July 7, 2016
Joan Baez turned 75 this year... she and some friends sang a few songs
“We wanted gymnastics to be treated like a normal sport”
This August, American audiences will once again endure a time-honored sports tradition: inane, often sexist coverage of Olympic women's gymnastics. Most media outlets only cover gymnastics during the Olympics, and then they treat it more as soap opera than sport. Elspeth Reeve at The New Republic profiles "the gymternet," a network of fan-run blogs, podcasts and social media streams that treat women's gymnastics with a seriousness that the sport is often denied by mainstream American media coverage. [more inside]
"Hello. Could we cut your grass?"
Kidlington is a quiet little suburb in Oxfordshire, England. Well, it was quiet until tourists mysteriously started showing up for no reason.
Posting the Thing.
All they need to know is this is the coolest thing they'll see all year
This robot stingray is powered by genetically engineered rat heart cells. It has an elastomer body and a stiff gold skeleton. Rat heart cells are grown in a specific pattern on the underside, and are activated by pulses of light -- allowing the robot to be remote controlled as it navigates through a liquid with suspended nutrients that keep the cells alive. More details from Science. Even Popular Mechanics doesn't need to do much sensationalizing to this story.
Star Trek's First Canonically Gay Character
Posting the thing
Sexual harassment at Fox News
"Specifically I've been told black lotus cards are very valuable."
Martin Shkreli - He of the 5,500x price increase for a lifesaving drug; he who is the only person on Earth with access to The Wu-Tang Clain's Once Upon a Time in Shaolin - has a new hobby - Magic: The Gathering! [more inside]
I will travel across the land, searching far and wide
Charge your phone battery. Head for your nearest church and pray that the servers stay up. Just try not to get run over. Pokémon Go has been released (previously).
lines of desire
"Elevated walkways are the darlings of architectural dreamers and science fiction writers alike." - Christo Hall [more inside]
A visit from Michelle Obama seems to improve test scores
Simon Burgess, an economist at the University of Bristol, "analysed the school’s exam results in the years after Mrs Obama’s visits. The 15- or 16-year-olds sitting their GCSEs did much better than girls in the previous year. ... [The] improvements were much bigger than the average increases in performance across London state schools."
Why Has It Taken the Menstrual Cup So Long to Go Mainstream?
In 1937 actress Leona W. Chalmers filed a remarkable application at the Philadelphia branch of the United States Patent Office: a funnel-shaped receptacle of vulcanized rubber inserted low into the vagina to collect menstrual fluid, rather than soak it up like a Kotex pad did. This invention was later sold as the Tasette, but it never gained commercial success though it had a few devotees. It wasn't until 50 years later that a similar device called The Keeper emerged. We have now entered the age of the menstrual cup, with multiple brands easily purchased online and in stores like Whole Foods, and reviews and comparisons on YouTube and blogs in every corner of the internet. But why did it take so long for them to become mainstream?
The First Internal Combustion Engine To Go Into Outer Space
At 600 cubic centimeters and 26 horsepower an internal combustion engine under development by Roush Fenway Racing is among their smallest and least powerful. It also will be the first internal combustion engine to go into outer space.
"I kinda yell Satanic stuff in a Gospel voice."
Devil Is Fine is the second album by Zeal and Ardor, a.k.a. Birdmask, a.k.a. Manuel Gagneux. For a taste of its "spiritual black metal blues," have a loud listen to "Blood In The River." The vocals are so gritty and authentic that he was accused of using unattributed samples from Smithsonian field recordings. [more inside]
Long read essay on Africa
Africa In The New Century
An essay by the Cameroonian philosopher and post-colonial theorist Achille Mbembe. Entitled “Africa In The New Century”, the essay advances one of the most profound arguments yet for the growing—if still marginalised—hypothesis that the future of humanity is being subsumed by the future of Africa.text via
These days a chicken leg is a rare dish.
During the 1940s, Harvard University's psycho-acoustic laboratory--installed in the boiler room under Memorial Hall--was a center of secret, government-directed wartime research into the effects of sound on the human ear and mind. One obscure product of this work became known as the Harvard Sentences, a set of "phonetically balanced" sentences containing a mix of phonemes typical to conversational English. These sentences are still used today by Verizon's baseline engineers, among others. Gizmodo's Sarah Zhang has more on the history of the Harvard Sentences. Meanwhile, over at Tedium, Ernie Smith offers a T-Mobile test number (858-651-5050) where you can listen to a recording of several Harvard Sentences, calling it "pretty much the most poetic, automated thing I’ve ever heard." A full list of the Harvard Sentences can be viewed here. [more inside]
Rona Barrett, Hollywood's Forgotten Gossip Girl
Fifty years ago, Rona Barrett forged a Hollywood gossip empire. Then she left it all behind, her innovations attributed to others, her legacy almost entirely overlooked. But as she nears 80, there’s very little Miss Rona regrets. [sl Anne Helen Petersen@BuzzFeed]
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