July 5, 2016
Modern China is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
Ning Ken's 4000-word essay translated by Thomas Moran. In the 1980s, when China was starting to open up to the world, Latin American literature, with Gabriel García Márquez as the representative, poured into China. When we read “magic realism,” it seemed familiar, it seemed close to us, and that is because in their suffering and their difficult, incredible histories, Chinese people and Latin Americans have a lot in common. Indeed, in the 1980s we often spoke of China as a place of “magic realism.” But since the 1990s, and especially in the past dozen years or so, China is no longer that place; it is now a place of the “ultra-unreal.” [more inside]
Making Robots Dance Without Dancing the Robot
Making a Robot Dance to Music Using Chaotic Itinerancy in a Network of FitzHugh-Nagumo Neurons "We propose a technique to make a robot execute free and solitary dance movements on music, in a manner which simulates the dynamic alternations between synchronisation and autonomy typicallyobserved in human behaviour."
If you've got the data, you have got to publish it.
Early in his career cardiologist Peter Wilmshurst was offered several years salary to sit on bad data. He explains to Spiegel Online why he declined:
The patients that took part in our research did this on the expectation that their data would be used. In this study the participants had had cardiac catheterization. They had risked their lives for the study! So you cannot hush up the results![more inside]
The Curb at Rose and Prospect
As you can see, the corner that sits on the North American plate has slid past the section of the curb that sits on the Pacific plate. When the concrete was poured, the sidewalk was even with the curb! [more inside]
The return of Bree
lonelygirl15 was a prolific poster of youtubes back in 2006, where she angsted for the world to see. It was later revealed that the whole thing was performance art (to be polite). "Bree" was actually named Jessica Lee Rose and she was an acting student in NYC, originally from New Zealand. Now they're bringing her back!
Object Permanence
England's most celebrated cowboy singer drops an album.
There can be only one
The cult film Highlander celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with the release of a restored 4K DVD (Trailer). The restored film had a debut screening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in late June, prompting some retrospective looks at the film: “Add in the fact that it was the eighties in general, and you've got the campiest, period-specific film with giant hair and questionable fashion choices ever committed to film.” [more inside]
"It's fire and food and spices"
What is a queer kitchen? Is there a recognizable queer style or sensibility that can be expressed through food? These questions and more were at the heart of a recent conversation hosted at the Williams Sonoma flagship store in San Francisco's Union Square during the city's Pride Weekend.
"skinny white muzungu with long angel hair"
Actress and writer Louise Linton wrote the book In Congo's Shadow, excerpted in an article titled How my dream gap year in Africa turned into a nightmare. Apparently it was plagued with inaccuracies and outright lies, and Zambian twitter dragged the "delusional white woman" with the hashtag #LintonLies. [more inside]
What no "Apollo 13"?
What no "Apollo 13"? The Complete List of Movies and TV Shows on the International Space Station. Spoilers, at least they had "Alien"
ChristianMingle etc. to be more inclusive
A court has ordered Spark Networks (which runs ChristianMingle, JDate, and a wide variety of other religious and non-religious dating sites) to facilitate same-sex connections. As of the initiation of the suit in 2013, the various sites under Spark simply did not allow such connections, asking users for their gender and assuming they were looking for opposite-sex dates. [more inside]
Why did ancient Egypt spend 3000 years playing a game nobody else liked?
Including sparklers!!!
For perhaps the final time, Cabel Sasser photographs the wacky packaging of fireworks available in Vancouver. [more inside]
Who's On First (I always wanted to use that as a title)
The pop culture site DigitalSpy ran a poll to determine the most popular science fiction TV series of all time (not including animated or 'comic book based' shows). The winner, with almost 5,000 out of 50,000 votes, was perennial British show Doctor Who (not surprising since it is a British site). But the runner-up, just a hundred votes behind, WAS surprising: '90s space station epic Babylon 5. [more inside]
Coney Island Top Dog
Previous title holder Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, 32, has eaten his way back to victory by downing 70 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes at this year's Nathan's Famous annual Fourth of July hot dog competitive eating contest -- and it's the most hot dogs and buns ever eaten at the Coney Island event. Joey "Jaws" Chestnut regains title as top dog at eating hot dogs.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Acclaimed Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami has passed away. His better known films include Taste of Cherry (wikipedia) and The Wind Will Carry Us (wikipedia), the former of which, Ebert famously loathed.
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