October 16, 2014
It was for the best, every time.
ლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლ
I am here for other women
The Correct Word
The Internet has been bitten by POODLE
POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy
Encryption) is the latest exploit found in SSL, a protocol used widely across the Internet for secure connections. Engineers at Google discovered the exploit, and they have written a white paper discussing it. In response, Google is disabling SSL in all Google products. Some are calling this the death of SSL. For web users, disabling SSL in your browser is recommended. Here is a tool to identify if your browser is potentially affected by the POODLE exploit.
In which the host cannot pronounce his own name or the name of the show
It’s been a while, but tomorrow night, Scott Aukerman and Reggie Watts (previously) return to finish the third season of the Comedy Bang Bang TV show (previously). You could watch a new episode streaming right now or check out CBB podcast classics (previously) after the jump (most links NSFW, some in poor taste). [more inside]
Bill Gates reviews a book on inequality
Bill Gates pens a review on Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (multiple previously). He agrees with the book's central thesis on the problem of high levels of inequality and the need for government role that the market alone cannot solve, and calls upon the imposition of a progressive consumption tax, rather than a tax on capital as Piketty proposes.
Women in Clothes
Through original interviews, conversations, surveys, projects, diagrams and drawings from over six hundred contributors – including Miranda July, Cindy Sherman, Elif Batuman, Mac McClelland, Lena Dunham, Molly Ringwald, Tavi Gevinson, Rachel Kushner, Roxane Gay and Sarah Nicole Prickett – Women in Clothes explores the wide range of motives that inform how women present themselves through clothes, and what style really means.Feeling inspired? Answer the book's inaugural survey here. A selection of completed surveys, sorted by author or by question, can be found at the Women in Clothes website. [more inside]
"It's when you get into the urban areas that it just turns crazy."
Don Francis, epidemiologist and member of the World Health Organization team that investigated the first documented Ebola outbreak in 1976, gave a fascinating interview on KPFA's "Letters and Politics" in September.
Francis shared more recollections and some of his photos from the investigation with an audience at UC Berkeley in August.
Some people are so poor
When I knew the Clippers were drafting me, the first thing I did was type Donald Sterling’s name into Google. The first hit that came up was “Donald Sterling is a racist.” I read an article on how he didn’t want minorities to live in his apartment buildings. My first thought was, Wow this guy is really, really a racist … how is he an owner of an NBA team? My second thought was, Wow, these articles are from 2003 and 2008. I guess everybody already knows about this stuff and just doesn’t care. As players, we’re not supposed to really care about anything but basketball. We’re just supposed to perform. To be honest, I didn’t ever really think about bringing up Sterling’s past. What was I supposed to do? Just picture me at the press conference my rookie year. “Uh … hey, guys, before we talk about today’s game, did you happen to see that investigative report on my owner?”
--
The Boss. An Essay about working for the NBA, by Blake Griffin. [more inside]
It takes a village
Rich Evans’s widow—Ornuma “Ao” Evans—was born in Thailand. She hadn’t spoken to her own relatives in years and knew very little about her husband’s. There was no family to take her and her children home from the scene. She didn’t have the name of anyone—not a friend or a neighbor or even a business associate—who might help sort things out. She also didn’t have a phone, a driver’s license, or house keys.
Guardian/Whisper
Revealed: how Whisper app tracks ‘anonymous’ users
10 Centuries of Music in 4 Minutes
You came here in that Great Sun Bear? You're braver than I thought.
In his Alliance Rebellion series, artist Scott Erikson combines two distinctive visual styles to striking effect.
When Arctic methane scientists disagree
Ignoring the Arctic Methane Monster: Royal Society Goes Dark on Arctic Observational Science. "The exclusion also highlights a large and what appears to be growing rift between those who observe the Arctic system and some that model it. Concern for larger carbon release from the Arctic system appears to be steadily rising among Arctic observational specialists, while some modelers appear to have retreated into silos in an attempt to defend previous understandings that were based on earlier work." [more inside]
Bobby drank too much and fell in the Clyde
Your next favorite band is probably from Glasgow. Sure, we know Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian (previously and very previously), Frightened Rabbit (previously), The Twilight Sad, Glasvegas, and Chvrches (previously). Step inside for some of Glasgow’s current talent explosion. [more inside]
Welcome to BLAH
Virgin Airlines has released a nearly six-hour video showing what's it like to fly from New York to San Francisco with BLAH airlines, which is fictional, gray, boring, and non-Virgin; all in excruciating detail.
(Warnings: SLYT, mannequins, Lynchian, Virgin Pepsi Blue)
“To navigate, you must be brave and you must remember.” - Mau Piailug
... imagine for a moment that you didn’t have to rely on maps to navigate the unknown—that your memory, instincts, and knowledge of the environment sufficed. This is the art of Polynesian wayfinding. An article by Lily Bui, a researcher at MIT's Comparative Media Studies program, summarizing how Polynesians managed to reliably navigate between more than a thousand islands in 10 million square miles of water, an area slightly larger than the size of Canada, with limited instruments and great memories for details. [more inside]
Why chemicals are like blenders, not margarita machines.
"As a chemist, I can tell you that no chemical is 100 percent safe all the time, under all conditions. Even I occasionally do a double take when I hear about the ingredients in some of our foods. But our fear of chemicals – what is often called chemophobia – needs to be tempered.
[more inside]
Marriage advice for chart enthusiasts
What makes for a stable marriage?
About a decade ago, the gossip on everyone’s lips was that “1/2 of all marriages in the U.S. end in divorce.” That factoid was later disproven, but it left a lasting impression on the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes of America. In an effort to not become a part of that statistic, I started doing a little research on what makes for a stable marriage in America. [...] What struck me about this study is that it basically laid out what makes for a stable marriage in the U.S. I’ve highlighted 7 of the biggest factors below.The Atlantic points out:
Part of the study echoes what we already know about marriage: That it's increasingly for rich people—who make a lot and can afford honeymoons.[more inside]
The Mother of All Supercuts
In Final Cut: Ladies and Gentleman (IMDb) Hungarian filmmaker György Pálfi creates a feature length love story by editing together clips from some 500 different movies. This "recycled film" was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. (SLYT, NSFW: This would probably be rated NC17; sexy-time scene with at least one clip from Deep Throat.)
The new trend in movies actually is new
Tired of movie sequels? Good news, The Sequel Is Dead -- The Universe Is Where It's At [more inside]
But who WAS presenting the Nine O'Clock News on 24 November 1995?
Ever wanted to know who was on BBC Radio 1 at 1pm on Sunday 6 February, 1994*? Or what happened in EastEnders on 13 October 1998**? Or who was on the Top of the Pops Christmas special in 1971? Genome can answer that. [more inside]
Barry-gate
Barry Spurr, an expert on T. S. Eliot and the Virgin Mary, is Australia's first Professor of Poetry and Poetics. Appointed as one of two English subject specialists to the new Australian Review of the National Curriculum PDF, his concerns that "the Western literary canon" has been neglected and "the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on literature in English in Australia" overemphasized in the existing curriculum are quoted liberally in the final report, which recommends that: "There ... needs to be a greater emphasis on dealing with and introducing literature from the Western literary canon, especially poetry," in Australian schools. The report has met with approval in the right-wing Australian press.
Now, emails leaked to the New Matilda show that Spurr has spent the past several years sending messages from his University of Sydney email account referring to Native Australians as "Abos" and human "rubbish" and Asians as "chinky poos," calling Nelson Mandela a "darkie," Desmond Tutu a "witch doctor," and his own Vice Chancellor "an appalling minx," comparing Methodists to "serpents," and referring to women generally as "whores." Now, in the wake of the New Matilda exposé, the University of Sydney is investigating the emails and the Australian Education Minister is denying that the Abbott administration had anything to do with Spurr's appointment. Spurr, meanwhile, maintains that the emails were nothing more than "a whimsical linguistic game" and "repartee" shared with friends, which went right over the heads of the New Matilda journalists. There is also a petition to dismiss Spurr from the Review Commission.
'This Impromptu Dance'
I start the music, take his hands and start leading him, swaying them back and forth. And he lets go of me. He's gonna wing it as he was prone to do when he was younger. Breathing on his own for the last time, Geoffrey Holder, eyes closed, performs his last solo to Bill Evans playing Fauré's Pavane. From his deathbed. The arms take flight, his beautiful hands articulate through the air, with grace. I whisper "shoulders" and they go into an undulating shimmy, rolling like waves. His Geoffrey Holder head gently rocks back and forth as he stretches out his right arm to deliver his trademark finger gesture, which once meant "you can't afford this" and now is a subtle manifestation of pure human spirit and infinite wisdom. His musical timing still impeccable, bouncing off the notes, as if playing his own duet with Evan's piano. Come the finale, he doesn't lift himself off the bed as he planned; instead, one last gentle rock of the torso, crosses his arms and turns his head to the side in a pose worthy of Pavlova. All with a faint, gentile smile.Leo Holder talks about his father's last dance.
Inflammatory Seattle pastor of Mars Hill Church steps down
Following an investigation by church elders that cleared him of behavior disqualifying for a pastor, "charismatic but choleric" Mark Driscoll has voluntarily stepped down after 18 years as the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Dozens of elders and church members disagreed with the ruling of the investigation, and the megachurch has been steadily bleeding members and donations over recent months. [more inside]
Taxis, Rainbows and Stars
Earlier this year, Chris Whong made a FOIL request to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, receiving fare and trip data for all licensed cabs in New York in 2013. (previously) The data was anonymised, but as Vijay Pandurangan realised, only partially. [more inside]
Let Me Tell You About Homestuck
5 years.
7,000 pages.
13,000 panels.
700,000 words. [Approximately the length of the Bible.]
Over 3 hours of animation.
Over 23 hours of soundtrack.
15 separate games, in 3 unique styles.
PBS once called Homestuck the "Ulysses of the Internet". Its author, Andrew Hussie — who resembles Joyce in his impishness, stylistic maximalism, and fondness for disturbing smut — calls it "a story I've tried to make as much a pure expression of its medium as possible". It has become a cultural phenomenon, inspiring proms and dominating Amazon makeup reviews. But most importantly, it's a rollicking good read, equal parts slapstick and epic, bildungsroman and cultural commentary.
What on earth about it makes its fans so overly zealous? And how the hell does one start the daunting process of reading Homestuck? If you're even the remotest bit curious about this Internet phenomenon, the following is a teensy-weensy introduction to just what makes Homestuck so terrific. [more inside]
7,000 pages.
13,000 panels.
700,000 words. [Approximately the length of the Bible.]
Over 3 hours of animation.
Over 23 hours of soundtrack.
15 separate games, in 3 unique styles.
PBS once called Homestuck the "Ulysses of the Internet". Its author, Andrew Hussie — who resembles Joyce in his impishness, stylistic maximalism, and fondness for disturbing smut — calls it "a story I've tried to make as much a pure expression of its medium as possible". It has become a cultural phenomenon, inspiring proms and dominating Amazon makeup reviews. But most importantly, it's a rollicking good read, equal parts slapstick and epic, bildungsroman and cultural commentary.
What on earth about it makes its fans so overly zealous? And how the hell does one start the daunting process of reading Homestuck? If you're even the remotest bit curious about this Internet phenomenon, the following is a teensy-weensy introduction to just what makes Homestuck so terrific. [more inside]
RIP Loukanikos
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