December 13, 2016
Technically it's a concrete mixer, not a cement mixer
Disco ball mixer. Candy striped mixer. Football mixer. Street art mixers. Mixer art, various. Concrete Products fleet graphics awards. Christmas light mixer. Sunshine mixer. Ocean flame (?) mixer. Matroyshka mixer. Polka dot mixer. Shoe mixer. Asparagus, strawberry, and corn mixers.
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CSI: Audubon
Alan Thicke Dead at 69
An Imagined Date Between Two Straight Men
MATT: It’s nice to finally meet you! I like your flannel shirt that smells like whatever soup you had for lunch.
(SL New Yorker by Rebecca Caplan and Shea Strauss.)
(SL New Yorker by Rebecca Caplan and Shea Strauss.)
2) You were never actually accomplishing anything by watching the news
After eight years of not watching TV and internet newscasts, David Cain posts Five Things You Notice When You Quit the News. [more inside]
“—you only look as good as your horse does.”
The Best Horse in PC Gaming [PC Gamer] “And no one understands the value of a loyal, healthy horse companion better than PC Gamer. They’ve helped us scale vertical cliffsides in Skyrim, disable tanks with their poops in Metal Gear Solid 5, and be less angry than normal when we couldn’t fast travel The Witcher 3. They’re also very pretty and I like the noises they make. But the time for sharing the love is over, as we've decided to declare the best horse in PC gaming through rigorous horse analysis. Tuck that shirt in, champ your bit, and let’s ride.” [more inside]
#FuckThisShit: An Advent Devotional
Day Sixteen So as you ask “Where is your God?”, Michael Brown looks you [in the] eye. He smiles.
He says, “Fuck. This. Shit.” [more inside]
"This is my dream ... Nobody ever jumped a car a mile."
In the 1970s, Canadian daredevil Ken Carter had a plan: He wanted to jump a rocket-powered car over the St. Lawrence River. Ultimately, the stunt's promoters put another driver behind the wheel and the jump was unsuccessful. But there's more to the story. The Devil at Your Heels, posted online courtesy of Canada's National Film Board, is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the five-year lead-up to the jump and the eleventh-hour betrayal that cost Ken Carter a chance at his larger-than-life dream. [more inside]
MEOW
One of Joe Howard's students asked him a question and he couldn't stop thinking about it. After some research, he provided an answer in this charming video: How loud would it be if all of the cats in the world meowed at the same time? (h/t Miss Cellania) [more inside]
The legend of the Milkwalker
It's a sentient milk carton that has grown arms and the legs of an Imperial AT-ST walker from Star Wars. Is it mechanical or organic? Is it full of milk? What does it want with us? [more inside]
Béguinages: women-only communities from the 13th century
The Béguines was a women's movement that appeared in the Low Countries in the 13th century. They founded béguinages in cities like Brugges and Amsterdam, which were convent-like, women-only communities where women could live like nuns without the religious vows. [more inside]
Now it is raining. Bombs a little bit calmer.
Syrian government close to complete control of Aleppo. More civilians, including women and children, killed by government forces as they attempt to flee the city amidst "a complete meltdown of humanity." Many civilians tweeting goodbyes online. Russia claims deals in progress to evacuate city safely.
"No. I don't think they ate her."
In N.K. Jemisin's "The Evaluators: To Trade With Aliens, You Must Adapt," an extrasolar investigative team has disappeared, but the United Communities of Earth wants to go forward with a trade agreement. This short story is a part of Wired's first ever issue dedicated to science fiction.
A show about clinical depression... with laughs‽
The Hilarious World of Depression. A new podcast with host John Moe that focuses on talking to funny people who have dealt depression. Its first full episode, Peter Sagal Opens Up, was released yesterday and features guest Peter Sagal (host of NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me) talking about his depression publicly for the first time.
2016 in music: some brightness for dark days
There’s been no shortage of pessimism about 2016—a year that was plagued with fear, hatred, and confusion.... There was plenty to mourn over within music itself, as we said farewell to David Bowiepreviously, Princeprev., Leonard Cohenprev., Phife Dawgprev., Sharon Jonesprev., and too many others. But nevertheless, we found comfort in song: Solange’s meditationsprev., twice, Chance the Rapper’s spirituality, Bruno Mars’s throwback levity. Frank Ocean resurfacedprev., and the Avalanches finally returnedprev.. For the most part, music in 2016 remained good. The 50 Best Albums of 2016 from Spin, or you can go to Album of the Yearprev., twice to see an aggregated list of top albums or browse individual lists, listed alphabetically. [more inside]
Watson, come here!
A Secret Ops AI Aims to Save Education This AI professor couldn’t keep up as his classes grew and grew. So he built himself an extra teaching assistant: Jill Watson!
Reporting Archaeology in the Post-Truth Era
2016 was an epic year for failures of archaeology. This was the year of the ‘Nazi gold train’, the ‘Mayan city’ discovered by a kid using Google Earth, whatever the fuck Semir Osmanagić said about a stone sphere, and ‘Nefertiti’s Tomb’... But the problem is not that we don’t have enough fact-checkers... “The media scandal of 2016 isn’t so much about what reporters failed to tell the American public; it’s about what they did report on, and the fact that it didn’t seem to matter.”
Less Food Waste? It's a Wrap.
An (Edible) Solution to Extend Produce’s Shelf Life. "Using leaves, stems, banana peels and other fresh plant materials left behind after fruits and vegetables are picked or processed, Apeel has developed a method for creating imperceptible, edible barriers that the company says can extend the life of produce like green beans and berries by as much as five times. Apeel can even deliver a day-of-the-week bunch of bananas, each ripening on a different day." Apeel has won a $100,000 award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. [more inside]
The Grand Old Train Of York (Okay, Nevada)
Sisyphus's Train Set. ARES (Advanced Rail Energy Storage) proposes to store energy in places where water turbines aren't possible. In train form.
RIP Patricia Kutteles, Gold Star mother and political activist
In 1999, U.S. Army Private First Class Barry Winchell was murdered by a fellow soldier because Winchell was dating a trans woman. His mother, Patricia Kutteles, refused to accept the Army's official line of a drunken brawl gone wrong and got her son's killer sent to prison for life, and his roommate (who goaded the killer on) sent to prison for six years. She then sued the Army for wrongful death because her son's chain of command had not interceded in the harassment, and became one of the driving forces in the overturning of the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Patricia Kutteles died last month, five years after DADT was repealed.
My President Was Black
"The dream Ronald Reagan invoked in 1984—that “it’s morning again in America”—meant nothing to the inner cities, besieged as they were by decades of redlining policies, not to mention crack and Saturday-night specials. Likewise, Obama’s keynote address conflated the slave and the nation of immigrants who profited from him. To reinforce the majoritarian dream, the nightmare endured by the minority is erased. That is the tradition to which the “skinny kid with a funny name” who would be president belonged. It is also the only tradition in existence that could have possibly put a black person in the White House." by Ta-Nehisi Coates
ok ok we got this
Something to pick you up this morning: 99 Reasons Why 2016 Was a Good Year (SLMedium)
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