September 25, 2018
Where are you now my fingerprints?
The Surprising History (and Future) of Fingerprints "It is true that every print is unique to every finger, even for identical twins, who share the same genetic code. Fingerprints are formed by friction from touching the walls of our mother’s womb." [more inside]
The 13th month would be named Sol—every month would have Friday the 13th
The Death and Life of the 13-Month Calendar: Apropos of alternate time/calendar discussion in MetaTalk, check out CityLab's article on the International Fixed Calendar, which Kodak used for decades. (Previously: AskMe and MeFi calendar posts.) [more inside]
The Robots Are Now Hiring
Some Fortune 500 companies are using tools that deploy artificial intelligence to weed out job applicants (wsj). HireVue uses machine learning algorithms to analyze facial expressions for companies such as Unilever and Hilton. DeepSense use ML to analyze an applicant's LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media accounts.
Wild Donkeys Become Shepherds
#NotHim: Brazilian women organize against fascism
[NYT] [Guardian] [Bloomberg] [Economist] Brazilian women are faced with a direct threat in the October 7th elections: presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is leading the polls with 28% of voting intentions. He is a dangerous figure who spreads explicit hate speech towards women, blacks, LGBTs, indigenous and other minorities; his proposals for economic, health, climate change and environmental issues are senseless. He wants to arm the population and increase police violence towards black youth. He is a drugs prohibitionist that promotes fascist ideas and practices. For the past few weeks, women in Brazil have organized via social media groups and have called for public demonstrations that will take place on September 29. [more inside]
Towers of Song
A year after Leonard Cohen's death on November 7th, 2016 (previously), musicians ranging from Courtney Love to Elvis Costello to Adam Cohen gathered with Cohen's longstanding backup singers The Webb Sisters and Sharon Robinson for a Memorial Concert. [more inside]
Joe Iconis. George Salazar. And Michael in the Bathroom.
Joe Iconis writes songs. Songs about outcasts and misfits and people who aren't comfortable in their skins. George Salazar is one of the people who sings them.
Iconis's latest musical, Be More Chill has become an underground sensation. It is wildly adored by its teen fan base. With no traditional advertising, it sold out its off-Broadway run entirely. Its cast album has received over 160 million streams. [more inside]
Iconis's latest musical, Be More Chill has become an underground sensation. It is wildly adored by its teen fan base. With no traditional advertising, it sold out its off-Broadway run entirely. Its cast album has received over 160 million streams. [more inside]
still here
One of the "most poorly known mammals in the world" and previously considered to be extinct, the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo of New Guinea has finally been spotted (and photographed) for the first time in 90 years.
No Parking Zone
"My son has parked his bike by this lamppost just about every day for the last year. This morning, this sticker had appeared. Absolutely made our day. People can be so brilliant. Thank you, whoever did it" (STL)
“Not Even Scared!”
Skulls and snuffboxes, tombs, bankers, umbrellas, devils, pins, babies... Baroness Mathilde de Rothschild collected skull art, which she then donated to a Parisian museum. The Fondation Bemberg Musée is now hosting an exhibition of this cranial creativity, entitled Même pas peur! [more inside]
Since the death of god, there's been a vacancy; you could fill that void
Mind Control Made Easy (or how to become a cult leader), a short film by Carey Burtt, who shared more offbeat, lo-fi, "underground" works on YouTube.
Spock-bop-a-loo-bop, a Spock bam-boom
Cheesy movies return
Mystery Science Theater 3000 returns to the air with its twelfth season, dropping on Netflix on Turkey Day.
The untold story of the vegetable peeler that changed the world
Smart Design’s Davin Stowell shares the origin story of the OXO Swivel, one of the great icons of 20th-century industrial design. [more inside]
Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble
Arctic Cauldron. "Across the Arctic, lakes are bubbling and hissing with a dangerous greenhouse gas, methane, as the Arctic thaws. And one lake is behaving very strangely." [more inside]
“Doors are important. What we find on the other side matters even more.”
Portals in Science Fiction & Fantasy [Kirkus] “The most obvious definition of portals—doorways to other places—is too simplistic to convey the true nature of them. Sometimes those places are real, but far away. Sometimes they are fantasy worlds that shouldn't exist but do. Sometimes they are physical, sometimes metaphorical, mere plot devices to advance the story. They could take many forms, from holes in the ground, to mirrors, to large constructs big enough to fly a starship through. Sometimes they aren't about traveling distance at all, but instead are about traveling through time. In fantasy novels, portals tend to be ways for characters to pass from their world (usually our own) to a fantastical secondary world.” [more inside]
Hypothetical
2018 Is The Year Of The Queer Woman Pop Star
The days of “fauxmosexual” singers playing gay for the male gaze are (mostly) gone. But as more out queer woman pop stars rise, what kinds of representation do we want from them? [slBuzzfeed Reader] [more inside]
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