February 25, 2014
Something For Everyone
Never Gonna Wake Up - a mashup of AVICII and Rick Astley, featuring Chumbawamba and John Travolta [SLYT]
Welcome to the Chicago Precrime Department
When the Chicago Police Department sent one of its commanders to Robert McDaniel’s home last summer, the 22-year-old high school dropout was surprised. Though he lived in a neighborhood well-known for bloodshed on its streets, he hadn’t committed a crime or interacted with a police officer recently. And he didn’t have a violent criminal record, nor any gun violations. In August, he incredulously told the Chicago Tribune, "I haven't done nothing that the next kid growing up hadn't done.” Yet, there stood the female police commander at his front door with a stern message: if you commit any crimes, there will be major consequences. We’re watching you.
Raags To Riches
But if Urdu is the refined language of power and privilege, Punjabi is the powerful words of the streets. And the streets are where lyrics overwhelmingly situate rap.
Pakistani rap positions Punjabi as Ebonics is positioned in the U.S.
That's why you don't let the puppy sleep on your head
New state of matter found in chicken eyes
Disordered Hyperuniformity "Along with eggs, soup and rubber toys, the list of the chicken's most lasting legacies may eventually include advanced materials such as self-organizing colloids, or optics that can transmit light with the efficiency of a crystal and the flexibility of a liquid. ..."
Article does not provide recipes.
Nyalan and Deshi
These cats are the "image characters" (mascots) for Jalan, a travel site in Japan. Stars of many adverts, the older cat is "Nyalan" ("nya" is "meow" in Japanese), and his apprentice is "Deshi." They also have their "own" Twitter account and more pictures are on the Jalan Facebook profile. And yet more pictures.
"Whose this beautifull man with a lovely voice, its Annie Lennox."
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa international trailer. Oh, you're an American and thusly only vaguely aware of Steve Coogan as that guy who did Hamlet 2? Well here's Alan Partridge (official US release title) trailer. [more inside]
Double Vision
Stephen Soderbergh combines both versions of Psycho to create "Psychos" Director Stephen Soderbergh has just posted, via his blog a link to Psychos, his combining of Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho and the slightly less well received Gus Van Sant "shot for shot remake".
Potvin Sucks !!
Tonight is the 35th Anniversary of one the most famous chants in American Sports. On Feb 25, 1979, Denis Potvin, NHL Hall-of-Famer, 5 time Stanley Cup Champion, and Captain of the New York Islanders laid a hard check on New York Rangers forward Ulf Nilsson. That hit effectively ended Nilsson's career, and made Potvin the target of unending abuse from Ranger fans. Rangers fans have never forgotten nor forgiven Potvin. To this day, regardless of which team the Rangers are playing that night, if someone whistle's the first few bars of "Let's Go Band," all of Madison Square Garden will erupt in a chant of "Potvin Sucks!"
28 Books You Should Read If You Want To
Watch snowflakes grow
Ivanov Vyacheslav has captured video of snowflakes growing. Here's why they grow that way (via snowflakes, previously). But how can one arm know what the other is doing? Here's how. More snowflake formation video from Caltech physicist Kenneth Libbrecht.
"the only widely published author on the Florida payroll."
The following represents a sample of Zora Neale Hurston music from the Folklife Collection.
Above is a compilation of all of the known Zora Neale Hurston sound recordings* created while she worked for the WPA in the 1930s. Today, the original recordings are housed at the Library of Congress. Hurston made recordings for the WPA in 1935 and again in 1939.[more inside]
"The arrogance of man is thinking nature is under our control..."
"...can you get them to stop playing that fucking song on the radio?"
On June 8, 2014 it will have been 30 years since those paranormal janitors cleaned up the town in the most successful comedy of the 1980s doing over $291 million in gross box office sales. Who you going to call? Everyone in the cast (except Bill Murray, sadly): Ghostbusters: An Oral History. Some choice quotes below the fold. [more inside]
Good news for webhosters (and scientists)
PLOS’ New Data Policy: Public Access to Data "PLOS has always required that authors make their data available to other academic researchers who wish to replicate, reanalyze, or build upon the findings published in our journals.
In an effort to increase access to this data, we are now revising our data-sharing policy for all PLOS journals: authors must make all data publicly available, without restriction, immediately upon publication of the article. Beginning March 3rd, 2014, all authors who submit to a PLOS journal will be asked to provide a Data Availability Statement, describing where and how others can access each dataset that underlies the findings." Openscience.org also have a primer on why open science data is important.
Below West 38th Street
House of Cards OG
Once, more, you mangle it more
Lord Cobham was burnt alive, but I forget what for
Ageism in the tech industry?
Vivek Wadhwa's article about hiring in the tech industry makes some startling assertions.
Legendary
After coming it at #19 in 2012, the great state of North Dakota was the happiest state to live in for 2013, according to The Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index. [more inside]
All lives are excellent.
Life is not a marathon.
There is no single path. There is no single finishing line. There are as many goals and finishing lines as the number of people on this planet.
Music From The Grand Budapest Hotel
Pitchfork is streaming the soundtrack to Wes Anderson's upcoming movie The Grand Budapest Hotel (previously). [more inside]
Pain
Do invertebrates feel pain? "Boiled alive and torn limb from limb – it's time we took seriously the question of whether animals like squid, octopus and lobsters suffer"
Flash Photography Crash Course
Deep Sea Dubstep
Watch out for tongue splinters. Deep sea scientist Craig McClain is investigating communities which thrive on wood that falls to the bottom of the sea, so he "chunked 36 logs overboard". You want to see footage of the experiment set to dubstep? Course you do.
[via mefi projects]
Not too big to fail.
Mt Gox, what had been the world's largest bitcoin exchange, seems to have shut down. According to a supposedly leaked document, they're missing 744,000 bitcoins, which even at Bitcoin's current, rapidly falling price, would be worth somewhere around $300 million dollars.
A collection of bitcoin businesses and markets have issued a statement. [more inside]
ITER
A Star in a Bottle. "An audacious plan to create a new energy source could save the planet from catastrophe. But time is running out."
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