October 21, 2015
YADKCOLSPAC
OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!!!" EVERY YEAR WE GET TOGETHER AND MAKE SALMON FOR TOAST, EVERY YEAR WE GET A CROCKETY BLOAT, EVERY YEAR WE GET DRUNK ON THE DOCKS, AND EVERY YEAR WE HAVE SEX WITH OUR CAPS LOCKS!!!! [more inside]
Things are sillier when they're done with LEGOs (sorry, no dino DNA)
TT Games has made a number of LEGO-based games, often LEGO versions of other franchises. These include cutscenes that recreate some version of movie scenes, which initially didn't include dialog, as seen in these collections of cutscenes from Lego Star Wars : The Complete Saga and Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. That changed with LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, but things really got fun with LEGO Jurassic World (with all Jurassic Park movies). "So, you two, um, dig up dinosaurs?"
The Coast of Lake Michigan Looks Extra Oceanic in This New 'Linear Map'
When I visit Lake Michigan, I feel staggering incredulity: How is this not an ocean? Driving between cities around its 1,400 miles of shoreline—say, from Chicago to Grand Rapids—emphasizes the lake’s vast scroll, since the only way to go is around. A new map captures that experience.
From WATS lines to Whatsapp
The Final Experiment Is Nigh
Adam and Jamie announce the end of their classic Mythbusters series in this week's Entertainment Tonight. [more inside]
Ohio’s War on Reproductive Care
During Governor John Kasich’s tenure, abortion access in Ohio has dramatically decreased from 14 abortion providers to 8 as Kasich and the GOP-led legislature have passed a startling number of restrictions on Ohio’s abortion providers and Planned Parenthood. [more inside]
How do you get to Denmark?
Where do ‘good’ or pro-social institutions come from ? Why does the capacity for collective action and cooperative behaviour vary so much across the world today ? How do some populations transcend tribalism to form a civil society ? How do you “get to Denmark”?
Hunger makes a modern girl
An excerpt from Carrie Brownstein's memoir. "Sometimes the dull detritus of our pasts become glaring strands once you realize they form a pattern, a lighted path to the present." - from "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl," scheduled to be published this month. [more inside]
The Color of Debt: How Collection Suits Squeeze Black Neighborhoods
The Color of Debt: How Collection Suits Squeeze Black Neighborhoods — a ProPublica investigation into racial disparities in debt collection lawsuits [more inside]
Where are all the women? The math said there would be more women!
One mathematician’s formula suggests that all-male lineups don’t “just happen,” despite what conference organizers might claim. "...in any conference with over 10 speakers, say, it would be extremely rare to have no female speakers at all—less than 5 percent chance, depending on one’s assumption about the percentage of women in mathematics as a whole."
I Like Big Books And I Cannot Lie
"Nobody likes to get played."
What do we really know about Osama bin Laden's death?
I saw this as more of a media story, a case study in how constructed narratives become accepted truth. This felt like a cop-out to [Seymour Hersh], as he explained in a long email the next day. He said that I was sidestepping the real issue, that I was ‘‘turning this into a ‘he-said, she-said’ dilemma,’’ instead of coming to my own conclusion about whose version was right. It was then that he introduced an even more disturbing notion: What if no one’s version could be trusted?
Like Google Maps for the Milky Way
You can browse the largest assembled astronomical image of all time, 46 billion pixels, in a Google Maps-like interface covering the Milky Way.
There are a lot of stars.
You will need: sugar, corn syrup, dentures...
Joe Biden is officially not running for President.
This closes the door on one of the biggest potential challenges to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s second attempt at capturing the Democratic nomination. Back in August, Mr. Biden was already running for president in the invisible primary. Like most candidates who test the waters, he didn’t find enough support to justify entering the race.
It was more popular on that ballot than bringing back the sale of beer
The Strange, Short Story Of Washington State’s Income Tax
People were so excited about the income tax that they voted twice. First, they changed the state constitution to allow the tax. Then voters approved the tax – 70 percent in favor. In the time between the two votes, something significant happened: People had received their income tax forms in the mail. Suddenly the tax wasn't just a theory. The form was daunting, and newspapers suggested people might need professional help to fill out the form.
In defence of cultural appropriation
Yo Zushi: Many of those calling out cultural appropriation of all kinds – from clothing and hair to musical genres – seem to share this proprietorial attitude, which insists that culture, by its nature a communally forged and ever-changing project, should belong to specific peoples and not to all. Banks is doubtless correct to feel this “undercurrent” of racial persecution by an industry that prefers its stars to be white and what they sell to be black, yet there is also truth in the second part of that undercurrent: “Y’all don’t really own shit.” When it comes to great movements in culture, the racial interloper is not wrong. None of us can, or should, “own” hip-hop, cornrows, or the right to wear a kimono.
This Is A Story About Loss
A woman who suddenly lost her best friend in a car crash shops at a store filled with unclaimed airport luggage. "When I first looked at [The Unclaimed Baggage Center]'s website months ago, I felt that same twinge of, 'It's a store full of lost stuff? That sucks.' I figured I would write a quirky piece about a kooky store, to compensate for the inherent sadness. But my world changed this summer, and now I'm here in Alabama, and the idea of losing stuff on an airplane feels decidedly less heavy."
This is not a women's issue. Don't try to make it a women's rights thing
The Loss
"All kids in the future wear their pants inside out."
Doc Brown: We're descending towards Hill Valley, California at 4:29 PM on Wednesday, October 21st, twenty-fifteen.
Marty: Two thousand fifteen?! You mean we're in the future!
Marty: Two thousand fifteen?! You mean we're in the future!
Balancing Safety with Sieverts
"In New York City, the police now maintain an unknown number of military-grade vans outfitted with X-ray radiation, enabling cops to look through the walls of buildings or the sides of trucks ... The NYPD will not reveal when, where, or how often they are used."
The lowest rung of the housing ladder?
"A growing number of people on low incomes are now living in shared housing - known as "houses in multiple occupation" - where each room is rented separately. But there's concern that many tenants are living in poor conditions." [SLBBC]
Insert your own "Alien Ant Farm" joke here.
A traditional Japanese cover of "Smooth Criminal", led by flautist Yoshimi Tsujimoto.
The Doctor
There was no question of where to bring Mubarak. Mother of Mercy is the only fully functional hospital in Nuba, which is about 3,000 square miles. The hospital is overseen by a onetime college nose guard from upstate New York named Tom Catena. Just as there are rules in Nuba for what to do in an Antonov raid, there is a rule for what to do with the victims of the bombing if they are still alive: get them to Doctor Tom as fast as you can.[more inside]
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