January 9, 2015
How Women of Color Are Driving Entrepreneurship in the US
Women of color are a principal force behind one of the most important components of America’s current marketplace and our nation’s future economy: entrepreneurship. Today, women of color are the majority owners of close to one-third of all women-owned firms in the nation. Increased access to business capital—including microenterprises, venture-capital-funded firms, and crowd funding—has helped the number of women entrepreneurs grow substantially. But women of color face significant obstacles in starting their own businesses, leading to the question of why so many of them turn to entrepreneurship. The growth of women of color as business owners is part of a long-term trend, but the question of why this trend is occurring is often left unanswered. Looking at the alternative to entrepreneurship—the traditional workplace—sheds light on some of the reasons.
Ensign Mary Amethyst Star Enobi Aiko Archer Picard Janeway Sue
The "Ensign Sue" Saga has finally come to an end. It began as a Star Trek parody with chibi-styled Kirk, Spock and the New Enterprise Crew facing the challenge of the ultimate Mary Sue under the title "Ensign Sue Must Die" (SPOILERS FOLLOW, BUT HEY, YOU SHOULDN'T BE TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY) which she does, but Mary Sues don't really die, they multiply, and so there was "Ensign Two: The Wrath of Sue", which begins with a meeting with a Doctor from Another Fictional Franchise and soon, they're bouncing around other alternate realities with familiar characters, leading to the usual downbeat 2nd movie ending and the inevitable "Ensign³: Crisis of Infinite Sues (Because Everything's a Trilogy Now)", with a climactic battle of cute cartoon forms of more pop culture icons than Lemon Demon's Ultimate Showdown. Come for the inside jokes, stay for more regenerations than authorized by the BBC.
I bet I could move this glass with my mind...
Charge the Barrel of Monkeys with your intent by shaking it
The Monkey Fortunetell (first known as the Monkeybalah as having its roots in Monkeyccultism) is an ancient divination casting game (most common to Tansylvania), used from the mid-15th century in various parts of the Carpathian region. From the late 18th century until the present it remained largely unheard of until now. [more inside]
new theories regarding depression
"We know that people may be genetically pre-disposed to depression and anxiety disorders. We also know that specific life events may trigger depressive episodes in those who have previously been the picture of mental health. But so far we've been unable to identify one single, definitive catalyst. However, new research suggests that, for some people, depression may be caused by something as simple as an allergic reaction – a reaction to inflammation; a product of the body, not the mind." [more inside]
Madonna on hacks, music leaks, and attempts to regain control
Madonna has had an interesting relationship with leaks, specifically in how she has responded to them. In 2003, when she was gearing up for American Life (YT), she also spread mostly silent MP3s with the short message "What the f**k do you think you're doing? to dissuade would-be downloaders. The message got spun into "remixes" and some got pressed to CD. Jump ahead to 2012, and Madonna's album MDNA (YT) leaked a week ahead of its release date, which seems pretty minor, compared to what happened this past December. 13 tracks and artwork identifying the album with a title of Iconic or Unapologetic B*tch were leaked, ahead of any formal album announcement. But that wasn't the end of it. [more inside]
When Scottish islands blogged
As part of an emerging online technologies project, the BBC set up Island Blogging in the early 2000s to allow residents of three groups of sparsely populated and often windswept Scottish islands (the Outer Hebrides or Western Isles, Argyll and Clyde Islands and the Northern Isles) to blog for free. As nearly all were on often unreliable dial-up, the service was simple and web-based, allowing comments (by anyone) and posts and pictures (blogging residents only). Moderation and rules were light; controversies were infrequent. [more inside]
This photo was taken as the bear was giving the murder weapon a shove
2014 Box Art Walk Of Shame At the end of each year, GamesRadar's Lucas Sullivan reviews the past fifty-weeks worth of new video game box art and compiles a list of the worst of the bad art offenders. From major first-party releases to the latest in shovelware and beyond, no game with stock art, Photoshop errors, or uninspired ideas is safe. [more inside]
he hides in the dark waiting to strike
Medieval Japanese Poetry and Minecraft
"Tanka poems place emphasis on the environment and emotions – a natural bridge to connect poetic verse and model landscapes in Minecraft."
Here is a link to poems written by the students as part of this project.
"Tanka poems place emphasis on the environment and emotions – a natural bridge to connect poetic verse and model landscapes in Minecraft."
Here is a link to poems written by the students as part of this project.
Drugged out
Endtrip - We enter the mind of a drug overdosed girl and go on a journey through her subconsciousness (SLVimeo) (Possible NSFW surreal imagery)
Links to outside pages are a problem to be solved
From Facebook's blog: What the shift to video [posts on Facebook] means to creators. From The Awl: What the shift to video [posts on Facebook] means to Facebook.
Here's to more aural deliciousness in 2015!
What's floating in cyberspace?
Just about everything. On January 8, 1995, a reporter from the Dallas Morning News wrote that 1994 was the "Year of the 'Net, the turning point where everyone with anything to say, sing or display raced to stake a claim in cyberspace." Take a few minutes out of your Friday and enjoy this blast from the past.
Something is very wrong in Arkham
Armchair detectives and Miskatonic enthusiasts: Spend this weekend solving the first two cases in the free-to-print-and-play Arkham Investigator mystery game. [more inside]
Millions, trillions, and biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllllllliiiions
Supercut of all the times Carl Sagan said "millions, billions, and trillions" on Cosmos. [SLYT]
Carl Sagan saying "billions" just once, but stretched out to an hour. [SLSOUNDCLOUD]
Carl Sagan saying "billions" just once, but stretched out to an hour. [SLSOUNDCLOUD]
I realise that the Hogwarts Express does not actually stop at Pottertown
Recently, Buzzfeed writer Daniel Dalton belatedly sat down to watch the Harry Potter movie series. [more inside]
Do what it says.
Will your grandkids being able to view a .jpg file?
We all know printed photos, properly stored, have an extended shelf life; as many of us likely have at least a handful of family photos that are 75+ years old. Will our grandkids be able to read the DVDs they find in the attic, or the thumb drive full of jpg files that had been sitting in a box for 50 years? Will the media even be readable that far in the future? Maybe we should all be printing to paper the photos we really care about.
When it clicks, it clicks.
How LEGO Became the Apple of Toys Fast Company details LEGO's near collapse and subsequent rise.
Heart of Whiteness
Could I have played with these words if I had been a racist? No—I couldn’t be a racist. Even as a boy I had been shocked by what happened in Little Rock, the spectacle of pompadoured thugs and women in curlers yelling insults and curses at black kids trying to get to school. With my brother, I joined the March on Washington. We were there.Yet there was that joke: in the New Yorker Tobias Wolff writes about how deep racism has seeped into his consciousness despite his best efforts.
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