January 4, 2017
“...this cycle of easy forgiveness and celebrity-related amnesia.”
The Glare Varies for Two Actors on Hollywood’s Awards Trail [The New York Times] “Why do the two men find themselves in much different circumstances? Perhaps people think Mr. Affleck’s performance, and the movie in which he stars, is better. Maybe it’s because, as an Oscar nominee and the brother of the box-office star Ben Affleck, Mr. Affleck has attained a privileged status in Hollywood; the power surrounding him may make people reluctant to openly criticize him. Certainly a factor is the fact that there was unsettling new information revealed about Mr. Parker’s rape case in August — that his accuser later committed suicide — while there have been no new disclosures regarding Mr. Affleck’s cases. Or maybe, say those mindful of Hollywood’s checkered racial history, it is because Mr. Affleck is white and Mr. Parker is black. ” [more inside]
And the most American food is...
trains with the faces of men
Trains race to and fro with no consideration of train loads. Trains shunt cars for fun. Trains respond to the whims of fat men in top hats. Trains are bricked up alive into tunnels to force them to work for the crony capitalist nightmare that is the island of Sodor. A subversive anti-capitlist screed or a good faith depiction of what happens when captial and aristocracy are too closely entwined or a classic depcition of false conciousness? And why are we running steam trains in this day and age?
What the hell is going on on this island? [more inside]
u ever thought about a cat? get 1.
The FurKids animal and rescue shelter in Georgia is really trying to sell you on the concept of "cats" in their newest, low budget, pretty funny commercial. Warning: may make you want a cat.
Bear Loses Bearings on Bare Ice
[SLYT] When White Bear Mitsubishi's mascot joins the Minnesota Gophers' Goldy on the rink in Mariucci Arena to shoot a local ad, everyone wins! Except the white bear.
[via]
[via]
How to become a "superager"
Of course, the big question is: How do you become a superager? Which activities, if any, will increase your chances of remaining mentally sharp into old age? We’re still studying this question, but our best answer at the moment is: work hard at something. Many labs have observed that these critical brain regions increase in activity when people perform difficult tasks, whether the effort is physical or mental. You can therefore help keep these regions thick and healthy through vigorous exercise and bouts of strenuous mental effort. My father-in-law, for example, swims every day and plays tournament bridge. [more inside]
An 8-bit time is guaranteed for all
"In the year the cheeto ascends the throne, the sun will hide in shame"
On August 21st this year, a solar eclipse will sweep across continental USA for the first time in decades. Between 10:15am in Oregon and 2:49pm in South Carolina, the sun will be blotted out in parts of 14 states to greatly varying degrees, with all of the contiguous United States seeing at least a partial eclipse. This iteration belongs to Saros 145; the longest duration of totality will be 2 minutes 41.6 seconds just south of Carbondale, Illinois and the greatest extent will be between Hopkinsville and Princeton, Kentucky. The best place to view? Depends, even as towns vie for viewers and predict the masses. While astronomers are excited, prophets are worried. Also, a google map, resource bibliography and an alien invasion.
Doula Drama
Inside The Million-Dollar Get-Rich Doula Clique. Buzzfeed profiles ProDoula, whose controversial efforts to "professionalize" doula services is described as both empowering and predatory. (Warning: includes disability slur).
The Joy of Vibrating
Ever since we got electrical power, there have been weight-loss gadgets that depend on vibration. They don't work; you can't vibrate fat away. That doesn't mean these gadgets can't be fun. Two little boys found one out for demonstration in a store and decided to try it out. [more inside]
Battle hymn for our new republic
The snowball machine gun
Mark Rober was outgunned and outflanked by his nephews and nieces in (snowball) battle, and had to resort to developing a wunderwaffe: The snowball machine gun. Faced with similar problems? He has provided instructions on making your own.
You don't get into this for the money because THERE IS NO F*&$ING MONEY
The American restaurant business is a bubble, and that bubble is bursting. I've arrived at this conclusion after spending a year traveling around the country and talking to chefs, restaurant owners, and other industry folk for this series. In part one, I talked about how the Good Food Revival Movement™ created colonies of similar, hip restaurants in cities all over the country. In the series' second story, I discussed how a shortage of cooks -- driven by a combination of the restaurant bubble, shifts in immigration, and a surge of millennials -- is permanently altering the way a restaurant's back of the house has to operate in order to survive.
This, the final story, is simple: I want you to understand why America's Golden Age of Restaurants is coming to an end.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Keith Davis
The unsettling disappearance of a fisheries observer sparks questions about safety on the high seas and the fate of the fish stocks they attempt to monitor. [more inside]
Please Make Me a Chair Before You Go
Ever just want to spend a little time with your idol?
Gone and Sometimes Forgotten (slyt) Adam the Woo visits odd and out of the way places.
Former drummer for Guttermouth. [more inside]
Former drummer for Guttermouth. [more inside]
I think he meant 9 lives, not 9 days...
SL cat-story-with-happy-ending filter: Boston cat jumps out of car window on busy highway, is found by electricians nine days later hiding in a pipe underneath. From Mefi's Own™ adamg.
Hate in America is alive and well
The LGBT movement, like every other battle for civil rights, is not a simple, straightforward march toward liberation. In the coming years, as being labeled a racist or bigot is falsely equated with acting out of racism or bigotry, as evidence of hate and its terrible outcomes is clouded by self-interested suspicion and denial — it’s worth remembering that in 2016, love did not trump hate. A Buzzfeed piece uses the 1998 Matthew Shepard murder as the focal point of a longform piece on how far we've come - or not.
I'm gonna dance with you, pal you're gonna dance with me!
“It was so much fun to go through all those archives and retrace the steps that the production designers of the era took to achieve the look of their movies,” says [production designer Jess Gonchor]. Here, in GIF form, we’ve assembled a handful of classic films that directly inspired Hail, Caesar!
Bruce Lee Helped Me Come to Terms With the Death of My Son
"No matter what we were doing there, one constant seemed to be that on many days someone would wander over or call to us from afar, “Hey, do you know where Bruce Lee is buried?” Bill Radke talks to Linda Dahlstrom Anderson, a Seattle journalist and editor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, about how Bruce Lee's grave at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle helped her come to terms with the loss of her 7-month-old son Phoenix.
New Year, New Organ (or, And Then There Were 79)
It's official: A brand-new human organ has been classified
No, Scientists Have Not Found a 'New Organ' [more inside]
No, Scientists Have Not Found a 'New Organ' [more inside]
Did Inadequate Women’s Healthcare Destroy Star Wars’ Old Republic?
"[Anakin] seriously spends two hours of the movie freaking out about his wife’s uterus, and hypes himself up so much that he gets to the point of slaughtering tiny tots in a Jedi temple. All because he can’t think of another way to save Padme from reproductive health complications. Why didn’t they just go to a goddamned obstetrician-gynecologist?" [more inside]
Because it's been a whole day since we invoked Smashmouth.
Don't Stay in School
Don't Go to School (slyt) David Brown posits that the traditional school syllabus is a poor fit for modern life.
Shit Cassandra Saw That She Didn’t Tell the Trojans
Cormac McCarthy's Increasing Returns
How To Write Better Harvard Business Review Articles: Have Cormac McCarthy Do Your Editing - "I really enjoyed this anecdote about the writing of W. Brian Arthur's classic article on increasing returns from 1996." (via) [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »