September 19, 2016
Umbasa!
Duckfeed.tv is a frighteningly prolific videogame and pop culture podcast network founded by Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross. Though best known for the Dark Souls/Bloodborne podcast Bonefireside Chat and the 'video game bookclub' Watch Out For Fireballs, the network also includes shows about bad games, D&D monsters and 90s music videos. Duckfeed has so many ideas for podcasts they even have a podcast devoted to podcast ideas. The network also hosts sites like Hex Crank (Kole's survival horror blog) and the inevitable Youtube and Twitch channels.
The Catkeeper of Aleppo
When hundreds of cats started to hang out in front of one man's apartment building in Aleppo, Syria, Mohammad Alaa Ajaleel decided it was his lot to take care of the cats of war. So the electrician-turned-ambulance driver built a cat sanctuary-slash-children's-playground amongst the rubble. “My role as a rescuer is not to differentiate between those who need help,” Aljaleel said. “To love the small, weak cats is to love everything.” Alaa's love is energetic: in the last months he's built a well to help his neighbors access clean water, saved a girl in his volunteer ambulance(content warning: graphic), and had multiple children's parties, inside when necessary, outside in the sanctuary when a cease-fire permitted it. [more inside]
'I wish the flippin' idiot had paced it right'
Alistair Brownlee helping his brother Jonny over the line after he was close to collapse on the final stretch of the World Triathlon Series in Cozumel, Mexico. Afterwards, Alistair said he would have helped anyone in that position, it's the right thing to do, but added “I wish the flippin' idiot had just paced it right and won the race. He could have jogged the last 2km.” [more inside]
Musical Passage
We invite you to listen in on a musical gathering that took place in Jamaica in 1688. These three songs, 'Angola', 'Papa' and 'Koromanti', performed at a festival by enslaved African musicians and copied in musical notation by a Mr Baptiste, are the first transcription of African music in the Caribbean, and, indeed, probably in the Americas. Thanks to this remarkable artifact, we can listen to traces of music performed long ago and begin to imagine what it meant for the people who created it.
The day the bleep bloops died
Fabric night club was founded in 1999. (An oral history for the 10th anniversary, a VICE article for the 15th.) For those outside the UK, Fabric might be better known for its long-running mix series. (A few best-ofs from Red Bull Music Academy, Thump, Blisspop, The Quietus, and Fabric’s staff.)
After two drug-related deaths, the club closed temporarily in August. On September 7, the Islington Council permanently revoked Fabric’s license. Eulogies and concerns about the policing of club culture (and one threatened MBE melting) have rolled in: Resident Advisor, NPR, The New York Times, The Guardian (drugs), The Guardian (club culture), Billboard, Fader. [more inside]
After two drug-related deaths, the club closed temporarily in August. On September 7, the Islington Council permanently revoked Fabric’s license. Eulogies and concerns about the policing of club culture (and one threatened MBE melting) have rolled in: Resident Advisor, NPR, The New York Times, The Guardian (drugs), The Guardian (club culture), Billboard, Fader. [more inside]
'Praying is not enough'
“Ooooh, floor pie!”
‘Five-Second Rule’ for Food on Floor Is Untrue, Study Finds [The New York Times] “You may think your floors are so clean you can eat off them, but a new study debunking the so-called five-second rule would suggest otherwise. Professor Donald W. Schaffner, a food microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said a two-year study he led concluded that no matter how fast you pick up food that falls on the floor, you will pick up bacteria with it. The findings in the report — “Is the Five-Second Rule Real?” — appeared online this month in the American Society for Microbiology’s journal, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.”
Helicoprion, the buzz-saw shark, one of the truly unique ancient animals
The fossil remains of Helicoprion are limited to some crushed cartilage and its teeth, which aren't unusual for fossil remains of sharks and shark-like fish. But those teeth are unique: formed in a spiral saw-type formation, known as a spiral dentition or toothwhorl, with the older teeth pushed into the center of the spiral by the newer teeth. Since a whorl was first discovered in 1899, there have been a number of theories about how the teeth were used, leading to numerous creative but largely untested reconstructions, until 2013, when a new CT scan enabled the researchers to make a new, improved reconstruction of Helicoprion. That scientific article is not so visually exciting, so let's enjoy Ray Troll's illustrations, and Mary Parrish's updated illustration. [more inside]
Denied
How Texas keeps tens of thousands of children out of special education.
"Walker knew the law was on her side. Since 1975, Congress has required public schools in the United States to provide specialized education services to all eligible children with any type of disability. But what she didn't know is that in Texas, unelected state officials have quietly devised a system that has kept thousands of disabled kids like Roanin out of special education." [more inside]
"Walker knew the law was on her side. Since 1975, Congress has required public schools in the United States to provide specialized education services to all eligible children with any type of disability. But what she didn't know is that in Texas, unelected state officials have quietly devised a system that has kept thousands of disabled kids like Roanin out of special education." [more inside]
Sex Ed Without the Sex
Baclofen: the controversial pill that could 'cure' alcoholism
France is ground zero for clinical research on Baclofen, a drug said to eliminate alcohol cravings. The medication will soon be more accessible than ever – but not everyone thinks that’s a good thing. (slTheGrauniad)
Real estate agencies are very bad at prize-level pacing.
Shea Serrano of The Ringer is fact-checking famous movie speeches. He started with Alec Baldwin's Glengarry Glen Ross "Third prize is you're fired" speech, and has now applied his keen eye to Joe Pesci's Goodfellas "I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you?" speech. Serrano brings the rigor and precision that only a former middle-school science teacher can bring to this important work.
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