September 12, 2020
Ironic normcore trifles for the aspiring middle
In the market for a toothbrush? A razor? Sheets? A mattress? A belt?? Sick of buying stuff from “the man”? Good news! There’s an uncorporate, VC-funded, pastel-colored bland out there catering to your aspirational, values-oriented, “premium mediocre” consumer whims.
Alanis Morissette: Keynote Conversation with Ann Powers
NPR Music and The Museum of Pop Culture present the opening keynote session for the 2020 Pop Conference “Forever Young: Popular Music and Youth Across the Ages” Featuring seven-time GRAMMY® Award-winning singer/songwriter ALANIS MORISSETTE in conversation with NPR Music critic ANN POWERS [1h10m] [more inside]
I don’t know what I expected
You don’t need to be a certifiable pen dork... but it helps.
The US tosses out 1.6 billion pens a year. Ballpoint pens were first patented in 1888, but it wasn't until Biro came up with the idea of using thicker ink 50 years later that they became a mass-market item. The Bic pen guy was the first to really capitalize on this; he died in 1994. Refillable pens don't have to cost a fortune. Disposable pens don't need to be terrible for the environment. You can use a felt-tip pen with refills. [more inside]
Next Ordinal Level is at ψ(Ω^(Ω^2+ω))
Ordinal Markup is a game where you increment ordinal numbers a lot. By clicking. Or idling. [more inside]
This Woman Surfed the Biggest Wave of the Year
"It's pure manipulation of the consumer."
How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled - NPR and PBS Frontline spent months digging into internal industry documents and interviewing top former officials. We found that the industry sold the public on an idea it knew wouldn't work — that the majority of plastic could be, and would be, recycled — all while making billions of dollars selling the world new plastic.
The industry's awareness that recycling wouldn't keep plastic out of landfills and the environment dates to the program's earliest days, we found. "There is serious doubt that [recycling plastic] can ever be made viable on an economic basis," one industry insider wrote in a 1974 speech.
A $90,000 Dome Home To Give Your Life Purpose
I have 72 saved searches on Zillow dot com. Some of these searches result in a daily email appearing in my inbox: a tight, cozy, completed list of the new houses that meet my search criteria. Sometimes I’ll get emails alerting me to every single house that arrives on the site as it appears, which is to say dozens of times per day. I have no idea how to change this, and I refuse to learn because the only hobby I’ve managed to maintain throughout this fire tornado of a year is scanning, with glazed eyes, through photos of dozens of houses I cannot afford and will not buy. I do this as a reward for completing the series of menial tasks and chores my life has become. [more inside]
Design for the Commons
Failure is not an option
From 2024, films competing for the Best Picture Oscar will need to meet new diversity requirements for actors, production, training, and marketing, but some believe the new rules will usher in less change than hoped for. Meanwhile, BAFTA is reviewing its voting system following an overwhelming proportion of white, male nominees earlier this year, and is planing to roll out new diversity standards across its TV and games awards by 2022. [more inside]
Disney's remake of the Mulan legend doesn't quite work out as intended
Mulan made $8 million its first day in China and opened to middling reviews in both China and the US. In China, the movie was derided for its historical inaccuracy and compared to "General Tso's chicken". In the US, the movie faced criticism for its lack of representation on the writing team, and for filming in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has been accused of committing human rights abuses. [more inside]
I hope everybody's enjoying their apocalypse
For her latest Tiny Desk Concert, Phoebe Bridgers uses a green screen to sing the first 2-1/2 songs in a virtual Oval Office but at the apocalyptic end of "I Know The End", she gets help from a virtual crowd of fans for the chorus and that final primal scream.(SLYT)
Gotta Collect 'Em All!
Poké Lids are Japanese utility covers with colorful mouldings of Pokémon characters. They are often in lesser known regions of Japan. Link goes to to browsable map; scroll down for possibly addictive merch.
BBC 2 Series Nadiya Bakes
Nadiya Hussain shares her love of baking with some of her favourite recipes. From everyday treats to indulgent desserts, these are guaranteed to bring a little joy into your life.
Math heists, time travel, aliens, and creepy predictions
The Society of Actuaries has held a regular speculative fiction contest since 1995. Actuaries write science fiction about actuarial work, insurance, advances in prediction, and more. In the 13th contest (2019), the winner of the "Most novel prediction forming the basis for the narrative" prize focused on on insurance companies' role in fighting climate change: "We All Have a Green Heart" by Anna Bearrood. (The following links include a lot of PDFs, at least one ZIP file, and scores of of mostly math-heavy science fiction stories, written by amateur authors, often focusing on death, murder, surveillance, creepy conspiracies, implants, and behavior modification.) [more inside]
Toots Hibbert
« Previous day | Next day »