July 1
Grass roots LGBT history: a thread
This is a thread about what my friend found in her attic. (Single link Twitter thread by Gavin McGregor, best to read first.) [more inside]
June 30
Your Geometry Homework out for Vengence
SuperButterBuns brings us all the basics with Nier Automata for Beginners ("Become as frogs."), Undertale for Beginners ("Date the Skeleton, you nerds.") and How to Get Into the Kingdom Hearts Series for Beginners ("This is a special episode, everybody.").
reinventing the mountain bike
I stopped in my local bike shop (lbs) today, and noticed that all of the bikes were starting to converge on the same set of features: disc brakes, dropped handlebars, somewhat aggressive position: gravel bikes, adventure bikes, cyclocross bikes, all-road bikes.... what happened? What The Hell Is A Gravel Bike? [more inside]
An Underground Atlas of the District of Columbia
DC has many tunnels, only some of which are on fire. Using historical maps and the DC Public Library's newspaper archive, local history buff Elliot Carter will take you on a (ongoing) survey of the District's underground domain. [more inside]
“... leap across the uncanny valley.”
Stuntronics: Disney Imagineering Has Created Autonomous Robot Stunt Doubles [YouTube] “The Stuntronics robot features on-board accelerometer and gyroscope arrays supported by laser range finding. In its current form, it’s humanoid, taking on the size and shape of a performer that could easily be imagined clothed in the costume of, say, one of The Incredibles, or someone on the Marvel roster. The bot is able to be slung from the end of a wire to fly through the air, controlling its pose, rotation and center of mass to not only land aerial tricks correctly but to do them on target while holding heroic poses in midair.” [via: Tech Crunch] [more inside]
wave o' babies
Musher and outdoors writer Blair Braverman (previously, previously) has two litters of puppies on her ranch this year, one slightly older than the other. In these times of distress and sorrow, she uses Twitter threads to keep the world apprised, through pictures and video, of the tiny discoveries of tiny dogs.
the puppies like this hole
6 puppies + 8 puppies = 10,000 puppies
Sled blobs on a mission
[more inside]
the puppies like this hole
6 puppies + 8 puppies = 10,000 puppies
Sled blobs on a mission
[more inside]
Sam & Max, Freelance Police: making the world safe for bigfoots
Sam & Max is a multi-media empire focused on the exploits of the Freelance Police: Sam, the laid-back but enthusiastic, brown-coated anthropomorphic Irish Wolfhound, and Max, the hyperkinetic, three-foot tall rabbity thing that is prone to violence. Their adventures were first published as a comic in 1987, which lead to a video game [trailer], a short-lived animated series [intro], and then a second game [trailer] (which was cancelled*), and finally three more games [3 trailers]. [more inside]
So much for the new abolitionism
"In fact, it wasn’t until 1979—a full six years after Roe—that evangelical leaders, at the behest of conservative activist Paul Weyrich, seized on abortion not for moral reasons, but as a rallying-cry to deny President Jimmy Carter a second term. Why? Because the anti-abortion crusade was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools."
The Baltimore City Fire Department is really mad about bike lanes
So the BCFD made a home movie demonstrating - with a multi-million dollar fire truck that is too big to fit in the firehouse, and on the same block where the executive director of cycling-advocacy nonprofit Bikemore lives - that bike lanes make it too hard to fight fires.
A hybrid just lapped the Nürburgring in less than 5:20
The Porche 919 Hybrid Evo just lapped the 12.94 mile long Nürburgring in 5:19.546, 51.58 seconds faster than the record. The on board video feels like it's in fast forward. Jalopnik has a nice write up about what it means.
Hi, my name is George Lungu and I am a circuit designer. This is my blog
"Welcome to Excel Unusual, the home of the most unique Microsoft Excel animated spreadsheets."
How about a gated ring oscillator? Maybe some Pong? Surely you've time for a wireframe rollercoaster? And so on and so forth. [more inside]
Baleeted
"Consistent with NSA’s core values of respect for the law, accountability, integrity, and transparency we are making public notice that on May 23, 2018, NSA began deleting all call detail records (CDRs) acquired since 2015 under Title V of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)." [more inside]
Hello. I'm clearly Noel Gallagher.
Noel Gallagher Goes Undercover on Reddit, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram [SLYT: 10m12s; NSFW] . Corrects grammar, corrects myths, is generally correct. Oh, and judges a Wonderwall cover.
Animated Time's Up Anti Harassment PSA: [SLYT 2min 50sec]
Short animation explains how to conduct yourself at work in the wake of #MeToo and #TimesUp. Created by Times Up Now, and narrated by Donald Glover and Rashida Jones. [more inside]
Are We Alone?
The Astrobiologist Blues | StarTalk All-Star Dr. David Grinspoon and comedian Chuck Nice co-wrote “The Astrobiologist Blues” to help you experience the inner-workings of an astrobiologist’s mind. Watch as they perform the song in front of Neil deGrasse Tyson, astronaut Mike Massimino, and a few fans and friends! (SLYT)
June 29
Instead of ‘finding your passion,’ try developing it
A masterpiece of silent cinema
Security footage of a couple attempting to escape arrest at a Canadian convenience store, which deserves some sort of award for editing. Watch to the end. [more inside]
Singing Against the Grain
Playing Beethoven in the #BlackLivesMatter era — Johann Baptist Vanhal’s Concerto in D Major is a standard of the string repertoire. A Czech composer and musician who performed with Joseph Haydn, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vanhal most likely wrote the bright and shimmery concerto for double bass in the 1760s, around the same time that he was saving money to purchase his freedom from a Bohemian count. [CW: this is America] [more inside]
Beyond Brutalism
"Some of the people here might be described as punk rockers"
"Now I'm told the band playing was Social Distortion from LA, it is a hard rock, punk rock type band, and some of the people here might be described as punk rockers, is that fair or not fair?"
Milwaukee local news covers the "Odd Rock Riot" of October 4, 1988, when police broke up an overcrowded Social Distortion show before the band could start their set.
Thirty years later, Social D returns to Milwaukee to play tonight at Summerfest.
The Letter Carrier
A Push for Gender 'X'
For more than a century Massachusetts has required drivers to have state-issued licenses before getting behind the wheel, and for much of that time it has asked recipients to declare their gender as either male or female, M or F. Now, at the urging of a teenager from the MetroWest region, the state is considering giving motorists a third option: X. [more inside]
“I came in like a...”
Overwatch's Latest Hero Is Wrecking Ball, A Hamster In A Mech [Twitter] “It looks like Overwatch’s newest hero might be who—but not what—we thought. Fans speculated that the first-person shooter’s 28th hero could be Hammond, a monkey companion to the genetically-engineered gorilla Winston. So it came as a surprise that Overwatch just released Hammond the hamster, who goes by “Wrecking Ball,” onto the game’s public test realm this afternoon. Hammond is a mischief-making tank hero who fires machine guns out of his mech, which can roll into a “wrecking ball.”” [via: Kotaku] [Origin Story] [Developer Update]
26,461 Attempts Later
Choco Mountain: The History of Mario Kart 64's Most Infamous Track - A Nintendo 64 speedrun record almost 20 years in the making. [30 minute video, no Mario Kart knowledge is necessary.]
gentrification complaints
They Played Dominoes Outside Their Apartment For Decades. Then The White People Moved In And Police Started Showing Up. [more inside]
A family, not a pregnant man
She’ll grow up in a very diverse home. We surround her with people who are different. Three years after meeting David and Tanner while documenting queer communities, photographer Jackie Malloy saw Tanner's Facebook post that he was unexpectedly pregnant with their child and was proud to be the father to their child. She reached out and they welcomed her into their lives for another year and a half to document Tanner's pregnancy and the evolution of their family through their daughter's first birthday.
Going, going, gone
“It’s an unsettled identity, and you can fall out of it, you can barely get into it, you certainly can’t rise above it very easily. Guy Standing coined the term precariat in 2011 to describe the proletariat, which is a Marxist way of understanding the working class, crossed with precariousness. And people get that. Every time they ride an Uber or they have a gig economy Task Rabbit person come to their house they’re like, OK, that’s the precariat. But I was seeing the same thing among paralegals or those who have law degrees but were still doing temporary work.” Reimagining the Middle Class, a talk with Alissa Quart about her new book, Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America.
One Man's Mission to Bring Better Ramen to the Incarcerated
People in U.S. prisons often supplement their meager meals with ramen -- it's cheap, doesn't spoil quickly, and is easy to prepare. However, the average packet of Nissin or Maruchan ramen has more than half of the recommended daily allowance of sodium, leading to heart disease and other preventable illness across the prison system. That's why Ron Freeman developed low-sodium ramen and is specifically aiming sales at prison commissaries.
Read This Article!!!
“Once exclamation points were scary and loud; they made you jump,” Heidi Julavits wrote in her 2015 memoir The Folded Clock. “You were in trouble when the exclamation points came out. They were the nunchucks of punctuation. They were a bark, a scold, a gallows sentence. Not any longer. The exclamation point is lighthearted, even whimsical."
Exposing the Secret Office 365 Forensics Tool
An ethical crisis in the digital forensics industry came to a head last week with the release of new details on Microsoft’s undocumented “Activities” API. A previously unknown trove of access and activity logs held by Microsoft allows investigators to track Office 365 mailbox activity in minute detail.
Chronic pain patients driven to despair
Unintended consequences: Inside the fallout of America’s crackdown on opioids.
Chronic pain patients, such as Stewart, are driving extraordinary distances to find or continue seeing doctors. They are flying across the country to fill prescriptions. Some have turned to unregulated alternatives such as kratom, which the Drug Enforcement Administration warns could cause dependence and psychotic symptoms. And yet others are threatening suicide on social media, and have even followed through, as doctors taper pain medication in a massive undertaking that Stefan Kertesz, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who studies addiction and opioids, described as “having no precedent in the history of medicine.”[more inside]
Extreme heat can be dangerous for people taking psychiatric medication
Here's a surprising extreme heat risk for 1 in 6 Americans
Psychiatric medications can interfere with the body's ability to regulate temperature, and most patients don't know, experts say. [more inside]
Scorchio! British summer of 2018 edition
As hosepipe bans and water supply issues occur, moist and instagramed Brits bare skin while shopping, slip into thongs, and turn to radishes and licking Earl Grey tea ice lollies. As moors catch fire and roads and buildings "melt" the heatwave stretches onwards. Tube travel is now in "sweaty stranger armpit" mode, while usually delightfully enjoyable British train journeys are delayed and commuters stare at screens. With temperatures topping 30C in all four nations and old people reminiscing about the summer of 1976, the heat is also affecting nearby countries. The usual advice - shade, work breaks, sunscreen, hydration, avoid jumping into quarry lakes and look after your pets and don't leave them in vehicles - prevails. The forecast: more of the same for days ahead. Post title.
Film reference blue
A Report Of Connected Events (slvimeo)
The director of Netflix's Ibiza has never even been to Ibiza
Aptly named Ibiza, the film follows three American girls (who struggle to pronounce Ibiza correctly the entire film) as they travel to everyone's favourite clubbing paradise and if luke-warm rom-coms are your thing, then you're in luck. The lead character falls in love with an EDM DJ and absolute hilarity ensues (it doesn't).
We spoke to the director Alex Richanbach about how he made the film, his influences and his take on glamourising drugs. This is perhaps the most awkward interview we've ever done.
What would you do with a 45-metre tower and a pool full of cornstarch?
The boys at the Gravity Discovery Centre of Gingin, Western Australia have some fun with oobleck and a bowling ball (also vs a pool table), an anvil (also flaming, vs deodorant cans, and a giant dart (also vs a stack of paper). They've also got a trampoline (or they had one). [more inside]
Craving the intention of a blazed-out drummer
Well-behaved women make history too
The 2018 European carbon dioxide supply crisis
Beer and Cider rationed! Pig Welfare at Risk! Frozen Food Supplies Hit! Coca-Cola Production Affected! And now, in a shocking escalation of the crisis: Crumpet Plants Shut! The 2018 European CO₂ shortage has been described as the “worst supply situation to hit the European carbon dioxide business in decades”: Why it really matters for the UK's food and drink supply
June 28
After the fall
I notice, talking to younger people, people who hit that Napoleonic moment of turning twenty since the crisis, that the idea of capitalism being thought of as morally superior elicits something between an eye roll and a hollow laugh. Their view of capitalism has been formed by austerity, increasing inequality, the impunity and imperviousness of finance and big technology companies, and the widespread spectacle of increasing corporate profits and a rocketing stock market combined with declining real pay and a huge growth in the new phenomenon of in-work poverty. That last is very important. For decades, the basic promise was that if you didn’t work the state would support you, but you would be poor. If you worked, you wouldn’t be. That’s no longer true: most people on benefits are in work too, it’s just that the work doesn’t pay enough to live on. That’s a fundamental breach of what used to be the social contract. So is the fact that the living standards of young people are likely not to be as high as they are for their parents. That idea stings just as much for parents as it does for their children.
John Lanchester on the ten years following the credit crunch.
bring them together
Since 2011, Butches and Babies (not to be confused with baby butches) has been compiling photos.
It’s not at all easy to march through the world shattering gender norms at every turn. So when a butch holds a small child, relatively unaffected by gender (in a cognitive/behavioral sense), it is a simultaneous exchange of healing and freedom. Maybe I think about this too much, but that’s what I see. Every single time. I see hope and a new world.[more inside]
Possibly the most contentious person on Earth
Harlan Ellison, one of the greatest ever speculative fiction writers, died today at the age of 84. [more inside]
Not Enough 'Shocking' Puns In Creation For This
[NSFW text and pics] The setup: A redditor in /r/WTF posts a picture with this description: I found a homemade electric chair while exploring an abandoned building in Croatia. While discussing whether or not it is in fact that, redditor /u/anon72c says, "Contrary to what you see in movies, a car battery can't hurt you unless you drop it on your foot, or drink the acid." Another redditor suggests that he try connecting the battery to certain body parts as a test. Challenge accepted. [more inside]
'Hello, Fellow Gamers'
Final Deployment 4: Queen Battle Walkthrough [Autoplay Video] “Tips and tricks on how to beat the alien queen boss battle in Final Deployment 4 (Multi-platform) as well as the "Homecoming" DLC.” [more inside]
don't mention the VAR
your move, sir
So you have all this cheese lying around, and you don't fancy eating it. Or maybe, if you're in the US, you're facing down the largest cheese stockpile in a century. What can you do?
Suggestions include paint, plastics, jewelry, glue, fabric, and so much more. Turns out cheese is pretty useful after all. [more inside]
Corpse Flower in Bloom
The corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum), a ten to fifteen-foot tall flower which requires months to years (or decades) to store up enough energy to bloom once, is now in bloom at the NY Botanical Garden. Watch the live stream here. [more inside]
Students raise £1500 to send "jolliest" cleaner to Jamaica
Students raise money to send cleaner and his wife to Jamaica to visit family. "He is the epitome of happiness," one student said. The gift included a note saying, "You have brightened many of our days and we want you to know that we love and appreciate you." Herman has worked at Bristol University as part of the cleaning staff for 12 years. In terms of the positivity that so many students praise him for, Herman told Newsbeat it's important to keep away "negative vibes...I know that these students are studying. You don't want any negative vibes around them."
Now that Kennedy's retiring, Trump gets another SC pick
With US Supreme Court centrist Justice Kennedy's recent decision to retire, Donald Trump now gets a second Supreme Court pick, one that may reshape the SC (and the country) for decades. Moments after the announcement, Mitch McConnell promised a swift confirmation of Trump's nominee before the midterm elections. This appears likely: all Senate Republicans are likely to go along with Trump's conservative nominee even if they grumble about it, while moderate Democrats may break party ranks to also support Trump's nominee. [more inside]
It Took a Little Longer Than They Thought
After 45 years, five books, thousands of columns, and appearances in more than 100 MeFi FPPs, The Straight Dope has published its last column. [more inside]