December 10, 2016
“Did you know that it took them 7 years to make this game.”
American Life Expectancy Drops
...it’s hard to deny that something truly dire has ensnared a large chunk of the country. In a country as big, complicated, and diverse as the United States, that “something” is actually a great many things, but I would argue they can be broadly summed up by one idea: what I call the “one-bad-break test.” ... In societies that function well, there are various safety nets in place to prevent a bad break from leading to a tailspin for particularly vulnerable victims. Compared to many other rich nations, the U.S. is not such a society — all too often, when vulnerable Americans encounter a bad break, there’s nothing underneath them to stop their slide. Instead, devastation follows, sometimes in the form of bankruptcy and addiction and death.
A DIY Telecine
When Joe Herman's uncle uncovered a trove of more than 130 reels of film shot by Joe's grandfather, some as old as 1939, he decided to digitize them for preservation and to share with their family. With commercial digitization being fairly costly, Joe decided to build his own, out of an old projector, a Raspberry Pi, and some home modifications. The results are quite impressive. [more inside]
Blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrer
The Art of Learning
MAN IS SURE WAS EASY TO POST THIS WITH MY DEXTEROUS FINGERS
Bob's Other Voice
On a day when a nervous Patti Smith served as Bob Dylan's voice in Stockholm, imagine a world where the new Nobel laureate sang three semitones lower.
Alright, Dad.
Miniature Books from the Lilliput Oval Saloon
Tiny Tomes from the World’s First All-Miniature Bookstore: As the 450 lots show, [The Lilliput Oval Saloon] carried a range of finely crafted miniature tomes, from British almanacs with gilded covers to leather religious texts to books celebrating vices — like a tiny one from 1905 with 50 recipes for popular cocktails or 1866’s The Smoker’s Textbook, which features illustrations of water pipes and tobacco plants on an engraved title page. There are works of fiction and poetry, too, penned by names like Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Butler Yeats — whose “Song of the Wandering Aengus” unfolds on tiny pages kept between a carefully embroidered cover. The variety of material used by publishers to construct these diminutive books exemplifies their status as miniature works of art: one 1840 prayer book for children boasts a white bone binding, a vellum spine, and gilded edges.
Deddeh Howard's Black Mirror
No one escapes the microbiome
What’s Lurking in Your Showerhead-An examination of the microbial habitat inside a showerhead that might be a lot like yours.
Hooked for life
From the outside, the NFL looks like one of the jewels of American capitalism. It remains the most profitable sports enterprise in the world, with $12 billion in revenue in 2015. But a closer look at the trend lines reveals that the NFL’s financial and cultural dominance may be at risk. In response, the NFL has initiated a campaign to secure the next generation of fans that is unprecedented in the history of professional athletics. [more inside]
Greg Lake dead at 69
General write ups abound.
The Financial Times does a nice write up of I Believe in Father Christmas (audio version here.)
Original version here
With Ian Anderson here . [more inside]
From Russia, with love.
The CIA has concluded that Russia intervened to help Trump win the US election. It's part of a long game. [more inside]
Big Phat Band
Numerous and busy - The Jazz Police. Their ancestors - Gene Krupa / Buddy Rich drum battle and a classic - Sing, Sang, Sung.
Wanna get away?
What is the loneliest place on planet Earth? (slyt)---Point Nemo is the furthest place in the world from any sort of human.
...now it is not actually a bit of land. It’s the spot in the ocean furthest from land, in any direction. Other poles of inaccessibility include the Eurasian pole, in China, or the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility in Antarctica — a very difficult place to visit [more inside]
...now it is not actually a bit of land. It’s the spot in the ocean furthest from land, in any direction. Other poles of inaccessibility include the Eurasian pole, in China, or the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility in Antarctica — a very difficult place to visit [more inside]
Your Name in Gum
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