December 8, 2015

The emperor was naked, and so is this.

"Respected research math is dominated by men of a certain attitude. Even allowing for individual variation, there is still a tendency towards an oppressive atmosphere, which is carefully maintained and even championed by those who find it conducive to success." Recent Princeton graduate Piper Harron's PhD thesis isn't written for these men. It is very cool number theory, and it is art.
posted by bergamot and vetiver at 9:24 PM PST - 73 comments

Quantum computing! Brought to you by Google, Goldman Sachs, the NSA...

Google successfully tests the first commercially available quantum computer. Google/NASA's Quantum Computing / AI lab has verified that D-Wave Systems recently announced 1000+ qubit quantum computer works as designed: really, really, really fast. "A 100,000,000x leap in computing power", one of their board members claims. In addition to Google, NASA, and government grants, D-Wave's CEO, the former CTO of Goldman Sachs, also obtained large initial investments from the financial industry. One of their first customers? Los Alamos National Laboratory, "a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security." This obviously has huge implications for public key encryption, scientific research... everything, really.
posted by markkraft at 6:05 PM PST - 121 comments

Thirty-five years ago, during the Dolphins vs Patriots MNF game,

Howard breaks the news --The behind-the scene debate about how to present the matter.
Following the game, Ted Koppel did a special Nightline report.(slyt)
The following night, ABC devoted a special edition to Lennon.(slyt) [more inside]
posted by shockingbluamp at 5:52 PM PST - 40 comments

We have to show everyone how happy we are!

InstagramHusband.com - You are not alone
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:47 PM PST - 24 comments

The Part About The Crimes

On the heels of Canada's announcement of a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, CBC will be tweeting every 6 minutes over 24 hours the names, photos and cases of over 250 women under the hashtag #MMIW.
posted by mannequito at 5:17 PM PST - 10 comments

And now, the paddling of the swollen ass. With paddles.

US Patent 6,293,874: User-operated amusement apparatus for kicking the user's buttocks.
An amusement apparatus including a user-operated and controlled apparatus for self-infliction of repetitive blows to the user's buttocks by a plurality of elongated arms bearing flexible extensions that rotate under the user's control. The first post is provided with a crank positioned at a height thereon which requires the user to bend forward toward the first post while grasping the crank with both hands, to prominently present his buttocks toward the second post. As the user rotates the crank, the user's buttocks are paddled by flexible shoes located on each outboard end of the elongated arms to provide amusement to the user and viewers of the paddling.
[more inside]
posted by Existential Dread at 4:58 PM PST - 14 comments

"There is a certain power and mystery in secrets..."

WIRED does a deep dive into the identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, and points the finger at Dr Craig Steven Wright: "Either Wright invented bitcoin, or he’s a brilliant hoaxer who very badly wants us to believe he did."
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:04 PM PST - 129 comments

Billy on the Street's "Escape from Scientology"

Billy Eichner hosts the first episode of the obstacle course gameshow "Leah Remini's Escape from Scientology." Rachel Dratch is the contestant.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 2:14 PM PST - 20 comments

Mindsuckers

Engrossing Portraits of Parasites and the Creatures They Zombify
posted by Artw at 1:58 PM PST - 33 comments

NPR’s Book Concierge

Once again, NPR has organized their list of the year's best books into the Book Concierge, a recommendation engine with 29 categories - everything from It's All Geek to Me to The Dark Side to Eye-Opening Reads - available to mix, match, and sort.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 1:57 PM PST - 11 comments

Who Built The Moon? We did. Or... will.

"At some time in the future humanity will embark upon the most distant and most important journey it is ever likely to take. It will be necessary to travel 4.6 billion years into the past to complete a massive engineering project to create Earth's Moon." Who Built the Moon?
posted by yellowbinder at 1:44 PM PST - 57 comments

What began as theory persists as style

When Nothing Is Cool is an insider critique of English academia's culture of critique. [more inside]
posted by grobstein at 1:24 PM PST - 38 comments

Human Echolocation

How Human Echolocation Allows People to See Without Using Their Eyes "Daniel Kish, who lost his vision when he was a year old but has made headlines for climbing mountains, riding bikes and living alone in the wilderness." His case and others like him helped inspire studies into human echolocation, something even sighted people are capable of learning. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 1:13 PM PST - 14 comments

Donut Cat & Friends

Donyatsu - an anime series wherein the ruins of human civilization are inhabited by . . . cute animals shaped like round baked goods. On a given one-and-a-half-minute episode, they might try to play with a giant robot or quote Terminator. [more inside]
posted by knuckle tattoos at 12:54 PM PST - 4 comments

Soloway describes herself as “seditious.

"That night, Soloway sat in the bathtub, while her husband, Bruce Gilbert, a music supervisor for film and television, brushed his teeth. She remembers telling him, “ ‘I don’t want to use the money to pay off our debt. I want to be a director, and I want to make a film with it and get into Sundance. I want to double down on me.’ And Bruce was, like, ‘O.K.’ ” Then, just as Soloway was making the leap to directing her own material, her father called one afternoon and came out as transgender." (SL New Yorker)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:46 PM PST - 30 comments

I try not to be afraid. I am still afraid.

Being A Girl: A Brief Personal History of Violence [The Belle Jar]
posted by melissasaurus at 12:14 PM PST - 16 comments

Hamill, Fisher, Ford, Kasdan, Abrams, Boyega, Driver, Ridley

'Star Wars' Strikes Back: Behind the Scenes of the Biggest Movie of the Year
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:45 AM PST - 114 comments

I Was Internet Famous

Here, nine YouTube sensations whose lives were upended briefly in the past decade (plus one from the prehistoric web era, before YouTube made its debut in 2005) speak about this odd, relatively new kind of fame. Most embraced the experience, seeing where it would take them. Some ended up in dark places. A couple have made it their living and found themselves with new careers. Others stepped away, opting out of the flame wars. Pay attention: Someday, the accidental celebrity could be you.
posted by josher71 at 10:43 AM PST - 22 comments

The Beginning of the End of Big Government IT

The state of California just announced that the new technology underpinning its Child Welfare System [pdf] won't be the usual "IT Solution" bought up in one big lump to follow a 4000-page specification. Instead, it's going to be built as a series of smaller modular projects driven by user needs, drawing on agile methodologies, a wider range of vendors, and, wherever possible, open standards and open source software. The decision, made in collaboration with Code for America and the federal government, sets an important precedent for how governments on all levels can get past the pitfalls of the standard procurement model. [more inside]
posted by holgate at 10:42 AM PST - 63 comments

Professor Kanye and the Business of Yeezus

Kanye gave a lecture at the Oxford Guild earlier this year, and it's now available on YouTube for everyone's viewing pleasure. [more inside]
posted by ourt at 10:41 AM PST - 4 comments

What Billy Bragg Songs Mean To Us

In order to let Billy Bragg know what his songs mean to us fans, we created this site with our own stories and annotations to his songs. It’s meant as a token of our appreciation for everything the Bard of Barking is and does.
posted by veedubya at 10:32 AM PST - 16 comments

Take a ride on the Genre Line to Nonlinear Rant Again

Someone Turned the (Washington DC) Metro System Map Into Hilarious Anagrams. [via Reddit]
posted by Rob Rockets at 10:22 AM PST - 18 comments

Mistrust the process.

The Philadelphia 76ers are the worst team in basketball, by design. Under general manager Sam Hinkie, the team has been unabashed in stockpiling players they hope will one day be great while barely even trying to win games in the meantime, since worse teams get better draft picks. (Previously) But those days may be over, as it seems the NBA itself has effectively forced the Sixers to hire an executive who will at least try to build a winning team. It's a rare, if not unprecedented, instance of a professional sports league stepping in to save a theoretically independent team from itself. [more inside]
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:11 AM PST - 123 comments

“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.”

Four-day marathon public reading of War and Peace begins in Russia. [The Guardian]
A marathon four-day Russian public reading of Leo Tolstoy’s vast classic novel War and Peace kicked off on Tuesday morning, with more than 1,300 people in more than 30 cities preparing to make their contributions to the record-breaking project. Coordinated by Tolstoy’s great-great-granddaughter Fekla Tolstaya, and featuring a number of cultural luminaries including the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda, the readings are being streamed by Russian state television channel Kultura. One volume of Tolstoy’s fictionalised history of Russia during the Napoleonic campaign will be read each day.
posted by Fizz at 8:45 AM PST - 17 comments

“Beer doesn’t care what color you are": Annie Johnson, brewmaster

Annie Johnson can replicate beer from taste. “I have a real knack for tasting something and breaking it down,” she says. “If I like it, I can immediately go home and make it.” But it's her own original experiments with beer that bring amazing creations to the table: her light American lager, Mow the Damn Lawn, earned her the title of Homebrewer of the Year in 2013. She's not your average beer geek, and has things to say about strange additives (Reddit AMA), race and craft beer, and her favorite tools. She is BrewMaster-in-residence at PicoBrew. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:59 AM PST - 31 comments

The pronunciation is a little strange, so you can practice: SCHLONG

Ronnie helps the non-native speaker get the hang of swearing, talking about sex (NSFW) and related body parts (NSFW), prostitution (NSFW), drugs, getting high or just chilling. Also, piss. Jade will teach you some Multicultural London English and childish insults. Emma talks shit and more shit, and teaches you ways to describe the women and men you're attracted to. James delves into Christian Bale's notorious rant for useful expressions in a two part lesson (both NSFW). [more inside]
posted by sively at 7:20 AM PST - 14 comments

On dads and dad music (SL Storify)

Mallory Ortberg asked her Twitter followers to share their dad music stories, and, boy, did they ever deliver.
posted by nerdfish at 6:27 AM PST - 171 comments

The fall of Jersey:

How a tax haven goes bust. Guardian long-read describing the rise and fall of Jersey as an offshore tax haven.
posted by Ned G at 5:40 AM PST - 25 comments

Vincent walks!

Veterinarians at Iowa State University have successfully implanted prosthetic legs in Vincent, a three-year-old cat.
posted by listen, lady at 5:08 AM PST - 19 comments

Jon Stewart returns!

Jon Stewart returned last night to the Daily Show. He was there to ask for support in getting the Zadroga Act passed, which would provide funding for first responders who were injured on 9/11. Although the bill was scheduled to be included in the Transportation Bill, it was pulled by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The bill has 67 senators and 270 Representatives pledged to support it, but Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan continue to block it. It has to be added to the Omnibus bill by Friday, or all funding will be cut.
posted by Marky at 2:15 AM PST - 62 comments

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