January 23, 2019
Yokokanno Watanabe a Space Cowboy?
A Fistful of Woolongs - A Cowboy Bebop Retrospective (SLYT) Why watch Cowboy Bebop and other Shinichirō Watanabe anime and listen to Yoko Kanno's musical score you ask?
Learnability can be undecidable
The Nature of Infinity — and Beyond - "An introduction to Georg Cantor and his transfinite paradise." [more inside]
Stoker-King model vs Rice model vs Harris-Meyer-Kostova model
You know what we need? More standards.
How do you govern the development of artificial intelligence? MIT hosted a three-day gathering with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to help figure that out ahead of the group's release of AI governance guidelines. But academics aren't the only ones getting in on the game. [more inside]
Entertain me, I'm as blank as can be
Soft Cell, the British duo of singer Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball, are viewed differently in the U.S. and the U.K. Stateside, they're a classic one-hit wonder band, which dominated dance clubs and eventually peaked in the pop Top Ten in 1981-1982. In the U.K., the group not only had a longer career, but also influenced a raft of similar performers. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, originally released in Britain in the fall of 1981, contained three U.K. hits* (William Ruhlmann, All Music). The original album had 10 tracks (official YT Playlist, audio only), which was later expanded, both with a number of videos and bonus tracks (extended YT playlist), including the Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing EP tracks and thirteen more cuts (Discogs). [more inside]
International Correspondence Writing Month
incowrimo-2019 a handwritten letter every day It's almost February, or as some people refer to it - International Correspondence Writing Month! [more inside]
Meet the Hagfish
A hagfish will release less than a teaspoon of gunk and in less than half a second, that little amount will expand by 10,000 times—enough to fill a sizable bucket....The slime is one of nature’s more wondrous substances, unlike anything else that’s been concocted by either evolution or engineers... The entire hagfish is effectively a large gut, and even that is understating matters: Their skin is actually more efficient at absorbing nutrients than their own intestines.
“Nobody is going to believe you.”
The Bohemian Rhapsody director Bryan Singer has been trailed by accusations of sexual misconduct for 20 years. Here, his alleged victims tell their stories. [The Atlantic] “We spent 12 months investigating various lawsuits and allegations against Singer. In total, we spoke with more than 50 sources, including four men who have never before told their stories to reporters. A man we’ll call Eric told us that he was 17 in 1997 when he and Singer had sex at a party at the director’s house; another we’ll call Andy says he was only 15 that same year, when he and Singer had sex in a Beverly Hills mansion. Both men say Singer, who was then in his early 30s, knew they were under 18, the age of consent in California. (They asked The Atlantic to conceal their identity for fear of retaliation, and because they didn’t want certain details about their past made public.).” [more inside]
An alpaca walks into a French optician's...
An alpaca has confused and delighted residents of a small French town after wandering into an optician's shop. The fuzzy creature spent half an hour quietly browsing lenses in the town of Hennebont in Brittany...."He was not at all aggressive, he was just doing his thing." More cute photos in this French news article, as well as in this article that incorrectly identified the alpaca as a llama.
nothing goes together quite like candles and reading
Off-White Game Boy with the Planet Hollywood logo printed on it
Console Variations collects pictures and information about limited-edition versions of video game consoles.
It Turns Out the Industry Values Whiteness
Comps reveal a great deal about the diversity of publishing and the experience of people of color within it. These data should give us pause about any self-congratulatory “strides.” Comp titles show us which books and which authors publishers most value; they become a target at which editors, agents, and aspiring authors aim. The dearth of writers of color as frequent and influential comps — both within and across genres — shows that writers of color still do not enjoy a broad influence behind the scenes. They don’t seem to be shaping acquisitions decisions at a high level. Even best-selling novels by writers of color are highly unlikely to change the decisions that publishers make about which books to acquire and by whom. "Comping White" by Laura B. McGrath in the LARB
I could share that recipe with you..but then I would have to kill you.
Sure everyone has heard of or has a "secret family recipe" or two but how about one so secret it was classified by the CIA for over 50 years? Presenting: The Soviet Army’s 1948 borscht recipe with tips for service and presentation.
The UK will attempt to decide something (2019 Eurovision entrant)
As decisions and qualifiers in various countries (France, Netherlands, Spain) take place, and a Finnish singer declines, so the six potential entries from the UK are revealed by the BBC. Being the UK, the decision process is needlessly contorted: 'Each of the three songs will be performed in two different musical styles by two different acts, with three rounds of ‘song-offs’ being performed by six acts in total.' UK Sing-off on February 8th; the final in Tel Aviv, Israel (inevitable question) on May 18th. Last year the UK came 24th out of 26th after a stage invasion.
Poetry's Millennial Resurgence a Beacon of Hope
An interesting trend in the U.K. shows a dramatic rise in poetry consumption as millennials struggle to gain clarity in a politically tumultuous time. Traditionally, poetry has been used as a graceful way to express complex thought and emotion - while its widespread resurgence to this effect may be hinting at a cultural nostalgia in the younger generation for simpler times in the face of climate disaster, polarization and leadership upheaval, poetry being called upon during times of political strife is not unheard of. [more inside]
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