August 27, 2013
First you see The Ring, and then this shit happens...
Sadako throws out the first pitch at a baseball game - undoubtedly you'll want a Sadako Hair Dog and Sadako Well Water after watching that, just be careful when you order it.
This man is incredibly big in Sweden.
Magic for Beginners. SLYT
“It just got very, very old and all of us felt that we were whores."
More than half the population of small, rural Madras, Oregon (population: ~6059) and its surrounding community is served by one clinic: Madras Medical. At the beginning of 2006, the clinic's doctors and nurses decided to ban pharmaceutical reps from visiting their practice. No more free lunches. No more free drug samples. No more gifts. And yet.... "It's made us better doctors." (Via) [more inside]
No more powerful than a car headlight
Finding a Way: The Future of Navigation (BBC Radio 4 program audio, 30 minutes) examines problems with our dependence on GPS and what can be done about it. [more inside]
To make journalism harder, slower, less secure
"Making journalism harder, slower and less secure, throwing sand in the gears, is fully within the capacity of the surveillance state. It has the means, the will and the latitude to go after journalism the way it went after terrorism... Only if they can turn a mostly passive public into a more active one can journalists come out ahead in this fight. I know they don’t think of mobilization as their job, and there are good reasons for that, but they didn’t think editors would be destroying hard drives under the gaze of the authorities, either! Journalism almost has to be brought closer to activism to stand a chance of prevailing in its current struggle with the state." [more inside]
A Handsome Movie About Men In Hats
Miller's Crossing, 20 Years Later Photographing (and finding) the exact filming locations for the Coen Brothers' New Orleans classic and comparing them to present day. [via mefi projects]
"Fire the flopper."
Coach Jerry Kill of the Minnesota Gophers battles the stigma of epilepsy.
"Be skeptical. But when you get proof, accept proof."
I Spit On Your Realities
Sullivan’s book was a hit. It was the single best-selling book of 1947, ahead of de Beauvoir, ahead of Sartre, ahead of Camus. People wanted to meet him. The press wanted to talk to him. He was also the plaintiff in a civil suit that could carry a heavy fine or even lead to time in jail. He had to appear in court, which was tricky, because Vernon Sullivan didn’t exist. (SLTheAwl)
Life finds a way
"I was born of course, in Scotland."
The Downtown Hotel is once again requesting donations of human toes.
The famous $500 Sourtoe Cocktail features a human toe at the bottom of it.
When drinking this famous Dawson City cocktail at the Downtown Hotel, it is traditional to kiss the toe.
It is not traditional to swallow it.
CBC Radio's As It Happens interviews the bar's "Toe Captain" to get the full story. [audio only]
Project Needles: not a hipster knitting collective
It's 1963. You're in a cold war with Russia. You want to keep up communication capabilities globally. Communication satellites haven't come into their own. The ionosphere is fickle and jammable. What do you do? You fire 480 million tiny copper wires into space to create an artificial dipole antenna belt around the earth. You call it Project West Ford. It works. [more inside]
Hippie punching through the ages
"In the fall of 1970, sixteen-year-old Chesley Karr returned to Coronado High School in El Paso, Texas, after a summer spent harvesting wheat in the Midwest. During his working vacation, he had let his hair grow out over his ears and collar. Later he asserted that his long hair, which he referred to as a "freak flag," was both "a cultural statement and a practical matter." Culturally, he believed his hair identified him as a supporter of the "peace or hippie movement"; practically, haircuts had been a low priority on the wheat farm. To his surprise, the high school gym coach refused to admit him to class; the issue then ascended through the principal's office to the school board, which told Karr he could not return to school without a haircut. Rather than acquiesce, Chesley Karr took his school to court." -- Flaunting the Freak Flag: Karr v Schmidt and the Great Hair Debate in American High Schools, 1965 - 1975 or a history of uptight authority figures overreacting to trivial fashion changes, sort of relevant again now Arkansas is attempting to ban tattoos and piercings. (Via.)
The Bob Ross of advanced knife fighting
Paul Vunak doesn't want you to be irresponsible while fighting with knives. Here he is, busting common knife fighting myths in his dulcet tones.
Bonus: best video transition in history around the 4:39 mark.
Tom Stoppard + Pink Floyd
Tom Stoppard's new play Darkside (free next 6 days) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. A fantastical story about fear, philosophy and madness interwoven with the lyrics and music of the album. Interview.
Fuck this, I'll be an artist
JPS a street artist from Weston-super-Mare is more than your average street artist.
Here is a 2011 interview with him.
Jamie Scanlon's art is is being mistaken for that of Banksy.
Jamie Scanlon's art is is being mistaken for that of Banksy.
Catlateral Damage
This is a game where you play as one of the greatest monsters of all time: your asshole cat. Via. (requires Unity)
The Craigslist Killer
Wanted: Caretaker For Farm. Simply watch over a 688 acre patch of hilly farmland and feed a few cows, you get 300 a week and a nice 2 bedroom trailer, someone older and single preferred but will consider all, relocation a must, you must have a clean record and be trustworthy—this is a permanent position, the farm is used mainly as a hunting preserve, is overrun with game, has a stocked 3 acre pond, but some beef cattle will be kept, nearest neighbor is a mile away, the place is secluded and beautiful, it will be a real get away for the right person, job of a lifetime—if you are ready to relocate please contact asap, position will not stay open. [more inside]
the bleep is a literal demonstration of First Amendment principles
"Curses! The birth of the bleep and modern American censorship" by Maria Bustillos
"The bleep of censorship invariably draws attention to the material it was intended to conceal; circles it, if you like, by loudly omitting it. Bleeping also serves as proof that there is a watcher: someone looking out for us in advance. In the bleep lies the evidence that you are being “protected” — but by whom? Why? And from what?"
"The bleep of censorship invariably draws attention to the material it was intended to conceal; circles it, if you like, by loudly omitting it. Bleeping also serves as proof that there is a watcher: someone looking out for us in advance. In the bleep lies the evidence that you are being “protected” — but by whom? Why? And from what?"
A Letter from Fred
Oh Sweet Lorraine After his wife of 73 years died in April, Fred Stobaugh was heartbroken. But the Peoria, Ill., widower was still able to speak to her – in song.
Clarence B Jones, wiretapping and Dr Martin Luther King.
Thanks to the FBI, he has a vast — and accurate — archive of the time. "If I have a fuzzy memory or hazy memory, I look at it, and there's a verbatim transcript of the conversations. Clarence Jones, Dr Martin Luther King's legal advisor, talks to NPR about working with Dr King, the metaphor he supplied to the "I have a dream" speech and the extent of the surveillance of King and his associates by the US security establishment. [more inside]
Epigenetics in Feast, Famine: How Well Grampa Ate Could Impact Grandkids
Epigenetics (prev) is the study of changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype, caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. David Epstein, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated has written about this topic for his book The Sports Gene (not as reductive as the title might suggest), but cut the chapter because the material he researched was so new as to require that he "caveat the writing rather heavily." Instead, he shared his chapter How an 1836 Famine Altered the Genes of Children Born Decades Later on IO9. You can read or hear more about the book in a half-hour segment from NPR's Fresh Air, opening with a story of Jennie Finch, a softball pitcher who "just whiff[ed] the best hitters in the world." (Related video clip: FSN Sport Science - Episode 7: Myths - Jennie Finch, on the force of fast baseball vs softball; ends with smarmy teaser for a "sex test")
Vermont Yankee nuclear plant announces closure
Entergy announces it will close and decommission the contested Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in southern VT. Vermont Public Radio covers governor Peter Shumlin's announcement.
Twerking kills... or does it?
The big news yesterday was Miley Cyrus' twerking on Robin Thicke at the VMAs, and revelations of Syria's flagrant violations of international law by using chemical weapons against its own civilians. [more inside]
Back from Da Nang
Former CBS Reporter Bruce Dunning, who reported the story of the last flight from Da Nang, has died at the age of 73. [more inside]
Some thoughts on the real world
Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them.
To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.
To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.
"Your two o'clock appointment is here, and he's black."
Fifty years ago, another bus-centric race dispute took place. Despite "Just 12 miles away in Bath, black crews were working on buses. London Transport recruitment officers had travelled to Barbados specifically to invite workers to come to the capital" ...non-whites found it impossible to obtain employment working on buses in Bristol, England. [more inside]
Hyper Fighting
Drunk vs Stoned
"Anything else you want to add? Don't do drugs kids?" "Yeah That's a good one." In a highly (un)scientific experiment, BuzzFeed video producer Andrew Gauthier spent one night drunk and one night stoned while performing identical tasks. He filmed the results for our entertainment education..
2,060 Minutes: Gordo Cooper and the Last American Solo Flight in Space
"Imagine being alone, in space. Just you and your shiny spacesuit and your tiny metal capsule, the world splayed beneath you in swaths of blue and swirls of white. The only immediate link to the humans below you being a faint, crackling radio line back to Earth. ... [Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr.], the seventh member of the "Original Seven," spent a total of one day, 10 hours, 19 minutes, and 49 seconds in space, making 22 full orbits of the planet before splashing down in the Pacific on May 16, 1963. (His flight overall took 34 hours.) Over the course of his long voyage, Cooper had a dinner of "powdered roast beef mush" washed down with water. He captured mesmerizing pictures of the Earth below. He became the first American to sleep in space. The story doesn't end there, though: Cooper also ran into some trouble."
Imagine being alone in space ... and almost not making it back.
Bad Relationship
A Softer World - a Metafilter favorite better known for stories of love, loss, and dysfunctional relationships - takes on government spying: Happy beginnings. Signs of trouble. Denial.... [more inside]
Here I am, Rock Me
Slowly but surely
It seems eco-friendly cargo ships are slowly on the rise.
Today i learned there is a full length documentary on Vimeo about one of these sailing vessels, the Tres Hombres; a bittersweet account of a voyage to transport supplies and aid to Haiti after the devastating earthquake: How Captain Longhair saved the World (HD, 42 min.).
We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...
Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove is a fascinating, informative and often surprising 46 minute documentary that offers a thorough and loving look at the creation of Stanley Kubrick's classic of modern cinema.
A salt assault
How to Charge $546 for Six Liters of Saltwater - a brief story of the humble bag of saline solution given intravenously at ERs and hospitals, and how one unit of it can be marked up from 86 cents to $91 when given to patients
why are my nipples itchy
If you start typing "why" into Google, the autocomplete gives you a glimpse at the various mysteries people want answers to, such as "why is space black?" or "why are people stupid?" or "why is there yellow discharge in my underwear?" XKCD's current comic, "Questions," shows a glimpse at some of these questions, culled from a big list of over 33,000 that XKCD's author, Randall Munroe, generated from Google API queries. In response, Reddit user GeeJo made his best attempt at answering every single one posed in the comic.
If thermonuclear war takes place the future will not be worth discusion
Why not visit to the World's Fair of 2014, as envisioned by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1964?
By 2014, only unmanned ships will have landed on Mars, though a manned expedition will be in the works and in the 2014 Futurama will show a model of an elaborate Martian colony. (Via) [more inside]
the Children of Charlemagne
The work of the statistician Joseph Chang in 1999 showed that it was almost certain that all Europeans are descended from Charlemagne.
Now, a new genomic analysis of European populations titled The Geography of Recent Genetic Ancestry across Europe, shows that Chang was essentially right.
As the paper concludes "...so long as populations have mixed sufficiently, by 1,000 years ago everyone (who left descendants) would be an ancestor of every present-day European. Our results are therefore one of the first genomic demonstrations of the counterintuitive but necessary fact that all Europeans are genealogically related over very short time periods, and lends substantial support to models predicting close and ubiquitous common ancestry of all modern humans"
The paper is quite accessible and includes much more data about the interrelatedness of different European populations. But for those who have more questions, the authors have prepared a FAQ.
As the paper concludes "...so long as populations have mixed sufficiently, by 1,000 years ago everyone (who left descendants) would be an ancestor of every present-day European. Our results are therefore one of the first genomic demonstrations of the counterintuitive but necessary fact that all Europeans are genealogically related over very short time periods, and lends substantial support to models predicting close and ubiquitous common ancestry of all modern humans"
The paper is quite accessible and includes much more data about the interrelatedness of different European populations. But for those who have more questions, the authors have prepared a FAQ.
The Prodigal Jon
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