May 20, 2020
Cold and Black and Infinite
Nine Inch Nails - Live: Cold and Black and Infinite 2018 [1h30m] is a fan-made multi-cam document of NIN's 2018 tour. As Trent himself says about the project, "P.S. HOW IN THE FUCK DID YOU PULL THIS OFF??" [more inside]
Savaging the Lego System
Does making order calm you down? Do you enjoy seeing how other people organize their stuff? Do you have a soft spot for Lego Classic Space parts, like the 1x2 with the arrow swooshing across a planet? Then Adam Savage's One Day Builds: LEGO Sorting and Storage System might be just the thing for you (SLYT, plus Savage's sorting superstar mom).
Working out from home?
Some inspiration from those who came before you. You may have heard of Jack Lalanne, Tamilee Webb/Buns of Steel, or Jane Fonda but you may not have encountered The Chippendales workout or Debbie Drake. Workouts combined with, well, something else. (via Jezebel)
The mysterious desert dwellers
A shapeshifting fungus lives in the dust. It’s infecting across the American West, Lauren J. Young
Coccidioides is a fungus endemic to the western USA that causes (San Joaquin) Valley Fever, or coccidioidomycosis. It thrives in hot, dry environments and is carried along in dust. [more inside]
Coccidioides is a fungus endemic to the western USA that causes (San Joaquin) Valley Fever, or coccidioidomycosis. It thrives in hot, dry environments and is carried along in dust. [more inside]
Climate Change Migrants: Oaks, Maples, Pine.
An eye-opening article in the Washington Post tracks a bold experiment unfolding in Minnesota, where scientists are giving forests a head-start to help them outrun climate change. [more inside]
My Eyes! - The Nightmare - My Eyes!
A celebration of Britain’s diversity and cultural magnificence #FuckBoris #FuckBrexit #FuckFascism.”
Christopher Spencer aka Cold War Steve is a visual satirist.
A Former Probation Officer Whose Viral Political Collages have Become an International Symbol of the nonsense of Brexit to Covid-19 and Britains inept politicians.
Already compared with the satire of William Hogarth channels visions from Breugel, and Bosch and always with a few favourite characters and started as a kind of therapy, following a bit of a breakdown and issues with alcohol. (previously).
Christopher Spencer aka Cold War Steve is a visual satirist.
A Former Probation Officer Whose Viral Political Collages have Become an International Symbol of the nonsense of Brexit to Covid-19 and Britains inept politicians.
Already compared with the satire of William Hogarth channels visions from Breugel, and Bosch and always with a few favourite characters and started as a kind of therapy, following a bit of a breakdown and issues with alcohol. (previously).
“I feel more than ever playing games for this long is the right choice.”
Meet 90-year-old Hamako Mori, the world's oldest video game YouTuber [CNN] “A Japanese woman who built a cult following online with her video game skills has been recognized as the world's oldest YouTube gamer — at the age of 90. Hamako Mori, known as "Gamer Grandma" to her 250,000 YouTube subscribers, started gaming 39 years ago. Her YouTube channel launched in 2015, and she posts up to four videos a month. In her clips, she does everything from unboxing new consoles to broadcasting her gaming prowess. And now Mori, who counts the "Grand Theft Auto" series among her favorites, is officially the world's oldest gaming YouTuber, according to Guinness World Records. [...] Mori has also collected an array of consoles over the decades. The first one she owned was Cassette Vision, which was released in Japan on July 30, 1981. "It looked like so much fun, and I thought it's not fair if only children played it," Mori said.”
Satisfyingly, schnapps is itself is a schnapps-word.
Text for Proofing Fonts, by Jonathan Hoefler (previously). The allure and impracticality of pangrams, and proposed improved text for proofing fonts, based on the distribution of letters in English and various design considerations: a farewell to the Quick Brown Fox. [more inside]
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Deanna (TNG edition)
A funny Star Trek: The Next Generation fanvid by avocet, celebrating Deanna Troi. [via mefi projects]
Non-Trump coronavirus news and analysis
Spain makes face masks obligatory in public for everyone over the age of 5. Colombia joins Argentina in banning all international flights. Gilead, maker of remdesivir, has a safer, more effective and easier to manufacture version of the drug, patented in 2009, but is not developing it. [A continuation of last month's thread of non-Trump links to international pandemic news and analysis.]
Cats and Friends Choir
"The three movements of this deep and soulful piece have been virtually recorded by more than 500 enthusiastic participants in isolation from their homes and farms." via Alex Ross (New Yorker).
GRITTY IS NOT BORED
Gritty's Tiktok channel has been a beacon of sanity in these trying times. Did you know he squeaks when he performs beer pong trick shots? My faith in human(gr)itty is renewed.
But even stranger was how many of the callers seemed, well, clueless
tachypsychia
When Bad Things Happen in Slow Motion (Nautilus): "Retired fire chief Richard Gasaway refers to this apparent slowing down of time in tense situations as tachypsychia, which roughly translates as “fast mind.” “This phenomenon afflicts many first responders,” Gasaway claims, based on hundreds of interviews he has conducted for his research, blog, and speaking engagements on “situational awareness.” Bolstered also by what he judges to be personal experiences of tachypsychia, Gasaway has come to consider it as a sometime component of the overall stress response. For first responders, the phenomenon is dangerous, he says, because it can warp situational awareness and decision-making processes. But is tachypsychia real, or an illusion?"
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
(SLYT) Crowds are gone and clubs are closed - so, like most other comics, NYC comedian Emily Walsh is out of work. Unlike most other comics, Emily made an adorable stop-motion animation of herself performing a set at a club she made out of Legos.
A Much Older, Deeper Patchwork
What’s happening is not one crisis, but many interconnected ones. As we shall see, it will be harder to come to terms with such a crisis. It will be harder to bring it to heel. And it will be harder to grapple with the historical legacies that have shaped today’s patchwork. America’s Patchwork Pandemic Is Fraying Even Further by Ed Yong in The Atlantic
Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem
It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway. [more inside]
The McCorvey Purchase
In the 90s, anti-choice activists presented what they thought was a coup in their favor - that Norma McCorvey, the titular "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade, had come over to the anti-choice side and "repented" her role in the legalization of abortion in the US. But in a new documentary on the fight over abortion, video of McCorvey on her deathbed has her making a stunning revelation - her conversion was false, paid for by anti-choice groups like Operation Rescue. (SLLA Times)
GPS-tracking the movements of eagles
Last August six white-tailed eaglets were transplanted from Scotland to the Isle of Wight, in a bid to reintroduce the species to England. They were carrying GPS trackers, so if you have any curiosity about what an eagle might get up to during a typical day, or how far it might roam, you can satisfy it here. [more inside]
Velvet wonderlands
Wandering around Britain, one might notice the grand theatres of the turn of the 19th/20th centuries and think they had a lot in common - a very particular, ornate style is immediately noticeable. This is because they were largely designed by the same hand: Frank Matcham, who died a hundred years ago last Sunday. [more inside]
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