April 23, 2016
What would you like your nation to be known for?
In the dubious tradition of "What X Are You?" quizzes, National Geographic asks Which Of These Tiny Countries Fits You Best? (a potentially useful tool if youknowwho wins the election, right?)
Vending Machines: How Do They Work, Anyway?
An animated explanation for how newer vending machine detect fake coins and keep your treat from getting stuck.
We Have Cameras Just No Lenses
Tomorrow - or possibly today - is World Pinhole Photography Day! All around the world, people will be making cameras , which can be simple or complex; you can hack your DSLR or just use an Altoids tin. There are workshops & events happening all over the place, - if your town isn't listed there, Google, because there are a lot of things going on.
Previously on Metafilter with some quite awesome and helpful links!
It's Not The Dark That Kills You
It's Not The Dark That Kills You A very moving and well-written article (with videos) about a terrible problem in isolated Arctic communities. This long article is about Nuuk and Tassilak, on opposite coasts of Greenland, but it could easily have been about Attawapiskat in Canada's North. [more inside]
Final part of McCloskey's trilogy on political economy is here
Deirdre McCloskey, Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication University of Illinois at Chicago, published The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce in 2007. [more inside]
Charts for Book Nerds
Do not bid me remember mine end
William Shakespeare, playwright and poet, is dead at 52 of causes unknown. Shakespeare often meditated upon death in his works, once stating "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more." In one of his last recorded texts, he urged sympathy for immigrants. [more inside]
Introducing...
Solar Impulse is back in the air
Flying around the world on solar power has proven challenging. 2007: "Meanwhile in Switzerland, development continues on the Solar Impulse, which has a goal of flying around the world, manned(!), by 2010." 2010: "The Solar Impulse took flight today... with the goal of flying around the world in 2012." 2015: "The Solar Impulse... is currently in the midst of the longest leg in its pioneering round-the-world journey — China to Hawaii." Today: Watch a live stream of the Hawaii to California flight. Things are going okay so far.
How it feels to be blind in your mind
Blake Ross: "I have never visualized anything in my entire life. I can’t 'see' my father’s face or a bouncing blue ball, my childhood bedroom or the run I went on ten minutes ago. I thought 'counting sheep' was a metaphor. I’m 30 years old and I never knew a human could do any of this. And it is blowing my goddamned mind."
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