June 30, 2016
Edsel and Quikster and New Coke, Oh My! (Or Olestra...)
17 Great Failures in New Products and Branding (from established companies that SHOULD have known better). via Consumerist, the Consumer Reports-affiliated blog (and one of their better ideas)
"Christ these are beautiful."
Tilt shift effect applied to van Gogh paintings [imgur]. More tilt-shift fun: "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Open Director's Cut [YouTube]
On a traffic island stopped and he raved of saving me
New York’s Sidewalks Are So Packed, Pedestrians Are Taking to the Streets. A walking city has turned into an obstacle course.
You Belong to the Universe
"And all this story can be recreated solely from her search requests?"
Meerkats can control electronics with their minds.
have guitar will travel
New Trial for Adnan Syed
Adnan Syed, who was convicted in 2000 for the death of Hae Min Lee, and who was the subject of the podcast Serial [previously and originally], has today been granted a new trial.
Pupper popper
The Paintings of Ben Sakoguchi
In a series of colorful, captivating, and often provocative paintings, Los Angeles artist Ben Sakoguchi (b. 1938) examines how baseball, long referred to as America’s national pastime, reflects both the highs and lows of American culture. The son of a grocer and avid baseball fan, Sakoguchi juxtaposes the iconic imagery of vintage orange crate labels from the 1920s to the 1950s with whimsical, eccentric, and sometimes scathing portrayals of America’s beloved sport. [more inside]
Death, Destruction, And Debt: 41 Photos Of Life In 1970s New York
Today, we look at 41 poignant photos that capture a New York City on the brink of implosion...[more inside]
"neighbors inviting themselves over for dinner"
Twitch has just added a social eating category. It's not as unprecedented as it sounds: watching other people eat has been popular in Korea and China for years. "Some viewers tune in for feats of extraordinary eating, others for vicarious gratification during diets. Most commonly, viewers and observers of the phenomenon say that streaming mukbang during mealtime alleviates the melancholy and discomfort of eating alone in a society where shared meals are the fundamental unit of social life."
“Maybe nothing's so unfunny as an omen read wrong.”
Michael Herr, author of Dispatches, dies aged 76. [The Guardian] Michael Herr, the American writer and war correspondent famous for writing Dispatches, described as “the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time” by John le Carré, has died aged 76. Born in 1940, Herr was one of the most respected writers of New Journalism, the novelistic reportage pioneered by the likes of Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote, where the journalist is as much part of the story as their subject. He practised this most famously in his book Dispatches, about his time working as a war correspondent for Esquire magazine in Vietnam between 1967 to 1969.
Airbnb in Disputes With New York and San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb has charmed and strong-armed lawmakers around the world to allow it to operate in their communities. But two cities, Airbnb’s hometown, San Francisco, and New York, the service’s largest United States market, have not been so compliant. On Monday, Airbnb sued San Francisco over a unanimous decision on June 7 by the city’s Board of Supervisors to fine the company $1,000 a day for every unregistered host on its service. If Airbnb does not comply, it could face misdemeanor charges. The suit follows a bipartisan move by New York lawmakers who voted this month to heavily fine anyone who uses Airbnb to rent a whole apartment for fewer than 30 days, a practice that has been illegal in the state since 2010. [more inside]
Pentagon Lifts Ban on Trans Service Members
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has announced that the U.S. military will lift its ban on trans people serving openly. [more inside]
They know everything...
You can see everything associated with your Google account that the company is tracking. Going to My Activities will let you see and delete everything from the YouTube videos you watch to the voice commands you have used in Android. Similar company-provided tools exist for Facebook and Amazon. If you want to go one step further, Just Delete Me helps you remove your accounts from many popular services.
Stop The Hate
49 Celebrities Honor 49 Victims of Orlando Tragedy Hollywood Reporter provides extensive background and photos: Anger and grief were palpable during production on the video, filmed primarily over two days on the 20th Century Fox Studios lot where [Ryan] Murphy produces his substantial roster of shows
Science
Zero to Hero
The Economics of Genius
THIS IS SIMULTANEOUSLY THE BEST AND THE WORST VIDEO IVE EVER SEEN
Independence Day Regurgitation
In which Comic Book Girl 19 tries to explain the plot.
Editor replies to every PR email for a month with 'I love you'
'For an entire month, I decided, I would reply to every single one of my PR emails with the phrase "I love you."' The results are both surprising and delightful.
How is babby formed? How does car get pragnent?
Beans, meet plate. Have you ever been curious about what is going on inside the cars in Pixar's Cars? Want to know where baby cars come from or how cars can die? Look no further.
Here's to cinema's winning streaks
A list from the BFI: 17 rare times when a director made five or more great films in a row. [more inside]
#ausvotes 2016: doubly disillusioned
This Saturday, Australians will head to the polls for the country's 2016 federal election. For most people, it will be a choice between the incumbent Liberal party or the opposition Labor party, but it's possible or even quite probable (scroll down to 'What Vote Will Others Get?') that this election will see a record vote for parties other than the two aforementioned majors. Chief amongst these are the environmentalist-left Australian Greens, who have designs on several seats in Melbourne, and the emergent populist centrist party Nick Xenophon Team, who look poised to pull off a major coup in the state of South Australia—potentially causing a hung parliament, something neither major party wants. Complicating this further is the fact that this election is a double dissolution, meaning that minor parties and independents need a lower vote share than usual to snatch a seat in the Senate. Indeed, this appears likely. (WARNING: ANDREW BOLT.) Whatever the results may be, you will be able to stream them free on ABC News 24, which will have its geoblock lifted from 6 am to midnight AEST for election night coverage. [more inside]
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