May 11, 2016
Why are we here? Because we're here.
Perhaps you've heard of the recent release of the 120-sided die, which is certainly impressive in its way but not really that… weird. If you're really looking to stand out, why not order yourself some 34-sided dice?
Moderat + Blond:ish = 4 essential hours of electronic and weird music
For your listening pleasure, double-dose of other/worldly Essential Mixes from the recent past: the German trio known as Moderat (Mixcloud/Soundcloud), and the globe-trotting psychedelic Canadian duo known as Blond:ish (YouTube/ Mixcloud/ Soundcloud). Blond:ish started releasing music together in 2010, while Moderat have a more than a decade of work together and more musical history as the separate parts of Modeselektor and Apparat. Which is to say, more music inside. [more inside]
I have no idea how &c.
Catsoundboard. Does what it says on the tin.
Twittering from the Circus of the Dead
Twittering from the Circus of the Dead A short story from Joe Hill, from the May 2016 edition of Nightmare Magazine.
Is This Rock Safe for Your Bush?
Is it safe to use a malachite stalactite as a dildo? The experts (no, seriously) weigh in.
I'll rise up, and I'll do it a thousand times again
"Rise Up" (Inspiration Version): The emotional new music video from Grammy-nominated soul singer Andra Day was directed by M. Night Shyamalan. No ghosts or twist endings, just a love story. [more inside]
“Scientology's strategy to use motorsports as a promotional tool...”
When Scientology Sponsored Race Cars [Road and Track] John Travolta. Mario Andretti. The Pope. Aliens. Germans. The Indy 500. Milwaukee. The Church of Scientology. Welcome to 1988's bizarre intersection between motorsports, religion, and sponsorship. [more inside]
It's from The Economist, so they should know.
You are on an airplane. Ten ways to tell you might be sitting next to an economist.
Press the Panic buttons
The Panic Sign - a brief story about a remote-controlled sign on top of a building in Portland, Oregon
"From Turtle Bay to Broadway: The Power of Art in American Diplomacy"
Ambassador Samantha Power: "So let me just start by noting that I too am a musician. I sing in a band of other UN Ambassadors called 'UN Rocks.' [Laughter.] The Korean Ambassador plays the drums – this is not a joke, it’s real life [Laughter.]; the Thai Ambassador plays the bass; the Serbian and Danish ambassadors play the electric guitars; and the ambassador from Tonga plays the keyboard. And I wanted to take this opportunity to announce that I have some availability for gigs starting around January 20th, 2017. [Laughter.] In case anybody is interested." [more inside]
It's not the asshole lane.
The Zipper Merge is the secret to reducing traffic backups, increasing safety, and minimizing road rage. [more inside]
When in doubt, do the math.
"Happy Money lists five principles of happy spending:
1) Buy experiences
2) Make it a treat
3) Buy time
4) Pay now, consume later
5) Invest in others
Five principles are four too many for a lazy reductionist, let’s see if we can identify some common themes and combine these ideas into a single framework that would lose all nuance and intricacy but be expressible as an equation. (Spoiler: of course we can, duh)."
1) Buy experiences
2) Make it a treat
3) Buy time
4) Pay now, consume later
5) Invest in others
Five principles are four too many for a lazy reductionist, let’s see if we can identify some common themes and combine these ideas into a single framework that would lose all nuance and intricacy but be expressible as an equation. (Spoiler: of course we can, duh)."
A cult for women, run by... a man?
Superstar Machine is cleverly disguised as an exclusive, powerful and earth-shatteringly transformative group of like-minded, successful, up-and-coming women in their 20s and 30s. Jezebel takes a look Inside Superstar Machine, Which Ex-Members Say Is a Cult Preying on New York’s Creative Women.
In all its incarnations, Superstar Machine has fundamentally been about teaching women how to be successful in life and love. The path for these women is twofold: tapping into the Divine's plan for their lives, and learning to be subservient to their male romantic partners. In time, [International] Scherick [née Greg Scherick] would also create International Hot School, a weekly phone call where former members say he lectured women on how to tame their "inner crazy bitch," as he put it, and create a "good experience" for their husbands and boyfriends.
"I can’t say what their intent was"
The 2013 explosion at the West Fertilizer Company has been ruled as arson. After 3 years and more than 400 interviews, the ATF has ruled out accidental and natural causes. [more inside]
“Hermione,” Ron said quietly, “what’s a tax shelter?”
While the papers explore her motives, the blogs explore the papers motives, and reddit gives us a clear cross section of their motives, I'll just sit here hoping Mallory Ortberg keeps this going.
Hilariously Giant Goalie Pads
Molly Brooks loves hockey - like in a romantic comedy kind of way. She's a big fan of the Stanley Cup! But it seems like she's found her home on the fresh ice of the National Women's Hockey League. (previously)
At least there will be something VERY distracting come November
As if strategy gamers didn't have enough devouring their free time between Stellaris and XCOM 2, Firaxis have just announced Civilization 6. [more inside]
A video feed from your house you'd never want to see
All Summer in a Frame
Jason Shulman takes single long-exposure photographs of entire films.
How did the Neutral Milk Hotel legend get so out of hand?
There’s this attitude that In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is still holding something back. A belief that Neutral Milk Hotel is keeping secrets, and our grand unified theory about the twins, the potato, the singing saw, the piano full of flames, and the marching band, is missing a few crucial teeth. A cult needs something to work toward, a communal faith that someday, somehow, it’ll all come together... The AVClub tries to understand how Neutral Milk Hotel's legend has gotten so out of hand.
"This was an act of unity amongst sisters and a symbol of achievement."
Sixteen soon-to-be U.S. Army officers will face no formal sanction over raising their fists in an "inappropriate" but not political gesture during their Old Corps graduation photo shoot, the U.S. Military Academy has announced. [more inside]
Department of European and American Philosophy
If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is "The vast majority of philosophy departments in the United States offer courses only on philosophy derived from Europe and the English-speaking world. [...]Indeed, of the top 50 philosophy doctoral programs in the English-speaking world, only 15 percent have any regular faculty members who teach any non-Western philosophy. [...] We therefore suggest that any department that regularly offers courses only on Western philosophy should rename itself “Department of European and American Philosophy.”"
Apparently we're putting pierogies on sandwiches now
Planning a trip to a minor league baseball stadium? Looking to gawk at the delightful excesses of ballpark food? Just want to support your hometown team in a meaningless Internet poll? Whatever the reason, check out MiLB Food Fight and vote for Minor League Baseball's tastiest, or at least most bizarre, food. If you'd rather not vote, you can always just check out the leaderboard.
"This is a bullshit marketing stunt"
When is revenge porn (a scourge of the Internet age) not revenge porn? When it's a terrible marketing stunt that misfires and you get accused of exploiting actual victims of revenge porn.
The Philosopher Who (Kinda) Outsmarted Einstein
Henri Bergson was one of the most celebrated philosophers of the early 20th century, and his very public conflict with Albert Einstein over "the nature of time" was considered the reason that Einstein's 1921 Nobel Prize was NOT awarded specifically for his Theory of Relativity. Ouch.
I can't possibly pick just one pullquote
David Axelrod talks to Jon Stewart [full transcript, 50 minute audio] (surfacing for the first time in quite a while) at the University Of Chicago Institute Of Politics about everything you might hope. Don't expect it to go where you want it to go. [more inside]
Redefining Wealth and Prosperity in the 21st Century
Kennedy was right - "Much that is valuable is neither tangible nor tradable... Gross domestic product (GDP) is increasingly a poor measure of prosperity. It is not even a reliable gauge of production."* [more inside]
They struggled against all odds but one.
"When he was alive, Lonesome George was a captive reminder of biodiversity loss. One 2006 book called him 'the only one of his kind left on earth—a symbol of the devastation man has wrought to the natural world in the Galápagos and beyond.' After his death, Washington Tapia, a researcher with the Ecuador National Park Service, told the New York Times it was like losing his grandparents. But even for people less intimate with him did his life and demise serve as a reminder of the mass extinction of species currently underway—the sixth in earth’s history but the only one caused by humans." - Human Error: Survivor guilt in the Anthropocene
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