July 8, 2019

Walkman in the Park

Sony celebrates 40 years of Walkmans with Walkman in the Park, a temporary exhibit at Ginza Sony Park.
posted by adept256 at 10:48 PM PST - 21 comments

A new whale

Fossil of ancient four-legged whale with hooves discovered. The giant 42.6m-year-old fossil, discovered in marine sediments along the coast of Peru, appears to have been adapted for a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Its hoofed feet and the shape of its legs suggest it would have been capable of bearing the weight of its bulky four metre long body and walking on land. Other anatomical features, including a powerful tail and webbed feet similar to an otter suggest it was also a strong swimmer.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:32 PM PST - 29 comments

Bob Dylan's Seventh Album (and then he took a break)

Bob Dylan released one album in 1966. It was recorded across the first half of the year and was released on June 20. On July 29, he wrecked his motorcycle and disappeared for quite a while. Blonde On Blonde [Wikipedia article with vastly expanded background and context] is (contestedly) regarded by some as the best rock album ever recorded. It is also rock's first studio double album. Side One: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Everybody must get...), Pledging My Time (even Dylan gets the blues), Visions Of Johanna (they're all that remain), One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 6:53 PM PST - 23 comments

that is not dead which can eternal lie

Last year, Tatiana Vishnivetskaya, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, and her team drilled deep into the Siberian permafrost. As usual, they were seeking singled-celled organisms: the only life-forms thought to be viable after being frozen for millennia. They placed the material on petri dishes in their room-temperature lab and noticed something strange: hulking among the puny bacteria and amoebæ were long, segmented worms, still alive after 41,000 years.
posted by ragtag at 6:33 PM PST - 38 comments

"If you’re bored of sleeping well at night…"

Cool 3D World (previously) has some interesting animations, including

Jacob and the Giraffe;
Q-Tip; and
Chefs.

Many of these are NSFW.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:37 PM PST - 33 comments

“You have to use the Mad Catz.” 🎮

An Oral History of the Third-Party Video Game Controller [Fanbyte] “Looking at my two official Sony Playstation 4 DualShocks, it’s hard to remember a time when such uniformity was unheard of amongst game controller collections. Decades ago, any given console’s set of game pads would likely be composed of a mishmash of official models and misshapen, third-party monstrosities. We all had at least one controller reserved for guests — a plastic accident with sticky buttons, unresponsive joysticks, and an ironic name like The Dominator or The Professional.”
posted by Fizz at 2:14 PM PST - 24 comments

Should California become one long wall of concrete against the ocean?

"We’ve all played by the shore and built castles in the sand, but seem to forget what happens next: The ocean always wins." The Los Angeles Times has a special report on adaptation strategies for sea level rise and the struggles communities are facing as they confront the need for "managed retreat": The California coast is disappearing under the rising sea. Our choices are grim. You can also play the role of mayor in the accompanying The Ocean Game as you battle the inevitable arrival of the sea.
posted by zachlipton at 12:31 PM PST - 58 comments

Run your own social

How to run a small social network site for your friends by Darius Kazemi, 2018-2019 Mozilla Fellow
This document exists to lay out some general principles of running a small social network site that have worked for me. These principles are related to community building more than they are related to specific technologies. This is because the big problems with social network sites are not technical: the problems are social problems related to things like policy, values, and power. [more inside]
posted by CrystalDave at 11:47 AM PST - 25 comments

Politics and Sports, or, an Appreciation of the Women's World Cup

While sports can be fun, sports can also be politics by another means. As you may have heard, the US won the Women’s World Cup yesterday (YT highlights), against the Netherlands by a score of 2-0. Kim McCauley argues that the USWNT’s queerness matters as everyday pride. Sally Jenkins says the USWNT "is after something far more subversive than just better pay". Stephanie Yang explores how the Women's World Cup helps queer fans find community. Franklin Foer has called star Megan Rapinoe the "new Muhammed Ali" for her outspoken commitment to social justice. [more inside]
posted by migrantology at 11:42 AM PST - 21 comments

The private language of marriages

Finally he shook his head and said frostily, “Well, maybe you two are just serrated knife people.’’
posted by Chrysostom at 10:18 AM PST - 94 comments

"I hope this information hasn't come out too late."

Before his resignation in late 2017, Uber's then-CEO Travis Kalanick faced more than his fair share of scandals. But by far the most (read: least) important of these was Kalanick's oft-repeated claim that, at one point, he "managed to rack up the second highest Wii Tennis score in the world" (Uber.com archived) .... Ars dug deep to get at the truth of this claim, publishing a 3,000-word expose that proved definitively (read: probably) that Kalanick was really just confused about what it means to have a "high score" .... Now [...] new information has come to light that has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of this important (read: pointless) story yet again. Behind the 12-year-old Wii Sports hoax that briefly fooled the Internet (Ars Technica)
posted by filthy light thief at 10:15 AM PST - 2 comments

A Reckoning Long Overdue

In a surprise move by the Southern District of New York (SDNY) US Attorney's office and the FBI, financier and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on Saturday on charges of sex trafficking, with his arraignment occurring this Monday morning. The SDNY has credited the reporting by the Miami Herald for pushing the case into the light and giving them the start to the indictment. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:11 AM PST - 690 comments

In Guatemala, Defending Land Can Be Deadly

She defended her land against a mine in Guatemala. Then she fled in fear for her life. [more inside]
posted by poffin boffin at 6:23 AM PST - 2 comments

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