December 12, 2016
Radio Around the World
Radio.garden A browsable map of streamable radio stations around the world.
Don't you boys know any nice songs?
It's April 1, 1980. Frank Zappa, legendary composer, performer, and noted political troublemaker arrives at the San Francisco airport. Representatives of the US Navy are waiting for him as he exits the aircraft and the encounter was captured on video.
Full story at the Navy Times.
Buffers Overflowing with Pixels
The Hi-Bit Era (D-Pad Studios)
While these games may be paying homage to the 16-bit era that started with the Super Nintendo (1990) and Sega Mega Drive (1988, a.k.a. Genesis), they're working beyond the limitations of the tech in the 90s.
It's got me thinking, that pixel art games have entered a new era.
His smile makes you feel like there's still some good in the world
the ticket explodes again each time you load the page
23 Random Paragraphs From Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs William S. Burroughs reads 23 random sentences from Naked Lunch [wiki] [Previously.].
Raw is Jericho
"This man’s skull was ritualistically transformed 9,000 years ago in Jericho. To flesh out the features on the so-called Jericho Skull, archaeologists at the British Museum have worked for more than two years to reconstruct the face of a man whose skull had been reshaped by ritual throughout his long life. While he was an infant, his head had been bound tightly with cloth to change its shape. After he died at a ripe old age, his skull was then plastered, decorated, and put on display."
Outrunning The Tide
Each summer, the Passage du Gois (a submersible causeway in the Bay of Bourgneuf) is host to a foot race known as the Foulées du Gois. The professional portion of the race is notable in that it begins at the moment the tide crosses the road. The leaders often finish in knee-deep water, and those further back may have to swim to the finish line.
Call It F8, Call It Luck, Call It Karma
The first trailer for The Fate of the Furious was released last night, and Shea Serrano has 9 extremely important questions to ask about it. [more inside]
To Control the Wheel of Fortune Master the 17 Principles of Achievement!
The father of self-help was a pathological fraud, abuser and super right-wing. He also lent his guidance to a cult that claimed they would raise a baby to live forever. And despite a lifetime of dozens of creative scams, such as "colleges" where students paid to work on factory assembly lines and selling stock in Mormon silent movies, he was near broke his entire life. On the other hand he did reveal to businessmen The Mystery of Sex Transmutation. [more inside]
How to eat a scorpion in style
The Futuristic Utensils Designed to Help You Eat Bugs (Atlas Obscura). From the designer's project page:"The product is meaningful to be joyful for eating insects and stretch food culture." [more inside]
Dilatant Compound 3179 + Graphine = Hypersensitive pressure detector
Dilatant Compound 3179 (previously), better known to kids young and old as Silly Putty, may finally have a proper scientific use (besides the other semi-proper uses). Add graphene to the polymer, you get a very sensitive electro-mechanical sensor that can measure breathing, pulse and even blood pressure when placed on a person's neck or chest, and even detect the footsteps of small spiders (via NPR; abstract, paywalled article on Science Mag: Sensitive electromechanical sensors using viscoelastic graphene-polymer nanocomposites).
AA Gill Obituary: Renowned restaurant critic earned fame and infamy
The journalist AA Gill, who has died aged 62, less than a month after revealing he was seriously ill with cancer The Sunday Times journalist, who was regarded by many on Fleet Street as one of the great newspaper stylists, opened his restaurant column three weeks ago with the abrupt declaration he was suffering with “an embarrassment of cancer”. He went on: “There is barely a morsel of offal that is not included. I have a trucker’s gut-buster, gimpy, malevolent, meaty malignancy.” He wanted readers to know, he said, in case it affected his judgments about food. [more inside]
Out of 4706 UK panel shows. Only 1 was 100% female.
UK Panel Show Gender Breakdown! Generally, panel shows on UK television include few female guests. Most have male hosts and male captains/regulars. Even omitting the regulars, the guests are mostly men too. It is a problem that half the population are under-represented in these long-running TV and radio shows. [more inside]
2017 goals
Nike announced this morning that they are embarking on a plan to break one of running’s most formidable barriers—the two-hour marathon, in 2017. [more inside]
Distributional National Accounts: Trading Places
Economic growth in the United States: A tale of two countries - "An economy that fails to deliver growth for half of its people for an entire generation is bound to generate discontent with the status quo and a rejection of establishment politics." [more inside]
Pop. Pop. Popopopopopopopop.
Last week, MalwareHunterTeam discovered code for new ransomware under development called Popcorn Time (no relation to the streaming app). Like most ransomware, it is designed to encrypt the victim's files and withhold the decryption key until a ransom is paid. However, Popcorn Time adds a nasty twist: if the victim is able to infect two others using a referral link, they can get their decryption code free of charge if payment is successfully extracted. The discovered code is still incomplete, and it's not known how far it might be from completion. Further reading: a history of ransomware from Wired.
No, really, it's FINE.
Is this always a bad thing? Tight-lipped, frosty and fake, the passive-aggressive person never quite takes the blame. [more inside]
An Enemy of the Kremlin Dies in London
A longform article from The Atlantic: Who killed Alexander Perepilichny?
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