September 1, 2015
Tricksy liquids
Youtuber brusspup (previously 1, 2) has some cool science tricks you can do with liquids. [more inside]
Lochner? I hardly even know of that legal opinion
Barnett believes the Constitution exists to secure inalienable property and contract rights for individuals. This may sound like a bland and inconsequential opinion, but if widely adopted by our courts and political systems it would prohibit or call into question basic governmental protections—minimum wages, food-safety regulations, child-labor laws—that most of us take for granted. For nearly a century now, a legal counterculture has insisted that the whole New Deal project was a big, unconstitutional error, and Barnett is a big part of that movement today.
Are You Good Enough to Be a Tennis Line Judge?
This rock formation seems safe and stable, yet it is sensitive
We've seen some warped art from Google Earth's 3D rendering in Postcards from Google Earth (previously, twice), but what if you look for the best angles and enhance them? Your Earth Transforms is one such project, by Meike Nixdorf, with additional enhancements by Grit Hackenberg, who have previously worked together on the documentary video for a prior photography project by Meike, In the Orbit of El Teide. (Via Wired)
the river of blue fire
It’s about Burning Man.
At play in the waves
It's really hard to critique Disney, right?
Walidah Imarisha is a professor at Portland State University, where she teaches a class on race and Disney. This is her interview with Bitch Media on the racial politics of Disney animals.
RADIUM CONDOM
"The good people at Morphy Auctions gave me permission to show you these vintage (~1930s-50s) condom package designs." -- Cardhouse on historical condom packaging and design.
like I'm the only person who ever mixed a margarita in a sailor's mouth!
How Many Men Did The Golden Girls Sleep With, Exactly?
Refinery 29 claims to have tallied up the numbers. (A quick summary courtesy of Jezebel.) [more inside]
*(F)old*
Worms, meatballs and logos
In the '70s, NASA commissioned a redesign of their "meatball" logo. They wanted something to make it more modern and better designed, so eventually the "worm" logo was unveiled. Unfortunately a lot of NASA engineers hated it.
Theories of Everything, Mapped
Explore the deepest mysteries at the frontier of fundamental physics, and the most promising ideas put forth to solve them. A map of the frontier of fundamental physics built by interactive developer Emily Fuhrman.
It's a movement away from looking for one person to be your everything.
"Co-housing, and the many other informal variations of it I found, offer a measure of both autonomy and independence. In co-housing, there are separate houses like you would find anywhere else, but what's different is that they also have a shared common house where they get together sometimes, for meals or meetings or hobbies. They really want a genuine community, so they go ahead and create it." // Jessica Gross interviews Bella DePaulo about co-housing, being single by choice, and her new book, How We Live Now: Redefining Home and Family in the 21st Century, for Longreads: Breaking the Mold. [more inside]
They’ve kept the professional white background
”Google’s new logo is its biggest update in 16 years“ (says Fast Company) “[I]t's now using a sans-serif typeface, making it look a lot more modern and playful. The colors are also softer than they used to be. The logo bears a bit more resemblance to the logo of Google's new parent company, Alphabet, as well.” (says Verge) The Google Blog has more. And, of course, there’s an introductory doodle.
Hello, this is Lenny
Phone bot keeps Canadian campaign volunteer on line for eleven minutes Lenny is a bit hard of hearing, has some meddlesome daughters (and ornery ducks), and is also not actually human. But perhaps he'd still take a Conservative campaign sign for his lawn?
Google says it's the other drivers' fault
Since 2009, Google cars have been in 16 crashes, mostly fender-benders, and in every single case, the company says, a human was at fault. Researchers in the fledgling field of autonomous vehicles say that one of the biggest challenges facing automated cars is blending them into a world in which humans don’t behave by the book. These robots "have to learn to be aggressive in the right amount, and the right amount depends on the culture.” (SLNYT)
A Hideo Kojima Game
The 420 Games: Doping Encouraged
The 420 Games were established to show that cannabis users are not lazy, unmotivated or “stoners” and to de-stigmatize the millions who use cannabis in a healthy and responsible lifestyle.
We The People
Fútbol on the neutral ground
In the new New Orleans, an international soccer hero hides in plain sight. There are many Tony Laings in New Orleans. You can find them on weekends in City Park, playing in the Spanish-speaking leagues that have boomed since Katrina; professional stars who once played before big crowds back home. Now they work construction jobs in America’s south, speaking a language the rest of the city doesn’t understand, living in the open, but hidden all the same. [more inside]
It's not all selfies on pristine beaches; it's also hard work.
Why We Quit Our Jobs in Advertising to Scrub Toilets. Chanel and Stevo are two young South African professionals who decided to forego their cushy life and opt to travel around the world, earning what they can doing low-paying work. [more inside]
Carp, Congressman, is the main ingredient
The story behind the funniest e-mail Hillary Clinton has ever sent. Subject line: Gefilte fish.
You Need to Go Door-to-Door to be Sure You've Got Your Election Rigged
Gerrymanders Miss One Person The City Council of Columbia Missouri recently created the Business Loop 70 Community Improvement District in the interest of raising taxes in that area to allow for improvement projects. The district boundaries were carefully created to exclude any actual residents of Columbia, giving the property owners the exclusive right to vote on property assessments. They almost got it. [more inside]
“Please, may I cry?”
Martin Gardner, sprouts, the game of Life, and much more - John Conway's lifetime in games.
"Seriously, fuck it," explains the paper’s abstract.
Nuance is revered in higher education. That’s especially true in sociology, where scholars spend their lives digging into the fine grain of human social behavior, often finding even finer grain underneath. Which is why it came as such a surprise — and perhaps a relief — when Kieran Healy, an associate professor of sociology at Duke University, last week brought a blunt message to the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting: "Fuck Nuance."[more inside]
The Heart Of Football Beats In Aliquippa
Over five decades of economic decline and racial conflict, a Western Pennsylvania mill town has found unity and hope on the football field.
"There is no drug dealing at the Pit, and rarely any violence," Walker says. "It really is sacred ground; it's like a miracle. You've got guys that, any other time of the day, they're going to try and rip each other's throats out, but they just walk past each other in the Pit. They're there to watch those kids play."
How to make Mario levels, by negative example
Here's a list of things not to do in your Mario levels, consider it advice for when Super Mario Maker comes out in a week and a half. Also, here's things not to do in your Mario overworld. They both come from the rom hacking community at SMWCentral.
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