April 19, 2017
The American Government’s Secret Plan for Surviving the End of the World
Carter and his White House were interested in more specific questions. If the presidency could survive after a nuclear war, what exactly would it do afterward? How could the surviving commander in chief be identified? Who would identify him? How would he fulfill the three main functions of the presidency: to be the chief executive of the government, the head of state, and the commander in chief of its armed forces?
“Q Did y’all ever run out of breadsticks? If so what happened?”
@JoeWadlington: I went on a date last night and the guy meekly shared that he used to be THE GENERAL MANAGER FOR THE TIMES SQUARE OLIVE GARDEN. Clearly, he'd seen some shit. So the next hour and a half was me asking questions. I tried to do y'all right. (The thread continues for many tweets, and can be read here as a Twitter Moment.)
Randall Coburn at The A.V. Club.: “Former manager of the Times Square Olive Garden shares harrowing war stories”
Randall Coburn at The A.V. Club.: “Former manager of the Times Square Olive Garden shares harrowing war stories”
Directed by Arthur Slugworth?
"Mel Stuart's Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory is one of the most beloved family films ever made. Featuring an iconic performance from the late, great Gene Wilder, eyepopping production design, a sly sense of humor and a parade of memorable songs, the film is a stone-cold classic.
So, here's a fun idea: what if you turned that stone-cold classic into a horribly-animated, direct-to-video Tom And Jerry movie?"
So, here's a fun idea: what if you turned that stone-cold classic into a horribly-animated, direct-to-video Tom And Jerry movie?"
Looks a lot more like it does now than it did before
Boat builder Louis Sauzedde has been crafting a wooden work skiff from raw lumber and documenting the process each week in a series of 36 videos. His Rhode Island accent, complete mastery of his craft, ability to explain both what he is doing and why he is doing it, casual use of nautical jargon, and his general good natured enthusiasm -- combined with excellent production and editing -- makes this series well worth watching. [more inside]
Real Housecats Play The Real Housewives
In a Genocide, Who Are the Morally Upright?
Niyitegaka told the soldiers that, whether in life or in death, she would remain with the Tutsis she had sheltered. Singing and chanting, she followed them onto the buses, which headed for the notorious Commune Rouge, a public cemetery that served as a killing field. There, alongside her Tutsi friends, Niyitegeka was slain by an assassin’s bullet.On the motivations of rescuers in the Rwandan genocide.
A Day in the Life of a Food Vendor
"Mr. Ahmed, 46, is in the business of chicken and rice. He immigrated from Bangladesh 23 years ago, and is now one of two partners in a halal food cart that sets up on Greenwich Street close to the World Trade Center, all year long, rain or shine. He is also one of more than 10,000 people, most of them immigrants, who make a living selling food on the city’s sidewalks..." (New York Times link)
Sectors and Voxels and Sprites and more...
Ken Silverman's Build Engine served as the backbone for a generation of shooters that bridged the early efforts of DOOM and Wolfenstein with the later 3D revolution of Quake and Half-Life. The Build Engine's Golden Era (in Rock Paper Shotgun) traces the inception and legacy of the quirky and clunky, but powerful software: "... Build [engine] games took the action to urban centres, morgues and small-town Americana. We were whisked away to more fantastical worlds by Shadow Warrior and the wonderful Outlaws ... What unified all these environments is that they felt like real spaces designed for humans to reside in, but which just happened to be beset by zombies, aliens, or foul-mouthed shotgun-wielding hillbilly clones (that’s Redneck Rampage, in case you were wondering)." [more inside]
The Museum of Failure
From Colgate Lasagne to Crystal Pepsi The Guardian brings you news of a museum in Sweden that showcases - "products that swan-dived from the highest board; failures so legendary they have their own appendix in business-school textbooks. They’re proof that even with a multi-million dollar marketing budget, you still can’t buy someone who’ll see that the emperor’s new soft drink tastes like cat piss." [more inside]
I think maybe I am more like a child’s bench covered with fur.
My First Trip to Oakland, by Merle (and Sarah Miller).
10 quadrillion vulgar tongues
Vulgar is a constructed language (conlang) generator for fantasy fiction writing that creates unique and usable constructed languages in the click of a button. Vulgar’s output models the regularities, irregularities and quirks of real world languages; phonology, grammar, and a 2000 unique word vocabulary. [more inside]
Eighty Sixed
Love and Breakup in the digital age....or, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" for Millennials. Written by, and starring, Cazzie David, Larry David's daughter. All four episodes are on youtube.
World's biggest jukebox, Alan Lomax style (no quarters needed)
"Since 1990, the Global Jukebox has functioned as a digital repository of music from [folklorist Alan] Lomax’s global archive...Now, updated and put online, the newly-launched Global Jukebox web site provides an interactive interface, giving you access to detailed analyses of folk music from all over the world, and highly technical “descriptive data” for each song." Via Open Culture, thousands of international folk songs (and more!) are now available for your listening and learning pleasure. [more inside]
Screenings for Canadian Values
Today is National Canadian Film Day 150, a massive one-day celebration of Canadian cinema in honour of Canada’s sesquicentennial. To help you celebrate from your couch, the CBC is offering 7 Canadian feature films you can watch online for free. [more inside]
Grant me the carving of my name
Hey guys, you know about that rule in archeology that says never go looking for a specific thing, and especially don't go looking for famous people because you'll almost NEVER find them?? Well, we think we may have found the grave of Richard III under your car park, maybe under a spot marked “R” on the asphalt. May we excavate? [more inside]
Little boxes / on the game sprite / little boxes / made of rectangles
Here's a flickr album of images of and about hitboxes, the simplified mathematical regions—sometimes literally boxes (whether 2D or 3D), sometimes other shapes—used to quickly calculate collisions between objects in video games.
two fare zone
"New York’s MTA subway system is an essential part of many New Yorkers’ lives [...] RentHop’s data scientists love maps and rental data, so they’ve mapped out rental prices by subway stop to assist in your apartment hunting endeavors [...] This year, we’ve seen rents dropping across most of Manhattan Island while prices in the outer boroughs and Upper Manhattan rise due to what appears to be a migration in search of bigger apartments and/or cheaper rents." [more inside]
"why did I ever build this"
Can I be Sleepy and Dopey too?
The case for being grumpy at work "Research shows that forcing workers to appear more pleasant and more cheerful than they actually feel can lead to a whole host of negative consequences—from emotional exhaustion to withdrawal. And women in particular suffer from the expectation that they should constantly demonstrate happiness." Constantly being expected to smile, or other types of emotional dissonance, can wreak havoc. Other studies indicate that appearing too cheery can actually harm a woman's chances for promotion.
The Myth of Everyday Cooking
" I care a lot about quality ingredients but there is literally zero way I am making food as rich, complex, and expensive as what constitutes Prueitt’s notion of “all day.”"
Squeeze me till I pop, yeah, squeeze me till you drop
Silicon Valley’s $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the Squeeze: One of the most lavishly funded gadget startups in Silicon Valley last year was Juicero Inc. It makes a juice machine. The product was an unlikely pick for top technology investors, but they were drawn to the idea of an internet-connected device that transforms single-serving packets of chopped fruits and vegetables into a refreshing and healthy beverage.... But after the product hit the market, some investors were surprised to discover a much cheaper alternative: You can squeeze the Juicero bags with your bare hands.
Books Now! Books Wow!
Stop hurling insults on Twitter and start throwing rocks in Dark Castle.
Wired: Want to leave the internet behind for a simpler time, one where computer frogs crossed rivers instead of spewing hate speech? The Macintosh Software Library from the Internet Archive lets you run old-school Macintosh games and applications in your browser, so stop hurling insults on Twitter and start throwing rocks in Dark Castle. [more inside]
It's good to hear that voice again
New Music From Prince, Set For Release Friday, The Subject Of A Suit From His Estate from NPR. Here's the title track Deliverance [SoundCloud link].
The Definitive Internet Oral History of Internet Oral Histories
On kottke.org, Tim Carmody brings us a roundup of the Golden Age of Oral Histories in which we are living, including the previously discussed Golden Girls piece that has already disappeared into the Internet ether.
The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal
From Seattle's alt-weekly The Stranger, The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black [more inside]
Wah lau eh
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders set an episode in Singapore. It made Kim Huat angry. Twice. [DLFBV] [more inside]
Scandal and Sculpture
"It was only when it became public that America’s wealthiest museum was bleeding money, its deficit on the verge of bloating to $40 million — since contained to $15 million — that trustees turned against him. “If the Met had been flush,” said one museum expert, “I don’t think we’d be talking about Tom Campbell today.” - What Broke The Met?
Our Wyoming Life
Join us on our journey as we leave a life in corporate america to come back to Wyoming and help on the family ranch. Our Wyoming Life features our Wyoming ranch and our ranch family. Giving you a look into the workings of ranching from raising cattle to raising and harvesting crops. Erin will join you weekly out of the garden, showing you how she helps provide for our family through growing produce and selling at local farmers markets, and Mike will take you along as he tends to the animals and land of ranch, from calving to fencing to planting and harvesting hay. [more inside]
Synthesizers and Dolls
Alien Knowledge
When machines justify knowledge. The new availability of huge amounts of data, along with the statistical tools to crunch these numbers, offers a whole new way of understanding the world. Correlation supersedes causation, and science can advance even without coherent models, unified theories, or really any mechanistic explanation at all.
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