December 5, 2017
Please do not bite the books
‘Please do not bite the books’ and other comical library rules. (Martin Lewis, Te Papa Blog) [more inside]
Guilty Giraffe & Desmond And The Tutus
"Kelsey Grammer’s voice sounds like a reassuring pat on the head,"
a true piece of art is a window into the transcendent
Dissect is a musical podcast "created by Cole Cuchna, "one person, working in his spare time, in a garage in Sacramento." It is also a moving and illuminating deep look into the music and genius of Kanye West, via a deep dive into his album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Even if - Especially if you are a music fan who has found Kanye to be insufferable and unpleasant, it is worth your attention, because there is a good chance that the experience will be relevatory, and you might find yourself encountering some surprising moments of grace (at 26:20). [more inside]
“...often undervalued, the paper bag will keep doing its job.”
The Secret Feminist History of Brown Paper Bags [Eater] “Few things are as useful as the paper bag. In the United States, people use (and reuse) 10 billion of them every year. Who among us has gotten through life, likely as a child, without opening up a brown paper bag filled with a sandwich, juice box, and a piece of fruit? Or, later in life, enjoyed an alcoholic beverage in a public place with the illegal item safely ensconced inside a bag? But paper bags have been around for so long, and in so many forms, that few have ever stopped to wonder where they came from in the first place. Even fewer know that paper bags were involved in not one but two feminist crusades.” [more inside]
not roxanne
Sophy Hollington's mind makes star poop
"In some Inuit cultures, meteors are colloquially known as Ulluriat Anangit which roughly translates as 'star poop.' Illustrator, printmaker, and Linocut artist Sophy Hollington has published a new creation: My Mind Hides a Friendly Crater, the result of her “almost morbid fascination with asteroids.” [more inside]
Patlabor on the production line
Smets handed me a power tool, flipped a physical switch on the arm of the vest, and told me to raise my arms over my head as though I was on an assembly line. At some point during my movement, the exosuit kicked into action, its spring mechanism lifting my arms the rest of the way. I could leave my arms in place above my head, too, fully supported. My fingers started to tingle after awhile in that position. Are exoskeletons the future of physical labor?
Puppies Meet Baby Animals: Cuteness Ensues
HuffPo partnered with Puppy Chow and created a series of videos that show a few of the "firsts" in a puppy's life. Meeting new species, for example. [all videos have cheery music]
Banner Ladies
With a compass, you're never lost.
Japanese family crests are known for their tasteful design and simplicity, but what might surprise you is the incredibly simple geometric principles used to create even complex ones. (No English in the narration, but give it a moment and you won't need it.) [more inside]
How Vladimir Lenin Became a Mushroom
How Vladimir Lenin Became a Mushroom: The fake news that took the former Soviet Union by storm.
Éliane Radigue, drone music pioneer
Éliane Radigue is a French composer who is one of the pioneers of drone music, and is still active at 85. She worked with Pierre Henry and other musique concrète pioneers in the 50s, but her experiments with feedback and tape loops in the 60s drifted too far from the scene, so she moved to New York in the 70s. She is perhaps best known for her synthesizer based compositions in the 70s through early 2000s. A representative piece is Trilogie De La Mort, one of several pieces inspired directly by her conversion to Tibetan Buddhism: I. Kyema, II. Kailasha, III. Koumé. Since 2004 she has composed entirely with acoustic instruments, e.g. Movement 3 of Naldjorlak I, written for cello; if you're in a hurry, here's a 1:30 live clip from Naldjorlak III. [more inside]
Polka, coming at you live from Valkenswaard!
Spin the globe and it will start playing live radio wherever you stop. You can also click on a specific place. Libyana 100.1 FM is playing some bangers! Radio Thailand 97 has some good chillout music. Catavento Radio (Brazil) got my hips shaking. There are hundreds (thousands?) of stations. If you get static, just be patient, it will likely snap to the nearest station.
kindness shines through
The Christian Legal Army Behind ‘Masterpiece Cakeshop’
The Nation investigates the Alliance Defending Freedom. An in-depth look at one of the most powerful anti-gay-rights legal groups in the country, with ties to the Department of Justice, Congress, multiple state legislators and state departments of justice, thousands of attorneys who will work pro bono, and donors including Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and noted puncher of journalists Representative Greg Gianforte (R-MT).
Never underestimate the self-delusion of a Hollywood professional
In two weeks, Netflix will premiere Bright. Starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton – real movie stars – directed by David Ayer – a real movie director – the film is said to have cost somewhere in the time zone of $120 million – real money. So why does Bright not feel like a real film? [more inside]
Surveillance has never been more affordable
Gizmodo: Don't buy anyone an Echo
A light switch also doesn’t keep track of everything you’re doing and send the data to Amazon or Google or Apple. What happens between you and the switch stays with you and the switch. [more inside]
100 Finns in 100 Years
Happy Birthday Finland!
Here are pictures of one Finn for every year of Finnish independence photographed by Hannu Pakarinen.
Little House on the Locust Swarm
Charles Ingalls must have heard of the grasshoppers; newspaper columns were full of them. Yet when the Ingallses settled on Plum Creek in 1874, the land was cloaked in spring green. They may have believed, as others did, that the grasshoppers had moved on. In fact, the previous year’s swarm had laid their eggs before departing. While Charles Ingalls plowed his fields, grasshoppers flew and marched in columns again, leaving destitute farmers in their wake with no seed to plant the next season.
The first butt time capsule
While restoring an 18th century Spanish statue, preservationists found that Jesus' butt was hollow, containing two hand-written letters describing daily life in the region, including descriptions of food, games, diseases and the Spanish Inquisition. The original letters will be archived and copies replaced in the butt hole to preserve the priest's intentions.
#ThomasFire (Ventura) and #CreekFire (Sylmar) burning in SoCal
There are two fires raging in SoCal right now, the Thomas Fire in the Santa Paula area of Ventura County, and the Creek Fire in NE Los AngelesCounty, not far from the Ventura County line. [more inside]
Cyndi Lauper slays on the Appalachian Mountain dulcimer
My favorite thing discovered on the internet research rabbithole is how Cyndi Lauper is widely-regarded by Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer enthusiasts as one of the finest straight-up performers on the obscure instrument.Says @JMMcDermott. Proof: True Colors, Time after Time, Fearless.
A List of Words You Can Argue About
Featuring 374 titles and filterable on a laundry list of criteria, NPR's 2017 Book Concierge isn't the typical end-of-year best-of list. [more inside]
"The Joys and Sorrows of Watching My Own Birth"
"I want so much for that newborn baby crying alone in a plastic bin. I want to pick her up and make her feel welcome and wanted. I want to soothe her and gently rub her little head of ginger hair and tell her everything’s okay. I want to tell her stories about the life she is about to live. I want to warn her. I want to share what I know now with her. I want to tell her never to be ashamed of who she is, to be loud and proud of her red hair, to know that she will someday love the beautiful color she’s been blessed with." Journalist and essayist Shelby Vittek reflects on the bittersweet experience of watching herself be born — and her now-divorced mom and dad become parents — again and again.
Live forever
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