March 19, 2021
Gonna Grab a Bunch!
In order to do things like automatically type ligatures, OpenFont files are technically programs, so anyway someone built a whole video game called Fontemon into a single font [more inside]
An $80,000,000 Glass Mansion with Everything Left Inside
An $80,000,000 Glass Mansion with Everything Left Inside. That is all.
“[P]eople usually assume that the two men are a married gay couple.”
[W]hen the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a dissent arguing that… existing marriage restrictions must similarly “disrespect and subordinate people who find fulfillment in polyamorous relationships.”[more inside]
Andrew Solomon has a long piece in The New Yorker profiling a number of poly- individuals, and reviewing the state of the law for non-monogamous and non-nuclear family groups in America: “How Polyamorists and Polygamists Are Challenging Family Norms”
Within, please find a list of people Solomon interviews or mentions in the piece.
Oh... Oh, Aqualung
The Aqualung 50th Anniversary Special livestreamed a few hours ago (SLYT). Ian Anderson comments on the album and individual songs: "a social documentary, social realism, and touches on subjects of the everyday street scenario, people in a landscape." [more inside]
GTF up out my face, or I just might become a felon (SLYT)
It's not aliens. It's never aliens.
It was likely knocked off the surface by an impact about half a billion years ago and thrown out of its parent system," Jackson said. "Being made of frozen nitrogen also explains the unusual shape of 'Oumuamua. As the outer layers of nitrogen ice evaporated, the shape of the body would have become progressively more flattened, just like a bar of soap does as the outer layers get rubbed off through use.Alien space craft it wasn't, but Oumuamua's real origin as proposed by Arizona State University astrophysicists Steven Desch and Alan Jackson is if anything even more awe inspiring.
Doubt on the Old Copper timeline
Ancient Native Americans were among the world’s first coppersmiths. The dates show that early Native Americans were among the first people in the world to mine metal and fashion it into tools. They also suggest a regional climate shift might help explain why, after thousands of years, the pioneering metallurgists abruptly stopped making most copper tools and largely returned to stone and bone implements.
A Trip Down Crooked Old Peanut Brittle Lane
"Candyland is a masterpiece of game design that designers should be studying and dissecting as one of the best examples EVER of game design craft for specific audiences."
A rant through the history of one of the most ubiquitous and overlooked board games, but John Brieger.
Shinigami Eyes
Shinigami Eyes is a browser addon that highlights transphobic and trans-friendly social network pages and users with different colors available for Chrome and Firefox.
"The era of genius worship must end with James Levine."
[tw: sexual assault, abusive asshole] James Levine, whose career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City spanned 50 years, died March 9 at age 77. The Boston Globe, well known for its Spotlight investigation team and blowing wide open the abusive priest situation in the Catholic church for the first time in 2002, has its take on Levine: "In the maestro’s thrall." (Longform article, has all the ugly details.) Fired in 2018, he sued the Met and a settlement was announced for $3.5 million. A good article in the Globe today: The era of genius worship must end with James Levine. (Limited articles for Boston Globe) From this NY Times obituary: "'No artist in the 137-year history of the Met had as profound an impact as James Levine,' Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, said in a statement. 'He raised the Met’s musical standards to new and greater heights during a tenure that spanned five decades.'"
The Only New Friends I Made This Year Were My Children
The legendary fabric that no one knows how to make
Dhaka muslin: Was it woven by mermaids? No, but it was combed with fish teeth. Was it spun underwater? No, but on boats in the middle of rivers. Were you really clothed if you wore it, or were you just walking around naked? Was it beautiful? Everyone thought so, especially Prof. Sunny Singh's mom. And can it be made again?
Legitimate Disinterest
How fast can you beat the Cookie Consent Speed Run?
SF stories where kindness wins
The link has five stories. There are plenty more in the comments.
On flavored potato chips (crisps)
Until I talked to Berenstein, I had never thought of a chip, potato or otherwise, as a tabula rasa for gastronomic artistry, but the truth is it’s not really self-evident that they should taste like ketchup, or spicy dill pickles, or late night cheeseburgers. Their inimitable texture, crunch and salt-load, though, provides a perfect, flattering backdrop to any particular flavour combination the mad scientists of the food industry could cook up. This infinity of possibilities is inescapably captivating. Which is all to say I’ve been thinking a lot about chips lately. I suspect many of us are, as we take our homebound comforts where we can. Mark Slutsky on potato chips, featuring chip reviewer @professorchip.
Calling Doctor Peyo to Ward Everywhere
'Doctor' Peyo is a French horse with an uncanny empathy. He can tell when people need him, and is able to soothe the pain of those at palliative stage. Look at this photo collection in The Guardian. Watch this video from a few years ago (he's 17-18yrs old now). Here's a longer, discursive video in French without the music and better resolution (19min), and another one (37min). And an article in Ministry Earth magazine. Friendship is magic.
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