June 3, 2016

Stem Cell Therapy Crosses a Threshold

Stanford researchers ‘stunned’ by stem cell experiment that helped stroke patient walk
posted by StrikeTheViol at 11:27 PM PST - 31 comments

“Live, and be happy, and make others so.”

Shelley's Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family [The Bodleian Library] This exhibition is a collaboration between the Bodleian Libraries and the New York Public Library. Few families enjoy such a remarkable reputation for their contribution to the literature and intellectual life of Britain as the Godwins and the Shelleys. Shelley's Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family explores how the reputation of this great literary family was shaped by the selective release of documents and manuscripts into the public domain. It also provides a fascinating insight into the real lives of a family that was blessed with genius but marred by tragedy. [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:45 PM PST - 4 comments

Muhammad Ali is dead

The greatest died surrounded by family. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016 was an American former professional boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport. A controversial and polarizing figure during his early career, Ali is now remembered for the skills he displayed in the ring plus the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom, racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience. He is one of the most recognized sports figures of the past 100 years.
posted by shockingbluamp at 9:36 PM PST - 282 comments

"Lighthouses... just stand there shining."

A former Stanford swimmer, Brock Turner, who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman was sentenced to six months in jail because a longer sentence would have “a severe impact on him,” according to a judge. At his sentencing Thursday, his victim read him a letter describing the “severe impact” the assault had on her. This article is a powerful but difficult read so please take care if accounts of sexual assault are triggering for you.
posted by orange swan at 6:18 PM PST - 340 comments

No, I swear, it is

A heartwarming story from the 'Tails from 'Sonic' is NOT gay!' Facebook page.
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:03 PM PST - 18 comments

People with their pets and phones in the bathroom

Cats vs. Bathtubs
posted by The Whelk at 4:32 PM PST - 55 comments

It's not a massacre! It's more like a relocation of immigrants...

Germany recognizes the Armenian Genocide after 101 years. Chancellor Angela Merkel, the deputy chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, and the minister for foreign affairs, Frank-Walter Steinmeier were not present for the vote. In retaliation Turkey has recalled its ambassador and summoned the German charge d’affaires to its foreign ministry.
posted by Talez at 1:39 PM PST - 70 comments

Periodically cool

Return of the Cicadas is a short film by Samuel Orr about the insects' (surprisingly beautiful) 17-year lifespans. [more inside]
posted by Gymnopedist at 12:19 PM PST - 18 comments

State of the Digital Nation 2016

A sweeping wave of acquisitions has decimated the ranks of independent agencies and formed two clashing clans. On the one side are the giants of advertising and marketing and on the other the titans of management consultancy. Meanwhile the market over which they are fighting is in the midst of a multi-faceted existential crisis.
Jules Ehrhardt presents the state of digital ad agencies in 2016, and how they are coping with ad blockers, the rise of apps, and the other massive changes in both media and consumption in the past few years.
posted by jenkinsEar at 12:03 PM PST - 9 comments

Advice to Students from an Iguana

In 2006, a group of students at Xavier High School in New York City were given an assignment by their English teacher, Ms. Lockwood, that was to test their persuasive writing skills: they were asked to write to their favourite author and ask him or her to visit the school. It’s a measure of his ongoing influence that five of those pupils chose Kurt Vonnegut, the novelist responsible for, amongst other highly-respected books, Slaughterhouse-Five; sadly, however, he never made that trip. Instead, he wrote a wonderful letter. He was the only author to reply.
posted by storybored at 11:54 AM PST - 31 comments

Man, he does what he can, but he's not good enough

On Beyond Zarathustra: A Parody for All and None. What two authors go together better than Dr. Seuss and Friedrich Nietzsche? (A work in progress, but worth sharing early.)
posted by kenko at 11:12 AM PST - 6 comments

New mysteries. New day. Fresh doughnuts.

Let these chipper YouTube science vids fill you with existential terror. Popular YouTube education channels CGP Grey and Kurzgesagt teamed up to produce a pair of videos designed to cause you to question everything about your existence.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:08 AM PST - 24 comments

Stop pretending and start eating people

Austin Light is back at it with TV Title Typos, illustrations of tv shows created from well known shows but with one letter missing from the title. (previously he did movie titles, which has been turned into a book!)
posted by numaner at 10:56 AM PST - 149 comments

Two viewpoints both alike in dignity in fair NYC where we lay our scene

Sidewalk Seating Is Awesome vs Sidewalk Seating Is Stupid
posted by poffin boffin at 10:22 AM PST - 123 comments

Four fine, odd mixes

(Visible) Cloaks’ Spencer Doran knows how to crate dig (via): posted by Going To Maine at 9:38 AM PST - 6 comments

We were a blues rock band from Texas...better than the original Zombies

The True Story Of The Fake Zombies. In 1969, the English psychedelic pop band The Zombies had a surprise hit in the States with "Time of the Season". Since they'd broken up two years earlier, the obvious thing for a promoter to do would be to recruit a bunch of young Texan blues-rock musicians in cowboy hats (including 2/3 of the future ZZ Top), call them the Zombies, and send them on tour. And that wasn't the only fake Zombies band out there.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:56 AM PST - 33 comments

FUN SPACE WARFARE

MAD will not work in outer space; pre-emptive strikes are nigh-guaranteed., Gwern.net
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:56 AM PST - 15 comments

“Careful when you go outside or some tenant group will bust you”

"So can you do demolition eviction and then evict the tenants and then not demolish the building?"
"There’s nothing in there I can see that penalizes you for not demolishing the building," Itkowitz replied.
Real Estate Vampires Plot How To "De-Tenant" Rent-Stabilized Brooklyn
posted by griphus at 8:55 AM PST - 63 comments

Carter/Khomeini

BBC: "Two Weeks in January: America's secret engagement with Khomeini: On 27 January, 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - founder of Iran's Islamic Republic, the man who called the United States "the Great Satan" - sent a secret message to Washington. From his home in exile outside Paris, the defiant leader of the Iranian revolution effectively offered the Carter administration a deal: Iranian military leaders listen to you, he said, but the Iranian people follow my orders. If President Jimmy Carter could use his influence on the military to clear the way for his takeover, Khomeini suggested, he would calm the nation. Stability could be restored, America's interests and citizens in Iran would be protected."
posted by marienbad at 8:15 AM PST - 7 comments

Everybody Into the Pool?

On Wednesday, The New York City Parks Department decided to continue allowing women-only swimming hours at a public indoor pool in Williamsburg, a heavily Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn. An anonymous complaint had previously led the city’s Commission on Human Rights to notify the parks department that the policy violated the law, but supporters of the women's only hours state that disbanding 'Women's Swim' "would be akin to banning Hasidic women from the pool altogether."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:27 AM PST - 376 comments

David Neat's neat, model model blog

David Neat is a model maker and teacher. Of David Neat, Makezine says "This modest blog may be the Holy Grail of model-making sites."
posted by Room 641-A at 7:17 AM PST - 6 comments

One of the world's most mysterious diseases

In the late 1950s, Serbian authorities closed grain milling wheels made of lead used by a handful of villages in the Balkans. They were aiming to eliminate Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), a kidney disease limited to certain spots along the Danube and some of its tributaries. They failed, but they weren't the last to fail. Perhaps no other human disease has generated so many different hypotheses and ideas in an attempt to explain its causal factors. In 2013, Elif Batuman traveled to the Balkans with her father, a nephrologist who had studied the disease before the region was ripped apart by war. She found medical records destroyed by the fighting, balkanized health services, skeptical villagers, and a handful of scientists who think that the most important clue was discovered in 1992, when two women in a clinic waiting room in Belgium nodded ‘Hello’ to each other. [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 7:02 AM PST - 13 comments

Living with Leopards

Mumbai is home to an estimated 20 million people ... and 21 leopards. The 250,000 residents with homes inside the boundary of Sanjay Gandhi National Park find a way to live with their big-cat neighbours.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:43 AM PST - 8 comments

inform, but do not inflame

Let Smokers See the Warning They Need [NYT Op/Ed by Joanna Cohen]
Previously: coughin', Warning: Cigarettes are addictive.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:05 AM PST - 56 comments

songs so full of wonder that they make your heart ache

Whyte Horses are a fantastically jangly, spacey psych-pop group from Manchester, headed up by cratedigging 'B-music crusader' Dom Thomas. They've just (re)released their debut album called Pop or Not and it sounds like nothing else, shapeshifting 'from Turkish psyche to Brazilian trip music, from acid house to electronica to punk rock to guitar classic in a heartbeat'. It stars underground 'no-fi' musician Lispector, who left the band between recording and release. Try out choice cuts The Snowfalls, La Couleur Originelle and Natures Mistakes and if you like what you hear, there's another fourteen great tracks on the album.
posted by Panthalassa at 4:29 AM PST - 9 comments

« Previous day | Next day »