January 15, 2020
“Big Bird ain’t got nothin’ on me”
Do you wear that when you're home alone?
Yes, I'm Hot In This, the brainchild of Huda Fahmy, is a webcomic about life as a Muslim American hijabi. It chronicles microaggressions (and regular aggressions), assumptions, and misunderstandings, as well as lighter fare such as Ramadan, attempts to connect with your culture, and nerd stuff. [more inside]
The jay, pig, fox, zebra and my wolves quack
GooFonts is a tag index for Google Fonts, organizing a thousand-odd free typefaces into categories like "chalk," "Halloween," and "swirls." [more inside]
Whatever happened to ______?
"When I talk about the difficulties of being a woman writer, a wife and a mother, what I’m actually thinking of is specific. What I mean is that on the evening of the day my publisher and I announced plans for my third book, when my daughter and I were home having dinner, after I’d taken her to swim team, after school, after work, on an otherwise ordinary day — a day when I was simultaneously filling the role of stay-at-home mom and primary wage earner with a creative career on some imagined “side” — on that night my husband, her father, came home and hissed through his teeth, “Your mama…” and he balled up a fist, tightening his pecs. ...
But don’t let anyone make this story into a romanticized and gentle slide into domesticity. As for so many women, the silencing was not gentle at all." [tw: domestic violence]
never bet on the bard
Try and figure out what the hell is happening in FFT Battleground, a twitch stream that's a cross between the classic generative beat-em-up sports betting hijinks of Salty Bet and the turn-based chocobo-adjacent combat of PS1 classic Final Fantasy Tactics.
Construct, tessellate, admire!
Mosaic Tilemaker … “introduces students to fundamental concepts of Islamic art and architecture through the exploration and creation of mosaic tile art ”. Includes learning materials and a gallery [more inside]
“It just adds that sour, spicy, savory element to any meal,” 🥒
A Brief History Of The Humble Indian Pickle [The Culture Trip] “From selecting the right raw materials to carefully preparing the ingredients, from assembling the pickles to adding spices and then waiting for the pickle to be finally ready – a lasting memory of childhood vacations is that of helping our grandmothers make āchār. Those big ceramic jars filled to the brim with fresh pickles sitting under the sun on terraces evoke memories of carefree holidays. No meal is complete without a spoonful of the sweet, sour, spicy and mouthwatering Indian pickle. Here’s a look at its history. Known by various names across the country – Uppinakaayi in Kannada, Pachadi in Telgu, Urukai in Tamil, Uppillittuthu in Malayalam, Loncha in Marathi, Athanu in Gujarati and Āchār in Hindi – pickle making, as a tradition, goes back thousands of years.” [more inside]
“time-keeping became universal and linear in 311 BCE”
A revolution in time is a short essay by archeologist and historian Paul J. Kosmin about how the Seleucid Empire invented the practice of an endless year count, still used in calendars today, replacing the regnal or cyclical year naming schemes. And by making it possible to think about the future, it led to the idea of the end of time, the apocalypse. If you want to learn more about Kosmin’s ideas, you can watch his lecture, listen to an interview [iTunes link], or buy his book Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire. Finally, here are a couple of reviews of the book, by G. W. Bowersock [PressReader link] and John Butler.
Binge and Purge
The Rise of Extreme Film Criticism (Noah Gittell, LA Review of Books).
Mad-orna
Miniature 3D glasses test vision in Praying Mantises and Cuttlefish
How do mantises see in 3D? Researchers find out by gluing tiny 3D glasses to a mantis' face and showing the insect movies (Wired, with an embedded 10 minute video; Science News coverage; open access article from Nature Communications). That's great, but what about cephalopods? Scientists put 3D glasses on cuttlefish and showed them film clips. The results were surprising (CNN with embedded 1 minute video; New Scientist coverage; open access article from Science Advances | Neuroscience).
Stunning Seaweed from Victorian Marine Biologist Margaret Gatty
The tenderness of feathers meets the grandeur of trees in the otherworldly life-forms of the seas, which offered an unexpected entry point for women in science during Victorian times. [more inside]
Progress in Professional Wrestling Marred by (Real-Life) Controversy
Over the weekend, Tessa Blanchard won the Impact World Championship, making her the first female champion of a major wrestling promotion in the U.S. The victory -- coming as the culmination of a months-long feud with Sami Callihan that was marked by sexist remarks from Callihan (and from the worst parts of wrestling's notoriously gross fandom) -- should have been a triumph not only for Blanchard but the entire industry. But the result of the fight in the ring was soured by a fight that Blanchard didn't see coming... on Twitter. [more inside]
Putin goes after the Constitution
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his government have resigned. Medvedev has agreed to take a new role in overseeing defence and security. This comes after President Vladimir Putin Putin 'said Parliament should have the power to choose the country's prime minister - but that the president should still have wide-ranging powers.
Protests calling for political reform erupted last year after opposition politicians were barred from running in local elections.
Putin said he would hold a referendum on any changes to the constitution.'
Tear-Gas Gelato, Foulmouthed Mooncakes and Other Foods for a Revolution
One dessert place invites front liners who are low on cash to “come be food testers.” A steamed-rice crepe shop offers a free meal to anyone who hands in a yellow Post-it that says, “I love Hong Kong”; at one burger joint, you’re comped a meal if you whisper to a staffer: “Hong Kong, ga yau!” — “add oil,” a term of encouragement among protesters.
Cats are Weird...ly Helpful
Kith and Kin
"I have had the privilege of spending my life kneeling before plants. As a plant scientist, sometimes I am collecting data. As an indigenous plant woman, sometimes I am gathering medicine. These two roles offer a sharp contrast in ways of thinking, but I am always in awe, and always in relationship. In both cases the plants provide for me, teach me, and inspire me. When I write as a scientist, I must say, “An 8 cm root was extracted from the soil,” as if the leafy beings were objects, and, for that matter, as if I were too. Writing as an indigenous plant woman I might say, “My plant relatives have shared healing knowledge with me and given me a root medicine.” Instead of ignoring our mutual relationship, I celebrate it. Yet English grammar demands that I refer to my esteemed healer as it, not as a respected teacher, as all plants are understood to be in Potawatomi. That has always made me uncomfortable. I want a word for beingness. Can we unlearn the language of objectification and throw off colonized thought? Can we make a new world with new words?" Robin Kimmerer writes for Orion Magazine on animacy, language, science, and indigineity.
Treasure Fever
The discovery of a legendary, lost shipwreck in North America has pitted treasure hunters and archaeologists against each other, raising questions about who should control sunken riches. [more inside]
Not the typical considerations required for speedrunning
Players Are Pushing Their Bodies to the Limit Speedrunning Nintendo's Fitness Game: "Speedrunning is a test of skill and endurance, and while tapping buttons and analog sticks is physically draining in its own right, it’s hardly on the same level as, say, having to perform a plank over and over again. It’s what makes the slowly growing world of Ring Fit Adventure speedrunning so fascinating. In its early days, it’s not one defined by glitching through in the world in weird ways because no one’s discovered anything like that yet. The only “shortcuts” are to scroll the menus faster—a staple of speedrunning JRPGs—and to manage your stamina. A workout that might be more effective at taking out a group of enemies might be more personally draining, forcing you to take a costly break while your energy returns. It’s a very different way to play." [more inside]
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