April 1, 2014
Can you inflate the balloon in the form of a kitten?
The Google Archipelago
Google has been in Ireland since 2003, and some former Google employees and contractors with significant experience at the company say that Google’s reputation as a great employer is undeserved. Permanent staff are well taken care of, they say, but even many permanent staff are overqualified, overworked, and perform relatively menial tasks. In addition, entire layers of hidden contractors and temporary workers do much of the work without the benefits or opportunities accorded permanent staff.
Cyber Threats Map
The city as clip art
The "White City" of Tel Aviv is a World Heritage site with the world's largest collection of Bauhaus ("International Style") buildings. In his blog TLV Buildings Israeli artist Avner Givelter depicts these buildings' facades with local colors and typography in the style of the similarly-charming Windows of New York. [previously] [more inside]
High Maintenance returns
After a hiatus, the smart, sweet, sharp, and often surprising webseries High Maintenance returned in past months with three new episodes. [more inside]
I Don't Want To Hide My Love
Hidden treasures, in drying lakes and rivers, and in NYC street cracks
The drought in California has brought about a number of things, from exposing part of Mormon Island, an old mining town that has partially emerged from Folsom Lake (news coverage clip; aerial view of a re-emerged bridge with overly dramatic music; a tour of the exposed ruins), to being good news for gold prospectors. But if there's too much of a crowd in the Sierra Nevada foothills, you can always dig for gold in New York City (alt: YouTube), in the cracks of Midtown's Diamond District with Raffi Stepanian.
"If you're far enough ahead that people can't tell if you're joking"
Screw With A Smile
desreveR
April Fools' Day, everyone's (least) favorite day on the Internet, brought a 73-minute movie to Netflix of a rotisserie chicken uncooking. What a waste of reversed video. [more inside]
Wild animals
Katerina Plotnikova's portraits with wild animals are surreal. The photographer recently posted a behind-the-scenes shot along with an album of other shots showing how they stage each photograph.
Everybody? Everybody!
Homestar Runner is back. The Brothers Chaps have added new content to homestarrunner.com for the first time since 2010.
On the BeyHive and Cyborg Mrs. Carter
Detroit: Then & Now
The latest project of detroiturbex.com is Detroit: The Evolution of a City, showing incredible then and now photographs with a sliding interface, so you can see the changes (good and bad) across the decades. It's broken up into five sections: A Growing City, Deindustrialization, Unrest, Decay, and Revival.
Previously from detroiturbex: Cass Tech superimposed photos. [more inside]
RIP Hobie
Ebola spreads to new territory
There's been an ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. With 122 cases so far, this is the worst outbreak since 2007's 264-case outbreak. The worst outbreak was 2000-2001's 425 cases. What makes this one different is the way it has spread so widely. [more inside]
"It begins with an idea....."
The Yellow Umbrella and the Blue French Horn
The ending of How I Met Your Mother has been a bit controversial.
At least two people besides the writers knew all along what would happen: Ted's kids. They kept the secret for nine years.
(Some MeFites might not be entirely surprised either, based on these previous threads.)
The ending is a little melancholy, both for the characters and for the fans who have become attached to them over almost a decade. Don't worry, though, 20th Century Fox is already developingHow I Met Your Dad.
Milton Berle, Carlos Mencia, and Dane Cook walk into a bar
Given the expense and uncertainty of lawsuits, how does the comedy community enforce the proscription on joke theft? Part of an ongoing Slate series called The Humor Code.
The Passion of Rob Ford
Excellent Dissent magazine article on Rob Ford that looks beyond his disastrous single term as Toronto's mayor and examines the neoliberal strain in Canadian politics that has caused the larger problems facing Toronto, of which Ford's 2010 election is only a particularly appalling symptom.
So it's come to this: The canonization of Bob Dylan's 1980s albums.
"Dylan was bad in the '80s because to be anything else would've been dishonest." Steven Hyden (who else?) has found a way to appreciate '80s Dylan: "It's about appreciating the subtext of records that are more fun to think about than to listen to."
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