April 3, 2019
Guido, James, Anders, and Larry sitting on a stage
PuPPy Presents its ANNUAL BENEFIT in Seattle: A conversation with Language Creators. A historic discussion of language creators about the past and future of language design. [more inside]
Rethinking seeds, from the ground up
"Michael is a squash breeder. I said, “If you're such a great squash breeder, why don't you figure out how to make a butternut squash taste good? Instead of chefs doing these heroics of roasting, caramelizing, adding maple syrup and gastriques, just create the thing and make it great.” And what he said to me was probably what changed my appreciation for the work that breeders do and also got me thinking about how to engage them more. He said that in all of his years of breeding, no one had ever asked him to select for flavor." Chef Dan Barber talks with The Splendid Table's host, Francis Lam, about rethinking seeds. [more inside]
“There will be plenty of unfavorable things about the president
in the full report, which we think will eventually come out, so let’s not go overboard saying there’s no wrongdoing,” said a senior White House official to Olivia Nuzzi @NYMag. "In interviews with New York, White House officials and people familiar with internal events have described mood swings rippling through the administration: First came relief, in the form of smiles and tears and bottles of Champagne; then, the catharsis of “righteous anger,” with fuck yous to the press, Democrats in Congress, and members of the intelligence community; as the excitement waned, “cooler heads” emerged in the White House with brand-new anxieties about a president inclined to inflict self-harm by taking things too far." [more inside]
Even growing in a filthy pond, the white lotus never gets dirty.
In the great inland city of Chongqing in southwest China, as aerial tramways arced overhead and the towers of the wealthy loomed, French filmmaker Hendrick Dusollier documented the Last Days in Shibati (十八梯) slum before it was demolished. [more inside]
A 'magic bullet' to capture carbon dioxide?
A technology that removes carbon dioxide from the air has received significant backing from major fossil fuel companies. British Columbia-based Carbon Engineering has shown that it can extract CO2 in a cost-effective way.
It has now been boosted by $68m in new investment from Chevron, Occidental and coal giant BHP.
But climate campaigners are worried that the technology will be used to extract even more oil.
These insects seem almost fearless in their predation
According to the latest research, giant water bugs flex like Popeye, eat ducks and snakes, force their males to take an active role in parenting, and are tasty either fried or boiled. [more inside]
Nobody parks in L.A.
When chicken tikka mariah (@Mrhflrs) noticed a stalemate over a parking space she decided to tweet about it. It went on a little longer than expected.
Robinson Jeffers, Poet and Prophet
"Poet Against Empire" from Chronicles. The article explores the life and poetry of Jeffers. "Just how big Jeffers had once been is hard to convey today, and so is the depth of his collapse in reputation." Previously and previously on the Blue (with lots of links in the OPs and comments).
Charges dropped in 2015 Texas biker brawl that left nine dead
"Dedicated to streaming important classic and contemporary films..."
The Criterion Collection will officially launch its new Criterion Channel on April 8. Recently, they announced their first lineup, along with the most thorough explanation of the channel so far. Official trailer is here (initial announcement trailer here) and discounts for Charter Members in affect until April 7 after which point the price goes up. Service will work for Canadians and Americans but as yet not outside those two countries.
Change the titles, change the story
Every student of art history will at some point come across Édouard Manet’s Olympia (Wikipedia), a painting widely considered as a foundational work of modern art. Denise Murrell recalls the moment the lecture slide first flashed up on the screen when she was a graduate student at Columbia. “My heart started beating a little bit faster,” Murrell says.... But her professor focused on the white nude, the prostitute Olympia, and didn't mention the black servant at all. That motivated Murrell to learn about the black figure in the painting. A Student Thesis Has Become a Groundbreaking Show About How Black People Have Been Pictured Across Art History (Art News), which is now an exhibit at Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where French masterpieces are renamed after black subjects (CNN). [more inside]
“Just make it as weird as you possibly can.”
It has been 20 cycles since a human astronaut John Crichton shot himself through a wormhole and found himself in a world inhabited by aliens, criminals and puppets. An io9 article looks back on the origins and influence of Farscape. For those wanting to review individual episodes, AV Club did a rewatch a few years back, as did FanFare.
House hunters are deterred from evicting incumbents by strong vibrations
How hermit crabs shake off competitors for shells [The Guardian] - Research article Get off my back: vibrational assessment of homeowner strength by Louise Roberts and Mark E. Laidre.
“Do you want to know how I got these scars?”
Joker [YouTube][Teaser Trailer] “The first teaser for Todd Phillips’ upcoming standalone Joker movie brings Joaquin Phoenix’s take on the iconic villain to life. Unlike previous iterations of the Joker, this movie carves out an origin story for the character — the Joker before he was the Joker, exploring the life of Arthur Fleck as he descends from small-time stand up comedian to the clown prince of crime. The movie is said to lean hard on Martin Scorsese influences, particularly the director’s 1982 dark comedy The King of Comedy.” [via: Polygon]
Trashed
“How do past rumblings and claims of crisis compare to now? Is the shit hitting the fan? ‘Oh, the shit’s hitting the fan. Operation Green Fence was the 2013 effort to just start getting exporting countries to clean their recycling, their plastics in particular.’” America’s new recycling crisis, explained by an expert (Vox) It’s Time to Rethink How Recycling is Done: China doesn’t want to sort your trash anymore (The Nib)
sea water will just go under a wall, like a salty ghost
“The scientists, economists, and environmentalists that are saying this stuff, they don’t realize what a wealthy area this is.” She said that she lived here and wasn’t leaving, and that the people selling Miami were confident, and all working on the same goal as a community to maintain this place, with the pumps and the zoning and raising the streets. There were just too many millionaires and billionaires here for a disaster on a great scale to be allowed to take place.Heaven or High Water - Selling Miami's last 50 years
Wait, astronauts pooped on the moon and just left it there?!
Class
It has long been commented that discussing [social] class is basically taboo in American culture. This presents a problem for Americans because social class is a real phenomenon, an important phenomenon around which huge amounts of American policy, politics, and culture organizes. It's the elephant in the American living room. Social class is taboo to discuss, but economic class is not, and that presents an obvious "solution": Americans conflate social and economic class so they can talk about social class under the guise of talking about economic class. (previously)
Maps of historic public transit systems and their modern equivalents
Artist Jake Berman maps old public transport systems and their modern equivalents, and generates 'swipe' images that allow you to compare them with each other. Jake's web site.
We’re going to teach her if she gets elected...
Lori Lightfoot elected first African-American female mayor of Chicago Running on a platform against the city’s corrupt machine, she swept all 50 districts for an historic victory, and is also the first openly gay mayor of one of America’s biggest cities.
Building 4D polytopes
Years ago I stumbled upon the convex regular 4-polytopes - four-dimensional analogues of the Platonic solids. I did not understand the mathematics behind these structures back then - but recently I decided to figure out how this works. A richly illustrated and interactive page (that probably won't work well on mobile devices).
Spooning Fox Cubs
Wildlife Aid rescues orphaned fox cubs every year. This year they've had a single young cub for about a month but just recently have brought her a much-needed new friend. Now you can watch them snuggle and play together on their webcam!
« Previous day | Next day »