April 18, 2018
Judge me, Alexa!
I’m not sure if this technology-derived algorithmic facticity of taste is better or worse than Meryl Streep-Anna Wintour deciding what I wear, which might be the core concern of this essay. The algorithm suggests that we trust it, but we don’t entirely want to. We crave a more “authentic,” lasting form of meaning...We know the machine doesn’t care about us, nor does it have a cultivated taste of its own; it only wants us to engage with something it calculates we might like. This is boring. “I wonder if, at the core of fashion, the reason we find it fascinating is that we know there’s a human at the end of it.”
Nancy
Olivia Jaimes is the first female artist for venerable comic strip Nancy in 85 years. She's been drawing strips for over a week now, and the early results are good. [more inside]
…and besides, the pig likes it.
Robots can save marriages
Robots successfully assemble an IKEA chair in under 9 minutes. There is additional information and video at IEEE Spectrum, including two attempts from 2013.
“He doesn’t look like Superman without the shorts!”
'Action Comics' #1000 Is a Historic Superman Comic That Will Make You Cry [Inverse] “At 80 years young, Superman has never looked better. In the landmark 1,000th issue of DC’s Action Comics, available now, a murderer’s row of comic book writers have gathered for an anthology that celebrates the Man of Steel’s place in popular culture. And if you have a beating heart, it will also make you cry over a fictional character famous for wearing red underwear.” [more inside]
1.4 million without power on Puerto Rico
An island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday, nearly seven months after Hurricane Maria. It's the second major outage in less than a week, with the previous one affecting some 840,000 customers. "This is too much," said Luis Oscar Rivera, a 42-year-old computer technician who just got normal power back at his house less than two months ago. "It's like the first day of Maria all over again."
All Tomorrows Blokk Parties
Kodály Method - Keleti Blokk - All tomorrows parties In Budapest there's an incubator/hive/tower (use words what you will) of artists and musos called Keleti Blokk.
The linked video was made there by The Kodály Method (not to be confused with the method of musical pedagogy that inspired the name).
Truth, whose mother is history
A handsome youth with shoulder-length golden hair sits in a London garret, pondering. He is composing his first book—a work he believes will transform him from a penniless foreigner into a literary cause celebré. But first he must answer a self-imposed question: what do Taiwanese aristocrats eat for breakfast?
"George Psalmanazar," laudanum, constructed languages, human sacrifice, and an 18th-century hoax [more inside]
Anniversary of 1906 San Francisco Earthquake--what about next time?
On the anniversary of the April 18, 1906 devastating San Francisco Earthquake, long lost photos and footage have come to light providing new looks at the devastating aftermath.
Meanwhile, according to the New York Times: San Francisco lives with the certainty that the Big One will come. But the city is also putting up taller and taller buildings clustered closer and closer together because of the state’s severe housing shortage. Now those competing pressures have prompted an anxious rethinking of building regulations. Experts are sending this message: The building code does not protect cities from earthquakes nearly as much as you might think. [more inside]
Decades Of Wage Stagnation Makes Freelance Writing Worse
“As any owner of a taxi medallion can tell you, reducing the value of a product or service can have serious repercussions — for the workers themselves and for the wider society they help comprise. When it comes to freelance writing, I fear that low prices have already begun to cost us. Talented writers walk away from the industry, plutocrats are free to pick stories and choose writers even when they don’t own the outlets, and the quality of the work declines. All of that looks to worsen over time.“ How Much Is a Word Worth? - Malcolm Harris - Medium Feature Story
No one wants to walk into a mausoleum
Loud restaurants aren’t just irksome — they’re a public health threat, especially for the people who work at or regularly patronize them. Being exposed to noise levels above 70 to 80 decibels — which many restaurants subject you to these days — causes hearing loss over time. Why restaurants became so loud — and how to fight back
A husky puppy and a box of 1988 baseball cards
"This story starts with my dog taking a shit on the bathroom floor, and ends with me cleaning out a meth house. [TWITTER] Hold up, I need a beer." Along the way: a footprint in that poop, the car mysteriously parked outside, and a box of ashes. [ThreadReader (all in one) link here] [more inside]
We need you to be a little less
"If all young girls and women committed such treason, patriarchy would collapse." Reema Zaman on the truth behind the perfect photos taken when she was a model and actress and her life since. CW: abuse, rape.
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