May 24, 2018
The Fabio of Horses
Frederik the Great is a Friesian stallion who may be the most handsome horse in the world. More evidence at Pinnacle Friesians.
Sublime Ruby
What Does Ruby Chocolate Taste Like? Although the article says there are no recipes online, there is one now - from MasterChef Australia, a component of Nigella's Chocolate Feast.
Coyote Carnage: The Gruesome Truth about Wildlife Killing Contests
Coyote killing competitions, where contestants vie to shoot the most animals, are held throughout the U.S. But some hunting groups are denouncing these events as unethical, and states from New Mexico to New York are considering bans on these and other wildlife killing contests. In 2014, Vice Magazine reporters went undercover on such an event.
First Law of Robotics
Uber’s Self-Driving Car Didn’t Malfunction, It Was Just Bad. There were no software glitches or sensor breakdowns that led to a fatal crash, merely poor object recognition, emergency planning, system design, testing methodology, and human operation. [more inside]
The Emperor has died. Long Live the Emperor!
Genna Bain tweeted: Rest in Peace my Dearest Love John @Totalbiscuit Bain July 8, 1984 - May 24, 2018 [more inside]
an inimitable depth of flavor
“The dude who helped make ‘umami’ a household word, Adam Fleischman, along with LA-based writer (and former Food Republic contributor) Tien Nguyen, bring us Flavor Bombs, the cookbook dedicated to adding that fifth dimension of flavor to every dish possible.” How To Build The Umami Pantry [more inside]
Barbara Ehrenreich’s Radical Critique of Wellness and Self-improvement
At first glance, her new book, Natural Causes, is a polemic against wellness culture and the institutions that sustain it. It opens with her decision to reject a series of medical interventions. [more inside]
Karl Marx, father of biology
In this bicentenary of Marx’s birth, one aspect of his thought and work that requires attention is his attitude toward nature and mankind’s place within it. There are in fact several recent works that examine Marx’s views on the biosphere:
Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis by Chris Williams (Excerpt), “Karl Marx, radical environmentalist” by Phil Gasper, and
“Twenty-First Century Species-Being” by Nick Dyer-Witheford. [more inside]
Elon Musk Embraces The Dark Side Of Fake News
Faced with reporting on labor troubles and shoddy workmanship, Tesla founder Elon Musk lashed out at journalists on Twitter, all but outright claiming that they are corrupt pawns of the extraction industry, and saying that he intends to create a "Yelp for journalism", where outlets would be publicly ranked. He even gave a name for it - Pravda.
However, this may not be as idle a comment as one might think. [more inside]
However, this may not be as idle a comment as one might think. [more inside]
“It feels like 1986 all over again.”
'Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon' summons 8-bit 'Castlevania' charm [Engadget] “Players will be able to toggle between four characters on the fly: Zangetsu, a sword-wielding demon slayer, fearless whip-bearer Miriam, sly alchemist Alfred, and Gebel, a misanthrope who for some reason, has undergone crystal transplant surgery. There'll be multiple stages with a ravenous boss awaiting at the end, but once defeated, potential new allies can join your team and boost your chances of survival. Another interesting feature in Curse of the Moon is its leniency; where kicking the bucket normally would have resulted in repeating previous sections, recruited allies can now take your place.” [YouTube][Game Trailer]
Joshua Sokol writes about Namibia's fairy circles in The Atlantic
The patches are Namibia’s enigmatic fairy circles, and for decades they have drawn visitors, including our convoy, into the desert. In recent years, Jürgens and other researchers have argued bitterly over the how and why of fairy circles, disagreeing over data and theory in person and across the pages of the world’s preeminent journals.
This is more than an academic dispute over a tourist attraction, however. Fairy circles are a test case in the emerging field of biological-pattern analysis, where they may offer an encrypted message about the future of desert ecosystems—and the humans who hope to survive in them.
Super Succulent Celebration
"...a drought, social media, and a generation of itinerant aspiring gardeners—and suddenly, the succulent became the trendiest members of the plant kingdom." "Over the past decade, horticultural and technological forces have collided to make succulents the unlikely heroes of modern gardening. Succulents, the plants defined by their fleshy, water-retaining leaves and stems, are inescapable in 2018."
“You get the feeling they support it so they don’t have to feel guilty”
Current Affairs, the magazine of politics and culture, now has Current Affairs: The Podcast where editors (Brianna Joy Gray, Oren Nimni, Lyta Gold, Nathan J. Robinson, and Pete Davis) discuss current issues from the left. The pilot episode includes a discussion of Universal Basic Income Vs. a Job Gaurentee, modern monetary theory , how the rich already have a UBI, why can’t we have both, and what would the wrong kind of UBI look like.
Just Leopard Things
Aliens among us
Please Don’t Ask Me To Be Your Bridesmaid
As a generation encumbered with student loan debt, job insecurity, and an economy that will prohibit many of us from ever owning homes, maybe it’s time declare a moratorium on foisting unnecessary expenses on those we care most about?
Horflinch
Sometimes Al Horford (Boston Celtics forward) flinches at the basketball. He has finally revealed his reasons.
"The world’s only known vertebrate-microbe symbiosis"
Algae trapped inside salamander cells do not appear to be able to generate enough oxygen to meet the dual demand from self and salamander. Compounding the trouble, being inside an animal also tends to obscure the sun.An article from Jennifer Frazer's Artful Amoeba blog on the Scientific American site (previously).
The Jeffersonian/Hamiltonian divide regulating 'platform capitalism'
Tech Platforms and the Knowledge Problem by Frank Pasquale - "Though Jeffersonian trust-busters and Hamiltonian utility regulators have very different views of political economy, each counters the untrammeled aspirations (and disappointing quotidian reality) of the stalwarts of digital capitalism. They also help us understand when giant firms can help us solve the 'knowledge problem' Hayek identified, and when they exacerbate it via obscurity and obfuscation. If conglomeration and vertical mergers actually help solve real-world problems—of faster transport, better food, higher-quality health care, and more—then authorities should let them proceed. Such industrial bigness helps us understand and control the natural world better. But states should block the mere accumulation of bargaining power and leverage. Such moves are exercises in controlling persons—a much less salubrious aim of industrial organization. Economic policy focused on productivity and inclusive prosperity will balance and do justice to important insights from both Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian critics of our increasingly sclerotic economy." (via) [more inside]
I think I'm hyper enough as it is.
Hypermodernity, the age of the new totally electronic World Interior.
It’s a spherical video in a triplified space with symmetry in space-time
MetaFilter favorite Vi Hart and mathematician Henry Segerman collaborated on creating Peace for Triple Piano, a 360° video with 3D audio in which Vi is singing “Dona nobis pacem” as a canon and accompanying herself on the piano while Henry is playing the triangle.
But they added some space-time twists to the video, which they explain in The Making of "Peace for Triple Piano”.
Lesson One: Greed is good
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