October 4, 2018
The Art of Japanese Funeral Flowers
The lavish display of funeral flower arrangements is only 30 years old. But it's become really big business. A lot of money is spent on funeral flowers in Japan. In fact, in 2006 Beauty Kadan became the first publicly traded Japanese company specializing in funeral flowers when it listed itself on the Mother’s section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Youkaen, a general flower company that entered the funeral flower business in 1972 now says that roughly 75% of their 50 billion yen in sales (roughly $44 mm USD) comes from their funeral flower segment. [more inside]
The Viruses That Neanderthals Spread to Humans
Deep in Human DNA, a Gift From the Neanderthals. "Long ago, Neanderthals probably infected modern humans with viruses, perhaps even an ancient form of H.I.V. But our extinct relatives also gave us genetic defenses." "The two ancient hominin groups swapped genes, diseases, and genes that protect against diseases, according to a new study."
"The idea is for humanity to be attracted by its own viscera"
With his work, Javier Pérez (previously) reveals his inquiries and reflections on mankind, using a language full of intense metaphor and imbued with a strong symbolism,” a statement says. His works contain an intrinsic dialectic, showing how weak can be the boundary between concepts seemingly opposite such as the natural and the cultural, the inside and the outside or life and death. The idea of cyclical fluctuations, circularity, temporality and impermanence are some of the artist’s recurring themes.
Nobel Prize winner Donna Strickland & physics' problems with sexism
Canadian physicist Donna Strickland (University of Waterloo) has become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics in 55 years (previous discussion of Strickland in MeFi Nobel post). Strickland and French physicist Gérard Mourou shared half the prize for their laser technique called chirped pulse amplification. She is only the third woman ever to win for physics, illustrating the field's continuing problems with sexism. This past weekend, at a conference hosted by CERN intended to address the issue of gender bias, prominent Italian physicist Alessandro Strumia claimed that women are worse at physics than men and lectured a group of predominantly young women scientists about "the dangers of gender equality." [more inside]
First Nation water is cheap for companies, unavailable for residents
Canada is home to 60% of the world’s lakes and one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, yet there are currently 69 indigenous communities with long-term boil water advisories (Gov't of Canada, Water in First Nation communities), which means tens of thousands of people haven’t had drinkable water for at least a year. Meanwhile, working legal ambiguity to their favor, Nestlé extracts water on expired permits for next to nothing, paying the province of Ontario $503.71 (US$390.38) per million litres (CBC, Nov. 26, 2017). But they pay the Six Nations nothing, despite their pumps pulling water out from Six Nations treaty land. In response, the Six Nations are suing the province, in a case before the superior court of Ontario. (Alexandra Shimo for the Guardian, Oct. 4, 2018) [more inside]
HUD And Its Discontents
"Indeed, the real-estate industry grew in tandem with and helped to popularize racist, even eugenic ideas about African Americans, including the notions that Black residents negatively impact property values, are undesirable neighbors, and pose an existential risk to communities and neighborhoods. As early as the 1920s, the National Association of Real Estate Boards had threatened professional discipline against any agent who disrupted segregated neighborhood racial patterns." How Real Estate Segregated America (Dissent)
always online?
Low Tech Magazine [previously] has built a solar-powered version of their homepage. How To Build A Low-Tech Website
DIY-abetes glucose monitors
"By some estimates, as many as 2,000 people around the world have used a home-built pancreas, cobbled together mostly via social media and the free-code clearinghouse GitHub. Tech support consists of parents and patients who use Facebook Messenger or email to help newcomers fix bugs or revive busted equipment. There are plenty of potential converts: In the U.S. alone, about 1.3 million people have Type 1 diabetes, and there are indications the technology could also help some sufferers of Type 2, the group that accounts for most of the world’s 422 million diabetes cases…. [more inside]
Today's menu: Virginia possum
For gentle enjoyment of our impending decay: the Virginia Museum of Natural History's dermestid flesh-eating beetle live cam. More details here. "When the colony is really active, they can be given a mouse whole - without skinning or gutting the specimen - and finish it in a single day."
This post is not a hoax
To "expose the reality of 'grievance studies,'" three scholars submitted 20 "hoax" papers to a variety of journals. Seven were accepted. The authors say their goal was to expose an "undeniable problem in academic research on important issues relevant to social justice." Critics say it reveals only that it's easy to lie to people who assume honesty. Dubbed "Sokal squared," after the 1996 hoax article "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity," the incident has generated robust debate on Twitter.
BARTENDER: “What is this, a joke?”
So a racehorse runs into a bar... [YouTube] “Reuters reports that a racehorse got loose and busted into a bar near the racecourse in Chantilly, France, about 30 miles north of Paris. The filly’s trainer said that he lost control of the animal as he led her from the stables (where some scenes in the James Bond movie A View To A Kill were shot) to a racecourse, and stated that “the young horse has a fondness for running off.”” [via: The Takeout]
Go home birds, you're drunk
Spy chips found on server motherboards
Bloomberg reports a major supply-chain hack. After Apple, Amazon and others started to see unusual behaviour in servers from SuperMicro, investigations found chips on the motherboards that shouldn't have been there. Disguised as other components, the chips reportedly intercepted and modified low-level code, creating back doors for remote exploitation. But who put them there?
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend
Who was the "One Tin Soldier?"
"Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago,
‘Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley-folk below..."
The song, written by Canadians Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, became a Northern American sensation when Skeeter Davis recorded the single, which also coincided with the Billy Jack phenomenon. [more inside]
"Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago,
‘Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley-folk below..."
The song, written by Canadians Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, became a Northern American sensation when Skeeter Davis recorded the single, which also coincided with the Billy Jack phenomenon. [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »