February 9, 2014
Scientific magic and the humble pickle
Even Robots Get The Blus
Luckily most of these songs aren't dreck
The Music Scene is a television series aired by ABC as part of its Fall 1969 lineup. The show featured performances from the top musicians of the week as compiled by “Billboard Magazine” and had a number of hosts, including David Steinberg and Lily Tomlin. Many huge names of the era, including The Beatles, James Brown, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Three Dog Night, Tom Jones on the initial program and Janis Joplin, Bobby Sherman, The Miracles, Sly & the Family Stone, Isaac Hayes, Stevie Wonder, Bo Diddley and Mama Cass Elliot, (who co-hosted as well as performed) among many others, appearing on subsequent shows. [more inside]
A tragedy of epic proportions.
What tools did the Vikings use to construct their ships? During the early years of the Song dynasty, while Sridhar Acharya's concept of "zero" was making it's way westward and a pair of anonymous Anglo-Saxon poets was committing the tale of Beowulf to animal skin, a Viking craftsman lost his tool chest. It is speculated that the chest fell overboard off a ship or through the ice into what was then a swamp on the modern island of Gotland, Sweden. The chest was unearthed in 1936 when a chain attached to the chest got caught on a farmer's plow. In it were the tools a Viking blacksmith/ship builder would need to ply his trade.
Named the Mästermyr chest its discovery was a boon to archaeologists, historians, re-enactors, woodworkers and blacksmiths. The original tools (catalogue of the items) were restored and put on display. Numerous copies and tributes of the chest or selected tools have been made over the years including a complete replica of both the chest and contents made using period techniques as a 'net project of a blacksmiths and woodworkers. [more inside]
So yeah, don't even worry about it, it's just an e-card, not a big deal
Just in time for Valentine's Day, Scarleteen launches rad e-cards for "hookups or friends with benefits, open or poly relationships, friendships, sexually exclusive relationships, exes turned friends, and even the love relationship one has with oneself." Art by Isabella Rotman.
Supernormal Stimuli
The key word is "publicly"...
Michael Sam blazes a trail. Michael Sam, University of Missouri star football player, Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year and prospective draft pick in this spring's 2014 NFL draft, may become the first publicly gay player in the NFL. [more inside]
Got vinegar?
Grandmothers knew it, but commercial technology made it passe... What other substance can burnish your scissors, clean your piano keys, deodorize lunch boxes, footlockers, and car trunks, purge bugs from your pantry, and keep corned beef from shrinking....as well as 145 other things? Not much.
The Geneva Beatus: Not what anyone was expecting.
The Beatus Cycle refers the nearly 30 surviving illuminated manuscripts based on an 8th century commentary on the Book of the Apocalypse by Saint Beatus of Liebana. The commentary is primarily composed of excerpts from works by theologians such as Augustine, Ambrose and Irenaeus. While the original manuscript had illustrations interspersed with the text, beginning with Maius in the mid-10th century, the paintings were moved to more prominent full or double pages with borders. (Here’s an example of the Maius manuscript format.) As the manuscript was repeatedly copied throughout the Christian portions of the Iberian Peninsula, the original iconography combined with Maius’ layout was preserved mostly intact. In 2007 a new Beatus manuscript came to light – the 11th-century Genevan Beatus. [more inside]
Catch Olympic Fever!
And who doesn't love a little luge? SLYT The Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Diversity has created a brief response to Russian homophobia.
Rainwave: video game music radio stations, programmed by voting
Rainwave is not an online video game music radio station that plays songs at at random. Rather, the site lets the users program the playlists, based on voting for individual tracks. As an anonymous user, you can still listen to the default station with all styles mixed together, or focus on game, chiptune, cover or ocremix songs.
Yuletide + Youtube = Festivids
Need to take a quick break? Check out the masterlist for Festivids, a multi-fandom fanvid exchange., a multi-fandom fanvid exchange. Over 200 fanvids went live this year, including one about a day in the life of a stormtrooper in Lego Star Wars, a stark look at life in the Ozarks in the Winter's Bone, and a tribute to Ruby Rhod in the Fifth Element. Vidding Previously 1, 2, 3; Festivids Previously [more inside]
Assembled DNA with a different backbone seems readable by cell machinery
Much easier to put together custom DNA An interdisciplinary study led by Dr Ali Tavassoli, a Reader in chemical biology at the University of Southampton, has shown for the first time that 'click chemistry' can be used to assemble DNA that is functional in human cells, which paves the way for a purely chemical method for gene synthesis.
Writing in Angewandte Chemie International Edition Dr Tavassoli's team and his collaborators, Dr Jeremy Blaydes and Professor Tom Brown, show that human cells can still read through strands of DNA correctly despite being stitched together using a linker not found in nature.
eStonia
Estonia, with a population of 1.3 million, might just have the most technologically forward-thinking government around.
Walking City
Walking City - "Referencing the utopian visions of 1960’s architecture practice Archigram, Walking City is a slowly evolving video sculpture. The language of materials and patterns seen in radical architecture transform as the nomadic city walks endlessly, adapting to the environments she encounters."
I'd like a dumb grande wuppy duppy latte, extra hot, please
On Friday, a Starbucks opened in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. There is something a bit "weirdly off-kilter" about this location according to one customer. In particular, everything there, including the store name has the word "dumb" in front. The store is claiming parody-based fair use exemptions to intellectual property law, and so far, the (non-dumb) Starbucks appears not to have responded. In case you want to pick what you want before hand, their menu of dumb drinks is posted on Twitter.
"Distressed babies"
AOL chief cuts 401(k) benefits, blames Obamacare and two "distressed babies". "AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong Thursday offered a number of unusual explanations for why his company pulled back its 401(k) benefits for employees this year. The first reason: Obamacare. The second: two women at the company who had 'distressed babies' in 2012." [more inside]
You Can't POP Your Cherry (HYMEN 101)
I beg-ee, oh, make you hear me well!
Forty eight, uh-huh, count 'em, FORTY EIGHT Fela records are now available for streaming. Make you hear this one!
People held umbrellas over the people holding umbrellas over him
A man collapses on Oxford Street, London, England and convulses in a fit. Bystanders rush over and help. That evening, on Twitter, victim and helpers find each other again and tell their stories.
How it's made, when it's not made in the human pancreas: Insulin
In the 1920s, two tons of pig parts were needed to produce eight ounces of purified insulin. In 1982 Humulin, human insulin produced by recombinant DNA, became the first such product approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Diabetes Forecast offers a look into modern insulin production.
Apollo of Gaza
Fisherman find an ancient Greek bronze statue in the waters off the coast of Gaza. Now the question is how it can be preserved and what its ultimate fate will be. Here Apollo is lying on Smurf sheets (photo from an Italian article). (Previously on underwater archaeology in the Mediterranean.)
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