November 11
Bubbles
If you like waving bubble wands and/or putting bubble wands in front of a fan or even popping bubbles then this bubble simulator may please you.
Visualization visualization
"Nowhere else is the lifegiving power of water so clearly demonstrated"
In winter, the Kalahari Basin in northern Botswana is a dusty, windswept wasteland of scrubby flora, with precious little rain. But not for long. As captured by a somber and wondrous segment from the original BBC Planet Earth, summer showers from the Angolan highlands soon feed a meandering river that splays out across the wilderness, flooding a vast inland delta that transforms hundreds of miles of arid desert into a verdant everglade teeming with life: the Okavango. This seasonal miracle, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Africa's Seven Natural Wonders, attracts all manner of megafauna that have adapted to its myriad creeks and lagoons, from migratory birds and amphibians to all five Big Game species (making it a boon for ecosafaris). And though it is (like most things) under threat from exploitation and climate change, conservationists worldwide are working tirelessly to defend it. [more inside]
Toledo wipes out medical debt for 41,000 citizens
After months of discussions and public meetings, Toledo City Council passed a medical relief debt proposal by a vote of 7-5, approving $800,000 to purchase the medical debt of an estimated 41,000 Toledoans. As part of a collboration with the non-profit RIP Medical Debt, the city's plan will create up to $240 million in debt relief for its citizens. Toledo is the first city to approve a community-scale medical debt relief. [more inside]
Liking the last few days of BTC price action? You'll love this.
I guess the government found a utility for blockchains: Investigating fraud via blockchain. The DOJ and IRS have announced the seizure of 51,351 BTC stolen from the original Silk Road. In 2012 James Zhong devised a scheme to steal BTC from the Silk Road (previously: 1, 2, 3, 4). He was successful... [more inside]
No more Sledge-O-Matic
Gallagher has passed. Comedian Gallagher, who tormented audiences with smashed fruit through many years, has passed. After making a solid career working his same act over and over again, then becoming a mean, right wing crank, he has died. "And there was much rejoicing".
Largest higher education strike in the United States to begin Monday
This monday a multi-unit strike comprised of 48,000 student employees (TA's, student researchers, and post-docs) will be held across all UC campuses. The average TA salary in the UC system is $24,000. The students are bargaining for Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA), the ability to add dependents to their university healthcare, job stability, and parity for international students, among other demands. University administration referred to these demands in a letter to their staff as part of the unions "social justice agenda". [more inside]
Rest in Peace Kevin O'Neill
Comic book illustrator Kevin O'Neill, best known for his work on Marshal Law, 2000 AD, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, has passed away of cancer at 69. [more inside]
Local ride-hailing startups thrive in the towns that Uber forgot
I Am Vengeance, I Am The Night
Kevin Conroy, known for his iconic performance as the Caped Crusader over a range of media starting with Batman: The Animated Series, has passed away at the age of 66.
Inside a Legendary Designer's Recipe Sketchbook
Cipe Pineles changed magazines forever. Her illustrated recipes tell a personal tale. A pioneering magazine art director illustrated recipes that became a book after her death, in part through the work of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat illustrator Wendy MacNaughton. MacNaughton had never heard of Pineles when she came across her forgotten sketchbook [more inside]
TrustCor Systems: Do they still run man-in-the-middle attacks?
TrustCor Systems is a root certificate authority trusted by all major browsers, app stores, and email clients, but Prof Joel Reardon of AppCensus discovered irregularities with TrustCor and found that TrustCor has "identical slate of officers, agents and partners as a spyware maker" subsidiary of the surveillance company Packet Forensics, including Raymond Saulino. As late as 2010, Raymond Saulino and Packet Forensics sold tools that carry out man-in-the-middle attacks using forged certificates. Ryan Dickson of Google's Root Program identified additional irregularities [more inside]
Samuel L. Katz, a Developer of the Measles Vaccine, Dies at 95
Samuel Katz, 1927-2022, was the US virologist who was part of the research team that created the measles vaccine. Before its invention, measles killed 2.6 million people a year - by 2020, that number was just over 60,000. Coverage of the vaccine fell by 4% during the pandemic, but a new initiative from the Global Vaccines Alliance is now underway to reach 85 million children before the end of next year. [NYT / Archive/ via]
November 10
CSS Friday Fun
the grim reapers of their own obsession
But buyers beware: Nepenthes [carnivorous plant] collecting—as I eventually learned almost too well—is next-level stuff. There’s a lot more to these plants than fertilizer and YouTube how-tos. They’re botanical prima donnas, liable to walk out on life without notice if their specific needs aren’t met. And your new hobby will shove you into a strange world. There’s something dark in the pits of those pitchers, and it’s not the rotting bugs. If you fall in, you may land in an acidic soup of crime, addiction, and existential angst. Mat Orchard thought he could handle Nepenthes. They nearly ate him alive.
The archaeology of shipwrecked Lego
This is the story of what happened when a container full of precisely 4,756,940 pieces of Lego washed off the cargo ship Tokio Express during a storm off Land’s End in February 1997. "Even harder to find are examples of the 4,200 black Lego octopuses that had also been on board – they are almost impossible to spot when caught up in seaweed. As Tracey reminisces in the book, she found her first octopus back in 1997, not long after the cargo first went missing, but did not discover another one for a further 18 years." [more inside]
Type Cast
You could win a bar bet with this one: Friz Quadrata has appeared in more episodes of Law and Order than any actor...because Friz Quadrata is the show's title font across all its incarnations. On the big screen, some directors use the same typeface for titles across multiple films: John Carpenter and Albertus, Ingmar Berman and Florida (free knockoff here!), Stanley Kubrick and Futura, and (sorry) Woody Allen and Windsor. [more inside]
That Cave Still Has Power Over Her
Nothing frustrates Roberta quite so much as being told she can’t do something, and nobody draws her ire quite like programmers, who she says would often go over her head to complain to her husband. In 1997, she told the Philadelphia Inquirer she found “a lot of arrogance” among the young, male programmers at her company. (This also describes the person she married.) “They like to think, ‘We know something you don’t.’ I remind them that I'm the designer. I know what I'm doing,” she said. from Why Roberta Williams Came Out of Retirement to Remake a Beloved Text Adventure [Vice]
The highest degree of reprehensibility
Alex Jones ordered to pay nearly half a billion dollars to Sandy Hook families in additional damages (CNN). "This depravity, and cruel, persistent course of conduct by the defendants establishes the highest degree of reprehensibility and blameworthiness," said Judge Barbara Bellis in her decision. [more inside]
The English Civil War in the style of Westside Story
The English Civil War in the style of Westside Story [Youtube, Horrible Histories]. And the post-Civil-War restoration of Charles II as a rap song. [Youtube, Horrible Histories]
Chimpanzees strength: long over-estimated?
In 1923 a primatologist named John Bauman conducted the first quantitative test comparing human and chimpanzee strength. His conclusion, that pound-for-pound chimpanzees were "more than three" times stronger than humans, gave rise to almost 100 years of conventional wisdom about chimpanzees' near mythical strength. This wisdom prevailed until 2017, when a team of scientists conducted the most rigorous study to date of chimpanzee strength, and concluded they averaged only 1.5x stronger than humans. That said, if the muscles on this hairless alpha male are anything to go by, some individual chimps are probably far stronger
How We Stopped And Listened To The Birds
Drawing the Times is a platform for graphic journalists and cartoonists, publishing special issues on climate change, "meat-free cities" and refugees. Tânia Alexandra Cardoso's ongoing series on Amsterdam (Chapter 1, Chapter 2)
during the pandemic explores how an "emptied" city is full of decades of decisions on urban redevelopment.
The Death of the Key Change
Gloomy Octopus Tantrums
These octopuses need their space! Gloomy octopuses are one of the few animals that throw projectiles at each other. They like to lead solitary lives but because ideal den grounds may be few and far between, sometimes they are forced to live near each other. Irritable gloomy octopuses throw things at each other when annoyed. Who doesn't want space sometimes?
The NYTimes article is under paywall. If you are over the free article limit, please go to the PLOS abstract here.
"A sum of spaces and colors, forms and odors"
Early botanical gardens were often created for the purpose of growing plants for medicine with the oldest one dating back to the 1500s in Padua Italy. Ethnobotany continues to be a rich field for study with many medical and pharmacy schools also maintaining their own "drug gardens." [more inside]
This has to be the coolest guitar ever
During a concert at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ in September 2022, the guitarist Julian Lage got to play a short improvisation and Charlie Christian's Seven Come Eleven on Christian's own 1940 Gibson ES-250, showing Lage's typical joy at playing, seeing what sounds he can coax out of this legendary instrument. [more inside]
"Heartbreak In the Key of Roger Miller" - Joe Purdy & Friends
A friend sent me link to this vid and I just keep going back to it. My hope is that it'll catch you, too. This young man (more and more men are young to me as the years stack, I'm guessing Jon to be in his early 40s) this young man often sends me good links. He's from West Virginia, I've told him for years that he's got dirt on him, in a good way, maybe it's more that the dirt is in him; West Virginia seems to get inside the people, I think mostly in a good way. [more inside]
The People You're Paying To Be In Shorts
A legend in the sport of basketball, Michael Jordan found himself in a much different position as the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats in 2011 - but as the Secret Base team recounts in their latest Jon Bois documentary, even while hating losing, he found enjoyment in the struggle.
November 9
Guess the Christmas song with a new Heardle spin
One of the guess-that-song daily web games, Heardle Decades, has added Christmas Heardle -- listen to a few seconds at a time, type the name of the song or artist to search among dozens of Christmas songs, and try to guess the song within the first 12 seconds of the tune.
oh no
Help Alex Norris, creator of webcomic.name, pay their legal expenses. More information on the lawsuit can be found at this post on /r/comics.
LEG
The morning Super Deluxe shut down, filmmaker Allen Cordell finished his next video for them, a sequel to the previous one he'd made for them. Recently, I'm guessing an obstructive Turner Broadcasting higher-up recently experienced Occurences or something, because the video has finally been uploaded to Allen's Vimeo channel. No description can prepare you for a little gameshow called... WHOSE LEG IS THIS.
Occasionally the rich get poorer
Tom Brady lost big on FTX. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan lost big on FTX. Everybody who owns cryptocurrency lost big on FTX. FTX is the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, and it may be insolvent. The founder of FTX lost big on FTX, losing an estimate 94% of his wealth in a single day.
I couldn't see all the cards in my hand
When You Just Ain’t Got it All Together Dewayne Noel from Dry Creek Wrangler School shares some wisdom for the young folks (and not so young folks) who watch his channel. (SLYT, 16 minutes)
Embracing community at a drag bingo show in rural Wales
That night, I felt community so strongly, from the folks who came to the venue hours earlier to help move tables and hang fairy lights, to the people who’d travelled from neighbouring towns to be there, to the pal who made sure there were virgin mojitos on offer after I’d spoken to her weeks before about how I’ve been struggling with alcohol again. I felt part of something bigger which made me reflect on what that actually means. People often talk about rest and joy being found in ‘community’, but what is it and how do we find it as adults? [more inside]
📢📢📢 Week 2 Fundraiser Update – With your help the site will SURVIVE.
📢📢📢Now, we ask you to help REVIVE Metafilter 📢📢📢 As of today’s fundraising update, we’re only $500 a month away from our Survive target!* The community is coming together to keep the lights on at our shared online home. But we need to go further to safeguard Metafilter’s future. It’s time to 🌱Revive Metafilter.🌱 [more inside]
Epic Rap Battles of History Well-Reviewed from 'Rap Battle' Perspective
Scru Face Jean reviews Epic Rap Battles of History (107 videos). I'm having some fun going through these videos. Unlike other reactions that don't bring much added value, Scru Face Jean has a detailed knowledge of rap battles and notes style choices and other moments throughout each battle -- while still enjoying them as well.
Planet: Critical
Planet: Critical by Rachel Donald interviews diverse exports on topics related to climate change, the environment, human society, and economics (see her archives tab). [more inside]
November 8
Be a Pepper!
United States 2022 Mid-Term Elections Come to a Head
Commencing with an unusual total lunar eclipse, Election Day 2022 is upon us at last. Pundits and prognosticators predict that the Republicans will reclaim at least one house of US's bicameral federal legislature and at the state level many legislatures and governorships are up for grabs as well. Less scrutinized, but perhaps every bit as important, many states will elect officials who will be responsible for the security and integrity of elections going into the 2024 presidential election cycle. There's a lot at stake. [more inside]
Need a Peptoc? Encouragement from kindergarteners
Peptoc Hotline features pre-recorded life advice and encouraging messages from the students at West Side Elementary, a K-6th public school in rural Healdsburg, California. Call 707-873-7862
(707-8PEPTOC). [more inside]
Mastodon is having its moment in the sun
Mastodon's popularity is soaring, and it's all due to the chaotic actions of one man. As people explore what else is on offer for social media, Mastodon has emerged as a viable open-source alternative, with no ads. Reuters has an explainer, as does CNN, New York Times, and the Guardian. [more inside]
Was stitched up by a postie, that's not glamorous
November 7
The Present Crisis: The Naked Truth, or, The Situation Reviewed!
150 years ago, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for president - "Letter to the New York Herald, April 2, 1871 - I claim the right to speak for the unenfranchised woman of the country and announce myself as a candidate for the presidency."[1,2,3] (previously) [more inside]
Where interoperability can kill
Examples of Medical Device Misconnections (FDA) Patients may require dozens of different devices at once. [...] Because these connectors are easy to use and may be compatible with different medical devices, users can mistakenly connect unrelated systems to one another.
Mefi auction opens
As part of Metafilter fundraising, our auction opened last night. See Metatalk to learn more or discuss.
2022 U.S. Trans Survey
Through November 21, answers are being solicited for the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, run by the National Center for Transgender Equality (CN), "is the largest survey of trans people, by trans people, in the United States. The USTS documents the lives and experiences of trans and nonbinary people ages 16+ in the U.S. and U.S. territories." (previously, previously)
Step Right Up, Step Right Up
Folks, US "democracy" has become such a clown show that English and Australian tourists are booking specialized election experience tours & disrupting canvasses.
“Honda Honda Honda Honda”
Japan: the early 1980s. You have a small, urban, low fuel car containing a foldable motocycle which you are trying to market to younger demographics. Who do you hire to promote the car but ... a ska band from England called Madness, famous for their 'nutty train'. And thus a series of adverts for the Honda City came to be, and the tune became the song “In The City”. Though never released as a UK single, the track became the b-side to Cardiac Arrest and has since been performed live; the song Driving In My Car also appeared in the ads. The fuller and stranger story of the Honda City car from Honda's own website, Marco On The Bass and Autoweek. Bonus: Madness allegedly derived their 'nutty train' from this Dave Allen sketch.
Virgin Atlantic job applications double after end to gendered uniforms
"Even the Politburo doesn’t have this choice..."
You learn a lot by watching world leaders at the supermarket. Boris Yeltsin's visit to a Texas supermarket in 1989, seeing the plentiful food and the plethora of snacks, was claimed to have shattered his vision of Communism. George Bush was supposedly amazed at seeing a supermarket scanner at a grocer's convention in Orlando but this reaction was found to have been wildly overstated. [more inside]