May 19, 2020
Where trouble melts like lemon-drops
Google Doodle honoring the birthday of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, who would be celebrating his sixty-first birthday today.
In addition to his ukelele music, Kamakawiwoʻole was known for his activism for Hawai'an independence.
Is this a sex thing?
"Welcome to McBang ASMR eating show. This is an ASMR MUKBANG video channel. If you enjoy eating sounds, then you are in the right place." Let me tell you this, Metafilter: that is not the right place for me. But, more interestingly, NPR's Short Wave science podcast investigates the awfulness of autonomous sensory meridian response.
Bring out more Dead!
A tremendous collection of Grateful Dead tapes at the Internet Archive. It might go without saying that there are five more recordings added since the headline. [more inside]
When SimCity got serious
The First State-Approved North Korean Novel in English
"This is magic. We are watching magic unfold here."
A sublime 25 minutes of watching someone solve a Sudoku puzzle with some extra restrictions - starting with a grid containing just two numbers.
Angela Lansbury as teapots: a thread
PLEASE STOP TELLING ME MRS. POTTS SHOULD BE IN THIS. I DIDN’T FORGET ABOUT HER. I’M NOT AN IDIOT. THAT’S THE WHOLE REASON I CHOSE TO COMPARE ANGELA LANSBURY TO TEAPOTS. [twitter thread] SHE’S DELIBERATELY NOT INCLUDED AS IT WOULD JUST BE COMPARING ANGELA LANSBURY TO HERSELF. PLEASE. JUST. STOP. [more inside]
"and I thought, Damn! Those pigeons again!"
A Eurasian eagle-owl has nested in the planter in front of Jos Baart's window and hatched three chicks. Jos Baart seems to be enjoying his new companions immensely.
A Soprano Warms Up
A soprano warms up. The less I say, the better. SLYT.
Metal whiskers: more dangerous than cute
On May 21, 1998, the Los Angeles reported on the Galaxy IV satellite that suffered an on-orbit failure three days prior, which resulted in a massive telecommunications disruption on Earth. Around 45 million pagers went out of service that day, among other communication outages (L.A. times mentions radio listeners and gasoline buyers). The failure was attributed to tin whiskers (The Brown Daily Herald), a topic on which NASA has extensive documentation. [Previously: Lead-Free Solder - friend or foe?]
The Music of Columbia
Will you crease yourself and be reborn?
Paper Mario: The Origami King [Announcement Trailer] [Gameplay] “Nintendo announced a new Paper Mario game coming to Switch July 17 called Paper Mario: The Origami King. It’ll be the sixth game in the series and the first on the new console. The story looks like it’ll revolve around trying to liberate Princess Peach’s castle from a new paper-based menace called King Olly, who, according to Nintendo’s press release, wants to “fold the entire world.” Exploration will be based on a new ability called “1000-Fold Arms” in which Mario extends his appendages in weird ways to solve puzzles and navigate environments. It sounds like you’ll be able to team up with a few allies at various points as well, including Bowser.” [via: Kotaku]
Antidepressants or Tolkien Character?
The Unreasonable Effectiveness Of Declarative Programming
The blue circle's animation is quite complex. It consists of multiple stages. (1) The circle grows in size. (2) It continues to grow in size at a faster rate, as it shoots off to the right. (3) It pauses. (4) It moves to the middle. (5) It pauses again. (6) It shrinks to nothing.
PowerToys 0.18 Goes Live with PowerToys Run
Are you a macOS user that also works in Windows and misses the Spotlight way of launching apps? Never fear because Microsoft has released PowerToys 0.18 which includes Spotlight PowerToys Run.
"They are wild and free, when the rest of us feel trapped."
Canada’s largest city was politely abiding by a strict coronavirus lockdown. But when a family of foxes set up a den in a prime Toronto location, all bets were off: NY Times | non-Times link
Let's party like it's 2020
"Prince and the Revolution: Live" is streaming on YouTube (SLYT) as a benefit for the WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. For more, see Rolling Stone. (The article says that it will be available for three days from the 15th, but it is still available, so don't delay.) [more inside]
My friend's brother, his Sea Monkeys built a castle and everything!
Does Mathowie strike it big with Giphy?
Mathowie (of Metafilter fame, etc.) shares his experiences as an early investor in Giphy, an online short video/ meme maker, which was acquired by Facebook for $400M earlier this week.
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