January 27, 2018
quantum physics, traffic, chicken eyes, random matrices, and ...?
In Mysterious Pattern, Math and Nature Converge, Natalie Wolchover for Quanta
In 1999, while sitting at a bus stop in Cuernavaca, Mexico, a Czech physicist named Petr Šeba noticed young men handing slips of paper to the bus drivers in exchange for cash. It wasn’t organized crime, he learned, but another shadow trade: Each driver paid a “spy” to record when the bus ahead of his had departed the stop. If it had left recently, he would slow down, letting passengers accumulate at the next stop. If it had departed long ago, he sped up to keep other buses from passing him. This system maximized profits for the drivers. And it gave Šeba an idea. “We felt here some kind of similarity with quantum chaotic systems,” explained Šeba’s co-author, Milan Krbálek, in an email.[more inside]
Consciousness and Conscience
But even as Switzerland provides animals with increasing legal protections, some animal advocates say the rights currently afforded to animals don’t go far enough. […] Lauren Choplin of the non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project, which litigates for animals’ fundamental rights, told Quartz on Jan. 17, “in our view, the law hasn’t caught up to what we know about animal cognition, and it needs to.” Indeed, our evolving understanding of animal consciousness suggests that we have some uncomfortable philosophical and legal work ahead.[more inside]
Sex Toys For Your Voice
University of Alberta drama professor David Ley was trying to help an actor friend who had big gigs coming up fast, and muscle tension that had messed up her voice. Manual massage wasn't good enough. Medical supply shops offered nothing useful. They they checked out a "love shop."
“What do vocal folds do? They vibrate. What is resonance? It's sympathetic vibration, reciprocal vibration. So using vibration to create vibration shouldn't be a very big leap. . . . This is about how our bodies deal with vibration: The muscle will either tone up, or engage, to deal with the vibration, or it will release," Ley explains. "It's mainly about creating a flow of energy, and then it's really about release." [more inside]
More like Hello Stale
Twitter Jitters
Inside Social Media's Black Market. "The price difference has allowed Mr. Calas to build a small fortune, according to company records. In just a few years, Devumi sold about 200 million Twitter followers to at least 39,000 customers, accounting for a third of more than $6 million in sales during that period." [more inside]
Fanch, Hoop of Gomb, Beth Factory, Ben Sex, Bustles Muckson + more
Pop culture today is obsessed with the battle between good and evil.
The good guy/bad guy myth - Catherine Nichols
Virtually all our mass-culture narratives based on folklore have the same structure: good guys battle bad guys for the moral future of society. These tropes are all over our movies and comic books, in Narnia and at Hogwarts, and yet they don’t exist in any folktales, myths or ancient epics. [...] The ostensibly moral face-off between good and evil is a recent invention that evolved in concert with modern nationalism – and, ultimately, it gives voice to a political vision not an ethical one.
We are part of something far, far, bigger...
The new advert from the HSBC UK bank stars Richard Ayoade, features Nimrod by Elgar, and "contains products and brands that have become integral staples of British culture and lifestyle". Devised by J. Walter Thompson, "the 60-second spot positions the affable Ayoade as its Global Citizen." The ad is "entirely free from misguided jingoism", does not mention the B word and any comparisons to contemporary UK political trauma are totally and completely coincidental.
Flixable, a new, slim Netflix title search and browsing site
Flixable is a new, streamlined Netflix search site, built by redditor CrazedEll, which makes it easy to see what's new and what's leaving, separated by movies and TV, and is currently able to search titles available in Canada, Finland, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States. Alternative Netflix search sites: New On Netflix (for UK, USA, Canada, and NZ/AUS), Justwatch (also searches other services, but no country filters) [more inside]
Stuck in the Middle
Highway of Riches, Road to Ruin
Inside the Amazon's deforestation Crisis.
Highway BR-163 cuts a brutal path through Brazil’s conflicting ambitions: to transform itself into an economic powerhouse and to preserve the Amazon as a bulwark against climate change. Stephanie Nolen travelled 2,000 kilometres along the dusty, dangerous corridor, and found a range of realistic — and often counterintuitive ways — that the forest could work for everyone. [more inside]
Highway BR-163 cuts a brutal path through Brazil’s conflicting ambitions: to transform itself into an economic powerhouse and to preserve the Amazon as a bulwark against climate change. Stephanie Nolen travelled 2,000 kilometres along the dusty, dangerous corridor, and found a range of realistic — and often counterintuitive ways — that the forest could work for everyone. [more inside]
Don't Worry Darling, You Didn't Burn the Beer!
“In a parallel universe” is a series of fictional images, recreated from real ads in the mad men era, that question modern day sexism: showing it through a humorous light to spark a conversation through role play. By photographer Eli Rezkallah [more inside]
The Dreams of an Inventor in 1420
Cupcakes
Here's the Plan - Animated short film where a cat and dog couple decide to open a bakery. (slyt)
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