July 29, 2016
Could women be trusted with their own pregnancy tests?
"In 1967, Margaret Crane was a 26-year-old product designer at Organon Pharmaceuticals, sketching face-cream bottles and ointment jars. One day, as she walked through a lab at the company’s headquarters in New Jersey, she spotted rows of test tubes on shiny racks that twinkled under the industrial lights.
“What are these?” she asked one of the scientists.
Pregnancy tests, he said. A doctor would collect urine from his patient and send it to the company’s lab for analysis. The results would be sent back to the doctor, who would then inform the patient.
But Ms. Crane immediately saw another possibility: Why not cut out the doctor entirely?"
Why at-home pregnancy tests weren't available until the late-seventies. (SLNYT)
Even the bad ones float
Wolves? Wolf!
There is only one species of wolf in North America. Genetic analysis has found that the "Eastern Wolf" and the "Red Wolf" are hybrids of the Grey Wolf and the Coyote. [more inside]
the cataloguing arts are not lost
National Statuary Collection
"...the President is hereby authorized to invite each and all the States to provide and furnish statues..." Each state can send up to two statues to the collection, representing notable people from that state. The statues may be rendered in either marble or bronze. [more inside]
The winners earn ribbons, and all participants earn respect.
The Oregon State Fair celebrates oddities like the "curviest vegetable" and the "most misshapen fruit." Fairgoers can marvel over award-winning onions and pumpkins and snap photos of the top pig and llama. This year, the state fair is adding a new attraction: prize-winning marijuana plants. [more inside]
100 days
With America's general election 100 days away, and another two months before the first debate, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are off on a bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio (events), while Donald Trump campaigns in Ohio and Colorado. Where The Election Goes From Here
Exhaustion: A History
How Exhaustion Became a Status Symbol. "From sloth to burnout, each age remakes exhaustion in its own image." [more inside]
The USNS Harvey Milk
The US Navy will name a new ship for assassinated San Francisco Supervisor, LGBT and civil rights leader, and Navy veteran Harvey Milk. [more inside]
minimally trained on public domain poetry
CuratedAI is a literary magazine where the poems and stories are written entirely by machines. For example, there is He Lived with Regret ("He lived with regret at his own table– for his own sake have mercy upon him...") by Tolstoyish, a Recurrent Neural Net trained on the work of Leo Tolstoy. Or Defunct ("defunct and master my god is dead with my love/and the man that i give him") by Deep Gimble I, which is minimally trained on public domain poetry and seeded with a single word.
Into The Black
I've nearly paid off $16,000 of student loan debt, but it cost me my friends This is the fourth installment of the series Into the Black , where we hear from people who found ways to pay off serious debt. This week we talked to Kyle Pendergrass, whose debt management has improved his mental and physical health, but who lost some friends in the process.
Lichtenberg Figures in wood
Lichtenberg Figures are branching electric discharges that sometimes appear on the surface or in the interior of insulating materials. Which is a fancy way of describing what is happening here. And you can do it too! (though please be extremely careful).
The grubby, vandalised ruin evokes a low-budget hipster Ozymandias.
The 27-year-old CEO and founder of Soylent bought a patch of scrub in an area known as Flat Top to begin an “experiment in sustainable living” early this year.
It has not gone well.
It has not gone well.
' Still, the pivotal year was 1972, and the place was Austin. '
"As the seventies began, there were two major schisms bearing down on Austin’s budding country music scene. As the seventies began, there were two major schisms bearing down on Austin’s budding country music scene. The first was political. The cultural upheaval of the sixties was still going full force, particularly in Texas, even in a city that considered itself as forward thinking as Austin did. The second related more narrowly to the music. The only route to success for young Texas country songwriters went through Nashville, a stubbornly conservative industry town considered every bit as reactionary as the Nixon administration. "
Rev. William Barber FTW
Many people's first exposure to Rev. William Barber was his speech to the DNC Thursday. But he's been working tirelessly ever since the Republican Party took over North Carolina in 2012. His Moral Mondays movement scored a big win today over voting rights. [more inside]
“administrative offenses”
Chelsea Manning Faces Solitary Confinement and Charges After Suicide Attempt [The Guardian] Chelsea Manning may face charges relating to a suicide attempt this year, which could lead to indefinite solitary confinement or transferral to a maximum-security facility, according to a civil rights group. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced on Thursday that Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentence in military custody for leaking state secrets to the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, was under investigation for three charges related to her 5 July suicide attempt: “resisting the force cell move team”, “prohibited property”, and “conduct which threatens”. Manning confirmed through her lawyers in July that she was receiving medical care after having tried to take her own life. If convicted of these new “administrative offenses”, she faces punishment that could include solitary confinement for the rest of her sentence, reclassification as a maximum-security prisoner, and an addition of nine years to her sentence. It might also negate her possibility of parole, according to the ACLU. [Previously.]
Our Intention-Birthing Bungalow
Twinkle, Twinkle, Vogel Staar: On Mozart's Feathered Collaborator
If you whistle a tune often enough to a starling, the bird will not only sing it back to you, it will improvise its response and create something new. On May 27, 1784, Mozart whistled a 17 note phrase to a starling in a Viennese shop and to his delight it spat the tune right back — but not without taking some liberties first. So he bought it and brought it home. That bird lived with him for the three most productive years of his life, during which he completed more than 60 compositions, including Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. The piano concerto as we still understand it was built in those rooms. The “Jupiter” Symphony began and Figaro ended. Melodies that two centuries of humans have since whistled could have first been volleyed between a genius and his pet bird.
Ken Barrie, the voice of Postman Pat (1943-2016)
Ken Barrie has passed away, aged 83. Ken voiced many of the characters on the TV series Postman Pat, and sang the famous theme tune [alternative: 1, 2, 3] (released as a single, it charted for 15 weeks). Barrie also sang the soundtrack for Charlie Chalk and recorded the soundtracks for Sharks' Treasure and Emily, as well as singing, whistling and narrating in various movies and commercials. Barrie also recorded music under the name Les Carle.
Skill and speed are very off-putting.
9 Non-Threatening Leadership Strategies for Women — Should men accept powerful women and not feel threatened by them? Yes. Is that asking too much? IS IT? Sorry I didn’t mean to get aggressive there. (SLCooperReview)
It´s only a Game
100 Stories, 100 Removals, 100 Houses Destroyed by the 2016 Olympic Games.
A difficult legacy to hide: psychological and physical violence, social relations ripped apart, residents in debt and under control of the militias of the West Zone of Rio.
Animations
A difficult legacy to hide: psychological and physical violence, social relations ripped apart, residents in debt and under control of the militias of the West Zone of Rio.
Animations
That's another travel, Goku
Space Jam 3 Starring Jeremy Lin (SLYT)
This is the one thing we didn't want to happen
Fifteen years ago, Brass Eye released the special episode "Paedogeddon". The Atlantic weighs in on its significance.
"There must be real people"
The Verge interviews Werner Herzog, a passionate German film maker with his own version of cynical seriousness. Topics discussed include the value of film schools by negating their value, the inherent violence of Pokémon Go and the role of technology in extreme situations [TW: rape, violence].
"I am able to say this is who I am."
On being lesbian in a straight marriage (approx. 26 mins podcast) A conversation between two friends. [more inside]
Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016)
The Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara died on Wednesday at the age of 87. He wrote eight symphonies, nine operas, 12 instrumental concertos, plus a wide variety of orchestral, chamber, instrumental, choral and vocal works. [more inside]
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