April 24, 2021
"Not every woman is offended by this name, but enough people are..."
After being called out for having problematic names for many years, and a change.org petition, Gearslutz -- named "to poke fun at some people’s pro audio shopping habits" -- changed its name to Gearspace at the beginning of April.
Followed 3 weeks later by modular synth forum Muffwiggler -- named by its late founder as a combination of the names of two Electro-Harmonix guitar pedals, the "Big Muff Pi" and "The Wiggler" -- changing its name to Modwiggler.
Josh v Josh v Josh v Josh
The meme appeared a year ago, when Josh sent a Facebook group message to Josh, Josh, Josh, Josh.... and a lot more Joshes. Josh provided coordinates and a date. The purpose? To combat to see who gets to be Josh, with all losers having to change their name. The coordinates? Some place in Nebraska. The date? April 24, 2021.
And now, after a year of anticipation, it's finally happened: The Josh Fight. [more inside]
"Five out of Four People Have Trouble with Fractions" - S. Wright
How to calculate fractions. Tanya Zakowich runs TikTok channel pinkpencilmath offering quick math tips!
Welcome to 39, Eglantine Crescent
This Grandma in Bolton Cooked & Sold Me Breakfast from her HOUSE
Lost in Thought
As work subsumes leisure time, worldwide anxieties mount, and a pandemic reshapes comfort and togetherness, meditation has been touted as a panacea. There has been little mention of potential negative side effects, but a report in Harpers investigates the possible psychological risks. [more inside]
Poster Boy for the Roaring '20s?
Billionaire Took Psychedelics, Got Bitcoin and Is Now Into SPACs [Bloomberg, archive version] [more inside]
Imagining a post-pandemic... New Yorker magazine cover
Tomer Hanuka asked his 3rd year illustration students at
the School Of Visual Arts to come up with a post-pandemic New Yorker magazine cover. Here is what they sent in [Twitter thread with images]
I chose you / You chose me
Vada a bordo, cazzo!
”When she premiered, the tradional bottle of champagne bounced right off the side instead of smashing. A bad omen, but... Nothing could go wrong on Friday the 13th of January 2012, on the 100th year anniversary of The Titanic, on a ship that is also only safety rated for two-compartment flooding. Especially when you have a five-star, max-level-rated captain like Francesco Schettino, a man who mysteriously rose from Head of Security to the position of Captain in just a couple of years... He knows exactly what to do in an emergency.”The Cost of Concordia (SLYT)
Gauche, Audrey, Goose and Branches (among other things)
Jersey Girl Homemade Guitars have been making hand-crafted guitars for thirty years and are based in Hokkaido in Japan. A collaboration between the luthier Kaz Goto, his wife Eiko and Akiko Oda, each guitar is unique, with elaborate and beautiful wood inlays, and comes with a matching strap and (often) a matching pedal, each designed along with the guitar.
Here is an interview with Kaz Goto.
Here is a direct link to a gallery of JGHG's archive of guitars. [more inside]
If you live in a glass house....
This listing has my emotions in a shamble. Long private drive leads to this unparalleled modern riverfront glass barn designed & engineered on skyscraper principles. Newly renovated top to bottom in 2018 with no detail overlooked
Idealist v. Loyalist, Constructed v. Felt, Internal v. External
Sorting Hat Chats, a character taxonomy by writers Emily and Kat: podcast, blog, Tumblr, and the guided tour of the system via quiz.
Primary Houses are about moralities and motivations... it's important to understand all characters have the capacity to feel compelled by any and all of these motivations: their gut, logic, their community, the protection of their loved ones; the distinction rests on which of these sources of morality is prioritized.... Mal of Firefly is a Hufflepuff Primary, while Simon is a Slytherin Primary deeply (and, initially, solely) loyal to his baby sister, River. While the two men begin the show at odds, when Mal fully adopts River into his Hufflepuff loyalties and Simon becomes loyal to more members of Mal’s crew, he and Simon suddenly have very parallel priorities. [more inside]
Primary Houses are about moralities and motivations... it's important to understand all characters have the capacity to feel compelled by any and all of these motivations: their gut, logic, their community, the protection of their loved ones; the distinction rests on which of these sources of morality is prioritized.... Mal of Firefly is a Hufflepuff Primary, while Simon is a Slytherin Primary deeply (and, initially, solely) loyal to his baby sister, River. While the two men begin the show at odds, when Mal fully adopts River into his Hufflepuff loyalties and Simon becomes loyal to more members of Mal’s crew, he and Simon suddenly have very parallel priorities. [more inside]
Bad software sent UK postal workers to jail
For the past 20 years, UK Post Office employees have been dealing with a software called Horizon, which had a fatal flaw: bugs that made it look like employees stole tens of thousands of British pounds. This led to some local postmasters being convicted of crimes, even being sent to prison, because the Post Office doggedly insisted the software could be trusted. After fighting for decades, 39 people are having their convictions overturned. More than 2,400 claims for damages have been filed so far. [more inside]
See No REvil
Apple’s Ransomware Mess Is the Future of Online Extortion — This week, hackers stole confidential schematics from a third-party supplier and demanded $50 million not to release them. WIRED, 4/23/2021 [alternate Ars Technica link]: After years of refining their mass data encryption techniques to lock victims out of their own systems, criminal gangs are increasingly focusing on data theft and extortion as the centerpiece of their attacks — and making eye-popping demands in the process. “Our team is negotiating the sale of large quantities of confidential drawings and gigabytes of personal data with several major brands,” REvil [WP] wrote in its post of the stolen data. “We recommend that Apple buy back the available data by May 1.” Related: DOJ Forms Ransomware Task Force as REvil Demands $50M, SDX Central, 4/22/2021.
a few short happy-ending sf/f stories
Short, optimistic scifi/fantasy fiction stories: "It’s not a bad boarding house, as these things go." "If your suit watch is correct, you should have ran out of air… three weeks ago?" "The first time the humans told us they sang their way through subspace, we thought it a translation error." "A human. On Captain Diii’s ship." "'May you have a life of safety and peace', said the witch, cursing the bloodthirsty warrior." "What is the harm in one more lie?" All self-published by the authors on Tumblr.
Caring for Chernobyl's abandoned dogs
Back in 2017, Johnny Wallflower posted a story about the radioactive puppies of Chernobyl. Now, there's an update of sorts. "The descendants of pets abandoned by those fleeing the Chernobyl disaster are now striking up a curious relationship with humans charged with guarding the contaminated area." By Chris Baraniuk writing for BBC Future.
« Previous day | Next day »