October 13, 2015
"If this was the law of Nature, why waste any time in awe or pity?”
Thoreau was kind of a dick. Actually, more than "kind of." He was, in fact, a huge, total dick. (OK, he was a strident and powerful abolitionist. But somehow he managed to be a dick about that too.) [more inside]
"About $43,000 a year."
What's the Difference Between Data Science and Statistics? — Not long ago, the term "data science" meant nothing to most people-even to those who worked with data. A likely response to the term was: "Isn't that just statistics?" These days, data science is hot. The Harvard Business Review called data scientist the "Sexiest Job of the 21st Century." So what changed? Why did data science become a distinct term? And what distinguishes data science from statistics?
Are Aliens Building Structures Around KIC 8462852? No. (Yes?)
The Planet Hunters citizen science project has flagged a star 1400 light years away in the constellation Lyra that exhibits irregular, asymmetrical changes in brightness which have been difficult (but not impossible) to explain via natural phenomena. Mainstream media coverage is rushing to ask whether the behavior might indicate alien intelligence at work. But Reddit (and Betteridge) are skeptical.
Tables turning
Putin Bets Big on Aggressive Syria Policy
As the UK government denies reports that RAF pilots have been given the green light to shoot down hostile Russian jets in Syria.
Iraq has begun bombing Islamic State insurgents with help from a new intelligence center with staff from Russia, Iran and Syria.
Russia is using electronic warfare to cloak its actions in Syria from Isis and Nato.
What happens if Russia decides to go into Iraq. How to respond to Russia in Syria while avoiding World War Three.
Meanwhile Shiites in Iraq Hailing Putin for Syria Push.
Iraq has begun bombing Islamic State insurgents with help from a new intelligence center with staff from Russia, Iran and Syria.
Russia is using electronic warfare to cloak its actions in Syria from Isis and Nato.
What happens if Russia decides to go into Iraq. How to respond to Russia in Syria while avoiding World War Three.
Meanwhile Shiites in Iraq Hailing Putin for Syria Push.
The Seventeen Faces of Julian Vandervelde
Democratic Debate 2015
Tonight's Debate debate will be the first time a major news event will be broadcast live in virtual reality. That might not be such a good idea. Here is the When, the Where, the Who and How to Watch. [more inside]
Why are glasses so expensive?
Why are glasses so expensive? [SLYT] According to Forbes, "Today more than 80% of major eyewear brands, including the world’s No. 1 seller, Ray-Ban, [and Oakley] are designed and retailed (over 7,000 stores US alone) by Luxottica" (2012). [more inside]
Ooo wee ooooo, baby baby...
21st Century: a complaint
I want to complain to the studio execs who commissioned the current season of "21st century"; your show is broken. I say this as a viewer coming in with low expectations. ... Whose idea was it to hire the ghosts of Philip K. Dick and George Orwell as showrunners anyway?
A review of the current season of reality by noted author (and MeFi's own) Charlie Stross.
Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?
...if I’m honest with myself, I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight. I didn’t want to seem “difficult” or “spoiled.” At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being “difficult” or “spoiled.”Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence on the wage gap between male and female actors
Neckst theory of giraffe necks:
Yes, THAT Daily Mail... This is a great article considering it is from the Daily Mail.
A comprehensive study may have revealed how the long neck of the giraffe evolved.
A runner’s high depends on cannabinoid receptors in mice.
The Runner’s High: It’s Like Smoking Weed [High Times]
Research on mice [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences] has confirmed that a “runner’s high” arises from a release of anandamide, a neurotransmitter that stimulates the same cannabinoid receptors that cannabis does. If you have ever run, biked, lifted weights, or performed any kind of physical exercise, you may have noticed a sense of euphoria and the feeling you are relieved of physical pain and anxiety. They thought it came from β-endorphin, but now scientists have confirmed that anandamide is most likely the cause.[more inside]
Pitchfork Acquired by Condé Nast
The independent online magazine announced it was acquired by the media conglomerate. The indie-rock tastemakers, on the verge of their 20th birthday will join Vogue, Wired and Vanity Fair for an undisclosed sum. [more inside]
Post-punk Pulsar
Houston to Ground Control (SLYT)
Artist Tom Kucy raided the NASA Apollo Project Archive of photos to create a short film titled "Ground Control".
people you never knew existed
only one, actually
99 Luftballons played on a red balloon (SLYT)
Obama and Marilynne Robinson
President Obama & Marilynne Robinson: A Conversation in Iowa. "It seems to me as if democracy is the logical, the inevitable consequence of this kind of religious humanism at its highest level. And it [applies] to everyone. It’s the human image. It’s not any loyalty or tradition or anything else; it’s being human that enlists the respect, the love of God being implied in it."
Where do you find out about Russian criminals?
Librarian Edith Edi Campbell posted to her Facebook page about “Large Fears,” a Kickstarter-funded children’s book for queer black boys, “I would say there are so few books for queer black boys, but there are too few books for all our marginalized young people.”
Children’s writer Meg Rosoff responded: “There are not too few books for marginalised young people. There are hundreds of them, thousands of them. You don’t have to read about a queer black boy to read a book about a marginalised child. The children’s book world is getting far too literal about what ‘needs’ to be represented. You don’t read Crime and Punishment to find out about Russian criminals. Or Alice and Wonderland to know about rabbits. Good literature expands your mind. It doesn’t have the ‘job’ of being a mirror.” [more inside]
Cats of London
Thurston Hopkins was a British photojournalist. Here is his black-and-white photo essay from the 1950's called Cats of London.
Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone?
How could anyone possibly screw up Ferris Bueller's Day Off? By turning it into a sitcom. [more inside]
you cannot cancel your geography
From activist Palestinian OGs, to Black Hebrew hitmakers from remote desert outposts, to goofy trap about food, rap in Israel and Palestine is a melting pot of voices and perspectives. Mike Skinner of the Streets for Noisey Magazine investigates Hip Hop In The Holy Land. [more inside]
The Olivia Pope of Children's Television
From W. Kamau Bell:
"First of all, Doc McStuffins is about a seven-year-old black girl. That basically makes the title character the Diahann Carroll of children’s TV. How many other children’s TV shows have a black female lead character? Hint: The answer is “not nearly enough.” Second of all, Doc McStuffins is a doctor for her stuffed animals and toys. And that may sound merely adorable to you, but I’m raising a pair of black girls who will one day be powerful black women. And Doc McStuffins is the reason that my four year old could say the words “stethoscope,” “otoscope,” and “sphygmomanometer” when she was two years old."
"At the very least it should have been a major sports story. "
Iran is opening up to foreign trade, but not to flagship US brands
The Death and Life of the Great British Pub
Counting the closures of rural inns, high-street noise boxes, sticky-carpet boozers of the backstreets, it can be said that roughly 30 pubs shut every week in the UK; a rate of decline that, as one group of worried analysts has calculated, would mean total elimination of the British pub by the 2040s.[sl longform grauniad] [more inside]
A Stolen Boy, an Angry Loner, an Underground Bunker
INSIDE AN FBI HOSTAGE CRISIS from the Wall Street Journal. [Warning: graphic violence, disturbing images and video]
The curse of Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds is a small, polite market town in rural eastern England. Better known for its ruined abbey, beer, sugar beet, and being the sort of place Margaret Thatcher ought to keep a tea shop, in 2002 local resident John Peel declared its music scene "the new Seattle". Yeah. How did THAT turn out?
All these thing, they're just disappointing compared to you
John Grant [previously] has a new album coming out soon, Grey Tickles, Black Pressure. He released the lead video, Disappointing [NSFW], a while back, but it might have flown under your radar. It certainly did mine.
Odorez comme des alcools adolescents (Plenitude)
Pardon My French: 561 covers of English-language hit songs, sung in French (by native French speakers of varying musical abilities) in the most literal word-for-word translations over chiptune instrumentals. Includes classics such as L'éclair de Jacques Qui Saute (Les Pierres qui roulent), Sexuelle Guérison (Marvain La-Joie) or Le Paradis des Bandits (Yo Sympa). Includes MP3s, lyrics and links to the original songs for earbleach. BAISE OUAIS ! [more inside]
They hate Silent Hill there
Low cost 30 day project
Sunset Silhouette Selfies
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