March 29, 2015

Spin theory

Twirl an upside-down soda glass and toss it down a tabletop (somewhat like the hero in the video game Tapper), and the glass will pull off in a direction opposite of the spin. Spin a granite curling stone and throw it down the ice, however, and it will travel in the same direction as the spin. Video blog SmarterEveryDay looks at physics theories that try to figure out why this counterintuitive result happens.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 11:38 PM PST - 7 comments

Nils Frahm declares March 29th Piano Day with a free album

At the end of 2014 I had an immediate urge to release a solo piano album which I recorded some time ago, and I was looking for a specific occasion to do so. I wanted it to be a nice surprise for everyone, so I thought of a meaningful release date to begin with.

Seconds later it came to my mind: I was about to create my own holiday in order to come up with a reason for this release. Moreover, if I could be proud of something, then of being responsible for an annual celebration of the piano. And here comes the best bit, Piano Day will happen on the 88th day of the year, which most of the time is the 29th of March. Piano Day is intended to be the most joyful of all holidays.
Join with Nils Frahm in celebrating Piano Day by enjoying his album Solo for free (sample: "Wall"), or enjoy other celebrations of the piano in his Piano Day 2015 playlist.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:18 PM PST - 18 comments

“Every person is a half-opened door leading to a room for everyone.”

Tomas Transtromer, Nobel-Winning Poet, Dies at 83 [New York Times] Previously.
posted by Fizz at 8:41 PM PST - 13 comments

Dough wrapped around a filling

Dumpling Week has come to Serious Eats! Learn about dumplings around the world, which frozen potstickers are best, where chicken and dumpling soup came from, and how to make your own pierogi, xiao long bao, and gyoza. It's a dumpling party!
posted by sciatrix at 8:33 PM PST - 53 comments

^[U__*]^

FROLIC RPG: the world’s first procedurally generated emoticon adventure! by porpentine
posted by NoraReed at 7:07 PM PST - 9 comments

Why should authors not embrace the networked world?

"It’s hard not to hear cultural ruin, melodramatic as that may be, in every interrupting chirp and chime of a phone receiving a text or a call or blasting a video through its speakers on a packed subway train. The citizen in me, greedy for chances at quiet reflection and, frankly, to be left in peace from unwelcome noises, shudders and laments. But the artist in me, the writer, asks a more probing question, if not necessarily more optimistic: what might I do with all this?" Novelist Steve Himmer explores how to write about our increasingly interconnected world in "Reader, I Muted Him: The Narrative Possibilities of Networked Life."
posted by ocherdraco at 5:09 PM PST - 14 comments

Bad news for anyone born with a silver spoon in their mouth

How does your choice of spoon material impact your dining experience?
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 5:06 PM PST - 44 comments

Needs more dickbags, Anne

Anne Bronte: the last, but not least, of the Bronte sisters Thirty years before Nora Helmer famously slammed the door in her husband's face, Helen Huntingdon did the same. And, as an added bonus, Helen - by earning her own living as a painter - became an outlaw as well as a rebel. [more inside]
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 4:14 PM PST - 19 comments

If you can't see it, you can't be it

With WrestleMania 31 mere hours away, let's talk about representation in pro wrestling. And really, lessons that apply for any form of entertainment.
If you don’t use positive representation to speak to new fans who look different, who act different, who have new ideas, you’ll never have new fans at all.
If You Can't See It, You Can't Be It: The Importance of Representation in Modern Day Wrestling [more inside]
posted by misskaz at 2:06 PM PST - 17 comments

Every great story seems to begin with a snake.

Rattlesnakes inspire search-and-rescue robot design Rattlesnakes have provided the inspiration for the movements of a robot designed for entering dangerous environments. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 2:05 PM PST - 6 comments

Frankie and Johnny were lovers. My how that couple could love!

Paul Slade tackles the story behind the American blues/folk song Frankie and Johnny, tracing the lyrics back to an 1899 St. Louis murder, and exploring the history of the song, its subjects, and its variations. [more inside]
posted by julen at 1:40 PM PST - 17 comments

I was stumped. So of course, I asked Facebook.

"Let's talk about matter/anti-matter annihilation in the early Universe."
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 12:42 PM PST - 35 comments

What Women Want in Women Characters

Women Characters Redesigned by Women SFF Artists
As I said, I’m going to be discussing this at length in my next post. For now, I’m going to give you a flood of examples of women characters in fantasy art — many infamous for being depictions unwelcoming to women — that have been redesigned by the professional artists in the Women in Fantasy Illustration group. Each woman’s point of view is different, and the redesigns reveal what is most important to that woman, whether it’s realistic body armor, or it’s making sure the woman has a narrative and agency of her own. There is no one right way to depict a woman character, and it is not as simple as "cover her up more" because, as you'll see, some of these redesigns are sexier than the original. And I have found through my own work that you CAN absolutely have a single depiction of a character that is sexy and empowering to all genders. As I said, more on that next post.
[more inside]
posted by Lexica at 12:26 PM PST - 72 comments

Everything you need to know about Quebec’s latest student strike

What’s a student strike? Can the education minister cancel the semester? How many students are in the streets? Though it may have appeared spontaneous, the student strike of 2012 took a year and a half of preparation. Since last fall, Quebec students, along with other elements of civil society such as unions and NGOs, have been mobilizing against Liberal premier Philippe Couillard’s austerity policies, typified by deep cuts to public services. That mobilization led to this week’s strike. [more inside]
posted by standardasparagus at 11:03 AM PST - 13 comments

Lest you think Buzzfeed invented something new...

A Historic List of Historical Lists. Particularly amusing (or distressing, depending on how you feel about the marital travails of long dead, anonymous people) is list #12, 100 types of marriage, which Slate wrote about.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:46 AM PST - 18 comments

Stanley Pickle

Stanley Pickle is a short stopmotion/liveaction film directed by the illustrator and photographer Vicky Mather
posted by dng at 10:39 AM PST - 6 comments

Giant Monster of Pancake Goodness

Making Monster Pancakes in your rice cooker.
posted by storybored at 10:39 AM PST - 68 comments

You're an Asshole for Reading This

A short documentary video introduction to The Suckhole, the "super-secret facility" of The Sucklord and headquarters for Suckadelic Enterprises. Sucklord is the alter-ego of Morgan Phillips, a lifelong Star Wars fan and unrepentant toy geek who lived with his mother until he was 36. In recent years he has flipped the script by becoming a creator of "bootleg" action figures (and more) that fall into that broad, largely undefined category of Pop Art. Think: mash-up toys or reimagined figures. In 2011 a MUST READ Village Voice article called him "the designer-toy world's biggest jerkbag". A 2012 interview on the "Unofficial Suckadelic Fanclub" Galactic Jerkbags. Going back further, a 2008 formatmag.com interview . Hear also, Morgan Phillips' Stars Wars themed music mashups . Not to be missed are the Sucklord's Flickr pages and Suckadelic YouTube channel
posted by spock at 9:52 AM PST - 8 comments

White Women, Black Hairstyles

It almost sounds like the opening line to a joke: A young black woman takes a bunch of middle-aged white women who she doesn’t know in Woodstock, N.Y., to a black salon, gives them a new “black” hairdo, and then takes their portrait.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:52 AM PST - 27 comments

Bart and his flying dead zoo

Previously. Bart Jansen, the Dutch artist who charmed and disgusted the art world with his flying taxidermied cat Orville, has not been resting on his laurels since. After creating Orville, he went looking for bigger challenges... and found them. [more inside]
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:11 AM PST - 11 comments

Saturday Night Live's "Refreshing Drop of Acid"

One of the original Saturday Night Live's Not Ready for Prime-Time Players (can you name them all? Take the quiz here), Jane Curtin created characters such as Enid Loopner (mother to Gilda Radner's Lisa Loopner) and Pyrmaat the Conehead. She became Weekend Update's first female anchor after the departure of Chevy Chase in 1976, anchoring solo for Season 2 (making her the only woman to have anchored Weekend Update solo, to date). Although coming in a questionably low 47 on Rolling Stone's ranking of all 141 cast members, she is recognized for "bringing depth and gravity to sketches that might otherwise float away into trainwreck territory." Curtin has been vocal about the misogyny of the early SNL days, and the era itself - particularly the challenges of getting women-written sketches on the air.
posted by wheek wheek wheek at 8:03 AM PST - 26 comments

China vs GitHub

China's network infrastructure has been attacking open source hosting site GitHub for three days and counting. A primary source of the DDoS traffic was discovered by Insight Labs; Javascript injected into pages at Baidu. Baidu, one of the largest Chinese web properties, denies being involved. Chinese government officials have recently expressed a desire for new ways to censor the Internet. Experts speculate that the Javascript was injected by the Chinese network infrastructure, perhaps in retaliation for GitHub hosting the firewall circumvention projects GreatFire and cn-nytimes. GitHub has said little about the nature of the attack; its status pages document the ongoing, largely successful efforts to defend their business.
posted by Nelson at 7:13 AM PST - 52 comments

Cancer Quackery? There's An App for That!

Belle Gibson and the Pernicious Cult of 'Wellness.' Jenny McCartney writes in The Spectator about the unraveling business empire and reputation of Australian celebrity "wellness" blogger and "cancer survivor" Belle Gibson. [more inside]
posted by spitbull at 6:54 AM PST - 65 comments

Arendelle is the warmest place to hide

"A deleted scene from the Disney classic Frozen as directed by John Carpenter." (SLYT; colorful walls and language).
posted by khonostrov at 6:45 AM PST - 16 comments

ein abend eine stadt zwei künstler

Durch die Nacht mit Sibel Kekilli & George R.R. Martin/ Au coeur de la nuit: George R. R. Martin et Sibel Kekilli: an ARTE documentary taking George R. R. Martin & Sibel "Shae" Kekilli through Martin's hometown of Santa Fe, with your choice of German or French subtitles. (As you know Bob, ARTE is a German/French art orientated cable channel; "Durch die Nacht" is one of its regular documentary series.(previously))
posted by MartinWisse at 3:21 AM PST - 8 comments

« Previous day | Next day »