August 20, 2013
I die a little
"My first taste of Europe. My first realisation that a border is just a line – you cross it and nothing changes. No, everything changes. You are in another world, which is both exactly the same and entirely different." When you leave a country to live somewhere else, where is home?
"You've got to be a little sick in the head to take a moral stand."
"In every society, democratic or totalitarian, the sensible, grown-up thing to do is to commit to the long haul of sleazy conformity. The rewards are mostly guaranteed: if not freedom or happiness, then respectability and degree of security. What spoils it is the obstinate few who do otherwise – those, absurdly, who actually believe in the necessary fictions; enough to be moved and angered by the difference between what an organisation does in reality and what it says in public." (SLGrauniad)
Operators will avoid flying during the Temple burn.
New Policy on Drones. Black Rock City Drones that is.
And a very cheery and relaxation-inducing 5-minute video shot with such an UAV (Unmanned aerial Vehicle). Floating around the Burning Man playa. [more inside]
And a very cheery and relaxation-inducing 5-minute video shot with such an UAV (Unmanned aerial Vehicle). Floating around the Burning Man playa. [more inside]
Lock them in separate rooms and do experiments on them
"Unlike most teen dramas, Buffy wasn’t a narrative about finding an identity; it was always about having a lot of them." Kim O'Connor for The Toast on Buffy Summers, growing up, identity, and how saving the world every week is a better model than just getting through high school.
Gertrude Zachary's "Skid Row" Castle
You might recognize the name Gertrude Zachary if you've been in the Albuquerque, NM area and have seen the billboards for her jewelry, or if you watch Breaking Bad, you might have noticed one of her shops (more location details). If you've driven around the Old Town are of Albuquerque, you might have seen the purple and green jewelry store (Google maps streetview), vaguely reminiscent of the pueblo deco style. But Zachary's greatest architectural legacy is her European-style castle on "skid row", seen in this photo gallery and profiled in this local news segment. [more inside]
All to do with honor and country
Why particle physics matters [no pun intended]. Physicists from around the world talk about why we study the nature of the universe. [via] [more inside]
...you're a jerk; shoulda got a Nobel for my work...
I'm not good at filling out these things rock climbing Doctor Who
We fired the band.
Isolatedvocals is a SoundCloud user that posts iso'd vocal tracks from a variety of pop songs. The tracks range from Outkast's mind-bendingly impressive vocal track on B.O.B., to the unhinged-sounding vocal track on the Pixies' Debaser. Somewhere in the middle, the user has also posted vocal tracks from Come out and Play by The Offspring, No Rain by Blind Melon, Say It Ain't So by Weezer, among others (and even more over on Reddit).
Introduction to Transness
A brief overview of the history and significant concepts applicable to the development and understanding of a transcentric approach to the dignity, civil rights, and human rights of trans people: Introduction to Transness (scribd link), by Antonia D'orsay. [more inside]
A Sufi walks into a radio station...
"Where are you from?" "Chicago." "Chicago? Go Blackhawks!"
Webcomics artist Sarah Becan and her partner traveled to Montreal in June. She illustrated the culinary highlights of their trip for Saveur magazine.
Ex Urbe
"But Freud had a second fear: a fear of Rome's layers. In formal treatises, he compared the psyche to an ancient city, with many layers of architecture built one on top of another, each replacing the last, but with the old structures still present underneath. In private writings he phrased this more personally, that he was terrified of ever visiting Rome because he was terrified of the idea of all the layers and layers and layers of destroyed structures hidden under the surface, at the same time present and absent, visible and invisible. He was, in a very deep way, absolutely right." [more inside]
“This is like the weighing of souls.”
Christie's Auction House is set to appraise The Detroit Institute of Art's holdings as part an accounting of Detroit's assets. According to Art Market Monitor, the danger of the appraisal now taking place ... is that it will reveal a much greater value than the $2.5bn bandied about recently.
Todd Levin, a Detroit-born art adviser and director of the Levin Art Group in New York, said the value of the museum’s entire 60,000-piece collection would have to be significantly higher — “at least in the low to mid-11 figures, In other words, at least $10 billion to $20 billion. (Previously)
l2p, AI.
In April, we covered an AI that learns to play NES games. Youtube user suckerpinch has returned with a new video that provides a bit more info about LearnFun and PlayFun, and much more footage of it doing okay at video games.
The Problem with Privilege
"The logics of privilege rest on an individualized self that relies on the raw material of other beings to constitute itself. Although the confessing of privilege is understood to be an anti-racist practice, it is ultimately a project premised on white supremacy."Andrea Smith on The Problem with 'Privilege'.
Our feet would never forgive us.
I sat her on my lap and went to the official Lego website. She dismissed every Lego City kit that I pointed to. She had her eyes set on a kit that I was pretending not to see. [more inside]
Practical Typography
Practical Typography "For all those who need to communicate clearly and even add a modicum of aesthetic value to their messages, this publication provides everything you always wanted to ask but didn’t know how to." [via]
I was into Kitty Metal way before it got all mainstream...
Drawing on inspiration from Andrew Huang's highly entertaining Alphabetical 26 Genre Song [previously], Nick Galvan has given us the Alphabetical 26 Genre Metal Song. [via]
I paint my maps with a broad brush.
Which US State is the most overrated? Which would you like to see kicked out of America? Which has the weirdest accent? Which has the best food? Business Insider polls Americans across the country on important questions like these and maps the results. [more inside]
"Riding with the Ghost"
Panzer Dragoon was a series of video games released between 1995 and 2003. Created by Yukio Futatsugi, the series quickly became a hit among gamers for its arial combat and great soundtrack. And if that weren't enough, apparently the ending of the third installment helps explain the Holy Trinity.
The Duality of the Southern Thing
The New(er) South, a 2013 essay by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers reexamines the questions and contradictions of the American south originally explored in their 2001 album Southern Rock Opera. [more inside]
Out of sight, but not out of mind
One of the 20th century's most prolific and well regarded authors of crime fiction, Elmore Leonard, has died at the age of 87, following a stroke two weeks ago. Leonard's novels and short stories were frequently adapted to movies and television, with particular acclaim in the cases of Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Jackie Brown, and Justified.
Penguin Dilemma
GrokLaw shuts down in wake of Lavabit closure
Last post at groklaw ~pj a.k.a. Pamela Jones, the writer behind the law analysis site groklaw, has decided to shut down in the wake of the closure of Lavabit confidential email service. [more inside]
New Orleans Firemen rescue hawk
Rescuing a kitten from a tree is child's play compared to the crew of Engine No. 35's capture of a hawk in City Park early Sunday evening (Aug. 18). A resident called the New Orleans Fire Department to report a hawk trailing a long length of twine, tangled in a tree. "I don't like how he is looking at me" said Andy Monteverde, a firefighter working up the nerve to grab the hawk. Capt. Mark Shubert encouraged F/F Andy, "Just grab a handful of leg." Scroll down for the live action video. [more inside]
Being loyal to a corporation is sick. It is genuine madness.
A corporation is not a living creature. It has no soul. It has no heart. It has no feelings. It can neither experience towards you nor enjoy from you even the concept of loyalty. It is a legal fiction, and it exists for one purpose only: to make profit. If you assist in this goal in the long term, your ongoing association with the organization is facilitated. If you detract from it consistently, you will be cut. Family is “where they have to take you in no matter what you’ve done.” A corporation is… well, it’s sort of the exact opposite of this.Be loyal to yourself.
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