July 28, 2013
The Vitamin Myth: Why We Think We Need Supplements
Nutrition experts contend that all we need is what's typically found in a routine diet. Industry representatives, backed by a fascinating history, argue that foods don't contain enough, and we need supplements. Fortunately, many excellent studies have now resolved the issue.(SLAtlantic)
Sting and Robert Downey Jr - Driven to Tears
Manchester man arrested after tweeting rape threats
A 21 year old man was arrested for tweeting rape threats. The target of the tweets, Caroline Criado-Perez, had successfully campaigned to have a woman (Jane Austen) shown on the UK's new 10 pound note, and has been subsequently receiving incessant rape and death threats via twitter, a violation of UK law. Twitter's Terms of Service are being repeatedly and flagrantly violated in this episode, and the company appears to be having issues responding to a backlog of reports; it responded to Criado-Perez only that she take the matter to the police. This resulted in shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper asking Twitter to review its policies for handling abuse complaints. [more inside]
2900 ships lost
Largest space battle in history claims 2,900 ships, untold virtual lives. After 5 hours of battle, CFC defeats the TEST alliance. [more inside]
US Energy & Carbon Flows
Estimated US Energy Use in 2012: 95.1 Quads - "Energy flow charts show the relative size of primary energy resources and end uses in the United States, with fuels compared on a common energy unit basis." (via) [more inside]
Stanley Kubrick's Favorite Films
Some insight into what Stanley Kubrick liked of what he saw in the world of film over the years, with a master list at the end.
"the correlation between country music and political backwardness"?
One Nation Under Elvis
My own conversion to country music came all of a sudden in 1990, around another campfire, also in Nevada. The great Western Shoshone anti-nuclear and land-rights activist Bill Rosse, a decorated World War II vet and former farm manager, unpacked his guitar and sang Hank Williams and traditional songs for hours. I was enchanted as much by the irreverent rancor of some of the songs as by the pure blue yearning of others. I’d had no idea such coolness, wit, and poetry was lurking in this stuff I was taught to scorn before I’d met it.[more inside]
Rebuilding the American Jury
Twelve Absent Men: Rebuilding the American Jury. "Juries hear only 4 percent of criminal trials in America. Their decline has fostered radical punitiveness, but reforms and novel institutions are breathing new life into the jury and civic participation more broadly."
Desmond Tutu compares fight against homophobia to that against apartheid
"I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place." Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu, former chair of independent advisory group The Elders, was in the papers today.
"I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."
Also reported by BBC News and The Mail on Sunday.
A Li'l Dab'll Do Ya
A look at the phenomenon of "dabbing" and concentrated cannabis (butane hash oil, or BHO) - its potency, legality, and its exclusion from the 2013 Emerald Cup - from a Humboldt County perspective, courtesy of the Lost Coast Outpost. In pot-friendly towns like Arcata, it's got the streets on fire.
When biting the inside of your cheeks isn't enough
How I Recovered My Stolen iPad
How I Recovered My Stolen iPad - in which Facebook, Twitter, and Find my iPad work in tandem to find a doofus.
Hacker Barnaby Jack, dead at 35
Barnaby Jack, a hacker and security researcher previously known for his hacks involving ATMs and insulin pumps, has died in San Francisco. He was 35. His death came just days before he was to give a presentation about techniques for hacking implanted heart devices, which could kill a person from 30 feet away.
Counterculture legend Mick Farren dies with his boots on
Give The Anarchist A Cigarette: Counterculture legend Mick Farren dies with his boots on Mick Farren, rabble rouser, musician, and writer, collapsed last night on stage at the The Borderline, in London. He died soon after.
Hmm, sorry, I seem to be crap at this. Here's some more links to the story:
From Uncut:
Mick Farren 1943 - 2013,
From Vintage Vinyl News: Passings: Mick Farren of the Deviants (1943 - 2013),
and from Ultimate Calssic Rock:
Mick Farren Dies After Collapsing On Stage In London
That last has a pretty good version of "Let's Loot The Super Market".
The following notes were written at odd hours and strange places...
"We're not making mistakes; we're making experiences."
Dan Bergstein, Sparknotes blogger (and best known for blogging about the Twilight series), has posted some YouTube instructional videos on How to Knit a Scarf, How to Make a Pumpkin Pie, and How to Wrap a Present. Please note that Dan does not actually know how to do any of these things, and that if you do have these skills viewing these videos might be slightly traumatizing.
The Last Vestiges of the Old Republic...
The Clone Wars (previously) are over, with only a few last mopping up operations underway and a few Jedi unaccounted for. But there is another... Star Wars Rebels will be the new Lucasfilm animated series, and will be taking it's design direction from the work of Ralph McQuarrie.
A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA
The disease that sours oranges and leaves them half green, already ravaging citrus crops across the world, had reached the state’s storied groves. To slow the spread of the bacterium that causes the scourge, they chopped down hundreds of thousands of infected trees and sprayed an expanding array of pesticides on the winged insect that carries it. But the contagion could not be contained.They would have to alter the orange’s DNA — with a gene from a different species. (SLNYT)
With a precipitous decline in Florida’s harvest predicted within the decade, the only chance left to save it, Mr. Kress believed, was one that his industry and others had long avoided for fear of consumer rejection.
Time to collect firewood
Time to collect firewood - a short video showing how a solitary man harvests bark-beetle damaged trees using a home-made raft and a collection of specialized tools. For contrast, the same raft is used in the very social "Crayfishing in Ätran"
This might come in handy sometime...
Fez II Cancelled
Phil Fish, the volatile and sometimes controversial developer of indie game Fez, has abruptly announced its cancellation: "this is as much as i can stomach. this is isn’t the result of any one thing, but the end of a long, bloody campaign. you win." Though this follows in the wake of a popular podcast's host calling him a "tosspot", a "wanker", and a "fucking asshole", Fish has been the subject of massive Internet antagonism ever since his appearance in Indie Game: The Movie; he's been hounded for saying that Japanese games suck, though he claimed the comment was taken out of context, for Tweeting that "PCs are for spreadsheets" prior to Fez's PC release, and for not patching a save-corrupting bug that he claims Microsoft was charging him "tens of thousands of dollars". Fish has often responded poorly to critics in public, but Jonathan Blow (The Witness, Braid) and C418 (Minecraft) each claim that Fish has been at the receiving end of far worse, and far more frequent, vitriol.
Letting go
For a few days now, Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, has been present at his mother's bedside in the intensive care unit of a Chicago hospital. He is documenting this time, what will apparently be his last days with her, in a series of heartwrenching messages on his Twitter stream.
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