October 11, 2017
Canoe odysseys
Nine rivers.
Lake of the Woods to Arctic Ocean.
Gulf of Mexico to Arctic Ocean.
Pacific Ocean to Atlantic Ocean.
28,000 miles around and across North America.
Highlights:
"Our first big river, the kind that we dream about in wintertime."
A bear and a wolf, playing.
Maps.
"Beautiful glass days on the lake."
Lowlights:
Bugs.
Bugs.
Ice.
So many bugs.
Go home baby pandas / you are drunk
In 2003, scientists from Zoo Atlanta, Chengdu, and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding published a study that described trends in the behavior of giant panda cubs. Among other findings, this study confirmed that falling was a normal and expected part of the play of the giant panda cubs being reared by their mother. [...] In celebration of our giant panda cubs second birthday on October 13, we at the Toronto Zoo wanted to show you just how promising the development of Canada’s first giant panda cubs has been over the last 24 months. It’s a bunch of baby pandas falling on their little baby panda baby butts! [SLYT]
Two legs are better than none
Move over, Duncan Lou Who, and make room for a couple of feline bipeds. Rocket was born without hind legs and lives in Berlin. Anakin, a feral cat like Rocket, has no pelvis or hind legs: he lives in Pensacola. [more inside]
Undiscovered Classic PS1: Petscop
Despite the first generation of 3D consoles being long since dead, intrepid archivists, thrifters, and antiquarians are still uncovering before unknown alphas, betas, and demos (e.g. The Cutting Room Floor). Recently an anonymous YouTube Let's Player found a demo for an unfinished Pokemon style game called "Petscop" for the PS1 from the unknown developer Garalina. They have been playing through the game, which is much longer than it seems like it should be, and reporting on their progress: starting with the first video here. [more inside]
"Perfect in so many ways"
What walks down stairs, alone or in OH MY GOD
羅宋湯
Why Do Hong Kong Restaurants Serve Borscht? (The Overlooked History of Russian Hong Kong.) [more inside]
LA Metro raises the bar on transit etiquette campaigns
LA Metro has a new Japanese-inspired etiquette campaign staring You Tube personality Anna Akana. (Autoplay video on her page). They are fun and silly and we need more fun and silly.
SKVLL CVLTS, where the dead are not gone or forgotten
"Skull cult" is a term for rituals of human skull decoration and transformation during the Neolithic in the west between 9,000-4,000 years ago. In several archaeological sites, we find skulls that have been painted, perforated, and used for...something. In the first episode of Ars Technica's video short series Ancient People Did Stuff, Annalee Newitz summarizes what is known about the skull cults at Göbekli Tepe and Çatalhöyük, where some skulls were plastered and painted and painted red, though the reason or purpose is still unclear. [more inside]
“Do you know what happened to me on Dizengoff Street?"
I Have a Message for You (NYT Op-Docs) is a short video documentary by Matan Rochlitz about holocaust survivor Klara Prowisor. "To escape Auschwitz, she left her father to die. Decades later, she got a message from him."
"We'll call it, 'The Bloody Awful'"
"We bought a small bottle of Jamesons Irish Whiskey and a tub of single cream and hurried back. It was a lovely May morning. 1973. Underdogs Sunderland had just won the FA Cup. We mixed the two ingredients in our kitchen, tasted the result and it was certainly intriguing, but in reality bloody awful. Undaunted, we threw in some sugar and it got better, but it still missed something."In 1973, I invented a ‘girly drink’ called Baileys (David Gluckman for The Irish Times)
This will go over well...
Today, the Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors unanimously approved to welcome girls into its iconic Cub Scout program and to deliver a Scouting program for older girls that will enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout.
Hip Hop and the Man
This is a story of a man who was a rapper and had to find himself again among aged Jews. Absolutely fascinating. He was an up and coming rapper, just becoming a star, got beaten and lost himself, and found himself again after years in an old folks home. The difference between his former self and his new self and what it meant to recapture or relive or recreate memory illuminates what being human is.
California reduces penalty for knowingly transmitting HIV
Previously a felony, knowing transmission of HIV is now a misdemeanor in California. (Single link WaPo). Critics of the previous law note that few cases were knowing or malicious and the law unfairly targeted those engaging in sex work, women, and minorities.
Like The Settling Of Oklahoma, But With Catgirls
On October 10th, Square Enix released patch 4.1 for Final Fantasy XIV, The Legend Returns. While there were many long awaited features released in the path, such as the first part of the Final Fantasy Tactics themed 24 man raid Return to Ivalice, one part of the patch stood above all else:
The fourth player housing area, Shirogane, would finally be opened for sales of land. [more inside]
Yes, I said. It’s real.
The title refers to the extra stitch sometimes given to a woman after the area between her vagina and anus is either torn or cut during childbirth. The purpose of the extra stitch is to make the vagina tighter than it was before childbirth in order to increase the husband’s pleasure during sex.Jane Dykema: What I Don’t Tell My Students About ‘The Husband Stitch’.
You have given us confidence to go out and fight the fight
Ninja Theory releases a very special "accolades" trailer for Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and promises a donation to celebrate World Mental Health Day. The trailer highlights some of the many touching messages received by Ninja Theory since the launch of the game. Hellbladehelp.info connects players to local mental health support organizations. [more inside]
Nothing about her can rightly be called a small detail
Melanie Gillman's #24HourComic "SWEETROCK" about a Giantess that visits a town once a year. [more inside]
Delivering medical supplies by drone
The company Zipline have built a drone delivery system for medical supplies. For areas of the world where road infrastructure is limited, this service can cut delivery times from four hours to fifteen minutes. They have been running in Rwanda for over a year and are about to launch in Tanzania.
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