July 9, 2013
N-Words
They came from test tubes. They came pale as ghosts with eyes as blue-white as glacier ice. They came first out of Korea. N-Words - a science fiction short story by Ted Kosmatka. Audio version.
Gene Wilder at 80
Gene Wilder sat down with Robert Osborne at 92Y on June 12 for a rare public appearance. He spoke about the Willy Wonka remake, working with Richard Pryor and Mel Brooks, Gilda Radner, Young Frankenstein, and more. SLYT
Listicles all the way down
The Benefits of Nostalgia
Home Sweet Home "'I told him I did live my life forward, but sometimes I couldn’t help thinking about the past, and it was rewarding,' he says. 'Nostalgia made me feel that my life had roots and continuity. It made me feel good about myself and my relationships. It provided a texture to my life and gave me strength to move forward.' The colleague remained skeptical, but ultimately Dr. Sedikides prevailed. That lunch in 1999 inspired him to pioneer a field that today includes dozens of researchers around the world using tools developed at his social-psychology laboratory, including a questionnaire called the Southampton Nostalgia Scale. After a decade of study, nostalgia isn’t what it used to be — it’s looking a lot better."
“Not many antagonize Goldman just for the hell of it,”
The Lonely Redemption Of Sandy Lewis
“The complicity on Wall Street is sickness!” Mr. Lewis says. He fixes you with his laser stare. “If you think the big firms are being honest” — his tone slides streetwise — “well, sweetheart, go think something else!” The temptation is to dismiss Mr. Lewis, 73, as a crank, except he once ruled as an eccentric genius of arbitrage, with a preternatural feel for the tectonic movements of the markets. He has railed for decades about venalities now on daily display. Rude truth is his currency.[more inside]
Subway-to-slope
The Dorfbahn Serfaus is arguably the tiniest subway system in the world (technically, an underground funicular), built to alleviate congestion in the tiny ski resort town of Serfaus, Austria (pop. 1,081). The line is just 1.3 km long with 4 rather picturesque stops. Bonus video (German).
Back on the streets
The first official gameplay video for Grand Theft Auto V has been released. The highly anticipated open-world game, which lets you control 3 different characters, will be released in September for the PS3 and XBox 360.
But they'll get theirs and we'll get ours if you can / Just hold on
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me. With drummer Jody Stephens as their sole surviving original member, "the definitive story of the greatest band that never made it" is finally in theaters around the U.S. and on iTunes. One of rock's most mythic acts, the music fanatic's secret handshake, and (in the words of Robyn Hitchcock) a letter written in 1971 that didn't arrive till 1985 -- whatever metaphor best conjures up the mixture of beauty, chaos, and tragedy that defines the band, newcomers and long-standing members of the cult also shouldn't miss Don’t Lie to Me: An Oral History of Big Star. [more inside]
"The one with no legs, being carried by the one who could not see."
In 2009, ESPN producer Lisa Fenn worked on a story about two high-school wrestlers, Leroy Sutton and Dartanyon Crockett. Sutton was hit by a train when he was a child and had both his legs amputated; Crockett is legally blind. After the story aired, Fenn stayed in Sutton and Crockett's lives, and the three formed a surprising, enduring bond. [more inside]
Astonishing Chutzpah
Badass Digest and the A.V. Club both have some choice perspective to offer concerning Orson Scott Card's public statement about the boycott of the "Ender's Game" film.
Happy Little Trees
Lorenzo Triburgo has photographed what he calls "Transportraits". He shoots his transgender subjects from a slightly upward-facing angle in order to portray a sense of heroism. Triburgo painted the backgrounds of his portraits himself after learning how from Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting.
AT THE DAWN OF THE DANCE APOCALYPSE
Janelle Monae's latest music video/single is a 60s-esque, funkadelic, symbol-heavy, all-white fur and all-female hammer to the head - THE DANCE APOCALYPTIC
The Rauschenberg Research Project
The SFMOMA has launched the Rauschenberg Research Project, an online database of the Rauschenbergs in their permanent collection. Each piece of art is available in high resolution (click 'download' for the high-res image), along with commentary, interviews, essays, maps, contact prints, or other pertinent information, including its ownership history, any markings on the piece, and its exhibition history. All the files related to a particular piece can be downloaded in one go (bottom link of every page).
Suddenly, I was rage-reading millennial trend pieces every day.
In "Can We Stop Worrying About Millennials Yet?", editorial cartoonist Matt Bors highlights the absurdity of blaming millennials for inheriting a lousy economy.
Fourth floor, please
Does elevator music make you buy more stuff? Skeptoid's Brian Dunning explores the history and science of the insidious beast that is Musak. Can carefully crafted, topically tempoed, thoughtfully themed music cause consumers to part with more of their money?
Don't stop 'till you get enough
Boxer puppy tastes a lime wedge. (SLDogV)
...T is for Tripod who caught a bad cold...
Not just preaching to the choir
How the rise of Fox News helped Republican candidates Is Fox News primarily reinforcing Republicans or persuading Democrats? [more inside]
"Games are a special medium, completely separate from our wider culture"
There's no sexism in gaming: "Furthermore, reasonable people would see that asking to put male soldiers in the Call of Duty series is simply not do-able. Since the age of the Amazon, women have waged wars, because they have a higher pain threshold than males and have more stamina in every area of war. Who would take a male Battlefield seriously? Including men would simply cloud the matter; when crawling through tunnels, as is often necessary in war, our eyes would fall on the male backside - from then on women would be irreparably compromised."
Further Materials Toward a Theory of the Man-Child
In an essay for The New Inquiry, Moira Weigel and Mal Ahern consider The End of Men, global recession era capitalism, and ironic sexism.
"Mancession Lit portrays the Man-Child as pitiful, contrasting him with women who are well-adjusted and adult. But it rarely acknowledges the real question that this odd couple raises. Namely, are women better suited to the new economy because they are easier to exploit?"
RIP Chase, a famous baseball dog
It is with great sadness that the Trenton Thunder pass along news that 13-year-old team bat dog, Chase That Golden Thunder, passed away on Monday. [more inside]
"It's here, but I have no names for it."
They're called Pirsig Pilgrims, the motorcycle enthusiasts who follow the route from Minnesota to California that inspired Robert Pirsig's surprise 1974 chart-busting book, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
Grave symbols of many faiths
There are 50 symbols currently allowed on the gravestones of US military personnel. The Wiccan pentacle was only approved in 2007 after a fight that invoked President George W Bush's views on the faith, though other symbols, such as Thor's Hammer, have been added with less of a fight. Most recently a Sandhill Crane was approved for the first same-sex spouse member buried in a military cemetery. Military gravestones are very light on symbolism, however, compared to older religious gravestones or, say, the Victorians.
Green tide in the Yellow Sea
For the sixth year in a row, green algae have invaded the beaches of Quingdao, China (video). This year's algal bloom covers 28,900 km² (about the size of Massachussets or Albania), more than twice the 2008 record (13,000 km²). Bonus: two research papers (PDF) dealing with the identification of the species (Ulva prolifera) and the origin (possibly aquaculture ponds on land) of the 2008 bloom (5 years ago on MeFi).
You fooled 'em Chief. You fooled 'em all.
Voices inside my head... telling me to follow them on Twitter
German media company Sky Deutschland is looking at ways to promote its app. One of the ways it is considering is advertising directly inside people's heads, through bone conduction. The ads would be heard by commuters leaning their heads against train windows and would be otherwise inaudible. Ad agency BBDO said it had received "highly encouraging first reactions" from commuters who tested the kit; feedback from the public at large has been less than enthusiastic.
The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia
Tomorrow, the 2013 Ashes series (England verses Australia) begins with the start of the first match at Trent Bridge (Nottingham). Though England and Australia have battled since 1861, the Ashes were first contested in 1882. Australia lead England 31-30 in series victories. England start as strong favorites with the bookmakers. Glenn McGrath cautiously predicts a 2-1 Australia series win, whilst Ian Botham predicts a 10-0 wipeout for England over the two series. The 2013 Ashes will be streamed live to 53 countries over YouTube. With Britain in the grip of unusual summer weather (sun), much play is likely. [more inside]
Hackers Testifying at the United States Senate, May 19, 1998
Here is L0pht Heavy Industries testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Live feed from CSPAN, May 19, 1998. Starring Brian Oblivion, Kingpin, Tan, Space Rogue, Weld Pond, Mudge, and Stefan von Neumann. This is the infamous testimony where Mudge stated we could take down the Internet in 30 minutes. Although that's all the media took from it, much more was discussed. See for yourself. (59:04)
Man see like, you don even know man
He was disqualified for loose talking
In the 1920s and 1930s, endurance marathons were all the rage. Most folks know about marathon dancing and eating contests, but people would step up to test their endurance in every arena possible. One of least successful was the The Noun and Verb Rodeo, sometimes called the World Champion Gabfest, (1928), where "[p]rofanity was grounds for disqualification, but no points were awarded for style, diction, grammar, or even for making sense. All that mattered was that an individual kept talking." [more inside]
Tech Tips
Gustav Jens Tech Tips. Start with the basics, then works your way through programming HTML, CSS, Java, LUA and Python . For anyone interested in learning programmings.
Edmund S. Morgan
"Curiosity is the principle motivator of all important work." Distinguished historian Edmund S. Morgan died on Monday at the age of 97. [more inside]
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