May 21, 2021
Fifty years ago, Marvin Gaye's masterpiece
Today is the 50-year anniversary of Marvin Gaye's album for the ages, "What's Going On?" If you are only familiar with the title track or with Marvin's other material, put this on today: :Spotify:
--"Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ Is as Relevant Today as It Was in 1971" [more inside]
What Makes The Unicorn Tapestries So Fascinating?
On urines
Meet a Historian: Robin S. Reich on Making Sense of Medieval Medicine: Humors, Weird Animal Parts, and Experiential Knowledge The first of potentially many guest posts on (Metafilter fave) historian Bret Devereaux's blog takes a look at medieval medicine. Who—other than anyone who likes reading about history—could have known it was interesting, complicated, and mostly dependent on language issues? [more inside]
"Bugs, Mr. Rico. Zillions of em!"
Visualizing a cicada’s life A Washington Post multimedia visualization traces one Magicicada from birth to demise, using a variant on the Snowfall web storytelling/scrollytelling model. Be sure to turn the sound on. (Content warning: bugs!) (SLWP) (previously)
The Third Thumb
Robotic ‘Third Thumb’ use can alter brain representation of the hand “Body augmentation is a growing field aimed at extending our physical abilities, yet we lack a clear understanding of how our brains can adapt to it. By studying people using Dani’s cleverly-designed Third Thumb, we sought to answer key questions around whether the human brain can support an extra body part, and how the technology might impact our brain.”
*(But Not In Colorado)
The US state of Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (Part 2)(full text pdf) (Plain language summary) imposes a number of new requirements on employers associated with Colorado: limiting acceptable reasons for wage differentials between employees, prohibiting employers from asking about wage history, announcing promotion opportunities to all employees, and requiring salary ranges for both internal and external job posting. This includes remote jobs being worked by, or advertised as remote to residents of the state. [more inside]
“It’s a bit harder with cats, because they’re made entirely out of cat.”
When the crow whisperer appeared at the side gate to Adam Florin and Dani Fisher’s house, in Oakland, California, she was dressed head to toe in black, wearing a hoodie, gloves, and a mask. This was a few weeks into the coronavirus lockdown, so Adam initially took her garb to be a sign of precautionary vigilance. In fact, it was a disguise. “It’s so the crows don’t recognize me and—no offense—start associating me with you.”–The Crow Whisperer, by Lauren Markham.
You Got a Shark Right Next to You, Dude
Drones show California’s great white sharks are closer — and more common — than you think [LAT; archive version; summary from Inside Hook]
Darwin was a racist
So says Agustín Fuentes, American primatologist and biological anthropologist at Princeton University and formerly the chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. His editorial on the subject appears in today’s edition of Science. He elaborates in an interview.
The Scrappy-Doo Wikipedia Mystery
The Wikipedia entry for fictional Great Dane puppy Scrappy-Doo is 25,623 words long. With six sections, 15 subsections, and 19 sub-subsections, the page has a greater wordcount than Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, is double the length of the average undergrad dissertation, and is nearly 2,000 words longer than the Wikipedia entry for the entire history of Poland. I first discovered this at Halloween.
blame lies with a patriarchal society that ensures moms remain divided
"The real reason American parents hate each other: A lack of support splits parents into warring factions. Here’s what could stop the fighting (Vox): "Essentially, the culture and politics of parenting in America all but guarantee unending conflict by setting up impossible (as well as racist and classist) standards for good parenting and then giving people absolutely no help to meet them." Related: Science Isn’t Here for Your Mommy Shaming: When people sensationalize research, parents pay the price (Nautilus) [more inside]
What year is it?
New music this week! Duran Duran's new single Invisible [3m24s] has them sounding a lot like Duran Duran, while Pet Shop Boys' Cricket Wife [10m] is a neo-classical Lied. [more inside]
Ransomware attack on Irish health service
The Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) was hit by a major ransomware attack last week. [more inside]
I don't believe you wanna get up and dance...
Oops Upside Your Head is a disco funk song recorded by The Gap Band in 1979, which became an international hit. It is notable for being one of the first funk songs to use hip-hop style monologues.
In Britain it's notable for something else. The traditional way to dance to this song over here is to sit on the floor in ranks and perform a rowing motion. [more inside]
We're One
U2 is currently remastering their roster of videos on Youtube. What started as a With/WIthout You remaster (slyt) ended up as One, One, the Fly and more.
Journey to EAT
Youtube show Adam Walks Around has Adam traipsing around places like the Phillippines, Indonesia, Malasya and Cambodia, and California, but nothing will prepare you for the end of Season 4, where our hero visits as many Californian locations of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes as he can. It has disturbingly appropriate music and a lot of special appearances from actors, musicians, and relatives, the State Historian of New Mexico, Gumby and Pokey (or maybe impersonators), and a certain "J. Elvis." Locations include Bronson Cave, Griffith Park, Coleman Francis Mountain, and the former locations of The Haunted House, Club Scum, and, of course, the diner known only as... EAT.
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