April 8, 2013
40,000,000 dead at home, but our boys won the war anyway!
The 36-Hour War. A look at the future of nuclear warfare, from a 1945 issue of Life Magazine
Will take approx none of your sh..
Everyone around the watercooler is talking about supreme court justices. You want to join in, but you just don't have the time to research them! Don't fret! dalmatianparade's Quick Guide to the Supreme Court Justices is here to help!
Les Blank
Beloved indy ethnographic documentarian Les Blank died yesterday.
This interview gives a good overview of his background, and this post includes clips. Watch a couple of his public domain films here. Or do yourself a favor and find the complete version of Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers. [more inside]
Sinuous, Grotesque, and Fantastic.
U.K. illustrator Kate Baylay creates gorgeous book illustrations, like these for The Olive Fairy Book. [more inside]
The contest will be held on the island fortress of Shang Tsung...
Hardcore Gaming 101 present an in-depth examination of the Mortal Kombat series.
When I walk into a room I do not light it up
Anthemic indie rock band The National have just released 'Demons', the first single off their upcoming album Trouble Will Find Me. The band is perhaps best known for their song Mr November and its association with the Obama reelection campaign.
Fun foal ages.
The QI Zoo is a delightful collection of animated and educational gifs about animals and their quirks.
Selection pressure
Researchers have found that size does matter as it relates to overall proportions of the male body (PNAS link, PDF)
BRAIN Initiative
President Obama recently announced a big new effort to map and understand the human brain. [more inside]
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, pioneering astrophysicist
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was a towering figure in 20th-century astronomy. Born in 1900 in England, she won tuition to Newnham College where she studied botany, chemistry, and physics. After attending an astronomy lecture in 1919, she changed the focus of her future studies. She moved to the United States, where she went on to earn the first Ph.D awarded in astronomy from Radcliffe College. She later became the first female to be promoted to full-professor from within the faculty at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and was the first woman to head a department at Harvard when she was appointed to the Chair of the Department of Astronomy. Amongst her numerous studies and advances, she challenge the belief that the sun was made of the same composition of the earth, furthered the study of metallicity of stars and the structure of the Milky Way. [more inside]
We are in the same place now.
Death of a Revolutionary. Susan Faludi on the life, work, and decline of Shulamith Firestone, with some interesting words on the feminist movements of the last century. SLNY.
How amazing is my thought!
Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) was a physician and essayist, writing gracefully on topics as varied as language, nuclear war, and our excellent health and deplorable health-care system (PDF). He believed that the existence of Bach vindicates humanity, that "ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment", and that the Earth is perhaps best thought of as a cell. A three-time winner of the National Book Award, Thomas authored Lives of a Cell, which was voted the 11th-best nonfiction work of the 20th century by the Modern Library.
Millions of Baby Boomer boys in mourning
Annette Funicello, beloved star of the original Mickey Mouse Club, beach movie queen, teen idol, and darling of many an early 60s teenage boy has died.
In a circle, in lines, in turning
Dhikr (or Zihr) is a islamic devotional act involving the remembrance, the chanting, and repeating of the names of God. Though this often happens in silence, the Sufi tend to have ritualized group ceremonies ranging in style from the Whirling Dervishes of the Mevlevi to the fervid dancing of the Chechen.
RIP Robert E. Lee
Country singer Brad Paisley and hip-hop artist LL "Cool" J join forces to help Americans clear the air re: Civil War, racism, the "hood," and Lynyrd Skynyrd shirts with their new song, Accidental Racist.
The PAPAC-00
In less than an hour you can build the simplified digital computer shown in figure 1, using only a pair of scissors, three dozen common pins, and the parts shown in figures 1 and 2.
Toy Poodle Scam
Ferret-Poodle Scam With enough cosmetic modifications, it is possible to (profitably) pass off a ferret as a toy poodle.
Tell Death to bugger right off!
Inner Vision by Sunil Rao (SLFlash) This struck me as a rather powerful analysis of suicide and why not to, even if it is a rather simplistic Flash game. [more inside]
Find a separating hyperplane with one weird kernel trick!
The pace of global warming
A consensus is emerging that in the past decade or so global surface temperatures have plateaued at a recorded-breaking level, not increasing. In fact the world's oceans can absorb up to 90% of all extra heat so global warming has not stalled, it is heating the pool. Predicting ocean heat is tricky, but one scientist's model got the past decade right (in retrospect). Her model shows that by 2020 or so, the ocean may begin to circulate heat back into the atmosphere and things will pick up for us on land. Maybe. Fred Pearce explains.
Pounce!
Great Scientist ≠ Good at Math?
Do you need to know math to do science? Harvard professor emeritus E. O. Wilson says, "no." Jeremy Fox, an Associate Professor of Population Ecology at the University of Calgary disagrees.
"Mrs Justice Thirlwall: the one woman Philpott couldn't defeat"
"Before examining the night in question – the petrol, the plot, the screaming 999 calls, the dead children – Thirlwall said: “It is necessary to look at the history of your relationship with women.” I’ve rarely heard a judge say such a thing, although in the judicial system there aren’t that many female judges, so there’s more chance this take on events is overlooked. Across Europe, the average gender balance among judges is 52 per cent men and 48 per cent women. At 23 per cent, England and Wales is fourth from the bottom, followed only by Azerbaijan, Scotland and Armenia. The higher up the court system, the more male-dominated the bench becomes. Only 15.5 per cent of High Court judges are women. The odds were against Philpott meeting a female judge this week – one woman he had no chance of controlling, striking, or impregnating – but I’m quietly joyous he did." In The Independent, Grace Dent looks at the abusive background of Mick Philpott, who got his six children killed in a house fire he started to take revenge on his ex. [more inside]
An Emotional Child
Reasons My Son Is Crying (sltumblr)
The Iron Lady has rusted away
Margaret Thatcher has died following a stroke her spokesman Lord Bell has said. Details are still coming out but the Iron Lady of British politics was and is a divisive figure even today.
She will probably be best remembered for her role in the coal miner's strikes and the Falklands War.
Her life in pictures is already online. The obituaries have been written for some time.
Okay now do that 59 more times!
Start your Monday with some beautiful modular origami at Kusudama Me! by Lukasheva Ekaterina. [more inside]
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