December 21, 2015
Despite What You May Think, My NFL Career Was a Success
Former NFL quarterback and current Fox Sports college football analyst Joey Harrington reflects on his NFL career.
Giraffes leaping off a High Dive
5 Mètres 80: An Absurd Animation Depicting a Herd of Giraffes Leaping Off a High Dive by Nicolas Deveaux. OK, this is ridiculous, but in the best way possible. [more inside]
"These deaths are concentrated in poor, segregated neighborhoods"
McBride wanted President Obama to make Ceasefire and similar programs part of his post-Newtown push to reduce gun violence. He had brought a short memo to give to White House staffers, outlining a plan to devote $500 million over five years to scaling such programs nationwide. His pitch to Biden that day was even simpler: Don’t ignore that black children are dying too.- Beyond Gun Control, Lois Beckett, The New Republic and Pro Publica [more inside]
Ballantine: An elegant IPA for a more civilized age
HTTP 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has approved the use of the HTTP 451 status code to indicate a web page that has been blocked for legal reasons. A rise in online censorship was mentioned as driving the approval of this status code, first proposed in 2013. [more inside]
I Don't Want to Go to There
Sarah Palin impersonates Tina Fey in an inexplicable new 30 Rock parody, with help from John McCain, Lindsey Graham and... Dot Com? (SLYT) Sarah Palin does her attempt at a Tina Fey impression. This is a thing that happened. [more inside]
Whitewashing All of Mankind
"All of Mankind," a 1971 mural by Chicago artist William Walker ("What Langston Hughes has been to African American letters, William (Bill) Walker is to African-American images," declared Victor Sorell of Chicago State University, while mural historian Jim Prigoff described him as "the Diego Rivera of the United States") has finally, despite more than a decade of activism seeking to preserve and restore it, been painted over completely. It had been one of the last three surviving murals in Chicago by the prolific muralist, who died in 2011 at the age of 85. [more inside]
It is finished.
It began in September 2005. Nobody could have foreseen that a story would unfold at all, let alone the one that did. Today, it ends: Mateusz Skutnik's Submachine 10: The Exit. (Don't play until you've finished 1 through 9 first.) [more inside]
What if we could vaccinate against depression or PTSD?
Depression is the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 30 percent of Americans at some point in their lives. But despite half a century of research, ubiquitous advertising, and blockbuster sales, antidepressant drugs just don’t work very well. The science magazine Nautilus explores the use of ketamine to treat depression and prevent PTSD. [more inside]
Presumably the bathrooms will not be recreated
CBGB Is Reopening… As a Restaurant in Newark Airport Serving 'American fare in a fun environment recalling the legendary music venue.'
The Luttrell Psalter Film
The Luttrell Psalter is a mid-14th century English illuminated manuscript containing a large number of illustrations of everyday life in medieval England. In 2008 the Psalter was adapted into a 20 minute short film for The Collection Museum in Lincoln, drawing on 35 scenes from the manuscript. There is also a blog describing the making of the film. [more inside]
...and then all that was left was the porn
"But in the dark crevices of the Internet, something else was brewing: without warning, Erin Esurance became masturbation fodder for the very demographic she was designed to target." How Esurance Lost Its Mascot to the Internet.
The Enchanted Unbreakable Full Spectrum Bulb, and other fairy tales
Family Secrets and Secret Families: the Hidden Jews of New Mexico
Following the Christian Reconquest and unification of Spain, concluded with the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the victorious Catholic sovereigns decreed on March 31, 1492 that all Jews convert to Christianity or leave Spain by the last day of July. Whether they stayed or left, many Jewish families continued to practice their faith in secret. Such crypto-Jews passed their traditions down the generations and around the world, some ending up in the Southwest. 500 years later, New Mexico's "hidden Jews" were found among strong Hispanic Catholic communities. Though some were skeptical about the origins of certain family practices, additional research and a pattern of breast cancer lead to genetic testing and confirmation of prior beliefs. [more inside]
Médecins Sans Frontières: A Year in Pictures
"The best curmudgeon in the world."
Alden Amos, famously opinionated spinning wheel maker, teacher, and author, is dead at 77. He earned an obituary in the New York Times. "Thank you, Alden Amos." A 2009 interview. Alden and his wife, Stephenie Gaustad, sing Ode to Woad.
Twitter is a strong candidate.
At Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen and commenters are answering the question, "If you had the power to make civilization unlearn one technology or theory in use today, what would it be?" Leading candidates include nuclear weapons, cigarettes, the AK-47, and Twitter.
Stream The Beatles
Billboard and other sources are reporting The Beatles will be available on streaming services, starting Christmas Eve (Dec 24th). [more inside]
${city}henge
We've talked about Manhattanhenge — the days, usually around May 2 and August 12, on which the setting sun aligns Stonehenge-style with Manhattan's street grid. But of course, the real Stonehenge doesn't line up with the sun on just any old day: it specifically marks sunrise and sunset on the solstices. So you might wonder, are there any streets that do that? The answer, as it turns out, is "Yes — lots!" [more inside]
Factory-produced: Photographs 1964-1970
BBC Arts::Photography - "Billy Name was the in-house photographer at Andy Warhol's Factory studio, where he lived from 1964-1970. A newly published book, Billy Name: The Silver Age, collects his work to tell the story of that heady time." [more inside]
“No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever.”
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" [Wiki]
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" is a phrase from an editorial called Is There a Santa Claus?. The editorial appeared in the September 21, 1897, edition of The (New York) Sun and has since become part of popular Christmas folklore in the United States. It is the most reprinted editorial in any English-language newspaper.[more inside]
"I regret I am a punching ball"
A FIFA-charterd independent ethic committee has suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter from all football-related activities for eight years. The decision takes effect immediately. [more inside]
Money is extracted from people in love & happy people support capitalism
Since 2006, a group of lonely single men in Japan calling itself Kakumeiteki Hi-mote Domei (“Revolutionary Losers’ League”) has been protesting against Christmas, arguing that the holiday, as practiced in Japan, marginalises the uncoupled. [more inside]
I wonder if it's gonna ever feel like Christmas again out here
On Black Friday Aloe Blacc (previously) released an acoustic Christmas EP for free on Youtube. Unadvertised and unmarketed. It includes 4 Christmas standards and a remarkable0 original song, Merry Christmas Mr. Brown. [more inside]
Love In The Age Of Big Data
You might expect love to be the last frontier breached by data. It is the Antarctic of the human experience, richly feeding the oceans of our emotions, yet somehow remaining elusive and unknown. Philosophers have argued over it for millennia without arriving at a satisfactory definition. Poets like Erich Fried capture its strange mix of pleasure and pain, the sense of its essential ungovernability: “It is foolish, says caution / It is impossible, says experience / It is what it is, says love.” [slhuffpo]
April, 1561: Florida man leaves "priceless" artifacts in empty lot
The site of the Tristán de Luna colony has reportedly been found in Pensacola: "'There were 1500 people there ... for about a two-year period' ... The colony lasted from 1559-61 and included 550 Spanish soldiers, about 200 Aztecs and an unknown number of African slaves ... The Luna colony is arguably the first European settlement and unquestionably the oldest multi-year European settlement" in the present-day United States. Just two years ago, the site of a 1567 fort built by the Juan Pardo expedition in western North Carolina [NYT] was confirmed as well. [more inside]
Outrunning the Demons
Greg O'Brien on running and early-onset Alzheimer's Disease: "After my diagnosis, the doctors told me that I had to ramp up my running. Physical activity—particularly in late afternoon—helps reduce the end-of-day confusion and restlessness common in dementia patients. Known as “sundowning,” such symptoms are caused as light fades to black. This can also be a time of greater rage, agitation, and mood swings; like dandelions, we behave differently at night, our heads closing up tightly as the sun goes down. So every day before dusk, I ran from the demons of confusion, anger, and ongoing depression." (Runner's World)
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