July 9, 2014
I beseech you all... Fellow Cookie Addicts... do not click at work.
"I discovered Cookie Monster and the Cheat interface bookmarklets. What harm could it do? They're just local bits of java. No harm, no foul. So I got greedy... I couldn't have enough cookies. Let the cookies run, I thought. Nobody uses my desk when I'm not here..." From Reddit user LivingDeadSquirrel.
Beautiful East African Brides
Welcome, this blog is dedicated to all the beautiful brides hailing from the East of Africa. Enjoy! [more inside]
When it comes to China stories, people will believe almost anything.
Westerners are so convinced China is a dystopian hellscape they’ll share anything that confirms it. [more inside]
I guess they weren't so big after all
Tilt/Shift filter applied to Hubble photos.
look who thinks he's clever dan
Frozen Is The New Black
Wear
Verschleif
Mit einer Tischler-Kantenschleifmaschine wird vom Werkstück (Holz, Walnuss, Trafo, Schädel oder analoger Kamera) immer ein halber Millimeter abgeschliffen und fotografiert. Aus ca 650 Aufnahmen entsteht ein Kurzfilm, der die innere Struktur von Natur und Technik gegenüberstellt.[more inside]
Ping City
One more time
Why do we love repetition in music? Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis explains how repetition and musicality work in our minds.
What if Homer Simpson smoked weed? It's not that crazy to imagine.
For the last few weeks, the Twitter account @Homer_Marijuana has been publishing a bizarre piece of long-form fan fiction about The Simpsons, family, America's wars in the Middle East, and marijuana, vast amounts of all sorts of marijuana. Now, 5,015 tweets later, Marijuana Simpson has concluded, and is available to read on an easier-to-follow Scribd document.
For the night is dark and full of t̶e̶r̶r̶o̶r̶s̶ VFX
The gods are trying to tell the truth but the truth is hard to say
Brand New Ancients is a spoken word performance (review) by poet, singer and playwright Kate Tempest that won the Ted Hughes Award For New Poetry in 2012. Early this year, to coincide with a wider tour of the show, Kate Tempest and the Battersea Arts Centre produced three short films based on the performance. One. Two. Three (trigger warning, as this one is terrifying).
Women, Pants, and the Backlash
Margaret Perry's review of Women in Pants provides an interesting overview of those women (in the Western world) who chose to wore pants in the 19th and early 20th centuries when the standard gender norm dictated dresses for girls and women. R.S. Fleming has a great collection of Victorian women-in-pants images, particularly in non-American military garb. See also: Welsh pit miners, women fighting in the US Civil War (and support-staff), this cattle thief/gunfighter, some cowgirls, and Dr. Mary Walker - here she is in more traditionally masculine dress (second picture). In France, the artist Rosa Bonheur had to get permission from the police to wear pants (picture) while sketching in public (her license), while adventurer/archaeologist Jane Dieulafoy got a lifetime exemption to wear pants from France.
[more inside]
Petition for cert.
On the same day that a Colorado judge struck down that state's ban on same-sex marriage (pdf), the Utah Attorney General’s Office announced it will take the issue of same-sex couples’ marriage rights back to the Supreme Court, bypassing a 10th Circuit en banc review. All of this news comes just one day after several prominent LGBT groups announced they will no longer support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as written, due to the religious exemptions therein. President Obama is facing pressure from religious groups to write a religious exemption into his promised executive order to protect LGBT federal contractors and workers from discrimination.
Fitness is feeling great!
#HuskyTwitter may have started out as a dog appreciation tag, but got a boost in recent days after ESPN Magazine revealed that Texas Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder, at a fit 275 pounds, would be featured on one of the six covers of the 2014 Body Issue (possibly NSFW). previously
The Writing on the Wall
Papyrus Turin 55001 is code for "the erotic papyrus." Then there's the 2,500-year-old erotic graffiti from Greece, with a rude claim about who did what where. If you're amid graffiti of a more recent vintage -- specifically that of the American public restroom -- you might want to consult "Here I Sit -- A Study of American Latrinalia" (.pdf) by Alan Dundes (obit, previously). Good reading!
a party game for horrible people... online
You can play Cards Against Humanity online using a free webapp: Pretend You're Xyzzy is a CAH clone that allows you to join a game with random strangers -or- you can set up a password-protected game for you & your friends only. [more inside]
"Another search warrant 'for pictures of his erect penis'"
A 17 year-old Virginia teenager who is under investigation for sending a consensual sext to his 15-year-old girlfriend may be forced to have an erection in front of police as evidence in the case. [more inside]
Who knew "predatory remodeling" was a thing to worry about?
I bought my first home, only to become a victim of predatory remodeling.
This is the story of how I got tricked by malicious criminals into buying a house that had been illegally remodeled to cover up multiple building code violations. 50% of the house is unusable, and will require as much as $100,000 in repairs to undo the faulty work.[more inside]
Yes, the home was inspected before it was purchased, and the inspector did find some problems as expected. But most of the problems described below were cleverly hidden behind finished drywall, carpeting, and concrete where the inspector couldn't see them. All of this was done intentionally by the house "flipper" and remodeler to turn a profit on a house that is riddled with code violations.
Faking Galileo
Art forgeries have long been the stuff of thrillers, with fake da Vincis or Vermeers fooling connoisseurs, roiling the art world, and moving millions of dollars. We don’t think of ancient books driving such grand forgery, intrigue, and schadenfreude. This is changing thanks in part to a clever forgery of Galileo’s landmark book Sidereus Nuncius, published in Venice in 1610. Arguably one of the most extraordinary scientific publications of all times, Sidereus Nuncius turned Galileo into the brightest new star of Western science. Four centuries later, a faked copy of this book has disarmed a generation of Galileo experts, and raised a host of intriguing questions about the social nature of scholarly authentication, the precariousness of truth, and the revelatory power of fakes.
We’re infecting the healthy
In the wake of the Corcoran's difficulties, which have now spawned more legal disputing, should we allow failing arts organizations to die?
"The most endlessly fascinating specialty in all of medicine."
Dr. Mark Crislip is a Infectious Disease specialist—an ID doc. He's also the master of a vast* multimedia empire, all parts of which are inflected with his insistence upon scientific evidence and many with a dry, sarcastic sense of humor: the president of the Society for Science-Based Medicine, he also writes articles for the affiliated website Science-Based Medicine; he runs the Quackcast, a podcast that reviews Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicines (SCAMs) from an evidence-based perspective; the Persiflagers Infectious Disease Puscast, which reviews the infectious disease literature; and his blog on Medscape, Rubor, Dolor, Calor, Tumor, is the basis for the third of his podcasts (and my favorite): A Gobbet O' Pus. As Crislip puts it: "A cool ID case, a stupid joke and a factoid you can use. What more do you need?"
*For certain quantities of vast. [more inside]
Ghosts out of the machine
Kirlian photography techniques used to capture electrical discharges and made famous in parapsychology research are revisited in the Digital Ethereal project to manifest the ghosts of wireless networks.
Big, Furry Asymmetrical Balls
"Bear", she cried, "I love you. Pull my head off." In 1976, the prestigeous Governor General's Literary Award went to Canada's arguably most controversial book: "Bear", by Marian Engel, describes a woman's "journey towards inner freedom and strength", via her erotic relationship with...a bear. [more inside]
Eventually Pam Fires A Rocket Launcher At Them So They'll Shut Up
"When True Blood premiered on HBO almost six years ago, in 2008, the final Twilight book had just been published, breaking records left and right. The gleam's come off since then, off vampires in general and but especially this show, but I believe it still has some things to tell us. Things about philosophy, America, the existence of faith in a secular world. People fucking all kinds of different ways. Sometimes all of these topics at the same time." Jacob Clifton recaps and reviews the Six and a half seasons of True Blood so far, trying to suss out what we can learn from Sookie Stackhouse's many boyfriends.
INSTANT EVOLUTION
Evolve FASTER, easier, without years of study. A new way to QUICKLY experience The Infinite One-ness. Discover a "mental" body, MYSTIC powers, ECSTASY. No meditation, no denials, no positive thinking. Reveals world's GREATEST living teacher. Send for free information. INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED THINKING [more inside]
ZooHannibal
"Your quarter doesn't buy you a handful of food for the billy goat. It buys the forgiveness of all the billy goats you are unable to feed" #HannibalAtTheZoo (SLT)
How lucky are we
Sorry You Were Tricked Into a C-Section What disapproving friends don’t understand about cesarean births
NSA spies on mainstream muslim US citizens
In one of the most damning Snowden leaks yet revealed, Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain show that the NSA targets prominent Muslim-Americans under the FISA secret court program. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has in response issued a denial that any Americans were targeted for exercising their constitutional rights via its tumblr.
Dogs At Work :: Hey Mister, what's in the bag? RESPONSIBILITY!
poverty is a circumstance, not a value judgment.
A less intellectually lazy atheism?
Atheist bashing or tough love? A thought-provoking review by Michael Robbins of Nick Spencer's new book on the history of atheism in Slate magazine. It reads like an autopsy of the recently murdered religious/atheist dialogue, with the "intellectually lazy" new atheism atop the list of suspects. [more inside]
It's as easy as that. Guess we better start movin' back now, huh?
Marvel Cinematic Universe Timelinefrom 2987BC to March 2014
The Interactive Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline. Are you a fan of the Marvel Cinematic universe? Ever scratch your head over what happened when and how events in the past link to consequences in the current times? Well wonder no more! A huge fan of the Universe, Anthony Norfolk created a nice picture filled timeline to pinpoint all the important elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. [more inside]
18 and Life
How Birth Year Influences Political Views A new model of presidential voting suggests President Obama’s approval rating — currently in the low 40s — will inform not only the 2016 election, but also the election in 2076. Events at age 18 are about three times as powerful as those at age 40, according to the model.
The Upshot: Why Teenagers Today May Grow Up Conservative [more inside]
Horrible Band Photos with helpful hints
Your terrible gig photographs – and how they could be improved
DUDE, You have got to stop listening to your mom.
The Gang Meets Putin
Virtual tip jars and tours: digital-age music outreach and fan support
There are numerous ways that bands reach out to potential and current fans, and you can add a few more to the list with Noisetrade, Stageit and Concert Window. Noisetrade allows artists and bands to give away music, like a few tracks and covers from Dr. Dog and Saint Rich, to the whole First Album Live from They Might Be Giants, and now e/audio books, too, in trade for an email address and zip code. If you prefer live music, Stageit and Concert Window allow fans to watch unrecorded, streaming shows from bands anywhere in the world, for whatever price fans see fit. [more inside]
Craptastic Cetaceans
The whales are back and they'll poop us all to safety!
Not ambergis, actual poop. Also carcasses, which support whole ecologies (pdf)
Rates of recovery actually vary, though several populations have made good progress.
Boldly going where no feminist has gone before.
Trekkie Feminist. Feminist fans of Star Trek take a look at what Star Trek gets wrong (and gets right) about gender issues, with individual episode reviews and series Bechdel test results.
Your Kindness Is Good For You
Look what I can do with my two hands.
Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State and the upcoming Bad Feminist, has a lot to say about relationships and sexuality and self esteem. Also about how to bake a pie and a killer summer pasta recipe.
The American Doctor Who
Taxi Medallion Boom May Be Coming to an End
Until recently, taxi medallions have been a lucrative and secure investment in the U.S., increasing 500-700% since 2000, and 1000% since 1980. The taxi medallions are big business, with many single-medallion owner operators, but most medallions are concentrated in a small number of hands. In Chicago, the majority of its 6800 taxi medallions are owned by less than 200 entities. In Boston, 49% of all medallions are owned by just 51 entities. [more inside]
HR Antipatterns at Startups
The devaluation also stems from the underlying belief that HR is NOT a specialized function requiring domain knowledge and experience, but rather a "supplemental" part or outgrowth of other jobs. That HR serves merely to save the company from extreme situations or intervene when employee relations have broken down in a catastrophic way. That HR is a matter of filling in a checkbox, rather than worthy of the same care and nurturing as the technical areas of the business. That HR is just another "soft skill" largely irrelevant to the founding and building of technology. That "anyone can do it" and that the roles and responsibilities typically taken on by HR - and the problems it addresses - will magically be taken care of by the startup's "meritocratic" culture.Shanley Kane talks about the lack of proper HR at many startups and why this is a problem.
"So, like, what are you?"
A microaggression is defined as "a question, a comment, even an intended compliment, sometimes, that nevertheless suggests something demeaning." (More from NPR.) The Microaggressions Tumblr publishes experiences with all kinds of microaggressions. [more inside]
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