April 2, 2021
Gentle Cinema
Doug Dillaman has put together a list of a list of Gentle Cinema, which he describes as "pleasant people doing pleasant things and there's not much drama and you just kind of feel lovely about the world".
Isamu Akasaki, Nobel Prize winning co-Inventor of the Blue LED dies
The co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the world's first efficient blue light-emitting diode, has died aged 92.
From the article:
"In 2014, Isamu Akasaki shared the Nobel Prize with physicist Hiroshi Amano, a professor at the University of Nagoya, and Japan-born American Shuji Nakamura, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara."
Akasaki, when he was a professor at Nagoya University, worked with Amano to produce gallium nitride crystals, and succeeded in 1989 in creating the world’s first blue LED. Blue LEDs have since radically transformed the displays we use everyday in laptops, cell phones and most other lighting and backlit devices. [more inside]
You could be a total moron and get elected.
procrastination is a helluva drug
Just a few decades after the discovery of the Charon Relay, and the ensuing First Contact War, relatively little is known about the population of planets linked by the Prothean mass relays. Understanding the nature of these systems and how they may differ from the broader population of planetary systems in our galaxy is key to both continued human habitation across the broader Galaxy, as well as to our understanding of the Prothean civilization. What factors motivated their choices of planetary systems?I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favourite paper on the arXiv. (via)
PEEP PEEP PEEP
It’s spring so that means it’s once again time for Velvet Sparrow of Something Awful’s live stream of chicks hatching! Enjoy the peeping all weekend long.
Here’s the official SA thread if you’d like to track name nominations and all that.
Here’s the official SA thread if you’d like to track name nominations and all that.
"The heuristics I can substitute are incomplete"
Beth Andres-Beck writes about hir experiences as a dyslexic programmer. (This post is from 2014.) Zie says: "I believe that in some ways dyslexia makes me a better programmer." and "It is hard to explain my intuitive, aesthetic sense of good code, such as when polymorphism would simplify a method. The heuristics I can substitute are incomplete, flawed reflections of the generative principles that motivate them and people who like rules tend to reject them when they can think of counter-examples. I rely on metaphor and examples a lot, because they have proven more effective at translating my thoughts into something other people can understand."
Did Somebody Say Baby Bird Photos?
Why yes, yes we did. Here are our favorite shots featuring chicks from last year's Audubon Photography Awards.
The Life and Times of ''The Most Intelligent Bird in the World''
...She could also be impatient if things weren’t moving fast enough. If Geoff began to digress during a demonstration, she’d nip his earlobe to get him back on track. If an audience member brought any kind of food to the arena, Tina would steal it and eat it on the spot, whether it was a hamburger or an ice cream cone. (Once, to Geoff’s horror, she landed on a stroller and snatched a pacifier from a baby’s mouth.)...The Life and Times of “The Most Intelligent Bird in the World” [more inside]
...just uninterrupted grass, and a Hare sitting up
Haretopia is an ‘Eden’ with pure air, crystal clear waters and wild landscapes where hare-people and others rub along very well. [more inside]
Gnawa Lila Maalem Aziz Arradi
Seven hours of a live gnawa lila via Moroccan Tape Stash which says of this recording: "You can't hear all of the lyrics, the guinbri is a bit buried, the qarqabas are pretty loud, and there's a fair bit of discussion going on among the assembled. In other words, this is what it sounds like to be at a lila."
WORLDS GREATEST AUTHOR
Runaway American Dreams
"Bruce Springsteen is one of this country’s greatest living artists, one who built his success by enshrining the stories of the working-class lives of the people he grew up with in songs that have become foundational parts of the popular music canon. His commitment to seeking justice in the real world has made Springsteen a liberal hero and a cult figure to many on the left. What to make then of the recent news that he was releasing a podcast with Barack Obama, just weeks after appearing in a Super Bowl commercial urging Americans to find “the middle”?"
High Security Cats
There are long running programs in many US prisons that allow inmates to adopt cats either formally or informally. Cats in Bangkwang Prison, Indiana. Eddyville Cats in Kentucky State. Cuddly Catz in Larch Corrections Center near Yacolt, Washington. Lock Up Raw report Youtube. HLN report on Youtube. Cats that Rule the World youtube episode (cats start at 3:48) [more inside]
All the bees
It’s the perfect system.
I've Been Sleeping With A Shovel Under The Bed an excerpt from Luke O'Neil's book Lockdown in Hell World [more inside]
A Computer Scientist Who Tackles Inequality Through Algorithms
Rediet Abebe uses the tools of theoretical computer science to understand pressing social problems — and try to fix them. Today, Abebe uses the tools of theoretical computer science to help design algorithms and artificial intelligence systems that address real-world problems. She has modeled the role played by income shocks, like losing a job or government benefits, in leading people into poverty, and she’s looked at ways of optimizing the allocation of government financial assistance. She’s also working with the Ethiopian government to better account for the needs of a diverse population by improving the algorithm the country uses to match high school students with colleges. [more inside]
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