June 30, 2019
They Come For Us At Night: China’s Vanishing Muslims [SLYT]
Isobel Yeung goes undercover in a special VICE News report that reveals how China is oppressing the Muslim minority Uighur people in horrific conditions.
Google Earth, on the web
Google Earth is now available, in beta form, on the web! [Edit: Chrome only]
Redbad cries ‘A wach!
King Charles comes to a certain land with an army, while King Redbad comes down from Denmark, also with an army; both claim the land belongs to him. A bloody battle is inevitable, unless they find a less violent way to solve the problem. So, they have decided upon a standing contest, ‘an ordeal in which the participants had to stand motionless, with their arms stretched sideways’.
Pop music on the cusp of summer—30 years ago
The top ten singles in Canada† on June 30, 1989 were [1] Forever Your Girl, Paula Abdul [2] Rock On, Michael Damian [3] Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler [4] Buffalo Stance, Neneh Cherry [5] Soldier of Love, Donny Osmond [6] The Look, Roxette [7] Like a Prayer, Madonna [8] Pop Singer, John Cougar Mellencamp [9] Good Thing, Fine Young Cannibals [10] Funky Cold Medina, Tone Loc [more inside]
Just add water
"Just then, our secretary came into the office and said an inventor was here to see us. Normally, Myung was the one who worked with inventors. I handled sales. But Myung wasn’t there. My secretary said, 'Well, the guy’s here. Why don’t you meet him?' I turned around, and in the doorway was a small, thin, spectacle-wearing black man who looked like he was the saddest guy in the world." An oral history of the Super Soaker. [more inside]
Mor a Mallorca el dibuixant argentí Guillemo Mordillo a 86 anys
Guillermo Mordillo, known simply as Mordillo, was an Argentine creator of cartoons and animations and was one of the most widely published cartoonists of the 1970s. He is most famous for his humorous, colorful, and wordless depictions of love, sports (in particular soccer and golf), and long-necked animals. Mordillo died Sunday, age 86, in Majorca, Spain [in Catalan].
McMindfulness: capitalism's co-option of mindfulness meditation
The mindfulness conspiracy. "It is sold as a force that can help us cope with the ravages of capitalism, but with its inward focus, mindful meditation may be the enemy of activism." This is an excellent piece by Ronald Purser (@McMindfulness, previously) on the co-option and commodification of mindfulness meditation. It's adapted from his book, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. [Via @RubaAlHassani] [more inside]
“When is Channel Orange coming out on vinyl?” “ASAP.”
Interview: The World According to Frank Ocean [Dazed Digital] John Waters, Janet Mock, Billy Porter and many more pose questions to the most enigmatic pop star of our generation.
PALOMA ELSESSER: Frank, what does heaven look like? What’s the scene, what’s the scent, what’s the feeling? FRANK OCEAN: OK, so the scene is a city half overgrown by jungle and it feels like you and your lover laid out like two letter Xs in the shade on a beach, and the faint scent of tigerlilies, BBQ and sweat.[more inside]
Wade In The Water
Back in 1994, NPR and Smithsonian Institution unveiled Wade In The Water, an unprecedented 26 episode, 26-hour-long exploration of African American sacred music traditions that had taken 5 years to assemble. NPR has re-released the project and all the episodes can be found here, and here's a link to use with the NPR One app. [more inside]
Yeah, we know, it should have been called T. rex Necropsy
Cretaceous Chainsaw Massacre! Four years ago, National Geographic aired a special called T. Rex Autopsy (YT, full "documentary"), and it was awesome. And bloody. (Washington Post) Bonus clips: T. rex: Behind the Build -- Check out the workshop, Crawley Creatures, with some of the designers and sculptors who created the massive T. rex; and The Gross Stuff | T.rex Autopsy: Behind the Scenes. And in case you missed it: Taking Dinosaur Temperatures with Eggshells (CalTech press release, October 13, 2015; full paper in Nature Communications).
Nowhere in the Constitution does it say a cat *can't* be President
Who do you trust to keep our country safe from bugs?
☐ Some wimpy Democrat who thinks bugs are an essential part of the ecosystem.
☐ Donald Trump, who is a giant swarm of bugs in a people suit.
☐ Monks, who is a mighty hunter and has killed several bugs in his lifetime.
Vote Monks 2020. He's a candidate we canbelieve in pet. [more inside]
☐ Some wimpy Democrat who thinks bugs are an essential part of the ecosystem.
☐ Donald Trump, who is a giant swarm of bugs in a people suit.
☐ Monks, who is a mighty hunter and has killed several bugs in his lifetime.
Vote Monks 2020. He's a candidate we can
space-time, mass-energy, gravity-information?
The Simple Idea Behind Einstein's Greatest Discoveries - "Lurking behind Einstein's theory of gravity and our modern understanding of particle physics is the deceptively simple idea of symmetry. But physicists are beginning to question whether focusing on symmetry is still as productive as it once was." [more inside]
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