February 11, 2016
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Seattle's Experiment with Campaign Finance Reform
Starting in 2017, city residents will be able to contribute to local candidates without spending a dime of their own money. Instead, the government will send each registered voter four $25 vouchers that they can give to candidates of their choice. No cutting a check. No minimum contribution. Candidates can opt out, but those who participate will have to abide by strict limits on spending and on receiving private donations. [more inside]
Viking Funeral counts for two pumps
Hingle McCringleberry and Kimble Mathias of the Portland Tigers are known for their unique endzone dances, often taking them too far.
Inside the Eye
Inside the Eye: Nature’s Most Exquisite Creation "If you ask people what animal eyes are used for, they’ll say: same thing as human eyes. But that’s not true. It’s not true at all" [more inside]
"Why doesn't she just leave him?"
More women are killed by intimate partners in the United States than by any other group of people. It's not strangers, friends or acquaintances who pose the biggest threat to women's lives: It's the men they date and marry.
"I didn't expect it to be very driver friendly,"
Behold, the World's Fastest Log Car [Road and Track]
"THE FIRST TIME YOU SEE IT, your brain almost short circuits—nope, uh-uh, that's not real. But it is, and it is exactly what it looks like: a tree car. More specifically, it is a car made out of a western red cedar log with a concave mouth for a "grille", a wooden roll bar and wooden fenders, and a pair of turbines protruding from its rear. The thing looks ludicrous, like something a crazed Woody the Woodpecker would drive, or maybe a George Barris creation if he had ever gotten lost in the Pacific Northwest with an axe and a flask of whiskey. It gets better: The log car is rear-wheel drive, uses the mechanicals from a Mazda RX-7, and is powered by eight lithium-ion batteries. More than 500 pounds of them. Why? Why would someone do this, you might ask. And who? Who in the world would devote time to such a project? Also, what? What were they smoking? Must've been some potent stuff."
Thinking Outside the Bike Box
Robert Egger of Specialized Bicycles thinks UCI racing regulations are stifling bike design: His latest prototype, the fUCI, is both a protest and a design experiment. This ultimate go-fast bike features an in-frame motor (previously), aerodynamic windshield, integrated trunk, oversized wheel, and smartphone dock. [more inside]
Majmuna's Tombstone
"Oh he who looks upon this tomb! I am already consumed inside it, and dust has settled on my eyes. On my couch in my abode there is nothing but tears, and what is to happen at my resurrection when I shall appear before my Creator?" [more inside]
Cooler than me?
By Donnie Wahlberg
The Story Behind New Kids on the Block’s Insane (and Preempted) 1991 Halftime Show (SL Playboy) NSFW
Steven talks black holes
The Demon In The Dark
Taking race out of human genetics
In the wake of the sequencing of the human genome in the early 2000s, genome pioneers and social scientists alike called for an end to the use of race as a variable in genetic research. Unfortunately, by some measures, the use of race as a biological category has increased in the postgenomic age. Although inconsistent definition and use has been a chief problem with the race concept, it has historically been used as a taxonomic categorization based on common hereditary traits (such as skin color) to elucidate the relationship between our ancestry and our genes. We believe the use of biological concepts of race in human genetic research—so disputed and so mired in confusion—is problematic at best and harmful at worst. It is time for biologists to find a better way. - An editorial in Science exploring the conundrum facing genomic researchers where race is both fundamentally flawed as a scientific model and violently dangerous but still the only consistent lens through which study participants understand the information they have about their own connection to human diversity [more inside]
To Anyone Who Thinks They're Falling Behind
Mutant Rock!
If you like relatively obscure teenage superheroes and Joan Jett-style rocking out, block out six minutes to watch this fan film of Marvel's New Mutants at a Lila Cheney concert, by Greasy Pig Studios. [more inside]
The Careful Design of Cave Story
Still not having enlightened you to the extent of your plight, Cave Story teases bits and pieces of its plot to remind you that you're not just a player jumping and shooting enemies. You're a character, venturing forth in an unknown world for unknown reasons, and it's up to you to unravel the story. Cave Story recognizes the importance of narrative, and utilizes this storytelling experience to enhance the game's design while simultaneously guiding you through the mysterious island and its inhabitants.
Atticus Finch is wired in
Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of the 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird is coming to Broadway. Producer Scott Rudin told the New York Times that while no casting decisions have been made, “The Atticus we do is going to be the Atticus in 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'" [more inside]
"No wonder that bloke's hiding out on the moon."
Charlie Brooker versus 2015 The creator of Black Mirror and some friends look back at 2015.
(SLY)
"Happy Valentine's Day!" the woman threatened.
"[E]ver since noticing a beautifully wrinkled and mysteriously sensual older French woman at a friend’s party, and, having inquired if she was the wife of the frizzy-haired, balding older man with the huge, horn-rimmed glasses next to her, and being informed that, “Nooo, she’s his mistress. They’ve been lovers for many years,” I’d decided that loverhood was what I aspired to." "The Magic Trick," by Carolita Johnson. (SLTheHairpin) [more inside]
“A Sort of Anti-Extremist Flappy Bird”
‘I am a radicalised goat hell-bent on jihad’ – the FBI’s new anti-Isis video game:
“As the title suggests, there are more metaphors to unmangle here: a wooden mannequin bound by strings, for example, which you can free by visiting all the site’s sections. These are rendered as rooms of a confusing family home, which appears to contain a dingy, windowless lecture room and a serial-killer basement.” (SLGuardian)
Naturally, there is a right way and a wrong way of wording telegrams.
If you are alive to the need of making every minute count in this modern, high speed age, you will often have occasion to avail yourself of the facilities of the highly organized institutions which have succeeded the old time operator bent over his telegraph key in the little dingy telegraph office of a few generations ago.So said one Nelson E. Ross in his Small Booklet entitled "How to Write Telegrams Properly" in 1928. [more inside]
NASA's Visions of the Future Calendar Images
The images for JPL’s Visions Of The Future 2016 Calendar, which was an internal gift to JPL and NASA staff along with scientists, engineers, government and university staff, have been put online. "As you look through these images of imaginative travel destinations, remember that you can be an architect of the future." [via] [more inside]
past performance is no guarantee of future results
Portfolio Visualizer is a website that lets you backtest asset allocations, conduct Fama-French Factor Regression Analysis, look at Asset Correlations, run Monte Carlo simulations, find the efficient frontier, or test market timing models against historical data. [more inside]
Gravitational Waves Exist
Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them. The New York Times also has a writeup.
Around the World in OKGO
New music video shot in zero gravity from our very very very very very very very very very old friends OKGO.
A mad medley of The Andrew Sisters and The Supremes with Sammy Davis Jr.
A month from today will be 50 years since Sammy Davis Jr. satisfied a whim and had The Andrew Sisters sing the hits of The Supremes, and vise-versa. The quality isn't great, and it's only a snippet of Sammy's short-lived show from 1966. If you want more, here's the full episode, full of singing, dancing and comedy: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6.
But can you escape the bear?
The Internet Archive now has Windows 3.1 emulation running in the browser, including a stock installation of the OS, WinTrek, Tapei, and most importantly SkiFree. [more inside]
Kutiman gets his/your jazz on.
Kutiman has dropped his new video album: OFF GRID (YouTube version here).
"In this new work, Kutiman utilizes his unique method of carefully blanketing together YouTube users' original content into one natural and cohesive audio-visual experience. This time around, Kutiman plays with the concept of expanded time, musical complexity and intricate layering while adding special visual effects to create a new perspective of the Jazz genre."
The Death of the Most Generous Nation on Earth
Sweden's initial humanitarian response, and subsequent withdrawal in the face of the European refugee crisis. (Single link foreign policy article.)
Herland
"In 1915 women could neither vote, divorce nor work after marriage, yet in that same year the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman envisaged a revolutionary world populated entirely by women who were intelligent, resourceful and brave." -- For Radio 4 science fiction writer & critic Geoff Ryman looks at the utopian feminist tradition in science fiction, with contributions by Stephanie Saulter, Laurie Penny, Dr Sari Edelstein, Sarah Le Fanu, Dr Caitríona Ní Dhúill and Sarah Hall. Related: ten women who changed sci-fi.
Platform Cooperatives: Money as a (Public) Service
In Sweden, a Cash-Free Future Nears - "Few places are tilting toward a cashless future as quickly as Sweden, which has become hooked on the convenience of paying by app and plastic." [more inside]
for multiple meanings of 'Hack'
Last weekend The Stupid Shit No One Needs & Terrible Ideas Hackathon happened in Brooklyn. (Considering the first 'Terrible Idea' listed is 'Soylent Dick' please assume NSFW-ness) Vice.com and the Guardian have additional tawdry details. [more inside]
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