June 22, 2016
If We Wrote Men Like We Write Women
Author Jim C. Hines (previously, previously, previously, previously) once again takes a look at sexism in Science Fiction and Fantasy, this time looking at the written word.
What if you swapped the genders in classic SF&F novels?
What if you swapped the genders in classic SF&F novels?
Spoon Planet: the largest collection of sterling silver spoons online
"The Souvenir and Commemorative Spoon Planet Museum is the largest collection of sterling silver souvenir spoons on the internet. You will find a huge and eclectic mix of unusual silver spoons for your viewing PLEASURE." Spoon Planet started out somewhere on GeoCities, where it lived for a decade before moving to Spoon Planet dot com, where it retains it's Web v1 charm (and some of it's GeoCities-specific code). But we're not here for the layout, we're here for the spoon exhibits! From advertising spoons and African spoons to Yogyakarta flatware and Zodiac spoons, the site includes silver spoons from around the world and across the decades.
Cherry Replica wasn’t a blockbuster per se....
The (menacing) pumkpin is only one of the many novelty keys available on Keypuller a community effort to catalog every computer keyboard key cap ever produced. Please consider contributing and enjoy the small selection of keyboard mods they have. Shopping options, including many other novelty keys available at PimpMyKeyboard. Love this stuff and wondering where your people are? Head over to Geekhack, a very busy forum of keyboard enthusiasts. [previously, via]
Geronimooooo!!!!
Some time in the late 1940s, a very patient, elderly beaver called Geronimo was put in a box, flown to an altitude of between 150 and 200 metres, and tossed out the side of an aeroplane. Over and over and over again. See also: Elmo W. Heter, Transplanting Beavers by Airplane and Parachute, Journal of Wildlife Management, 14(2), April 1950, 143-147.
Bill's Port Smaps
Hand-drawn maps of Negro League teams, defunct NFL teams, the first NHL league, Ukrainian FCs. More maps, hand-drawn and not.
"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" "Ride your bike there!"
NYC Streets Metamorphosis looks back at the transformation of Times Square, Herald Square, the Brooklyn waterfront and other locations around NYC that are shifting away from their automobile-centric past. From Streetfilms, a part of the Streetsblog network.
UK Goes To Polls In EU Referendum
The day is finally here, the UK decides. BBC: "Britain is set to go to the polls in an historic referendum on whether the country should remain a member of the European Union or leave.
Polling stations are open between 07:00 BST and 22:00 BST.
An estimated 46,499,537 people are entitled to take part in the vote - a record number for a UK election.
It is only the third nationwide referendum in UK history and comes after a four-month battle for votes between the Leave and Remain campaigns.
In common with other broadcasters, the BBC is limited in what it can report while polls are open but you can follow the results as they come in across the BBC after polls close on Thursday evening." [more inside]
The Ups and Downs of the Baltic Dry Index
Though obfuscated by rapid increases in China's shipping fleet, it has reliably predicted economic downturns. [SL New Yorker] It reflects the rates that freight carriers charge to haul raw materials, and has emerged as an unlikely barometer of economic health.
Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor?
Studying the 6502 chip using the tools we have available to study nematode brains and the like. The paper (PDF).
Sorry Converse, it's been done
Sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!
"I have found a new way to watch TV, and it changes everything" — Jeff Guo of Wonkblog discusses how his new habit of fast-forwarding TV relates to the history of reading, and considers the role of the content creator in an age of hackable content. (non-WaPo link)
"Polish folk-techno or metalcore with Harry Potter fanfic lyrics. "
If You Do That, The Robots Win: Glenn McDonald, music critic and creator of Every Noise At Once talks about how algorithmic music recommendation happens:
So now I work at Spotify as a zookeeper for playlist-making robots. Recommendation robots have existed for a while now, but people have mostly used them for shopping. Go find me things I might want to buy. "You bought a snorkel, maybe you'd like to buy these other snorkels?" But what streaming music makes possible, which online music stores did not, is actual programmed music experiences. Instead of trying to sell you more snorkels, these robots can take you out to swim around with the funny-looking fish. And as robots begin to craft your actual listening experience, it is reasonable, and maybe even morally imperative, to ask if a playlist robot can have an authorial voice, and, if so, what it is?[more inside]
Orthodox Jews organize against their former high schools
Young Advocates For Fair Education, or YAFFED, is an NYC-based advocacy group of Orthodox Jewish youth and young adults who complain that their limited high school educations left them ill-equipped to support themselves as adults, and demand that the New York City and New York State education departments enforce laws on minimum school standards. Recently the ED of YAFFED co-wrote an op-ed, Why Do Jewish Leaders Keep Ignoring Ultra-Orthodox Education Crisis?
Lotteries were all the rage in eighteenth-century Paris.
Voltaire’s Luck by Roger Pearson [Lapham's Quarterly] “It was once said of Voltaire, by his friend the Marquis d’Argenson, that “our great poet forever has one foot on Mount Parnassus and the other in the rue Quincampoix.” The rue Quincampoix was the Wall Street of eighteenth-century Paris; the country’s most celebrated writer of epic and dramatic verse had a keen eye for investment opportunities. By the time d’Argenson made his remark, in 1751, Voltaire had amassed a fortune. He owed it all to a lottery win. Or, to be more precise, to several wins.”
"I may have learned my lesson, but maybe not."
Are you having one of those days? At least you're not stuck inside a Barney head, right? [more inside]
Legal Bodies
China has very strict controls on moving money out of the country. China's new president, Xi Jinping, has been cracking down on corruption at the highest levels, consolidating his control over the government. What to do if you're a corrupt official worried you may find yourself on the wrong side of the new regime? Buy a Japanese son. Japanese surrogacy ring producing Japanese-citizen babies for Chinese nationals: Part 1, Part 2
And then that’s when I seen the feet coming out the side of the doe
Hunter and apparently uber-Canadian Sean Steele performs a C-section on a pregnant roadkill deer. (Article and pics only, SFW)
Psychology of Fighting: Before, During, and After
This Is Your Brain On War: “There was this police officer in Florida,” he says. “She was shot 10 times, and in the middle of this gunfight she says to herself, ‘I’m getting married in six months and you’re not going to stop me.’ And she killed the two bastards who shot her. She was back on the job a year later. So, yes, these are irrational thoughts, but at the same time, they’re motivating thoughts.”
No bill, no break
Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and more than 40 Democrats are staging a sit-in on the US house floor. Occupiers are demanding a vote on gun control measures. In response, Speaker Paul Ryan has turned off the cameras.
case/lang/veirs
16 year-old-me would probably be disappointed w/39 year-old me
The secret of taste: why we like what we like (slTheGuardianlongread)
Apollo 19
Photos of the unused first stage from the cancelled Apollo 19 being transported to its final resting spot at Infinity Science Center in Pearlington, Mississippi. [more inside]
seinfeld.wad
"Fellow fans of Seinfeld and Doom* [...] After over 100 hours of work, I present to you a replica of Jerry Seinfeld's Apartment from his hit sitcom, Seinfeld! " [more inside]
A New Class Of Living Medicines
Hacking Gut Bacteria Could Be The Future Of Medicine "In new research, biologists and medical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are doing just that by reprogramming gut bacteria to act as “living therapeutics” that can correct the metabolic dysfunctions underlying certain ailments." [...]
“Synlogic is programming these probiotic microbes to consume ammonia or phenylalanine,” Collins explained in a statement. “They are reaching levels that are expected to be clinically meaningful, which is quite remarkable.” Ultimately, Synlogic is looking to create synthetic biotic treatments for not only rare genetic disorders but also for a range of ailments with metabolic components, including autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease and central nervous system disorders.
“Peeing’s queer!” I cried, the modern father’s last lament.
Do you have the votes?
The Shag Map Click the states you've been to, and the states where you've been shagged. If you can get 270 electoral votes, you're a Presidential Shagger! [more inside]
Where Are My Pandas?
Here's a great new game: Find the ThingX among a sea of ThingYs... It began with a panda in a picture full of snowmen. Then a cat in a flock of owls. (YOLO: You Obviously Like Owls) Another panda, hidden among elephants (harder than you'd expect). More pandas among Star Wars Stormtroopers and Black Metal Rockers. Also, for Star Wars Fans and all movie lovers, one Oscar among dozens of C3POs. A literal Easter Egg among bunnies. Some puzzles like these are easier (and less creative) than others. And the latest and greatest: find a certain celebrity/candidate's hair in a pile of tribbles.
The shining
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