December 3, 2015
Pantone's Not-So-Baby Pink and Blue
Pantone did something wild and, for the very first time, named TWO colors for 2016's Color of the Year – Rose Quartz and Serenity. [more inside]
The mystery of this year's tech toy and product development in Shenzhen
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen the scooter before. It’s sort of a phenomenon.... It’s been on the Tonight Show, and showed up at the NBA Finals. Every time anyone uploads a video or picture of this scooter, the commenters all want to know two things: What’s that called, and where can I buy it? That’s where it gets weird.Wired digs into the world of generic segways without handlebars, often called hoverboards, while NPR's Planet Money comes to a similar conclusion, and actually digs inside one of the two-wheeled machines (bonus: not their take-apart, but someone else's), both finding the Hovertrax Kickstarter and related video from 2013.
When Popular Fiction Isn't Popular
Genre, Literary, and the Myths of Popularity: The massively popular books are very rarely among the best, whether shelved as “genre” or as “literary.” Want to know what the best-selling book of the year has been? Go Set a Watchmen, a cash-grab novel that many have argued was unethical to even publish. The second? Grey, another cash-grab where E. L. James rewrote 50 Shades from a male point of view. (And, yes, Hollywood “reboot” culture is absolutely coming to the literary world in the near future. I mean, hey, it’s popular.) (Lincoln Michel for Electric Lit) [more inside]
Because, sometimes, we need a little harmony..
Tough days require some peace and harmony, and there aren't many places more suited to finding that level of comfort than acapella, so I offer you the vocal crafting of The Persuasions. For a half a century The Persuasions have been softening the hard edges of the world... It felt like a good time to bring some smooth solace.... [more inside]
And the Walkley goes to...
The Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism — roughly Australia's version of the Pulitzer Prizes — announced its 2015 winners at a ceremony on Thursday. Some of the winners won't be that interesting to an international audience, but here are some that might be: [more inside]
These are my surprised wings.
The beverages are consumed regularly by thirty-one per cent of kids between the ages of twelve and seventeen, and by thirty-four per cent of those aged eighteen to twenty-four. U.S. sales for energy drinks and shots now total more than twelve and a half billion dollars—a number that the market-research firm Packaged Facts predicts will grow by another nine billion dollars by 2017. A new study [note: behind paywall] , published in the November issue of Health Psychology, suggests that appeals by energy-drink companies to the thrill-thirsty male id are coming at a psychological and physical cost, however. -- Rachel Giese, How Energy-Drink Companies Prey on Male Insecurities
Fir dearth spurs work
With a possible Christmas tree shortage looming, now's the time to take a closer look at artificial Christmas trees—by watching How It's Made style clips about them, of course, as well as a bunch of other holiday-related products. [more inside]
The shellack lies
Totally gives the plot away
Two Plants Get Uppity About Which is Better; also, Jesus Was Born
Loving the aliebn: @jonnysun
Loving the aliebn. A long interview with and article about @jonnysun, one of my absolute favorite Twitterers, who now also has an Instagram with tidbits in the captions. [more inside]
Twenty three years and counting
How to design a London Underground Station
Transport for London recently released a comprehensive set of design guidelines for building works on their stations. I don't think I'll look at an underground station in the same way again. [more inside]
What do you call a pair of flying dinosaurs?
It's rare that a comments section is more entertaining than the post or article to which it is attached, but this post comes with a garden of delightful double dactyl verse dedicated to Benedict Cumberbatch. [more inside]
"Doctor Smith, please! You're making The Robot very unhappy!"
In September, sci-fi master Irwin Allen’s 1965 cult TV classic, Lost In Space marked its 50th anniversary. Now, Netflix has won a bidding war to remake the series. Meanwhile… [more inside]
Jack McConnell, Milliner to the Stars
An NFL catch, as explained by Jon Bois
Turkish Court to Rule on Whether Stoor Hobbits Are All Bad
In Turkey, insulting the President is punishable by up to two years in prison, so when Dr. Bilgin Çiftçi posted side-by-side photos of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and screenshots from the Lord of the Rings movies, he went on trial. Çiftçi's attorney asked the judge whether he was familiar with this "Gollum" fellow, and the judge admitted he had not seen all of the movies and empaneled five experts to report on the character. [more inside]
If I have to sacrifice my family, it must be better than a Klondike bar
Atlas Obscura asks Americans what they thought Turkish Delight was when they first read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Pistorius "was re-enacting one strand of his nation’s cruellest past."
"[If] his story were true – and even if it were not – the faceless intruder of his imagination had to have had a black face." Jacqueline Rose carefully disentangles the threads of gender, disability, and race (yes, race) in the Oscar Pistorius trial.
I spent 45 minutes of my workday looking for a specific reaction gif.
Internet Confessional. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned… I looked up an essay that drove me crazy when it came out three years ago solely for the pleasure of wallowing in hate. I relished every loathsome word.
Reality is squares of peanut butter toast
At The Atlantic, Elizabeth G. Dunn dispels the Myth of 'Easy' Cooking.
While Dunn sees takeout and premade food as a modern solution, Tamar Adler maintains that home cooking can be simple. In her 2011 book The Everlasting Meal, she tries to dispel myths about homecooking and eliminate the idea that cooking has to be magic (YT).
While Dunn sees takeout and premade food as a modern solution, Tamar Adler maintains that home cooking can be simple. In her 2011 book The Everlasting Meal, she tries to dispel myths about homecooking and eliminate the idea that cooking has to be magic (YT).
HPL Insurance
Law is alive. Listen.
Life of the Law is a scrupulously fair podcast that tells stories and asks questions about the place where the law and everyday life intersects. As part of its commitment to making the law accessible, each episode comes with a full transcript. Life of the Law has covered a variety of topics ranging from
pregnancy and motherhood in prison to rules about
where cops can live to the hidden costs of traffic stops to the reason lawyer ads get so ridiculous. You learn useful tidbits, too, like the secret power of jury nullification and how difficult it is to legally sell weed in "legal" states. Not all the episodes are so weighty, though; Life of the Law has also been known to cover things like history of legal humor.
Holy Ghost People
Holy Ghost People (1967) Dir. Peter Adair. Sound. Steve Reich "Ground-breaking example of "cinema verite" filmmaking at its best! This documentary explores the individual experiences of Pentacostal Christians. Film culminates with ceremonial handling of poisonous snakes. Ironically, it is the preacher that gets bitten."
Rave tapes
"Like the Galapagos, Baikal is a closed ecosystem"
The Blue Pearl Of Siberia, Peter Matthiessen, 1991
Past eight in the evening on the last day of August, after a ten-hour climb, we haul ourselves to the high rim of the Baikal Canyon. From where we stand, high plateaus, in hard, clear light, seem to stretch forever westward to the Urals. Facing east, my companion, the huge Siberian woodsman Semyon Ustinov, spreads his long arms. Far below, his beloved Baikal, the most ancient lake on earth, is shrouded in mist that drifts up the steep talus slope as if in search of us. The canyon rim on which we stand is a mile or more above the surface of the lake, whose greatest depth is 6,300 feet, or 1.2 miles, with an additional four miles of sediment above the bedrock. The great Baikal rift is seven times as deep as the Grand Canyon, by far the deepest land depression on the planet.[more inside]
“...how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge...”
The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein [The Public Domain Review] Professor Sharon Ruston surveys the scientific background to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, considering contemporary investigations into resuscitation, galvanism, and the possibility of states between life and death.
In a few days this post may be illegal.
The Malaysian Government is rushing through an anti-terrorism bill that has already been likened to a draconian dictatorship - providing the Prime Minister and a group of other Ministers with special powers such as seizing property, curfews with hefty fines, demolishing unoccupied buildings, arresting anyone threatening "national security", and various other emergency measures enacted without safeguards. Many groups have denounced the bill and called for its repeal, including the main Opposition coalition, the Malaysian Bar and other lawmakers, and human rights organizations.
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