March 18
The art of Sarah Stone, early British illustrator of Australian wildlife
Sarah Smith, née Stone, was an English natural history illustrator and painter (Wikipedia; Design and Art Australia Online), who started turning dead specimens into "living" illustrations when she was not yet 20, was largely self-taught in her draughtsmanship technique. At only twenty-one, she was invited to exhibit four of her paintings at the Royal Academy, closed to women at the time. Australians would recognise her art from her illustrations in John White's Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales (Archive.org), published in 1790. This journal is one of the 5 first fleet accounts of the new colony. And in the first half of the 1790s, her drawings were featured with other artists and published in the monograph Museum Leverianum (Archive.org). [more inside]
Help for Music Beginners
Musicards is a collection of music theory flash cards for the beginner and intermediate music student. Learn note names, chords, key signatures at your own pace.
Curious Architectural Phenomena
Gregor Sailer is an Austrian photographer. His projects include Closed Cities, effectively invisible, artificially created urban agglomerations that are hermetically sealed off from the eyes of the world either by walls or by their hostile surroundings; The Potemkin Village, haunting images of fake towns; and The Box, an exploration of small scale secret Soviet facilities such as design bureaux for weapons, aircraft, space and military electronics.
Brands Are Not Your Friends
H.Bomberguy (of Mermaids charity fame) discusses brand twitter, advertising, ‘realmericals’, and harnessing performative political outrage for profit in WOKE BRANDS (26:43)
How David Weber Orders a Pizza
The telephone rang again. Jason wanted to groan and roll his eyes, but he suppressed this urge and put on the mask of outward neutrality expected of a Pizza Maker Second Class. [...] He slapped the flour dust from his hands, grasped the receiver, and placed it next to his ear. The light codes on the telephone's front panel danced from flashing red to solid green, letting him know that a live connection had been established. "Pizza Barn," he intoned. "Is this for dine in, pick up, or delivery?"A simple phone call between Pizza Maker Second Class Jason Wilkins and a shadowy Customer. [more inside]
You said it Tyrus, I’m one of the good ones.
Each Friday, for more than two years, The Root has responded to emails and comments from our readers (and some people who obviously don’t read The Root). Not today. Today, there will be just one email and one response.[more inside]
MySpace has lost all music uploaded between 2003 and 2015
The issue was first noticed about a year ago. MySpace have confirmed that all the music is lost and cannot be recovered. "Due to a server migration files have been corrupted and unable to be transferred to our updated site." [more inside]
March 17
Tulip Mania --> Poppy FOMO
Large desert blooms, labeled "superblooms" (previously) have been happening with greater than average frequency in the last few years, a consequence of wet-dry weather swings and fire activity. Social media has caught on, and capturing one's self sprawled in a field of wildflowers is now an essential selfie ritual. [more inside]
King of Surf Guitar
Dick Dale, godfather of surf guitar, dies aged 81. (Guardian) Richard Anthony Monsour, better known by his stage name Dick Dale, was an American rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He pioneered and created what many call the surf music style, drawing on Middle-Eastern music scales and experimenting with reverberation. He worked closely with Fender to produce custom made amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier. [more inside]
Deep Park
Photographers often talk about making pictures rather than taking them: constructing something from the scene in front of the camera that is related to it but not subordinate to it. A photo of a tree or a soldier has a life independent of its subject.
Bruce Polin began making these images in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park around the time of the last presidential campaign. He had been shooting mostly in his home studio, but when the divisive rhetoric of the election heated up, he felt the need to get out among strangers, from all cultures he could find. The park was ideal.
The camera was big. [more inside]
Well this is Bleeping Creepy...
The Government Is Using the Most Vulnerable People to Test Facial Recognition Software Research shows that any one of us might end up helping the facial recognition industry, perhaps during moments of extraordinary vulnerability. [more inside]
We got bored while you were gone.
Blair Braverman (previously) just finished the Iditarod. Her fans were doing their part, too. [SLtwitter, very short story, but man it got dusty in here]
Good Society: a tabletop roleplaying game of Jane Austen and others
Good Society, the RPG is a collaborative roleplaying game "that seeks to capture the heart, and the countenance, of Jane Austen’s work. It is a game of balls, estates, sly glances, and turns about the garden. At least on the surface. Underneath this, just as in Austen’s own novels, it is a game of social ambition, family obligation and breathtaking, heart-stopping longing."
Notable for blowing past their original Kickstarter goal of $4000 Australian in the first two days and winding up at $154,774 Australian, enabling better printing, more supplemental books, and donations to public libraries. [more inside]
Something to make you smile
Maybe a future grandmaster? "Tani is a reminder that refugees enrich this nation — and that talent is universal, even if opportunity is not." (SLNYT)
Wait, what grow on trees?
The marginalia of Jeanne de Montbaston in The Romance of the Rose. This is an illuminating piece of scholarship by historian Sara Öberg Strådal on the overlooked imagery in 14th century marginalia, in this case in the medieval French poem Le Roman de la Rose (written circa 1230 and 1275, BnF fr. 25526) by artist Jeanne de Montbaston (possibly nsfw, via.) [more inside]
The Orange Alternative: There Is No Freedom without Dwarfs
The cheeky gnomes taking over Wrocław -- Cute as they may be, each statue is a nod to the Orange Alternative, an anti-Soviet resistance movement that helped bring down Poland’s oppressive communist regime in the 1980s (BBC Travel). By opposing conformism and consumerism with intelligent humour, the Orange Alternative (Pomaranczowa Alternatywa) movement achieved a considerable artistic victory over the Communist regime. Their continuing influence upon Polish political protest is noticeable to this day. (Culture.pl) [more inside]
Look Up From Your Hash Browns
Micah Cash's Waffle House Vistas Project collects images that document Southern communities as seen through the windows of Waffle Houses. In each instance, the point of view is the customer’s. Each photograph looks out from booths and chairs, making the viewer a witness to intertwined narratives of poverty, transience, and politics. [more inside]
What Happens When Techno-Utopians Actually Run A Country? Fascism.
Spoiler, it's Italy; and Nigel Farage and Steve Bannon make an appearance. SLWired This is real-time reporting on using the internet to manufacture consent toward a goal that the participants initially would have rejected by using a beloved Italian comedian and his innocent blog. [more inside]
Bee-Lieve it Or Not
Most of the caterpillars were new to science
The Janzen–Connell hypothesis is an attractive but difficult-to-prove explanation for rainforest diversity: It's dangerous for rainforest trees to grow up near their parents, because that makes them vulnerable to the herbivores who are already crunching and munching on their parents. A team from the University of Utah has added some detail [paywalled] with a study in Panama. "“People may think of a jungle like it’s a giant salad bowl. It should be paradise for pests because they’re surrounded by leaves. But plants have an infinite number of defense combinations—half the weight of a young leaf is poison”.... Over five years, the researchers collected leaf samples in the field..... Using high performance liquid chromatography, they separated all of the distinct compounds inside the leaves.... [O]nly 4 percent of the Inga compounds were known to science."
March 16
Unfolds in a very interesting way
Vladimir Ivkovic and Lena Willikens play amazing music separately, but together they challenge each other.
“We share a curiosity. It makes it vivid, like a good conversation,” she says. [more inside]
Ukulear Meltdown
Nick On The Rocks
CWU geology professor Nick Zentner hosts the debut of 'Nick On The Rocks - Season 3'. (SLYT) All six new episodes (5 minutes each) are featured. Q & A with the crowd is featured. Taped on January 24, 2019 in CWU's Student Union Theater. Nick On The Rocks - a geology video series - airs on PBS television stations throughout the Pacific Northwest.
VISIT THE SPIT TRUCK
Saliva is our core focus. It’s who we are. DNA Friend.
How Do I Reconcile My Masculinity With The Toxicity of Men?
How can I work out the (still barely legible) person I want to be without inappropriately centering myself and masculinity, when everyone around me is reliving trauma at the hands of men? “For trans men who pass, like me, the visceral discomfort of that privilege can feel like a crossroads. Would I accept the dominant narrative about what being a man means, or give up what little “status” I have in this paradigm to challenge it? I don’t posit that question lightly. Patriarchy teaches us all that staying quiet about what we see men do is the key to survival. But what if… it’s not?”
ABWH
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe [YT full album link] is an hour of ridiculous, top of the line prog rock that maybe you've never heard of, or maybe you haven't listened to in decades. It's part of the complicated history of the band Yes, but I'm not going to describe that here. Just listen -- it's a lot of fun!
Your ID, please
UK to require ID upload to limit access to online porn by young people. The UK will soon block all porn sites and require strict age verification for anyone seeking access to online porn (Guardian link, totally SFW). Persons wishing to view any porn sites will need to upload a passport or driver’s license onto a gatekeeping site, or purchase a porn pass for £4.99 from designated dealers.
I have…visitors?
John Paul Brammer, writer and widely beloved creature of obscure Mexican folklore, is currently documenting a furry home invasion. (Here's the Threadreader unroll, but as this is a developing situation, you may need to refresh it.)
I'll be watching over you, only you
Nighty Night by Mafumafu -- A nostalgic (and sad/cathartic) illustrated Japanese music video, sung as a lullaby from a tiny dog to their beloved person. Please turn on CC's for an English translation.
Essential sampling, four mixes for your weekend
In the sea of DJ mixes and mixtapes, BBC's Essential Mixes are still stellar examples of DJs at the top of their game. Here are a pick of four from this year alone that may well be worth your time: Lee Burridge's uplifting house and dance music (and via Core News); Shlohmo's end of the world mix (Core News); Jayda G's diverse mix to make you dance (Core News); and Josey Rebelle, "always eclectic, always compelling behind the turntables" (not currently available on iPlayer; available via Core News). [more inside]
💔
Breaking Heart Syndrome Linked with Brain’s Control of Emotions (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News). Scientists in Switzerland have for the first time identified a tangible link between how different areas of the brain communicate with each other, and Takotsubo syndrome. TTS is a rare, potentially fatal cardiac disorder brought on by a sudden temporary weakening of the heart muscle -- typically triggered by episodes of severe emotional distress, including grief, anger, or fear, or by reactions to joyful events -- leading to heart attack and death. It's more common in women but how the disease occurs has not yet been explained (ScienceDaily). (European Society of Cardiology press release, study full text) [more inside]
salt fat acid heat Maggi
Khushbu Shah writes for the Washington Post: Peek into homes and restaurants in China, Poland, the Philippines, France and Australia, and you’ll probably find Maggi products — most often a seasoning sauce, bouillon cube, noodle or soup mix — on one of the shelves. The seasoning sauce Maggi Würze, which is reminiscent of the flavor of lovage, has become so popular and beloved in Germany that Germans often colloquially referent to lovage as “maggikraut.” Like salt, fat, acid and heat, Maggi is one of the few great unifiers of the world’s kitchens and may be Switzerland’s largest and most influential culinary contribution.
The Otay Mesa Detention Center Detainee Letter Collection
The Otay Mesa Detention Center Detainee Letter Collection documents the hidden stories of hundreds of refugees from human rights hot spots around the world--including Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Brazil, Cameroon, Eritrea and China. Each of them has sought asylum in the United States and has been held at the San Diego, California Otay Mesa Detention Center operated by a private corrections company, CoreCivic. These letters provide insight into the lives of asylum seekers and migrants both before and during detention. Identifying information has been redacted to protect the privacy and safety of the writers. Letters date from July 2018 to present.
The difference between being 'broke' and living in poverty
This article recently released by the Guardian explores the fine line that divides life when you feel you can't afford what you want, and life when you are struggling to afford food. It begs the question - what constitutes a full and rich life of 'enough' anyhow, and how much of that do we have in our control, regardless of income? [more inside]
"They just don’t make places like this anymore.”
Masonic Temple reborn at 100: inside the mysterious, historic landmark. A photo essay from cleveland.com on the history and restoration of Cleveland's Masonic Temple and Performing Arts Center, as it approaches its 100th anniversary.
March 15
Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle
Two-time poet laureat and two-time Pulitzer prizewinning poet W.S. Merwin has died at age 91. In a publication career that spanned 66 years, from 1952's A Mask for Janus to 2016's Garden Time, with highlights that include Pulitzer Prizes 38 years apart (1971's The Carrier of Ladders and 2009's The Shadow of Sirius), Merwin was one of the best-known and awarded poets of his generation, whose work wove together politics, spirituality, observation of nature and the human condition. [more inside]
Not So Quiet on the Eastern Front
Eastory is a YouTube channel for short, clearly animated recountings of war history and history in general, made by an anonymous Estonian guy. The narration is simply stated with plenty of detail and an incredible sense of scale, with appropriately ominous music throughout. The videos about the Eastern Front of WWII are superb.
The idealized and white-washed past of home cooking
Measuring Ourselves Against an Idealized Home-Cooking Past Is a Recipe for Frustration The idea that everything would be better if we just cooked three meals a day from scratch like we did in the mythical past ignores both current realities, and the realities of our not so distant past. A new book, Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It is out, and challenges some of the preconceptions around the idea that if we just cook all our meals, all our problems will evaporate. [more inside]
I feel I have to make it clear that this essay is not about “grit”
When I first read Virginia Woolf’s dictum that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” I was homeless.
At Electric Lit, Sandra Newman writes about the tension between the common perception of writing as bourgeois and the often very broke reality: "What If You Can't Afford 'A Room Of One's Own'?"
At kottke.org, Tim Carmody comments on his own situation in relation to the essay, lauds it, and disagrees on one point: "The Problem Of Writing And Money"
At Electric Lit, Sandra Newman writes about the tension between the common perception of writing as bourgeois and the often very broke reality: "What If You Can't Afford 'A Room Of One's Own'?"
At kottke.org, Tim Carmody comments on his own situation in relation to the essay, lauds it, and disagrees on one point: "The Problem Of Writing And Money"
Everybody needs a hug today
Do you feel that the world is full of hate and anger today?
Then watch 10 min. of animals hugging hoomans [more inside]
Then watch 10 min. of animals hugging hoomans [more inside]
she protecc she attacc but she also eat snacc
@Mayapolarbear [Twitter][Instagram], a Samoyed pupper has a YouTube channel devoted to ASMR dog-eating/sounds. • Reviewing Different Types of Food #1 • Reviewing Different Types of Food #2 • Reviewing Different Types of Food #3 • Eating Crispy Chips • Eating Crunchy Apple Slices • Eating Watermelon • Eating Yellow Watermelon • Eating Homemade Popcorn • Eating Roasted Chicken • Eating Carrot FAIL • Eating Crunchy Honeydew Melon • Eating Yellow Apple • Having Breakfast [All reviewed food are safe for dogs and were checked on the American Kennel Club website before.]
A Series Of Tubes. Comfy, Lovely Tubes.
Kratu the rescue dog just doesn't care. Rescue dogs are truly a breed of their own. This one just has to be the best in show, and the perfect antidote to another awful week.
Knight to Bifurcating Tentacle Monster Three
Pawnbarian is a...roguelike chesslike deckbuilder? Yes! Sure. You draw a hand of chess moves and try, with two moves per turn, to kill off the baddies in each level without taking a fatal amount of damage in return. [Via the ever-charming Rock Paper Shotgun, re: the ever-delightful 7 Day Roguelike Challenge]
Make way, two bit half assed nature documentaries over here.
Learn about rare plants and the fate of Tony's Italian Beef Stand (YouTube) - Joe Blowe makes nature documentaries, mostly about botany and streams of consciousness. [more inside]
Factory Life
“Gouthro says that if Tripp was ignored, it was partly because his problems barely rated in Nevada. The Gigafactory, one of the world’s largest buildings by floor area, had been filled with workers so quickly that it was almost impossible to control. Not long after Gouthro started in January 2018, he discovered that many employees, some of whom were living out of their car in the corners of the industrial park, were using cocaine and meth in the bathrooms. Others were having sex in parts of the factory that were still under construction. Gouthro says the scanners guards used to check badges were unreliable, so they’d wave in anyone with a piece of paper that looked legitimate. Local scrap yards called him to report thieves were trying to sell obscure electric vehicle parts.” When Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower (Bloomberg Businessweek)
... second chances have long been superhero movie staples ...
"They desperately want people to pick a side."
Deeyah Khan, a Muslim woman, spent months interviewing neo-Nazis and jihadists — and came away more hopeful than ever. [more inside]
A story about a fat woman that is not the same as stories we've heard
Q&A: Lindy West on Why Her New Hulu Series, ‘Shrill,’ Is Not a ‘Weight-Loss Narrative’. Shrill, the Hulu series based on Lindy West's book of the same name, starring SNL's Aidy Bryant, comes out today on Hulu. While it's groundbreaking simply for promising "under no circumstances will the lead character in the show, ever in the series, step on a scale and look down and sigh", it's also the first show on television that shows an on-screen abortion in the very first episode. Reviews have been mostly positive. [more inside]
"I got in one little fight and my mom got scared"
Ever wonder what the Fresh Prince of Bel Air would be like if it was a drama instead of a comedy, and if it was set in 2019 instead of the 90s? Wonder no more. (Link to HuffPo article, short film linked in article.)