August 5, 2016
Download and print your own clitoris!
Modelling and 3D printing an anatomically correct clitoris (Vimeo). Sociologist Odile Fillod teamed up with photographer Marie Docher and digital mediator (and Blender user) Mélissa Richard (from the Cité des Sciences) to create the first downloadable, printable and open source 3D model of the complete structure of the clitoris. The model was created specifically to be 3D printed in schools (in French) in order to provide science teachers with a more accurate and less anachronistic representation of the organ during sex education classes. Short text in English about the project. (All links potentially NSFW) [more inside]
Monumental Proof to Torment Mathematicians for Years to Come
Nearly four years after Shinichi Mochizuki (previously, previously, previously) unveiled an imposing set of papers (1, 2, 3, 4) that could revolutionize the theory of numbers, other mathematicians have yet to understand his work or agree on its validity — although they have made modest progress. [more inside]
😢 [single-tear emoji]
"OVER A POUND OF MEAT. Extra napkins free!”
Xtreme Eating Awards 2016 If you're thinking of giving yourself heart disease this weekend, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has compiled this handy list of highly salted and calorific dishes available in many great restaurants across the U.S.
Tromp is going to make Proof-of-Work systems great again
John Tromp is a computer scientist whose interests include mazes (playable: 1, 2), chess problems, Go (previously), graphical representations of combinatory logic, Connect-4, code obfuscation, darts, pop music, and much, much more.
EMI: the inside story of Britain's biggest music company
Electric & Musical Industries was formed in 1931, initially releasing classical music, but went on to launch the Beatles, who changed the record label's operations and funded the company for years and years. The label's recording rules were further broadened by Queen and Pink Floyd. EMI ushered punk into the mainstream with Sex Pistols, and then embraced the New Romanticism and the polished excesses of Duran Duran. They made music videos big with Pet Shop Boys and made Brit Pop a thing with Blur, and were home to Radiohead. This is the inside story of EMI, one of the greatest British brands in recording history, as told by people involved with the record label's storied history, augmented by company and performance footage. [more inside]
"A Remarkable New Photo Map of Old London"
Citylab: "Launched last week, Collage, The London Picture Map allows you to trace London’s visual history street by street. Supported by the City of London Corporation, it’s the result of two full years of digitizing and mapping images from the London Metropolitan Archive and the Guildhall Art Gallery, which together possess the largest collection of London images in the world." [more inside]
Private Companies.....IN SPACE
Florida Company Gets Approval to Put Robotic Lander on Moon. Moon Express, a small startup based in Florida, is the first private enterprise to receive approval to land on a celestial body. If successful, such a feat would win the Google Lunar X Prize. [more inside]
human human? human!
The Human Utility
How to Save a City Through a Website There was a make-a-payment button, and I thought, What if we collected the PDF full of account numbers? What if we built a website to find people who were having problems paying their bills and we get their account numbers and we say we'll log into their account and just pay some bills for them? That's pretty much how we've paid the bulk of the first early bills.
Barber bottles and fire grenades, demijohns and carboys
1. How old is my bottle?
2. Where did my bottle come from?
3. Where can I go for more information? [more inside]
What. Are. The. Lyrics?!
Four years ago, the US Olympic swim team sang "Call Me Maybe." (Previously) For the 2016 Olympics, they hit the road again for carpool karaoke.
Tiny Feminists
Tiny Feminists is a set of three very short films about three very short feminists: Juliette, Yasmine, and Linda are three middle schoolers who are mad as hell and ready to take down the patriarchy. Created and directed by Yulin Kuang (previously on MeFi: the Lizzie Bennet Diaries).
Then I got just two words for you, bub...
Originally known as Maneuver Seven, the Fastball Special -- wherein a superhero throws another superhero at a villain -- was made famous by Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men, particularly using the combination of Colossus (thrower) and Wolverine (throwee). However, plenty of other strong (or telekinetic or suchlike) superheroes have chucked Wolvie at bad guys too, and even My Little Pony got in on the action.
Whooza good puppy?
A British man set out to run a grueling seven-day, 250-kilometer marathon across the Tian Shan mountain range in northwestern China called the "Gobi Desert March." Dion Leonard had his sights set on racing to the finish line as fast as he could, or at least that was the goal until he met a friend along the way... [more inside]
Food allergies: a risk poorly grasped in restaurants
Quebec waiter may be the first in Canada to be charged with criminal negligence after a nearly fatal error with customer's meal. (slCBC) [more inside]
A traffic cop who speaks with the voice of God
At the Belmont Stakes in 2011, someone threw a can of beer at him, and he caught it one-handed, opened it, chugged some, lobbed it back from the victory stand, and proceeded with his interview of the winning jockey and trainer.--The chaos of the Olympics has arrived. Fortunately, we have Bob Costas.
Everybody eats!
Meet the "the Dominican Snow White" and the deer family he befriended. "In the span of a week, Kelvin Peña has made deer bffs, become an internet sensation, and flexed his entrepreneurial skills. It all started when the 17-year-old visited his cousin, who fed a deer named Canela."
We call it a somnambuliform possession.
Literature has more dogs than babies
When I became pregnant four years ago, I was writing a book about 19th-century British poetry and war while teaching classes about the history of war literature. I began to think about the discrepancy between how we narrate these experiences. We have a rich, challenging, and complex canon of war literature...The same cannot be said about a literature of pregnancy or childbirth or parenting, though these are also extreme experiences that stretch our understanding and push us beyond comfort or even comprehension. [more inside]
Now just imagine Michael Cera starring in it
Bruce Wayne Vs. The World (SLYT)
“Not many people have the will, character, and strength to do it.”
The Alternates [Victory Journal] “Coaches and staff do their best to prepare them, and former alternates often give them advice. They’ve heard the stories: autograph seekers pulling their pens away when they hear the word “alternate”; security guards barring them from locker rooms, fields, and athlete lounges. Then there’s the tale of the 2008 women’s gymnastics alternates who not only weren’t allowed to stay in the Beijing Olympic Village, they didn’t even stay in China, but instead found themselves in Tokyo due to visa complications. “We knew we had a really important role,” says gymnast Anna Li. “But we weren’t going to be treated the same.” Yet until they live it, they can’t really understand it.”
The Evolution of an Accidental Meme
"I was trying to clarify why, to me (and, I generalized, to liberals), “equal opportunity” alone wasn’t a satisfactory goal and that we should somehow take into consideration equality of outcomes (i.e., fairness or equity). I thought the easiest example of this concept is kids of different heights trying to see over a fence. So, I grabbed a public photo of Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, a stock photo of a crate, clip art of a fence, and then spent a half-hour or so in Powerpoint concocting an image that I then posted on Google+... [Afterwards], my original graphic was being adapted, modified, and repurposed in a mind-blowing variety of ways, and then shared and redistributed all over the place."
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