July 22, 2013
unravelling before our eyes
The Constant Traveler
Good to the last note.
After 35 years, Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ, is closing. Once called "the best club in New York" by New York magazine, Maxwell's was ground zero for "The Hoboken Sound", with such bands as The Bongos, The Feelies, and Yo La Tengo playing there frequently. It was also the setting for Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days video. [more inside]
'Crack baby' study ends with unexpected but clear result
"Poverty is a more powerful influence on the outcome of inner-city children than gestational exposure to cocaine." [more inside]
Ask First!
[NSFW] "Ask First! was written by J. Mary Burnet & Kaleigh Trace in response to Robin Thicke's gross, unconsensual song and video Blurred Lines... We don't want to have to listen to Robin Thicke tell us he knows we want it over such a damn catchy beat. We wanna dance to music that's sexy and radical." [more inside]
"Good food, good fun, and a whole lot of crazy crap on the walls"
The Right to Childhood Should be Protected.
Our Contemplation of the Cosmos Stirs Us
Cosmos returns in the year 2014. "A Personal Journey" becomes "A Space-Time Odyssey". Presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson and produced by Seth MacFarlane, Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey will be aired on FOX and follow a similar format to the beloved Sagan classic, available here.
Wait.. how did this get by unnoticed thus far?
Apparently, since 2012 there has been new series of Mysterious Cities of Gold (previously) in production. Acting as a continuation, as opposed to a reboot. No English versions available, yet. French trailer. French opening.
Chicken of the sea
Have sketchbook, will travel.
Drawn The Road Again, artist Chandler O'Leary's "illustrated road trip blog."
I’ve logged a lot of miles in my life, visiting as many patches of earth as possible and getting as much down on paper as I can. And for the first time, I’m putting these sketches out into the world. So here we are: I’ve collected all my drawings of crazy tourist traps and Paul Bunyan statues and hidden gems and panoramic vistas, and I’m sending them out like postcards. To you.[more inside]
Crowd-sourcing patent searches
"There are a lot of people complaining about lousy software patents these days. I say, stop complaining, and start killing them. It took me about fifteen minutes to stop a crappy Microsoft patent from being approved. Got fifteen minutes? You can do it too."
Software Patents previously: 1 2 3 4.
Joel Spolsky previously: 1 2
Robotic gymnasts made by hinamitetu
No. 16 makes the quadruple backflip look easy (YouTube), but robotic gymnastics don't always go so well (YT). [more inside]
You don't win friends with salad
Iowa State Fair officials have announced 10 new food options for the 2013 fair, in addition to the eight announced earlier this month. These include maple bacon funnel cake and deep fried prairie oysters, and join old favorites including deep fried butter on a stick, pork chop on a stick, and over 60 other foods (on a stick). [more inside]
Ghost Beach Is Closed Due To Jellyfish
"On my great steed Sabermetric, I venture forth to distant shores."
Nate Silver will move FiveThirtyEight to ESPN when his contract with the New York Times expires in late August. Silver's new site will look to Bill Simmons' Grantland as a model for existing under ESPN's umbrella. His new move could be "genius," with a role at ABCNews and a larger audience, but did the New York Times know what it had in Silver? ESPN press release & Nate Silver 2.0 quote
Hello extremely! I hope you like to *play*.
Stardock buys rights to Star Control from Atari and plans a reboot! In 1992, Accolade released one of the most greatestest, or at least silliest, space adventure games of totally forever: Star Control II. [more inside]
:( sad boys :(
The concept of 'Sad Rap' has recently been explored by two rappers: Little Pain (Soundcloud, YouTube video for "High Cry") in the United States, and Yung Lean (Soundcloud, personal site, and video of "Hurt" (the video is... amazing?)) of Sweden. Pain and Lean have been compared to Lil B for their similar outsider art perspective on the genre, with the distinction that sad rap tends to focus singularly on the emotion of depression. For further reading, Vice's Noisey music blog has been chronicling both Pain and Lean in these articles: Meet Little Pain..., Meet Yung Lean Doer.... The Strangest New Thing in Music or a Logical Next Step for Hip-Hop from Pigeons and Planes. Hip-hop blog Refined Hype has a reaction piece which questions the very concept of 'Sad Rap' as a genre: Stopping Little Pain & Sad Rap Before It Starts. Producer Suicideyear provides the low key, somber beats for both artists.
"I'll get up and bury this telephone in your head."
...that Kilimanjaro of garbage was no metaphor.
Sharin' Morningstar Keenan. Please remember that name.
For 30 years, an ex-con drifter from Saskatchewan named Dennis Melvyn Howe has eluded police in connection with the abduction, rape and murder of a 9 year old Toronto girl. In 2008, an Idaho man named Robert James Miller wrote two long, bizarre posts on the forum at unsolvedcanada.ca. He claimed to have identified Howe and turned him in after seeing a 1998 episode of America's Most Wanted. The FBI is now investigating the possibility that Miller himself is Dennis Melvyn Howe. [more inside]
He doesn't know that his old bone is captured by all these cell phones
An Astronomical Acid Trip
Enjoy 200,000 images of Saturn, its rings and moons taken by NASA's Cassini over 8 years compressed into 4 minutes of video.
To Secure, Contain and Protect
"I am absolutely clear that the state has a vital role to play."
Online pornography to be blocked by default in the UK, announces Prime Minister David Cameron in a speech today. Internet users will have to contact their ISPs to opt out of the filter. Possession of pornography depicting rape will also be illegal. Here is the full text of the speech. Coverage by The Independent, the Telegraph, and a shortened video of the speech at the Guardian. [more inside]
The Great Kate Wait almost over
Days after British and International news reporters and photographers started claiming space in front of the Lindo Wing at St. Mary's hospital, (some have been there since July 3, or 10 days before Kate Middleton's suspected due date of July 13), the "Royal Baby" is finally on the way now that the Duchess of Cambridge is reportedly in labor. Millions around the world wait for the birth of the newest addition to the Royal Family, who will be third in line to the throne of the British Monarchy, whether it's a boy or a girl.
The Last Days of Big Law
Of all the occupational golden ages to come and go in the twentieth century—for doctors, journalists, ad-men, autoworkers—none lasted longer, felt cushier, and was all in all more golden than the reign of the law partner. Noam Schreiber on The Last Days of Big Law: You can't imagine the terror when the money dries up. Former law partner Steven J. Harper, author of The Lawyer Bubble, believes the profession to be in existential crisis. Another former partner weighs in. Libertarian law professor Richard Epstein presents a more sanguine view.
"what defines truth in the digital age"
Economic Mobility in the U.S. Varies Geographically
A team of economists from Harvard and UC Berkeley studying the effects of tax expenditures on economic mobility has released data showing that economic mobility in the U.S. varies dramatically between different geographic areas. The authors' website includes a summary of their findings. According the NY Times article on the study, which has a nifty map and tools to play with the data, the authors only found relatively small correlations between tax credits for the poor and higher taxes on the rich and economic mobility. However, the following four factors did correlate with greater economic mobility in a region: the size and dispersion of the middle class, more two-parent households, better schools, and more civic engagement (measured through membership in religious and community groups). Matthew Yglesias comments on the study at Slate. [more inside]
All My Exes Live in Texts
When 772 pitches isn't enough
Tomohiro Anraki might be the next big Japanese pitcher, if he manages to survive high school baseball in Japan. [more inside]
Chomsky vs Žižek
People sometimes assume that because Chomsky is a leftist, he would find common intellectual ground with the postmodernist philosophers of the European Left.
Big mistake.
Slavoj Žižek Responds to Noam Chomsky: ‘I Don’t Know a Guy Who Was So Often Empirically Wrong’
Chomsky responds, "Žižek finds nothing, literally nothing, that is empirically wrong." [more inside]
You've ruined my dreams.
When Nada Al-Ahdal discovered that her parents had sold her she ran away. She is 11 years old, and this is her message. [more inside]
Chuck Feeney is
The billionaire who is trying to go broke. Chuck Feeney is the James Bond of philanthropy. Over the last 30 years he’s crisscrossed the globe conducting a clandestine operation to give away a $7.5 billion fortune derived from hawking cognac, perfume and cigarettes in his empire of duty-free shops.
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