May 29, 2015
"So what's Nintendo," you ask, "and why should I care?"
John Stossel on 20/20 in 1988: Nuts For Nintendo
Miniature Origami Robot Self-folds, Walks, Swims, and Degrades
Origami Robot Folds Itself Up, Does Cool Stuff, Dissolves Into Nothing [yt] - "At ICRA 2015 in Seattle yesterday, researchers from MIT demonstrated [yt] an untethered miniature origami robot that self-folds, walks, swims, and degrades. That's the title of their paper [pdf], in fact, and they delivered on all of those promises: from a flat sheet with a magnet on it, their robot folds itself up in just a few seconds, is immediately ready to zip around on land or water driven by magnetic fields, and then when you've run out of things to do with it, drive it into a tank of acetone and it'll dissolve. This is the first time that a robot has been able to demonstrate a complete life cycle like this, and eventually, it'll be doing it inside your body." (via; previously)
You don’t just live with art, you live in art.
In Seattle, Xenia is not only a "one bedroom in Eastlake", it's an Airbnb art installation you can rent for a $100 a night.
"If I should feel that I’d like a few drags, it’s just gotta be alright"
" It’s hard for people to understand the value of their own stuff."
Children's Letters to Frankenstein
Dear Jennifer, I very much appreciate your letter of 10/29. From the wording of one of your questions, I suspect that the message may have been intended for my monster, "Frankenstein's Monster." I have included his address, should you wish to contact him (the monster) directly.
FREMDAJ EN LA NOKT
But the final item on the meeting’s agenda underscored what all those virtual Esperantists were missing. After the speeches, Neil got up and passed out sheets printed with the lyrics to "Fremdaj en la Nokt," the Esperanto version of the Sinatra hit "Strangers in the Night." He explained that a particular Italian Esperantist had an extensive YouTube presence and a habit of jumping into worldwide Esperanto forums and Facebook groups to plug his singing. This was one of his better songs.
Neil settled back down behind his banquet table, counted out the time, and the eight attending members of the New York Esperanto Society started to sing.
Sometimes a JB is not enough to get us to a JTB...
House of Secrets
When the refurbishment is complete, Witanhurst will have about ninety thousand square feet of interior space, making it the second-largest mansion in the city, after Buckingham Palace. It will likely become the most expensive house in London. In 2006, the Qatari royal family bought Dudley House, on Park Lane, for about forty million pounds; after a renovation, its estimated resale value is two hundred and fifty million pounds. Real-estate agents expect that the completed Witanhurst will be worth three hundred million pounds—about four hundred and fifty million dollars.
And no one knows who owns it.
And no one knows who owns it.
/vərˈbōs/
From plitter to drabbletail: a few writers choose the words they love. [The Guardian] [Books]
Dialect terms such as yokeymajig or whiffle-whaffle; all-time favourites like cochineal, clot or eschew; antiquated phrases such as ‘playing the giddy ox’ … leading writers on the words they cherish.[more inside]
GOOGLE WAKA FLOCKA 2016
Castle Griffinsteed
Castle Griffinsteed: What horrors lie beneath?
Man Bites Dog/Dog Bites Man
John McAbery Sculptures
"the means, and the proper means, of fulfilling our destiny..."
"Vivid Sydney is an 18 day festival of light, music and ideas bringing Australia's Emerald City to life as winter approaches. This year Vivid began on 22 May and finishes on 8 June. Just for once, I'll let my camera do the talking..." Example of a light show on the Customs House (YouTube, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary). [more inside]
Space is big. Space is dark. It's hard to find. A place to park.
Soyuz docking with the ISS. A dashcam view from TMA-16M. Blue Danube waltz not included. (SLYT)
Dick pics are mundane and funny to me
Cobra Club ... the newest game by developer Robert Yang, doesn’t just feature dicks: the game is fundamentally about dicks, how they look, and the many ways people try to make them look good. Yang’s previous games have had the fortune of being picked up by major YouTubers, meaning that millions of gamers around the world are familiar with his work. But Yang doesn’t feel comfortable with the way in which some YouTubers treated his creations. “[Cobra Club] is more ‘direct’ in response to all these dudes playing my abstract gay sex innuendo games and saying ‘this is so gay! eww’…basically, when people are being homophobic and gross, the proper response is to be even gayer at them,” Yang told me.[more inside]
Fishy
The Piscivore's Dilemma On sustainable seafood (Tim Zimmerman for Outside magazine)
Pinball pushers: crews of tinhorns, living in luxury on penny thievery
In the long history of pinball machines, a new golden age of pinball was started with the introduction of player-controlled electronic flippers, first seen in 1947 in D. Gottlieb & Co's Humpty Dumpty. Unfortunately, this was five years after the start of the War on Pinball, ushered in by New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and others who saw pinball machines simply as another form of coin-machine gambling (PDF) and source of moral decline. Following New York, pinball bans spread throughout the United States (PDF) and Canada, with fears escalating to the point that some in criminal law looked to alternative solutions to the Pinball Problem (PDF). Even though a bold "Babe Ruth" move by Roger Sharpe in New York City in May of 1976 overturned the local ban and other cities again followed suit, some local pinball bans have only recently recently been lifted, after people discovered such laws were still in place. See also: Pinball: From Illegal Gambling Game to American Obsession (VICE short documentary).
“It never ... Not even once ... ever works”
Cameron Crowe's new movie Aloha got its first bad review when Amy Pascal's emails were hacked.
"I'm never starting a movie again when the script is ridiculous," she wrote. "I don't care how much I love the director and the actors."
This was before anyone got wind that this was the latest of in long, disgraceful history of movies set in Hawaii that erase POC from a location where the population is only around 30% Caucasian. But as Jen Yamoto points out in The Daily Beast, "Aloha actually features one of the more prominent Asian/mixed heritage female leads in any studio movie in recent memory.
She just happens to be played by Emma Stone." [more inside]
How an acrobat fell to her death during a live performance.
Cracking the (Guitar) Code
Troy Grady a guitarist who grew up in the '80's worked to discover the techniques used by speed guitarists like Yngwie Malmsteen, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen. In Cracking the Code (Season 1 and Season 2), he goes through his struggles and successes in figuring out how to chunk patterns, pick slanting and sweeping and unlock the riffs of these masters. Unlike typical presentations, his feature clever throwback animations that illustrate technique with a German expressionist style. Outside the series, he also discusses the art of transcription in deconstructing Steve Vai's "Intimidation Lick" from Crossroads.
Franklin W Dixon Didn't Exist?
OK, I actually knew that, although I didn't realize that anonymous authors were still cranking out Hardy Boys (and Nancy Drew) books.
What I post, I post.
The game is the game, what's done is done, and it is what it is.
The Wire: Tautology Supercut [SLYT, NSFW]
Custom saw blade for quick boxes and drawers
Andrew Klein demonstrates his custom saw blade designed for quickly making boxes and drawers. There's also a photo gallery if you want to skip the video.
Filming everyday life near the end of the Soviet Union
Former TV cameraman Rick Suddeth has posted numerous videos of everyday life in the former Soviet Union in the 1980s and early 1990s. These are mostly raw footage or lightly edited, some are silent. Moscow traffic ca. 1986. Moscow grocery store ca. 1990. Universam Department Store, Moscow, 1990. Queuing for wine at a state liquor store. In the Cosmos Night Club. [more inside]
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Looking for something to watch this weekend? Why not try the Star Wars: Clone Wars microseries-compiled-into-a-movie from 2003.
These Chimps Helped Save Human Lives: Now We've Left them to Die
In 1975, the New York Blood Center (NYBC) decided to bring 100 chimpanzees to Liberia to conduct research on hepatitis and other human diseases. The research worked: we now have a vaccine for hepatitis B, and the research project ended in 2005. But NYBC left the chimps in Liberia, promising that they could retire there and be cared for until the natural end of their lives. In March 2015, NYBC abruptly ended funding for the chimp sanctuary. The chimps are slowly starving to death, dependent on the charity of unpaid caregivers for food and fresh water. NYBC says they have no legal or moral obligation to help. [more inside]
Actually, I have no idea what a blue corn moon is.
Judy Kuhn sings ‘Colors of the Wind’ in different styles and talks about her eleven o'clock number in "Fun Home" (Fun Home previously)
STOL, not stall
Bush pilots in Alaska rely on planes that can get them in and out of just about anywhere that has a bare patch of ground. During the off-season, they (and pilots from around the rest of the US) meet up for the annual Valdez Fly In. [more inside]
SoX -- Surf
Chance the Rapper and The Social Experiment's new album Surf is available as a free download at his home page here, or iTunes.
Internet journalism and invasive surveillance
Less Marc Jacobs More Jane Jacobs
"More indigenous territory has been claimed by maps than by guns"
Jordan Engel's Decolonial Atlas project aims to restore indigenous place names to global maps overwritten by colonialism. On Tumblr too.
Meet Addy
In 1864, a nine-year-old slave girl was punished for daydreaming. Distracted by rumors that her brother and father would be sold, she failed to remove worms from the tobacco leaves she was picking. The overseer didn’t whip her. Instead, he pried her mouth open, stuffed a worm inside, and forced her to eat it. This girl is not real.
Joining the Maroons
Lose Yourself, Win the Internet
We've seen good ASL versions of Eminem before, but this one from Shelby Mitchusson takes it to another level. (SLASLYT)
Why we need paternal leave and a new mindset about dads
The New Republic interviews Josh Levs, a CNN reporter who "has written a book, All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Businesses – and How We Can Fix It Together, arguing that it is incumbent on men to become part of a conversation about gender equality in homes and in workplaces." [more inside]
From Kinshasa
‘Tired of pre-conceptions around African music, Mbongwana Star are creating their own identity, fusing traditional Congolese rhythms with post punk and electronics inspired by life in the townships around them, “making magic out garbage”’—some tracks on YouTube: Malukayi (ft. Konono No. 1); Shégué; Nganshe; Kala. You can listen to their debut album From Kinshasa in full on Soundcloud (some reviews 1, 2, 3). [more inside]
Skyping with the enemy
New Wave Goodbye
'New Wave Games Journalist' and frequent Guardian and Rock Paper Shotgun columnist Cara Ellison is leaving games journalism, and she lays out her reasons in an essay on her site. Some of her best-known writing includes her S.EXE series about sex in a games for Rock Paper Shotgun, a verse review of an Anna Anthropy game for The Guardian, the Embed With Games series and a heartfelt tribute to indie game maker Increpare.
Why isn't this a proper Disney series?
What with Disney owning Marvel, you'd think they'd found a way to crossover all their various princesses by now. Until they finally do, have all your Disney princesses needs met with Amy Mebberson's Pocket Princesses.
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