May 5, 2022
Hot Banana
What If? is back! For the first time in (just under) four years, xkcd's Randall Munroe gives "serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns".
Today's question: how many bananas would you need to power a house?
> a building that looks like Holly Herndon
Infinite Images and the latent camera Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst talk about their experiences with DALL-E (versions 1 and 2) and their thoughts on a future where anyone can make conceptual art from a few words.
Holly and AI previously and previouslier.
Wild .horses
Fabulously Unscrupulous
How did it come to this? In the 1980s, a vibrant opposition to mass culture thrived. Punk formed a whole DIY ethos, a collective way of life outside of mainstream structures. At any rate, that was the promise. Michael Friedrich looks at Jim Ruland's new book on the legendary punk label in The Unraveling of SST Records [The New Republic; punk rock no-paywall version] [more inside]
Mechanical Watch
In the world of modern portable devices, it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the most convenient way to keep track of time was a mechanical watch.
Needs more Orcagraphic Lift
The Great Salt Lake is drastically receding, and is is expected to reach a new historic low this year. [more inside]
It's 110 proof and imported from France
Chartreuse had its own party drink? In branded Mason Jars? Yes. Punchdrink takes us to a time when desperate importers thought big -- and gives us a modern remix. David Lebovitz gives us the original recipe and the ads that introduced it.
Things that Make White People Uncomfortable
Banned Book Store Library advocacy group EveryLibrary launches the Banned Book Store, the most comprehensive seller of currently banned and challenged books in the United States.
Goodwill find? Try WWII-looted museum treasure.
Thrifter locates first-century Roman bust looted from a German museum/villa. Absolutely wild story that includes Pompeii, one Drusus "Dennis" Germanicus, King Ludwig I, lawyers, and ultimately a new home.
The Brontë siblings all died young, leaving moody, moor-y masterpieces.
Exit through the gif shop
The Gif Gallery claims to contain (very nearly) 100,000 gifs. Related: a 2013 FPP on the pronounciation, a Stephen Whilite obituary, the giphy repository (FPP), and a 2010 Slate article.
And Who Am I To Question?
All-girl group Fertile Virgin was the hottest soon-to-be-obscure band in Boston in 1990. They had two drummers, gigged constantly, signed to respectable indie label Harriet Records, and even had their record played on the John Peel radio show. As with so many promising acts, the grunge tidal wave buried them. [more inside]
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