January 28, 2019
Now It's On
Do you like sad songs about broken down robots? The robot has a few more things to say. [more inside]
More like Meh-loton
Love putting my Peloton bike in the most striking area of my ultra-modern $3 million house: a brief Twitter thread about proper cycle placement by Clue Heywood.
Cornish stared down the track, too. “Well,” he said. “Who knows?”
The effort to map the lost footpaths of England & Wales.
Just the [french] tip.
Heather comes in every 3 weeks to get tiny dicks painted on her fingers. All nail art by @HeyNiceNails.
Universe
Universe, a Short Documentary from 1960 that Inspired Kubrick’s 2001: "In 1960, the National Film Board of Canada released a short documentary called Universe. The film follows the work of astronomer Donald MacRae at an observatory in Ontario, which is accompanied a special effects-heavy tour of the solar system, galaxy, and universe: 'a vast, awe-inspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space'. Universe was nominated for an Oscar in 1961 and also caught the eye of Stanley Kubrick, who used it as inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey." [more inside]
Do the funky cello
10 kg feces/panda/day x 273 pandas = ? tissues
Break a leg...
“those cases come at a relentless pace."
Shoot Someone In A Major US City, And Odds Are You’ll Get Away With It, BuzzFeed News and The Trace
Effin' itinerant ferromagnetism, this is how it works
Back in the late 1800s, the 15 Puzzle (also known as Game of Fifteen, Gem Puzzle, Boss Puzzle, and Mystic Square) [Wikipedia] "drove the whole world crazy" (perhaps in part because half of the scenarios were unsolvable) [Geeks for Geeks]. Now, this "child's puzzle" helped uncover how magnets really work, as summarized in the title of Marcus Woo's article for Wired. More specifically, Eric Bobrow, Keaton Stubis, and Yi Li recently described Exact results on itinerant ferromagnetism and the 15-puzzle problem [Physical Review B with the abstract; arXiv with the full paper]. [more inside]
OMG a girl
'So people don't seem to believe me when I say I have to listen to a lot of weird shit when I play games because I'm a girl.' A gamer has recorded her interactions with sexists while playing and posted them in a eight part and ongoing series called OMG a girl. Content warning.
The Hidden Meaning of Laughter
When Sophie Scott was about 6, she came across her parents doing something strange. They were rolling on the floor, helpless with laughter because of a comedy song about what people were not supposed to do in toilets on trains. The lyrics of Humoresque (Passengers Will Please Refrain) include "customers will please refrain from passing water while the train is in the station. Darling, I love you. We encourage constipation while the train is in the station." Today Professor Sophie Scott is a neuroscientist who also does stand-up on occasion. [more inside]
Pick a color! Red. Blue. Green. Unionize your media company.
Do you still have a job at BuzzFeed? “For the last two years I’ve done nothing but write personality quizzes. My boss assured me that I could try other things within the department, but she was just laid off.”
The Billy Graham Rule Goes Global
Among the mostly male business elites, the #MeToo movement has become a point of concern for them - and many are choosing to respond by limiting their mentorship of women to lessen their exposure. But as critics point out, this is cutting women out of the networks they need to progress their careers in the future. (SLNYT)
not cheese; it's only brains
She doesn’t subject living brains to arrays of electrodes and scanners. She doesn’t divide brains into prosciutto-thin slices and carefully sandwich them between glass slides. She doesn’t seal brains in jars of formaldehyde for long-term storage. Instead, she demolishes them. Each organ she took such great care to protect on her trans-Atlantic journey was destined to be liquefied into a cloudy concoction she affectionately calls “brain soup” — the key to her groundbreaking technique for understanding what is arguably the most complex congregation of matter in the universe. In dismantling the brain, she has remade it.
Winter is coming?
Punxsutawney Phil isn't the only weather-predicting groundhog. Staten Island Chuck gained fame for biting Bloomberg and fleeing from de Blasio. Georgia has Gen. Beauregard Lee (yes, really), Ohio has Buckeye Chuck (more beloved than fellow Marion native Warren G. Harding), Nova Scotia boasts Shubenacadie Sam (the furthest-east, and thus the first to emerge), and Ontario is home to albino groundhog Wiarton Willie. CBC reports on Alberta's Balzac Billy, who is actually a guy in a groundhog suit. Washington, DC, however, has something truly special: Potomac Phil, a dead, stuffed groundhog who is trotted out every year for the Dupont Festival. He has his own Twitter account, of course. He got his own float in Capital Pride, too. HuffPo reports on Potomac Phil's origins. (Previously on MeFi: Groundhog recipes.)
Should I curtsey when I meet the Avocado Toast Whisperer?
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is the Avocado Toast Whisperer, her former makeup artist Daniel Martin revealed on Instagram. Daily Mail was quick to point out how problematic her choice of sandwich spread is, and the internet had a field day with it. At the same time, across the pond, sports fans fear the worst as the Mexican fuel shortage threatens the supply chain of the staple snack of the sporting competition Super Bowl – but the Association of Producers, Exporters and Packers of Avocados from Mexico assures exports will not be affected. Even further west, one really big avocado causes excitement, dispelling the rumor that avocados are not a thing anymore.
The island has run out of oxygen
Niviaq Korneliussen is a queer writer from Greenland whose work has recently been translated into english. [more inside]
no escape from reality
Bo-meme-ian Rhapsody: the entire song reproduced in popular image memes. Here it is as a youtube video synced with the original song - but if you're willing to go to facebook, I think it works even better as the original image slideshow where you sing along in your head. (Made by Luke Maynard)
“Pac-Man is likened to a predator of children.”
Mall Rats, Vidiots and Addicts: Anti Video Game Propaganda From The 80s by Cat DeSpira [Retro Bitch] “...despite the then negative perceptions of a new technology, 80s anti-video game graphics on video game related articles left an interesting impression of an era when parents were paranoid, even terrified, of not what they knew but only what they thought video games were doing to their children. These neurotic and often mean-spirited images give indication of just how widespread the fear was, and also why conservative coalitions were formed to ban or restrict the use of video games in arcades beginning in 1981.”
The 8th Annual Young Comedians Show hosted by John Candy
The 8th Annual Young Comedians Show hosted by John Candy. A youtube link. With ads. The 8th Annual Young Comedians Show hosted by John Candy took place in 1983. Featuring performances by Paula Poundstone, Bill Maher, Carol Leifer, Steve Sweeney, The Amazing Jonathan and Joel Hodgson.
Not as cool as a Super Blood Wolf Moon but...
From Arizona Public Media: “OSIRIS-Rex timeline” (video, 6½ min), OSIRIS-Rex^ being NASA's first automated sample return mission from an asteroid, sent to 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth body, and anticipated to arrive back on Earth in September. 2023 The spacecraft rendezvoused with its target and imaged it in early December, remained in orbit studying the asteroid. Surprising discoveries so far have included the observation of water-bearing minerals and of sizeable impact craters. [more inside]
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