January 21, 2015
Death of Banks
The End of Banking: Money, Credit, and the Digital Revolution - "Unregulated banking with access to government guarantees is an enticing business model. It offers the profits of excessive risk-taking in good times, and allows passing on the inevitable losses to taxpayers in bad times." [more inside]
Beyond belief: HeroRats đ
HeroRats: "If people step on landmines, they will get hurt, but the HeroRats are too small to press the button that explodes the bomb. Then people can dig up the landmine without it exploding and no one gets hurt." (PDF document). The associated Twitter account: @HeroRATs. They tweet at celebrities for the LOLs and to raise awareness, as well as interacting with fellow Tweeters. [more inside]
Confusion Through Sand
Confusion Through Sand. (YouTube.) An animated short in which "a nineteen year old finds himself alone in a hostile desert, scared as hell, and trained to react." [Via]
The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered
And It Is Not What You Think. "The rats with good lives didn't like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did."
A camera on a squid
Image of the squid wearing a Crittercam.
"The Humboldt squid uses pigment sacs on its skin to 'flash' and to 'flicker,' both previously-unknown behaviors".
Article with a gif showing the squid 'flashing'.
"The Humboldt squid uses pigment sacs on its skin to 'flash' and to 'flicker,' both previously-unknown behaviors".
Article with a gif showing the squid 'flashing'.
The mating call of Mustang
VROOM! The âaural experienceâ of a car, they argue, is an intangible thatâs just as priceless as whatâs revving under the hood.
Call now for a free start-up kit!
Another frantic day of trading at the New York Sock Exchange
It was 30 years ago today, Dan Piraro made "Bizarro" de...but. One of a bunch of "Far Side Copies" (and with a name borrowed from a Superman comics character), it may have never reached Gary Larson levels of success, but it stayed away from LOOKING like a copy, and almost 11,000 daily panels later, it still frequently lives up to its name.
Better Call Jimmy McGill
The Last Hurrah of Difficult Men, commentary on a tv show, a book and an essay in Esquire. "I'll just say it: The first few episodes that I saw are better than Breaking Bad. They are smarter. They are sharper. I have never seen a prequel handled so cleverly." [more inside]
"He's just a platypus; they don't do much."
Meta Hip Hop
âIâm not a killer. Iâm really not. Iâd just had enough.â
Wolflandia: The Fight Over the Most Polarizing Animal in the West
Twenty years after wolves were reintroduced in the Northern Rockies, many politicians would still love to see them eradicated, and hunters and ranchers are allowed to kill them by the hundreds. But the animals are not only survivingâthey're thriving, and expanding their range at a steady clip. For the people who live on the wild edges of wolf country, their presence can be magical and maddening at once. [more inside]
Twenty years after wolves were reintroduced in the Northern Rockies, many politicians would still love to see them eradicated, and hunters and ranchers are allowed to kill them by the hundreds. But the animals are not only survivingâthey're thriving, and expanding their range at a steady clip. For the people who live on the wild edges of wolf country, their presence can be magical and maddening at once. [more inside]
People are nowhere to be found
'The Cloud' and Other Dangerous Metaphors. Whatâs notable about dominant data metaphors is that they consistently compare data to naturally occurring physical resources. And just as the history of resource exploitation in Americaâfrom westward expansion through the Gold Rush, and beyond into modern-day debates about water and air rightsâinvolves the appropriation of resources that belonged to someone else, online data collection policy treats personal information as a natural, inexhaustible goodâripe for exploitation in the name of economic growth and private gain.
It's enough to make you want to stop teaching kids poetry.
Our presence together ... is evidence that we all have screwed up.
In the Basement of the Ivory Tower. A 2008 article about a place where the dream of sending every American to college has an ugly encounter with reality.
Making himself a moot point
"The Solution to Pollution is Dilution"
You're Not Just Imagining Things
Pitchfork interviews Björk about the inspiration for and methods behind her newest album. Awesomeness ensues.
Crisis on Infinite Gauntlets
This is the thread about threads that dance across your screen
For your viewing pleasure: one music video made with sewing and embroidery tools, one music video made of sewing and embroidery tools.
The Burpo-Malarkey doctrine
"I did not die. I did not go to Heaven. I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough."Alex Malarkey co-wrote a bestselling book about a near-death experience â and then last week admitted he made it up.
That's a damn fine cup of synth...and hot!
If David Lynch had made Twin Peaks back in 1984 instead of Dune, this might have been what the soundtrack would have sounded like.
How Harry Potter fans won a four-year fight against child slavery
Right before Christmas, Warner Bros. quietly gave âHarry Potterâ fans what was, for some of them, a long-wished-for gift. In a letter to Andrew Slack, the founder of the Harry Potter Alliance, Joshua Berger, the companyâs president for Harry Potter Global Franchise Development, announced, âBy the end of 2015, and sooner when possible, all Harry Potter chocolate products sold at Warner Bros. outlets and through our licensed partners will be 100-percent UTZ or Fair Trade certified.â[more inside]
Gaming while Black
"Just because I sit here and say I haven't felt overt racism or harassment doesn't mean I don't know what it is and that I haven't experienced it elsewhere in my life, or that my mother didn't grow up in a world where there were colored drinking fountains," Harvey said. "This is stuff that happened and stuff that we think is relevant still today, on a lot of levels. And I think many people are very aware of this, a lot of gamers are very aware of this stuff in their daily lives. Games are a way of processing, a way of playing through an experience that is maybe more intense than you've ever felt it â you're sort of living in that avatar's skin. I guess, in a way, we're trying to put them in a skin they're maybe not used to, or maybe they would be interested to inhabit."Jessica Conditt looks at the realities of videogaming's treatment of race and is cautiously optimistic.
Robbie Rogers World Cup Qatar Russia
Russia and Qatar World Cups are 'insane' due to homophobia, says Robbie Rogers. Soccer/Football's first openly gay player, RR has things on his mind. Will Klinsmann come around? On Mefi Previously.
No! Don't make me talk to celebrities!
Legolas and Tauriel kept bursting in with their gymnastics routine
I Have Recut Peter Jacksonâs Hobbit Trilogy Into A Single 4-Hour Film
Back in 2012, I had high hopes of adding The Hobbit to my annual Lord of the Rings marathon, but in its current bloated format, I simply cannot see that happening. So, over the weekend, I decided to condense all three installments... into a single 4-hour feature that more closely resembled Tolkienâs original novel. Well, okay, itâs closer to 4.5 hours, but those are some long-ass credits![more inside]
The estate weâre in: how working class people became the âproblemâ
Being held up as âbeating the oddsâ, âdone goodâ, or âescapedâ does not make me happy. (slTheGrauniad)
Chronodex - the radial time management system
Chronodex is a personal time management system developed by Patrick Ng that naturally matches the clock. It's free! Here's the printable 2015(a) edition sized for Traveler's Notebooks [more inside]
Everything in its right place
SPCA Dogs are Smart
Almost as appealing as a nailclipper next to a plate of eggs
Get the doll
Asteroid 2004 BL86
Asteroid 2004 BL86 will safely pass about three times the distance to the moon on January 26. It will not be bright enough to view with an unaided eye; however, astronomy sites including Earthsky and Universe Today have instructions for amateur astronomers with suitable equipment. [more inside]
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