January 15, 2015
Four Translations of Dante’s Inferno
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura che la diritta via era smarrita Zappulla: Halfway along the journey of our life, Ciardi: Midway in our life’s journey I went astray Mandelbaum: When I had journeyed half of our life’s way, Hollander: At the midpoint in the journey of our life[more inside]
ACCESS FLASH
Gridman is an animated short created by Studio Trigger (Previously on Metafilter for Little Witch Academia) as a giant love letter to tokusatsu shows, as part of Japan Animator Expo. [more inside]
Between denying my conscience and facing excommunication
Seven months after being initially notified of a pending disciplinary council (see previously), John Dehlin, founder of Mormon Stories Podcast, now faces discipline from the LDS church on charges of apostasy. [more inside]
Stupid Sexy Four-armed Gorilla Dragon!
This video showcases a mod for Mortal Kombat Komplete that switches character animations. Specifically, it switches all of the fatality animations of the female characters, and gives them to the burly, manly main bosses of the game. Not work safe for gore and pole-dancing gorilla dragons.
Flashbang Grenades
Hotter Than Lava: Every day, cops toss dangerous military-style grenades during raids, with little oversight and horrifying results. [Via]
Green Bay's Board-Game Obsession
“At first we’re like, ‘What the hell is this? Brick? Wool? What kind of game is this?’” said starting center Corey Linsley. But that quickly faded. “We are completely addicted to it, we play it whenever we can,” said tight end Justin Perillo.
Thanks, Common Core.
Thanks, Common Core. Physics blogger Chad Orzel writes about the way kids do math now. (Spoiler: he likes it.) [more inside]
You know how the Solar System works, right? Same thing with King.
Den of Geek:
"If Warner Bros. were smart, they'd mine the King Universe for that much-needed franchise. Apart from fun little easter eggs here and there, the films have never been acknowledged as part of a larger universe. Yet this universe has one of the most coherent backbones ever known in fiction. World-building wouldn't be difficult at all. Just look at how all of this stuff connects..." Previously: "That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery." [spoiler alert for both links]
Why do employers care about grades and diplomas?
The blind tyranny of low expectations
Daniel Kish is blind. He navigates the world without a cane; he climbs trees; he even rides a bicycle. NPR's new show/podcast Invisibiilia took over This American Life for the episode Batman, which explores how, perhaps, it is society's expectations about blindness which limits their ability to see. Transcript is available, but listening is the best way to really get the full impact. [more inside]
"...not a reliable way for a user to express their desire..."
Late last year, a number of outlets reported that both AT&T and Verizon Wireless were injecting customer-identifiable, permanent tracking cookies into web requests. After this activity was made public, AT&T ceased injecting the cookies, claiming that they were only testing the practice. Verizon, however, did not.
Now, computer scientist and lawyer Jonathan Mayer at Stanford University has reported that Verizon's advertising partner The Turn is using these super cookies to re-instate tracking cookies after a user clears their browser cache. [more inside]
A sudden urge overtakes her to help mankind.
Be My Eyes is an app which connects blind people needing assistance with a sighted person who can help them by providing a description of what they're seeing. You can be Amelie!
When proto-Russians met a bear, a dessert was born
In 1952, a group of Belgian-Jewish investors founded the first modern popsicle factory in Israel. They called their brand artik, a corruption of the French word for the frozen Arctic. (Hebrew doesn’t abide with consonants placed in a row without a vowel between them, thus the ‘c’ had to go.) (Cache for the subscription-free). [more inside]
Educational equity, propinquity and school choice
New Study Reveals Much About How Parents Really Choose Schools (perhaps) Link from NPR. For more discerning readers the Executive Summary from the Educational Research Association associated with Tulane is linked. New Orleans as a laboratory for School Choice in process.
Are there no workhouses?
Steve Albini's cooking blog
Steve Albini is many things: a recording engineer, a guitarist and singer, a curmudgeon. He's also a surprisingly talented food blogger. [more inside]
DEEDS NOT WORDS
"Look around Endell Street in Holborn today and you could be forgiven for thinking it just an average London street. But one hundred years ago this year, this non-descript spot just off of Shaftesbury avenue was home to an important, and now near-forgotten, part of British history – the Endell Street Military Hospital, the first British Army hospital staffed, and managed, entirely by women.”In WW1 Dr Flora Murray and Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson (daughter of the first Englishwoman to qualify as a physician) were determined to show that there was a place in military medicine for women. This is the story of the Women’s Hospital Corps and the now-forgotten pioneering London hospital they founded.
Ballard's stance is that it takes humans to connect humans, not machines
The Hello Machine is a corporate documentary from AT&T that documents the construction of the 1ESS automatic telephone switching system.
When Walmart Leaves
The Ghost Stores of Walmart. "The biggest downside to a Walmart opening up in your community is that after all the protests, the negotiations, and, almost inevitably, the acceptance, the retail giant might just break its lease, pack up shop, and move a mile down the road. The process starts all over again, and Walmart’s giant, hard-won original behemoth of a structure sits abandoned, looming over its increasingly frustrated neighbours."
The Code We Can’t Control
David Auerbach for Slate discusses the dangers of the algorithm-driven data collection and organization of Big Data in a review for law professor Frank Pasquale's book on the subject, The Black-Box Society. [more inside]
It's expensive to be poor.
What do poor people buy that no one else does? [askreddit post]
The 'Malware' page sure is popular
The "other" pipeline: hijacking the 'public interest'
How do we, the public, decide what's in the public interest? Specifically, in the context of eminent domain: In 2005, in Kelo v. City of New London, the concept of eminent domain, or taking of private property to benefit public interest, was expanded to allow governments to take private property and turn it over to private commercial interests, if deemed to benefit the public. Although some states later passed legislation designed to curb abuses of this power, the state of Virginia is now taking it to the next level. [more inside]
I yam what I yam what I yam what I yam what I yam what I yam what I yam…
Jim, I'm a doctor, not a designer
Endless self promotion to sell a few hundred more copies
A lot of people think that once you publish a book, that’s it – you go on publishing books. The publishing world opens its arms to you and welcomes every book like a precious squealing babe. The reality is that publishing your first book is when the real work starts. All that time you spent leveling up your craft, on dealing with rejection, on editing and revision: that was just a warm up for the crushing reality of life day-in, day-out as a published author.Kameron Hurley on the realities of being a critically acclaimed science fiction writer.
Release of the Oldest Film of Football Footage in Existence
Recently released into the public domain - the oldest known football footage in existence.
The 45 second film is of a First Division match between Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion at Ewood Park, which took place on the 24th September 1898. [more inside]
That is *not* Harley Quinn. Harley Quinn wears clothes.
What Taking My Daughter to a Comic Book Store Taught Me “All their…” …and her voice dropped to a whisper… “boobies are hanging out, Dad."
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