May 2, 2020
"Tell me the one about the virus again. Then I'll go to bed."
"The Great Realisation". A poem / bedtime story, written and performed by Tomos Roberts, about a worldwide spiritual awakening resulting from COVID-19. From TomFoolery.
A proper memorial for DeFord Bailey, who changed Country music
In the fall of 1928, George D. Hay opened the newly syndicated WSM Barn Dance, following a classical performance that attempted to mimic a train* by saying “for the past hour we have been listening to music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.” DeFord Bailey then stepped onto the stage and played “Pan American Blues,” one of his trademark tunes, emulating the sound of a locomotive speeding down the tracks on—making him Grand Ole Opry's first musician, and first artist to record in Nashville (Tennessean). Despite making these and other country music landmarks, Bailey has become largely forgotten. Towards the end of his life, he had two wishes: a proper gravestone (Find a Grave) and for someone to tell his story (Narratively). [more inside]
Real time AI noise reduction
Nvidia have released a beta of RTX Voice, an app which remove unwanted noise like traffic, rain or fans from your microphone input using hardware accelerated machine learning. While it is branded RTX, it is possible to run it with GTX cards.
40 days and 40 nights...
A high-pressure ventilator prototype developed by NASA engineers to help coronavirus patients was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, according to NASA. The approval is for use of the ventilator specifically for coronavirus patients under the FDA's ventilator Emergency Use Authorization, established by the agency on March 24. It's named VITAL (CNN)...
58 and other Confusing Numbers
The British Empire’s invasion of the dream world
The Imperial dream database of Charles Gabriel Seligman of the LSE was the result of a huge project to gather and interpret the dreams of the subjects of the Empire. The results were not exactly as expected.
It is not down in any map; true places never are.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum takes its popular annual 25-hour Moby-Dick reading marathon online, with chapters read during a YouTube "Story Hour" each night since April 17. Volunteers from across the US signed up to read a chapter from home (NYT). [more inside]
It’s weird, even for GTA Online.
GTA Online Players Are Picking Sides In A Giant Alien War And There Are Memes [Vice] “Here's a very 2020 sentence: a gang war between purple and green aliens is taking over GTA5 Online, and the memes about it are the hottest thing on TikTok. GTA Online's extraterrestrial gang war has been entirely player directed. In late April, players started dressing up as green aliens, and then surprising other players with beatdowns. Now it appears that a rival gang, dressed as purple aliens, are going after the green aliens, causing an alien gang rivalry. The annals of this gang war are being documented on TikTok, usually accompanied by the music of snitch and dummy who picked a fight with Chief Keef, Tekashi 6ix9ine.”
"They're a greyhound with a sense of humor"
Galgos are a Spanish dog breed similar in appearance to Greyhounds. They are a notoriously mistreated animal, often discarded when their Galgueros consider them useless for hunting or racing. There are numerous rescue groups in Spain that focus on the breed -- my favorite being Galgos del Sol. In 2018, after 4 years of work, filmmaker and Galgo-owner Yeray López Portillo finished Yo Galgo (trailer), which is free to watch online, this weekend only. (CW: animal abuse; hunting/racing culture; slaughterhouses)
the built environment: seize the means of recreation
How cities are reshaping streets to prepare for life after lockdown - "Milan is beginning to transform 22 miles of local streets, adding temporary bike lanes and wider sidewalks, and lowering the speed limit. In Berlin, some parking spots have also become pop-up bike lanes. Paris is fast-tracking long-distance bike lanes that connect suburbs to the city center. And in Brussels, on May 4, the city center will become a priority zone for people on bikes and on foot." (previously) [more inside]
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