March 13, 2015
People Who Live Forever: Indiana Jones’ Father, The Narrator in Borges’
TODD MAY
[PHILOSOPHER]
“In the seminar on death that I taught, there were moments where we were talking about death, and the class would just go quiet, because it was clear it was there in front of us… there wasn't really anything to say at that moment, because each of us just has to look." [more inside]
[PHILOSOPHER]
“In the seminar on death that I taught, there were moments where we were talking about death, and the class would just go quiet, because it was clear it was there in front of us… there wasn't really anything to say at that moment, because each of us just has to look." [more inside]
When your phone is also your doctor
The early days of Apple's ResearchKit software seem set to revolutionize clinical research recruitment, with one Parkinson's study enrolling thousands of people in just a few hours. Apple's new ResearchKit: 'Ethics quagmire' or medical research aid?, from The Verge, discusses some of the ethical quandaries surrounding recruitment for medical studies via mobile app. A follow-up article discusses some changes already made to the developer guidelines to address some of these concerns about informed consent and data sharing. Ars Technica covers the Food and Drug Administration's regulatory requirements for medical devices and how they may apply to mobile apps, including those using ResearchKit.
Five best moments
A nice collection of "Five best moments" at The Guardian:
"Each week readers help us pick five highlights from an actor's film career"
"Each week readers help us pick five highlights from an actor's film career"
You never blow yr trip forever
Daevid Allen, founder of Soft Machine and Gong, died today at age 77. It's very hard to describe his music - space rock, jazz-rock, prog-rock or some weird combination of all of them, but there was nothing quite like it. [more inside]
360° YouTube video
Time Couch is a VR demo video that plays on YouTube. Must be on Chrome or Android (SLYT).
Greece: Phase Two
Greek MP Costas Lapavitsas on the economic barriers ahead for Syriza and the challenges of eurozone exit "I want to come clean, and this a good venue to do it, and say the following: the obvious solution for Greece right now, when I look at it as a political economist, the optimal solution, would be a negotiated exit." [more inside]
Six degrees of breakfast proteins
Why do we still have tampons when we could invent tiny period-nano-bots?
"Couldn’t we come up with some nano “woombas” to suck up a couple of ounces of blood every month?" asks Kaleigh Rogers. Where, oh where, are our flashy, hi-tech menstruation solutions? After a hundred years of tampons, is it time to paint Silicon Valley red and develop some uterine upgrades?
Making sense of Matt Smith's 'Doctor Who' era
Pop culture website Cultbox has taken a stab at making sense of Matt Smith's tenure on "Doctor Who" by placing the events of the Eleventh Doctor's story in chronological order.
After a while, the circles begin to push YOU
This is a game where you push circles into other circles. This is a destructively massive time sink. You have been warned.
“Educated men are so impressive!”
Shakespeare in Tehran by Stephen Greenblatt [New York Review of Books]
"For more than four centuries now he has served as a crucial link across the boundaries that divide cultures, ideologies, religions, nations, and all the other ways in which humans define and demarcate their identities. The differences, of course, remain—Shakespeare cannot simply erase them—and yet he offers the opportunity for what he called “atonement.” He used the word in the special sense, no longer current, of “at-one-ment,” a bringing together in shared dialogue of those who have been for too long opposed and apart."
The growing pains of U.S. soccer’s dominant supporter’s group
In less than a decade, the Outlaws have become become the biggest and most influential force in U.S. national team fan culture, and it’s experiencing some growing pains. What began as a small idea started by three affable friends in Nebraska has become a movement with more than 34,000 people paying $25 per year to join the club. [more inside]
Ladies kindly remove your hats
Hot lava, hot lava
Azealia Banks offers an interactive experience for her song Wallace. Open in Chrome.
So what if Camus had made it to the cafe where Orwell was waiting?
One day in February 1945, in Paris, George Orwell waited at the café Deux Magots, where he was to meet Albert Camus for the first time."The Meeting That Never Was", an essay by Matthew Lamb in the LA Review of Books. [more inside]
During that same era, I had an insatiable addiction to Latin freestyle
Part 4 of an interview with noted video game developer M2, upon the completion of Outrun 3D, the latest on a series of 'SEGA 3D Classics', in which games from the golden era of arcades are meticulously ported to the Nintendo 3DS (!!) handheld system using a variety of interesting, fairly obsessive techniques. [more inside]
Does having "good posture" really matter?
Health-conscious people are haunted by the idea that they “should” correct their posture, and many fight a chronic, uncertain and tedious battle against crookedness. But is it necessary? After working as a massage therapist for many years, I became confident that poor posture is a “real” thing. I think it is sometimes a factor in chronic pain, mostly later in life, and probably can also be improved in some cases with a little effort. But it’s not a straightforward business, this posture stuff! There aren’t many “easy wins” for people here. And there’s plenty of potential to waste time and money — or even get hurt. Delving deeper into the topic as a journalist, studying the scientific literature and learning more from countless readers and experts, I have developed many reasonable doubts about posture’s importance.
still funk lord and queen after all
Groening and Barry Take New York (Sarah Larson, The New Yorker)
"In the early eighties, discovering non-mainstream culture (independent cinema, post-punk rock, comic strips that weren’t 'Beetle Bailey') was much like being a detective, and local alternative newsweeklies were valuable providers of clues. They reviewed art and music that was hard to find; most important, they printed Groening’s 'Life in Hell' and Barry’s 'Ernie Pook’s Comeek.' Both were electrifyingly good. You wondered who these people were, where they came from, why they did what they did. I remember the jolt I felt when looking at the copyright page of Groening’s book 'Love Is Hell' and seeing an odd message, like a note left in a knothole: LYNDA BARRY IS FUNK QUEEN OF THE GALAXY. Groening and Barry were friends!"
Well, San Francisco's right out...
Saving species is essentially a forever-type problem.
If other horses are the equivalent of feral dogs, then the Przewalski’s horse is a wolf. In its native Mongolia, where it goes by the name takhi, it is known as the father of horses. Mongolians regard the takhi as spiritual, holy animals, and for millennia they largely left them alone... The trouble all began in the late 19th century, when the Western world finally took note of the takhi. Nikolai Przewalski, a Polish-born explorer serving as a colonel in the Russian army, “discovered” the horses during an 1878 expedition to the Mongolian-Chinese frontier. Naturally, Przewalski named the horse after himself, and when he returned to the West, word quickly spread among zoos, adventurers, and curio collectors about the mysterious wild horses.
Moog schematics
The Bob Moog Foundation has posted schematics for various synthesiser odds and sods, some hand-drawn by Moog himself. Oddly attractive images even if (like me) you can't read a circuit diagram to save yourself.
NTP or Not NTP? That is the question.
The Network Time Protocol provides a foundation to modern computing. So why does NTP's support hinge so much on the shaky finances of one 59-year-old developer?
Wow, that literally costs an arm and a leg!
How much is your middle finger worth? A worker's comp breakdown by state.
"clothing is personal and everything has a story"
Clothes to Deploy for Uncomfortable Situations
Imagine this, you’re a start-up attending your first business card exchange. You’re in your zone, with speaking points ready to go and pockets stuffed with original laser cut business cards, but then the reality sets in. Everyone is already clustered in little groups conversing among themselves, and there you are left alone. It’s an awkward moment and suddenly you realize you aren’t as well prepared as you thought. Well, just deploy your mega cap sleeves to show them you’re boss, or activate your funnel neck collar to escape the embarrassment. It’s your clothing and you can command it. That’s the idea behind the Clothing for Moderns by Lea Albaugh.
More manly with two men
CRAZY PICTURES are a Swedish group of young comedians who produce short films. Their humour abuses tropes from all manner of genres, sometimes resulting in insightful social commentary, and sometimes just surreal silliness.
We shall lead off with the straight-played gender-swapping "Take Me" and the sequel "See Me", but there is so much more … (English subtitles may need to be manually activated.) [more inside]
Role-playing games and political economy in Brazil
A short history of gaming in Brazil: "To understand the history of gaming in Brazil dear reader, you must know a little bit about our political and economic history ... In 1991, a small publisher by the name of GSA published a roleplaying game called Tagmar [translation], often lauded as the first Brazilian RPG. ... They also released Desafio dos Bandeirantes, a game set in 17th century colonial Brazil using regional folklore instead of European myths, and a sci-fi game, Millenia [translation] ... In February 1994, the Brazilian authorities set in motion a major economic plan that invigorated the Brazilian economy for the first time since 1973. By March, the currency stabilized enough to assure the population (and companies) that their money would be worth the same by the end of the week ... The happy result for gamers was that companies started buying game licenses right and left."
Via. See also History of Brazilian RPGs, History of Brazilian RPG magazines, Role-playing games in education in Brazil: how we do it [PDF], and President Cardoso reflects on Brazil and sociology.
« Previous day | Next day »