August 27, 2019
Why are #MeToo’s latest critics shaming women?
Critiques by journalist Emily Yoffe and others blame women for speaking out. It’s no surprise that one response at this particular point in #MeToo has been to argue that while the movement is valid, it has gone too far. This was the subtext of Jane Mayer’s recent New Yorker investigation into the allegations against former Sen. Al Franken. (Previously) And in a recent story in the libertarian magazine Reason, Emily Yoffe makes the critique more explicitly, arguing that allegations against former Los Angeles Times reporter Jonathan Kaiman reveal deep flaws in the movement. [more inside]
Hasegawa
Hasegawa Takejirō was a late 19th century Japanese publisher, specializing books for Western audiences. Kyoto University of Foreign Studies has a gallery of his woodcut chirimen-bon (crepe paper books).
Some of the books feature distinctive calligraphic English brushwork text, now turned into a typeface.
keepin' it thirty-six
A thirsy-one pernif joking / dozen-five pernif serious argument for base six, and not base 12, gross, from the conlang critic YouTube channel (self-described as "the most superficial commentator on con-languages since the idiotic B. Gilson"), which usually critiques constructed languages like IS, Novial, Dothraki, Zese, Skyrim's Dovahzul, Na'vi, Klingon, and his favorite Toki Pona, among others; also featuring a history of w and, uh, whatever this is.
THE WONDER FUL MAGIC TO TELL THE FORTUNE!
Unseal the infinite majesty of the Fortune Teller Fish, aka everyone's favorite novelty use of sodium polyacrylate. Can it really read your mind? Science says: absolutely not! This little miracle fish may have been around since the 1800s--it's definitely been spotted since 1900 as a free giveaway with your purchase of (what else?) baking powder--and has made appearances all over the world. So: are you passionate, jealous, indifferent, or a dead one?
What can the canary in the coal mine tell us?
Benthic (meaning “bottom-dwelling”) macroinvertebrates are small aquatic animals and the aquatic larval stages of insects. From highly sensitive stoneflies to those much more tolerant of pollution, like hydropsychid caddisflies, what bugs you find in your local streams tells you how clean the water is as they serve as bioindicators. [more inside]
Just some ducks jumping out of a box (SLYT)
The Cutest Eels!
The Strange Life of Garden Eels "Garden eels live a strange life. They anchor themselves to the ocean floor using their own mucus, and contort into strange shapes and positions to catch plankton. Find out more about these weird and wonderful stay-at-home fish." Adorable! (SLYT)
They call it love, we call it unwaged work.
When Your Boss Is Also Your Boyfriend “How about instead of pretending I’m miraculously going to start cooking and shopping one day, we admit that you’re ‘doing work’ and not just ‘being my girlfriend,’ and I start paying you to do it.” I said, “How much?”
just absolutely wet as hell
"Now, even my cat has its own page."--Bill Clinton
From the moment in 1991 when he jumped into a young Chelsea Clinton's arms after her piano lesson [citation needed], Socks the cat led a charmed life. [more inside]
What do old books smell like?
Chocolate, cocoa, chocolatey, coffee, old, wood or burnt (The Guardian)? Musty, mossy or mushroomy (Science History)? Coal fire, old inn, fish market or dirty linen (Heritage Science Journal)? [more inside]
He was known as the Bear Man of Dushanbe
An old man with a bushy white beard and his bear, Maria (Flickr), were a regular fixture in the Tajik capital for the over 20 years, strolling along streets, posing for photos, even riding public transport (Pikchaz blog). In 2015, Tajik social media users wanted to raise money to build a statue of "bear man" Talabshoh Sheikhov and Maria, both of whom died in 2013. (RadioFreeEurope / RadioLiberty) [more inside]
“One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back.”
Old school episodes of Doctor Who everyone should watch. An old but still good article from 2012 that does what it says on the tin. [more inside]
Hunt. Kill. Survive.
In preparation for its October airing, Adult Swim has released a two minute trailer for Genndy Tartakovsky's new miniseries, Primal. (SLYT) [more inside]
"The only way I see out is to no longer play football."
Andrew Luck is a 29-year-old multimillionaire who recently decided not to continue to punish his body and his brain (transcript) for the entertainment of the 28th largest U.S. media market. Those who've faced Andrew Luck's choice know why he made it.
Otters everywhere are cute, but in Bangladesh they are otterly a-luring.
The vanishing art of fishing with otters. And since three and a half minutes of otter fishing surely isn't enough, here's another video on the subject.
times when hippos freely wandered around Leeds
The hippos that time forgot ... in Leeds [The Guardian, 2010]. Why the hippo that time forgot is at centre of Armley Town Street mural and
Introducing The Armley Hippo [West Leeds Dispatch]
America on a Stick
A taste of Americana in its most portable, edible form - food on a stick, from bacon-wrapped riblets to a Caprese salad to a deep-fried Twinkie — at the Iowa State Fair. [more inside]
Thank you, Kenny!
Farmers don't normally name their poultry and livestock, but that rule doesn't apply at Caenhill Countryside Centre, an educational farm in Wiltshire, UK. Chris Franklin lets the gang out of the barn to start a new day and greets each one of the ducks, geese, chickens, and goats by name: Bunson, Bo, Cuthbert, Owen, Jean, Cee Cee, Catherine, Gilbert and Sully, Bumblebee, Lucy, Socks (the kitten), Kenny, and the rest. Thank you, Kenny! [more inside]
Where Did The Past Go?
European-derived antisemitism functions by locking Jews into middle agent roles: once some Jews have climbed to the middle rungs of society’s ladder of race and class privilege, then, during times of economic downturn and social instability, Jews as a group “can be perceived as the ones ‘in charge’ by other oppressed groups,” who are encouraged to “fix [their] gaze on an imagined group of greedy, powerful Jews at the root of the world’s problems.” Ben Lorber for the Jewish Current on April Rosenblum’s influential pamphlet.
Here's How You Weigh a Baby Giraffe
(Twitter thread). Lots of baby animals getting weighed! This involves some zookeepers holding the babies (the BIG BABIES) some babies in bowls, some babies in cups, and some babies holding stuffed animals that look like their moms.
When Giant Penguins Roamed Florida: 1948
Emperor penguins, the largest penguins living today, stand 48 inches tall. Mere fleas next to their ancient cousins the extinct penguin family Palaeeudyptinae which could grow 6.5 feet tall and weight 253lb. But even these are small compared to the giant penguin roaming clearwater in 1948. Giant footprints were spotted near waterfronts and rivers over a period of years. The giant penguins were sited repeatedly and a naturalists estimated based on the size and spacing of its tracks that the penguin was 15 feet tall and likely weighed 2000 pounds. The tracks stopped appearing in 1957 and "Florida Three Toes" as the penguin was named, did not emerge again until 1988.
“...diverse games are nice, but diverse studios are better.”
There's A Latinx Void At The Heart Of Video Games [Kotaku] “Latinx art abounds: I found music I could listen to, books I could read, movies I could watch as I put myself back together to face the world and do my part. Here’s what messes me up: I didn’t know where to look for that in video games. It’s not that there aren’t spaces, people working towards making video games a more distinctly diverse place. [...] Latinx folks are out there. Yet the video games that have broken into the wider public consciousness—in the biggest games and the biggest studios—do not seem to care all that much.” [more inside]
Pavlov's Ducks: Ding dong ducks commit lunch time crime
Bishop's Palace in Wells, Somerset has a 150 year old tradition of swans training humans to provide bread on demand at the ring of a bell, but recently ducks have been muscling in on the bell ringing action.
Keep up with the latest swan news here.
Weaponised what now? [TW: images of ticks]
The US House of Representatives has called for an investigation [Guardian] into whether the spread of Lyme disease had its roots in a Pentagon experiment in weaponising ticks. The House approved an amendment proposed by a Republican congressman from New Jersey, Chris Smith, instructing the defence department’s inspector general to conduct a review of whether the US “experimented with ticks and … insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975”. [more inside]
Texts and Shrugs and Rock and Roll
Quartz analyzed the data, and this is a trend with legs. In the last week of December 2018, just eight of the 200 songs on Spotify’s top 200 streaming songs were either all uppercase or all lowercase. In 2019, more than 30 songs in a typical week have non-standard capitalization. The rise of all-lowercase and all-uppercase song titles [Quartz] [more inside]
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