April 5
I hope this works
The Future is Now
Virtual Reality, a tech geek dream for decades, was long hobbled by high latency, clunky hardware, and perennially absurd reports on network news.
That all changed in 2011, when Palmer Luckey, then 18, built the first Oculus Rift prototype in his parents' garage with iPhone repair money.
Awed by its powerful sense of presence, developer John Carmack became a fan and demoed it at E3. The ensuing Kickstarter campaign shattered all fundraising goals, and Facebook controversially bought the rights for a whopping $2 billion -- alienating erstwhile partner Valve Software, the iconic creators of Half-Life/Portal/Steam.
A Cambrian explosion of headsets followed: Morpheus, HoloLens, Google Cardboard, Gear VR.
But perhaps most interesting is Valve's own counter-project: a breathtaking "room scale" VR set-up with Tron-like "Chaperone" and tracked motion controls called the HTC Vive.
With this week's commercial launch of Rift and Vive bringing us to the threshold of a new interactive medium, look inside for guides, notes, and killer apps for this, the stunning arrival of consumer VR. [more inside]
"What do you plan to do with the wings?"
Rex Ridenoure's sister, LouAnn, a Southwest flight attendant, was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. "As he waited to board a Southwest flight to see her, partially fearing he wouldn't make it in time to say goodbye, Ridenoure decided he would somehow turn his cross-country journey into the proper farewell celebration she deserved."
"Is this nonfiction? Is this just fantasy?"
Librarian Rhapsody: A parody of Bohemian Rhapsody, created by the Shoalhaven Library Staff to celebrate the end of the the school year. (Lyrics)
The Voyeur's Motel
Techies
"Techies is a portrait project focused on sharing stories of tech employees in Silicon Valley. We cover subjects who tend to be underrepresented in the greater tech narrative. This includes (but is not limited to) women, people of color, folks over 50, LGBT, working parents, disabled, etc." [more inside]
Crowd Source: Inside the company that fakes it all... for a price
April 4
flushable computing
In electrical engineering class, I was told to think of electric circuits with a kind of hydraulic analogy. But could you extend this to entire computers? The Rube Goldberg Machine That Mastered Keynesian Economics, built by John Horton Conway[PDF] from a urinal flush mechanism. [more inside]
Power poses: stand like a boss (and catch more eyes on dating sites)
Forcing a smile genuinely decreases stress, so what if you were to stand with pride even when you feel less than super? You don't have to pretend to fly like Superman (previously), but it does help to stand like Wonder Woman. Your body language shapes who you are. TLDW: Business Insider's summary with screencaps, or read the slightly more lengthy summary of the study at Harvard Business School by Amy Cuddy and coauthors Dana R. Carney and Andy J. Yap of Columbia University. Such power poses can also better your chances on quick-reaction dating apps.
It's a... well, you know.
2016 is turning out to be a tragic year for the voices of iconic Star Wars characters. Only three months after Jason Wingreen (who voiced Boba Fett) passed away, we now have the passing of radio dramatist Erik Bauersfeld, who once upon a time stepped into a recording booth and spent an hour or so voicing Admiral Ackbar and Bib Fortuna.
“Let’s get one thing absolutely clear: Robin isn’t gay.”
Glen Weldon, writing in Slate: A Brief History of Dick: Unpacking the gay subtext of Robin, the Boy Wonder. [more inside]
[James Brown] had all the pageantry of the Catholic Church.
$5, same as in town
"Swipe Buster, he said, was an attempt, albeit perhaps a prurient and sordid one, to use a popular company (Tinder) and a juicy lure (cheating) in order to educate people about how much of their personal data is out there and how easily people can get access to it without hacking or breaking rules. (Swipe Buster was originally called Tinder Buster. It changed its name and URL on Sunday evening.)" — Here’s How You Can Check if Your Partner Is Cheating on Tinder by Emily Jane Fox for Vanity Fair. Previously: Tinder Confidential, and relatedly: Ashley Madison has been hacked. [more inside]
Kitty Genovese's killer dies
"Winston Moseley, who stalked, raped and killed Kitty Genovese in a prolonged knife attack in New York in 1964 while neighbors failed to act on her desperate cries for help — a nightmarish tableau that came to symbolize urban apathy in America — died on March 28, in prison." (NYT link) [more inside]
“As a practical matter, the ruling mostly helped Democrats.”
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to ‘One Person One Vote’ by Adam Liptak [The New York Times] The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that states may count all residents, whether or not they are eligible to vote, in drawing election districts. The decision was a major statement on the meaning of a fundamental principle of the American political system, that of “one person one vote.” Until this decision, the court had never resolved whether voting districts should contain the same number of people, or the same number of eligible voters. Counting all people amplifies the voting power of places that have large numbers of residents who cannot vote legally — including immigrants who are here legally but are not citizens, illegal immigrants, children and prisoners. Those places tend to be urban and to vote Democratic. [more inside]
"I took my love for my own children and I put it on these girls"
The Cost of Caring: After Emma realized that her white-collar job in the Philippines would never pay her enough to send her children to college, she came to New York and became a nanny. She hasn't seen her kids in 16 years.
shame, anger, alienation, and other hallmarks of the masculine psyche
Teaching Men to Be Emotionally Honest [NYT]: "By the time many young men do reach college, a deep-seeded* gender stereotype has taken root that feeds into the stories they have heard about themselves as learners. Better to earn your Man Card than to succeed like a girl, all in the name of constantly having to prove an identity to yourself and others." [more inside]
Your attention: please?
Blaming technology for the rise in inattention is misplaced. History shows that the disquiet is fuelled not by the next new thing but by the threat this thing – whatever it might be – poses to the moral authority of the day--Frank Furedi, The Ages of Distraction [more inside]
Thought You Owned That Device You Paid For?
Guess again. In a move that is sure to provoke a little discussion about licensing/ownership, privacy, and Internet of Things, Nest plans to brick customers' older devices on May 15.
(via the always entertaining Pinboard twitter feed.)
Two very enthusiastic thumbs up
"We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls." Three years ago today, Roger Ebert passed away. [more inside]
Jailhouse Stories
In Texas county jails, thousands of people wait for justice. Many have not been convicted but are held in dangerous and inhumane conditions while their cases are decided. Read their stories at JailhouseStories.org. (Warning - there's some tough reading in here, including abuse of the mentally ill and of pregnant women.) [more inside]
Kill the tyrant Kal-El before his rise to power
Everything you never suspected about the perils of raising a young Clark Kent. [SLTumblrFanfiction]
Jonathan Katz, Larry David, and Joel Hodgson walk into a room...
Comedy Central turned 25 years old on April 1st. The AV Club commemorates the anniversary with an oral history of the network that brought us South Park, Jon Stewart as a serious pundit, and an ongoing revolution for women in comedy.
This can't be happening at Macdonald Hall!
If you experienced children’s pop culture in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the nostalgia cycle has caught up with you, and the entertainment industry has accelerated the process of harvesting even your faintest memories. The sheer volume of revivals means that at some point a story small and forgotten enough to feel like a personal memory will be unearthed and dragged into the sunlight. The sudden reappearance of a once-loved TV show/book/slice of intellectual property forces you, the viewer, into an existential anxiety. To merely be the target of this deluge of content is a weird sensation. To be one of the creators—dusting off past work, bringing old versions of yourself into a new world and hoping to find the public’s affection—must be infinitely more bewildering.
Lego Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus
A Texan sheriff stumbles upon a vast secret civilization. A loophole enables the resurrection of one of history's greatest monsters. And it's all in Lego. Harry Potter Comics (page one), currently over seven hundred pages (three 'books' going on four) long. (Warning: spoilers for the official books; current character page spoils comic but there's different versions for each 'book').
April 3
The last Plains War Chief has passed at the age of 102.
"Warfare was our highest art, but Plains Indian warfare was not about killing. It was about intelligence, leadership, and honor." - Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow (October 27, 1913 – April 3, 2016). Historian, Anthropologist, Author, Lecturer, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tribal Leader, Veteran, Elder, War Chief. [more inside]
An Open (and Open Source) Campaign Takes on Facebook
Man builds 'Scarlett Johansson' robot
Ricky Ma has built the girl of his dreams: Scarlett Johannson, using parts mostly created using a 3D printer, and as a result has landed right square in the middle of the uncanny valley.
"Find another hobby or you're going to die."
Tabletop Gaming has a White Male Terrorism Problem (TW: nasty stuff)
Buckle up Bonehead. 'Cause you're goin' for a ride!
Hong Kong is dense: three takes
Andy Yeung’s drone photos of Hong Kong.
Michael Wolf’s many photos of Hong Kong (and other megacities).
Peter Stewart’s photo art of Hong Kong. (Before and after)
Michael Wolf’s many photos of Hong Kong (and other megacities).
Peter Stewart’s photo art of Hong Kong. (Before and after)
After this it's the midterms: April's US election primaries
And then there were five. On the Democratic party side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders remain. On the Republican party side, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Donald Trump remain. But there's also the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and lots of other parties. The dates for candidate debates are fluid; for example there may be a Democratic debate on April 14th. In other election news, the New York Times thinks that Candidate Trump would be "Wildly unpopular", while the Washington Post thinks that Republicans are gaming the voting system in their favor. Cruz and Sanders lead in Wisconsin polls, Kasich enjoys a beer, and the BBC describes five ways the Republican bloodbath could end. [more inside]
Haters gonna hate, baby.
"A hater can be anyone. A family member, a friend, a colleague, a teacher, a boss, or some random person you meet on the street or the Internet. People who were friends forever can suddenly be haters. You HAVE to have the tools to deal with it." The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Dealing With Haters.
And the shit just hit the fan.
The Panama Papers - Overview The largest leak journalists have ever had to deal with.
Panama company Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax. The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including dictators accused of looting their own countries. They were obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). BBC Panorama and The Guardian are among 107 media organisations in 78 countries that have been analysing the documents.
Panama company Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax. The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including dictators accused of looting their own countries. They were obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). BBC Panorama and The Guardian are among 107 media organisations in 78 countries that have been analysing the documents.
"Spurned Elle Writer Goes On Truly Bananas Rant"
Last week, freelance reporter Jacques Hyzagi wrote a scathing account of the ethics, talent, and working practices of various media figures in what became a viral post for the New York Observer. Responding to the intrigue, The Guardian interviewed Hyzagi to "learn just who is he and why is his background a mystery?". [more inside]
With self-discipline, all things are possible.
Autumn Ray is running a marathon in every one of America's 59 National Parks. Photographer Jonathan Irish is seeing them all in one year. [more inside]
April 2
unicorn tears
"The Raindrop Cake is inspired by traditional Mizu Shingen Mochi from Japan," and it's coming to New York. [more inside]
West of House
A Brief Bibliography about IF History is a review and overview of the sometimes-mainstream, sometimes-forgotten genre of Interactive Fiction, and chock full of good links besides. By Emily Short, from her blog.
Life doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints
I work with a group of men who aren’t used to seeing themselves in the narrative, unless it’s as the villain, maybe not in your history book, but in a few newspaper articles a few years back and in the hearts of their victim’s families. These men understand that much of America thinks they are monsters, they deserve to be locked in cages. They are the bastard, orphan sons of … every kind of women you can imagine; they are also beloved sons and husbands in close families who come to see them in the visiting room at the prison every week. Maybe they’ve been “livin’ without a family since I was a child. My father left, my mother died, I grew up buckwild.” Many of them know all about impoverished, in squalor, and fathers who split.Kate Powers, on watching (parts of) Hamilton with prisoners and the power of theatre.
I got a little stoned, smoked some weed, put on the Superman costume.
Think Defence Blog's Top 25 British War Films
British defence blog Think Defence presents an idiosyncratic list of the Top 25 British War Films. [more inside]
Internet -> internet
The Internet (old/current format) is blowing up at the Associated Press Stylebook announcement that as of June 1st it'll be the internet. Furthermore, Web will begin with a lower case w in all instances from the same date. One author made the case for this (Facebook picture) in 2009. However, others are disagreeing, while others are finding more to disagree on. This, of course, is all good publicity for the forthcoming product.
“Nature is perhaps the most complex word in the language.”
Generation Anthropocene: How Humans Have Altered the Planet for Ever. by Robert Macfarlane [The Guardian] We are living in the Anthropocene age, in which human influence on the planet is so profound – and terrifying – it will leave its legacy for millennia. Politicians and scientists have had their say, but how are writers and artists responding to this crisis?
"One must imagine Sisyphus happy"
The latest episode of Anita Sarkeesian's Tropes Vs. Women has dropped, this time focusing on Laura Mulvey's [pdf] concept of the 'male gaze' in video games. [more inside]
Rhonda-Marie
Rhonda-Marie Avery is one of the 35 runners who started the Barkley 100 this morning, a 100 mile trail race (previously) that boasts a total climb to 62,680 ft., with no aid except for water at two points. Rhonda-Marie is also legally blind. [more inside]
Practical Magic
Edward Lovett was a bank employee and amateur folklorist fascinated with charms and amulets and the superstitions they represented. He rambled early 20th century London collecting charms from soldiers, sailors, street vendors and others. Today the charms are preserved in the Wellcome Collection, Pitt Rivers Museum, and Horniman Museum. [more inside]
Is that a gun in your spacesuit?
The centre at the edge
Is There Value in Training Scientific Generalists For Positions at the Edge of Academia? Gopal Sarma says Yes
Hit the Road Jack and Jill.
How To Start Running. (SLNYT). A comprehensive guide that covers the walk-run method, running form, training plans, also the skinny on weight-loss, stretching, hydration, running gear, and lots more. As part of NYT's Well section, it's backed by the latest scientific findings, most of which (surprise!) default to common sense. Trying to find the perfect shoe? Pick a pair that's comfortable. How much to hydrate? Drink when thirsty... [more inside]
Why not love Queen by playing its hits on trombone?
A trombone player loves - LOVES - Queen, and does the band proud by playing it all. It makes sense to do this, once you've heard it.