May 2018 Archives
May 31
Colleges Are No Match for American Poverty
The Atlantic takes a look at one community college, fighting a 9% graduation rate by listening to their students and solving the real-world, poverty-induced problems faced by their students.
Written by Marcella Bombardieri, a journalist for higher education at the Center for American Progress.
Twin Peaks: The Return - 1 Year Later
Gamespot Universe lets you know, it's been a busy year!
It’s been 1 year since we returned to the world of Twin Peaks created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. Greg and Ryan celebrate the anniversary of Twin Peaks: The Return by taking a look back at all the new information that’s come out after the season finale; specifically from the final dossier. [19m]
Use My Mouth For War
Ride On Shooting Star - In The US
As part of the promotion for the upcoming broadcast of FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative, Adult Swim has announced the six city Mono Me You Sun tour by The Pillows, hitting both coasts of the US. Opening for the band will be all female band Noodles and Cullen Omori. [more inside]
The bowls of the hearth
The tableware we use influences the way we experience the food we eat. When we sit down to a meal, says Professor Charles Spence,…our brain forms a basic set of expectations about how it will taste and how satisfying it will be.…A bowl that we pick up and touch is more likely to set an expectation of a hearty, filling and healthy meal, he said. “That weight in the hand is likely to make your brain think the food is more substantial and you’re likely to rate it as more intensely fragranced and aromatic than for exactly the same food sat passively on a plate,” Spence explained.
And bowl food is acceptable at royal weddings.
And bowl food is acceptable at royal weddings.
“I’d look at the menu, pick something, and start lying”
The new queens of comedy
everything from putting dogs on Tinder to writing Amazon reviews
“Yes, I'm doing my job. It's work.”
Stella Parks is a CIA-trained pastry chef and senior editor of Serious Eats, and the author of
BRAVETART, "THE BEST BAKING BOOK WE'VE SEEN IN YEARS", "the new go-to baking book," "packed with clever upgrades of baking classics," that "celebrates the science of junk food," "a case for the american dessert itself." [more inside]Blood Will Tell
"The murder of Mickey Bryan, a quiet fourth-grade teacher, stunned her small Texas town. Then her husband, a beloved high school principal, was charged with killing her. Did he do it, or had there been a terrible mistake?" A two-part series considering the value of bloodstain-pattern analysis by the always excellent Pamela Colloff (previously).
The End Pieces Are Best. Especially With Brown Mustard
The Philly Pretzel: One Twisted Jawn An ode/explainer from the fine folks at Serious Eats, to one of those most noble of foods, the Philadelphia Soft Pretzel—which is a different beast than the soft pretzel you might be thinking of if you're not from the Philadelphia area.
Photos from the beginning of the 20th century, searchable by world map
Le musée départemental Albert-Kahn conserve les Archives de la Planète, un ensemble d'images fixes et animées, réalisé au début du XXe siècle, consacré à la diversité des peuples et des cultures.
“PikaBBQ!”
No One Knows If People Eat Pokémon [Kotaku] “One question has always haunted me during my years playing Pokémon. If people eat meat in the Pokémon universe, and there are no other animals that players see or interact with but Pokémon, what are they eating? Series director Junichi Masuda says not even he knows.” [more inside]
SciFi London short film and flash fiction competition winners
Every year, as part of their science fiction film festival, Sci-Fi London organise a challenge in which entrants are given a title, line of dialogue and description of a prop, and then have 48 hours to turn in a completed 5 minute film or piece of flash fiction. The winning films and flash fiction stories from the SciFi London 48 Hour Challenge are now available to watch and read. [more inside]
Worlds of Ursula K Le Guin
Director Arwen Curry’s forthcoming [documentary] Worlds of Ursula K Le Guin, which Curry worked on with Le Guin for 10 years, will premiere on 10 June at the Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Official trailer (SLVimeo). [more inside]
Official trailer (SLVimeo). [more inside]
induce music of the mind in people
John & Yoko Free Time (slyt)
Get paid to write your novel
De Montfort Literature will pay up to ten selected writers a salary of £24,000 while they write their novel, with the profits then split. The business will provide mentoring and editorial support and is funded by De Montfort Capital, Jonathan De Montfort’s venture capital outfit.
Nothing to do with De Montfort University.
May 30
Cuteness update: I'm dying.
A man goes upstairs to get a sweater, finds a cat (not his) who has just given birth to kittens, becomes #catdad and experiences a new plane of existence. (SLTwitter thread)
Recipes are ingredients
A recursive recipe is one where ingredients in the recipe can be replaced by another recipe. The more ingredients you replace, the more that the recipe is made truly from scratch.
Just another sad gentrification story.
Tom7 is back, with more amazing computery weirdness
“It’s why I quit. It’s the worst thing on Earth to hide who you are.”
"Though it was never explicitly stated, historians and players alike say the rules were in place, in part, to prevent the women from being perceived as lesbians. Many of the women actually were gay, including D’Angelo, which is another part of the story the movie didn’t tell. By not including a gay character’s story in “A League of Their Own,” the film does to the history of the league what the owners tried to do its existence — erase lesbians from the narrative." [more inside]
Post Process
Bryan Colangelo, the president of the Philly 76ers, may have been running numerous anonymous Twitter accounts in which he ridiculed his own players and other NBA figures (including his predecessor, the lightning rod Sam Hinkie) and hillariously acted as his own biggest fan. If true, this would be a very, very bad look. The team is conducting an investigation.
Whatever Happened To....
Broken Chains is a blog devoted to telling about and visiting the few remaining locations of formerly expansive restaurant chains.
"Open Your Hands, Here Is Some Light"
Every evening when the sun starts to set, my daughter picks me a bouquet of light.
The front door of our house is glass-paned, so she crouches in front of it, where lines of sun are drifting across the wood floor. She pretends to scoop something up — the motion very much like picking a flower — and then runs to me with empty hands.
"Here is some light," she says, matter-of-factly.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for WiFi
LinkNYC WiFi kiosks are playing creepy ice cream truck music and no one knows why. This has been going on for a week now. Arguments have been made in favour of the controversial kiosks, and this is arguably not the creepiest jingle or ice cream truck scenario ever, but it's still not helping. LinkNYC previously. Creepy ice cream trucks previously.
Unplug it. Count to 10. Plug it back in.
it's the buff cat
Oh bother
Christopher Robin Official Trailer: Come for Ewan McGregor shrieking “POOH!?” in the most chipper accent possible. Stay for the absolute adorableness of Pooh and friends going on their greatest quest yet: to save Christopher Robin from... a mid-life crisis?
The most popular Milk Calendar recipes tend to feature chicken & pasta?
Filk is the folk music of sci-fi and fantasy fandom.
Filk is the folk music of the science fiction/fantasy community, but also the act of singing filk. It got its name from a typo in an essay in a 1950s fan publication. It has a lot of definitions. It’s often funny, but not always. It often uses melodies from other songs, but not always. Filker Lee Gold wrote a comprehensive history. Wikipedia and TVTropes have lots of info. The Pegasus Awards are for the finest filking. [more inside]
“Country roads, take me home...”
Fallout 76 [YouTube][Teaser Trailer] “The teaser trailer, embedded above, includes scenes set inside a relatively well-maintained fallout shelter. The vault looks decked out for a party, with balloons and confetti all over. A sign says that the occasion is called “Reclamation Day.” A Pip-Boy makes an appearance during the teaser, but there’s a conspicuous lack of weapons of any kind. The entire setting looks extremely domestic, set inside a child’s bedroom and a family living space.” [via: Polygon] [more inside]
what are you selling?
Arcis is a new art storage facility in Harlem that offers its clients a Foreign Trade Zone. But are they selling the art world a luxury tax haven, or just banking on confusion? - Atossa Araxia Abrahamian.
Why A Lot Of Very Expensive Art Is Disappearing Into Storage [more inside]
The National Animal of Canada is the North American House Hippo
The Spirit Molecules
Michael Pollan has written a remarkable history of psychedelics and a compelling portrait of the new generation of scientists fascinatedby the implications of these drugs. He previously wrote about this in The New Yorker. But the book also describes his late-in-life introduction to 4 psychedelic substances. This is one of 3 new books on the topic. One of Pollan's best conversations about this is with well-known psychedelic appreciator Sam Harris.
The Flettner Rotor Sail
Invented over 100 years ago, this tubular sail may yet fulfill its promise. As pressure intensifies for the global shipping industry to decarbonise, Norsepower plans to bring back these fuel-saving mechanical sails to the decks of huge tankers that roam the seas today.
past crimes and present misdemeanours
'The Tower' - a long essay/article on the Grenfell Tower fire by Andrew O'Hagan in The London Review of Books
May 29
Welcome, everything is fine. We’re going to talk about The Good Place.
The Good Posts: Chapter One -Andrew Hickey kicks off a series of posts about the The Good Place, possibly the best show currently on Television, with a discussion of premise and format.
Differing subsets of folk music history, both sound relevant and vital
Sarah Louise Henson was half responsible for one of 2017’s most dazzling albums, the self-titled debut by House And Land. A duo of Henson and Sally Anne Morgan, who also plays in wyrd-bluegrass exponents the Black Twig Pickers, House And Land’s spin on old-timey American folk music – illuminating its parallels to the drones of 1960s minimalism, or Indian classical modes – was a quiet, brilliant jewel. I’d avoid opening a review of an album by talking at such length about a different one, but for the feeling that House And Land was so criminally unsung. [...] So, like a lot of great leftfield folk music of multiple eras, Deeper Woods demonstrates tangible respect for tradition without being hidebound by it. [more inside]
Airport-born puppies in Florida
This wheel's on fire...
A man has become the most successful cheese-chaser ever. Chris Anderson broke the previous record of 20 wins with his latest feat du fromage in the 2018 Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling competition. Participant POV video footage of the race is available, along with Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling 2018 - All Main Races, and a video compilation entitled Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling - Worst Falls 2018 [contains footage of some people getting a bit banged up]. The premature news of the Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling competition's death previously on Metafilter, and the demise of the Stilton Cheese-Rolling competition, previously.
"Tall Paul" Brown has died
Bay Area man built bikes for kids with good grades. "Tall Paul" Brown was a West Oakland icon who lived and worked out of his RV and recently died of stage 4 lung cancer. He was passionate about bicycles and would build choppers, double stacks, and otherwise pimp out bikes for kids who could show him at least 3 As on their report cards.
A bit more info here from NBC Bay Area. And a more in-depth piece on him and his work from the Bold Italic (2015, linked in top post as well).
The Salvia Trip That Took Me from Alaska to Texas
"I went first to amuse my pal with the spectacle of his Mormon friend using a bong for the first time. I loaded the big glass bowl with half the foil packet, flash-fried it with a micro-torch, and took the kind of lungful you take to prove to your friend who kills people for a living that you are gruesome enough to hang. It tasted like burning snow tires, but I held my smoke like a hero until the floor beneath me turned into a whirlpool that sucked me into it. Apparently salvia is nothing at all like synthetic marijuana." [more inside]
Roseanne no more
Roseanne is cancelled after Roseanne Barr compared Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape. Earlier, Wanda Sykes had already announced she wouldn't return.
PSYC 157: Psychology and the Good Life
In the face of this epidemic of unhappiness, Santos decided to design a course in “positive psychology” — i.e., the field of study that focuses on well-being, as opposed to psychological dysfunction. Such classes have been around for more than a decade, but they typically served as introductions to the field — sort of Happiness 101. Santos’s course aims to do more. “The thing that makes this course different is that we also focus on what I call ‘behavior change’ — the science of how you move your behavior around,” she says. “How do you actually change your habits and use your situation to your advantage?”
The most popular course at Yale teaches how to be happy. [The Cut] took it for you. [more inside]
The most popular course at Yale teaches how to be happy. [The Cut] took it for you. [more inside]
A Brief History of Willie Nelson's Annual 4th of July Picnic.
Since 1973 Willie Nelson has graced country music fans with his (sorta) annual 4th of July Picnic. This is a brief, illustrated history of that picnic, which features great artists, great music, some nudity, alcohol, other substances, the increasingly rare sense of being in the center of the known universe, occasional fires, and gunplay. (SFW)
Eliminate Bosses Everywhere
“for the restaurant industry in particular — famous for its long hours and low wages — co-ops promise better working conditions in general. “When the workers own the business, they tend to pay themselves a decent wage,” Hoover says. “They almost, across the board, [have] better benefits.” Workers also tend to build more on-the-job skills, because as owners, they’re cross-trained for a variety of roles within the business. That generally means a lower rate of employee turnover, a perennial issue in the restaurant industry. “There’s really strong data that [says] employees stay longer in worker co-ops and experience higher job satisfaction,” Hoover says.“ Want Better Working Conditions in Restaurants? Build a Co-op. (Eater) How to invest in Co-Ops. Democracy @ Work, a site for worker cooperative news, history, and discussion.
"I thought she had family money."
Somebody had to foot the bill for Anna Delvey’s fabulous new life. The city was full of marks. Anna Delvey, a.k.a. Anna Sorokin, previously.
Mennonites reckon with the Holocaust
"Mennonites entered Nazi consciousness in 1929, when 13,000 refugees descended on Moscow, clamoring to leave the Soviet Union. In Germany, the National Socialist Racial Observer took up their cause." [Graphic images] [more inside]
❤️😸🥔❤️
Stumpy Cat Potato!! A three-year-old blind dwarf munchkin adopted from Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals! She has an Instagram! And a backstory!
Bless the Rivers down in Africa
A 14-year-old from Cleveland had a simple dream -- persuade Weezer to cover Toto's "Africa." Today, the band granted Mary's wish. Enjoy. (For added enjoyment, have this video playing muted while you listen. Yes.)
Score, Then Automatic Runoff
Whiny dudes, it seems, whine in much the same way across the millennia.
Drag Her by the Hair and Heart, The Manosphere and Ancient Love Curses: "As someone specializing in Greco-Roman magic, I’ve recently started to reevaluate ancient love curses like Hermias’ thanks to MRAs and their ilk. How do we understand a spell that both demands that a woman be burned, dragged by her guts, or whipped, and that she enter a long-term relationship with the spellcaster? Sure, it’s at least partly metaphorical, in the same way that we can talk about a burning passion without literally envisioning people on fire. But the way these curses linger lovingly over the imagery is disquieting — and, if you can forget the distance which 1,700 years lends and step into Titerous’ place, all too recognizable. Men are more likely to invoke Roosh V than Anubis these days, but the 21st century manosphere can show us some rocks to look under in antiquity." [more inside]
May 28
Getting over the shoulder of the S curve
Invisible Asymptotes is an essay from Eugene Wei about finding and overcoming the limits to a system's growth, using Amazon and popular social networks as examples.
On the consumption of ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ
Haute Baroque Capitalism "Accepting the aesthetic as a generative and formal expression of capital sheds some retrospective light on the vaporwave phenomenon, which can be seen as a precursor to baroque capitalism. It shares many of the same sensibilities in terms of using physical manifestations of capital as an expressive tool. But vaporwave considered capitalism to be incapable of providing meaning. Vaporwave attempts to show the lifeless, dead shells of consumer “culture” that capital has left behind." Baudrillard's Consumer Society in a tweet • Is Aesthetics Sustainable
“We can often miss the forest for the trees.”
The Rewarding Benefits Of Replaying Video Games [Game Informer] “I have a hard time keeping up with games as it is without replaying them, which often results in a tempting cycle of moving on to other games before completing others. Our fast-paced age encourages this behavior, and even if our attention spans aren't decreasing, our overall ability to invest in one thing is tough with so much to do. Despite these excuses and challenges, replaying games is more beneficial than you think. Just as Black Ops III or Braid's stories feel like different, fuller narratives a second time through with their revelatory conclusions in mind, the same effect applies in a broader sense to games' other elements. I've put together a list of reasons why, which includes the joys of discovering missed content, remembering encounters and story beats you might have forgotten, and more.” [more inside]
Movie Plots Ruined by Modern Technology
"The rapid increase in technology over the last thirty years has changed a lot of basic cinematic conventions. Entire plots that once hinged on characters being able to fake identities, get lost in a new place, or have a case of mistaken identity are all but gone from contemporary films because of the internet. [...] Here are some great films from just the last thirty years that would have had their entire premise derailed if they took place in a world where smart phones were available." • The movie plots technology killed • 8 movies technology made obsolete • 90s plot lines that modern technology ruins entirely • 23 famous movie plots easily solved by text messages • 17 movies that would be over in 5 minutes in 2017
A veritable Sistine Chapel of American comic-strip art, and another one
... in the back of a sports bar on East 44th Street is one of New York’s more neglected cultural treasures. Created in the 1970s, it is a veritable Sistine Chapel of American comic-strip art (NYT): the 30-some drawings across its face were left by a who’s who of cartooning legends, including Gil Kane, Mort Walker, Irwin Hasen, Milton Caniff, Dik Browne, and Paul Fung Jr. There’s also a self-portrait by Al Jaffee, a doodle by Bil Keane, and a Mad magazine-style gag by Sergio Aragonés. Old regulars are familiar with the wall’s past, and comic book scholars make occasional pilgrimages to the bar, but the Overlook’s cartoon mural (Atlas Obscura) remains largely unknown and untended. [more inside]
Shooting and aftermath
In October, 2017 Stephen Paddock, driven by right-wing conspiracy theories, set up a snipers nest in a Las Vegas hotel and opened fire on a concert crowd. In just over ten minutes he killed 58 people and injured 546, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. Six months and many shootings later it has faded in public consciousness, but the scars remain: WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS.
CAPTURED THE TOWN OF CANTIGNY ON MAY 28 1918 AND HELD IT
100 years ago today the United States launched its first offensive in World War One. In the Battle of Cantigny the First Division attacked a ruined French town, then held it against a German counterattack. France provided direction, advice, air cover, and more hardware. Although a minor action, it was an American victory, so Cantigny proved to the Allies, the Central Powers, and the rest of the world that American forces could actually fight well in modern war.
Much larger and more terrible battles would lie ahead in the coming months. [more inside]
Short legs, fluffy butts and we’re off to the races!
ABC7’s local news coverage of the First Annual Corgi Nationals at Santa Anita Race Track. [embedded video] For The W!n has compiled some nice Instagram links, and NBC4 has put together a photo gallery.
Begun, the Browser War Had
On May 18, 1998, the U.S. Justice Department and 20 state attorneys general filed an antitrust suit against the most powerful tech company in America: Microsoft. The then-23-year-old giant, which ruled the personal computer market with a despotic zeal, stood accused of using monopoly power to bully collaborators and squelch competitors. Its most famous victim was Netscape, the pioneering web browser, but everyone from Apple to American Airlines felt threatened by late-’90s Microsoft. An oral history of the Microsoft antitrust suit, twenty years later.
“I don’t dare let my mind wander.”
High School in China Installs Facial Recognition Cameras to Monitor Students’ Attentiveness: At Hangzhou Number 11 High School, three cameras at the front of the classroom scan students’ faces every 30 seconds, analyzing their facial expressions to detect their mood, according to a May 16 report in the state-run newspaper The Paper. The different moods—surprised, sad, antipathy, angry, happy, afraid, neutral—are recorded and averaged during each class. A display screen, only visible to the teacher, shows the data in real-time. A certain value is determined as a student not paying enough attention. A video shot by Zhejiang Daily Press revealed that the system—coined the “smart classroom behavior management system” by the school—also analyzes students’ actions, categorized into: reading, listening, writing, standing up, raising hands, and leaning on the desk.
“Realm of Knowledge and Silence.”
Rachel Nuwer visits the nearly-abandoned Amani Hills Research Station in Tanzania. "Indeed, all was utterly quiet, but for its order and solemnity, the overwhelming feeling in this library was eeriness. Approaching a shelf labelled “Current Periodicals,” I removed a heavy, hardbound volume at random. Its once-blue spine was faded to a sickly green-grey, and worm bores riddled the brittle cover. The tangled, hollowed remains of a long-dead spider fell to my feet as I opened it to its cover page: Current Chemical Papers 1956."
In Which Peter Parker is Actually an Immigrant From Mali
In Paris, amazing video of a man rescuing a child who is dangling from a balcony. The rescuer is an immigrant from Mali. French President Macron offers him citizenship.
It's pronounced like the "G" in "GIF"
Sopan Deb:
THIS IS AMAZING. Per @reidepstein and @Maddie_Marshall, we've all been saying gerrymandering wrong our whole lives!Or maybe not.
poor man’s disease
Causing around 100 000 deaths a year, snake bites have been made a global health priority by the World Health Authority. Mambas, medicine and one girl's race to survive Kenya's biting problem
The happy wedding vowes
May 27
Drumming up support.
What role do drums play in Rock? Should that be keeping the beat or leading from the front? Who are some of the greatest drummers in rock music? Jim and Greg from Sound Opinions focus on the contributions of drummers to rock music with drummer Joe Wong. Wong also hosts a podcast on drummers called The Trap Set.
“Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.”
Why the lost daughters of Picnic at Hanging Rock still haunt us [The University of Melbourne] As the new TV adaption of Picnic at Hanging Rock premieres, the story still draws us in with enduring themes of female empowerment, lost children and the deep mystery of Australia’s brutal landscape. [more inside]
"[T]he worst thing to happen to George since the internment camps"
George Takei’s Accuser Has Changed His Story of Drugging and Assault. "...[U]nlike like Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and other accused celebrity sex offenders, Takei was known in Hollywood as a good guy. There had been no whisper cloud, no trail of payoffs or suppressed claims of higher-ups shrugging off allegations to protect their businesses. Was this an uncharacteristic lapse? Or was it the first hint of a hidden pattern, a dark side Takei kept from public view for decades?" [more inside]
IC3PEAK: wild dogs are afraid of me and fire, that's not a coincidence
IC3PEAK are Nick Kostylev and "Nerdy" Nastya, who like to call themselves a couple of "audiovisual terrorists." Listeners are told to expect "noise or sugary glitch and resonant bass-lines, plus some vicious sawing noises" which has been likened to early Crystal Castles, Grimes, Die Antwoord, and Bjork. The Russian duo's first video, "Go With The Flow," addresses anti-gay laws in their home country. More videos: Make You Cry | Грустная Сука / Sad Bitch | This World Is Sick || more on SoundCloud and Bandcamp [more inside]
This is not America
How the atomist error was born
Is nature continuous or discrete? - "Lucretius could easily have used the Latin words atomus (smallest particle) or particula (particle), but he went out of his way not to. Despite his best efforts, however, the two very different Latin terms he did use, corpora (matters) and rerum (things), were routinely translated and interpreted as synonymous with discrete 'atoms'. Further, the moderns either translated out or ignored altogether the nearly ubiquitous language of continuum and folding used throughout his book, in phrases such as 'solida primordia simplicitate' (simplex continuum)."
Atari co-founder Ted Dabney dies at 81
Dabney had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in late 2017, and, according to friends, decided against treatment after being told he had eight months to live. [more inside]
Giving with one hand to take back with the other
May 26
YOU FAT LITTLE FERRET IN A BEAR SUIT!
Cherie Priest: Things overheard whilst a zippy Pomeranian named "Chunk" escaped his yard and chased after me while I walked Greyson and Lucy this morning. A thread: Twitter | Threadreader
Jello Knife
How to make the sharpest jello kitchen knife in the world (SLYT).
💊
AWAKEN AKIRA [YouTube][Trailer][Concept] Created by two friends, Ash Thorp and Zaoeyo (XiaoLin Zeng), who wanted to collaborate on a tribute to the iconic anime, Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo, it's creation took over a year.
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.
“the most common arguments for technology optimism do not stand up to scrutiny”/“automation is very good for growth and very bad for equality”
Peaked too soon
21 Songs About or Featuring Drinking
Government regulation and entrepreneural dynamism
Libertarian economist Alex Tabarrok set out to discover to what degree increasing government regulation was responsible for the 40-year decline in economic dynamism in the United States. Turns out it isn't. Washington Monthly has a celebratory article about the study. Reason asks if he's the most honest economist in academia. Tabarrok says there's nothing to get worked up about. [more inside]
Maybe we should hear out both sides
The fourth human on the moon has passed away
I COULD NOT MANUFACTURE THIS DRAMA IF I TRIED
Elizabeth Hernandez, reporter for the Denver Post, got a press release announcing an attempt to break the Guinness world record for waffle stacking. Then things got awesome. (sltwitterthread)
Tig Notaro's New Show
i've got stamina
The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect
To Build Truly Intelligent Machines, Teach Them Cause and Effect (Quanta) - "Judea Pearl, a pioneering figure in artificial intelligence, argues that AI has been stuck in a decades-long rut. His prescription for progress? Teach machines to understand the question why." [more inside]
unlikely there is a monster
Scottish independence is back in the news... and the hunt is back on for an illusive Scottish icon, Nessie (or may be just its dandruff)
May 25
The Human Factor In The Animal’s Life
The collection of photographs [by Jayanti Seiler] are part of a photographic essay that began in 2013 titled, “Of One and The Other”, which seeks to inspire consideration of the complexity and depth found in the relationships between animals and humans from all points along a spectrum that spans the chasm from lifesaving to exploitation.
Sign Language Isn't Just for Babies
Language welcomes, but it also excludes. The fundamental injustice of the baby sign-language trend is that our culture touts the benefits of signing for hearing children, but disregards A.S.L. for the deaf children who need it the most.
[more inside]
Paperback Portals: the Legacy of Lesbian Pulp Fiction
World War II made paperback novels popular in the U.S. thanks to Armed Service Editions, which evolved from earlier failed book drives. G.I.s came back home with their little books, and wanted more. After pulp magazines died off (because of the war efforts), pulp paperbacks flourished, first with hardcover titles repackaged for an audience grown used to portable Army editions, but soon came the "lascivious and streetwise stories that made steady work for a generation of writers," including potboilers and pin-ups that showed gay and bisexual women they were not alone. [more inside]
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing it would be this: “Abby, you were never Little Red Riding Hood; you were always the wolf.” So when I was entrusted with the honor of speaking here today, I decided that the most important thing for me to say to you is this: BARNARD WOMEN—CLASS OF 2018—WE. ARE. THE. WOLVES.Former U.S. soccer star Abby Wambach delivers the commencement address at Barnard College. Transcript. via.
“Khajiit has wares, if you have coin.”
An appreciation of in-game shopkeepers [Engadget] “In-game shops are more than handy outlets to transform random metal scraps and tired old gear into new and useful items. Shops offer a reprieve from the action of whichever digital world you've entered, allowing you to take a moment, breathe and consider the situation from afar. Do you want to play as a gun-toting tank or a sneaky spy? Is your bow powerful enough for the battles ahead? Do you have enough health potions? Does your character look better in green or purple? Only the shop can provide the answers. Overseeing all of these calculations -- and guarding stores' impossibly large piles of loot -- are the shopkeepers.” [more inside]
How to talk to bears
What to do when there's a bear in your yard? As in any other interpersonal/ursine situation, communication is the key. Here are some practical demonstrations on how to establish boundaries with your furry neighbors. Canadians like to do it politely, while we Finns like to be a bit more assertive. Via SATW.
Two Babies and a Bride
ULC-ordained mother-to-be performs maternity ward ceremony from her hospital bed. Adorable photos of both babies included within.
Death to America
America’s Version of Capitalism Is Incompatible With Democracy "American democracy is unwell; on this much, President Trump’s detractors can agree. But when they turn to the tasks of identifying our republic’s symptoms, naming its illness, and writing a prescription, different factions of “the resistance” produce divergent diagnoses." [more inside]
I mean, Daniel Day Lewis, I think he could learn something from me.
Hot Take In The Summertime (Northern Hemisphere Edition)
The Tastes of Summer, Ranked: Peach vs. watermelon. Kielbasa vs. hot dog. Fudgsicle vs. Chipwich. New York Times food critics and writers assess the season’s peak pleasures. [No fire wall]
♣ ♢ ♠ ♡
Cardgames.io: your one-stop shop for rounds of cribbage, euchre, gin rummy, hearts, idiot, manni, classic rummy, spades, spit, switch, whist, and more. No bells, few whistles, mostly cards (plus backgammon, checkers, and Yahtzee). [more inside]
Pankaj Mishra on the absence of compassion
A Gandhian Stand Against the Culture of Cruelty. An essay by Pankaj Mishra on the importance of compassion in public life, and its absence today. "More ominously, this moral calamity in the world’s largest democracy is part of a global rout of such basic human emotions as empathy, compassion, and pity."
The Poor People's Campaign And The Religious Left
From healthcare to tax and immigration, Rev William Barber and the Poor People’s Campaign are driven by faith to focus on the disadvantaged ‘Jesus never charged a leper co-pay’ (The Guardian). The revitalized Poor People’s Campaign calls for ‘a moral agenda based on fundamental rights.’ THE SOULS OF POOR FOLK is an audit of the state of poverty, systemic racism, and militarism since the last campaign 50 years ago. Find a campaign event near you.
Let's Not Play
Idle Animations, depending on who you ask, are either the animation a video game character plays when no input is given, or the animation played when no input has been received for while. Read what a number of game developers have to say about their favorites, or maybe you'd just like to sit through 20-odd minutes of sprites killing time.
Witness to Reggae – the 80s Archive
Beth Lesser's cool photographs on the Greek website, Lifo. During the 1980s, my husband and I traveled frequently to Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, NY from our home in Toronto, Canada to follow the changing reggae scene. At the time, we were publishing Reggae Quarterly magazine and Dave was hosting Reggae Showcase on CKLN radio. [more inside]
What does the fox say about *this*?
Expat Wildlife Vet for Emirati Royalty (for now)
She has an astonishing resume, starting with her current job as vet to Emirati royalty's animals. Here's her Linkedin list: Stewart at linkedin
And here's one of her YouTube videos from Hawaii: Hollis on Whales
Nudge Theory
Tokyo is home to the world’s busiest train stations, handling a combined 13 billion passenger trips annually. Beneath the bustle, unobtrusive features are designed to unconsciously manipulate passenger behavior, via light, sound, and other means. [more inside]
Misinterpretative dance.
In the last several decades, performance art—or at least the evocation of “performance art”—has somewhat unexpectedly wormed its way into popular music.
Wrong sport!
"One crucial function of the brain is the retention of traumatic events and the feelings associated with them. Theoretically the function is designed to prevent us from repeating our mistakes, but more often than not it just means a flashback in the middle of Whole Foods to that one time in first grade when you called your teacher “Mom.” Certain scenarios are ripe for producing those decadeslong cringes, but the arena of childhood sports might combine all the elements necessary for a permanent scar: audiences composed of peers and strangers, shows of dexterity, the agony of adolescence." What Childhood Sports Failures Keep You Up at Night?
General Data Protection Regulation
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation has gone live today. Some American newspapers have decided that it's easier to block European users than comply. Having had two years to prepare, they say that they continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. What is the goal of the GDPR, and what impact will it have? [more inside]
Brexit bites
Mate, I really don't care. The issue of Brexit was settled almost two years ago. We have ten years from the point at which we leave the European Union to negotiate a free trade agreement. Your next ten years are irrelevant. I was not prepared to end up with absolutely the most harmful outcome imaginable. If they don't support and help Theresa May to get a deal, there is the risk of having somebody much, much more aggressive. You're deluded if you think you'll be able to blame the debacle just on them. I'm beginning to think I may have voted the wrong way. [more inside]
Five part musical harmony
Working with "Amazing Grace", musician Jacob Collier discusses and demonstrates five levels of understanding of harmony - from child level to expert (with an expert who I'll leave as a surprise). [more inside]
Omar's coming... and coming... and coming
Question Your Answers is a series of short films that 'challenge our certainties'. Michael K. Williams ‘Typecast’, Jeffrey Wright ‘Should I Be Scared?’ (mlyt)
May 24
The Fabio of Horses
Frederik the Great is a Friesian stallion who may be the most handsome horse in the world. More evidence at Pinnacle Friesians.
Sublime Ruby
What Does Ruby Chocolate Taste Like? Although the article says there are no recipes online, there is one now - from MasterChef Australia, a component of Nigella's Chocolate Feast.
Coyote Carnage: The Gruesome Truth about Wildlife Killing Contests
Coyote killing competitions, where contestants vie to shoot the most animals, are held throughout the U.S. But some hunting groups are denouncing these events as unethical, and states from New Mexico to New York are considering bans on these and other wildlife killing contests. In 2014, Vice Magazine reporters went undercover on such an event.
First Law of Robotics
Uber’s Self-Driving Car Didn’t Malfunction, It Was Just Bad. There were no software glitches or sensor breakdowns that led to a fatal crash, merely poor object recognition, emergency planning, system design, testing methodology, and human operation. [more inside]
The Emperor has died. Long Live the Emperor!
Genna Bain tweeted: Rest in Peace my Dearest Love John @Totalbiscuit Bain July 8, 1984 - May 24, 2018 [more inside]
an inimitable depth of flavor
“The dude who helped make ‘umami’ a household word, Adam Fleischman, along with LA-based writer (and former Food Republic contributor) Tien Nguyen, bring us Flavor Bombs, the cookbook dedicated to adding that fifth dimension of flavor to every dish possible.” How To Build The Umami Pantry [more inside]
Barbara Ehrenreich’s Radical Critique of Wellness and Self-improvement
At first glance, her new book, Natural Causes, is a polemic against wellness culture and the institutions that sustain it. It opens with her decision to reject a series of medical interventions. [more inside]
Karl Marx, father of biology
In this bicentenary of Marx’s birth, one aspect of his thought and work that requires attention is his attitude toward nature and mankind’s place within it. There are in fact several recent works that examine Marx’s views on the biosphere:
Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis by Chris Williams (Excerpt), “Karl Marx, radical environmentalist” by Phil Gasper, and
“Twenty-First Century Species-Being” by Nick Dyer-Witheford. [more inside]
Elon Musk Embraces The Dark Side Of Fake News
Faced with reporting on labor troubles and shoddy workmanship, Tesla founder Elon Musk lashed out at journalists on Twitter, all but outright claiming that they are corrupt pawns of the extraction industry, and saying that he intends to create a "Yelp for journalism", where outlets would be publicly ranked. He even gave a name for it - Pravda.
However, this may not be as idle a comment as one might think. [more inside]
However, this may not be as idle a comment as one might think. [more inside]
“It feels like 1986 all over again.”
'Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon' summons 8-bit 'Castlevania' charm [Engadget] “Players will be able to toggle between four characters on the fly: Zangetsu, a sword-wielding demon slayer, fearless whip-bearer Miriam, sly alchemist Alfred, and Gebel, a misanthrope who for some reason, has undergone crystal transplant surgery. There'll be multiple stages with a ravenous boss awaiting at the end, but once defeated, potential new allies can join your team and boost your chances of survival. Another interesting feature in Curse of the Moon is its leniency; where kicking the bucket normally would have resulted in repeating previous sections, recruited allies can now take your place.” [YouTube][Game Trailer]
Joshua Sokol writes about Namibia's fairy circles in The Atlantic
The patches are Namibia’s enigmatic fairy circles, and for decades they have drawn visitors, including our convoy, into the desert. In recent years, Jürgens and other researchers have argued bitterly over the how and why of fairy circles, disagreeing over data and theory in person and across the pages of the world’s preeminent journals.
This is more than an academic dispute over a tourist attraction, however. Fairy circles are a test case in the emerging field of biological-pattern analysis, where they may offer an encrypted message about the future of desert ecosystems—and the humans who hope to survive in them.
Super Succulent Celebration
"...a drought, social media, and a generation of itinerant aspiring gardeners—and suddenly, the succulent became the trendiest members of the plant kingdom." "Over the past decade, horticultural and technological forces have collided to make succulents the unlikely heroes of modern gardening. Succulents, the plants defined by their fleshy, water-retaining leaves and stems, are inescapable in 2018."
“You get the feeling they support it so they don’t have to feel guilty”
Current Affairs, the magazine of politics and culture, now has Current Affairs: The Podcast where editors (Brianna Joy Gray, Oren Nimni, Lyta Gold, Nathan J. Robinson, and Pete Davis) discuss current issues from the left. The pilot episode includes a discussion of Universal Basic Income Vs. a Job Gaurentee, modern monetary theory , how the rich already have a UBI, why can’t we have both, and what would the wrong kind of UBI look like.
Just Leopard Things
Aliens among us
Please Don’t Ask Me To Be Your Bridesmaid
As a generation encumbered with student loan debt, job insecurity, and an economy that will prohibit many of us from ever owning homes, maybe it’s time declare a moratorium on foisting unnecessary expenses on those we care most about?
Horflinch
Sometimes Al Horford (Boston Celtics forward) flinches at the basketball. He has finally revealed his reasons.
"The world’s only known vertebrate-microbe symbiosis"
Algae trapped inside salamander cells do not appear to be able to generate enough oxygen to meet the dual demand from self and salamander. Compounding the trouble, being inside an animal also tends to obscure the sun.An article from Jennifer Frazer's Artful Amoeba blog on the Scientific American site (previously).
The Jeffersonian/Hamiltonian divide regulating 'platform capitalism'
Tech Platforms and the Knowledge Problem by Frank Pasquale - "Though Jeffersonian trust-busters and Hamiltonian utility regulators have very different views of political economy, each counters the untrammeled aspirations (and disappointing quotidian reality) of the stalwarts of digital capitalism. They also help us understand when giant firms can help us solve the 'knowledge problem' Hayek identified, and when they exacerbate it via obscurity and obfuscation. If conglomeration and vertical mergers actually help solve real-world problems—of faster transport, better food, higher-quality health care, and more—then authorities should let them proceed. Such industrial bigness helps us understand and control the natural world better. But states should block the mere accumulation of bargaining power and leverage. Such moves are exercises in controlling persons—a much less salubrious aim of industrial organization. Economic policy focused on productivity and inclusive prosperity will balance and do justice to important insights from both Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian critics of our increasingly sclerotic economy." (via) [more inside]
I think I'm hyper enough as it is.
Hypermodernity, the age of the new totally electronic World Interior.
It’s a spherical video in a triplified space with symmetry in space-time
MetaFilter favorite Vi Hart and mathematician Henry Segerman collaborated on creating Peace for Triple Piano, a 360° video with 3D audio in which Vi is singing “Dona nobis pacem” as a canon and accompanying herself on the piano while Henry is playing the triangle.
But they added some space-time twists to the video, which they explain in The Making of "Peace for Triple Piano”.
Lesson One: Greed is good
May 23
"Using Ludwig van like that!"
Bach at the Burger King, Theodore Gioia
Take your delinquency elsewhere could be the subtext under every tune in the classical crime-fighting movement. It is crucial to remember that the tactic does not aim to stop or even necessarily reduce crime — but to relocate it. Moreover, such mercenary measures most often target minor infractions like vandalism and loitering — crimes that damage property, not people, and usually the property of the powerful. “[B]usiness and government leaders,” Lily Hirsch observes in Music in American Crime Prevention and Punishment, “are seizing on classical music not as a positive moralizing force, but as a marker of space.” In a strange mutation, classical music devolves from a “universal language of mankind” reminding all people of their common humanity into a sonic border fence protecting privileged areas from common crowds, telling the plebes in auditory code that “you’re not welcome here.”[more inside]
thrill-er
Claudio Passavanti of Doctor Mix breaks down Michael Jackson's post-disco classic Thriller. [more inside]
A shave, a haircut and a blood pressure check.
Barbers can do a better job of delivering healthcare than doctors. "We have the health care system [in the U.S.] we do because of history and economics, not because of studies that show it’s optimally designed. Changes are most often made within the current framework; those that buck the system are usually met with more resistance."
General Tubman, a Secret Military Weapon
For Your Viewing Pleasure
CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO COMES TO TWITCH FOR SEVEN-WEEK MARATHON
Article 40.3.3
On Friday May 25th Ireland will hold a referendum to decide whether or not to repeal the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution, which was added to the constitution by referendum in 1983. The 8th amendment inserted a subsection to the Irish constitution equating the right to life of the unborn with the right to life of the mother, effectively banning abortion in Ireland in all cases bar the most severe risk to the life of the mother. [more inside]
We Sat Down With the ‘Arrested Development’ Cast. It Got Raw
Sopan Deb of The New York Times interviewed several cast members of “Arrested Development” about the upcoming 5th season of the show, debuting May 29th. When the conversation turned to the recent sexual harassment allegations against Jeffrey Tambor and, more specifically, an incident where Tambor was verbally abusive to co-star Jessica Walter, things got rather awkward, with several male actors on the show coming to the defense of.....Jeffrey Tambor. (SLNYT)
Short answer: no
Jenny Nicholson asks "Is Star Wars Forces of Destiny good?"
Where you’re the center of the accident.
The Image Book
Jean-Luc Godard's new film "Le livre d'image" (trailer) premiered in the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was awarded a "Special Palme d'Or", since, according to Cate Blanchett, it “almost sat apart from the other films, almost outside time and space”, and so could not be considered against them. This time, Godard was present for the press conference, though in absentia via FaceTime (45min video: English; French). [more inside]
“It presents dialogue as a genuine plaything,”
Mike Bithell’s Quarantine Circular is a fantastic conversation with an alien [Polygon] “Mike Bithell’s series of short games seeks to push conversational gaming onward, within the testing constraints of tight budgets and limited development time. Like his superb Subsurface Circular, released last year, Quarantine Circular is a series of dialogue trees, peppered with simple puzzles, climaxing in a big moral choice. While Subsurface Circular offered two alternate endings, this game has six. I played through three of those endings. Game time for a first playthrough is about 2.5 hours.” [YouTube][Game Trailer] [more inside]
"[T]he images we know so well were only part of a much larger story"
Many of the 175,000 photographs in the Farm Security Association archive became defining images of the Great Depression, including Evans’s gaunt sharecropper families, Lange’s portraits of farm women with nothing left except willpower, and Arthur Rothstein’s Fleeing a Dust Storm (large image) , a surreal scene of a family fighting to keep their feet in the wind that has already ripped their farm buildings to shreds. However, thousands more images were censored, judged not to meet the strict criteria the photographers had been given for the type of images sought – a tricky brief to show the scale of the problem the association was trying to tackle, but without obliterating all hope. (Maev Kennedy for the Guardian; web gallery) [more inside]
There's Always Something Else to Calculate
The first XKCD "What If" to appear in more than a year answer's a 5-year-old's question: "If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth?"
It's got dice, it's got dungeons, it's got additional dice...
Dicey Dungeons is a new game from rad indie dev Terry Cavanagh. You choose a class, explore a dungeon, and use dice rolls to power your various equipment and special moves while leveling up to earn more dice to power new loot. Look out for the skeleton, he'll fuck you up! [more inside]
When I die Dublin will be written in my heart.
Emma Clarke is capturing Dublin's history through its old and fading signs.
The faded history behind Dublin's 'ghost signs' which are preserving a city's fading memories.
The faded history behind Dublin's 'ghost signs' which are preserving a city's fading memories.
Calvin and Hobbes talking about The Old Days
Neoclassical Economics. Best before: 1500AD
“A lot of economics professors, especially the more junior ones who are more focused on research and really trying to develop new ideas and process new data, there’s an escapism to a large extent, in that their career depends so much on getting published in high ranking journals,” he says. “That deviates from the practical problems of understanding the economy as it truly is and trying to address the policy questions that truly exist, because they’re confronted with the pressure in their own careers to develop these journal articles and the game of getting these journal articles written and published is truly a game in itself that involves so much more from observing reality and trying to make things better.” How economics professors can stop failing us.
The Black Knight Rises
Propaganda, but the good kind
God Bless ContraPoints, one of the few brave youtubers successfully taking on the alt-right - or, according to Vice, destroying it. [more inside]
Complexity: the paradox of order and disorder
The Key to Everything (Freeman Dyson reviews Geoffrey West's Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies) - "West is now making a huge claim: that scaling laws similar to Kepler's law and the genetic drift law will lead us to a theoretical understanding of biology, sociology, economics, and commerce. To justify this claim he has to state the scaling laws, display the evidence that they are true, and show how they lead to understanding. He does well with the first and second tasks, not so well with the third. The greater part of the book is occupied with stating the laws and showing the evidence. Little space is left over for explaining. The Santa Fe observers know how to play the part of a modern-day Kepler, but they do not come close to being a modern-day Newton."
Needing the Court to Evict Your Adult Son
Mark and Christina Rotondo filed a petition earlier this month against their 30-year-old son to evict him from their upstate New York house after he repeatedly refused to leave. On Tuesday, the parents attempted to settle the matter in court. Judge Donald Greenwood praised Rotondo's legal research but ultimately ruled Rotondo had to leave.
Rotondo returned to his parent's home and is considering appealing the decision.
They Sound Like Angry 12 Year Olds
Happy Wednesday morning. What are you doing today?
David Graeber has expanded his 2013 essay on bullshit jobs (previously) into a book. The Guardian has an edited excerpt. Are you a flunky, a goon, a duct-taper, a box-ticker, or a task-master? "I think," Graeber says, "we need a rebellion of what I call the 'caring class,' people who care about others and justice."
Bitcoin as explained by AI
“If I’m not an American, I’m nothing.”
sunken cities, crashed gliders and cheese
Gwenno Saunders aka 'Gwenno' is a Welsh singer, previously of The Pipettes. Her first solo album Y Dydd Olaf was sung in Welsh, her recent second album Le Kov is sung in Cornish. [more inside]
May 22
the fraternal president
Après plusieurs propositions controversées de droit du travail, les cheminots, les étudiants, contrôleurs aériens, et les fonctionnaires en France sont en grève, perturbant le pays.
Macron déterminé à réformer la SNCF, il promet d'aller «au bout» [more inside]
The Jo-Boat Boys
When Pittsburgh's rivers were full of houseboats.
RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ
The Spectacular Personal Mythology of Rammellzee by Hua Hsu is a fine introduction to the works of New York graffiti artist, sculptor, rapper, and painter Rammellzee, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 49. Known to hip hop afficionados for Beat Bop, his collaboration with Jean-Michel Basquiat and K-Rob, which was the subject of a Spin oral history. To get a feel for his aesthetic, this interview excerpted from the documentary Guerilla Art is a good place to start. If you want to know more, Alexxa Gotthardt wrote a good overview of his career and hip hop historian Dave Tompkins reminisced about Rammellzee and placed him in context.
Return to mother!
Aronofsky, allegory, authorial intent and auteurship. The Partially Examined Life discusses Darren Aronofsky's philosophical 2017 film mother!.
Between two worlds
Anais Granofsky, who played Lucy Ferndandez on Degrassi has a life story filled with as much drama and pathos as her fictional counterpart. [more inside]
Who is Arthur Chu?
Airing on PBS, new doc explores ups and downs of growing up—and growing in stature—online. The documentary on the polarizing Jeopardy champion airs tonight. And speaking of polarizing, here's Ken Jennings opinion of how Chu played the game: Jennings on Chu
literally, “the method of dyeing and printing”
Enough about you, let's talk about life for a while
Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill has been made into a musical opening May 24th at the American Repertory Theater. NPR has a piece with Diablo Cody. [more inside]
This Man Made Presidents Sound Like Presidents
Richard N. Goodwin , husband of Doris Kearns Goodwin and (among other things) speechwriter for politicians from John F. Kennedy to Al Gore has died of cancer at age 86 [more inside]
"He became corrupted! Soon his crime makes him old before his time."
He was young and handsome, his mother’s pride and joy—but he died in torment, blind, sick and paralyzed—at the age of seventeen. If only he’d known the perils of masturbation, then he might have lived a better life.
There are ways to prevent this tragedy (NSFW).
There are ways to prevent this tragedy (NSFW).
'It's an Anime Titty Holocaust'
Steam Is Cracking Down on Visual Novels [Motherboard] “Fans of visual novel games and adult-themed anime games around the world woke up to some troubling news this morning. According to several independent developers, Steam, the largest digital storefront for computer games, is cracking down on a number of games that feature scantily clad cartoon women. According to these developers, Valve, the company that operates Steam, has given them until the end of the month to remove adult content from their games. If they don't, Valve will boot their games from the store.” [more inside]
"Rickey Henderson crushed souls with unprecedented efficiency."
In the latest episode of Dorktown, SB Nation editor and national treasure Jon Bois, along with compatriot Alex Rubenstein, discuss the career of the Arsene Lupin of the baseball diamond, Rickey Henderson, and how his shattering the stolen bases record is a feat you just don't see anymore. (SLYT) [more inside]
I browse MetaFilter
Eyebrows, we all have them, but what are they actually for?
AWS: Amazon Web Surveillance
The ACLU has obtained new documents detailing law enforcement usage of Amazon's facial detection software known as Rekognition. The Bezos-owned Washington Post reports that the sheriff’s office of Washington County, Ore. pays Amazon between $6 and $12 a month to scan footage of potential suspects against a database of 300k mugshots, and the service has even been used to identify guests at a recent royal wedding. [more inside]
A Forgotten War on Women
"In 1918, 1,121 people in Michigan were “hospitalized at the expense of the state” because the authorities believed they had STIs. 49 were men; 1,072 were women, and one of them was a 19-year-old, impoverished white woman named Nina McCall. She was arrested, forcibly examined by a local health officer named Dr. Carney, deemed infected with gonorrhea and then syphilis, pumped full of arsenic, and imprisoned at the dilapidated Bay City Detention Hospital for three months. Like so many others, she found the courage to fight back. But instead of staging a prison riot or burning down the “reformatories,” as some of her incarcerated sisters did, Nina did something perhaps even more audacious for a working-class woman of her time. She took her tormentors to court."
[+] - - - --->!!!<--- - - - [-]
Psst, kid, you wanna see some magnets colliding at a thousand frames per second
You have a graph. It’s very dense. You have this elliptic operator...
Now-retired Baltimore Ravens guard and center John Urschel discusses his favorite mathematical theorem (one for the graph theory fans), among other things. This is generally what people do at My Favorite Theorem.
Beyond Love
Robert Indiana, the American Pop Art artist, has passed away at the age of 89. His work featured bold shapes and colors and declarative words inspired by advertising. Sadly, his last days were marred with accusations of isolation by his caretakers and lawsuits being filed. [more inside]
Dovey Johnson Roundtree 1914 - 2018
I'd only cry in the rain.
Corbynomics and Keltonomics
The great transformation: Labour's proposals to democratise the economy - "This analysis mirrors Polanyi's of the Soviet Union. A centralised system of economic management, he said, took power away from ordinary people. Labour therefore proposes a different sort of public ownership. Local authorities, trade unions and workers, all of whom are seen as more responsive than expert panels to local needs, would play a greater role in the management of services. Councils would help run regionally owned utilities, for instance. '[N]ational state ownership of the grid and infrastructure of electricity and gas sectors could be combined with local, regional and community ownership', the report says." [ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF OWNERSHIP] [more inside]
We sleep in a well made bed
There is no depression in New Zealand;
there are no sheep on our farms,
There is no depression in New Zealand;
we can all keep perfectly calm.
Everybody's talking about World War Three,
everybody's talking about World War Three,
but we're as safe as safe can be,
there's no unrest in this country [more inside]
If the moon is cheese, Jupiter must be bacon.
NASA's Juno spacecraft has been on a 2-year photoshoot assignment, and here are a few of the best snaps. [more inside]
May 21
A plethora of Sun Ra's four decades of baffling, dazzling, mystical jazz
A small, moonfaced man who spoke in enigmatic riddles, he fully inhabited the persona of a science fiction jazz Buddha. Sun Ra ... claimed he had been born on Saturn, and had come to Earth to offer a message of peace and salvation through music, as well as hope for a better life elsewhere in the universe. "I've been to a zone where there is no air, no light, no sound, no life, no death, nothing. There's five billion people on this planet, all out of tune. I've got to raise their consciousness, tell them about the wonderful potential to bypass death." With this introduction from The Believer Magazine, quoting Sun Ra himself, here is his music, on Bandcamp, from Sun Ra Music and Sun Ra via Strut. That's a lot of music, so here's a guide to Sun Ra's albums on Bandcamp. [more inside]
Mostly Wood
A comprehensive study of biomass on Earth reveals some surprising, and disturbing findings. The new study in PNAS suggests that most biomass is wood, followed by bacteria and fungi. Among mammals, 60% are livestock, 36% are human, and only 4% are wild.
Patent Depending
Patent Depending This weekend I got to meet the charming Steven M. Johnson, an illustrator wiith a gift for a whimsical dystopian inventiveness. He's been doing this since 1977 so has a rather broad body, but some of my favorites: Fear Funiture where you can buy a hide-inside-a-bed, the dual-purpose Swimming Moat, and Classic RVs of the 1970s which should inspire some tiny-home fans. Here is a TEDx (Indianapolis franchise, nicely produced) talk he gave where he discusses finding his talent for "invention without a purpose" at the age of 36 and the lessons learned. Eight years previously.
Troubleshooting a spacecraft nine hours away, as the photon flies.
"We’ve lost contact with the spacecraft." Unintentional loss of contact with Earth should never happen to any spacecraft. It had never before happened to New Horizons over the entire nine-year flight from Earth to Pluto. How could this be happening now, just 10 days out from Pluto?
"A tree can't make or break Christmas, only people can do that"
Joe Pera Helps You Find the Perfect Christmas Tree is a good-natured twenty minute comedy about a middle school choir teacher in Michigan who's looking for a perfect Christmas tree. This special led to an Adult Swim series called Joe Pera Talks With You which is unfortunately geolocked outside North America. The eponymous Joe Pera's website has a lot more of his material available online.
“Now, y’all without sin can cast the first stone.”
There’s what’s right and there’s what’s right and never the twain shall meet. Whistling man plays "Raising Arizona" theme on a banjo, is summarily criticized by a neighboring horse. (SLYT). [more inside]
run through the meat chopper two pounds of cold boiled ham
From 1909, it's The Up-To-Date Sandwich Book: 400 Ways to Make a Sandwich
Abusing public office for private enrichment
👋 The second car is the “Kawaii! Room”. 🐱
A Look Inside The Hello Kitty Bullet Train [Kotaku] “Previously, Kotaku reported that Japan is getting a Hello Kitty bullet train. All we saw was the outside. Now, we get concept art showing what inside the train looks like. The train will begin service between Osaka and Hakata on June 30. The train’s first car is called “Hello! Plaza!” and features a Hello Kitty shop, selling cute merchandise.”
"The key to our future as a species is already inside of us."
We Are Made of Meat: Imagining An Embodied Future. Kameron Hurley presented the keynote speech at the 2018 McMaster University Embodiment in SFF Interdisciplinary Conference. [more inside]
Sign on the window says 'Lonely'
Girl From the North Country isn't a musical; it's a Conor McPherson depression-era boarding house play where the cast steps forward from time to time to sing from the Bob Dylan songbook. Take away the story of companionship amid bitter loneliness—the hit London production recently closed—, and you've got a unique cast album that serves as a sort of theatrical tone poem and a new look deep into the Dylan catalog, performed with 1930s instruments. Highlights include Shirley Henderson's driving "Like a Rolling Stone" and Sheila Atim's "Tight Connection to My Heart."
Jordan Peterson, Custodian of the Patriarchy
He says there’s a crisis in masculinity. Why won’t women — all these wives and witches — just behave? [more inside]
Polymorphic cannibal toad tadpoles
Spadefoot toad tadpoles are usually gregarious omnivores who spend time together chewing organic detritus on the pond bottom. But if they get the right kind of food, and maybe some help from their mothers, they turn into big, sharp-beaked, solitary carnivores. The carnivorous morphs love shrimp, but they're also happy to eat other tadpoles. If they're not too hungry, they'll take a nibble of the other tadpole first to make sure they're not eating a sibling. [more inside]
This Lesbian Power Couple Lit Up Paris
Solita Solano and Janet Flanner, bored with American patriarchy, created their own path And here's a link to some of Flanner's posts from Paris under her pseudonym Genêt
don't call it a comeback - I've been here for millions of years
Three months earlier, on the last night of a Thanksgiving vacation in Egypt, Patterson had suddenly fallen ill, so severely that he had to be medevaced to Germany and then to UCSD. There were several things wrong—a gallstone, an abscess in his pancreas—but the core of the problem was an infection with a superbug, a bacterium named Acinetobacter baumannii that was resistant to every antibiotic his medical team tried to treat it with. Patterson had been a burly man, 6-foot-5 and more than 300 pounds, but now he was wasted, his cheekbones jutting through his skin. Intravenous lines snaked into his arms and neck, and tubes to carry away seepage pierced his abdomen. He was delirious and his blood pressure was falling, and the medical staff had sedated him and intubated him to make sure he got the oxygen he needed. He was dying. ... “We are running out of options to save Tom,” she wrote. “What do you think about phage therapy?”[more inside]
Grammy warned you!
Famed somniohistorian Neil Cicierega would like you to get you up to speed on the official state nightmares of the states of the United States. [more inside]
So, what does your offsite backup strategy look like?
An HVAC technician has to break into a locked server room after the AC goes out, discovers Russian anti-tank missile. (Reddit thread.)
Bird is the word
Dark Side of the China Moon
I recommend the use of good headphones to best experience this five minute promotional video for the Queqiao Lunar Relay Satellite - - it performs way above its pay grade with heroic soundtrack and snazzy video effects... it's a must see!!! ...especially for any of you fans of the space engineering sub-genre of promotional videos out there. [more inside]
posters as memorable as the films themselves
RIP Bill Gold, designer of film posters including Casablanca, A Clockwork Orange, The Exorcist, and hundreds more.
May 20
Just fuck off with your ukulele orchestra!
And so we don’t fit your criteria
You’d really like it, if you ever hear it, yeah?
If you want twee, you got it [more inside]
You’d really like it, if you ever hear it, yeah?
If you want twee, you got it [more inside]
"cryopreserved Squid and/or Octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides..."
A new study asks: Are octopuses aliens from outer space that were brought to Earth by meteors? [more inside]
Nobody wants to buy a Vision Quest from a Jesse Turnblatt
Vision Quest is the one the Tourists choose the most. That certainly makes your workday easy. All a Vision Quest requires is a dash of mystical shaman, a spirit animal (wolf usually, but birds of prey are on the upswing this year), and the approximation of a peyote experience. Tourists always come out of the Experience feeling spiritually transformed. (You’ve never actually tried peyote, but you did smoke your share of weed during that one year at Arizona State, and who’s going to call you on the difference?) It’s all 101 stuff, really, these Quests. But no other Indian working at Sedona Sweats can do it better. Your sales numbers are tops.Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ , a short story by Rebecca Roanhorse.
Chef Erin Wade on stamping out sexual harassment by customers
Chef Erin Wade, owner of Oakland restaurant Homeroom, "How my restaurant successfully dealt with harassment from customers": Although it is encouraging to see men finally being called out for inappropriate behavior, it’s less so that the focus is still, frankly, on men. How did they react? What will happen to their empires? What’s needed is a conversation about women – not as victims, but as revolutionaries. I am an overtly feminist restaurateur, and harassment still happened at my restaurant. This is my story, my solution and my call to action. Our Values--Homeroom: "We are trying to improve the world by building a business based on diversity, inclusion and empowerment."
Learning Styles Myth
Another nail in the coffin for learning styles. Their findings “provide strong evidence that instructors and students should not be promoting the concept of learning styles for studying and/or for teaching interventions. Thus, the adage of ‘I can’t learn subject X because I am a visual learner’ should be put to rest once and for all.”
Errol Morris on truth and incommensurability
Is There Such a Thing as Truth? - "To say that a philosophical system is 'coherent' tells me nothing about whether it is true. Truth is not hermetic. I cannot hide out in a system and assert its truth. For me, truth is about the relation between language and the world. A correspondence idea of truth. Coherence theories of truth are of little or no interest to me. Here is the reason: they are about coherence, not truth. We are talking about whether a sentence or a paragraph or group of paragraphs is true when set up against the world." (via) [more inside]
More suited for our garbage robot sons than for us
Columbia Journalism Review asks what makes internet writing uniquely “internetty”?
Means and motive
"It's been happening everywhere. I felt, I've always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too." - school shootings are now so common students see them as inevitable. More Americans have been killed at schools this year than have while serving in the military. As with adult mass killings toxic masculinity is a huge factor - teen dating violence Is an indicator of gun violence - in the case of last weeks Santa Fe shootings where the shooter had been stalking and was rejected by his first victim. [more inside]
ⒶⒷⓍⓎ
Microsoft announces Xbox Adaptive Controller for players with disabilities [The Verge] “Microsoft has announced the Xbox Adaptive Controller, an Xbox controller designed for people with disabilities. The device was leaked earlier this week. It has two large programmable buttons and 19 jacks that can be connected to a range of joysticks, buttons, and switches to make it easier for a wider range of people to play games on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.” [YouTube][How It Works] [more inside]
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#FixTheFreakingSubway
Why Do Some Parts of New York Have So Many Subways While Others Have None? - So, who uses NYC’s flashy new, soon to be expanded ferry service? People who can afford to avoid the subway. - The city isn’t prepared for a planned shutdown of The L train, and it’s about to get even worse - (Village Voice)
One Test Could Exonerate Him. Why Won’t They Do It?
Kevin Cooper is awaiting execution for a quadruple murder. But he may have been framed. [Note: graphic images.] [more inside]
'where she calmly, casually, tears it up'
to help, to fix something to pull all cleanly out at once
circuits is a narrative-based Twine game that explores what it means to try and talk about sexual trauma. The story grapples with everything that can and cannot be said, whether these stories are told online, to the media, to health care professionals, or even in legal courts. The narrative above explores what it means to remember, witness, and talk about sexual trauma.
2 minutes and 52 seconds of squelching noises
Estonia to become the world’s first free public transport nation
Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, made public transport free for its residents in 2013. The program is now expanding to the rest of the country, including rural connections. You'll still need to be a Tallinn resident to dodge the fare in the capital, but state-run bus travel in rural municipalities will be free for visitors as well. [more inside]
May 19
Aquadrones!
“Each drone carries at least $100,000 of electronics, batteries, and related gear. Devices near the tip of the sail measure wind speed and direction, sunlight, air temperature and pressure, and humidity. Across the top of the drone’s body, other electronics track wave height and period, carbon dioxide levels, and the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field. Underwater, sensors monitor currents, dissolved oxygen levels, and water temperature, acidity, and salinity. Sonars and other acoustic instruments try to identify animal life.“
Engineer and adventurer Richard Jenkins has made oceangoing robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and environmental science. His aim: a thousand of them.
Engineer and adventurer Richard Jenkins has made oceangoing robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and environmental science. His aim: a thousand of them.
Well, hello, Mrs. Alabama Worley
A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. This theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film-programming strategy dating back to the early 1920s which continuously showed films at cut-rate ticket prices that typically rose over the course of each day.
WTvF! Movies is a Youtube channel that features 7,000 exploitation films, including 1,800 Full Kung-Fu and Martial Arts Movies and 4,100 Full Grindhouse, Exploitation and Drive-In Movies
Your life has many more hues than just grey
The 2000s brought us electronica keyboard/guitar duo Sub Level 03, for a couple of years one of the biggest musical acts in the furry fandom. I first encountered their third album, 2005's EP Touch Of Pink [full album, ~30m]. Associated videos: The Illusion Of Me, Touch Of Pink, Return To Paradise [more inside]
Japanese Penny Dreadfuls
Stories of this sort—lurid, sensational, violent—were the bread-and-butter of Tokyo’s early tabloids
The pizza is a lie
This savory-looking confection is the tasty handiwork of Natalie and Dave Sideserf of Sideserf Cakes from Austin, Texas. You may have seen this couple on TV making their very fancy cake designs featuring the likes of decapitated heads or Ninja Turtles or rainbow-farting unicorns. Or possibly you’ve seen some of their fine work on DM. Now this talented couple may have fulfilled some ancient prophecy by creating the Pizza Cake. (Disturbing cakes previously)
Perfectly Boring
Mississippi, murder, and William Eggleston’s “Red Ceiling” (SL Oxford American).
Handfull of Witch Dust, Pinch of Love, Hole of Donut.
Would you like to meet the Witch Sisters? They are Little Witch Sister and Big Witch Sister. Big Witch Sister does a lot of fun things (sometimes with her pet warthog, Dr. Cheryl), but Little Witch Sister is often too small to join along, so she uses the magic of spelling ... with mixed results. There are six short episodes from Sesame Studios so far: Big, Cat, Box, Dog, Jet, and Bat; you can even view them all together in a 13+ minute official compilation.
"The Gig Economy" by Zero HP Lovecraft
"The Gig Economy" by Internet user Zero HP Lovecraft - a short horror of occult techno-economic acceleration.
The Shape Of PSIBER Space
The PSIBER Space Deck is an interactive visual user interface to a graphical programming environment, the NeWS window system. [more inside]
🦍🍌🛢️🍃
The Definitive Ranking of Donkey Kong Games [Polygon] “Mario had his turn in the spotlight last year, so why not his lifelong rival? To commemorate the rerelease of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, I’ve dug deep into video game history to track down and evaluate every Donkey Kong video game Nintendo has made (and one or two that someone else published). Whether for arcades, home computers, consoles or Game & Watch: if it’s Kong, it’s on this list.” [more inside]
inside a quiet mind
Inside A Quiet Mind, a 1998 LP by a humble young Maori dude from Tokoroa, Denver McCarthy, under the name Micronism: "the best electronic album ever made in this country".
This is somehow not actually a joke. I mean, it started as one, but
May 18
the tyranny of structurelessness
"A flowing, connected interior—once a fringe experiment of American architectural modernism—has become ubiquitous, and beloved. But it promises a liberation from housework that remains a fantasy." [more inside]
A nearly two-hour elaborate marketing stunt for Ryan Reynolds.
Quorum, CS4All, and Evidence-oriented Programming
Quorum is a programming language intended to be used in K12 computer science education, as well as accessible to people regardless of disabilities. The syntax is intended to be easy for kids to grasp, hence the use of "action," instead of "function," among other interesting design choices. [more inside]
Disrupting ritual
The Ritual Design Lab is working to generate new rituals for modern life, with an eye to user experience.
The Clouds Will Part And The Sky Cracks Open
God Break Down The Door is a new NIN song. It has a saxomophone and Blackstar drumming and basically sounds like Nine Inch Nails.
"He wrote like he was avenging a death"
In 2012, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, colorful television news reporter, author, future GQ Madman of the Year and Detroit icon Charlie LeDuff golfed through a section of his beloved home city (18 miles. 2,525 strokes,) to highlight its abandonment and urban decay, using hulking industrial relics as his sand traps and everyday Detroiters as his gallery. In the process, he came across a mom trying to find her suicidal daughter, a disgruntled cop and a generous deacon. 6 years later, he's left journalism, written a new book and is "redoing" his life. [more inside]
Love in a time of multiple equilibria
Thomas Picketty is back with another pot-boiler: Brahmin Left vs Merchant Right: Rising Inequality & the Changing Structure of Political Conflict. Thrill at explanations for how elites in France, UK, and US have captured both major political wings and so prevent the correction of inequality! At 65 pages, this is a quick-for-Picketty read. (SLPSE)
zoomzoomzoom, excuse me, zoomzoomzoom
Inside a warehouse where thousands of robots zoom around a grid system, packing 65,000 grocery orders a week. The robots collaborate as a swarm and can pick an order of over 50 items in a few minutes. [more inside]
Fish catch in the North Aral Sea has grown six-fold since 2006
Once written off for dead, the North Aral Sea is now full of life.
“From hardware to software, controllers to culture,”
How Japan changed video games forever [CNN] “Japan didn't invent the first computer game. That accolade goes to "Space War!", a game created in 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. But ever since then, Japan has embraced gaming culture with an almost unrivaled passion. From the Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog games that became cultural giants, to the Sega Mega Drive and Game Boy consoles which were symbols of their time, gaming was led by Tokyo for decades. "Without the contributions of Japan, we wouldn't have a video game industry," Blake J. Harris, a video game expert and author of "Console Wars," says. "Or, at least, not one that resembles what we have today in any way. ” [more inside]
Booth babes
Commodity City. A short documentary on the The Yiwu Market in China, the world's largest wholesale market (slVimeo).
The wedding that once upon a time, might never have been allowed
Don't Even Try to Escape the Media's Royal Wedding Feeding Frenzy Once upon a time, a prince would never have been allowed to marry a divorced biracial American actress. Happily, times have changed, and people around the world are celebrating that something like this can finally happen. [more inside]
"It's not like there is a Montreal Protocol police."
Why Is an Ozone-Destroying Chemical Coming Back, and How do We Stop It? A study in Nature finds that emissions of CFC-11, an ozone-depleting substance banned since 2010 under the Montreal Protocol, have been rising since 2012. The rogue emissions, possibly originating in east Asia, could delay the healing of the ozone layer by about a decade. Additional coverage in the NYT, WaPo, and Live Science.
Let’s Learn 71 Different Kinds of Beer!
John Carruthers at Serious Eats learns a lot about beer in a quest to become a Certified Cicerone (previously, previously)
Squish That Cat!
Pick up a Cat Like a Pro This Friday, let's watch seven minutes of Vancouver vet Dr. Uri Burstyn, wee Claudia, and Shoulder Cat Mr. Pirate as they demonstrate how to pick up a cat, including the Squish and the Football Carry.
Rolling Coal, tech-bro style
Bitcoin’s energy footprint has more than doubled in six months, and it’s expected to double again by the end of the year, according to a new proof-of-work study by economist Alex de Vries (Eurekalert, Joule) out Wednesday. If that happens, bitcoin would be gobbling up 0.5 percent of the world’s electricity, about as much as the Netherlands.
Pre-Budget Snacks
Yesterday, in the high-stakes world of NZ Politics, the new Labour governments finance minister, Grant Robertson, broke from the long-held tradition of his predecessor, Bill English, by opting for the Cheese Roll instead of the Meat Pie as the years budget is released to the public. The Cheese Roll is often considered to be a Southern NZ snack staple - however its origin is contested.
In the taxonomy of melted-cheese foodstuffs, the Cheese Roll is related to Welsh Rarebit.
For those wishing to recreate the humble dish, there are a few cheese-roll recipes out there in the wild with the ingredients readily available in Kiwi pantries; however the onion soup mix is often considered to be crucial.
May 17
Scientists reclaim the long lost economic history of Rome
Ancient Rome’s Collapse Is Written Into Arctic Ice. "Scientists can finally track the civilization’s economic booms and recessions—thanks to the exhaust of its massive coin-making operation, preserved for centuries in Greenland’s ice sheet."
Your success isn’t down to free will – luck determines everything
Eventually, working backwards, you will reach some starting point that can’t have been your doing. The troubling conclusion is that the person born in poverty, with no parental support, who scrimps to put himself or herself through college, finally achieving success through ceaseless suffering, owes their triumph no less to luck than, say, Eric Trump does. Or, as Strawson pithily puts it: “Luck swallows everything.”[more inside]
public goods, market control, externalities, and imperfect information
Democracy is not a truth machine
In a democracy people are free to express their opinions and question those of others. This is an important personal freedom, and also essential to the very idea of government by discussion. But it has also been held to be instrumentally important because in open public debate true ideas will conquer false ones by their merit, and the people will see the truth for themselves. In other words, democracy has an epistemic function as a kind of truth machine. From this it follows that in a democracy there should be no dogma: no knowledge protected from public challenge and debate. Yet this whole argument is founded on embarrassing misconceptions of the nature of truth and of the working of democracy.- Thomas R. Wells [more inside]
Blood Over Intent
Lavish Ashes, Plush Dust
Zu Asche, Zu Staub (a little NSFW) is a perfect dose of the tumultuous, tense world of Babylon Berlin. The extravagantly gritty drama, set during the collapse of the Weimar Republic and based on a series of detective novels, is reportedly the most expensive German TV series ever made. [more inside]
I've Pet That Dog!
Gideon is a 9-year old boy who likes petting dogs. He posts pictures of the dogs he has pet. Dogs include Romeo, Freddie, Lambeau, and many, many more.
Crone Island, disrupted
Entrepreneur Kristina Roth has founded SuperShe Island, a private retreat off the coast of Finland where no men are allowed. Potential SuperShes apply for membership; those "upbeat and cool" women accepted pay rates beginning at $3500 for a retreat in a shared cabin, all-inclusive amenities, and helipad access. Critics argue the vetting process and price tag are unfeminist. Other critics find the whole concept sexist (no links necessary or desired). Forget the margaritas, though: no alcohol or sugar will be served on the island.
Happy Birthday, ProPublica and the Izzy Award
The nonprofit ProPublica is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. In April, the Center for Investigative Reporting announced a program that aims to revive investigative journalism at the local level, and it’s not the only one. In March, the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Izzy Award, which is “presented for outstanding achievement in independent media.” While there are reasons to be unhappy with the state of American media, there are bright spots as well. One is that courageous reporters around the world continue their work despite the threat of prison, exile, or death. On a smaller scale, another might be a new newspaper in Plano, Illinois. [more inside]
An island is anything surrounded by difference
Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, and were brave and very strong. Their island was the strongest of the World, with its steep cliffs and rocky shores (Rodríguez de Montalvo, 1510).European explorers knew California was not an island as early as 1529, so why did they resume depicting it as one on their maps around 1622? [more inside]
DIY (for an arbitrarily large value of I)
Daniel Stefanovic is collecting a set of links that explain how you can Build your own (insert technology here). Categories include 3-D Renderers, Operating Systems, Search Engines, Cryptocurrencies and many more.
The Art of Conversation
The Studs Terkel Radio Archive collects decades of work from Chicago journalist and interviewer Studs Terkel as he addressed some of 20th Century America’s most pressing issues and concerns Notable topics include - Work, labor and economy, LGBTQ Culture & Rights, The Great Depression, Race Relations, and More [more inside]
Sergeant Peppers is almost a great album
Last year, Stephen Colbert teamed up with 'the most influential minds in the prized 6 - 8 demographic' to brainstorm ideas for the perfect movie. ("Critics called it the most restrained performance of John Malkovich's career.") This year, Stephen's reassembled his creative team to come up with an idea for the best television show ever.
This question haunts the canon: What the fuck, Iago?
SFF author Max Gladstone attempts to understand what motivates Iago's schemes against Othello: Othello, for all his tragedy and pathos, is at root a man whose good sense has been practiced upon and subverted by Iago, the master manipulator. We’ve seen every step of that transition. Iago’s methods are not mysterious to us. The question is, why did he deploy them in the first place? .(Max Gladstone previously)
Cow Trippin'
the Republicanization of Brooklyn
While Cuomo reportedly is doing all he can to field a candidate to challenge [Simcha] Felder in the September primary election, the Orthodox legislator has little reason to feel much pressure. He is backed by a constituency that is growing both in size and self-confidence, say political observers [...] Attacks by the governor or anyone else on Felder will serve only to alienate those voters further from the Democratic Party, they say. The days when Jews, especially the Orthodox, automatically voted Democrat are over.An Orthodox politician stands in the way of Andrew Cuomo’s national ambitions
The 9.9 Percent
The Birth of a New American Aristocracy
In America today, the single best predictor of whether an individual will get married, stay married, pursue advanced education, live in a good neighborhood, have an extensive social network, and experience good health is the performance of his or her parents on those same metrics.
vin extraordinaire
Has wine gone bad? ‘Natural wine’ advocates say everything about the modern industry is ethically, ecologically and aesthetically wrong – and have triggered the biggest split in the wine world for a generation
The Waning Crescent
“Despite being brought up as an atheist, I was always very aware of my family history as well as the history of Lipka Tatars. Following many discussions about rising nationalism and Islamophobia, I realised just how very few people are aware of the Muslim community peacefully settled in the heart of Europe for over 600 years. Knowing that Podlasie region is the only place within today’s Polish borders where Tatars not only lived for generations, but are still present today I decided to execute the project there. This was my first visit to the region,” says Korycki, who shot his project The Waning Crescent during the summer of 2017.
You may actually encounter other actual human beings
What? Why? Physical World Presale? NIN decides that their upcoming tour will use only actual physical tickets, no online ordering (except in special cases). "Everything about the process sucks and everyone loses except the reseller. We’ve decided to try something different that will also likely suck, but in a different way. We’re hoping many of you will be happy with the results, while some may do what they always do and bitch about it." [more inside]
May 16
"If I go to bed before the hunger hits then half a bagel is enough"
Everyone I’ve ever talked to who has been poor and is not anymore has the same story of the moment they realized they weren’t poor anymore: grocery shopping.
Writer Erynn Brook laid out the difference between being poor and being broke in a Twitter thread and received a lot of confirmatory responses.
Writer Erynn Brook laid out the difference between being poor and being broke in a Twitter thread and received a lot of confirmatory responses.
A sad voice. A sad chord. Drums and hi-hats. Maybe some beeps.
Planet Lonely
is a thirty-five track “album” of melancholic house music released for free by DJ Healer on his Soundcloud,
following his two recent albums and another DJ mix.
(DJ Healer’s various other aliases have included Prime Minister of Doom, Traumprinz, DJ Metatron, and Prince of Denmark.) Previously
(DJ Healer’s various other aliases have included Prime Minister of Doom, Traumprinz, DJ Metatron, and Prince of Denmark.) Previously
A Friend In Need
The Chrysler Museum Of Art has announced a new series of acquisitions to showcase one of the most reproduced and yet least known American artists of the last century. [more inside]
Famous People Dancing: Is It Different?
“Now Fizzing”.
Fizz enthusiasts, unite! A secret seltzer society for the digital age. [The Guardian] “It’s a closed Facebook group that’s been around since 21 November 2014, and it’s composed of more than 3,100 members from around the world. Within the group, its members offer and ask for tips on where to find sought-after flavors and brands (the Polar seltzer’s seasonal flavors are always a huge hit – right now, everyone is on the hunt for its Blood Orange Lemonade, Starfruit Lemonade and Strawberry Lemonade Seltzer’ade flavors), share selfies and videos of themselves trying new kinds of seltzer for the first time (called “seltzies” and “fizzeos”, respectively), and discuss other aspects of their lives through the lens of the drink that has brought them all together.”
Green gilled shark vomits fizgig arm
Shark Arm murder 1935 - The tale of a tattooed boxer, cocaine smuggling, cab rides, a speedboat chase, murders and sharks. [more inside]
The Church of Ambient Music
Ambient Church is “an NYC-based nomadic experiential event series dedicated to working with artists to bring new ecologies to architecturally unique spaces through audio visual performance.” [more inside]
UIs that accidentally preserve memories
Marcin Wichary reminisces about UIs that accidentally amass memories, beginning with "the wi-fi 'preferred networks' pane – unexpected reminders of business trips, vacations, accidental detours, once frequented and now closed cafés." Examples in the ensuing twitter thread (Threadreader) include, Bluetooth pairings, weather app saved locations, Vimeo's profile photo gallery, old Mii avatars, email drafts folder, ~/.ssh/known_hosts file, and User 1's ichat logs. via
Bringing ancient manuscripts in the Vatican's Archives to (digital) life
Archivio Segreto Vaticanum, or the Vatican Secret Archives contain 85 km (~53 mi) of shelving, but is limited to physical access only... for now. But digitizing alone isn't enough - even with an index, how can you search this volume of material? Digitized text would be ideal, but automated digital transcription through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) only works with typed text because of a need for consistent shapes and clear spaces between characters. Add artificial intelligence and now you might have something. In Codice Ratio is the research project that is trying to recognize character segmentation, which is fed into a convolutional neural network to recognize characters and language models to compose word transcriptions.
MH370 is still missing, with no final answers
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, shortly after leaving Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing. The governments of Malaysia, China and Australia called off the official search in January 2017 with no answers. How could a modern aircraft tracked by radar and satellites simply disappear? Because, say a group of experts, the pilot wanted it to. The theory posited on “60 Minutes” has something in common with previous ones about the fate of MH370: They're all guesswork. “It's all assumption and supposition and opinion. They have no corroborated facts to back any of it up, and we have never had anything corroborated.” (SL Washington Post) [more inside]
“It’s kind of scary, but it’s amazing"
With auto loan delinquency rates now higher than during the 2008 financial crisis, many Americans may soon be facing a new, higher tech repo man. (wapo link, may need to open in incognito mode)
He gets to and I have to!
A full English every morning
Mary and the Witch’s Flower director Hiromasa Yonebayashi on why Japanese directors go wild for Britain’s cuisine, climate, chintz – and unionised miners [more inside]
"Then they just go back to being inanimate objects..."
Stems is a beautiful and slightly melancholy stop-motion animation by Ainslie Henderson, created using music by Poppy Ackroyd.
"it is about vengeance of biblical proportions"
Lingua Ignota, named after the mystical language of Hildegard of Bingen, is a musical project of interdisciplinary artist Kristin Hayter. In it she channels her traumatic experiences into industrial dirges inspired by liturgical chants. "Part of the reason I use tropes of extreme music is because that was my abuser's world, that was his music." [more inside]
Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society
A brief(ish) review of 'Radical Markets' - "The most radical thing about their proposal to reform property rights is the notion that private ownership of property is in some way a fundamentally flawed idea, and that progress requires movement toward a new norm: that social ownership of property is more just and efficient." (via) [more inside]
May 15
The official research on who would or would not fuck a robot is small.
The easy fantasy of what a sex robot might be — indistinguishable from an actual human, except hotter and prepared to fulfill any desire — is far from the current reality. Henry, if we’re being cruel, is essentially a high-quality dildo attached to a fancy mannequin with a Bluetooth speaker in his head. But the gulf between what we imagine and what’s possible makes sex robots the perfect vehicle for pondering our sexual and technological future. We might not wake up with sex robots in our beds tomorrow, but right now they’re an irresistible thought experiment. Since making my date with Henry, he’s become my favorite dinner-party topic. Would you fuck a robot? I’ve asked countless friends, as we all gather round a phone and flip through photos and videos of Henry like he’s someone’s latest Tinder match. (Weak conversational skills, but always DTF … maybe yes?)
Undiscovered continent
A Silver Thread: Islam in Eastern Europe A long article by Jacob Mikanowski in the Los Angeles Review of Books about Islam in Eastern Europe through folklore and history. [more inside]
😭🔪👠👿🖤
The past, present and future of The Binding of Isaac [Polygon] “Originally designed in Flash, The Binding of Isaac has since been updated and released on around a dozen platforms, with millions of copies sold. The basic premise: A boy named Isaac is locked in the basement of his home by his mother. There, he must survive an unending wave of horrors that are probably just representations of his own psychosis. The core gameplay, though, is fairly traditional. Really it’s just a shooter with original Zelda DNA mixed in. [...] Almost all of the reviews listed are from people who have played for more than 100 hours. When The Binding of Isaac grabs you, it does so without mercy.” [YouTube][Trailer][Interview w/Edmund McMillen] [more inside]
Spend time with friends / spend time on art / leave the nights for me.
POW Olympics WWII
A lost child, saved in an inconceivable way
Time and again, the bear they had sworn would rip us limb from limb was begrudgingly allowed a place at the table, and behold, it used a fork and a spoon. The natural laws we have believed in and taught our children have sometimes been found to be not natural laws at all, but rather fearsome constructs of our own making, undermined by the evidence. And among those mistakes there is this: All of the promises of politicians, generals, madmen, and crusaders that war can create peace have yet to be borne out.Small Wonder: a timeless essay on fear, war and hope, by Barbara Kingsolver.
Kato Kaelin No Longer Worst Houseguest Ever
For the past few years, Julian Assange has been a guest of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, after former president Rafael Correa offered him political asylum. That said, little was known about the lengths that Ecuador would go to in order to protect Assange, or how he repaid that.
Until now.
The Guardian and Focus Ecuador have released details on Operation Hotel, the operation by Ecuadorian Intelligence to support Assange and monitor him. [more inside]
Until now.
The Guardian and Focus Ecuador have released details on Operation Hotel, the operation by Ecuadorian Intelligence to support Assange and monitor him. [more inside]
One Brain to record them all
Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno turns 70 today. Rolling Stone has a nifty tribute, as does Pitchfork, but I've used my copy of Oblique Strategies to put this together. Don't blame me, blame 15 year old me. [more inside]
The Fault in Our Ears
@CloeCouture: What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel [Twitter link]
Please just help us out here. Listen to the clip below and tell us if you hear the word “Yanny” (not a word) or “Laurel.”
Depending on a number of factors — including the sound settings on your computer, and maybe more crucially, your age — you might hear one or the other.
Please just help us out here. Listen to the clip below and tell us if you hear the word “Yanny” (not a word) or “Laurel.”
Depending on a number of factors — including the sound settings on your computer, and maybe more crucially, your age — you might hear one or the other.
Black Klansman, again but different
BlacKkKlansman (trailer; Wikipedia): A Spike Lee joint. From producer Jordan Peele. Based on some fo’ real, fo’ real sh*t. (2014 Vice interview with Ron Stallworth, the first black cop in Colorado Springs, who infiltrated the local Klan organization) [more inside]
The dumbest publishing platform on the web.
“We do want to write on it, though.”
Money and the murky boundary of teaching and sex
Every few years an essay appears that treats the question of sexual harassment in the academy as an occasion to muse on the murky boundaries of teaching and sex. While a staple of the genre is the self-serving apologia for an older male harasser, the authors are not always old or male. And though some defend sex between students and professors, many do not. These latter writers have something finer, more Greek, in mind. They seek not a congress of bodies but a union of souls. Eros is their muse, knowledge their desire.... I call this genre The Erotic Professor.
Once asked to describe his get-up, Mr. Wolfe replied, “Neo-pretentious.
Tom Wolfe, the white-suited wizard of “New Journalism” who exuberantly chronicled American culture from the Merry Pranksters through the space race before turning his satiric wit to such novels as “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “A Man in Full,” has died. He was 88. [more inside]
Armagammon
As the Brexit phony war rumbles on with deadlines getting ever nearer, it's time to ask the big question... namely is it racist / prejudice to call angry, red-faced, middle-aged, right-wing, white men, 'gammons'?
May 14
MEGAFAUNIZE AMERICAN GRASSLANDS AGAIN
15,000 and more years ago, North America had lions, cheetahs, camels, mammoths, giant sloths[previously], short-faced bears, giant beavers and sabretooth salmon. Barring enormous advances in cloning technology, none[previously] of those magnificent beasts will walk the earth again.
But we can replicate the effects they had on the ecosystem, with Pleistocene Rewilding! [more inside]
But we can replicate the effects they had on the ecosystem, with Pleistocene Rewilding! [more inside]
HAL's voice sounds unsettling because it's Canadian
HAL 9000, the seemingly omniscient computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, was the film’s most expressive and emotional figure, and made a lasting impression on our collective imagination. This is the story of the creation of HAL’s performance — the result of a last-minute collaboration between the idiosyncratic director Stanley Kubrick and the veteran Canadian actor Douglas Rain. (NYT)
the most wary, the most secretive, the least conspicuous
Nadia Drake on jaguarness:
"In an instant, I registered that, yes, the bathroom trail we had cut through the Peruvian jungle was indeed occupied by a member of the largest cat species in the Americas. She was so close that if she launched herself at one of us, it would be game over in seconds... Powerful predators that kill by puncturing skulls with their tremendous bite, jaguars reign over both ecosystems and mythologies. Everyone hopes to see one of the spotted cats when they visit this part of Peru, and on several earlier occasions, I’d been lucky enough to glimpse the cats along the riverbank. But this was the first time I’d been jaguar’d out of the damn bathroom."
LuL haHAA CmonBruh
A guide to understanding Twitch emotes [Polygon] “To understand every moment of Twitch — every pitfall, every win, every ridiculous play — is to understand the emotes, those instantaneous reactions in the right sidebar. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of emotes being sent over Twitch chat every second, and to someone who’s just ventured in to check out a stream, it can be a little daunting. [...] To get you up to speed, we’ve compiled a list of popular emotes below, with the intention of adding more if any rise in popularity, and updating the explanations if the emotes change in meaning.” [more inside]
"The Steve Jobs 'hero/sh*thead' roller coaster was real"
John Carmack shares his memories of Steve Jobs. John Carmack co-founded id Software and was the lead programmer of several video games you've probably played even if you're not a gamer (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and more). Shortly after Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1996, he invited Carmack for conversations about supporting games on the Mac. And thus a roller coaster relationship was born. [more inside]
Once it's recorded, then it's over.
R.I.P. Glenn Branca. Avant garde composer, guitar player, No Wave godfather, designer of experimental instruments, dead at the age of 69. [more inside]
The Singing Unicorn
King of Mask Singer (미스터리 음악쇼 복면가왕) is a South Korean singing competition tv show that began in 2015. Contestants are given elaborate masks (made by designer Hwang Jae-geun) to wear that conceal their identities and personal aspects, like their ages, which could lead to prejudiced voting. Last night, a special guest dressed in a sparkly unicorn mask and matching cape sang "Tomorrow" from Annie. [more inside]
You've got me ... who's got you?
Margot Kidder has died at age 69. Best known for portraying Lois Lane in the original Superman movies, she was also known for her breakdown in 1996 and struggle with bipolar. NYT obit. Celebrities react to her death. Pics through the years. Variety obit.
Put your money where your Malthus
Wizards, following Borlaug’s model, unveil technological fixes [to global population increase]; Prophets, looking to Vogt, decry the consequences of our heedlessness.Charles Mann with a long read on whether Earth can support 10 billion people.
"They asked me to be a guinea pig, and I’ve been donating ever since"
On Friday, Harrison made his final trip to the blood donation center. At age 81, he had already passed the age limit allowed for donors, and the blood service had decided Harrison should stop donating to protect his health, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. For six decades, ‘the man with the golden arm’ donated blood — and saved 2.4 million babies. (non-paywalled link here)
The U.S. Deep Poverty Problem/Why the Great Society Worked
Problem:
...The Oxford economist Robert Allen recently estimated needs-based absolute poverty lines for rich countries that are designed to match more accurately the $1.90 line for poor countries, and $4 a day is around the middle of his estimates. When we compare absolute poverty in the United States with absolute poverty in India, or other poor countries, we should be using $4 in the United States and $1.90 in India. Once we do this, there are 5.3 million Americans who are absolutely poor by global standards. This is a small number compared with the one for India, for example, but it is more than in Sierra Leone (3.2 million) or Nepal (2.5 million), about the same as in Senegal (5.3 million) and only one-third less than in Angola (7.4 million). Pakistan (12.7 million) has twice as many poor people as the United States, and Ethiopia about four times as many.The U.S. Can No Longer Hide From Its Deep Poverty Problem [more inside]
You always knew you'd be the one
Not a sequel to Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Monopoly: How Nations Use Science to Conquer the Sea—“A look into the complex world of ocean bed ownership and how nations are vying for their own piece of the puzzle.” A 48m documentary in English from Al Jazeera and Werwiewas Media Productions. [more inside]
Tragic Kingdom
Bats Day in the Fun Park aka Bats Day aka Goth Day has, for two decades, been an annual gathering of goths at Disneyland. Sadly it seems the event will not carry on in its current form (blame Trump), but hopefully some sort of similar, if curtailed, event will continue lurch on in undeath.
Keyless ignition and CO poisoning
Unlike a physical car key, a wireless/keyless fob lets you walk away from a vehicle while the engine is running. If you do this in enclosed spaces you could die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
“I want to create my own little world”|“I like living here, I love it.”
Two Op-Docs by Lance Oppenheim for The New York Times:
- Meet the Happiest Guy in the World follows the life of “Super” Mario Salcedo, who lives full time as a cruise ship passenger.
- Long-Term Parking captures a slice of life in an airport parking lot populated by airline industry workers in motor homes.
May 13
Doreen Simmons, British-born sumo wrestling commentator, dies at 85
Ms Simmons began her tenure as the English-language commentator on NHK in 1992. She also got her first tattoo at age 71. She led an incredible life.
One day they will have to stand up to themselves
I'm freshly home after seeing U2 on their current eXEPERIENCE + iNNOOCNCE tour and so hey, here's the most recent U2 album, Songs Of Experience. The production on this album alludes strongly to past albums while always returning to U2 being a 4-piece rock band. It's 40 years of U2 condensed into one truly classic album. . Side One: Love Is All We Have Left, Light Of Home, You're The Best Thing About Me [video], Get Out Of Your Own Way / American Soul [GOOYOW video, AS official lyric video] [more inside]
Richardson-Olmsted Historic Insane Asylum
Richardson Romanesque with grounds by Olmsted now a hotel. The asylum was abandoned and required much restoration, but now it's become a fancy hotel in Buffalo with the grounds by Olmstead restored. Richardson was such an important architect that his style was named after him. This page on Pinterest shows a number of his buildings, including the Glessner House, where the Mother of Forensic Science lived for most of her life. Richardson Romanesque images
I am who I am and you are Fidel Castro
In top-secret reports from the era, those officials speculated about “a physical relationship between” Howard and Castro and feared she would use her position at ABC News to break the story of Washington’s secret talks with the Cuban comandante. But both she and Castro took the secret of their intimate diplomacy to their graves. Only now, thanks to declassified official documents and, most important, Howard’s own unpublished diaries and letters, can the story finally be told of how one tenacious journalist earned the trust of the legendary leader of the Cuban revolution, and cajoled two U.S presidents into considering peaceful coexistence with him.
The story of reporter Lisa Howard, her relationship with Fidel Castro, Cold War politics and how much of a bawse she was. from Politico.
The story of reporter Lisa Howard, her relationship with Fidel Castro, Cold War politics and how much of a bawse she was. from Politico.
Women going their own way, alone, in the woods
Misadventures Magazine: "I would not have gotten to know myself in the same way if I’d let the fact that I was a woman alone stop me from going out into the wild."
She Explores: "I spend a lot of my time moving at someone else’s pace, trying to accommodate, appease, and appeal. [...] I lose my sense of adventure entirely. I took that back the weekend I spent on the Berg Lake Trail."
On Being a Woman Alone in the Woods: "...being solo in the backcountry is one of the only times in my life that I’ve been able to exist as a body and a person without worrying about how other people might try to claim my body as their own." [more inside]
She Explores: "I spend a lot of my time moving at someone else’s pace, trying to accommodate, appease, and appeal. [...] I lose my sense of adventure entirely. I took that back the weekend I spent on the Berg Lake Trail."
On Being a Woman Alone in the Woods: "...being solo in the backcountry is one of the only times in my life that I’ve been able to exist as a body and a person without worrying about how other people might try to claim my body as their own." [more inside]
It feels like the right time to share how the rest of us are doing
"As the Great Writer tours the country for his children’s book, he comes to my city. We meet. We speak about our past and say what we have already said hundreds of times to one another—my hurt, his apology, his trauma, his everything. He had already shared a rough draft of his confessional piece with me. He spoke to his editors as I drove him around town, on whether his piece should directly invoke the #MeToo movement or not. What I had not seen was the short paragraph he added referencing our specific past. To be a pit stop in a city he considered an isolated maw and follow the deep sigh of the phrase, in the meantime, perhaps says it all. To be named, and yet not named. Something broke in me when I read his synopsis of us, as if I had been summarily dismissed after twenty long years. Absolute erasure is a place without speech; a partial disclosure is like a door or window cracked open ever so slightly." [more inside]
I knew the jet fuel of love couldn’t melt the steel beams of my heart.
Keep Cool, Spunky California Woman
Labeltime is an instagram account that just posts pictures of old clothing labels, featuring such famous brands as Tomato, Protest Boys, and Picture. [more inside]
Delaware Bans Child Marriage
On Wednesday, Delaware became the first
U.S. state to totally ban people from marrying where one (or both) are under the age of 18. There are two reasons usually cited for forcing a child into marriage: if someone is pregnant, or religious reasons. But no major religion promotes child marriage. And in some states, there is no minimum age to marriage. Wedlocked is a Teen Vogue series about child marriage in the United States that examines the history of the practice and its modern realities. Also see: PBS Frontline: Child Marriage in America [more inside]
"Hi, I'm Kara, and I inadvertently helped make a meme."
Some meme doing the rounds. Me: is this the best of the web?
If you don't stop crying your head will fall off and laugh at you
Being a mom is a tough job, in large part because you just can’t reason with small children. What you can do, however, is lie to them. In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked Atlas Obscura readers to send us the most outlandish white lies their mothers ever told them. As it turns out, moms all over the world are telling some wonderfully inventive lies.
One of the world’s most hazardous jobs is known for its intense pressure
The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver looks at the biology, technology and culture of working at the bottom of the ocean.
Going underground
In London’s richest boroughs vast subterranean enclaves are being carved out over several floors to house cars, wine, saunas and private nightclubs. How did underground living become an investment scheme for the uber-wealthy?
What lies beneath: the subterranean secrets of London's super-rich
May 12
“...literally every single week is Fashion Week,”
'Splatoon 2 Is A Street Fashion Zine' [Kotaku] “Splatoon 2 might be the best demonstration of how good it feels to like how you look. The clothing you can buy all comes with special perks—some will make it easier to walk through enemy ink, others give you a boost to your special, and so on. Despite the tangible gameplay differences, I almost always make outfits based around what looks good. Sure, I try to put on an article of clothing with Ninja Squid, which allows me to swim in ink invisibly, but I won’t force it if it messes up my look. You hear that? I’m never going to wear that bike helmet. In Splatoon 2's main lobby, Inkopolis Square, you’ll see your fellow Inklings all decked out in their most recent outfits, and I just cringe at the thought of being seen in someone else’s game looking anything less than on point. When I see a particularly well-dressed squid I usually take a snap of them to remember later, and I suspect other people do so as well.” [more inside]
hasn't even made Major yet.
We're The Good Guys, Right? - On The Marvel movies, Daniel Immerwahr
Your Saddest Desperation Cocktails, Ranked
Spurred by a Funbag question that soon went horribly wrong, the folks at Deadspin asked their readers what their most desperate affronts to the art of mixology were.
And then ranked them (and have them appropriate names.). (SLDeadspin) [more inside]
Habitat 67 Interiors
What separates us from animals...Posture
Stand Up Straight!!! I’ve always had issues with standing straight. My solution was wearing heels. That forced me to have fantastic posture.
If you want to think medieval [...] Seek endarkenment.
Skerples writes about elf games (D&D and all similar games), often with the goal of bringing the real strangeness of history to your games, and some of those history posts may be of interest even to folks who are not interested in Dungeons and Dragons.
When elf gaming blogger and designer Patrick Stuart (previously) wrote a review of Barbara Tuchman's (author of The Guns of August) A Distant Mirror, Skerples responded with a (title source) post about how to better understand the medieval mindset that anyone, gamer or non-gamer, might find interesting. [more inside]
Who *are* you??
MY DAD TOOK MY DOG TO PETSMART TO GET GROOMED AND HE CAME BACK WITH A DIFFERENT DOG AND DIDNT NOTICE UNTIL MY BROTHER AND I TOLD HIM SOMETHING [more inside]
Speedrunning 500 years of bad economics
Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies: Burn It With Fire (SLYT) Berkeley researcher Nicholas Weaver explains all you need to know about the entire bitcoin/cryptocurrency/blockchain space: what it is, why it's horrible and how governments and black hat hackers can attack it.
Pet Truths
Bring your sparkles! It is Eurovision 2018!
FanFare Everyone's favorite battle of the nations is hosted in Portugal this year. With Cyprus and Israel polling as early favorites, tonight's competition should be, as usual, glittertastic. [more inside]
I'm dying when I don't need to die
As Ireland prepares for a referendum on abortion, the country is gripped by a health scandal over cervical cancers that were missed by a US lab, found via a later audit, with the results never communicated to the women involved. The whole scandal only came out because a terminally ill Vicky Phelan refused to sign a gagging agreement in return for a settlement, winning her case and making the scandal public. Also terminally ill, Emma Mhic Mhathna has spoken out demanding answers and heads to roll. Other families are only now being notified of the situation. The directly of the HSE, responsible for overseeing healthcare in Ireland, Tony O’Brien has resigned reluctantly but only after attacking TDs frustrated with him. The number of dead is still unknown, and not all the women involved (209) have been contacted.
One-bonacci, two-bonacci, three-bonacci...
Beyond the golden ratio. How cutting your nails with scissors leads to the silver ratio, and the other "metalic ratios" and their place in nature. (slNumberphile)
Will Smith on how he landed The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
A short video of Smith telling how he got a huge break after his career looked done. (link to a twitter video from @onlyhiphopfacts) [more inside]
Suffering sells
Never-ending nightmare: why feminist dystopias must stop torturing women. The Handmaid’s Tale has inspired a new generation of writers whose dystopian worlds are ever more bleak, dark and sadistic. But where is the hope?
May 11
Lines of longitude and latitude define and refine my altitude
National Geographic has digitally archived the six-thousand-plus maps they've published over their 130-year history. Although the entire archive isn't available to the public, staff cartographers will be sharing their favorites over various social media outlets. [THANKS JESSAMYN]
“It’s choreography with your hands,”
‘Floor Kids’ is Kid Koala’s video game tribute to breakdancing [Engadget] “But he is not a game developer. Like many, he grew up playing Super Mario Bros., and back then if you'd told him one day he'd work with Nintendo, he'd never have believed you. His latest project is Floor Kids, a rhythm game that's a celebration of breakdancing culture. It's something he worked on, one way or another, for over ten years. The game was released last December for Nintendo Switch as part of the company's "Nindies" program. When San and creative partner Jonathan "JonJon" Ng were first approached by Nintendo, neither had any idea what a Switch was, but agreed anyway. "Nintendo was like some company from outer space that created this awesome game," he said. "It was a no-brainer for me."” [YouTube][Game Trailer] [more inside]
Free Speech or Die?
As a man who places morality above the legal system, I cannot hide behind the First Amendment for my argument. People of color have always had our freedom of speech suppressed in America; this is not new to us. We haven’t been able to depend on the government to protect our freedoms, and we have had to protect ourselves from the government itself. Slavery legally coexisted with the First Amendment for more than 100 years.
Cry me a river. -- Talib Kweli on Free Speech absolutism.
THIS POST IS CANCELED
Grim news for likers of quality (and some not so quality) TV programming: Brooklyn 99, The Expanse and a bunch of other shows just got cancelled, with ABC killing 9 in an afternoon. Of course, for good or for bad, sometimes shows come back.
A whale's story and another whale's story
THE ONE WHERE EVERYBODY LOVES FRIENDS
Menhaden Chanteys, an African American maritime legacy
The liner notes of the audiotape of Northern Neck Chantey Singers, produced by the Virginia Folklife Program, provides an excellent history of chantey singing by black menhaden fishermen. They tell of a tradition that was little known, probably because chanteys were sung only at sea by men working in a specialized fishing industry with only two centers of production: Reedville, Virginia and Beaufort, North Carolina. Such chanteys were uncommon in American commercial fisheries, and menhaden chanteys are for the most part unrelated to traditional, and better known, “sea chanteys” that flourished among the crews of 19th century American and British transatlantic sailing ships.See You When The Sun Goes Down by the Northern Neck Chantey Singers. [more inside]
But how will we rank our worth as human beings?
Klout, the once-ubiquitous con social ranking service, is shutting down. The "Klout Score," which the service generated by running a person's social media presence through some type of vague algorithm, helped spawn a legion of “social media gurus” and “influencers" in the early 20teens. Despite the fact that the rankings were "socially evil" and its methodology bullshit, Klout claimed about 100 million users at its peak. It's unknown what Klout's parent company will be doing with all that data.
Hi there! This is, um, Skynet.
Google Duplex was unveiled this week at the 2018 I/O developer conference. Duplex is based on Google's AI research and targeted towards having natural conversations with humans in an outbound context to carry out tasks for the user such as making reservations. The technology includes adding parts of speech (such as "um"s and "ok"s) to make the speech seem more convincing to the listener. [more inside]
what unites them most is resentment
"where it’s O.K. to be closed-minded"
Just call me “Standing Around Mamba” (站曼巴)
Nick Kapur, a professor of East Asian history, explains the Chinese nicknames for some of the most prominent players left in the NBA playoffs. King of the Crabs, Steph Skyfucker, Soup God, Dregs of the Earth, and more different riffs on Kobe Bryant calling himself Black Mamba than you thought possible await.
Organizing In The New Gilded Age
Unemployment is down! The stock market is up! So ...why doesn’t it feel like that’s happening? The gig economy, a dearth of full-time work, bidding wars, vanishing stability and benefits (The Daily Dot) As Wisconsin’s and Minnesota’s lawmakers took divergent paths, so did their economies, supporting unions, raising the minimum wage, and taxing the rich all included as factors in Minnesota’s stronger recovery. (Economic Policy Institute ) Update the 1935 National Labor Relations Act to reflect the new economy? (Slate) Progressive wing Democrats lean into labor issues as strikes across the country continue and expand. (Economic Update Podcast)
The One and Only, The Original, Genuine Sting-Ray
For many Gen-Xers, their first bicycle after graduating from training wheels was the iconic Schwinn Sting-Ray. Known for its muscle-car inspired looks and glittery banana seat, it was originally introduced in 1964, and produced until 1982. It was designed by Al Fritz, Schwinn's vice president for research and development. It was greeted with skepticism, but ultimately sold more than two million bikes.
Mr. Fritz passed away on May 7.
Welcome to the NHK's easy Japanese lessons
If you have watched so much anime you're starting to pepper your speech with the six or so words you're confident you can pronounce correctly, than the NHK's Easy Japanese series might be just the thing to level up your Japanese.
Cruicéad
The historic Ireland v Pakistan Test Match at Malahide today makes a dream come true. Cricket Ireland has all the information. Wikipedia explanation.
Be so good to everyone you love
Although formal identification has not yet been made, police have found a body and notified the family of Frightened Rabbit singer/songwriter Scott Hutchison, who had been missing since very early Wednesday morning. [more inside]
blue and gigantic
The spectacular power of Big Lens How one giant company will dominate the way the whole world sees.
May 10
"…there’s a lot of staring. And also some rock nuzzling. It gets weird."
Science is mostly about white people staring, usually at colored liquids, but also sometimes at chickens and grass — at least, according to stock photos. So real scientists on Twitter are posting their favorite representation fails with the hashtag #BadStockPhotosOfMyJob.
The Roaring Girls of Queer London
A Brief History of Oral Sex
Let them eat anything but steak.
Do Cow Farts Actually Contribute to Global Warming? Apparently the burps are worse.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. Check the Infographic.
Which makes me ponder a bit about Brazil's million dollar cow.
Bigger livestock in larger numbers in more regions has led to methane in the air climbing faster than predicted due to ‘out-of-date data’.
We are killing the environment one hamburger at a time.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. Check the Infographic.
Which makes me ponder a bit about Brazil's million dollar cow.
Bigger livestock in larger numbers in more regions has led to methane in the air climbing faster than predicted due to ‘out-of-date data’.
We are killing the environment one hamburger at a time.
Dear white [people],
From one white woman to another: [Feministe] “Please stop calling the cops on people of color. Do not call the cops on them because they’re in your coffee shop and you don’t want them there. Do not call the cops on them because they’re on your golf course and you don’t want them there. Do not call the cops on them because they’re in your store and you don’t want them there. Do not call the cops on them because they’re in your gym and you don’t want them there. Do not call the cops on them because they’re shy. Do not call the cops on them because they didn’t wave back at you when you waved at them.” [more inside]
122. Titrate an acid using bass. [7pH points]
The 30th annual UofC ScavHunt is officially here! Every year the run-up to Mother's Day sees the latest iteration of nerdy insanity that is the Scavenger Hunt at the University of Chicago. And folks, it's that time again.
In addition to the in-excess-of-300-item, legendarily inscrutable list, each year's Hunt loosely follows a theme, which often plays a major role in the Road Trip, and the day before Judgment Day those team members so inclined assemble for the Scav Olympics.
Lists of yore.
Previously.
Previouslier. [more inside]
Operation Bananas Scam
When my roommate was out of town I ate his bananas, so I decided to carve realistic fake bananas out of wood
Shoot your way though the hoards of bullets!
Roulette Knight is FourQuarters team's entry into Ludum Dare #41 (April 2018). This dare's theme is "Combine 2 Incompatible Genres." Roulette Knight combines RPG with Russian Roulette. Press your luck, upgrade your knight, and try not to kill yourself.
Via IndieGames weblog
a series of tubes
Cells use tunneling nanotubes to communicate and aid one another: long form science journalism by Vivian Callier. "These fragile structures are appearing not only in the context of conditions such as cancer, AIDS and neurodegenerative diseases, but also in normal embryonic development."
Pretium iustum mathematicum, licet soli, Deo notum
The West Chicago Tower Mystery
Most of the radio towers you see each day are cell towers. There are 215,000 of them in the US. They differ from other radio towers in that they will almost always have one ore more triangular structures with three or more directional antennas on each side of the triangle. A grid of cell towers covers an area with roughly hexagonal cells so that you get a good signal everywhere. The West Chicago tower had no triangular structure, so I was pretty sure it wasn’t a cell tower. And these antennas were huge compared to regular cell tower antennas. I could literally see them 1/2 mile away. Some cell towers do have microwave dish antennas when it’s hard to bring fiber to a site, but shortwave antennas didn’t seem to go together with microwave in my mind. Mystery #1: If this wasn’t a cell tower, what was it?[more inside]
70 discreetly numbered teaspoons
May 9
Japanese War Brides
US Air Force Col. Bruce Hollywood searched for his Japanese birth mother. He found her — and the restaurant she had named after him. Hollywood's story is told by Kathryn Tolbert, a Japanese-American reporter and filmmaker, who is telling the stories of Japanese women who married American servicemen after World War II on Instagram @kathryn.tolbert and in an oral history archive, www.warbrideproject.com.
Model that dirty water
The Boston Planning and Development Agency has built a 3D online city model that includes every building (and many trees) in the city.
The Best Neighbor is a Dead Neighbor
Murray Darling
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is six years in and Australian taxpayers have spent $8 billion on it so far — yet the internationally significant ecosystem at the end of the basin, the Coorong, is dying. [more inside]
Norman Forsyth & Bruce Wisdom present...
Two British legends of light entertainment discuss (in 1983) their groundbreaking performance (22 years earlier) when, due to an actor's strike, they hosted a one-hour live TV performance single (double) - handed. [more inside]
“We believe in Pele.”
A Beginner’s Guide to Hawaii’s Otherworldly Lava: what scientists and native Hawaiians see in the sublime molten fire. 🌋 [more inside]
Pakistan parliament passes transgender rights bill
Pakistan's parliament, the National Assembly, has passed the The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act (full-text PDF). Coverage at NPR states that the act "allows people to choose their gender and to have that identity recognized on official documents, including national IDs, passports and driver's licenses. The bill also prohibits discrimination in schools, at work, on public modes of transit and while receiving medical care." It still requires a signature from President Mamnoon Hussain. The NPR story and further coverage at The Independent and The Express Tribune highlight the struggles transgender persons continue to endure in the country.
tix.tax
tix.tax is a slick online mutliplayer way to play Ultimate tic-tac-toe, a game where you play games of tic-tac-toe within a big game of tic-tac-toe. Simple to learn, difficult to master.
Y2K Chic
Metallic, blobby, transparent and neon: the A-Z Of Turn Of The Century Design
Incredible Edible
The people of Todmorden in Yorkshire, UK came together to turn unused land into something useful, inspiring a movement which has gone global.
Pokemon Point Five
What if Pokemon grew instead of evolving? In-Progress Pokemon is one artist's ongoing quest to fill in the gaps. (New entries every Sunday and Wednesday around 2:00 EST. Old entries are reblogged daily; click 'art only view' for new entries only. Commissions accepted, including unusual cases like fan-Pokemon AKA fakemon in the original Pokemon art style, nonexistent Mega Evolutions and non-Pokemon commissions.)
h a m a n t h a
Jack Stauber is a musician, animator and video producer from Pennsylvania. He writes original songs and makes surreal VHS cartoon music videos for them.
Malaysia GE14
Malaysia votes on May 9 and almost every projection has Barisan Nasional, the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, claiming electoral victory for the 14th consecutive time. o be precise: This coalition or a predecessor has governed Malaysia (and before it, Malaya) for over 60 years, without a break. Barisan Nasional and Co. probably is the longest-ruling political alliance in the world. But Wednesday’s election — hashtag: #GE14 — is being called “the mother of all elections” for other reasons as well.
Sextets, septets, octets, nonets.
Stepping beyond the more familiar three-, four- and five-piece line-ups, there is a wealth of classical music out there composed for slightly bigger bands. And, while little of it has crossed over into popular culture (the opening movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s 1825 Octet is probably as well-known as any), there is nevertheless plenty to enjoy, a small selection of which can be found via the links within... [more inside]
How did you assemble this list? Carefully.
An endless day in US politics included: withdrawl from the Iran nuclear deal; a trip to North Korea (start by learning their leader's name); jaw-dropping revelations about payments made to Michael Cohen's Essential Consultants LLC from a company tied to a Russian oligarch questioned by Mueller's team and corporations including AT&T (with a Twitter team that didn't handle the news so well) and Novartis (Avenatti says to follow where the money went); more on Michael Cohen's financial difficulties as he pledged his apartment as collateral; more ethics problems for Scott Pruitt (and Hugh Hewitt); reports that Trump ignored warnings from the State Department about deporting 300,000 Central Americans and Haitians currently in the country legally; bogus statistics used to justify separating families at the border; Russian hackers posed as IS to threaten military wives; a report from the Senate Intelligence Committee on Russian targeting of election infrastructure; fair-housing advocates sued HUD for suspending fair-housing rules; the Department of Labor sought to allow teenagers to work longer hours in hazardous jobs; Alex van der Zwaan reported to prison; and primaries in four states (results cheat sheet).
Today: confirmation hearings for CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel, "a Referendum on (Un-)Accountability". Fatima Boudchar, who was tortured in a secret facility in Thailand, has A Few Questions for Gina Haspel. [more inside]
May 8
Morality Tales and Narrative Consciousness
Why humans need stories - "From fireside folk tales to Netflix dramas, narratives are essential to every society – and evolutionary theorists are now trying to figure out why." (via)
the medium is the message
@hillarydale:
life update: i recently made a claim that lorde & jack antonoff are 2gether & it's taken me on a strange journey to the Truth, which i present to u in the way i best express myself - powerpoint:Someone made a PowerPoint to prove Lorde and Jack Antonoff are dating and it's...remarkable [more inside]
In a CAR where FIVE voice over artists ride TO AN AWARD SHOW
“Five Men And A Limo” is an advertisement for the 1997 The Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards in which Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Al Chalk, Mark Elliot, Nick Tate, and Hal Douglas say things in their sweet, sweet voices.
htmHELL
Google's Attempt at Fixing Autoplay Videos Has Broken Countless Games [Waypoint] “Here’s what happened. Over the weekend, Google pushed out a series of changes to its enormously popular Chrome web browser, hoping to fix one of the Internet’s great annoyances: autoplaying videos with sound. A noble quest, but one with unexpected consequences; as soon as the feature went live, it broke all kinds of web content that relies on audio, including games. A key component of those games—sound—now doesn’t work, unless the designers intervene. In trying to address the legitimate problem of autoplaying videos—a shitty marketing and advertising tactic to trick you into “viewing” a video—Google messed with and changed the open standards all sorts of other developers had been working with.” [more inside]
A madness took me, but it has passed
mytolkienbooks.com is a classic single-serving web 2.x personal site, serving simply as a catalog of one Tolkienist bibliophile's collection. I came across it cross-searching a poorly-sourced Facebook reference to the 1977 Rankin-Bass book edition of The Hobbit.
Old man yells at cloud
“Recently, Lil Tay entered into this fray. Tay is—as far as we know—a 9-year-old girl, an ostensible recording artist, the self-described ‘youngest flexer in the game,’ a possessor of some truly above-grade-level curse words, and the cause of my near-breakdown as I’ve tried to determine just who the hell put her up to this.”
I Drove Myself Nuts Trying to Unravel the Mystery of Seemingly Unparented 9-Year-Old Instagram Shit-Talker Lil Tay, from Jezebel
I Drove Myself Nuts Trying to Unravel the Mystery of Seemingly Unparented 9-Year-Old Instagram Shit-Talker Lil Tay, from Jezebel
Aerial Photos 1906 Great American Cities
Link together a bunch of kites and hoist a camera up several hundred feet, and voila! There are several links in the article to different deposits of aerial photos by the enterprising George R. Lawrence.
Not Actually Powered by Water
After your rocket bicycle hits 207 mph in 4.8 seconds, beating a Ferrari at the drag strip, what do you do next? If you're mad inventor François Gissy, you build a tricycle that tops 5 gees.
Joseph's Machines
Becoming Spring Brucesteen: My Quest to Meet the Boss
Toniann Fernandez is a writer based in Brooklyn. She still has not met Bruce Springsteen.
"My apartment looks like the bad guy’s apartment in Se7en"
THINGS TO SAY WHEN SOMEONE FARTS:
- EXCUSE YOU
- SHUT YOUR BUTT
- SOMEONE RANG THE TACO BELL
- GOD BLESS YOU
- EVEN THAT SMELLED LIKE ASPARAGUS
Misunderstood Spider is a Little Less Misunderstood
Researchers at The University of Manchester have trained a spider (named Kim) to jump on command in order to better understand the extraordinary jumping capabilities of these spiders. Some of these results will help engineers design spider-like robots.
The work has been published in the Journal Nature Scientific Reports. [more inside]
Someone please tell the New York Times that incels are terrorists
The Harpy (Village Voice) columnist Talia Lavin calls out Ross Douthat for his recent NYT column on the April 23rd Toronto van attack that killed 10 people and injured 16 (CW for rape & assault in Lavin's column). Instead of admitting that the perpetrator (a self-defined "incel," "involuntary celibate") belonged to a misogynist terrorist group, "Douthat...posit[ed] that the idea of sex as a redistributable resource is 'entirely responsive to the logic of late-modern sexual life,' and blam[ed] 'sexual liberation' for inceldom and its victims." Lavin also calls out George Mason University economics professor Robin Hanson for his blog post arguing that incels "might have a salient point to contribute to the national discourse." [more inside]
the accursed second round
"With their Game 6 win, of course, the Capitals also did a service for the entire region. They ended a narrative that made no one happy, that wasn’t cute or goofy, that failed to interest the rest of the country, that had no redeeming charm or quirks and no catchy nickname. They were playing their B-team, and they were sizable underdogs. But they did not choke, gag or falter. They did not blow a four-goal lead after a player accidentally skated into a sinkhole. They just won." The stupidest streak in sports is dead, thanks to the Caps. Bye. [more inside]
Taste sensations and umami bombs
The Weird Science Behind Chain Restaurant Menus A corporate restaurant consultant tells the inside story of how they developed a new "lighter, brigher, fresher" menu for an unnamed nationwide US fast-casual chain that serves Pan-Asian food. (SL Vice Munchies) [more inside]
Go West, Venerable Country Music Star: Marty Stuart's desert psychedelia
"The first two records I ever owned were a Flatt & Scruggs and a Johnny Cash record, and the only two jobs I ever had were for Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash....Your life is never the same after you hang out with characters like that." Marty Stuart—maker of country music and keeper of many of its memories—has a new album out. "Time Don't Wait" is an introduction to its jangly psychedelic desert sound, a creative turn from a veteran of the country music scene. [more inside]
÷
"Univision Is A Fucking Mess." A special long form report/distress signal from the Gizmodo Media Group, a subsidiary of Univision.
"I could fill an entire second life with working on my prints."
The Boston Public Library has digitized their collection of prints and drawings by M.C. Escher. View the full collection here. (h/t Kottke.org)
A short trip to Peru
PERÚ Featuring psychedelic cumbias, funk, the world’s first punk band, guitar driven heavy psych and psychedelic Peruvian electronic music. [more inside]
Babies fight drug addiction in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Farmers' Market
Where does the food at your farmers' market come from? In Peterborough, Ontario, much of it is from agribusiness resellers. This made some local farmers upset, and they spoke up to ask for clear labelling of who was and wasn't a local grower. The market was not happy about the attention and kicked out the "dissident" members.
Too legit to quit!
May 7
NY Attorney General Resigns After Abuse Allegations
Eric Schneiderman has risen to fame as a champion of women's rights. He's now been named as a serial abuser of women, and resigned hours after women's accounts were published. (Warning: graphic descriptions of physical violence)
"Neanderthals were quite modern."
Meet the ancestors… the two brothers creating lifelike figures of early humans. "Dutch twins Adrie and Alfons Kennis are showing their uncanny models in museums all over Europe. Adrie discusses how their creations are realised and the extreme reactions they can provoke." [more inside]
norm!
Normcore Jedediah Purdy
The proliferating “crisis-of-democracy” literature, like the Fast and the Furious franchise, has only one plot. And, like the crash-up car-chase movies, it has not let this fact slow its growth. How Democracies Die, by Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, and The People Versus Democracy, by Harvard instructor Yascha Mounk, are just two of the emblematic titles, along with entries by George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum (Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic), political theorist and Clinton adviser William Galston (Antipluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy), and a three-handed work, One Nation After Trump, by commentators E.J. Dionne, Norman Ornstein, and Thomas Mann. Readers may already have noticed that all these authors are, like your reviewer, white men credentialed by the establishment institutions whose “liberal tears” are jet-fuel in the engines of Trumpism. One of the telling things about the crisis-of-democracy literature is that it presents itself as the voice of the reason, calling the people back to their principles. It isn’t clear who is listening.[more inside]
“The urge to capture meaningful moments for posterity is elemental...”
The art and joy of video game photography [Eurogamer] “The capacity for taking handsome screenshots in games has expanded significantly in the past decade. When I first began reviewing games, I would have to drive for more than two hours to the magazine's offices in order to use the expensive kit (a PC with a fussy, arcane trails of cable that, with a tap of the space bar, could freeze-frame whatever was showing on the PlayStation 2 screen) needed to take console game screenshots. (In the truly olden days of video game magazines, an actual SLR camera was used, often attached to a black out cone, that stretched between its lens and the television's bezel). No more. Today the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch both come with dedicated screen-capture buttons that allow anyone to capture a digital sunset, cloud formation, or explosive special move and, if they so desire, print it out and hang it on the wall.” [more inside]
"Unbuilding... one brick at a time"
Ready to get way more interested than you thought in the old bricks of Baltimore? There's a project in Baltimore where local residents are hired to deconstruct old abandoned rowhouses and save the construction materials for reuse/architectural salvage. They have a really great detailed blog, about building practices, and local history, and what you find when you take apart old houses.
Bank Error In Your Favor, Collect $2,180,583 (Australian)
What happened when a bank glitch gave a 24-year old Australian man access to unlimited funds for two years.
Meet the Beetles!
Hail the matriarch: the world’s only colony-building beetle
Truly Oz is Oz.
Well, lethally venomous fauna aside... [more inside]
Truly Oz is Oz.
Well, lethally venomous fauna aside... [more inside]
Erasing Native Americans from National Parks
Egalité! Liberté! Sexualité!
It began with a demand by students for the right to sleep with each other. And it ended in one of the greatest upheavals in French society since the revolution: Paris, May 1968.
One brick thrown in Paris... and its crash was heard around the world. Beauty was in the street with Graffiti, slogans and Posters from the Uprising, many designed and distributed by the anonymous collective L'Atelier Populaire.
[more inside]
One brick thrown in Paris... and its crash was heard around the world. Beauty was in the street with Graffiti, slogans and Posters from the Uprising, many designed and distributed by the anonymous collective L'Atelier Populaire.
[more inside]
the Catholic aesthetic
"From 14th-century reliquary crosses to 19th-century papal miters, from a 2013 to 2014 Dolce & Gabbana gown inspired by Byzantine mosaics to a 2001 to 2002 Galliano gown modeled on papal dress, the exhibit will trace the development of a distinctly Catholic aesthetic from the sacred world to the secular. But what exactly is the Catholic aesthetic? And what is it about Catholic theology that has created it? To an extent, the Catholic aesthetic is like pornography: You know it when you see it." The Met Gala’s theme is “Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. What exactly does that mean?
Matana Roberts on her work and the Coin Coin project
Matana Roberts talking about the genesis and production of her Coin Coin project on African American history. Matana Roberts makes jazz works that include sound collage and multimedia elements. Her central project is a projected 12 part series called Coin Coin, about slavery and African American history. Three installments have been released so far. You can listen to Coin Coin on her Bandcamp page, along with other works like For Standing Rock...
The Promise of Vaping and the Rise of Juul
#juuling All the rage these days is Juul, an e-cigarette device that the teens just love and that is making up a huge part of the e-cigarette market. While Chuck Schumer tries to ban it, Jia Tolentino does the hard work of seeing what all the fuss is about.
Thrown Away
“Every night in New York, an army of private garbage trucks from more than 250 sanitation companies sets out across the five boroughs picking up the trash from all manner of businesses. Racing to complete long and often circuitous routes, the trucks crisscross the city at breakneck speeds. The human toll is substantial: Since 2010, there have been 33 deaths attributed to private garbage trucks across the city.
Sanitation Salvage trucks, now involved in two deaths in six months, have failed federal safety inspections at a rate that’s four times the national average. “ To the press he was a “daredevil homeless man” who “came out of nowhere” but an investigation revealed he was Mouctar Diallo, an off the books private sanitation worker whose death was covered up. TREATED LIKE TRASH (ProPublica)
180 Grad Artistic
Oleksandr can do an unusual trick. 7 minutes, narration in simple German, but even if you can't follow the narration, Oleksandr's trick is visual in nature and language-independent. He takes a few minutes to stretch and warm up first.
I'm Not Black, I'm Kanye
Japan has a form of capitalism that works
Jesper Koll argues that Japan has a form of capitalism that works. "Japan’s economy is working well and deserves more attention as a model for 'capitalism that works.' Most importantly, the system is very good at bringing up the bottom of the income pyramid and generating exceptional inclusion for all in financial wealth creation. This is why there will not be a nationalist-populist movement in Japan — the system is working. Yes, Japan does deserve the Nobel Prize for applied economics."
How economists calculate manufacturing output
So when Trump won the presidential election, the true-blue data believers dismissed his victory as the triumph of rhetoric over fact. His supporters had succumbed to a nativist tale with cartoon villains like “cheating China” and a shadowy cabal of Rust Belt-razing “globalists.” [more inside]
May 6
"In case you're wondering, Taco Bell is a metaphor for Taco Bell."
Not one of the liberators, mind you. THE liberator.
“On an April night in 1945, [Canadian soldier, Léo Major] single-handedly chased the Germans out of the town of 50,000 souls, and Zwolle has never forgotten it....Major [PDF see p. 113] and another soldier, Cpl. Willie Arsenault, entered the German-held town on a reconnaissance mission sometime after sunset on April 13, 1945. The area was crawling with German occupiers, but many had gone to bed. Major returned at 9 the next morning and announced the town had been liberated, but that Arsenault had been killed.”
“...physical violence and tender psychodrama.”
God of War review – muscleman on a mission [The Guardian] “In an industry now in its mid-to-late 30s, and still with a predominantly male workforce, the glut of recent blockbuster video games featuring father-child relationships surely reflects the preoccupations of the men who make them. God of War is the latest specimen: a game in which a monosyllabic muscleman is on a journey to scatter his late wife’s ashes on the tallest mountain in Norse myth, while accompanied by his young son. [...] This reboot swaps the soap opera of Olympia for that of Asgard and the move northwards ramps up, if such a thing were possible, the machismo of the enterprise (all those crumb-laden beards). But, beneath the surface, this is a game reckoning – like so many of us, in times like these – with masculinity, and what it means to be an interested father.” [YouTube][Game Trailer] [more inside]
That's just how they roll
‘The quiet accumulation of urban elements rooted in daily life’
Dan Hill, whose blog City of Sound was last linked here more than decade ago, writes about his visit to two houses in Tokyo: Moriyama House, in Kamata, and House NA in Koenji. Both are remarkable in and of themselves: the former comprising several small blocks with green space woven between; the latter a stack of glass cubes. But they also prompt Hill to muse on, among other things, the peculiarities of living in Japan compared to standards in the west – from the nuances of ‘public’ and ‘private’ space to the ephemeral nature of the buildings themselves, when “the typical life expectancy of a Tokyo building is 26 years”.
Falcon Cam 1201 Bldg. fka Washington Mutual Bldg. aka Saturn V Bldg.
Falcon Cam 1201 3rd Avenue Building fka Washington Mutual Building aka Saturn V Building
WARNING ! HIGH SCHMOOP CONTENT !
Be sure to like and subscribe
Subscription Hell: "This time, it’s Bloomberg, which announced that it would be adding a comprehensive paywall to its news service and television channel...That’s not the only subscription coming up though. Now Facebook is considering adding an ad-free subscription option." As virtually every product and service becomes "subscriptionalized," what does that mean for us? [more inside]
“I don’t even know if we have had our ‘Silent Spring’ yet”
"Increasingly, though, individuals need to worry about another kind of privacy violation. I think of it as a modern tweak on the tragedy of the commons — call it “privacy of the commons.” It’s what happens when one person’s voluntary disclosure of personal information exposes the personal information of others who had no say in the matter. Your choices didn’t cause the breach. Your choices can’t prevent it, either. Welcome to a world where you can’t opt out of sharing, even if you didn’t opt in." [SL538] [more inside]
A daring interpretative piece, part of a series of unfinished works
After a contractor left a hole in his office wall, graphic designer Padraig Murphy put up a museum label next to it. Voila, modern art.
This is a celly / that's a tool
The Writing On The Wall
"Daring Do can't believe her luck when she is asked to help explore the most ancient tomb known to ponykind." But she's never seen anything like this.
An MLP:FIM fanfiction one shot [more inside]
An MLP:FIM fanfiction one shot [more inside]
Australia's live sheep export back up front in the news
Australia. Live sheep exports: 'terrifying' new footage prompts maritime union to call for suspension. Live export ban could harm rural communities, meat industry claims, as protests continue in South Australia. Labor promises to ban live sheep exports and have meat processed in Australia. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has hit out at the federal opposition's promise to ban the practice. Australia exports over three million live animals every year.
Cercle Republicain Cafes in Provence
There used to be hundreds of these membership cafes across France. But they are slowly dwindling and now there are only 26. Political history is a good reason to visit one, and so is the hidden piazza in back with sweeping views.
May 5
Don't get Cocky now.
What happens when a fairly succesful self-published romance author decides to trademark a common word previously used in many of their peers' titles?
#Cockygate, that's what. [more inside]
The United States of Japan
The United States of Japan "Japan made itself rich in its industrial era by selling things like cars, TVs, and VCRs, but it made itself loved in those Lost Decades by selling fantasies. Hello Kitty, comics, anime, and Nintendo games were the first wave—'the big can-opener,' as the game designer Keiichi Yano put it. Now those childhood dreams haven given way to a more sophisticated vision of a Japanese life style, exemplified in the detached cool of Haruki Murakami novels, the defiantly girly pink feminism of kawaii culture, the stripped-down simplicity of Uniqlo, the 'unbranded' products of Muji, and the Japanese “life-changing magic” of Marie Kondo." - Matt Alt
I see walls/But these walls aren’t in my way.
Tony Kinman, Southern California “cowpunk” pioneer who defied musical boundaries, dies. With his brother Chip, Kinman formed a series of influential bands. First was the Dils, a late-70s SoCal punk mainstay (“I Hate the Rich” and “You’re Not Blank” were the two sides of their debut 7-inch). In 1980 they started Rank & File, a country-tinged outfit based in Austin, TX (here they are on Thicke of the Night with Alan Thicke in 1983, performing “Amanda Ruth” and “The Conductor Wore Black”). Later projects included Blackbird (sample cuts: “Big Train”, “Quicksand”) and Cowboy Nation (seen here on Art Fein’s Poker Party). Happy trails, pardner. BONUS: 2001 Tony Kinman interview.
Happy 200th
Happy Birthday Karl Marx, you were right! Why Marx’s original critique of capitalism and description of class struggle are more relevant than ever (NYT Opinion)
Star Wars Nothing But Star Wars
Around 1 hour and 45 minutes of the greatest miso-mash of Star Wars references across the over 4 decades since the first film's release. It's fascinating and horrifying and perhaps a bit hypnotizing.
We are obliged not to tolerate their wanton and conscious blasphemy
Is it better to have one or two spaces after a period? The first study investigating this hotly contested issue is here, and it supposedly gives the win to the two-spacers. But a closer look at the research suggests that the only reasonable interpretation is that double spacing after a period remains bad. It’s ugly, it doesn’t help when it comes to what matters most (reading comprehension), and the experiment that supports its benefits uses an outdated font style. [more inside]
Winter ain't coming
Well we're not getting a new Game Of Thrones book this year (well we are, but not a new novel). Anyway there will be a big battle in the next and final tv series. Here's a reminder of how effective the previous series vfx were.
Amazing Jobs! Podcast
Lisette is a little girl who interviews adults in a variety of interesting jobs (train conductor, film maker, musician, pediatrician) about what they do for work and how they came to do it. Episodes average around 5 minutes, and episodes 1 and 8 are in French.
(Imagine Rocky Horror as Church and you're basically there)
it's way underappreciated just how absurdly huge the impact of bollywood on hindu culture has been. an actual goddess exists and is worshipped who only exists because of low budget movie in the 70s. SLTwitter. Part 2.
May 4
Something For Your M.I.N.D.
Coati Mundi Que Pasa/Me No Pop I 37 years on & Man, can he dance
As Ohio goes...
The choices include the current lieutenant governor, the current state attorney general, a former Obama administration official, a former presidential candidate/ventriloquist, a boxer, and finally, a "truly remarkable man of God." Ohio voters have a lot to decide this year, and it kicks off during the May primary early next week. What does it all mean for America's favorite bellwether state? [more inside]
"reduced public confidence"
"Man with Swedish Academy ties accused of sexual assault." Jean-Claude Arnault, who has been accused of several cases of sexual assault, has now also leaked several Nobel Prize winners in literature.
The Nobel Prize scandal rocking Sweden had led to the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature being postponed until 2019. [more inside]
The Nobel Prize scandal rocking Sweden had led to the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature being postponed until 2019. [more inside]
Build me up, tear me down / Like a skyscraper
The 30 Ugliest Skyscrapers in the World: From Tour Montparnasse in Paris to Pyongyang's Ryugyong Hotel, AD surveys the architecture that might've best remained a concept (SL Architectual Digest)
“...recognition, acceptance, and normalization.”
Select Your Character: Why Games Need More Non-Binary Character Options [The Mary Sue] “Of course, if female protagonists are uncommon, then non-binary protagonists are even rarer. I can create an avatar that looks pretty much like me, but they will always be misgendered in dialog with NPCs and called either “she” or “he.” I get misgendered almost constantly in the real world; I’d love the ability to escape that drudgery in my hobby of choice, and I know that there are plenty of other non-binary gamers who feel the same. Further, the option to play as a non-binary protagonist would open new avenues for male and female gamers too. The stories they could experience would be fresh, new, and interesting, and, hopefully, help them gain a little bit of insight into what it’s like to be outside the gender binary. And having non-binary representation might help people who were like me a few years ago: confused and upset about something in themselves, but unsure how to articulate it.” [more inside]
That is something very bad that I used to be good at
We started in high school. We started in our twenties. We started and stopped, started and stopped. Things that made it start again: Getting stalked. Getting rejected. Getting inordinately rewarded. Being humiliated. Being venerated. Being controlled. Being disregarded. Getting mad. Being disbelieved. Failing. Being unwanted. Being wanted too much. Taking medication. Getting off medication. Remembering the wrong thing at the wrong time. Forgetting the right thing. Being alone too much. Being surrounded. Someone leaving. Someone dying. When it was about to start again, it felt like a solemn steeling of the self, a giant breath taken in advance of total submersion: Time for this again. Then going under, and staying.
There Are People Starving, and essay on our shared history of disordered eating.
CONTENT WARNING EATING DISORDERS
There Are People Starving, and essay on our shared history of disordered eating.
CONTENT WARNING EATING DISORDERS
The Tracker
Smokey Mtns. native, tracker of lost people, especially childen, knower of the woods The kind of knowledge this man has is precious and there doesn't seem to be any school or program that is learning from him, which is sad for us all.
Living without the lead apron, leaving the loud room
"My wife and I were having a walk in our neighborhood and I realized that it was just a really beautiful day – it was warm with just a little bit of a breeze, the birds sounded really beautiful, the flowers smelled really great and my wife’s hand felt really good in mine. And as we were walking I just started to cry and she asked me, “what’s wrong?” I said “I just realized that I don’t feel bad and I just realized that I’m not existing, I’m living.” At that moment, I realized that I had lived my life in a room that was so loud, all I could do every day was deal with how loud it was. But with the help of my wife, my doctor, and medical science, I found a doorway out of that room." My name is Wil Wheaton. I live with chronic Depression, and I am not ashamed. [more inside]
A brief look at the Earth from above
This is a short video by Páraic McGloughlin composed of thousands of Google Earth images. A brief look at the earth from above, based on the shapes we make, the game of life, our playing ground - Arena. [Photosensitivity warning: flashing imagery.]
"Teams will start paying attention to this only when it’s too late."
Five Washington NFL cheerleaders speak out in a lengthy and damning New York Times report that describes the team's treatment of the women in recent years. Among the low points: the women describe having to pose in the nude while being ogled by the team’s male sponsors during what was supposed to be a private photo shoot, only to find out later they had also been selected by these same male sponsors to be their escorts at a night club that evening. “So get back to your room and get ready,” the director told [the chosen cheerleaders]. Several of them began to cry. “They weren’t putting a gun to our heads, but it was mandatory for us to go,” one of the cheerleaders said. [more inside]
Music Alters Mood Alters Visual Perception
Music Alters Visual Perception "As illusory percepts are believed to reflect the content of internal representations that are employed by the brain during top-down processing of visual input, we conclude that top-down modulation of visual processing is not purely predictive in nature: mood, in this case manipulated by music, may also directly alter the way we perceive the world."
If I could turn back time
With these datasets, if someone wants to make a specific cell type, they now have the recipe for the steps that those cells took as they formed in the embryo . Developmental biologists can gather more and higher quality data on many species, follow embryos further in time and perform any number of perturbation experiments, all of which can help improve our understanding of the fundamental rules of biology and disease.
Leeds-Detroit-Berlin-New York
Ahead of their time? Probably. Influential? Another one of those that inspired more than sales would suggest. Timing is everything.
You might know Age of Chance for their cover of Prince’s "Kiss" but you had a hard time remembering because the video was posted without sound for years, and other posted versions were often taken down. For many years there was little trace of them but started showing up again with the reissue of their catalogue in 2009. [more inside]
The Lambda Method for Catching Kangaroos
May 3
“Life is too short not to improv with goats.”
Is the new hot trend in theater...goats? The musical Once On This Island has two goats starring in it, and now there's goat improv. The latter was inspired by goat yoga. [more inside]
(slow heavy metal music playing)
Pictures made weirder by an evocative caption (although sometimes the picture is already weird enough). You can watch and listen. Of course there's a Facebook page.
“Nintendo has been chasing this sort of strategy for a long time,”
2018 Will Be the Year of the Switch Port [US|Gamer] “In 2018, this stream of ports will become a deluge. Demand is huge for Switch ports, and Nintendo is sitting on a host of Wii U games that can easily make the transition to portable. Seemingly every major series that isn't a graphical powerhouse is being rumored for the Switch. The appeal for both fans and publishers is obvious. Fans get a portable version that they can break out whenever they want. Publishers get another burst of sales at fairly minimal cost. A gratuitous double dip on another console would be a welcome sight on the Nintendo Switch. Who wouldn't want a portable version of, say, the Mass Effect trilogy? Or the Arkham games? Or maybe Wind Waker HD? Publishers are recognizing the inherent appeal of Switch ports; and with the install base firmly established, are scrambling to pump out as many ports as possible.” [more inside]
Look! Onscreen! It's two O's! It's two b's! No! it's Nerd Boy! In ASCII!
The Adventures of Nerd Boy was a 635-episode webcomic drawn completely in ASCII which ran from 2001-2006 (with the last two strips drawn in 2007 and 2016).
EOF
Hot Springs NC: WWI German Internment Camp
They built themselves a village. Of course, they weren't military; they were sailors and passengers who'd been trapped in the U.S. by the outbreak of war. About 2200 were hustled off to bucolic western NC, to a small town of about 650 people. And there they settled in.
Hedge Fund Managers with Psychopathic Tendencies make Worse Investors
It's a common trope that psychopaths have traits that also predict success on Wall Street and that they are perfectly suited for high finance. Or are they? Paper, press release, article, another article. [more inside]
"I don't want any boring old heraldry. I want something new, fresh."
Historian Sara Öberg Strådal looks at some bizarre coats of arms on her Twitter [Threadreader]. All are found in Conrad von Grünenberg's Wappenbuch, which can be read in full online.
personne particulièrement extraordinaire
Spies, Dossiers, and the Insane Lengths Restaurants Go to Track and Influence Food Critics
The voice on the phone seemed a little too chipper. Tom Sietsema wondered if he’d been made. Or was he being paranoid? Maybe Le Diplomate’s reservationist was always this enthusiastic about hosting a party of eight at the buzzy French restaurant. Either way, as usual, the Washington Post’s lead restaurant critic made his reservation under an alias.[more inside]
Worst day at work
"If I had stopped concentrating for a second, I would have become time itself."
The time when I got my days wrong and ended up alone in a room with my boss and the President of Ireland while I was on ketamine. [Twitter thread]
the shape of wafer
“Should anyone spend five days trying to make three homemade Kit Kats? Seems dubious.” Join Bon Appetit editor Claire Saffitz in the test kitchen of my dreams as she attempts to make gourmet Kit Kats from scratch. [more inside]
You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em
A little more than a year ago, New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova announced that she was diving into the world of professional poker as a new player, all for the purpose of writing a book about her experiences. Yesterday, PokerNews reported that the actual writing of the book is on hold because Konnikova, under the guidance of pro Erik Seidel, got too good at poker.
You Need A House To Live
“Social Housing In The United States” (PDF) is a report by the People’s Policy Project on the argument for increased social housing in the United States. With half the rental population facing crisis and few people foreclosed on during the Great Recession looking to buy again, the time has come to look to another way: The Case For Public Housing, And a lot of it (Mother Jones) It’s time to build mixed income public housing (Shelter Force). (Previously, Housing In America)
The Longest Straight-Line Ocean Voyage Is Pretty Damn Long
Do you want to take a 20,000 mile ocean voyage but don't want to steer, like, ever? Good news! You can start in Pakistan, head southwest (aim for just a little off the coast of Africa), and end up on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It's only 19,939.6 miles, but what's 60.4 miles among friends?
The most successful entrepreneurs are actually middle-aged, not young
Pretty interesting new research looking at American entrepreneurs that was surprising for the researchers: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship:
Pierre Azoulay, Benjamin Jones, J. Daniel Kim, Javier Miranda [pdf] [more inside]
If you could put down your phone and pay attention, that'd be great
There’s this assumption in our culture that with all the TV shows, and books, and websites, we’re all reading more and listening more, but I doubt that. Its become increasingly acceptable not to be listening (e.g. staring at your laptop or phone in meetings) and not be reading (skimming how many emails, or blog posts, in an hour). And I bet any culture, a team, a family, a country, where there is more real listening and real reading, people are happier and more successful at achieving things that matter. Why the world is a mess: a theory.
Baby's first bill
The costs of delivering a baby in the US can be eye-watering, but did you know that babies are billed, too? Hospitals are routinely charging babies for nursery stays and baby care, separately from mom and dad's insurance.
Nothing to lose but their personal data siphons
a glowing orb that concealed the pains, joys, and dreams of immigrants
Viktor Orbán Versus the Enlightenment
"A few weeks ago, in a small town in Hungary, two Catholic nuns were stopped on the street and berated by people yelling, “Migrants! Migrants!” After pushing the old ladies a bit, they called the police, believing they had seen Muslim women in a burqa and hijab. The police saved the nuns from the Christian crowd." [SL to Jacobin by Miklós Tamás-Gáspár] [more inside]
May 2
What IS the difference between orthochromatic and panchromatic?
The Timeline of Historical Film Colors is a comprehensive resource for the investigation of film color technology and aesthetics, analysis and restoration, developed and curated by Barbara Flueckiger since 2012
Crack Pie anyone?
Christina Tosi makes yummy looking food. Including: Crack Pie, ice cream that tastes "just like the milk at the bottom of a bowl of cornflakes!", and "transparent" birthday cake (whose sides are not frosted so you can see inside). The always excellent Chef's Table opened their new season with a spotlight on Christina and her Brooklyn-based Momofuku Milk Bar.
Go West to the Sunken Place.
‘I miss the old Kanye’
“Let's be about it, people.”
Of Treecats and Spaceships: David Weber’s On Basilisk Station [Tor.com] “Any series whose hook starts with “Napoleonic wars…IN SPACE” has potential, but when the rest is “fought by a kickass woman with a telempathic cat” I knew I was in for a rollicking good time. On Basilisk Station, and indeed the entire Honor Harrington series by David Weber, never fails to make me thrill with wonder and delight as I tear through the books and then, later, as I digest it, to think of all the sociological philosophy he snuck in while I wasn’t looking!” [more inside]
The Life Cycle of a Dog Toy
This project began out of frustration. Every cute toy I brought home for my dogs ended in a mangled mess destined for the landfill. I decided to photograph the toys in their pristine shape, then again months later, observing this savage demolition with the scrutiny of an anthropologist. [more inside]
The Great High School Imposter
"Before putting the plot into motion, before the five-year masquerade, before the honors and the scholarships and the arrests and the deportation, before any of that, he rode into town on a Greyhound bus on a sleepy spring afternoon, marveling at how smooth the roads were all along the way. He'd come a great distance—5,000 miles from Nova Kakhovka to Harrisburg... The way he'd envisioned it, he would show up to the States and save some money and enroll in a university that very fall. But he'd assumed the local colleges would cost what they do in Ukraine, a couple thousand bucks a year. He couldn't believe that they were asking for 10, 20 times that amount. That was more than he could make working full-time. And if he had to work full-time, where did school fit in? The paradox left him cold. The impossible bind left him panicked. He was already so lonely—no friends, work all day—and for what? The summer was flying, he was expected to depart in September. By mid-July, he realized anxiously, he was rapidly running out of time."
[air horn]
Now the story of a family that wants to rule the galaxy, and the one son who had no choice but to save it. (slyt)
Insane in the mem-drain...
In an effort to prevent future flooding, the City of Houston has launched a program called Adopt-a-drain Houston. As part of the program, residents are free to name their adopted drain. A nickname battle has ensued. Keaton Fox of Houston's ABC13, via Twitter: The city of Houston started an adopt-a-drain program to help drainage. Adopt a drain and name it anything you want. No checks. No rules. What could go wrong?
They were all made in the winter of 1913-1914, the 'starving time'
Claire Voon at Hyperallergic describes a Newly Digitized Collection of Early 20th-Century Lakota Drawings.
The entire collection is now available to examine online as part of the Newberry’s new open access policy that has so far made over 1.7 digital images available for unrestricted and free use. The drawings, specifically, are part of the Edward E. Ayer Collection, which comprises artworks, books, and other materials related to American Indian history and culture. [more inside]
"That's me told then"
The 8 Year Voyage of the Legolas
Do you remember a Dutchman in blue-black leather who visited you? A simple story of a sailing adventure told by the man who built the boat.
Fred Moten’s Radical Critique of the Present
For Moten, blackness is something “fugitive,” as he puts it—an ongoing refusal of standards imposed from elsewhere. In “Stolen Life,” he writes, “Fugitivity, then, is a desire for and a spirit of escape and transgression of the proper and the proposed. It’s a desire for the outside, for a playing or being outside, an outlaw edge proper to the now always already improper voice or instrument.” In this spirit, Moten works to connect subjects that our preconceptions may have led us to think had little relation.
“We will never forgive ETA.”
ETA, the Basque separatist group, is dissolving itself, it stated in a letter published on Wednesday, closing a history that included one of the longest terrorism campaigns in modern Europe, which killed over 800 people in Spain. [more inside]
🎶 lol
The extraordinary life and death of the world’s oldest known spider
SLWaPo: "She was born beneath an acacia tree in one of the few patches of wilderness left in the southwest Australian wheat belt, in an underground burrow lined with her mother’s perfect silk.
Her mother had used the same silk, strong and thick, to seal the burrow’s entrance against the withering heat of the summer of 1974, and against all the flying, prodding things that prowled the North Bungulla Reserve.
She lived like that, in safety and darkness, for the first six months of her life. Then one day in the rainy autumn months, her mother unsealed the tunnel, and she left."
Hold your breath
AMA is a short film featuring amazing underwater choreography, starring Julie Gautier. The title references Japanese shell divers. Via Colossal
EMSH
Ed Emshwiller (bio) was an award winning artist whose paintings (often signed “EMSH”) graced hundreds of science fiction novels and magazines beginning in the 1950s. Here’s a gallery, and here's a list; click through to see most of the covers. He was also a filmmaker and pioneering video artist who founded the CalArts Computer Animation Lab and was dean of the school of film and video there until his death in 1990. Some films: Thanatopsis (1962), Carol (1970), Film with Three Dancers (1971), part of Scape-Mates (1972), Sunstone (1979). Also, a 1978 interview with Emsh on the Dick Cavett Show.
California rules on the new surge of independent contractor
California's top court makes it more difficult for employers to classify workers as independent contractors. At the heart of the dispute was whether or not Dynamex Operations West Inc. delivery drivers were independent contractors or employees. This comes on the heels of a federal judge in Philadelphia ruling that Uber drivers are in fact independent contractors. [more inside]
'Cause I don't wanna work anymore
The Pudding examines the biggest laugh in Ali Wong's Netflix stand-up special "Baby Cobra" and breaks the special down to its component parts to find out why the comedy works.
Calendimaggio di Assisi
Continuing with the May Day theme, today is the first day of the Calendimaggio festival in Assisi, Italy. Although a celebration of the city's medieval past, the festival in its current form only dates back to 1954 (here are archival photos from each year of the festival). The Calendimaggio is structured around a competition between the "upper" (Parte de Sopra) and "lower" (Parte de Sotto) factions of the city -- a callback to the rivalry between supporters of the Pope and supporters of the Holy Roman Emperor that consumed medieval Italy -- and features singing, drumming, dancing, parades, tug-of-war, archery, and many other activities. Here's a documentary about the festival from 2010. And you can view this year's festival live on YouTube.
Randall Jarrell reads The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
It’s a wonderful event. Quite insane.
May 1
Is it a curse? A blessing? I mean. duh. I knew it was a curse
anyway, do you guys want to hear a story: "two weeks ago a mysterious cursed root appeared on my front doorstep. it was the length of my forearm and shaped like a fucked up turkey leg. look here it is"
change the dress code from khaki to black pants, in part to hide stains
Noble charter schools, which cover about 10% of Chicago's high school students, have discipline policies that have been described as dehumanizing. These includes strong restrictions on bathroom use, including for girls on their periods. [more inside]
Beware, you might fall down a rabbit hole of repainting dolls
What do you do with a de-faced doll? You could stick on eyes from a magazine and call it a day, or make them look more realistic (multiple links to Poppen Atelier doll make-over videos; Poppen Atelier on Instagram)
"Why? Because baseball makes zero sense."
SB Nation editor and fan favorite Jon Bois and friends field up another episode of Dorktown. This time, the discussion is about Adam Dunn, being a "four true outcome" hitter, and how he created nearly $7M of pointless labor. (SLYT) [more inside]
An Extraordinary Union
"The company has forged a chain uncommon in mainstream publishing: an unbroken line of black women, from the novel's protagonist, via the author, to the editor, to the art director who created the cover art (featuring a black woman). This was a 'black on all sides' mainstream publishing project. And it worked." Novelist Alyssa Cole, editor Esi Sogah, and art director Kris Noble discuss with Bim Adewunmi the development, packaging, publication, and reception of Cole's Loyal League series, a trio of romances centered around black women and men during the U.S. Civil War. [more inside]
Power Rangers, transform and ROLL OUT
Hasbro agrees to acquire the Power Rangers and other IP from Saban Entertainmen for about $520 million in cash and stock. Hasbro is trying to recover losses following the bankruptcy of Toys 'R Us.
“It’s basically porn, for the PC Master Race,”
Build Your Own PC Inside the PC You Built With PC Building Simulator [Ars Technica] “The "simulator" genre of PC games was already pretty meta, but it has now reached a new level with PC Building Simulator, a game currently available via Steam Early Access. In it, you build desktop PCs (mostly the gaming variety) by opening up the case, installing components, plugging them into the motherboard for power, and more, all in a 3D simulation. (Sorry, no VR.)” [more inside]
She Left, He Stayed
Only a few years after federal courts recognized sexual harassment as a form of discrimination, Terry Karl tried to get Harvard to hold her harasser accountable. And despite the time spent trying to get Harvard to do something and many other complaints, Jorge Dominguez's career has flourished
superphreak
Telephone World hosts, among other gems, Evan Doorbell's Phone Tapes, where he explains exactly what you're hearing in Ma Bell's wires in the 70s and 80s. [more inside]
A fight for accurate representation against stereotypes
Natives Photograph opens today. The site highlights Native American visual journalists, to "bring balance to the way we tell stories about Indigenous people and spaces." It also offers a database for editors seeking to assign indigenous photographers in North America, "to tell the stories of their communities and to reflect on how we tell these stories." [more inside]
Y’allidarity
[squirrel] mother and [squirrel] child reunion
After a baby squirrel fell down their chimney, a Vancouver couple reunited it with its mother by putting it in their backyard and playing baby squirrel sounds from a YouTube video to attract her. "It was amazing. Within less than a minute of playing this sound, we saw this squirrel dashing across the neighbours' yard. Like on a mission," Woo said. "We were both crying because we didn't know the mum would come, and come so quickly." She swung by, looked over the baby and then scooped it up. They both scurried off together. "I'm not sure we'll see them again but it was an amazing reunion," Woo said. "I was bawling my eyes out because it was so beautiful." CBC has a link to the video of the [squirrel] mother and [squirrel] child reunion.
Hey Mario, how about some GNU/Linux with those mushrooms?
Hardware hackers recently disclosed a Nintendo Switch exploit that allows anyone with the portable gaming device to load Linux on the Switch without much fuss. This is Ubuntu 18.04 Running on the Nintendo Switch.
"Natalie Walker Is a Weak Female Character"
"Here is my audition to be in a movie as lady we hate because she is temporarily keepin the people w the symmetrical faces from bein together" (1:38)
"Here is my audition 2 be lady who shakes vaguely dissatisfied white man out of malaise w her accessible eccentricity" (0:58) [cw: suicide]
"In MA 4 family reunion so here's my audition 2 b in a BOSTON film as lady who represents rough past noble male hero is striving not 2 repeat" (0:52)
See the thread for more treasures. Natalie Walker previously.
"Here is my audition 2 be lady who shakes vaguely dissatisfied white man out of malaise w her accessible eccentricity" (0:58) [cw: suicide]
"In MA 4 family reunion so here's my audition 2 b in a BOSTON film as lady who represents rough past noble male hero is striving not 2 repeat" (0:52)
See the thread for more treasures. Natalie Walker previously.
Post-Authenticity and the Ironic Truths of Meme Culture
Jay Owens writes a fascinating essay on the relationship between the idea of "authenticity", truth, and the current generation's use of memes. What does it mean to be authentic and real online? What does our drive for authenticity in media and in self-presentation say about how we interact online? And most importantly, what can American Chopper memes contribute to the conversation? [more inside]
United we demand, divided we beg.
“... the gap between tech theory and tech practice has grown increasingly difficult to ignore. Even the tech press — Wired and its ilk — has lost faith. Many now know the tech elite as a hive of misogynists and sociopaths, and their companies to be indiscriminate vacuums of sensitive personal data that they package and sell to the nation’s intelligence agencies (and the Trump campaign). According to polls, the majority of the public still maintains a positive view of the industry’s biggest companies. But the scales have fallen from the eyes of many of its workers.” Code Red - the Tech Solidarity and the Tech Workers Coalition, a history of tech industry worker action, and the growing movement to unionize tech from the bottom up. (N+1)
Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within
i wanna get WASTED
- W ake up early
- A nticipate a productive day
- S tay hydrated
- T ake a multivitamin
- E xercise
- D on't stay up too late
En-route to Trincomalee. Approximately 14018 miles to go
Taking the long war round Starting in late 1941 Pan Am flight 18602, the California Clipper, flew to New York via an unusual route.
(part 2, part 3)
Árvakr ok Alsviðr þeir skulu upp héðan svangir sól draga
Without magnetic compass, clock, or GPS, how do you navigate in the North Atlantic when it's cloudy and you're out of sight of land? Vikings may have used sunstones and their ability to polarize light to find the hidden sun. [more inside]
"UYA" notices and face-saving in moderation systems
In the 90s, MIT's Athena system devised a system known as "stopit" to handle online harrassment. One feature of the system was that the notice of reported abusive behaviour sent to the accused user began with the phrase "Someone using your account…". Users were advised to re-password their accounts, as they may have been hacked. Password resets by UYA recipients were taken in good faith by staff, but the most astonishing thing was that the offending behaviour nearly always stopped there. [more inside]
Antcheater
A prize for Wildlife Photographer of the Year has been withdraw when judges noticed the anteater pictured is almost certainly stuffed. 'There's a lot of fakery': insiders spill on the dirty tricks behind wildlife photos
Pure CSS
Pure CSS Vignes, Zigario, and Francine are a series of projects where Diana Smith (GitHub) creates art using only CSS and HTML under the following constraints:
- All elements must be typed out by hand
- Only Atom text editor and Chrome Developer Tools allowed.
- SVG use is limited, and all shapes can only use hand-plotted coordinates and bezier curves - without the aid of any graphics editor.