November 6, 2018
"Now, ten years on, everybody else has learned to sound like Sia."
While producers like Max Martin get most of the credit for shaping the sound of pop music, equal credit if not more belongs to topliners like Sia. As demo vocalists, they shape the sound of pop most directly; their bodies literally generate it. Pop singers often mimic these demo vocalists exactly, and no one notices (unless some enterprising leaker posts the demo to YouTube). But when that vocalist has a voice as distinctive as Sia's, you notice.
A heap of Trouble
We've survived the midterms (more or less), and a distraction is needed. This was originally posted to MetaFilter in 2004, 14 years ago... so, yep, it's a double...but, tonight, it might be just what you need.... where else will you find 10 naked men? (full frontal nudity, don't say I didn't warn you!)
MMMBop + Beck's Dad x 25+ years x symphony orchestra = String Theory
NPR has a lengthy article about, and an even more lengthy [1h23m] First Listen of Hanson's new album String Theory -- a double album, career spanning retrospective recorded with a symphony orchestra playing arrangements by David Campbell, who amongst other things of note is Beck's father. [more inside]
No context pics
If you can't handle the stress right now, veg out by watching odd photos without any context. "The pics must succeed or fail on their own merit. No sob stories. No stories of any kind."
Frog train
Polizei
See through fish
A sea horse carrying a Qtip
Wall cleaner
$3.20
Lamborghini Ankonian
Country road
From photographer Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy
[more inside]
Frog train
Polizei
See through fish
A sea horse carrying a Qtip
Wall cleaner
$3.20
Lamborghini Ankonian
Country road
From photographer Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy
[more inside]
It always starts the same way.
Roy Orbison in Cling Film: the Movie. At last, a live-action adaptation of the classic and perplexing short story. Featured on MeFi many times in the past.
“Just was wondering, is this an out-of-season April Fool’s joke?”
Diablo Immortal and How Hype Culture Can Negatively Impact Game Reveals [Dual Shockers] “Last weekend saw the reveal of Diablo Immortal, a brand new game in Blizzard’s long-running series. Unfortunately, it was met with overwhelming negative reception upon its reveal by fans, as it was for iOS and Android and announced when fans were expecting a Diablo remaster or the next main entry in the franchise, Diablo 4. As Diablo Immortal doesn’t even look that bad, the negative response to it highlights a larger recurring problem with hype culture and how it can prevent fans from seeing the bigger picture or giving something potentially good a chance.” [YouTube][BlizzCon Reactions] [more inside]
"Her male colleagues at Riot used the word “dick” over 500 times"
With the exposure of sexism and sexual harassment at Riot Games (previously) having resulted in corporate gladhanding and not much else, a former and a current employee have sued Riot for gender discrimination and sexual harassment. (SLKotaku) [more inside]
Tattoos, Pain, And Incurable Illness
When you live with chronic pain, choosing when and where to experience pain can be a gift, and an act of control.
Selecting the pain meant it was not only bearable, but almost pleasurable. And, unlike the chronic pain from my rebellious meatcage, this hurt left me with a visible trophy to celebrate. Something about being able to run my fingers over the colorful artwork now permanently emblazoned across my skin felt like I’d come away a winner.By Ace Ratcliff.
Desert Breath
Our God is Stronger
Can biodiverse Bijagos fend off evangelical threat? For centuries, traditional religious practices have preserved the sacred forests of this archipelago off the coast of Guinea-Bissau. Now missionaries are muscling in.
Idris walked with God, and then he was no more
Idris Elba has been named People's Sexiest Man Alive. In Daniel Mallory Ortberg's ongoing story, he confronts the one from last year, Blake Shelton. (previously)
Sometimes progress is a mixed blessing or the Shock of the New
How should Paraguay invest it's Energy wealth? In bitcoin ‘mining’ or fighting poverty?
Bitcoin Mining Turns Electricity Into Money but this is, as posted previously, what happens when Bitcoin Miners Take Over Your Town .
How much power does it take to produce Bitcoin which could consume 7.7 gigawatts by the end of 2018.
Bitcoin Mining Turns Electricity Into Money but this is, as posted previously, what happens when Bitcoin Miners Take Over Your Town .
How much power does it take to produce Bitcoin which could consume 7.7 gigawatts by the end of 2018.
One Does the Work, One Wishes It To Be Seen and Used
GREEN’S DICTIONARY OF SLANG TO GO FREE -- In an ideal or perhaps older world, the work might have gained institutional backing, the usual means being a publisher. But I have come long since to accept that no publisher, even including the one who (reluctantly, as they made clear) put out the print edition in 2010, feels that the work is of value or worth. No matter; death will see me off, dismissal will not. I have no choice but to continue alone and in so doing, what truly matters is visibility. Jonathon Green's Dictionary previously
After the elections, there are still all those signs ...
After the political races are run, there's the need to deal with election litter (Wikipedia) and post-election clutter. Beyond being reused in the next election cycle (CTV), there are plenty (Tennessean reader ideas) of creative (HackALife) and different uses (Houston Chronicle listicle, deslidified), including turning sturdy corrugated plastic into free materials to help people with disabilities (PBS News Hour). [Not a political thread]
How the Jumping Spider Sees Its Prey
Researchers looked deep into the eyes of a predatory spider to learn what it was looking at. "But as accurate as the main eyes are, they only see what is in front of them. If they had to find prey, it would be like using a narrow flashlight beam to explore a dark room. Not very efficient."
It's Baby Capybara Season!
Baby capybaras are arriving at zoos across the world. October 27 - At the Wellington Zoo, capybara septo-mom gives birth to twice as many pups as usual. Keepers note she is "a bit exhausted but she’s doing well". Their father, Pepe, was Wellington's most eligible bachelor this January. The pups have already slept through a small earthquake. [more inside]
How Has the Global Economy Shaped the United States?
What Is Globalization? After centuries of technological progress and advances in international cooperation, the world is more connected than ever. But how much has the rise of trade and the modern global economy helped or hurt American businesses, workers, and consumers? Here is a basic guide to the economic side of this broad and much debated topic, drawn from current research.
Happy Birthday Eugene!
“Debs happened to be campaigning for president in Louisiana and Texas at the time, and he took the opportunity to criticize not only local bigots but the international culture of white supremacy that Rudyard Kipling celebrated four years earlier in his poem “The White Man’s Burden.” Drawing on works by African-American contemporaries including W.E.B. Du Bois, he insisted that the Socialist Party would be untrue to its mission unless it welcomed “the Negro and all other races upon absolutely equal terms.” Something To Offer, Eugene V. Debs, The American Socialist Party And Black Liberation. (Jacobin) Bernard J. Brommel discusses his book "Eugene V. Debs: Spokesman for Labor and Socialism" (Studs Terkel Radio Archive) Mark Ruffalo reads the speech that put Eugene Debs in prison. (YouTube) The Eugene Debs House In Terre Haute, Indiana (Buckeye Muse) “When I think of the millions who have suffered in all the wicked wars of the past, I am shaken with the anguish of a great impatience. “ Helen Keller’s letter to Debs in prison. On Industral Unionism, Eugene V. Debs 1905.
Algorithms define our lives
Worst. Ranked list. EVAR.
The Onion AV Club's "Best SF movies since Blade Runner..."...AKA something we can point to and shriek at, getting into arguments that would terrify passersby, until we start getting election returns tonight.
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