October 15, 2017

They were just drug dealers in lab coats.

THE DRUG INDUSTRY’S TRIUMPH OVER THE DEA Amid a targeted lobbying effort, Congress weakened the DEA’s ability to go after drug distributors, even as opioid-related deaths continue to rise, a Washington Post and ‘60 Minutes’ investigation finds. [more inside]
posted by zabuni at 9:24 PM PST - 47 comments

Assorted cuteness

22 Dogs Who Just Want To Say Hello
20 Totally Random Animal Photos That Will Make You Pee Yourself
22 Photos That Prove It's Easier With A Second Dog
28 Bizarre Photoshopped Hybrid Animals We Wish Existed IRL
20 Dogs Who Are Doing Us A Kindness
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:09 PM PST - 7 comments

Be a Planetarium and Explore

Kelli Anderson has a new interactive pop-up The Planetarium that works. Not only do things pop-up but there are tools to use. If I still collected movable books, this one would already be in my collection. And she has a fabulous website to explore, among which is a pop-up with a working pinhole camera. Here's the link to the website blog. She does a lot more than just pop-ups, as you'll see. Enjoy!
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:29 PM PST - 5 comments

*mufled EDM beats in the distance*

Alex the Kid and Butch Callinan: They're a couple of lonesome cowboys with dusty pasts. But perhaps, with the help of Molly Lewis and Ol' Jim Barnes, they might be able to find a place...for both of us.
posted by KChasm at 4:57 PM PST - 7 comments

Hi, my name is Emily. I am 9 years old and this is my seventeenth video

Emily's drum cover of "Be Yourself" by Audioslave (check out the subtle sideways glance at 4:05). Emily posts videos of her drum covers of rock songs, and has been doing so for a while. The drum only audio track for the linked Audioslave song. [more inside]
posted by Gorgik at 4:23 PM PST - 16 comments

I paint the way I do because I’m just plain scared.

Known in Chicago as the Queen of the Bohemian Artists ; in her papers is an elegy from Studs Terkel who had interviewed her for radio - “To Queen Gertrude, You are regal—And we love you—Studs.”
Mainly self taught, Gertrude Stein in 1935 advised her to ‘draw better'.
She lived and moved in the Chicago Jazz scene inspiring Richie Powell to write Gertrude's Bounce as she walked "just like the way the rhythm sounds in the Introduction". Her home in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago became a salon of sorts for such writers and musicians as Dizzy Gilespie, Sonny Rollins, Billie Holiday, among others.
posted by adamvasco at 4:03 PM PST - 5 comments

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ START

The Quest To Make A Better Video Game Controller [Kotaku] “Next time you play a video game, look down at the controller in your hand. Is it comfortable? Does it work well with the game you're playing? Are your fingers all being used efficiently? If you could change one thing, what would it be? About 10 years ago, after permutations ranging from Atari 2600 joysticks to Sega Genesis "C" buttons, console game controllers arrived at something resembling a standard. A modern console controller must have: Two clickable sticks and a D-pad, four face buttons, a pair of triggers, a start and options button, and a pair of shoulder buttons. That configuration has held steady for at least one full console generation. The modern PS4 controller, Xbox One controller, and Nintendo Switch Pro controller all have more or less the same functionality as their predecessors. Of course, some people still think it's time for new ideas.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 3:40 PM PST - 78 comments

"That's a man who doesn't know what to do with a horse."

Conan O'Brien Didn't Ask David Letterman For A Horse After Conan O'Brien wrote a loving farewell tribute article to David Letterman, Letterman repaid the gesture with a most unusual gift. [SLYT]
posted by Servo5678 at 2:28 PM PST - 24 comments

#asymmetryissexy #imnotyourinspiration

When Vasu Sojitra was only nine months old, he was diagnosed with septicemia, resulting in the amputation of one of his legs.
Today, he is:
a back country skier “Skiing down isn’t hard, but it’s just constantly pulling myself up the mountain that is.”
a mountaineer “On the climb itself, I just strapped my crutches to my backpack and just climbed with my hands and foot. Nothing too crazy.”
and Tony Hawk’s recent inspiration. [more inside]
posted by Grandysaur at 2:13 PM PST - 2 comments

There’s No Fire Alarm for Artificial General Intelligence

A discourse on the potential of AI, with air-planes and alarms. An interesting essay on the difficulty of predicting technological advances, with a focus on whether a clear signal of imminent A.I. will be apparent even to those in the field.
posted by bitmage at 2:07 PM PST - 37 comments

Alternative twitter feed

A livestream of hummingbirds, along with wasps and the occasional woodpecker, coming and going from a feeder somewhere in West Texas.
posted by daisystomper at 1:48 PM PST - 9 comments

She's a good girl, loves her mama

8 European kids living with disabilities experience zero gravity. The experience was made possible by the European Space Agency, and Novespace, a subsidiary of French CNES. The kids rode a converted Airbus A310 which flew in repeated parabolic arcs to simulate the effects of zero-gravity without having to visit space.
posted by growabrain at 12:06 PM PST - 15 comments

"we should not expect the first NS-NS GWs to be accompanied by a GRB"

20 months after announcing the first gravitational wave detection, and two weeks after winning the Nobel Prize, the LIGO-Virgo collaboration returns to the National Press Club on Monday morning at 10 am to reveal "groundbreaking observations" relating to "an astronomical phenomenon that has never been witnessed before." (live stream links: 1 2) [more inside]
posted by pjenks at 10:18 AM PST - 38 comments

Fish's famous foul-up

30 years ago the UK was battered by hurricane strength winds in the Great Storm of 1987, following a now notorious weather forecast by Micheal Fish. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:29 AM PST - 38 comments

a small win against 'just trash it' attitude

Monsieur Pep has been repairing umbrellas in Paris for nearly fifty years. (2:20 SLYoutube) It is the only umbrella repair shop in France.
posted by freethefeet at 3:16 AM PST - 17 comments

14 Links Definitely Not Intended as Free Promotion for Another Country

Erin Chack (senior editor at Buzzfeed) tells how "I Accidentally Became Famous In Another Country" in a video summarized as "One BuzzFeed article leads to a country-wide campaign involving newspapers, fundraising, and the highest level of government." [more inside]
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:04 AM PST - 21 comments

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