July 22, 2015
"odd and magical occurrences..."
Ever wanted to get lost in a piece of art or feel like you're inside an anime? LA-based art duo kozyndan posted an immersive "VR" experience of their 2009 Miyazaki-esque piece "Nakano In Spring". (More info on the original piece is here) [more inside]
Ukraine's newest city
Slavutich was built starting in 1986 to house misplaced inhabitants of Pripyat and the surrounding area of the Chernobyl disaster, including workers of the plant. More modern than many of Ukraine's other cities, it enjoyed a historical high birth rate and standard of living. Since the start of decommissioning of the plant, the city of over 25,000 connected by Chernobyl via railway has lost 2,000 people "and more are following. In 2015, the new sarcophagus over the infamous reactor No. 4 will be finished, further slashing jobs in the exclusion zone. Is Slavutich set to be the final victim of Chernobyl?"(from 1st link) [more inside]
In-valid user
In 2012 the genetics company 23andme gave web app developers the ability to create app mashups with DNA information. Most apps help users add genetics to their electronic health record, or connect with relatives, or explore risk factors for diseases. Two days ago a new webapp did something different: it showed how to only let white people in. [more inside]
do it for the vine
A Whole New World
NASA will host a news teleconference at noon EDT Thursday, July 23 (livestream) to announce new discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.
"The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995. Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago. Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years -- another Earth."
"The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995. Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago. Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years -- another Earth."
Bea Arthur's gift
How Bea Arthur Became a Champion for Homeless LGBT Youth, by Carl Siciliano, Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center.
Wayne Carson
What do "You Were Always On My Mind" and "The Letter" have in common? They were both written by Wayne Carson who passed away at the age of 72.
Power Lines in Anime
We wanted to fill our bellies with America
Sizzler and the Search for the American Dream :: Inside the paper was another brick, bright yellow-orange and vacuum-sealed in plastic. We had never seen food that color before. We had never eaten anything that perfectly geometric. It sat in our fridge for days, like an unwelcome guest that never said anything. It just sat there without a word of explanation. We had staring contests every day. The cheese always won. I always had to blink. [more inside]
Flora Toth Sam Turner Cairns Lee Pat Knight
The best 25(-ish) anime of all time
New to anime? Looking for the highlights? Try Glass Reflection's Top 25-ish Recommended Anime. [more inside]
“always surprised people are surprised that people haven’t read things.”
From Steinbeck to Cervantes: Confessing Our Literary Gaps by Sarah Galo, Elon Green [Hazlitt] Authors, journalists, and assorted literary stalwarts tell us why they’ve missed the famous books they’ve missed. [more inside]
Was SL-1 an accident?
On January 3rd, 1961, three men died when the US Army's SL-1 experimental nuclear reactor melted down. It was the first fatal reactor incident in the US. But was it an accident? Or murder?
British Movietone Archive and Associated Press Archive
The British Movietone archive of nearly fifty thousand newsreel films is now on YouTube. Movietone started making newsreels in 1929 and stopped fifty years later. You can find clips about nearly any subject, women's rights, space exploration, and sports. The archive has a number of playlists, including one where archivist Jenny Hammerton presents clips she finds interesting. But, I hear you say, do they have cute cat videos? Yes. Also, a parachuting dog and jokes about Hitler. Also now availabe, the Associated Press Archive of more than 170 thousand video clips. The Guardian has a list of interesting clips from both archives.
Is this a selfie?
no single penile aspect is essential for a penis to be considered pretty
"There are many age-old questions that have plagued humanity since the dawn of time; where did the universe come from? Is there really a god? What on earth is going on with Donald Trump's hair?Scientists claim they've worked out what makes the perfect penis [NSFW] - The Independent [more inside]
"But scientists have now answered one of these great unknowns; what makes a good-looking penis?"
Baroque Bohemian Cats’ Tarot
New Mexico has a mystery city...
He awoke every day into a state of solemn joy.
And They Said I Couldn't Be Done*
* (Not really, but they would have if they had given it any thought)
Mosey Sumney does an improvised cover of Laurie Anderson's O Superman. He doesn't attempt the verses, but it is still going to the top of my summer playlist.
I wonder how many times they uploaded the video to get 'kkk' in the URL
DO NOTHING WHICH IS OF NO USE :D
PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs. When you turn it on, the machine greets you with a shell for typing in Lua commands and provides simple built-in tools for creating your own cartridges.What does that mean? PICO-8 is like an emulator for a lo-fi game console that never actually existed. With 16 colors, 128x128, 4 channels of sound, and tight data limits, PICO-8 "cartridges" can be played -- and created -- in a web browser, or on just about any home computer, and even inside maker Lexaloffle's other, more full-featured fantasy console, Voxatron. [more inside]
Taylor Swift Is Not Your Friend
Dayna Evans writes about Taylor Swift for Gawker: [T]he part of Taylor’s persona that doesn’t get talked about enough [is that] she is a ruthless, publicly capitalist pop star. To think of her as womanhood incarnate is to trick oneself into forgetting about “Bad Blood” and “Better Than Revenge.” Swift isn’t here to help women—she’s here to make bank… Her plan—to be as famous and as rich as she can possibly be—is working, and by using other women as tools of her self-promotion, she is distilling feminism for her own benefit. [more inside]
"My wedding was perfect -- and I was fat as hell the whole time."
Internet firebrand/comedian/awesome feminist Lindy West on being a fat bride. Late last year, West also wrote a post about being a fat bride and how people seem to think fat women don't get married: "It’s an aggressively entrenched paradigm that I’ve only recently managed to excise from my own psyche – me, the feminist killjoy shrew – so I really can’t begrudge anyone that initial reaction. But, every time, the subtext is clear: you are reaching above your station, fat lady." [more inside]
21 Flavors of AWESOME, you mean
21 Potato Chip Flavors That Have Absolutely No Right Being a Thing (SLPleatedJeans)
Hey, what thread count is that GIF?
4K displays may be pretty, but how can they possibly compete with an 80x80 display that generates tens of thousands of volts of static electricity while rendering images entirely out of thread? [more inside]
"So how are we going to stop sweatshops now?"
"We're still trying to eliminate sweatshops and child labor by buying right. But that's not how the world works in 2015." - Michael Hobbes [more inside]
Hell, there's an energy drink straight up called Cocaine.
Jaya Saxena takes a look at how energy drinks through the ages have gotten humanity JACKED UP. [more inside]
MOAR STRUTS FOR SPACE X ROCKETS
Why did Space X have a bad day and not go into space recently? Scott Manley explains it all, in a soothing tone and with MS Paint drawings.
13. Snakes
"Artichoke who? Artichoke pizza!" and other robot punchlines
A disastrous coup
After a failed attempt to overthrow the president of Gambia in December 2014, the US authorities charged two middle-class Americans from Texas and Minnesota. But why did they think they could succeed?
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