October 8, 2017
Goodnight MetaFilter, goodnight moon.
At 1:00pm on May 17th, 2017, Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted that he occasionally longed for someone to read "Good Night Moon" to him as he falls asleep. Six minutes later, LeVar Burton tweeted "I got you... Let's do this!" And do it they did. [more inside]
That Time Kottke Was on Halt and Catch Fire
Now, I don’t know if you know this about me or not, but I love the web. (Oh, you could tell? I let that slip at some point?) And I am so very nostalgic for the early days of the web in the 90s — the Mosaic days, the Altavista days, the Bobaweb days, the Entropy8 days, the Suck days, the CSotD days, the alt.culture.days, the 0sil8 days, the Yahoo on the akebono server at Stanford days.
Dissect is a serialized music podcast
Now in its 2nd season, Dissect uses "long-form musical analysis, broken into short, digestible episodes" to explore Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in depth. Enjoy the 1st season's 23 episodes dedicated to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly.
Dissect is created by Cole Cuchna.
A Visit to the Synthetic Cadaver Factory
Inside this otherwise unassuming facility, workers are creating what may be the world’s most advanced surgical and anatomical models out of little more than salt and water. Fully synthetic corpses like these, complete with skin, muscle, organs, and bone, might one day eliminate our need to test many new technologies on humans or animals. And it’s not just SynDaver’s materials that make their cadavers unique. It’s their visceral realism.
But I do. I really believe in it.
Three recent texts from alternate timelines
"The Primordial Gound" by Justin E. H. Smith (The Public Domain Review, October 2017; but reworked from earlier articles): "Klopp records that in May of 1777 Kant's ship suffered heavy damages in a storm in the South China Sea." "From The New Ecyclopedia" by Byron Landry (Conjunctions, April 2017): "Little is known about the pre-Socratic philosopher Polycyathus, and that little unlikeable: ... he believed that, of all the forms of governance, tyranny was best, because 'it breeds monuments.'" "The Doctor is Who?" by Heavy (alternatehistory.com, July 2017): "Several actors were considered to play the Second Doctor ... Peter Jeffrey, Valentine Dyall and Patrick Troughton were all approached but each declined the role."
At the heart of all international post is ... a spreadsheet
Christmas is only eleven weeks away. But how will your card, letter or present get to you from your relative or partner or MeFite crush in distant lands, and who pays who? These questions are periodically asked [1] [2] by MeFites. As explained by Josh Urich, the answer lies in the Universal Postal Union, a Switzerland-based agency of the United Nations, and their lovely spreadsheet you can download and play with.
“Then comes the Turbo Tunnel speeder level...”
Battletoads: The Strange History of a Nigh-Impossible Franchise by Gavin Jasper [Den of Geek] “In the early 90s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the kings of children’s entertainment. They were everywhere and like all successful concepts, they were followed by copycats. Over the years we’d see attempts to piggyback on their success with such concepts as Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars, and the Country Cuckoo Clock Codpiece Zulu Warriors. There was one pretender to the throne that appeared as a cheap Turtles knockoff at first glance, but had more than enough uniqueness to stand on its own. To a point, at least. I want to talk to you about Battletoads. Battletoads is one of those game franchises that had so much personality and quality that it should have survived for years. Unfortunately, it’s become a relic of semi-obscurity...” [more inside]
You can't take the sky from me (or me) (or me)
A collaborative project with almost 90 artists and one instruction: look up.
The FBI’s Hunt for Two Missing Piglets
On the last day of August, a six-car armada of FBI agents in bulletproof vests, armed with search warrants, descended upon two small shelters for abandoned farm animals: Ching Farm Rescue in Riverton, Utah, and Luvin Arms in Erie, Colorado. Why two particular piglets have become an issue of great importance for the factory-farm industry and the federal administration. [Warning, graphic photos.]
Probably the best thing that happened in my college career
20 years ago today, Cornell students, faculty, and staff woke up to find someone had speared a giant pumpkin on the McGraw clock tower spire. [more inside]
How Animated Cartoons Are Made (back in 1919)
How they made cartoons before Disney: an instructional silent movie from 1919.
Nom nom ... crunch?
Giant Lego ice cream. A giant disposable razor. A giant toothbrush. Film projector, office chair, stapler, matches, and many others ... [more inside]
Sex abuse in the marijuana industry
In secretive marijuana industry, whispers of abuse and trafficking [TW for sex abuse and rape]
A cartoon about new motherhood
A female French cartoonist writes about new motherhood, maternity leave, and postpartum depression. Cartoon is in English.
The art, science, and math of gerrymandering
"Politics, they say, is a game where whoever’s ahead gets to change the rules on the fly. It’s about winning, not being fair. But this isn’t just a politics story; it’s also a technology story. Gerrymandering used to be an art, but advanced computation has made it a science." MeFi's own Jordan Ellenberg pens an op-ed for the New York Times.
Dockless bike shares are here. Are cities ready for them?
Dockless bike shares have arrived. Cities from Seattle to DC to London now host competing bikeshare systems with no set parking areas or dock spaces. Between bad user behavior and a growing backlash from San Francisco to Singapore to Sydney the future looks bright for #DocklessBikeFails.
Your life is written on your face
Frances McDormand’s Difficult Women (NYT Magazine).
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