May 18, 2016
Girl Power
“Contact resident film archivist Alex Cherian if you have any questions”
Established in 1982, the [San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive] preserves 6000 hours of newsfilm, documentaries and other TV footage produced in the Bay Area and Northern California from the Twentieth Century. We are a part of the J. Paul Leonard Library’s Department of Special Collections and oversee material owned by local TV stations KPIX-TV, KRON-TV, KQED and KTVU. All 1,659 items in the collections can be streamed. A few notable inclusions within. [more inside]
It tastes like shiny!
Corgi Orgy
love, death, spirituality, baseball
"Serotonin is the drug that puts you in the situation where you feel safe and comfortable. The drug that gives you the awe is the dopamine. And the adrenaline is the thing that keeps you going." Paul Simon’s Ambition, and Inspiration, Never Gets Old [SLNYT, Jon Pareles]
It all started with the word “Hi"
Creative companies in buildings facing other in Manhattan engaged in Post-It window art competition to impressive levels. [more inside]
Possibly The Most Enthusiastic Rendition of Smoke On The Water Ever.
There is just something to be said about watching a person with talent and enthusiasm lose himself in an incredibly joy-filled 4 minute accordion rendition of Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water. (I dare say that it just keeps getting better and better with each subsequent viewing.)
Duel Meaning
Want to See ‘Hamilton’ in a City Near You? Buy a Subscription and Wait Two Years.
New Crews New Villians New Heroes New Worlds
A teaser trailer (and logo first look) for the upcoming Star Trek TV reboot. [previously] [slYouTubeWillLeaveYouWantingMore]
Kate Compton introduces computational generative methods
This is a beginner-level advice essay for people just getting started with building generators. It’s also for practiced experts who want a way to organize their knowledge. The advice is meant for any kind of generators: humorous twitterbots, fanciful art-making bots, level generators, planet builders, makers of music, architecture, poetry, and cocktails. (edit: it turned out to be 4000 words long, so enjoy the ride!) [more inside]
Abridged Too Far
The World's Greatest Books series (published 1910) was an attempt "to effect a compendium of the world's best literature in a form that shall be at once accessible to every one and still faithful to its originals; or, in other words, it has been sought to allow the original author to tell his own story over again in his own language, but in the shortest possible space." In other other words, this is where you'll find such ludicrous feats of deletion as a David Copperfield running 4,645 words (cooked down from 382,964) or a Clarissa condensed to 0.4% of its original mass. [more inside]
Let's hope they're friendly
Bruce Leonard Cathie (1930–2013) [Wikipedia; obituary] was a pilot for the New Zealand National Airways Corporation. After a mysterious aerial encounter in 1952, he spent decades plotting UFO sightings, scrutinising ham radio operators, and developing an esoteric theory of reality involving UFOs, a regular worldwide grid system, anti-gravity [content advisory: gratuitous use of Matrix soundtrack], complex mathematics, and the geometric properties of atomic bomb detonations. [more inside]
about time
Magic Mushroom Drug Lifts Depression in Human Trial - "The findings show that more research in this field is now needed. 'This is the first time that psilocybin has been investigated as a potential treatment for major depression', says lead author Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, Imperial College London."
Construct and Maintain Teleporter Systems / Defend Them From Rogue AI
It is becoming the witch in the forest, powerful and watchful and silent
Defining Trauma on Twitter: An Autoethnographic Sketch
The article - Defining Trauma on Twitter: An Autoethnographic Sketch is a recently published peer reviewed journal article that is under 140 characters long. Making it probably the first tweet to be published in an academic journal (and perhaps?) the first article whose abstract is longer than its contents.
My chow mein beats your chop suey anyday
Revenge for Eurovision: Will Russia invade the Baltics?
As Putin continues to probe, and another commentator predicts Russia will invade Estonia, Latvia and/or Lithuania within a year (also, Independent), it's useful to revisit Article 5 of Nato. Recently, the BBC simulation ended in a result of nuclear weapon use, which did not go down well, while another study also indicated results of either a Russian victory or nuclear war. Earlier in the year, Newsweek analysed this scenario; the Chicago Tribune blames NATO, as does The Nation, while The Master Plan considers ongoing Russian shenanigans.
All about that bass, that baritone, and maybe a little 'bout that tenor
New Zealand doo-wop trio The Koi Boys (Nuz Ngatai, Kevin Keepa, and Danny Faifai ) turned all the chairs with "Sh-Boom" in their audition for The Voice Australia. But it's last year's studio recording session of Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass that may turn all the heads as it brings the boom boom to the room room.
The Six Million Pound Man
James Young has been equipped with a bionic arm which includes a laser beam, a flashlight, a USB port, and a drone held inside a hatch on the shoulder. It was consciously patterned after Snake in the computer game Action Gear Solid. (No word on whether he can pick up cars with it..)
"The real value in the apology lies in a re-examination"
On July 23, 1914, the Komagata Maru and its passsengers were turned back from Canada and returned to India. Nineteen passengers would be killed as they disembarked there. On May 18, 2016, Canada's Prime Minister will rise in the House of Commons to deliver an apology, over 100 years in the making, for the Komagata Maru incident. [more inside]
"History shows us that minorities do not count until they are counted."
What is it like to be queer in China? UNDP has just launched Being LGBTI in China – A National Survey on Social Attitudes towards Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression. With 30,000 respondents, the survey is the largest to date on the topic in China. [more inside]
The racial divide of the perception of cyclists
Blonde on Blonde turned 50 on Monday...
...the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her faceBlonde on Blonde turned 50 on Monday... [more inside]
The Queen's Speech - BBC at-a-glance Summary
"The Queen has announced the government's legislation for the year ahead, at the state opening of Parliament. Here is a bill-by-bill guide to what is in the 2016 Queen's Speech."
White House Increases Overtime Eligibility by Millions
The Obama administration, in a far-reaching effort to improve the lot of workers that has ignited criticism from business groups, announced on Tuesday that it was making millions more employees eligible for overtime pay. - NY Times [more inside]
Letters make nice buildings
Buildings used to be designed less as big blocks and more as complex shapes, even shaped like letters, to minimize the distance to an exterior wall and maximize natural light and ventilation. In fact, in 1773, Johann David Steingruber (Google auto-translation) published Architectonisches Alphabet, or Architectural Alphabet (Archive.org), providing an alphabet (more or less) worth of floor plans. It's in German, so you'll probably skip ahead and start with A. Of course, you can still find plenty of letter-shaped buildings (and write geo-greetings), thanks to the ubiquity of aerial photography.
"We didn’t just get unlucky: We made a big mistake..."
How I Acted Like A Pundit And Screwed Up On Donald Trump, by Nate Silver "...along with a couple of marginal ones." Data journalist Nate Silver soul-searches and course-corrects while defending data journalism. "Basically, my view is that putting Trump’s chances at 2 percent or 5 percent was too low, but having him at (for instance) 10 percent or 15 percent, where we might have wound up if we’d developed a model or thought about the problem more rigorously, would have been entirely appropriate. If you care about that sort of distinction, you’ve come to the right website!" [more inside]
The best basket in China
"[T]he fixed stars... are the visible Armies of God"
Christopher M. Graney on the problem of what to do in 1629 if you're a Copernican and the data suggests that most stars are larger than the span of Earth's orbit. [more inside]
Remaking 'Roots'
Remaking 'Roots' In this version, accuracy is at the forefront, Mr. Wolper said one day last fall, in his production office in New Orleans, where the walls were covered with images of slave ships, plantation houses and African beads. “I’m not being modest here,” he said. “We have to make it better than the first ‘Roots.’ Otherwise, why bother?”
...Which is something you can't do.
Tressy has hair that grows. Crissy's hair grows down to her toes. Tuesday Taylor has convertible outfits (and hair) (plus bonus Brooke Shields). Changing hair not enough? Meet Growing Up (and out) Skipper! [more inside]
The connected vagina
The first rule of menstruation etiquette is you don’t talk about menstruation, particularly to men. If you must discuss your period you do so quietly and euphemistically. When you’re surfing the crimson wave and have to go to the bathroom, you make sure your period paraphernalia is carefully concealed so people remain clueless about your condition.
The biggest breach of menstrual etiquette, however, is leaking in public. [more inside]
Together...
They Fight Crime (.net) Reviving* one of the greatest random generators in the history of the web with funky fresh font-ography and customization (add your name and that of your crimefighting partner, oh yeah!) - also on Twitter because, why not?
*previously mefi'd at a long-dead link. And yes, you can get the code to create your own teams - or other cliches.
*previously mefi'd at a long-dead link. And yes, you can get the code to create your own teams - or other cliches.
The Praetorian Barracks? Sure! Take Line C and get out at Amba Aradam.
Between the Baths of Caracalla and the Basilica of St John in Lateran, 10 metres beneath Via Ipponio. It measures 900 square metres and 39 rooms, and apparently it's apparently one of at least four Praetorian barracks in the area.
Ancient cities and modern excavatations often collide
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