February 22, 2019
CLICK AND DRAG to look around and use WASD to move the camera
noclip.website
A browser-based 3D model viewer that lets you explore reverse-engineered video game maps.
A browser-based 3D model viewer that lets you explore reverse-engineered video game maps.
MetPublications
Peter Sjöstedt-H on Mind, Panpsychism, Philosophy and Psychedelics
The foundation of Western philosophy is probably rooted in psychedelics. "In the 1960s, intellectuals such as Aldous Huxley were fascinated by the effects of LSD, but today most professors are far too worried about respectability and tenure to investigate psychedelics themselves. Which is somewhat ironic, given that the field of Western philosophy has a huge debt to psychedelics, according to Peter Sjöstedt-H, a philosoph[er] who has written a book on the philosophical significance of drugs. In fact, one of Plato’s most-cited theories may have been a direct result of hallucinogenics." [more inside]
An attacker is never one of my students.
I start to think in terms of students and attackers. The training encourages this result. Everything about its vocabulary is designed to dehumanize our aim. The instructors’ military language—“soft targets” and “areas of operation” for schools, “threats” for shooters, “tactical equipment” for guns—rubs off. On the final day, a pep talk analogizes students with lambs. We are the sheepdogs, charged with protecting them from the wolves.
A busy week in space
All kinds of missions are under way. Humans and our machines are working hard.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo touched the edge of space for a second time and with an extra passenger. After circling and dropping landers on an asteroid, JAXA's Hayabusa2 landed upon its surface and shot a probe into it. NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe examined its own asteroid for "multiple, bright, point sources."
Far away from the inner solar system, NASA's New Horizons probe caught and shared even better images of Ultima Thule. [more inside]
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo touched the edge of space for a second time and with an extra passenger. After circling and dropping landers on an asteroid, JAXA's Hayabusa2 landed upon its surface and shot a probe into it. NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe examined its own asteroid for "multiple, bright, point sources."
Far away from the inner solar system, NASA's New Horizons probe caught and shared even better images of Ultima Thule. [more inside]
Lost pets, ham, and creepy messages
The University of Groningen's University Library City Centre has put all of the items left behind by patrons in 2018 on display. This prompted a Twitter user to query to the University of Winnipeg Library about lost and misplaced items, and the library shared a photo, via Twitter, of a "burrito" found in one of its books. Meanwhile, lost pets, ham, and creepy messages are just a few of the things Atlas Obscura readers have said are The Best Things Found Between the Pages of Old Books, and Things Found in Books is a self-explanatory Flickr group devoted to the topic.
The science of Hula-Hooping, as individual hoops or with a TON of hoops
Swiveling Science: Applying Physics to Hula-Hooping Have you ever wondered how Hula-Hoops work or what makes them able to spin around a person's waist or arm—seeming to defy gravity? The answer can be explained by physics, which can help you determine what makes an effective Hula-Hoop. In this activity you'll get to create your own Hula-Hoops and investigate how their weights affect how they spin. Which do you think will spin better, a heavy hoop or a lighter one? Get ready to do some hula-hooping to find out! Got it? Good. Now try it with 300 Hula-Hoops. It's almost impossible (Wired), but not quite, if you're as good as Marawa Ibrahim—aka Marawa the Amazing. [more inside]
She is gonna be something good in a few years, I tell you! Watch out ;)
Long Form Linsanity
Born to Run The Numbers (previously) presents another issue of their multi-year series on a mid-tier starting point guard who is frequently down but never out: Jeremy Lin. Part One (2015); Part Two (2016); Part Three (2017); Part Four (2018). More previously:
Jeremy Lin, Jeremy Lin, Jeremy Lin
Phone Apps quietly ship data to big companies, in this case, facebook
WSJ: "You Give Apps Sensitive Personal Information. Then They Tell Facebook." Many apps, whether iOS or Android (though maybe not KaiOS?), build in libraries from other companies. For small development teams, app analytics tools provide a quick and free way to see how people use your app. Showing advertisements makes a little money. And hey, everybody does it. What could go wrong? The Wall Street Journal identified a couple problem areas: heart rates, periods, househunting
Voltaire never had to deal with online comment sections.
"The Culture War Thread aimed to be a place where people with all sorts of different views could come together to talk to and learn from one another. I think this mostly succeeded. [...] you may have already guessed things went south. What happened? The short version is: a bunch of people harassed and threatened me for my role in hosting it, I had a nervous breakdown, and I asked the moderators to get rid of it." Slate Star Codex's Scott Alexander on the birth and death of a megathread, and how even an actively-managed discussion can go terribly, destructively awry. [more inside]
“I need to sleep, I can't get no sleep”
Insomnia, by Faithless (alternative link, original and long), was first released in 1995, became a minor hit, then was re-released, sold a lot more, and is still performed (2009) and remixed. Insomnia can also be successfully played on a toy octopus. Lyrics and previously on spoons. Faithless consist of Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo Armstrong. Other Faithless songs include Salva Mea, We Come 1, God is a DJ, and One Step Too Far (featuring Dido, sister of Rollo).
18 individual threads and 145 steps
In 2015 and 2016 the TV show Archer put together insanely complex scavenger hunts for fans. Walkthroughs (2015, 2016) and behind the scenes (2015, 2016).
FANNY
Big Data and Big Oil
“Last year, Google quietly started an oil, gas, and energy division. It hired Darryl Willis, a 25-year veteran of BP, to head up what the Wall Street Journal described as “part of a new group Google has created to court the oil and gas industry.” As the VP of Google Cloud Oil, Gas, and Energy, Willis spent the year pitching energy companies on partnerships and lucrative deals. “If it has to do with heating, lighting or mobility for human beings on this planet, we’re interested in it,” Mr. Willis told the Journal. “Our plan is to be the partner of choice for the energy industry.” How Google, Amazon, Microsoft, And Big Tech Are Automating The Climate Crisis. (Gizmodo)
It is O.K., finally, to freak out. Even reasonable
David Wallace-Wells (previously) wants you to know that fear might be the only thing that saves humanity. As yesteryear's worst-case ceiling of two degrees becomes today's best-case scenario where we face 150 million excess deaths from air pollution alone in this century, his latest piece in the New York Times argues that the time for caution is long gone. [more inside]
Making history visible
The Black History Trail Across Massachusetts: People often think of Boston as either “where fugitive slaves came and were ‘rescued’ by the abolitionists, or as the place where people were throwing bricks at black children” during busing protests in the 1970s. The goal of the African American Trail Project is to “complicate the narrative,” to fill in gaps, show African-American people in all their dimensions and place present-day struggles for racial justice in a continuum.
Economics for Inclusive Prosperity
Economics After Neoliberalism - "Contemporary economics is finally breaking free from its market fetishism, offering plenty of tools we can use to make society more inclusive." [more inside]
53 days of Chaos
On January 1st 2019 Brazil´s democratically elected fascist assumed power.
Jair Bolsonaro’s First 53 Days As President Of Brazil Have Been A Resounding, Scandalous Failure.
So much has happened over the last 7 1/2 weeks that it’s impossible to take stock of it all. But by looking through the wreckage, perhaps you can get a sense of Brazil’s political life as of late.
Jair Bolsonaro’s First 53 Days As President Of Brazil Have Been A Resounding, Scandalous Failure.
So much has happened over the last 7 1/2 weeks that it’s impossible to take stock of it all. But by looking through the wreckage, perhaps you can get a sense of Brazil’s political life as of late.
te reo Māori rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody
Incredible live version of Bohemian Rhapsody in te reo Māori by choir and the music video, (by the same group) which is good fun. [more inside]
"Did you know she never once criticized my appearance?"
My favorite strip was "Peanuts," which, if I’d been paying attention, contained some lessons for me about the world that lay ahead. "Peanuts" was just one broken heart after another.–What "Peanuts" Taught Me About Queer Identity by Jennifer Finney Boylan.
High risk: anti-vaxxers in the delivery ward.
“Tell me more,” I say, because I sense that the mother is holding something back.
She looks down into the baby’s face as she replies, so softly I almost don’t catch it. “I don’t believe it is right to pierce his holy body with a needle,” she says.
At that, my heart softens, because this is the kind of objection I feel for. It is not based on risks that science has proven are imaginary, or on false notions of “toxins”, or fear of chemicals that occur naturally in foods and the soil and are added to medicines. This mother’s child is holy, and his body is perfect and we ought to leave it be. [more inside]
food=love
Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner is a supercut of food scenes in animated movies by The Royal Ocean Film Society, a.k.a. Andy M. Saladino.
« Previous day | Next day »