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Gibber is a creative coding environment for audiovisual performance and composition. It contains features for audio synthesis and musical sequencing, 2d drawing, 3d scene construction and manipulation, and live-coding shaders.

It comes with a few demos (autoplaying audio)

To stop the current audio or animation, press Control-.
posted by frimble at 11:31 PM PST - 5 comments

Phranc, the self-described "All-American Jewish Lesbian Folksinger" has been a little quiet lately, but she's back with a new website and a new instrumental song. And if that wasn't enough, her entire solo catalog is now available on Bandcamp. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 10:33 PM PST - 8 comments

Scaled in Miles is an interactive visualization that "... is a look at the history of Miles Davis' career and collaborations according to his recording sessions as documented by the Jazz Discography Project. Over four hundred recording sessions are shown in a timeline across the middle of the screen. The circles above it represent the nearly six hundred people who played those sessions; larger circles indicate more sessions with Miles. Scrub and click over the timeline to highlight the people who played with Miles on each date. You can also find specific artists and highlight their sessions by clicking on the circles, or by entering different names in the search box. And if your browser plays audio, you can listen to samples from iTunes in the upper left." [more inside]
posted by cwest at 10:29 PM PST - 9 comments

The knitware design process [large PDF] has three phases: [more inside]
posted by sockermom at 10:07 PM PST - 5 comments

The state of the bees. "For the past seven years, as has been widely reported, honeybees have been dying at an alarming rate. Yet today there are slightly more hives in the country than before the die-offs began. That’s because beekeeping families like the Brownings have moved beyond panic and begun quietly adjusting to a strenuous way of doing business, one that requires constant monitoring, treatment, supplemental feeding, rapid replacement of dead hives, and grudging participation in an agricultural system that grows increasingly inhospitable to the bees it needs to survive."
posted by Dynex at 9:40 PM PST - 22 comments

Washington Post: Technology companies are scrambling to fix a major security flaw that for more than a decade left users of Apple and Google devices vulnerable to hacking when they visited millions of supposedly secure Web sites, including Whitehouse.gov, NSA.gov and FBI.gov. The flaw resulted from a former U.S. government policy that forbade the export of strong encryption and required that weaker “export-grade” products be shipped to customers in other countries, say the researchers who discovered the problem. These restrictions were lifted in the late 1990s, but the weaker encryption got baked into widely used software that proliferated around the world and back into the United States, apparently unnoticed until this year. [more inside]
posted by Admira at 8:53 PM PST - 21 comments

With spring just around the corner (Mother Nature swears for real this time), North Americans are eagerly on the lookout for one of the earliest migratory harbingers of spring, the robin.

Wait, what? Robins are a Christmas bird! Hey, that's not a robin at all! [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:17 PM PST - 43 comments

But we’re gonna try something new today: the energy and vitality of Nutella! And as always, we’re gonna use a condom, but this time it’s gonna be mango-flavored.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:14 PM PST - 19 comments

We're beginning to understand the genes behind how men lost their dick spines. In fact, smooth penises are a derived state in humans; many if not most mammals have some level of spikiness or roughness on the penile tissue. We've known that chimps have penile spines since 1944! However, no one's really quite sure exactly why humans lost their spines. [more inside]
posted by sciatrix at 7:05 PM PST - 58 comments

So what is Stephen Colbert doing between TV gigs? Two things: One, growing awesome facial hair and Two, being an awesome Catholic (with Father James Martin).
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:50 PM PST - 47 comments

The White Negro, Norman Mailer, 1957.

It is on this bleak scene that a phenomenon has appeared: the American existentialist—the hipster, the man who knows that if our collective condition is to live with instant death by atomic war, relatively quick death by the State as l’univers concentrationnaire, or with a slow death by conformity with every creative and rebellious instinct stifled (at what damage to the mind and the heart and the liver and the nerves no research foundation for cancer will discover in a hurry) , if the fate of twentieth century man is to live with death from adolescence to premature senescence, why then the only life-giving answer is to accept the terms of death, to live with death as immediate danger, to divorce oneself from society, to exist without roots, to set out on that uncharted journey into the rebellious imperatives of the self.

[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:11 PM PST - 16 comments

Most debates around sex and disabled people in the mainstream press mirror those of medical ethicists, by focusing on whether disabled people have the ‘right’ to pay for sex. But this is just one small part of the overall picture. Disabled academics and activists paint on a much larger canvas, writing about issues such as consent around mental capacity, the forced sterilisation of disabled people, the rights of disabled people in institutions to have sex and be free from sexual abuse, and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) disabled people.

"Sex, Lives, and Disability", from Mosaic Science, covers a lot of ground on many issues relating to including history of disability rights movements, what role sex workers may play in the lives of some people with disabilities, barriers often faced by LGBT people with disabilities, rethinking definitions of sex, and consent when verbal consent may not be possible. In sidebar videos, journalist and disability activist Mik Scarlet tackles Ten Myths about Sex and Disability and Alternate Erogenous Zones. Mik also co-authors The Love Lounge, an advice column focusing on love, sex, and relationship advice for people with disabilities. (Links contain possibly nsfw images and video, depending on your workplace. Clicker beware.)
posted by Stacey at 5:41 PM PST - 7 comments

Martin Le-May was birding with his wife when he caught this once-in-a-lifetime shot.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:23 PM PST - 52 comments

Vince Vaughn and Co-stars Pose for Idiotic Stock Photos You Can Have for Free. [more inside]
posted by quin at 5:09 PM PST - 25 comments

Magnus Irvin and Michael Ritzema, run a company called Edible Anus. For fifteen years they’ve been producing chocolates made from a mould created by an actual human anus! And now they’ve taken things a step further, offering personal anus castings... made of a more permanent material, like glass or bronze. (SLYT/NSFW)
posted by josher71 at 5:02 PM PST - 40 comments

A First Look at Settlers of Catan: The Movie
posted by Mchelly at 4:06 PM PST - 22 comments

Common knowledge about squirrels is that they are basically furry rats. Yes, they are adorable in an amnesiac sort of way, what with their inability to remember where they buried their nuts, but the modern squirrel is not typically considered a manifestation of anything monstrous. Interestingly, much like Coca-Cola and Pop Rocks, if you combine Viking aesthetics with squirrels, you produce a malevolent little rodent called Ratatoskr (“Drill Tooth” in Old Norse) that spends his days spreading malicious gossip and trying to start a fight between the eagle at the top of the World Tree Yggdrasil and the angry Wyrm beneath called Níðhöggr, generally with phrases like, “Did you hear what he said about your mother?”

posted by ChuraChura at 2:16 PM PST - 36 comments

Curt Schilling's tweet congratulating his daughter on her college acceptance was met with the usual assortment of congratulatory replies from friends and fans, some light-heated "can't wait to date her" messages from current students at her future school, and a few seriously vile and offensive responses. The authors of the latter group probably regret their actions today.
posted by COD at 1:13 PM PST - 208 comments

Unwanted babies had perhaps the best opportunities of all. If carefully placed in a basket in the portico of the Ospedale della Pietà on the Riva degli Schiavoni, they would be taken in, fed, clothed and educated ‘at enormous expense both public and private’. ‘Their prioress is appointed by the Doge himself,’ wrote the Venetian historiographer Francesco Sansovino in 1581. More than this, they would also learn singing or a musical instrument..."

Venice's Ospedale della Pietà was one of the 18th century's greatest centers of musical instruction and development, and the foundling girls who lived there were counted among the finest musicians of the age. Antonio Vivaldi taught and conducted at the Pietà for 36 years, and the vast majority of his work was written expressly for performance there. The documentary Vivaldi's Women follows a modern attempt to understand and recreate the original context of that music—with women playing every instrument and singing every part, from soprano to bass. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 1:03 PM PST - 7 comments

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is way more musically complex than you might have thought.
posted by Gordafarin at 12:58 PM PST - 48 comments

Infamous was a 2014 magic show from Derren Brown: This is an hour long Youtube video with a fantastic finale.
How does he do it, on Quora.
"...look like you are witnessing true magic": A positive review from a fellow magician.
posted by growabrain at 12:49 PM PST - 32 comments

Scientists have figured out what makes Indian food so delicious. [Washington Post]

In a large new analysis of more than 2,000 popular recipes, data scientists have discovered perhaps the key reason why Indian food tastes so unique: It does something radical with flavors, something very different from what we tend to do in the United States and the rest of Western culture. And it does it at the molecular level.

posted by Fizz at 11:36 AM PST - 113 comments

The New York Times reports today that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton used her personal e-mail address to conduct all business. In response to a new State Department effort to comply with federal record-keeping practices, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:34 AM PST - 191 comments

One hundred years ago today, on March 3, 1915, a Naval Appropriations Bill was passed through Congress and signed by president Woodrow Wilson. A small rider was attached to the bill and went through the process almost completely unnoticed. That rider legislated the formation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. [more inside]
posted by backseatpilot at 11:23 AM PST - 7 comments

A corner of Japan where cats rule [SLR.tv]
posted by infini at 10:23 AM PST - 29 comments

What rights can a Deaf person who has been incarcerated expect? The National Association of the Deaf has a list of rights that correctional facilities must issue to Deaf people. However, a three-part documentary series done by HEARD (Helping to Advance the Rights of the Deaf) in conjunction with Al Jeezera (originally aired in December 2013) reveals that the actual experiences of Deaf prisoners diverge vastly from that of what they are entitled on on paper (trailer). [more inside]
posted by Conspire at 10:12 AM PST - 5 comments

I grew up in the American suburbs, that idyllic pastoral of white picket fences and bitter secrets. After amazing my primary school teachers with my advanced reading level and complex, nuanced analysis of The Waste Land, I continued my education in the Ivy League, letting the legacy of the many geniuses and impostors who walked those hallowed halls speak to my soul and enrich my literary perspective.

Through my work, I seek to explore what it means to be an upper-middle-class, White, American male in the 21st century.

Meet The Guy in Your MFA. [more inside]
posted by divined by radio at 9:49 AM PST - 130 comments

A Tour of David Černý's Prague. David Černý is shaping Prague’s personality - one sculpture at a time. (previously)
posted by bq at 8:44 AM PST - 5 comments

The 4 Deserts race series is a series of 250km ultramarathons held in the Atacama Desert, Gobi Desert, Sahara Desert, and Antarctica. Competitors are only provided with water, tents, and medical support; they must carry everything else themselves. [more inside]
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 7:24 AM PST - 9 comments

The Statue of Liberty is a shining symbol of Franco-American amity, but the story of its pedestal is a tribute to the immigrants, workers, and children who raised and donated money to build it. 1n 1885 - 120, 000 of them donated more than $100,000 to build the pedestal for the statue - at that time sitting in parts in boxes on the island where it would eventually stand. [more inside]
posted by julen at 7:05 AM PST - 16 comments

The Lesbrary - "The humble quest to read everything lesbian: a lesbian book blog." Also see sidebar for links to other lesbian book blogs, websites, and online resources. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:19 AM PST - 28 comments

If your apartment building is looking a little plain, just build a house on the roof. NYC isn’t the only place to find homes on rooftops, though some aren’t for the faint of heart.
posted by _Mona_ at 6:17 AM PST - 27 comments

Once upon a time there was a family that lived in a pub. Starstruck is an Australian musical released in 1982, directed by Gillian Armstrong, which was her second major film after 'My Brilliant Career'. [more inside]
posted by h00py at 5:43 AM PST - 11 comments

I already know that "the manosphere" refers to an online network, nascent but vast and like the universe constantly expanding, each twinkling star in its firmament dedicated—obviously—to men. Men and their problems. Usually with women.

Jeff Sharlet asks: What Kind of Man Joins the Men’s Rights Movement?
posted by MartinWisse at 5:09 AM PST - 297 comments

Okonomiyaki World is a surprisingly comprehensive cooking resource that includes a history, recipes and variations for both Osaka/Kansai and Hiroshima styles, information on ingredients and nutrition, supplies and utensils, restaurants serving okonomiyaki around the world, and even an okonomiyaki discussion group. The only thing it's missing is a banjo tribute that features animated, dancing cats, but this link has you covered.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 5:08 AM PST - 25 comments

In 2013, New Zealand passed a law creating the world’s first set of regulations to allow the clinical testing and approval of new recreational drugs. Much as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does for medicines, New Zealand’s system stands to create a government-regulated market for legal highs—an attempt to tame the industry not by stamping it out, but by guiding consumers to safe, reliable products, and giving suppliers an incentive to bring such products to market. [more inside]
posted by ellieBOA at 3:45 AM PST - 16 comments

Odd Drinks To Be Had.

Here, from the December 26, 1893, issue of the New York Sun, is an article about the various drinking establishments of Lower Manhattan, from the Battery up to about 28th Street. Be aware, some of the ethnic attitudes expressed in this piece are very much of their time. You’ll also note peculiarities of style and spelling; those are all in the original.

posted by Lexica at 3:39 AM PST - 21 comments