September 15
The sad story of Ricky Bell.
We all just scratched our heads and wondered, ‘Where's the Ricky Bell we all know?'" Ricky Bell, former USC Trojan and member of the College Football Hall of Fame, was the number one pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1977 NFL draft, ahead of Tony Dorsett. But his injury-plagued career resulted in only one brilliant season , until he was traded to the San Diego Chargers in 1982.
Less than three years later, he was dead.
September 14
Don’t blow smoke up my ass
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
Some tasty morsels from the 1920s jazz table
Have you heard the music of Tiny Parham? Though not as celebrated a name as some of his early jazz contemporaries like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong or King Oliver, Tiny's arrangements were inventive, lively and big fun to listen to, and his bands were full of fine players. Here are three slow to medium tempo numbers selected by The Mainspring Press Record Collectors blog that are a good starting point. Then, if you want to get things jumping a little hotter, try Nervous Tension and Sud Buster's Dream. We'll round it out with Tiny's Stomp. Thanks for the music, big man!
Infographic Maps
Where in the world are you most likely to be hit by lightening? Where's the best place to go to totally escape from the Internet? Which countries has Britain *not* invaded? [more inside]
Marty Stouffer's Wild Times
I'm Marty Stouffer, and these are a few of my favorite animals. A strangely hypnotic YT project devoted to the host of the long-running PBS series "Marty Stouffer's Wild America" and his many mentions of wildlife.
TIME MOVES ONLY WHEN YOU MOVE
Conceived as part of the 7 Day FPS Challenge, SUPERHOT (playable in-browser, requires Unity plugin) is an FPS with a neat time mechanic. Trailer on Youtube. Steam Greenlight page.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Caltech and The Feynman Lectures Website are pleased to present this online edition of The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Now, anyone with internet access and a web browser can enjoy reading a high-quality up-to-date copy of Feynman's legendary lectures.
Let's Look at a Clip
A look at the flexible DVR systems and production workflow that powers clips used in television shows like The Colbert Report and others. Other organizations, including the police and local governments use them too.
The sound of galloping horses
The Bluffer's guide to Irish folk: 20 songs from the last 50-odd years of Irish traditional music.
"Well, now they know."
John Banvard, 95, Gerard Nadeau, 67, were married Thursday at a Chula Vista, CA Veterans' senior living facility. Mr. Banvard, a World War II vet, and Mr. Nadeau, a Vietnam vet, have been together for 20 years, and were married at the facility despite the opposition of some residents. In response to the opposition, Mr. Nadeau said, "Oh, that's their problem not mine, but you know what this will do, open the door for other people." [more inside]
FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack
The FBI yesterday acknowledged that it secretly took control of Freedom Hosting last July, days before the servers of the largest provider of ultra-anonymous hosting were found to be serving custom malware designed to identify visitors. [more inside]
Marginalia and Annotations online
In literature, there are two key sorts of annotations: marginalia, or the notes jotted down in the margins by the reader, and additional information formally provided in expanded editions of a text, and you can find a bit of both online. Annotated Books Online is an on-line interactive archive of early modern annotated books, where researchers can share digitized documents and collaborate on translations. For insight into a single author's notes, Melville's Marginalia provides just that. For annotations with additional information, The Thoreau Reader provides context for Walden (linked previously), The Maine Woods, and other writings. Then there's the mostly annotated edition Ulysses, analysis of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo, and the thoroughly annotated US constitution (twentieth amendment linked previously). More marginalia and annotations inside. [more inside]
DC May Look to Raise the Roof(s)
Washington DC has had restrictions on the heights of its buildings since the first year of its existence, thanks to its namesake -- George Washington himself laid down a limit of 40 feet in 1791 (and then suspended the limits, as did several of his successors). The limits waxed and waned over the next century or so until the U.S. Congress, in its capacity as the over-government of America's capital, laid down the Heights of Buildings Act of 1910, setting the upper limit of any building at 130 feet. Now that the city is gaining population again (for the first time since the 1950s), developers and officials may be looking to release the federal height restrictions and give control to the city government (which already has zoning limits in various areas that further restrict heights). The WaPo provides a visualization demonstrating what the skyline might look like if the limits are raised, or even if areas filled out to the current Height Act maximums.
Two attractive kids and their Lassie-like fish
If there was ever one man responsible for how an entire generation of American kids dreamed about science, animals, and nature it might be a producer by the name of Ivan Tors. [more inside]
"A sort of fleshly pogo stick..." Lowly was Scarry's favorite creation
Fans of the late Richard Scarry may be happy to know that a new book featuring Scarry's favorite character Lowly Worm is due on the shelves this autumn. From the Guardian article: "The book will feature one of Scarry's best-loved and most ubiquitous [and mysterious] characters, the alpine-hatted, singly-shod Lowly Worm, who drives an applecar and was probably the first worm in space." [more inside]
It's whole new world for Disney princesses.
Disney princesses try to maintain their cultural relevance and popularity by cross-dressing, twerking, and hitting the hottest (and fakest) magazine covers.
Ghost Stories
Ghost Stories is a series of animated shorts by the Late Night Work Club, a group of animators working with their spare time and funding.
Hulk's Essential Reading List
Film Crit Hulk recommends "136 great books for your eyeballs".
Cosmic infection
SETI chief astronomer Seth Shostak on how soon we might find evidence for extraterrestrial life (SLYT)
X Inactivation and Epigenetics
X inactivation is a type of gene dosage compensation. In humans, the sex chromosomes X and Y determine the sex of an individual - females have two X chromosomes (XX), males have one X and one Y chromosome (XY). All of the genes on the Y chromosome are required in male development, while the genes on the X chromosome are needed for both male and female development. Because females receive two X chromosomes, they inherit two copies of many of the genes that are needed for normal function. Extra copies of genes or chromosomes can affect normal development. An example is Down's syndrome, which is caused by an extra copy of part or all of chromosome 21. In female mammals, a process called X inactivation has evolved to compensate for the extra X chromosome. In X inactivation, each cell 'switches off' one of its X chromosomes, chosen at random, to ensure the correct number of genes are expressed, and to prevent abnormal development.
Here is a helpful eleven minute description of what it is and why it's important by Etsuko Uno and metafilter's own Drew Berry in a fucking gorgeous Goodsell-esque 3D animation.[more inside]
September 13
The Bible as fanwank and flamewars
Confused about who wrote the Bible we have, and why? Jim MacDonald has the answers. How was the Canon of the Christian Bible selected? There really isn't a better, or funnier, short account than this. After all, if fandom is a religion, then religions must work like fandom, right? And the epistolatory disputes of late antiquity were just Usenet to the Greeks. So if you want to know how the Doctrine of the Trinity became important, this will explain it: [more inside]
Making school better for boys.
Sarah Silverman post-roast
Burning Man Explains Rembert
As part of his summerlong Explaining America roadtrip series, Grantland's Rembert Browne visited Black Rock City for the first time. He does his best to relate the experience in a two-part piece. Part 1:Getting There / Part 2:Burning There.
"The work of yakkers and tweeters and braggers..."
Speed Kills Your Pocketbook
Why is Zambia so poor?
Why is Zambia so poor?
"I’m not going to tell Zambia how to run itself, what it needs to fix and in what order. The explanations I heard, they aren’t the whole puzzle, they aren’t even the biggest pieces. The only thing I’m able to conclude after my trip here is that it’s incredibly difficult for a poor country to go about getting un-poor. Just when you think you’ve got the right narrative, another one comes bursting out of the footnotes. It’s the informality. No, it’s the taxes. No, it’s the mining companies. No, it’s the regulators.
And that’s what makes fixing it so difficult."
This landlocked country in Sub-Saharan Africa isn’t a failed state in the traditional sense: There’s no dictator, no child soldiers. But most of its 14 million people live on less than $1 per day. How did things get this way, and can they ever get better?
"I’m not going to tell Zambia how to run itself, what it needs to fix and in what order. The explanations I heard, they aren’t the whole puzzle, they aren’t even the biggest pieces. The only thing I’m able to conclude after my trip here is that it’s incredibly difficult for a poor country to go about getting un-poor. Just when you think you’ve got the right narrative, another one comes bursting out of the footnotes. It’s the informality. No, it’s the taxes. No, it’s the mining companies. No, it’s the regulators.
And that’s what makes fixing it so difficult."
This landlocked country in Sub-Saharan Africa isn’t a failed state in the traditional sense: There’s no dictator, no child soldiers. But most of its 14 million people live on less than $1 per day. How did things get this way, and can they ever get better?
20 years, black cat, black cat
It's been twenty years since Dante Ferrando opened the Black Cat Club on 14th St in DC. The neighborhood has changed immeasurably, but the music is still going.
The Kessler Syndrome
After nearly 5000 launches, we've put a lot of objects in space. Amongst them are around half a million pieces of debris, generated by explosions, breakups and collisions (previously). With speeds of up to 15 km/s, even tiny fragments can cause major damage and the creation of further debris. The Kessler Syndrome describes a situation where the cascade of collisions creates an exponential increase in the amount of debris, leading to a potentially impassable artificial belt in LEO lasting for generations. [more inside]
I'm not wearing anyone, I'm not Buffalo Bill
The Epicenter of Crime
The Hunt's Donuts Story Hunt’s Donuts was a thorn in the side of the police at the heart of a neighborhood that has always been a thorn in the side of the police. . [more inside]
Explain DNA to me like I’m a twelve-year-old
"Read this carefully so that you understand it. When you come home we will show you the model. Lots of love, Daddy." In 1953 Francis Crick, sat down to write his twelve-year-old son Michael a letter explaining his brand-new discovery: the double-helix structure of DNA. Now you can read the original, seven-page hand-written letter, complete with an interactive feature that lets you click for details, context and explanations. Courtesy of the Smithsonian. [more inside]
“Hi, welcome to Gloom City Cupcakes, how can we help you?”
Root beer rag time (SLYT)
Somewhere, Beyond The Sea...
Ahoy, ye landlubbers! Set sail to swash yer buckles with Brawlin' Sailor [Flash], the latest effort from game developer Major Bueno. [Previously]
A splendid, minimal jukebox
Hoot.ch is a cool, beautifully curated music gizmo with new songs almost every day. Dazed electronica, sunny pop, arty rock, stained-glass hip-hop - from John Hopkins to Belle & Sebastian to Pusha T, and lots of unknown gems. Sometimes you just want to sit back and let good songs play. [more inside]
Masters of Global Music at the Smithsonian
The Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries have quietly been posting full-length, downloadable concerts by some of the world's master musicians since 2005. [more inside]
"the greatest unlauded daily strip of the post war age"
Fawkes always noted that “the cartoonists know me as the one who plays the clarinet. The jazz people say I’m the one who does the cartoons.” -- TCJ's Adam Smith interviews British cartoonist & jazz musician Wally Fawkes, who played with the likes of Sidney Bechet and Humphrey "ISIHAC" Lyttelton. He gave up jazz for cartoons and for forty years was the artist on the classic UK newspaper comic Flook, which featured writing by a host of well known names like George Melly, Barry Took, Compton Mackenzie, Barry Norman and Humphrey Lyttelton again.
Every single possible colour
Learning about (your) camera(s) in text and video
If you wanted to understand how cameras work, you could spend some time with your camera manual. If it's not handy (or not helpful), you might opt to read through Wikipedia pages about film speed, ISO and digital equivalents, F-numbers (f-stop* or relative aperture), and depth of field (DOF). If you prefer, you could read "tedious explanations" of f-stop and depth of field and other photographic topics from Matthew Coles. Or you can spend 45 minutes watching 3 videos from YouTube user Dylan Bennett, as he explains ISO, F-stop and depth of field. Then you can join Joe Brady for a few hour-long sessions on setting up your camera for Portrait Photography with Ambient Light and Landscape Photography, and mastering exposure for landscape photography [more inside]
PPP vs 538
Internet darlings Nate Silver and Public Policy Polling are feuding publicly this week, over PPP's decision not to release a polling result that they felt was probably inaccurate. Nate Silver tweeted "VERY bad and unscientific practice for @ppppolls to suppress a polling result they didn't believe/didn't like." And then the Twitter-based snipefest began, with PPP calling Silver's allegations 'absurd' and accusing him of 'jealosy,' while Silver called PPP's actions 'totally indefensible' and accused them of having their 'finger on the scale.' [more inside]
FADE OUT
The Last Thing You See: A Final Shot Montage [contains flashing images]
“!#@$%” = This could be filthy, NSFW language if it weren’t for Grawlix
"Are we really not going to talk about the black girl?"
"Not a lot of rushees get awesome scores," the Tri Delta member said. "Sometimes sisters [of active members] don’t get that. [She] got excellent scores. The only thing that kept her back was the color of her skin in Tri Delt. She would have been a dog fight between all the sororities if she were white."
The University of Alabama's student newspaper reports on all-white sorority chapters' rejection of black applicants, including members' claims that the decisions came not from them but were handed down by alumnae.
[Further coverage in the New York Times.]
Ah, the roaring 12's...
Composer Wesley Johnson (aka jimlapbap) barbershops the heck out of 2012's biggest hits. If you can get past the autotune (as he says, he's a composer, not a vocalist), there's some lovely moments, and apparently his Korean is not too shabby, either. (slyt)
Untitled Ancient Miniature Rules
Playing at the World is a blog about the early days of tabletop RPGs. Select articles include "How Gaming Got Its Dice" (and the followup "The Origins of Dice Notation,") "The Early Works of Gary Gygax, " "A Playtesting Edition of Dungeons & Dragons (1973)" (and the followup "The Dalluhn Manuscript: In Detail and On Display") and "Character Sheets in 1975."
"I will not even go to the strip clubs anymore"
Jeff Wagner would like you to know that he is running for mayor of Minneapolis. (slyt, mostly sfw)
Another take on slide guitar
Hey, the Indian sitar is a great instrument and all, but it's really refreshing to hear Indian music played on Hawaiian slide guitar, and in that department, you can't do better than Debashish Bhattacharya. Here's an hour and fifteen minutes of his sublime sound for your listening pleasure: Calcutta Slide Guitar vol.3.
Geared for jumping
Intermeshing, rotating mechanical gears have been found in an insect. The gears act to ensure that the legs of the hopping insect move at the same rate when jumping, and are lost during molting to an adult stage. Via reddit, where the journalist is participating. Science magazine report (paywalled).
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