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Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, Rep. Tim Ryan (OH), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL), and Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) are among those have been participating in the Live the Wage Challenge, posting on social media about their experiences. The Challenge (pdf) "asks elected officials, community leaders, advocates and anyone concerned about the growing inequality in this country to walk in the shoes of a minimum wage worker by living on a minimum wage budget for one week. That’s just $77."
comment posted at 2:42 PM on Jul-28-14

It's Sunday, and maybe you've got nothing better to do than lie in bed and play A Game About Squares.
comment posted at 11:27 AM on Jul-28-14

On July 27th, the cross Canada journey of hitchBOT will begin in Nova Scotia and make its way to BC as part of an experiment that looks at the interaction between people and increasingly ubiquitous technology.
comment posted at 8:32 AM on Jul-25-14

James Garner, star of two classic television shows ("Maverick" and "The Rockford Files") and a wide slate of films including "The Great Escape", "The Americanization of Emily" and "Victor/Victoria", has died at the age of 86.
comment posted at 5:45 AM on Jul-20-14

A new study by Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann and others found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical implications for how to treat people with schizophrenia, she suggests.
comment posted at 6:02 AM on Jul-20-14

A brief history of houses built out of spite.
comment posted at 7:03 AM on Jul-19-14

"Galaga" is an excerpt from Michael Kimball's book of the same name about the classic arcade game of the same name. Kimball is also the author of the heartbreaking novel Us and the experimental non-fiction Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard), his selected favorites from which are 45, 46, 51, 52, 54, 66, 70, 75, 86, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 112, 114, 118, 128, 129, 131, 133, 160, 165, 167, 171, 192, 195, 199, 209, 216, 221, 225 and 240. Postcards 54, 75, 98, 114, and 225 feature non-human subjects. 131 is Tao Lin, and 128 is Kimball himself. [Via.]
comment posted at 7:30 AM on Jul-13-14

“For the past 105 days, I've been tracking everything about myself.” Anand Sharma shows the progress of his life through a beautifully designed site.
comment posted at 7:09 AM on Jul-13-14

MIT Technology Review summarizes new directions in medical research, while a Pacific Standard writer experiments with Botox to treat depression.
comment posted at 8:21 AM on Jul-13-14

Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan has been told by a court in the capital to reconsider the licensing of the Sinterklaas parade through the city last year, which became mired in controversy because of the Zwarte Piet character. The administrative court says the mayor has six weeks to look again at the decision to allow the parade to go ahead last year and determine if the correct one was taken. The administrative court said in its ruling the Zwarte Piet character a negative stereotype which is insulting to black people and the mayor must decide which interest is more important: that of black Amsterdammers or society in general, news agency ANP reported.

It's official: Zwarte Piet (previously) is a racist, negative stereotype according to the Amsterdam courts.
comment posted at 7:22 AM on Jul-12-14

The loaded meaning behind 'What do you do?': [Deb] Fallows says the questions are meant to tease out socioeconomic status, political viewpoints, and cultural background. “You know that somebody’s kind of digging for information to put you into their world – how do you fit into my world?”
comment posted at 6:16 AM on Jul-8-14

The twenty most hipster neigbourhoods in the world or, where to live if you're sick of Williamsburg.
comment posted at 9:23 AM on Jul-7-14

One of the best things about libraries is that they are free. Many are in your own neighborhood. Some will even come to you! (previously)
comment posted at 2:55 PM on Jul-4-14

"Pastry work takes a level of skill, precision and rigor that I lacked in spades. I could’ve maybe become a decent pastry cook, with months of practice and a patient boss, but I was in no way qualified to be a pastry chef. I gave it my best effort, for three days, until the chef-owner realized her mistake and fired me. The place closed in less than 6 months. I never got paid." Laurie Woolever at The Billfold talks about how she went from Botantical Garden Intern to Anthony Bourdain's assistant.
comment posted at 4:04 PM on Jul-3-14

"When most people think of 'folklore,' they tend to think of fairy tales and urban legends. Trevor Blank thinks of photoshopped memes and dark humor." The Signal, a blog from the Library of Congress, has posted a two-part interview (part 2 is here) with Blank, who studies creepypastas, LOLs, demotivational posters, and other dynamics of "folk culture in the digital age."
comment posted at 6:28 AM on Jul-3-14

"The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon": In 1994, workers demolishing a toy shop in Blackburn, England stumbled on hundreds of films of Edwardian-era daily life made and collected by Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon. This BBC series describes their rediscovery and historical significance, revisits filming locations, and includes interviews with relatives of some of the films' subjects.
comment posted at 6:25 PM on Jul-2-14

No one who's ever seen film footage of Adolf Hitler giving his rousing speeches could have failed to notice the importance of Der Führer’s wildly exaggerated gestures and body language. Well, it turns out Hitler worked very carefully on that aspect of his public persona, very carefully indeed. During his rise to power, Adolf Hitler had his private photographer, Heinrich Hoffman, shoot him while he practiced those gestures, so that his speeches might have the dramatic impact upon his audiences that he sought. Here are the photos.
comment posted at 7:24 AM on Jul-2-14

Generational Poverty Is the Exception, Not the Rule
comment posted at 6:26 AM on Jun-30-14
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comment posted at 4:45 PM on Jun-30-14

In the ultra-competitive worlds of business and freelancing, should mentorship come with a fee? Arguments for and against: "When someone asks to pick my brain, I bristle. My brain is how I earn my living — would you ask a plumber to unclog a drain for free?" "Not every investment of time has to be 'worth it.' Sometimes you just have a brief conversation with someone because—why not?"
comment posted at 3:47 PM on Jun-26-14

With Google+, it became clear that we were all little more than webs of flesh spun over packages of saleable data. The rise and fall of Google+ once again engenders strong feelings, this time in Violet Blue.
comment posted at 7:57 AM on Jun-7-14
comment posted at 9:42 AM on Jun-7-14

What is it about "Happy" by Pharrell Williams that makes you want to move? Why can't we sit still when we hear Ray Charles perform "I've Got a Woman"? Michael Jackson had it, and so did Stevie Wonder. "It," in this case, is syncopation, the gaps in the rhythm that your brain wants to fill in, as reported in the article Syncopation, Body-Movement and Pleasure in Groove Music (full article online).
comment posted at 4:15 AM on May-31-14

Vortexx, the last non-E/I children's Saturday morning programming block on broadcast television, is ending this fall.
comment posted at 3:52 PM on May-30-14
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comment posted at 4:01 AM on May-31-14

Design giant Massimo Vignelli has passed away at the age of 83.
comment posted at 3:15 PM on May-27-14

Adobe's controversial Creative Cloud service stumbles and fails, leaving many who have paid for the service unable to use it for 24 hours. Adobe says the cause was an unexpected failure during database maintenance. Compensation may be possible.
comment posted at 5:43 AM on May-18-14

Poolside Radio is a bizarre slice of the 1980s in a browser. Strange old clips of 80s movies combined with 80s synth music and a lovely pastel palette make for a good time.
comment posted at 6:17 AM on May-18-14

My love of typography originated in the 80′s with the golden years of 8-bit home computing and their 8×8 pixel monospaced fonts on low-resolution displays.
comment posted at 2:14 PM on May-17-14

The internet is flooded with hilarious animated gifs of jumping cats, running babies and hilarious fails. But there’s a whole different class of gifs out there – gifs that can educate and fascinate. These 20 awesome gifs will do exactly that – show you how the world works.
comment posted at 6:35 AM on May-10-14

Zizek, Slavoj. "Who can control the post-superpower capitalist world order?" The Guardian.
comment posted at 3:42 PM on May-9-14

How to drink all night and (mostly) not get drunk, advice from Jim Koch, co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company.
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Apr-27-14

"The thinking mind is like a perpetually-running chainsaw that thinks everything is a tree. It will use any excuse to rev up and start shredding something. Its purpose is to solve problems, so it wants everything to be a problem." How to stop your mind from talking all the time.
comment posted at 7:37 AM on Apr-15-14
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comment posted at 4:05 PM on Apr-15-14

"81 Bowery - one of the last standing lodging houses in New York City has been home for more than a generation of immigrant Chinese laborers who work at construction sites and kitchens throughout Chinatown. Today, dozens of individuals are left sharing the fourth floor - each occupying a 64-square-foot cubicle."
comment posted at 7:53 AM on Apr-15-14

Ten years ago, photographers James and Karla Murray released the book "Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York." In it, they documented the facades of the rapidly disappearing mom-and-pop businesses of New York City. Now they've revisited some of the same spots.
comment posted at 7:39 AM on Apr-5-14

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Heathers. The hellscape of Westerburg High was the setting for a dark comedy about teenage cruelty, murder, and suicide (or rather, the media glorification of it). While the initial release was a commercial flop, critics praised the film. "Heathers may be the nastiest, cruelest fun you can have without actually having to study law or gird leather products,” wrote Desson Howe, and Janice Maslin likened the film to a “demonic sitcom.”
comment posted at 2:52 PM on Apr-4-14

"The breach could have been stopped there without human intervention. The system has an option to automatically delete malware as it’s detected. But according to two people who audited FireEye's performance after the breach, Target's security team turned that function off." Bloomberg reports today on "Missed Alarms and 40 Million Stolen Credit Card Numbers: How Target Blew It." (The Target breach, previously.)
comment posted at 2:32 PM on Mar-13-14

Random Teleporter. Random travel around the globe, via Streetview or 360 degree image.
comment posted at 1:51 PM on Mar-2-14

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy releases its first trailer.
comment posted at 7:54 AM on Feb-19-14

HTML Theremin Headphones optional. Supposedly better in Chrome or IE, but I had no problem in FF.
comment posted at 7:27 AM on Feb-16-14

Schwinn 1890's Lake Street Factory Photographs
comment posted at 7:47 AM on Feb-16-14

AIGA, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, is celebrating its centennial year in 2014 with a microsite called 100 Years of Design. It highlights the intersections of design and society through exemplary works from the AIGA Design Archives, interviews with living masters, quotes from leading designers and significant moments from the organization’s history. Together, these elements form a narrative about the impact of design; how it connects, delights, influences and assists us.

Via
comment posted at 2:11 PM on Feb-15-14

Where I live in East Baltimore, everything looks like "The Wire" and nobody cares what a "selfie" is.
comment posted at 4:55 PM on Feb-5-14

Police say Hoffman, 46, was found dead with a needle in his arm. Hoffman's struggles with substance abuse have been well documented, and he had told 60 Minutes in 2006 that he was grateful to have gotten sober before getting famous.
comment posted at 4:00 AM on Feb-3-14