April 9, 2016
The Museum of Jurassic Technology
[PREVIOUSLY ON METAFILTER]
The Museum of Jurassic Technology contains strange exhibits that test one's sense of authenticity. It has been the subject of a radio documentary and a book.
“The worse things that happen, the more people come.”
My hovercraft is full of eels
A very useful phrase translated into every language you've ever heard of.
“...the urgent need to intervene well before violence happens,”
A Familiar Pattern in a Spouse’s Final Act by Benjamin Mueller, Ashley Southall and Al Baker [The New York Times] After years of violence, Nadia Saavedra finally told her husband to leave their
Bronx home. Soon after, the police say, he returned to kill her and then himself. [WARNING: Article contains descriptions of physical violence, domestic abuse, assault, homicide.]
Yes, zombies can swim.
Corpseburg lays a zombie survival skin over Google Maps. Punch in an address to create a map. Scavenge local schools, businesses and hospitals for food, weapons, meds and barricade materials.
Used.
Mother Jones profiles subprime lending in the used car industry:
Credit Acceptance makes its loans knowing that a large portion of its customers won't have the happy endings advertised in the promotional materials. The company operates on the assumption that it will collect only about 70 percent of the money it lends out—which means it will end up repossessing an awful lot of cars and suing those customers for the balance. As Wall Street banks clamored for more securities built on subprime auto debt, Credit Acceptance pumped out ever more paper, boosting loan volume by 23 percent in 2010 and 30 percent in 2011. (Growth has been slower in subsequent years due to increased competition, notes the company's 2014 annual report.) In the meantime, subprime lenders have boosted their average interest rate on used cars from 16 percent to nearly 20 percent annually, guaranteeing that more customers will default and end up with punitive court judgments and garnished wages.[more inside]
3 Glasses Later
“The first glass of wine is all about the food, the second glass is about love and the third glass is about mayhem.” Brazilian photographer Marcos Alberti on his project 3 Taças Depois
On poverty, surviving, taxes and economic justice in America
Velocipedia by Gianluca Gimini
I decided my job was going to be presenting the potential and the beauty inside these sketches. I selected those that I found most interesting and genuine and diverse, then rendered them as if they were real. I became the executor of these two minute projects by people who were mainly non-designers and confirmed my suspicion: everyone, regardless his age and job, can come up with extraordinary, wild, new and at times brilliant inventions.Gianluca Gimini asked strangers to draw pictures of bicycles from memory, then proceeded to render them in 3d
Tony Conrad, 1940-2016-[infinite]
Rest in peace Tony Conrad, who passed early this morning at the age of 76 due to prostate cancer. He was a pioneering avant-garde musician, particularly known for his massive, minimalist drones. He collaborated with the likes of La Monte Young and Faust, and was a major inspiration for the Velvet Underground (he was briefly in a pre-VU band called the Primitives with John Cale and Lou Reed.) He was also an innovative video artist. More links within. [more inside]
"It kind of works"
Following in the footsteps of a long line of Swedish inventors, Simone Giertz designs and builds helpful tools for our modern society, addressing issues like dental hygiene, preparing and serving breakfast, and looking your best in real life as well as in Internet discussions.
She recently teamed up with (Mefi's Own™) Adam Savage to optimize your movie experience, with a popcorn machine.
You probably can't force someone to take this test without causing drama
The joys and solitude of Alaska
While he may "struggle at poetry" Alaska trial lawyer Phillip Weidner has built an epically poetic 185 foot log cabin tower in Talkeetna Alaska. Called the Dr. Seuss House, its actual name is the Goose Creek Tower. Previously only visible by air it's now documented by Great Big Story with the short-but-lovely video We're Not In Whoville Anymore. [via]
Inside America’s Auschwitz
Smithsonian Magazine looks at the Whitney Plantation, the first slave museum in the United States.
“Often, plantation exhibits were established for those who lived through the Civil Rights era and yearned for a less complicated time,” says Ashley Rogers, director of museum operations. “And that’s an easy thing to accomplish when you have a ‘chandelier’ tour. Where the previous focus at plantations has been on the house and the culture of Southern gentility, things are changing.”
Slopaire! Que-est-ce que c'est que ca?
Marie Duval was one of the most unusual, pioneering and boisterous cartoonists of the nineteenth century. As a groundbreaking female cartoonist depicting a long-overlooked urban, often working-class milieu, the wide range and quantity of her work has been forgotten. A new website showcases her work for the comic magazine Judy, including her most famous creation, the working-class anti-hero Ally Sloper, 'the first comics superstar'. [more inside]
Oh, So Now I’m Bangladeshi?
Unconscious people don't want tea. Trust me on this.
It's Art, But Is It Funny?
New trend: adding funny captions to classic (or at least OLD) works of art. Steve Melcher's "That Is Priceless" has found slightly-off-center pieces of classical painting and given them more contemporary (and very logical) contexts since 2009. Now, "Popquotery" matches Old Art (some familiar, some not) to Less-Old Movie Quotes (mostly familiar). And "Classic Programmer Paintings" re-contextualizes art in terms Software Engineers can understand. Fine Art is for everybody, right?
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