May 22, 2015
An Entire Stable of Characters in One Issue
Wham-O (previously) revolutionized the circle, the torus and the sphere, but they once did something innovative with the humble rectangle: Wham-O Giant Comics (alternate ad here), intended to be a quarterly magazine but ultimately the only issue released by the company. You can read it in its entirety here and read critiques of its contents here. It's an anthology whose contents run the gamut of genres, so if you don't like a story, you can just skip to the next. Of particular note are Radian and Goody Bumpkin, drawn by Wally Wood (previouslies).
Small Things Considered
Carl Zimmer writes for The New York Times: How Simple Can Life Get? It's Complicated - "Scientists have long wondered how much further life can be stripped down and still remain alive. Is there a genetic essence of life? The answer seems to be that the true essence of life is not some handful of genes, but coexistence." [more inside]
“The brain is the station where every railway line passes through.”
Can evolution explain acts of kindness, and morality? [The Guardian]
We arranged a debate between a sceptical Tom Stoppard and the evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson. Stuart Jeffries acted as referee. We arranged for the two to meet recently in the grand boardroom of Wilson’s London publishers to discuss their differences, and reflect on two hard problems – what is the proper scope of science, and what is it to be human.
Wait, it was the dinosaur that escaped from the Zoo!
60 years
In honor of its 60th anniversary, Disneyland presents "Disneyland Forever", the new "World of Color" and the Paint the Night Nighttime Electrical Parade. [more inside]
Third time's a charm.
"You have to watch this video 3 times to discover the secret."
A video puzzle by professional juggler Michael Karas.
A video puzzle by professional juggler Michael Karas.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Jon Drinks Water
B.B. St. Roman
B.B. St. Roman [formerly Barbara Becker] is the only staff member for the New Orleans Police Department Homeless Assistant Unit. Before helping the homeless, she traveled the world, recording sound for documentaries .... And at one point, she became the tour manager for Dr. John, Louisiana musician and legend.
Her film audio credits include Mother Teresa and Shamans of the Blind Country a film ethnography of the Himalayas.
TEDx talk, and here's her Facebook page.
Ross Is the Worst "Friends" Character
It is proven. (SL SBNation)
A way to keep pollinating bees around without chemicals? There mite bee.
"The first 21 days of a bee's life in 60 seconds" is a time-lapse video by photographer Anand Varma, who discusses his collaboration with the bee lab at UC Davis in breeding a naturally mite-resistant line of honeybees. (Via.)
PUT AWAY YOUR FEET YOU HEATHEN
As summer approaches, the hotly contested debate about the appropriateness of flip-flops rears its ugly head. In the no-flip-flops-allowed corner is Slate's Dana Stevens. Coming to their defense is Megan Carpenter over at RawStory. [more inside]
“I would also like to be called by my name, Kyle.”
Do You Prefer "Native American" or "American Indian"? 6 Prominent Voices Respond "Wherever I go, from the reservation to the city, through the halls of academia, from younger to older, to the grassroots, and in social media, I hear numerous discussions and debates around how people choose to identify with certain references, e.g., which word is the most appropriate: Native American? Native? Indian? American Indian? Indigenous? My task here was to ask several friends and people whom I (and many others) admire what reference they feel most comfortable with."
Slits/Sarah Jaffe
The Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are
At last, the Lifetime/SyFy crossover we’ve all been waiting for!
A Netflix app glitch created weird new films - Back in 2014 a bug in one of Netflix’s apps is accidentally mashing up the plot summaries of different movies and TV shows. @SummaryBug has been capturing the weirdest results. Here are some examples.
"Has anyone ever told you that you look like someone famous?"
When a celebrity resemblance is an affliction, not an attribute. A woman writes about being frequently told that she looks like Sandra Bernhard. [more inside]
2015 song of the summer
That Thing You Dew
How Mountain Dew Came to Perpetuate a Deep-Seated Appalachian Stereotype As Mountain Dew taps into tropes of corn-syrup-free authenticity and nostalgia for "backwoods" "renegades" and "rebels" with its throwback drink Dewshine, a daughter of Appalachia considers how the beverage reflects cultural stereotypes. [more inside]
Old Street at 3am on a weekend in the late 90s
Free music Friday! Organic Audio - Back to my Roots As part of their ongoing 20th anniversary celebration Tummy Touch are offering 'dubbed out disco beats and dirty global grooves WAY before they were fashionable'. [more inside]
"The real rare bird is the writer who debuts after 40."
In writing class after writing class, I see time and again how the question of talent haunts the young, who come to class hoping to make it into that anointed group—those who publish to glory young. [But] the question of age haunts my older students more than talent.[more inside]
Predictability is an illusion
"McDonald's proved themselves to be jerks and the jury didn't like that"
Factual comics Friday: Shannon "Too Much Coffee Man" Wheeler sets the record straight on the McDonald's coffee lawsuit.
Don't Make It About The Money
It’s Not You, It’s Us: Apartment Hunting in Brooklyn
What you do when apartment hunting online, and what a lot of people do, I imagine, is you plug in your preferred neighborhood/price range/amenities/etc., and then out pops a long list of results that you further refine by imagining a very specific and very fictionalized narrative involving a version of yourself that isn’t necessarily true right now but could be true if you lived in apartment X. No, you’ve never wielded a wrench for any longer than the time it takes to pass it to your dad, but why couldn’t you fix a fixer-upper? Or be the kind of person to share one bathroom with six other roommates? Or live with a Ukrainian family that’s gone for five months out of the year, but whose kids you’re expected to babysit as per your new rental agreement?
"BECAUSE LIFE IS IN 3D"
My selfie in 3d. This may be the finest use of 3d printing possible. Gifts for everyone you know or want to know. [more inside]
Let me be frank
It's a short read, but Food Republic's Ultimate Hot Dog Style Guide may take you a while to digest.
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