiction series Raumpatrouille Orion has a few ideas. (previously)
'Starring Willie W, Bas Bron and Vieze Fur.'
Time to slink into the weekend with this chill music video for De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig's 'Manon', starring a gang of imperious Dutch cats, custom scratching posts. Directed by powerhouse creative duo Lennert & Sander. [more inside]
Shirt!
Threadbase purchased 800 of the most popular Men's t-shirts in every size that they could get their hands on. They then measured the shirts, washed them repeatedly, and tracked their shrinkage/stretching over time. Notably, they observed that shirts get wider and shorter over time, but actually wearing the shirt undoes most of the shrinkage that happens in the wash. Also, sizing systems vary wildly across manufacturers.
“Your house is a crime scene and you two are persons of interest"
Why do people keep coming to this couple’s home looking for lost phones? Lost mobile phones are reporting that they're at a suburban Atlanta address, but they're not there. "The missing phones don’t seem to have anything in common. Some are iPhones. Some are Androids. They’re on different carriers: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Boost Mobile."
Horizontal history
"An econ buff in the year 2500 might know all about the Great Depression that happened in the early 20th century and the major recession that happened about 80 years later, but that same person might mistake the two world wars for happening in the 1800s or the 2200s.... Likewise, I might know that Copernicus began writing his seminal work... in the early 1510s, but by learning that right around that same time in Italy, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, I get a better picture of the times. [It]allows me to see the 1510s horizontally, like cutting out a complete segment of the vine tangle and examining it all together."
Think You're Done? You Thought Wrong.
25 Steps To Being A Traditionally Published Author: Lazy Bastard Edition. Your brief guide through the process, from drafting (5. All First Drafts Are Word Vomit Made Of Horse Shit) to querying (14. I Have Queried Every Agent In The Entire Universe, And No) to post-publication (25. My Book Sales Did Not Exceed My Wildest Dreams And I’m Disappointed Because My Publisher Didn’t Get Me Enough Publicity And Barnes And Noble Doesn’t Carry It And I Wasn’t On Oprah And 50 Shades Sucked Butt And Wah). [more inside]
Top this, Templeton
It's an familiar fable in New York City: Dumped on the curb by the West Side Highway, a stranger to the city with no name and no connections, just a ferocious will. With a little luck and a lot of talent, a year later she's making her Broadway debut: The Story of Rose, a white rat. (SLNYTimes)
It was never about the glass
Moving with the reindeer in the winter
My Wife and I Are (Both) Pregnant
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