April 24, 2013
Will it go 'round in circles...
It's not so often that a new acoustic musical instrument is invented that really makes you go "wow!", but the Wheelharp might just make you go "double wow!" [more inside]
Public's Knowledge of Science and Technology
Pew Research and Smithsonian Magazine recently performed a survey, looking at the American public's knowledge of science.
Pew: The public underestimates how well American high school students perform on standardized science tests compared with students in other developed nations. A plurality (44%) believes that 15-year-olds in other developed nations outrank U.S. students in knowledge of science; according to an international student assessment, U.S. 15-year-olds are in the middle ranks of developed nations in science knowledge.An examination of the results from Smithsonian Magazine.
GIANT GOD WARRIOR APPEARS IN TOKYO
Studio Ghibli presents Giant God Warrior Appears In Tokyo, a short tokusatsu film. (In Japanese, no subtitles.)
Not the shirtless She-Hulk you were expecting
Little Girls R Better at Designing Superheroes Than You is a (sparsely populated) Tumblr with illustrations based on little girls in superhero costumes, by Eyeburst. [more inside]
Poor Seems Kind
On Sunday, Rachel Shteir, a theater professor at DePaul University, wrote a critique of three Chicago-focused books for the New York Times Book Review. Many Chicagoans were none too happy. [more inside]
Jocasta Innes, 78, influential writer on decor, cooking
The author of The Pauper's Cookbook , Paint Magic and more than 50 other titles, has died in London. If you ever thought about stippling, sponging, stencilling, scumbling, rag-rolling and distressing and/or color-washing a wall, you might well have been influenced by Ms. Innes.
It's only a sucker punch 'cos you're a sucker.
The criminally overlooked work of independent Canadian animator Myles Langlois has my vote for best thing on the internet right now. Specifically Apollo Gauntlet, the tale of a lone hero prone to quips and violence wandering an (imaginary?) wasteland in search of Dr Benign so he can return to Earth, and Superspace, the saga of two mounties, a woman and her son, a criminal, a pilot, a robot and a bald guy who find themselves trapped aboard an alien spaceship.
The low-rent production style, like highschool binder doodles come to life, and hazy Sifl and Olly-style humour might take a little getting used to, but it's all part of the charm.
Here is a teaser, a trailer, and a 1992 Sales Presentation for Apollo Gauntlet. [more inside]
Cerebral palsy isn't funny, but 14 year old kid w/ cerebral palsy is
There Is No Word For Kiss
At long last you can finally hear Six Pence None The Richer's 1997 hit "Kiss Me" the way it was intended to be heard, in the original Klingon.
Sen. Nesselbush: "Today is so important, I even wore a dress."
Rhode Island is about to vote to become the 10th state (and last state in New England) to enact marriage equality with the unanimous support of the State Senate Republicans. [more inside]
Ronald Davis
"No matter what people think about me, I know I'm a human first. And just cause I'm down on my luck, don't give nobody no excuse to call me no bum—because I'm not." Well-done video about a man down on his luck. Brought a tear to my eye.
"There Are Lots Of Ways To Die in Alaska"
I was staring at a week and a half of bone-deep cold, probable-verging-on-inevitable blizzards, baneful travel conditions, and total isolation from the civilized (read: broadband-having) world. I hate snow, do not play winter sports, keep the thermostat at 65 on a good day, and haven’t logged out of Spotify since 2011. I’m not even a dog person.
Grantland's Brian Phillips covers the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.
Karma Chameleons
There have been lots of great covers of Radiohead's Karma Police, but this one that just dropped may be the best you'll ever hear. The amazing video is thanks to a successful kickstarter campaign.
Shazam
The world as you know it is a hologram of sound (SL comic strip on Warren Ellis's website but authored by Eric M. Esquivel, Scott Godlewski, Ryan Cody, and Henry Barajas)
Grimes is not your waif
"I don't want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living" - Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Grimes, has apparently canceled her 2013 tour via Tumblr. (previously)
"the current system is the most practical and 'seems to work'"
"Despite her pedigree, success came slowly," the story bravely ventured. This slowness was maybe not so apparent to several thousand other 24-year-olds who want to be actresses, but who haven't even figured out how to get to a reading for Law & Order to fail at it. Tom Scocca on Nathaniel Rich, Lena Dunham, Zosia Mamet, and cultural nepotism. (Related: How David Carr Became the Daddy of Girls)
"You don’t like it? Find another place to live."
"Them and Them." "Rockland County, New York's East Ramapo school district is a taxpayer-funded system fighting financial insolvency. It is also bitterly divided between the mostly black and Hispanic children and families who use the schools and the Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox Jewish majority who run the Board of Education and send their children to private, religious schools." Also see: A District Divided. [more inside]
Let's go, Maa-at, let's go!
And Indrani believes works of art can change individuals
Wallace Shawn reads his monologue The Fever, at The Lannan Foundation, in Two Parts. (Wallace Shawn previously, previouslier.)
Baltimore Jail
Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that 13 female corrections officers, seven inmates and five others with gang ties have been charged with plotting to smuggle drugs, cellphones and other contraband into Baltimore’s jail and other correctional facilities.
According to an indictment, the ring involved sex between inmates and guards that led to four of the officers becoming pregnant, one of them twice, by Tavon White, leader of a gang called the Black Guerrilla Family.
Stoopidtall
Oh don't lean on me man, cause you can't afford the ticket
Chako Paul City is a women-only city in the north of Sweden, established in 1820 by a wealthy widow. It is "a place that is respectful of women's love, but with a rule that men cannot enter"; the few who have tried have found themselves beaten half to death by the formidable Amazonian sentries at its gates. It has a castle, and its main industry is forestry, with a sideline in lesbian tourism. Of the 25,000 women, from all over Europe, living in Chako Paul City, those wishing to seek male company are allowed to leave, but may only reenter after having bathed and undertaken several other measures to avoid negatively affecting the mental state of the other residents. [more inside]
Our Fair City
Play with pathfinding
An interactive demonstration of different algorithms for finding the shortest path from one point to another on a uniform grid. [more inside]
Hooray a new friend!
Peace is liberty in tranquillity
The UK Peace Index [PDF], a new publication from The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), has produced a startling new headline: against public perceptions of crime, both crime and homicide have fallen significantly. The fall over the last decade has resulted in the UK homicide rate now being roughly equivalent to that of the Western European average, and it is now at its lowest level since 1978. [more inside]
For the Emperor! For the Imperium of Man!
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