November 18, 2017
this is the definitive ranking
Colin J. Carlson, part of the Parasite Extinction Assessment & Red List, couldn't sleep recently and decided to assign letter grades to the weird foxes (here's a threadreader compilation for the Twitter-averse, but it doesn't include the numerous entertaining replies). [h/t ChuraChura]
The man behind the mask
Boil a Peanut?
Where did the idea of boiled peanuts come from? And why? Turns out, of course, it's more complicated than you knew. And then it got even more complicated when Congress got involved. Part Two
“It’s still quite raw,”
Charlotte Gainsbourg Finds Her Own Voice [The New York Times] “Ms. Gainsbourg engages with her family’s glorious, tangled history as never before. On one level, it’s an album about grief, tinted by the deep loss she felt after the 2013 death of her older half sister, the photographer Kate Barry (whose parents were Ms. Birkin and the film composer John Barry). But it’s also an album about pleasure, full of pulsating disco beats and cool pop choruses that feel like Ms. Gainsbourg’s birthright. Above all, it’s an album that comes directly from her heart.” [more inside]
Tweets of Birds
@everybird: Robot posting every bird on the planet. Mostly accurate. Random bird order, last bird posted in 2019. By @nah_solo (Lucas Quinn). See below for list of birds
The brain in the jar wants out, you know.
A marginal but useful definition of insanity is not knowing what genre of book you are in; depression is knowing, but being helpless to change it.Beth Boyle Machlan on writing, memory, and helplessness.
How well do matchboxes learn?
Machine Learning Explained. In this essay Rodney Brooks, one of the founders of iRobot and emeritus professor at MIT, explains machine learning in layman's terms. He uses a real-life example of one of the first machine learning algorithms, a tic-tac-toe program implemented in the 1950s using matchboxes(!). The essay gives you an appreciation of how machine learning is different from human learning, and what its limitations are -- nice, given the hype surrounding AI today. [more inside]
Unleashing grumpy-old-man Skynet on the academic world
Tabatha Southey asks: Is Jordan Peterson the stupid man’s smart person?
The Avocado visits some old magazines
The Avocado, originally formed as a diaspora from the Onion AV Club comment section, has now become an excellent website in its own right. Recently they have been running retrospectives of old magazine issues and it is a fascinating and funny look into recent US history. [more inside]
"I don't think any bastard knows who I am anyway..."
Live from Harare
Ten of thousands of Zimbabweans are in the streets of Harare after the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the Zimbabwe Republic Police approved a rally led by the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association against President Mugabe’s continued stay in office. Mugabe was placed under house arrest earlier in the week in what the army insisted was not a coup. This appears to be the culmination of a power struggle between Mugabe's wife, Grace Mugabe and recently ousted vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mugabe, now a billionaire in one of the world's poorest countries, was once considered a revolutionary hero after leading Zimbabwe to independence from Great Britain.
Norway’s Medieval Wooden Churches Look Plucked From a Fairy Tale
The Smithsonian has a scrolling gallery of Norwegian "stave" churches, named after the "stavers", the load bearing pillars that keep them from collapsing. Wooden medieval architecture taken to fascinating, beautiful extremes.
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