May 16, 2014
Gag me with a spoon
Poolside Radio is a bizarre slice of the 1980s in a browser. Strange old clips of 80s movies combined with 80s synth music and a lovely pastel palette make for a good time.
The fabulous and lesser-known exploits of John Z. DeLorean
The DeLorean DMC-12 is a really cool car. But if you have a hard time finding one for sale, try looking for a DeLorean snowcat. Alas, the DeLorean sedan, bus, and all-terrain vehicle were never mass-produced, and it's unclear if his monorail patent was ever monetized. [more inside]
The Marvelous Sugar Baby
An NPR interview with the creator of a 75 foot long Mammy-Sphinx sculpture made entirely of sugar. Award-winning artist Kara Walker's latest work challenges viewers to confront the relationships between American history, racism, slavery, and industrialization. Her exhibition is held in the soon-to-be-demolished, historic Domino Sugar Factory. (New Yorker article) [more inside]
drugs
“That was the type of feeling you had - you were *in danger* at one of their shows.” The legendary X-rated Butthole Surfers show at Danceteria. (Video is NSFW due to strobelighted, confusing Butthole Surfers fornication.) For a glimpse of the band at their peak — markedly clothed, but no less extreme and noizy — see this full 1986 CBGB's set. If all this is too much, kick back with the comedy stylings of their 1988 Bar-B-Que Movie.
Emoji Fortune Generator
Presenting Data
A checklist for those making graphs from Stephanie Evergreen and Ann Emery. This is a useful tool for teaching scientists and others some of the rules of data presentation in graph form.
One Bucket, One Dog
No one loves his bucket more than Charlie This is my bucket. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My bucket is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My bucket, without me, is useless. Without my bucket, I am useless. I must run with my bucket . I must with my bucket, be better than my enemy who has another bucket. My bucket is a dog, even as I am a dog, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its roundness and its red color. I will keep my bucket clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...Before God, I swear this creed. My bucket and I are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our yard and the yard with the cat next door. We are the saviors of my life . So be it, until victory is ours and there is no enemy, but peace! [more inside]
The Rise of the Voluntariat
The voluntariat performs skilled work that might still command a wage without compensation, allegedly for the sake of the public good, regardless of the fact that it also contributes directly and unambiguously to the profitability of a corporation. Like the proletariat, then, the voluntariat permits the extraction of surplus value through its labor.How companies like Coursera use volunteer labor to expand their profit margins.
No Relation
It's easy to explain why you love a conventionally excellent player, but way, way more fun to try and explain the appeal of a top-flight athlete whose every step and twitch appeared to be bringing him dangerously close to death itself. You had this guy, St. Louis, and he was awesome and everything, but every time he hit a triple he'd pop up and have the saddest look on his face like everything he loved had died, and left him with the soul of an ancient, sad, and immortal Golem. It was like watching Buster Keaton play centerfield, and he was like that every time he played.SB Nation Reviews: Willie McGee
And together, THEY FIGHT CRIME!
During the late 1970's and 1980's, Glen A. Larson's lighthearted television dramas were incredibly popular: Knight Rider. B.J. and the Bear. The original Battlestar Galactica. Quincy M.E. The Fall Guy. Magnum, P.I. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Larson had hit after hit and it seemed he could do no wrong. But he did produce three flops in the 80's, (and another in the 90's that managed to last two seasons): Automan, The Highwayman, Manimal and Night Man. [more inside]
The Reykjavik Confessions
On a bitter Icelandic night in 1974, teenager Erla Bolladottir was having a nightmare. Voices, whispering outside her room. Who were they? What were they saying? It seemed so real. Terrified, she wet the bed. The dream would continue to haunt her for years to come.
You know, for kids!
Not everyone agrees on the best methods for raising kids. That becomes apparent when you examine the results from the 2010-2014 World Values Survey — 82,000 adults across 54 countries were surveyed to gain a better understanding of what they consider most important when raising a child, whether or not they were parents themselves. PBS NewsHour has an interactive quiz you can take to show which country has values closest to yours as well as a widget to compare the values of any two countries. You can see all the data in this google docs spreadsheet.
He’s just too big for you / Ain’t nothing you can do
The Fire Rises is a music video from Masketta Man's UUUU, a name-your-price banecore devotional EP based largely on the somewhat befuddling opening to the 2012 blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises. Other tracks concern hotheads (and how to get them out of places), states of relative bigness w/r/t inter-guy relationships, and pastiches in the vein of Bentley Rhythm Ace. To be fair, however, other banecore songs have been equally sonorous, other banecore videos may be even more romantic, and Bane himself has some skills as a rapper, although maybe not as much as Tom (and Louis) Hardy. (last link contains NSFW language)
Science of scams
We have released 7 hoax videos which appear to demonstrate paranormal phenomena. In fact they're all based upon real scientific principles. Over the past few months this hoax footage has been posted all over the internet in an attempt to find out if people would either accept it as genuine or question it in an attempt to discover the real truth. Can you find the hoaxes before we reveal the secret science behind these scams?Ghost on film (4:28)
Psychic Readings (13:07)
Telekinesis (2:45)
Chi energy (4:00)
Ouija board (5:17)
Brickbreaking (5:31)
Psi Wheel (3:29)
We Exist
Current Spiderman Andrew Garfield is a different type of hero in the video for Arcade Fire's "We Exist", which examines transphobia and acceptance.
That's all I ever buy anyway...
21 [Entirely Totally Completely Seriously True] Simple Hacks That Will Significantly Improve Your Life [slBuzzfeed]
The Bear grumbleth.
Charles McNamara reviews Orbis Sensualium Pictus, the world's first picture book for children, in the Public Domain Review. If you care to instruct your own little ones on the subject of Stones, Potherbs, Flying Vermin, Bowels, and the Tormenting of Malefactors, the full book is available.
"has no place in the field of public education"
Tomorrow, is the 60th Anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision (pdf) in Brown v. Board of Education [more inside]
Brontosaurus sprinkles are 382.
For everyone out there who is calmed by organization and minimalist things, I present to you: Tiny PMS Match.
Here we are
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights around the world Being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is illegal in almost 80 countries, and in at least five of them is still punishable by death. Ahead of the International day against homophobia and transphobia on 17 May, explore the legal situation for LGBT people around sex, marriage or civil partnerships, adoption, workplace discrimination and hate crime by region, country and overall population.
Trans 101.
Unveiled
Over the past two weeks, Iranian women have been publishing pictures of themselves without hijab, as a protest to the 35-year long encroachment on their right to choose how to dress. [Guardian] [HuffPo] [Vocativ] [more inside]
Dancing bats
When comics were weird and progressive
These days, there’s a broad consensus that the Comics Code — which has been endlessly discussed and condemned by comics historians — was disastrous, and that it damaged comics. But nearly all of the critiques of the Code focus primarily on its dire consequences for white men’s artistic freedom, or the disservice done to readers in coddlingly denying them explicit sex and violence. What’s less discussed is the fact that independent women, and people of color, and all sorts of stories that didn’t fit with the compulsory patriotism and cop-worship of the 1950s, essentially vanished from comics for decades. This is a loss that comics are still wrangling with.Saladin Ahmed explains how censors killed the weird, experimental, progressive golden age Of comics [more inside]
The Gold Sparrow
In a black-and-white world, artists fight to defend their color from THE GOLD SPARROW. [more inside]
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