April 30, 2016
Radzyn Stories
"The inside of her head felt slow with panic"
"The Choking Victim" by MeFi's own Alexandra Kleeman is a short story that portrays one new mother's anxiety. The dream-like fiction linked at the author's web site offers a wider perspective on her work. [more inside]
Shades of Purple
Prince's passing has inspired countless musical tributes, usually involving the title track of his magnum opus. Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and New Edition did distinct versions. So did Garth and Trisha Yearwood, Corey Taylor, the cast of The Color Purple and crowds in the streets in New Orleans. The Harlem Gospel Choir and 1,000 high school choir students made the most of the soaring chorus, and Prince protégé and backup singer Elisa Fiorillo gave an understandably emotional performance.
Of course, no one can ever do it like the man himself.
Sir, Name? Sir! Name!
This website gives the meaning and distribution of millions of surnames all over the world. Plus, it suggests some interesting history about surnames.
how it's made in japan
Ever wondered what a possible Japanese equivalent for How It's Made could be like? The jstsciencechannel has one!
There are from 2 to 150, and 151 to 309 videos to choose from. Sadly, they lack English subtitles, however there are a handful of videos that do have them.
Starting with mayonnaise, the series takes you through the making of steel balls (available in English), the construction and testing of sewing machines, how rice crackers are made, a thermos factory, the recycling of PET bottles, a matcha tea factory and the creation of bamboo whisks, and plenty more.
People watching people watching cats
Most of you will have heard of Nyan Cat before. A similar number will know that there is a ten-hour version on YouTube. What you probably didn't know is that there is a ten-hour video of someone watching that ten-hour version. What you almost definitely didn't know is that there's a ten-hour video of someone watching someone else watch ten hours of Nyan Cat.
Which is bigger: >---<
Optical illusions are not universal, and the differences in how we perceive them can help us to understand cognition. The famous Müller-Lyer illusion is not universal, but differs by culture, with some African tribes unable to see the illusion at all - possibly because of differences in environment. Individuals with autism seem less sensitive to the Sheppard's table illusion, which might help improve an understanding of the condition. Differences in responses are possible because different illusions trick your brain in different ways. BBC has a great history of the evolution of optical illusions, and, finally, here are some auto-kinectic illusions, because they are awesome.
Neurodiversity on display
With his project Special Books by Special Kids, special education teacher Christopher Ulmer interviews neurodiverse people about their lives and interests. [more inside]
When Windows Update attacks
You're my special friend
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares
Father Daniel Berrigan, SJ - teacher, poet, and Jesuit priest; lionhearted activist for peace and FBI Ten Most Wanted alum; who set Vietnam War draft files on fire with homemade napalm, co-founded the Plowshares Movement to end nuclear war and weaponry, ministered to men and women with AIDS at St. Vincent's starting in 1984, and Occupied Wall Street in his late 80s - has died at age 94, on the 41st anniversary of the Vietnam War's end. He loved a good arrest photo.
Boom.
Harry and Liz are flicking through some pictures from the Invictus Games when Harry gets a call from Michelle. You'll never guess what happens next... [In tweet]
"There's no point in writing it all down if nobody ever reads it."
One breezy afternoon in 2001, two friends of mine, Richard and Dido, were mooching around a building site in Cambridge when they came across a battered yellow skip. Inside were 148 handwritten notebooks. Some were crammed into an old bottle box that had jaunty green print on the side: "Ribena! 5d!" Most were scattered across the bricks exultantly. A few had royal emblems from George VI's time. Others were bright, bubblegum colours, tangerine and mushy-pea green. A chalky jotter that Dido picked up broke like chocolate. Inside, the rotted pages were filled with urgent handwriting. Running up one of the margins were the words, "Hope my diaries aren't blown up before people can read them – they have immortal value." There was no name or return address on the books. The diarist was simply "I" who had lived, and then died, and been pitched in a skip.– Diary of a somebody: could I solve the mystery of 148 lost notebooks? is an essay by Alexander Masters about the writing of his new book, A Life Discarded.
Radiohead's Corporate Empire
It seems Radiohead are not so much a band as a conglomerate, having the sort of financial structure you would expect to be more associated with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs than bands from Oxfordshire. They have been directors of some 20 companies since they formed, according to Companies House. This is not just interesting for gossip. Radiohead’s financial structure shines a light on one of the lesser discussed facts of the music industry: if you want to be a great band, it can help if you are as good at finance as you are at music, or at least have a team supporting you who are. [SLGrauniad]
Or, disdyakis triacontahedron
I hereby claim credit for this when it shows up on various CSIs
Fingerprints! Everybody's got 'em...except for folks with adermatoglyphia, aka "immigration delay disease", a rare, benign genetic mutation that disrupts the formation of fingerprint ridges by disrupting RNA transcription tied to the SMARCAD1 gene.
The Suicide Note as Literary Genre
I Want Your Email Address
I Want Your Email Address. Don’t think about it. Just enter your email address into any of the places I’ve provided for you. Then, you can be on your way.
I made it extremely easy for you to join my mailing list, and yet you think this is a game. This is not a game. I want your email address! And I want it NOW!
Dog is my Copilot
Mister Bentley the Dog and his human, Bradley Friesen, document their rotor-borne adventures up and down the pacific coast of Canada in a Robinson light helicopter. (Don't worry, Mister Bentley always straps in and wears his ear-pro). [via]
"I stop talking, realizing that everyone at the table is looking at me"
Patrick Blanchfield writes for The Revealer: God And Guns
Setting aside both its lyrical merits and ideological upshot, of all responses to Obama’s remarks, Skynyrd’s song had the distinction of being perhaps the most honest – and, as a matter of simple description, the most analytically accurate. For the bare fact of the matter is that whatever you may think of God, or of guns, American history would be unrecognizable without the influence of both. God and machine, ever-in-tandem, producing a nation “strong” not just in the narrow sense of being powerful, but also in the etymological sense of resolute violence, of an abiding legacy of wreckage unparalleled by any other nation on Earth.[more inside]
BUT SHE WAS A BUNKO SCREAM JAR
The Register reports on an audio track a company devised to transfer unwanted sales callers to, which they call "Extension 666," made of detuned singing, distorted hold notices and bursts of garbled static. They posted the track on SoundCloud. Notes: don't have the volume up very high for the sake of your speakers, and it loops after about two-and-a-half minutes.
"I'm having an amazing life, and it isn't over yet."
Born April 30, 1926, Cloris Leachman has appeared in a multitude of roles on stage, film, and especially television. In addition to an Oscar for her role in The Last Picture Show, she holds the record for most acting Emmys, at eight. This fall she will star with George Takei on a Lifetime original sitcom, Friends with Government Benefits, and just last week it was announced that she will play Zorya Vechernyaya in the Starz television adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. [more inside]
The Bank of England is moving to polymer banknotes
The next Bank of England £5, £10 and £20 banknotes will be printed on polymer. "The new fiver will be issued in September 2016. On 2 June, the full details of the design and security features will be revealed and a range of training materials for retailers and businesses will be released. The £10 note will be issued in 2017 and the £20 note by 2020.
Polymer banknotes are cleaner, more secure, and more durable than paper banknotes. They will provide enhanced counterfeit resilience, and increase the quality of banknotes in circulation."
Man of two voices.
Reel Wild Cinema
Hosted by Sandra Bernhard, clips from Something Weird Video’s (previously) catalogue and a heavily edited main attraction that cut down some feature length z-movie to a presentable bite-sized clips made up 1996's Something Weird Video. SWV has put up the entire run on their Youtube channel, so if you’re looking for some trashy fun, check it out. It’s not safe for work, but Puritans will be happy to know everyone’s best bits get covered in episodes like the “Nudist Camp Night.” Ta-tas get covered with happy faces and front bottoms with Stop signs! (via the twice Hugo nominated Black Gate).
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