February 27, 2020
Girls Just Want To Have Fun In Isolation Without Hazard
Cyndi Lauper's isolated vocal track from the recording session for her classic 1983 pop song Girls Just Want To Have Fun (slyt via). [more inside]
Fashion designed by, run by, and tailored to, lizards
Meet the Fashion Brand for lizards, sexpots, and three-headed babes. The lazily but brilliantly-named “Fashion Brand Company” was founded in 2018 by Penelope Gazin, and has been delivering deliciously irreverent apparel ever since. Like a sweater covered in nipples, or a three collared dress. It’s as if Gazin has vacuumed up the detritus of our REM cycle dreams and turned it into a cornucopia of kitsch sweaters, hot jester pants, and teeny tiny cowboy hats for hers-and-hers outfits with the pet lizard you never asked for, but absolutely need. She's also partly responsible for Witchsy, a shop that's like Etsy for artists.
And in keeping with this week's theme, there's a tote bag.
And in keeping with this week's theme, there's a tote bag.
Forgive me he started it
Kids in NZ write confessions of their worst sins (SL twitter thread) in the style of William Carlos Williams, then design them using Canva.
“Oftentimes, the alternative to polarization is suppression,” Klein says
Groups that are rising in power want their needs reflected in politics and culture, groups that feel themselves losing power want to protect the status and privileges they've had, and this conflict is sorting itself neatly into two parties.In his new book, "Why We're Polarized," Ezra Klein (Vox founder and political blogger) shows polarization isn't necessarily the problem some claim, and makes the case that Trump's election can be directly linked to the ongoing demographic shifts in the USA. [more inside]
Macavity routinely breaks local noise ordinances!
the lyric “he’s broken every human law” implies that Macavity has committed such crimes as tax evasion, homicide, war profiteering, and quite possibly adultery interfering with a human marriage [more inside]
As a mom and grandmother, this is aspirational
How a Hacker's Mom Broke Into a Prison—and the Warden's Computer. Wired
A homeless philosopher and a robotic bird team up to solve crime
An AI program has learned the storytelling and art style of the legendary "God of Manga" mangaka Osamu Tezuka to create a completely original manga. Using 65 volumes of Tezuka's classic works, such as Black Jack and Phoenix, as its training set, the AI generated the plots, character bios, and character designs for the eponymous "Paidon",the story of a homeless philosopher named Paidon that has turned his back on society to solve criminal cases with his robotic bird partner, Apollo, in 2030 era Tokyo. The manga, which was secondarily illustrated and polished for publication by human artists, was released today in Kodansha's weekly manga serial Morning with a sequel already in the works. [more inside]
Build it (well) and they will come (to use transit instead of SOVs*)
If you've traveled or lived in different major cites around the world, or browsed lists like The Top 10 Best Public Transit Systems in the World (World Atlas, 2018), the fact that Asian and European cities are considered to have better transit systems than cities in the U.S. is no surprise. Jonathan English wrote a pair of lengthy articles for Citylab in 2018, looking at the history of transit in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Why Did America Give Up on Mass Transit? (Don't Blame Cars.) Streetcar, bus, and metro systems have been ignoring one lesson for 100 years: Service drives demand. Why Public Transportation Works Better Outside the U.S. -- The widespread failure of American mass transit is usually blamed on cheap gas and suburban sprawl. But the full story of why other countries succeed is more complicated. [more inside]
Extract. Contaminate. Deny. Profit.
“A lot of guys are coming up with cancer, or sores and skin lesions that take months to heal,” he says. Peter experiences regular headaches and nausea, numbness in his fingertips and face, and “joint pain like fire.” Beyond Fracking, America’s Radioactive Secret (Rolling Stone) “ Fourteen years later, not one assessment of the damage to natural resources after the two 2005 hurricanes has been completed. None of the 140 parties thought to be responsible for the spills has been fined or cited for environmental violations.” How Oil Companies Avoided Environmental Accountability After 10.8 Million Gallons Spilled (ProPublica) Satellite images confirm fears, Ohio gas well blowout leaked more than many countries do in a year (Ars Technica) “ The movie highlights DuPont's legal maneuvering, showing the company seeking to evade liability by "notifying" customers that the chemical was in their water at levels the notice suggested were "safe" — starting a time clock running for the statute of limitations on DuPont's liability.“ Dark Waters shines a light on DuPont’s history of covering up contamination.
Oh lord, the backlog.
Why am I still playing Skyrim? [PC Gamer] “Journey to the Savage Planet. Dragon Quest Builders 2. Phoenix Point. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Shenmue 3—those are just some of the games I'm yet to finish in the last few months. Some I haven't even started. In this relatively fallow period for PC releases, my pile of shame is somehow still growing. I should be catching up on the games that launched in the frankly silly September-to-November 2019 bottleneck. I need to clear the slate so I'm ready and refreshed for Doom Eternal, Resident Evil 3, and Cyberpunk 2077. Instead most weekday evenings go in precisely the same way, as if my life is being directed by the dullest screenplay imaginable: with dinner done and the washing up to one side, I have about an hour of games time if I want to get to bed at a reasonable hour. I have every intention of starting something new or making a beeline for the credits on a game I once put to one side. Then, there I go: I'm playing Skyrim again.”
In defiance of their mandate “to reconstitute reality.”
Ma Yu Ching's Bucket Chicken House (est. 1153)
Hindsight
On August 9, 2008, you’ll be on top of the world. You’ll have just won the biggest ultimate game of your life on home soil in Vancouver. You’ll be surrounded by family, friends and teammates, with a world championship gold medal around your neck. But you’ll feel lost. On February 19, 2018, after almost 15 years of struggling with drugs and alcohol, you’ll enter uncharted waters. On this day, a new chapter will begin as you make the best decision of your life and check yourself into a treatment centre where your new roommate struggles with meth addiction and has five bullet holes in his chest. You’ll find common ground and become friends. What happened?
ITMFA VI: Again & Again
According to Rolling Stone, at an impeachment acquittal 'celebration,' the president "started rambling about his behavior in Ukraine, calling himself a victim, while also seeming to get somewhat paranoid, telling the crowd the Democrats will say, “let’s impeach him” again." However, after Republicans voted almost unanimously to acquit him on impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Trump’s constant commentary and increasing willingness to flout traditional legal processes signal that the president feels emboldened and unrestrained, said Chris Whipple, author of “The Gatekeepers,” a history of White House chiefs of staff. As noted by over 2600 former DOJ officials in an open letter calling for AG Barr to resign, "[g]overnments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies." Based on the framing and ratification debates for the U.S. Constitution, impeachment scholar Cass Sunstein says to "[t]hink about what the American Revolution was fought for, and you’ll have a good clue of what impeachment is all about." [more inside]
“Am I . . . real to you kids?”
A disappointing anointing
"He opened his Bible to Psalm 39—an uneasy poem of both praise and gloom that includes the words “every man at his best state is but vapor”—and noticed a small spot of oil. Joyce assured him the grandkids hadn’t been near the book. It could only have come from God." Ruth Graham writes about a "modern miracle", the Bible flowing with oil.
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