February 22, 2013
Acquired Savant Syndrome
When Brain Damage Unlocks The Genius Within. [Single page view] "Brain damage has unleashed extraordinary talents in a small group of otherwise ordinary individuals. Will science find a way for everyone to tap their inner virtuoso?" [Via]
Nutella Priestess
The betting machine
Meet The World's Foremost Quantitative NBA Sports Bettor: Raconteur and humorous tweeter Haralabos Voulgaris
This Chicago Life
Last school year in Chicago, 29 current and recent students of Harper High School in the Englewood neighborhood were shot. Of those, 8 students died. For one semester (five months) reporters from the NPR show This American Life interviewed students and staff at Harper. The reporters wanted to know: How do students live with the violence surrounding them? How does the school staff deal with the effects of violence on students? The resulting two episodes of the show answer these questions (and more) in heartbreaking and surprising ways.
Part one here.
Part two here.
Pretty Colors
Public Libraries: Stealing Authors' Paychecks?
"We can't give everything away under the public purse. Books are part of the entertainment industry. Literature has been something elite, but it is not any more. This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses."UK children's author Terry Deary (Horrible Histories series) on Britain's public libraries. Neil Gaiman and others respond.
A Turkey Dracula On Drugs!
Greetings, Metafilter! You are interested in bad movies. The Food Fight. The Star Wars Holiday Special. The Unknown and the Mysterious. And now, for the first time, we are bringing you the full story of what happened. We are giving you all the evidence based only on the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. Can your heart stand the shocking true story of the world’s only anti-drug, mutant-monster, born-again-Christian film, Blood Freak? [more inside]
Deus as Machina
The God Machine formed in San Diego in 1990, and within a year or so had moved to London. Between then and their untimely demise in 1994, they would record two albums – Scenes From The Second Storey and One Last Laugh In A Place Of Dying – a handful of EPs and a particularly intense Peel Session. They're one of the great unsung bands of the 1990s, and though short-lived, they were a bridge between their predecessors – Black Sabbath, Swans, Janes Addiction – and those they would subsequently influence, such as Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They were heavy but they were much more than that too. [more inside]
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
An article in the Washington Post (featuring MeFi's own Sonascope!) about a visit to Baltimore has the Charm City locals seething. Some in the capitol don't think much of it either.
Node Timer: Keep track of your focus time
Use the Pomodoro Technique? You might like to try Node Timer, a minimal timer that helps you track what you're working on, from fellow mefite orlick. [via mefi projects]
World's largest panoramic photo now much, much larger
An amazing image of London taken from the top of the BT Tower has set a new record for the world’s largest panoramic photo. The image shows a full 360 degree view of London in incredible detail.
[more inside]
Dog Day Afternoon
The Crown Prosecution Service insisted on getting a statement from PC (Police Constable) Peach, even after it was pointed out that the officer in question was in fact PD (Police Dog) Peach, so eventually the West Midlands Police provided the demanded witness statement.
No Lawful Status
Coming this summer: North Carolina [will be] the only state that will clearly mark all people who are not U.S. citizens – everyone from business executives with “green cards” to students on visas – with a newly designed driver’s license. However, Republicans are trying to block the issuing of driver's licenses to immigrants who have qualified for a two-year reprieve from deportation. Those immigrants have been deemed by the federal government and the state attorney general’s office as being lawfully present in the U.S. [more inside]
Eulogy for Hotmail
As Microsoft prepares to retire its unfashionable Hotmail in favor of Outlook.com this summer, let's remember the viral marketing revolution that Hotmail invented. Journey back seventeen years to Hotmail's origins, the birth of the dot.com millionaire, and the boozy optimism of a pre-crash web industry in full-growth mode (Wired, December 1998) .
We really mean it.
Sorry, but Kanye is the GOAT (slVV).
Long Gone Day
Mike McCready, Barrett Martin, Mark Lanegan, and Peter Buck got together last year to finish tracks from a second Mad Season record that was abandoned following the deaths of John Baker Saunders in 1999 and Layne Staley in 2002. Rolling Stone has the first track streaming, with the rest coming in April for a double album + concert dvd re-release of Above.
It's-a First Person, Mario!
Our Day (Marion County 1938)
Our Day (Marion County 1938) is a 1938 silent film by Wallace Kelly of Lebanon, Kentucky, with a soundtrack by Rachel Grimes (previously of Rachel's)
"The motion is smooth as butter, and a pleasure to rotate."
No quid, no quo
Can the UK's 'toilet circuit' of small music venues survive? From Coldplay to PJ Harvey, a lot of big British rock acts started out playing tiny pubs and clubs around the UK. But with many of these venues closing, who will keep the rock'n'roll dream alive?
[more inside]
Twirling, twirling, twirling toward the nebulous 3rd dimension
Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsävainio has created some stunning 3D animations (more at his blog) of far-flung nebula. Phil Plait first pointed to them back in October. Today, there's a post on the Smithsonian Magazine's website about them.
The myth of universal love
"All people are not equally entitled to my time, affection, resources or moral duties." In his book "Against Fairness," (trailer) Stephen T. Asma argues in defense of favoritism and against universal love. "Whence then do we find morality and justice in an unfair world?" [more inside]
tl;dr: Plant some trees
The momentary madness of Mao's mangoes
For 2,000 years, the peach was the iconic fruit of China, an auspicious symbol of good health and a long life (Google books). But from August of 1968 until roughly the fall of the following year, the mango was China’s most revered produce item, whose meaning was unwittingly bestowed upon it by none other than Mao Zedong. (via Presurfer) [more inside]
"Her daughter is a six year old version of me."
The Princess and the Trolls: The Heartrending Legend of Adalia Rose. A six year old with progeria, the internet, well-meaning adults, and a bunch of not so well-meaning ones, plus facebook and youtube, create the usual storm.
The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike
Last August, a book titled "Leapfrogging" hit The Wall Street Journal's list of best-selling business titles upon its debut. The following week, sales of the book, written by first-time author Soren Kaplan, plunged 99% and it fell off the list. [...] But the short moment of glory doesn't always occur by luck alone. In the cases mentioned above, the authors hired a marketing firm that purchased books ahead of publication date, creating a spike in sales that landed titles on the lists.
Blame Nirvana
The 40 Weirdest Post-Nevermind Major Label Albums "As a snapshot of the era, here are the 40 weirdest, most uncompromising, riskiest, and most surprising albums that were released on a major label in the wake of Nevermind's explosion, during the mania's time-frame of 1992 until 1996."
"surely the most disastrous president’s column ever written"
In the winter edition of Emory Magazine, Emory President James Wagner wrote a column about compromise, and cited the Three Fifths Compromise as a positive example. The column has since been amended with a clarification, which precedes the column in italics. The Emory Wheel and Inside Higher Ed have both written overviews about the controversy. On Wednesday, the Emory Faculty voted to censure the President.
(An extensive list of media coverage and commentary on Wagner's column is available here.) [more inside]
(An extensive list of media coverage and commentary on Wagner's column is available here.) [more inside]
The New Essayists
"A talented writer such as John Jeremiah Sullivan might, fifty years ago, have tried to explore his complicated feelings about the South, and about race and class in America, by writing fiction, following in the footsteps of Walker Percy and Eudora Welty. Instead he produced a book of essays, called Pulphead, on the same themes; and the book was received with the kind of serious attention and critical acclaim that were once reserved for novels. But all is not as it seems. You do not have to read very far in the work of the new essayists to realize that the resurrection of the essay is in large measure a mirage." (via) [more inside]
The politics of non-profit online college education.
Is the right declaring war on academia through a push for online degrees? Is it paranoid to think that the American right is trying to undermine academic freedom? Public universities are increasingly offering not just a few courses but whole degree programs online, above and beyond the MOOCs discussed previously and previously.
Who teaches these online classes offered by public universities? Increasingly, it's adjuncts. One estimate is that 1/3 of online classes are taught by adjuncts.
Adjuncts are low-paid, and, perhaps more importantly, they do not have the protection of tenure if they produce controversial innovative research.
Advertising on school buses in Austin
"We're always looking for new venues for advertisement," said Sarah Casebier, vice president of Radiant Plumbing. "We thought this would be a good way to expand our advertising and be more involved in the community." More, more, and more.
Here to purchase your own ad.
Like a jealous Zelig
Darwin Deez gets himself inserted into various stock footage shots for a touching and hilarious effect.
World War 2 bunker, pristine condition, barely used
In July 1939, French authorities started building a 120m² bomb shelter under the Gare de l’Est (East Railway Station) in Paris so that traffic controllers could keep on working if the station was attacked. However, it was not completed in time and the Germans used it instead. The bunker, which includes a pedal generator, is still there, in near perfect condition. Other images and video (in French). Bonus underground Parisian bunker: this Cold-war era bunker under the Ministry of Transportation (equipped with tandem pedal generators) will become a datacenter early 2014.
This is like Guitar Hero on expert, but with your voice.
You know the blue alien lady that sings that crazy techno opera song in The Fifth Element? Said to be humanly impossible, Laura sings it without any digital enhancements. The original singer's voice is sung by Albanian soprano Inva Mula.
You make me dizzy Mr. Mizzy!
As if a line like "their house is a museum, when people come to see 'em, they really are a scree-am" (heard, of course, in the Addams Family theme) wasn't playfully brilliant (and brilliantly playful) enough, the same fellow happened to also have written the Green Acres theme. If you're an American of a certain age, you'll remember these two songs from their original TV runs during your childhood, or perhaps from reruns if you're a bit younger. Anyway, the composer of these catchy, familiar ditties was one Vic Mizzy. Hear Vic talk about the Addams Family theme and his degree in advanced finger snapping here. Thanks Vic!
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