August 26, 2015
Try the New Cat Door
Philo 1, Human 0 (warning: vertical format, single link youtube)
We are people, just like them
"...pretty much all biologists love junk."
Last night, Virginia Tech grad student Ann Hilborn, her labmate Chris Rowe, and their research supervisor Marcella Kelly were posting pictures of animal genitals on their lab’s Twitter account (@Whapavt). When Hilborn added some more from her collection, one of their readers called it a “junk-off”. And thus a hashtag was born. [NSFW?]
The songs were about London...if you want to be particular, South London
Squeeze - Take Me I'm Yours (2012) | Squeeze - Bands Reunited (2003). Previously: Up the Clapham Junction
The Struma Disaster
The Beat Generation
The Word is Beat: Poetry, Jazz, Literature and the Beat Generation "It is the aspiration of much literature that it wants to change the way we look at the world, but few authors and poets have been as influential as the group of writers labeled the Beat Generation. They saw a lot that they did not like about American society in the fifties when they came of age, and they did their best to change it through their literature and a new practice of living."
Rare nautilus sighted for the first time since 1984
Meet the new carbon-fiber-based economy?
Scientist develops technique for sucking carbon out of the air, making stuff out of it. Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: A new electrochemical process pulls carbon from the air, and creates carbon nanofibers and oxygen.
The Naked Truth
What's All This Hubbub About Topless Women In Times Square? [NSFW]
Over the past two weeks, top New York officials — from Mayor Bill de Blasio to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and even former governor George Pataki — have been grumbling about the rising presence of topless performers, known as Desnudas, in Times Square. Is the famous pedestrian plaza going back to the bad old days, or is this just the petulant whining of some grumpy old men? Here's what to make of it.
Over the past two weeks, top New York officials — from Mayor Bill de Blasio to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and even former governor George Pataki — have been grumbling about the rising presence of topless performers, known as Desnudas, in Times Square. Is the famous pedestrian plaza going back to the bad old days, or is this just the petulant whining of some grumpy old men? Here's what to make of it.
With Muppets, It's NOT Dismaland
Of course, Disney is the media master of cross-property promotion. And there are a LOT of Muppet videos popping onto YouTube in preparation for their new fall series (on Disney-owned ABC). So this was natural (if not inevitable): MUPPETS DOING DRAMATIC READINGS OF THE LYRICS OF DISNEYLAND ATTRACTION SONGS.
First was Bunsen and Beaker with "A Pirate's Life For Me."(maybe TOO dramatic)
Then Floyd and Animal of the Electric Mayhem with "It's A Small World." (what could go wrong?)
And most recently, Rowlf with "Grim Grinning Ghosts" from The Haunted Mansion. (solo, but not quite) [more inside]
First was Bunsen and Beaker with "A Pirate's Life For Me."(maybe TOO dramatic)
Then Floyd and Animal of the Electric Mayhem with "It's A Small World." (what could go wrong?)
And most recently, Rowlf with "Grim Grinning Ghosts" from The Haunted Mansion. (solo, but not quite) [more inside]
Google has a secret candidate-finding technique
"If Google sees that you're searching for specific programming terms, they'll ask you to apply for a job. It's wild." "I typed 'request; and half expected to see 'Follow the white rabbit, Max.' Instead, the screen displayed a paragraph outlining a programming challenge and gave instructions on how to submit my solution. I had 48 hours to solve it, and the timer was ticking."
“I’m a white guy and an African; the son of Europeans and Mozambicans;”
Novelist Mia Couto discusses his hopes for conservation after the death of Cecil the lion, and his memories of Mozambique’s bloody civil war. [The Guardian] [more inside]
The Opposite of Cold Fusion
The online edition of Science magazine reports that the private and secretive company Tri Alpha Energy, has built a machine that forms a ball of superheated gas—at about 10 million degrees Celsius—and holds it steady for 5 milliseconds, calling the achievement "a significant step toward mastering nuclear fusion"
Legend lets New Jersey man near her '61 Cadillac
Darlene Love's new music video features cameos from Joan Jett, Bill Murray, Paul Shaffer, her 'Forbidden Nights' songwriter Elvis Costello, and her album's producer, Steven Van Zandt, who once called her "the greatest singer in the world." Van Zandt appears in the video being strangled by another Love collaborator and fan, Bruce Springsteen. [more inside]
An Oral History of Theodore Rex
Previously, we were left with unanswered questions like: Why did Whoopi agree to make this movie? Why did she want out? Why wouldn't she want out? Who would think to make a buddy cop sci-fi comedy starring a dinosaur? And for the love of God, why? Finally, we get (some of) the answers.
No White Flags
"The hurricane lives in a complicated place. Everyone's experience is both communal and personal, obvious and hidden. The memory of the death is everywhere, buried in shallow and temporary graves." (SL Longform ESPN)
Find the porn, boy! Find it! Get the porn! Good boy!
"I just want to be there, if they ever do find a cure."
An oral history of "Longtime Companion." The first major release movie to deal with the AIDS epidemic, 1990's Longtime Companion focuses on a group of gay friends in New York City, revisiting them one day per year starting in 1981. Bruce Davison won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. [more inside]
Big Dig
In Baylor County, paleontologists are assembling clues to the prehistoric world of Dimetrodon. [previously]
"I felt a little bit f'ed over after the last conference call with them"
In 2013 computer researcher David Kriesel discovered that certain Xerox scanners were altering numbers in the documents they scanned (MeFi post) At the recent FrOSCon, Kriesel gave an hour-long talk recounting his experiences discovering and reporting the problem, with lots of details on what it was like dealing with a large multi-national corporation like Xerox, and what the impacts and fall-out of his discovery have been. (SPOILER: Germany has eliminated JBIG2 as a legally admissible scan format.)
Can they claim a senator as a tax deduction?
H&R Block lobbied for a longer, more complicated Earned Income Tax Credit schedule, to encourage lower-income households to use their services. (SLVox) [more inside]
Music industry sexism
"Gals/other marginalized folks: what was your 1st brush (in music industry, journalism, scene) w/ idea that you didn't 'count'?" This tweet from Jessica Hopper kicked off a thread that lasted 2 days, with over 400 stories being shared. Storify of the full thread. Trigger warning for sexism, harrassment, rape.
Not as massive as Zero Freitas collection
The vinyl collection of Aussie music aficionado Brad Miocevich: "Cataloging 30,000 LPs was a nightmare"... (Previously).
Hey now, hey now now, sing some other tracks for me
A three-hour mixtape of Goth history - a selection of nearly 50 tracks of early-to-mid eighties Goth classics that goes a lot deeper than your standard Bau'd Hauses and Sisters of the Mercy. Part of the Secret Thirteen mixes, a series nearly 160 sets deep of interesting and offbeat sonic collections. [more inside]
Everything you always wanted to know about panda sex
Since the pandas’ arrival, the team at Edinburgh zoo had already tried three times to breed the bears – with considerable fanfare and public attention – and each attempt had ended in disappointment. After a thoroughgoing review of these attempts in late 2014, this year’s season carried with it a sense of added pressure. But the keepers had also come up with one or two new tricks. A few weeks earlier, Maclean had daubed urine from Long Hui, an impressive male panda kept at Schönbrunn zoo, in Vienna, all over Yang Guang and Tian Tian’s enclosures, in order to spice the air with competition and possibility. “She spent a lot of time sniffing and seeing what was going on,” said Maclean. “He came out and was just like, ‘Whoa!’ He was all over the place.”
The cold plains of infinity
Take a pixel tour of the universe with French cartoonist Boulet (previously on metafilter). Soundtrack: Le grand pan • Roxanne • Message in a Bottle. Bonus: Pixel quantum physics.
They most certainly are giants
Young Marble Giants was a dawn-of-the-80s three-piece Welsh band that released just three records - one LP and two EPs. With virtually no sales and deeply diffident about touring, YMG should by rights have vanished without trace like so many of their one shot post-punk peers. But no. Tomorrow, they're the star turn at fanboy David Byrne's Meltdown festival at the Royal Festival Hall. [more inside]
Istanbul’s city planners have a problem: too much history
If fifteen houses are built on top of one another, which one is the most important?
The Big Dig, a long read about shipwrecks under Istanbul, archaeological "surplus", Neolithic footprints, elephants fed to lions, and the collision of modern city planning imperatives with a glut of priceless antiquities. SLNewYorker. [more inside]
Outerpants included
Happiness is a warm puppy... holiday. It's National Dog Day!
Happy National Dog Day! Here are NDD's 20 ways to celebrate this, the finest of all holidays. For the next ~30 hours, you can post a photo of your pup to the National Dog Day Facebook page (or any other social media site) with the hashtags #NationalDogDay and #DogDayCutestDog to enter them into a quest for the title of Cutest Dog... IN THE WORLD. [more inside]
Let's Watch Some Bouldering Videos
Bouldering is a form of rock climbing without ropes or harness, generally over short, low routes with only a crash pad for protection. Watch Louis Parkinson, Sasha DiGiulian, and Chris Sharma do some amazing work. [more inside]
Put your glad rags on, join the hop.
Mark Havens photographs the out-of-season motels of Wildwoods:
1 // Kona Kai // palms
Wildwood Motels: Midcentury Modern for Everybody [more inside]
Wildwood Motels: Midcentury Modern for Everybody [more inside]
Jedi Backup Dancers
Darth Punk - The Funk Awakens (SLYT) One day Vader and Fett will recruit for the the dark side, disguised as an electronic music duo... they will be arresting ears and administering intergalactic rhythm and beats. The Rebels won't stand a chance. This is their music video, featuring 'Dj Gonk'. Courtesy of The Mary Sue
"democracy is a shitty way to evaluate art"
someone in a casual setting doing a thing on their device
These are all very different services. Several of them are cool and useful, but it’s hard to tell them apart. - Send In The Clones
Tandem Computers
Remembering Tandem Computers: "Tandem was an archetype Silicon Valley company with stock options, an emphasis on taking chances, a recognition that sometimes the answer lies in a place where no one else has thought to go." The company was founded in 1974 by Jimmy Treybig. Though largely forgotten today, Tandem's surviving legacy is the NonStop line of servers, now owned by Hewlett-Packard.
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