November 29, 2017
Come on and do the [blank]
Well they do all 16 dances - So you're stumped on your next song. Here's a tried and true method to overcome that writers block! [more inside]
Wolverman? Spiderine?
These are not your friendly neighborhood spiders: scientists have mixed a graphene solution that when fed to spiders allows them to spin super-strong webbing. How strong? Strong enough to carry the weight of a person. And these spiders might soon be enlisted to help manufacture enhanced ropes and cables, possibly even parachutes for skydivers, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.[more inside]
philately will get you everywhere
A stamp, or philatelic, cover is the term of art for the outside of a package or envelope. A "mail cover" is a surveillance technique where law enforcement or intellignce agencies record all the information on the outside of an envelope or package. And now the USPS lets you mail cover yourself, using a frighteningly insecure protocol - knowledge-based authentication.
An Unexpected Honor
When Ursula Vernon’s The Tomato Thief won the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novelette, she gave an acceptance speech the likes of which you’ve never heard.
Well. This is an unexpected honor. My fellow winners have said some very meaningful things up here on the stage tonight. I want to talk to you about dead whales.
"Hummingbirds Are Where Intuition Goes to Die"
A long-held belief about how hummingbirds drink is wrong—and the truth is really weird. The hummingbird tongue is a "fluid trap, not a capillary tube." HTML and PDF of the PNAS journal article. Video.
Stupid Sexy Pandas
Captive breeding programs rescue animals from extinction at the potential cost of creating a semi-domesticated species. Maggie Koerth-Baker ponders the consequences in The Complicated Legacy Of A Panda Who Was Really Good At Sex.
Also, a photo essay in The Atlantic showing costumed researchers in Sichuan pandering to their charges.
[via Boing Boing]
Also, a photo essay in The Atlantic showing costumed researchers in Sichuan pandering to their charges.
[via Boing Boing]
They use the word "kinetic" a lot
CyberCity is a 1:87 (HO) scale "miniaturized physical city" designed to simulate "the best efforts of a well-funded terrorist organization or other cyber attacker trying to control city assets".
"Why, blame it all, of course, it is Mordaunt."
In British Baby Names, Eleanor Nickerson posts about name history and contemporary naming: Tudor names, Victorian Gothic names, excellent names from 1876, Victorian Romany names, alliterative Edwardian siblings. There are rare names, phrase names and families with interesting name choices: the Farmans, the Stuarts and the Stockers. Name poems show that interest in names is not new. In more recent data, Nickerson looks at regional names (girls, boys), names by letter (girls, boys) and fast-rising names. She gives name help and links to other name blogs.
"The Aldovian castle is about as nice as a midlevel ski resort"
What’s the deal with the magazine where Amber works?Dana Schwartz reviews the Netflix original film A Christmas Prince, "the only Christmas movie that matters now"
First of all, Amber is an editor. We know this because she confronts a very rude writer who turned in 650 words instead of 300. “Just clean it up,” the writer sniffs at her. Amber mopes back to her friends. She wants to be the one writing the stories, not just fixing them. “Amber, we’re junior editors, not writers,” her friend who never gets a name says, giving us helpful exposition. But see — at most (all?) publications, editors are a more senior position than writers. Why do they treat it at Now/Beat/Now like it’s the world’s worst internship?
Why would they serve such a disgusting appetizer at a palace?
Another bit of “comedy”: The food they serve in foreign countries is gross sometimes! But this is a cocktail party at the royal palace of a country, with only the nobility invited. Even if the dish was “jellied meat,” why would it be served on cheap, stale-looking baguette slices with a sliced black olive and a neon toothpick? Everything else in this movie indicates that the royal family is classy and has impeccable taste. Why would anyone serve anything that looks like this at a party?
"Oooh, boy, this is a doozy"
There is a major security issue with macOS High Sierra. "We always see malware trying to escalate privileges and get root access," says Patrick Wardle, a security researcher with Synack. "This is best, easiest way ever to get root, and Apple has handed it to them on a silver platter."
Not exactly Socrates
War criminal dies after apparently drinking poison in court (Warning, the link contains autoplay video of the act.) [more inside]
Farage with facts
The unlikely life of Norris McWhirter, kids' TV star and the original Brexiter He was beloved by British kids in the 70s thanks to his Guinness Book of Records and role on TV’s Record Breakers – but Norris McWhirter was also a rightwing libertarian who inspired Thatcher and laid the foundations for Brexit.
Why do punk rock rats go out with new wave rats?
New York City Has Genetically Distinct ‘Uptown’ and ‘Downtown’ Rats. A graduate student sequenced rats all over Manhattan, and discovered how the city affects their genetic diversity. [The Atlantic]
“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”
Civilization VI: Rise and Fall Expansion Announcement Trailer [YouTube] “The expansion looks to majorly shake up the flow of the game with era-long modifiers that will force you to shift your strategy for fear of losing your cities or ambition to seize others'. Its centerpiece feature is the addition of "Golden Ages," "Dark Ages," and "Heroic Ages"—macro events that apply each civilization's ever-shifting fortunes, achievements, and momentum to a struggle for territory and cultural influence, whether military force is involved or not. The expansion will also add governors, a greatly expanded alliances system, cities that peacefully flip between civilizations, and an "Historic Moments" system that gives players special milestones that impact outcomes. Players can look forward to "emergency situations," which allow the civilizations at the bottom to pool their resources in order to gain benefits that help elevate them all closer to the top players. And, of course, expect new civilizations and leaders.” [via: Ars Technica] [more inside]
how the Tariq Ramadan scandal derailed France's #Balancetonporc Movement
While most of the commentators on the Ramadan Affair have been—as tends to be the case with conversations about Islam, laïcité, and terrorism in France—white and male, some of the most important insights on the scandal have come from those Muslim feminists who are dismayed both by the prejudice of Valls and Charlie, and disappointed with Bouteldja’s seeming indifference to victims of abuse. A debate about the Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan and his treatment of women has been eclipsed by a discussion about how France’s intellectuals view Islam in French life. (SLNewYorker)
X Gonna Sleigh Bell Ring It To You
DMX drops remix of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. DMX has previously demonstrated an affinity for Rudolph.
"No, your controller was not really low on batteries."
Developers share their most memorable dirty coding tricks Developers behind video games such as Super Time Force, Mega Man Legacy Collection, Titan Quest, and others solved pesky problems with dirty coding tricks. Here's how they did it. (Warning: features ambient squirrels)
No Pressure
“Ultimately, though, the most frustrating thing about Kids These Days is how Harris keeps coming back to that broken promise framing, encapsulated in those blunt rhetorical questions quoted above: “[T]he market hasn’t held up its side of the bargain. What gives? And why did we make this bargain in the first place?” As a millennial might say, great questions.”
-Won’t Get Fooled Again: Malcolm Harris’s “Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials” Jacqui Shine, LA Review Of Books
“The disdain that so many people feel for Harris’s and my generation reflects an unease about the forces of deregulation, globalization, and technological acceleration that are transforming everyone’s lives.” - Where Millennials Come From On “Kids These Days” Jia Tolentino, New Yorker
“The disdain that so many people feel for Harris’s and my generation reflects an unease about the forces of deregulation, globalization, and technological acceleration that are transforming everyone’s lives.” - Where Millennials Come From On “Kids These Days” Jia Tolentino, New Yorker
I'm not winning!
Watching History Fade Away in 'Call of Duty: WW2'
"Now, with Call of Duty: WW2, even the humanity and the hope are draining out of the story. It is World War 2 as viewed from an era of endless war, compounding geopolitical crises, and a political system that cannot even articulate objections to much less act against fascism and racial supremacy. It’s only fitting that the all-American platoon of Call of Duty: World War II seems almost to be fighting a forever war, acting more like members of the modern professionalized military that replaced the citizen-soldier ideal with a warrior ethos. Waypoint's Rob Zacny argues that the latest game in the long-running 'Call of Duty' videogame series" isn't just a hackneyed war story, it's the endpoint of a 70 year process of stripping the Second World War of meaning and context.
Head brewer Jaega Wise calls on CAMRA to ban sexist beer branding
But it just was one of three ideas to combat sexism in the beer industry. Jaega Wise is the head brewer at Wild Card Brewery based in London; she was speaking at the first Brewers Congress on Monday, November 27th. [more inside]
"Without people, being rich would be very boring."
"I’m the person that looked at the Mona Lisa and be like, Man, that’s gonna be cool in 40 years. I play forever.": The New York Times' Dean Baquet talks therapy, family, music, politics and more with Jay-Z, with annotations by Wesley Morris and Reggie Ugwu.
c'mon daddy let's fight the moon
Charlie and Daddy Show #1: The Ceiling (SLYT): Charlie looks at the ceiling, identifies a television and plays guitar. Charlie is roughly 2 and 1/3 years old. Daddy is 36. [more inside]
My face became my mask - and I became just another actor.
Marvel’s New Editor-in-Chief Admits Writing Under Japanese Pseudonym ‘Akira Yoshida’ [Vulture] [more inside]
Finally, a killer app for virtual reality
AfroArt
Avengers Infinity War Trailer
PSA: Please Unpack and Update Game Consoles Before Gifting Christmas
Giving someone a big name game console this christmas? Apply software updates beforehand! Modern
".. game consoles require a lengthy series of updates, downloads, adjustments and vaguely arcane incantations before they work properly."You do NOT want to be attending to this Christmas day. [more inside]
One of the girls in the video is on ritalin, can you tell which one?
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