March 17, 2014
High Fashion
Sooooo that's my man.
Neil Degrasse Tyson answers the question: who's the greatest physicist in history? slowed down. [more inside]
"Machismo is basically a drag act"
Wild Beasts are a band from Kendal, England. They have built their sound on Hayden Thorpe's marmite-like countertenor and Tom Fleming's bass, and complex, somewhat sex-obsessed lyrics. Inside, please find a review of the band's history and discography. [more inside]
Ami Birangona Bolchi
I am not as self-righteous as the way I am talking to you all. Actually I never got the opportunity to express myself. I grew up with my head bent, occupied the lowest place in my family and was surviving under the radar as a member of my family. But later I met a woman who was like a mother to me, and she told me that I was an amazing woman, a hero. I may not have the body of Joan of Arc, but I have sacrificed what is most precious to me – my womanhood, for my country. But you will never see our names engraved in a tower. The reason for this omission is likely their own shame. They could not protect me from the hands of disaster. In what face would they applaud the fact that I am a war heroine? I have been ridiculed and shamed in cruel and heartless ways, but somehow a power greater than me has helped me keep my head high.Rape survivors of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War were given the title "Birangona": an attempt by the first president of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to respect the sacrifices of these women that sadly backfired. Ami Birangona Bolchi by Bangladeshi academic and social worker Nilima Ibrahim, published in 1994, chronicles first-hand stories of these women, grappling with the tension between their status and their lived experience. Recently there have been multiple translations of Nilima's work, as well as more interviews and poetry as well as an upcoming British stage production.
The world doesn't turn on John Mellencamp's timetable.
Keepin' the Sea Free of Debris!
Interested in items that have washed ashore years after a tsunami? Crab trap rodeos? Art from floating trash? The NOAA Marine Debris Program has a blog for you. [more inside]
The Kincaid Weekender
The Kincaid Weekender presents local news, politics, sports, theatre reviews, and keeps you up to date with goings on at the stockyards.
A pitch-perfect comedic take on small town New Zealand. Dryer than Flight of the Conchords, subtler than Night Vale.
Produced for the 2014 New Zealand Fringe Festival and written by award-worthy comedian Jonny Potts.
I hope there will be no snakes
Urban Jungle: post-apocalyptic Google Street View
Like "Watermelon Man," but with Petula Clark and a leprechaun
Francis Ford Coppola's first studio picture (and Fred Astaire's swan song) was a big-budget musical about a leprechaun who magically ends racism in the deep south state of "Missitucky." Look!—to 1968's Finian's Rainbow. [more inside]
Parasitic Junk in Your Trunk
Parasitic Junk in Your Trunk "The little monsters jump off the adult wasp host, and scamper over to a wasp nest’s nursery. There they use enzymes to dissolve their way into the larval wasps, drop off their legs, and get busy eating. They wrap themselves in an envelope of their own skin, and also make a blanket from their host’s skin tissue. And here is where things get really weird."
Puffy Buffet Bites
Chef Mo' the pitbull whips up one of his favorite snacks before sharing them with his 8 furry siblings. [more inside]
A three donkey race
Brrrr!
So, it's almost spring here in the UK, and after a sunny weekend your thoughts might be turning to doing some Open Water Swimming! [more inside]
A quick overview of Saint Patrick and the druids and reptiles of Ireland
It's pretty widely known that there have never been snakes in Ireland, so who did Saint Patrick chase out? The case has been made that the story of Saint Patrick chasing out druids (snake-tattooed pagans) is also a myth (and Patrick wasn't even Irish). But that doesn't mean there are no reptiles in Ireland. The only native land-based reptile is the viviparous lizard, though there are other reptiles that are semi-inhabitants of Ireland. And this brings us to the the amateur survey of Ireland's lizards, newts, frogs and slow worms, one of a number of such surveys hosted by Biology.ie, "Ireland's premier Biodiversity Awareness portal."
such player
Practical information for wannabe Glenn Greenwalds
"The first journalist to attempt reporting on the Wikileaks cables was David Leigh of The Guardian. The material arrived as a single 1.7GB CSV file containing 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables from 1966 to 2010. If you’ve ever tried to open a 1.7GB file, you know you probably can’t. Microsoft Word and Excel will plain refuse. Windows Notepad and Mac TextEdit will try, but slow to a crawl." At Opennews Source, Jonathan Stray has written a helpful beginners' guide to dealing with large amounts of documents for journalists and interested lay people.
Heal yourself, Skeletor
Daily affirmations from Skeletor (SLTumblr) Skeletor is....LOVE!
Julie Horvath Describes Sexism And Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
Julie Ann Horvath has left Github, claiming a strong culture of sexism and intimidation. Github is investigating the claims, and has suspended two employees.
Dear Future Mom...
Italian advocacy group Coor Down helped a pregnant woman understand what to expect with her soon-to-be born Down Syndrome child by gathering 15 people with Down Syndrome from various countries to answer her question.
Data journalism
Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight re-launched this morning. Opening manifesto. Building an NCAA bracket. An article about a computer program to count how many lines each pair of characters in “Romeo and Juliet” spoke to each other. Toilet seat covers. 2014 midterms. And why this winter is so miserable. Among other gems.
Waves from the Big Bang
"The detection of gravitational waves in the afterglow of the Big Bang — if confirmed — opens a new chapter in astronomy, cosmology and physics. The signature, seen by the BICEP2 radio telescope at the South Pole, packs at least three discoveries into one: It provides the most direct evidence for the existence of the waves predicted by Einstein; it is the proof of ‘cosmic inflation’ that physicists had been eagerly awaiting; and it opens a window into the unification of the fundamental forces of nature and into quantum gravity." NYT article, in depth Nature News feature. [more inside]
"Worth our weight in gold, dear."
Clarissa Dickson Wright has passed away, aged 66. The surviving half of the BBC cooking show Two Fat Ladies, she "was utterly non-PC and fought for what she believed in, always, with no thought to her own personal cost," her agent said in the announcement. [more inside]
Cat escaping from cage, twice.
Bumper showed her affection for her friend Willis by licking him.
Dummy text
Rrow itself, let it be sorrow; let him love it; let him pursue it, ishing for its acquisitiendum. The standard lorem ipsum text has been translated by Jaspreet Singh Boparai. Lorem ipsum is a standard placeholder text which has been used since the 16th Century and is a mangling of a passage from Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum, specifically Book 1, passages 32-33, which you can read in translation here.
Never mess with CMOS
CMOS for imaging is the technology behind billions of cameras ( smartphones,....). Yet that technology simply did not exist 19 years ago. Eric Fossum started its development within NASA's and Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab but he also shepherded that technology through the Technology Readiness Level ladder from a single item to its current market thereby reducing then incumbent technology (CCD) to a niche market. That story is recounted in one of his recent video presentation entitled CMOS Image Sensors: Tech Transfer from Saturn to your Cell Phone.
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