January 7, 2015
Where No Kerbal Has Gone Before
KSP History is an ongoing webseries which combines information and photos of historic events in human spaceflight with near-perfect recreations of those missions in Kerbal Space Program. The most recent entry recounts the first operational Space Shuttle launch. Highlights below the fold. [more inside]
Pepsi Cough Blue Filter
Life after a viral nightmare: from Ecce Homo to revenge porn
What happened to the Spanish artist behind ‘the worst restoration job in history’? Where is the woman who sent the Quentin Tarantino toe-sucking email now? And how does a victim of internet harassment recover? Survivors of online humiliation tell their stories. SLGrauniad
"Wait, what?!?"
Stuff you Learn in Your 40s
There are no grown-ups. We suspect this when we are younger, but can confirm it only once we are the ones writing books and attending parent-teacher conferences. Everyone is winging it, some just do it more confidently.
"Technological Disobedience" in Cuba
How economic embargoes turned Cuba into an island of hackers & DIY engineers. (Accompanying photo essay). In 1991, Cuba's economy began to implode. "The Special Period in the Time of Peace" was the government's euphemism for what was a culmination of 30 years worth of isolation. It began in the 60s, with engineers leaving Cuba for America. Ernesto Oroza, a designer and artist, studied the innovations created during this period. He found that the general population had created homespun, Frankenstein-like machines for their survival, made from everyday objects. Oroza began to collect these machines, and would later contextualize it as "art" in a movement he dubbed "Technological Disobedience." See also, the short film: Havana Bikes (previously). Oroza catalogs and calls these things the Architecture of Necessity.
How to load the dishwasher. Every dishwasher.
Writer Joe Clark downloaded user guides from every dishwasher manufacturer he could find, and collected the illustrations showing the correct way to load each model into the most deeply satisfying Flickr album you will ever see.
Not even with a flower.
We meet a gaggle of adorable little Italian kids, ranging from 7 to 12 years old. The children are asked by the filmmaker what they want to be when they grow up. And why they want to be those things. Then the boys are introduced to Martina, who captures all of their hearts. She charms the boys — they all exclaim how much they love her hair and her smile. One even wants to know if he can be her boyfriend. The filmmaker encourages the boys to make funny faces at Martina to try to make her laugh. Then he tells them to caress her. And then he tells them to slap her...
The Devil and John Holmes
John Holmes was a porn star. Eddie Nash was a drug lord. Their association ended in one of the most brutal mass murders in the history of Los Angeles. The Devil and John Holmes [more inside]
what's in a name?
"For any given profession, it turns out that there are certain names that appear more often in that profession than in the general population. Here's a chart with 6 of the names that are the most disproportionately common in 37 professions." [more inside]
Computer Scientists Make the Same Salary, Whether Male or Female.
Female Computer Scientists Make the Same Salary as Their Male Counterparts - for a while. Whatever the reasons for the gender disparity in programming, at least to begin with, there's no actual salary difference between female and male programmers. According to a new study by the American Association of University Women, [PDF] there is no statistical difference between female and male programmers salaries one year out of college. The same holds true for women who go into engineering, mathematics and physical sciences" [more inside]
The Art of Saving a Life
The Art of Saving a Life, sponsored by the Gates Foundation, is a collection of stories about vaccination and immunization, as told by more than 30 world-renowned photographers, painters, sculptors, writers, filmmakers, and musicians. The intent is to promote vaccination just in time for an international effort to raise funds to inoculate millions, especially in poor nations. The full collection of art will be unveiled over the course of January 2015.
Resistance is futile?
For the first time in nearly thirty years, a new class of antibiotics may be on the way — and the good news doesn't end there. [more inside]
Mrs. Twitty was not having it.
Award shows used to be a little different than they are today: 1975 Charlie Rich lights John Denver's award ballot on fire (SLYT)
Intel Includes
Intel Wants Diversity in the Workplace, Puts $300 Million Where Their Mouth Is - Also they have a cool stabby spider dress.
A Gronking to Remember
A Gronking to Remember: Book One In the Rob Gronkowski Erotica Series is rather involved novella about one women's imagined relationship the Patriot's tight end by the Jacey Noonan, also author of I Don't Care if My Best Friend's Mom Is A Sasquatch, She's Hot and I'm Taking a Shower With Her ... Because It's the New Millennium (link, in case you need that one, too). The author gives a rather delightful interview to Slate, or you can just hear Gilbert Gottfried read you choice passages. [Links are SFW, subject is, well NSFW]
" diabolically chortling like Batman villains"
Restaurant Review: Kappo Masa on the Upper East Side: The cost of eating at Kappo Masa is so brutally, illogically, relentlessly high, and so out of proportion to any pleasure you may get, that large numbers start to seem like uninvited and poorly behaved guests at the table. [more inside]
19 LIBERADOS. SIGUEN USTEDES. ANIMO.
In 2010, the Colombian army wanted to send a message of hope to soldiers held hostage by FARC guerrillas deep in the jungle. But how to send a message the hostages would recognize, but their captors wouldn't? Morse code, hidden in a pop song.
Has Technology Killed the Jewelry Industry?
"Even my own diamond-business owning, non-millennial father is turning away from jewelry when it comes to gift giving. Sure, he’s made my mom a handful of statement pieces over the years, but at the same price point, he’s more likely to gift something that has actual purpose, aside from aesthetic value. The last few birthdays and Christmases have yielded vacation getaways, iPhones of every generation, even a smart home thermostat. What hasn’t shown up under the Christmas tree in the last five years? Diamond anything."
Bao Bao's Big Snow Day
French left wing satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo attacked by extremists
The French left wing satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo (currently blank, Wikipedia entry) was attacked by extremists this afternoon. At least 12 people were killed.
Among those killed are the cartoonists Wolinski, Cabu, Charb and Tignous.
Previously: the firebomb attack on Charlie Hebdo in 2011.
Of Mahatma Gandhi’s few possessions, his watches were the most beloved.
Guys In Pajamas Looking at Viewscreens and Sitting In Chairs
I get it. The show is impenetrable, watching the whole thing takes 178 hours. It’s also extremely silly — nearly every episode has a moment when grown men in pajamas throw themselves around in their chairsBut I want to make the case Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) is important and worth your time in 2015, and I want to suggest about 40 hours of Star Trek viewing that will cover all of the great episodes.
Baby with the bathwarter
The Government of India in the last week of 2014 asked Internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites including code repository Github, video streaming sites Vimeo and Dailymotion, online archive Internet Archive, free software hosting site Sourceforge and many other websites on the basis of hosting anti-India content from the violent extremist group known as ISIS. The blanket block on many resourceful sites has been heavily criticized on social media and blogs by reviving the hashtag #GoIblocks that evolved in the past against internet censorship by the government. [...] After agreeing to remove anti-India content posted by accounts that appeared to have some association with ISIS, some were unblocked.via Global Voices
Lucy, in the sky, with 1x 10^12 diamonds
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