November 19, 2018
How to screw with your parents this Thanksgiving
Turkey Microwave Challenge Causes Parents To Lose Their Minds "Parents wonder if their kids are clueless or just plain drunk when they ask how long to microwave a turkey in new social media challenge." [more inside]
FDA grants breakthrough therapy designation to psilocybin
Psilocybin Could Be Legal for Therapy by 2021: The psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms could soon be legal to use in a clinical setting. "For the first time in U.S. history, a psychedelic drug is on the fast track to getting approved for treating depression by the federal government. Late last month, Compass Pathways, a U.K.-based company that researches and develops mental health treatments, announced the FDA granted them what’s called a 'breakthrough therapy designation' for their trials into psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. Researchers who pioneered psychedelic science agree — this is a landmark moment for their field."
Meanwhile, a millionaire couple is threatening to create a magic mushroom monopoly ... [more inside]
A|B Testing Sourdough (and who it leaves out)
Do You Even Bake, Bro? How the Silicon Valley set fell in love with sourdough and decided to disrupt the 6,000-year-old craft of making bread, one crumbshot at a time - Eater Longform, Dayna Evans
“[In tech], we call it iterative testing because you gradually improve a thing until it’s optimized,” he explained. When a few years ago a friend asked him which recipe he was using, he sent the recipe he’d been keeping in his notes. He had titled it, “Sam’s Version of Michael Ruhlman’s Version of Jeffrey Steingarten’s Version of Jim Lahey’s (According to Steingarten) ‘Miracle Bread.’”[more inside]
Carbon Coffee
“...pun intended.”
In Defense of Puns [The Paris Review] “Despite its bad reputation, punning is, in fact, among the highest displays of wit. Indeed, puns point to the essence of all true wit—the ability to hold in the mind two different ideas about the same thing at the same time. [...] The best puns have more to do with philosophy than with being funny. Playing with words is playing with ideas, and a likeness between two different terms suggests a likeness between their referents, too. Puns are therefore not mere linguistic coincidences but evidence and expression of a hidden connection—between mind and material, ideas and things, knowing and nomenclature. Puns are pins on the map tracing the path from word to world.”
Surface Microbials in the Atacama
Unprecedented rains decimate surface microbial communities in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert This driest and oldest desert on Earth has experienced a number of highly unusual rain events over the past three years, resulting in the formation of previously unrecorded hypersaline lagoons, which have lasted several months. Here we show that the sudden and massive input of water in regions that have remained hyperarid for millions of years is harmful for most of the surface soil microbial species, which are exquisitely adapted to survive with meager amounts of liquid water, and quickly perish from osmotic shock when water becomes suddenly abundant.
A tiny good thing
About 50,000 Australian marsupials orphaned by automobiles are rescued from their dead mother's pouches, rehabilitated and released by volunteer wildlife carers every year. Here we have a joey being rescued. (May squick the squickable.) [more inside]
'You need to maintain the factory, you need to do the paperwork...'
The Million Dollar Drug :: Glybera is a miracle cure for people born with a genetic mutation that causes lipoprotein lipase disorder (LPLD), but at a cost of one million dollars per dose, it is a cure nobody can afford. The drug works. It is safe. But it's no longer available anywhere in the world.
"It would be a cool method to apply to the manufacturing process"
Of all the many mysteries that surround the common wombat, it is hard to find one as baffling as its ability – broadly acknowledged as unique in the natural world – to produce faeces shaped like cubes. The Guardian's science editor discusses a recent, er, breakthrough in determining how it occurs. (Wombats previously; wombat poop previously)
The Old Way Of Politics Is Dead
“I’m telling you this story because I imagine there are others, like me, who want to see a better, kinder world, but they’re not sure how to go about achieving it. When I was 24 I thought it was through proper, respectable channels: NGOs and civil political gamesmanship and gradual pressure for reform. I now know that those proper and respectable channels are an illusion, anesthetizing you to the fact that the world is a vicious brawl for resources, with capitalists leading every major offensive.” Why Do Nonprofits Exist? (Popula)
Relationships Predictors: The Struggle Between Money and Gratitude
This study investigates the strains of financial distress on marital quality, and explores gratitude as a mitigating factor in these situations, when escalating spousal relation patterns might become increasingly negative.
"Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money."
history's greatest monsters
There is hope in Brazil
So, the last election wasn't only about dumb nazis. A new coalition is rising against the right wing. Rio de Janeiro elected four 'other' Marielles [Google translated]. São Paulo elected two black trans women. Roraima state, in the Amazon forest, also made history electing our first-ever indigenous congresswoman.
Cleveland arts and culture reporter Nikki Delamotte, 1988-2018
Cleveland, Ohio is an underappreciated city at the best of times, and frequently the butt of burning-river and balloon jokes. The portfolio of Cleveland arts and culture reporter Nikki Delamotte focuses on the unique arts and culture scene in northeast Ohio. From her book 100 Things to Do in Cleveland Before you Die to her columns in alternative weekly Cleveland Scene and the Plain-Dealer’s Cleveland.com, Delamotte’s work shines light on new artists, restaurants, music venues, and miniature art galleries located in the last standing phone booth in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood. [more inside]
24 Amazing, Homemade Dungeons & Dragons Maps
Does what it says on the tin. These Dungeons and Dragons maps are absolutely astonishing.
The Land That Failed to Fail
The West was sure the Chinese approach would
not work. It just had to wait. It’s still waiting. (slnyt)
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