May 16
Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. If you were too busy looking forward to have time to appreciate a teacher, it's still not too late to appreciate the
teachers behind the students.
posted by twoleftfeet at 1:22 AM - 3 comments May 15
How Cigars are Made at the La Aurora factory in the Dominican Republic.
posted by Scientist at 7:25 PM - 8 comments
Dalal al-Mutairi, the senior book censor for the Kuwaiti government,
sits down for a chat about her job and what it entails.
posted by reenum at 7:08 PM - 15 comments A woman opens an old steamer trunk and discovers tantalizing clues that a long-dead relative may actually have been a serial killer, stalking the streets of New York in the closing years of the nineteenth century. A beer enthusiast is presented by his neighbor with the original recipe for Brown's Ale, salvaged decades before from the wreckage of the old brewery--the very building where the Star-Spangled Banner was sewn in 1813.
These stories have two things in common. They are tailor-made for viral success on the internet.
And they are all lies.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:36 PM - 90 comments Now I agree that to some people using half a kilo of chocolate to make 12 biscuits may seem excessive. But I can tell you I don't put a price on alleviating human suffering. - Nigella Lawson
[more inside]
posted by Trurl at 5:33 PM - 48 comments
Small, Far Away - The World of Father Ted: Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews revisit Craggy Island 15 years after the premiere of the classic Irish comedy,
Father Ted.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:51 PM - 35 comments
First Gene Therapy Successful Against Aging-Associated Decline: Mouse Lifespan Extended Up to 24% With a Single Treatment A new study consisting of inducing cells to express telomerase, the enzyme which -- metaphorically -- slows down the biological clock -- was successful. The research provides a "proof-of-principle" that this "feasible and safe" approach can effectively "improve health span." [
article]
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:46 PM - 86 comments
Scott Widak, 47, has Down syndrome and is terminally ill with liver disease. To cope with his uncle's challenging situation, Widak’s nephew, Sean O’Connor, turned to the Reddit community to see if anyone would be interested in sending a letter to his uncle. O’Connor then included
a link to a news article about Widak and his art, along with two photos of him and his mother, a P.O. box address and a few things he’s interested in, like Johnny Cash. Following
the post, Widak
received hundreds of letters from all over the world. From Mashable:
a story of random acts of kindness.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:38 PM - 18 comments A new world record for fuel efficiency has been set. John and Helen Taylor drove a a 2012 Volkswagen Passat TDI SE for 1,626.1 miles, averaging 84.1 miles per gallon, using hypermiling techniques. The EPA lists the vehicle at 31 mpg city and 43 highway.
Meanwhile, youtube user "Fidallyb" is
upset because the BlueMotion TDI Passat he rented while vacationing in Europe got over 78 mpg and yet isn't available in the United States.
Here are
five more fuel efficient cars you can't buy in the United States. [more inside]
posted by mecran01 at 11:44 AM - 89 comments
"
Capitalism itself could crumble if companies don't start putting their long-term interests first, according to the
Henry Jackson Initiative for Inclusive Capitalism. The group argues that companies' short-term profit-taking and disregard for income inequality are eroding popular support for the free-market system. "Capitalism is very much under siege," the group warns." [
Complete Paper (PDF)] [Wording from
SmartBrief on Leadership]
posted by stoneweaver at 11:42 AM - 35 comments Many visitors to Boston assume that the Back Bay neighborhood is one of the city's oldest. It's actually one of the newest,
reclaimed from Charles River marshland at the end of the 19th Century. Before the completion of this project,
Beacon Street to Brookline was the top of a tidal dam. Today's Boston Proper is actually mostly fill:
in 1630, Boston was 783 acres of land. By 1901, it was 1,904 acres. Filling in Back Bay was an
enormous project, but some valuable lessons were learned decades earlier while
filling in the South End.
posted by Mayor Curley at 11:41 AM - 40 comments “To all unmarried ones who would like to spend their life by my side and within all the beauties of my home. Please look below at all the magic of my home that I have decorated with taste, perhaps just for YOU. Don Milisav Juan Gonzales Brzi, Contact: +33-#########″
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:12 AM - 58 comments
Jimmyjane (NSFW) makes luxury, design-oriented vibrators and other sex toys and accessories. ("Design inspired by Apple, not Hustler.") They'd like to change the way Americans think about them: instead of as 'dirty little secrets,' they're hoping for mainstream acceptance and to usher in an "
Age of Great American Sex."
(Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 11:08 AM - 33 comments
Okay: In the role playing game known as The Real World, “Straight White Male” is the lowest difficulty setting there is...
As the game progresses, your goal is to gain points, apportion them wisely, and level up. If you start with fewer points and fewer of them in critical stat categories, or choose poorly regarding the skills you decide to level up on, then the game will still be difficult for you. But because you’re playing on the “Straight White Male” setting, gaining points and leveling up will still by default be easier, all other things being equal, than for another player using a higher difficulty setting.
Likewise, it’s certainly possible someone playing at a higher difficulty setting is progressing more quickly than you are, because they had more points initially given to them by the computer and/or their highest stats are wealth, intelligence and constitution and/or simply because they play the game better than you do. It doesn’t change the fact you are still playing on the lowest difficulty setting.
MeFi's own
John Scalzi provides an excellent, relatable metaphor for explaining the realities of race and gender without invoking the dreaded word "privilege".
[more inside]
posted by Jon_Evil at 11:04 AM - 196 comments
Computer security consultant
Byron Sonne (
previously,
previously) has been
acquitted of
charges he plotted to attack the G20 summit in Toronto.
posted by unSane at 10:33 AM - 9 comments Clayton Christensen is the most influential business thinker on the planet. He's been everywhere lately: On
Charlie Rose, in the
New Yorker (pay-walled), in the
Steve Jobs biography (as the author of the only business book to have influenced Jobs). He has applied his ideas of
Disruptive Innovation and
Jobs-to-be-Done (pdf) to industries such as
healthcare and
higher education. Recently he has been trying to apply them to personal and career
development. He's also a devout
Mormon (and a
generous Romney campaign contributor) and a cancer, stroke, and heart attack
survivor.
posted by AceRock at 10:31 AM - 12 comments
Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure, from 1928, is considered to be one of the first pornographic cartoons.
It is certainly one of the strangest (NSFW)
posted by The Whelk at 10:07 AM - 27 comments
Christopher Doyon, a.k.a. Commander X, is currently on the run from the U.S. government.
In this interview with the National Post he talks about his work with Anonymous and what it means for the future of information:
"Right now we have access to every classified database in the U.S. government. It’s a matter of when we leak the contents of those databases, not if. You know how we got access? We didn’t hack them. The access was given to us by the people who run the systems. The five-star general (and) the Secretary of Defence who sit in the cushy plush offices at the top of the Pentagon don’t run anything anymore. It’s the pimply-faced kid in the basement who controls the whole game, and Bradley Manning proved that. The fact he had the 250,000 cables that were released effectively cut the power of the U.S. State Department in half. The Afghan war diaries and the Iran war diaries effectively cut the political clout of the U.S. Department of Defence in half. All because of one guy who had enough balls to slip a CD in an envelope and mail it to somebody.
Now people are leaking to Anonymous and they’re not coming to us with this document or that document or a CD, they’re coming to us with keys to the kingdom, they’re giving us the passwords and usernames to whole secure databases that we now have free reign over. … The world needs to be concerned."(via)
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 9:48 AM - 44 comments "She lets go of the handle and goes into free fall. At the same time, she jerks the manual release on her cervical collar and goes into full Michelin Man mode as tiny gas cartridges detonate in several strategic locations around her bod. The biggest one goes off like an M-80 at the nape of her neck, unfurling the coverall's collar into a cylindrical gas bag that shoots straight up and encases her entire head. Other airbags go off around her torso and pelvis, paying lots of attention to that spinal column."
In his 1992 book
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson described a protective airbag technology for bikers and skateboarders.
It's become a reality.
[more inside]
posted by quin at 8:47 AM - 59 comments "I’ve felt like my gender doesn’t match me for a very long time.” A
Quiverfull mom describes
her family's journey after her spouse comes out to her as transgender. (Excuse me, I have something in my eye.) (Via
No Longer Quivering.)
posted by cereselle at 7:57 AM - 52 comments Yesterday's Diane Rehm Show featured a conversation between Sherry Turkle (
previously), Stephen Marche (
previously) and
Zeynep Tufekci.
Tufekci has been critical of Turkle's and Marche's assertions that social media is making us lonely. A lively
Twitter conversation and
critique ensued.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 7:48 AM - 26 comments
Tipped off by an ancient poem, and supported by both historical and paleontological/geological research, Koji Minoura et al. found evidence of
historic and prehistoric tsunamis[PDF] devastating north-east Japan just as that of March 2011 did -- and he had been saying for years that it could happen again. (via
PRI's The World's science podcast)
posted by jb at 7:28 AM - 13 comments
Some British bus shelters are, implausibly, powered by the light of the
sun, and some can see what you’re up to & tell you to
stop doing it. Others smell like baked
potatoes, or dispense free pieces of
cake. Others still can get you
high if you set them on fire. More often though, these are dreary, malodorous locales where one is increasingly
less likely to see a bus, let alone
three coming along at once. Photographer
Steve Ellaway has
embarked on a
project to
photograph the
bus shelters of
South Wales: an
unpromising subject on the
surface of it, but
one that has
yielded surprisingly rich and
varied results.
posted by misteraitch at 7:20 AM - 21 comments The emergence of a citation cartel. "Cell Transplantation is a medical journal published by the Cognizant Communication Corporation of Putnam Valley, New York. In recent years, its impact factor has been growing rapidly. In 2006, it was 3.482. In 2010, it had almost doubled to 6.204.
When you look at which journals cite Cell Transplantation, two journals stand out noticeably: the Medical Science Monitor, and The Scientific World Journal. According to the JCR, neither of these journals cited Cell Transplantation until 2010.
Then, in 2010, a review article was published in the Medical Science Monitor citing 490 articles, 445 of which were to papers published in Cell Transplantation. All 445 citations pointed to papers published in 2008 or 2009 — the citation window from which the journal’s 2010 impact factor was derived. Of the remaining 45 citations, 44 cited the Medical Science Monitor, again, to papers published in 2008 and 2009.
Three of the four authors of this paper sit on the editorial board of Cell Transplantation. Two are associate editors, one is the founding editor. The fourth is the CEO of a medical communications company."
(from
Scholarly Kitchen, via
Andrew Gelman.)
posted by escabeche at 7:17 AM - 22 comments
Money Unlimited How John Roberts Orchestrated the Citizens United decision.
[more inside]
posted by modernnomad at 5:55 AM - 84 comments
What do
Amy and Klara,
Exxon Secrets, and
MAICgregator have in common? They are all examples of
Adversarial Design.
posted by jkolko at 4:59 AM - 15 comments Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi [scientific paper]. Pestalotiopsis microspora lives in dark, damp and anaerobic conditions in the Amazon, is a candidate for introduction to landfills, can survive on only polyurethane, and may
solve the plastic 100-400 year decomposition issue [non-technical summary].
posted by jaduncan at 2:55 AM - 40 comments
May 14
Los Tocayos Carlos - a comprehensive investigation by Columbia Law School Professor James Liebman and a team of students which uncovers evidence that Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence who was executed in Texas in 1989, was innocent. The issue of The Columbia Human Rights Law Review, entirely dedicated to this investigation, is available at
this website.
posted by Gyan at 10:58 PM - 38 comments
This is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike. is
Augusten Burroughs' new self-help book (reviews
here,
here, and
here), one which scorns the genre cliches of goal-setting and affirmations in favor of a hard-nosed philosophy of self-honesty based on lessons learned from his own background of abuse, neglect, and rape. In an
interview with CNN, he gives snippets of his views on subjects like the harm of people "clinging to a dream which maybe they don't actually have the talent to do", suicide ("it doesn't release you, it adds a new layer of horror") and the quest for thinness ("the brain is magnificent and to focus on your gastrointestinal track is a complete waste"). (
previously)
posted by shivohum at 10:57 PM - 42 comments
♫ As young as 18, I'd already written the application to join the party, but I was too embarrassed to turn it in to the party branch. I've studiously read the party constitution countless times - always felt I wasn't worthy of the party's requirements.
♫ Applying to Join the Chinese Communist Party : a music video (w/ English subtitles)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:55 PM - 20 comments
She connected the discarded organ replacement machines together and had them 'breathe' in closed circuits. The machines of
The Immortal keep each other alive through circulation of electrical impulses, oxygen and artificial blood.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:22 PM - 28 comments Always backed by the
12th Street Rag,
Marv Albert has brought us "wild and wacky moments in the world of sports (compiled by his crack staff and producer Dave Katz)" for just under thirty years.
[Caveats: Some dates are approximate. Some of the more famous clips appear multiple times. Hockey violence, boxing referees getting hit, borked slides into third, etc.] And we start with the early 80's — 1984: a b — 1985 — 1985-86: a b c — 1986 (in review) — 1987: a b c d — 1988 (in review) — 1989: a b — Review of the 80's — Early 1990's — 1997 — 1999's Wild and Wacky Millenium — 2008 — 2009 — 2010 — 2011 — first half of the 2011 NFL season — a 30-minute compilation — another compilation — baseball compilation
posted by not_on_display at 5:46 PM - 19 comments « Older posts
