July 13, 2017
Clean water --> plankton --> menhaden --> URBAN WHALE RENAISSANCE
"Last November, a humpback whale swam up the Hudson River. The animal was spotted slapping its fin near the Upper West Side and then splashing below the Statue of Liberty’s effervescent mint skirt. [An expert] assured reporters that it was likely not lost but hungry." Cleaner water in the Hudson has cleared the way for whales to return to New York City for the first time in 100 years, in such numbers that you can take urban whale-watching cruises. And citizen scientists are on the case (and on the boats)!
MANQUE shakes it up a bit
Graphing the distribution of English letters towards the beginning, middle or end of words. [via Kottke]
Winter will not be coming
nobody knew sustainability could be so complicated
The world’s most ubiquitous vegetable oil and growing in popularity as a biofuel, palm oil’s impacts have been dire and dramatic. Habitat devastation, child labor violations, displacement of indigenous peoples and climate change acceleration is worsening as palm oil production spreads from Southeast Asia to South America and West Africa. The award-winning film Frontera Invisible (2016) documents the human cost of the rush by big landowners' to convert acreage to palm oil to produce ‘green’ fuel for the European market. The 2016 Oxfam report Feeding Climate Change on food commodities found that palm oil industry has the fourth highest greenhouse gas emissions footprint; in late 2015, the forest fires in Southeast Asia, many set to clear rainforests and peatland for palm plantation, had daily emissions higher than the daily emission output of the U.S. [more inside]
Eating from the Earth: Hank Shaw's Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blog
"Grain, or more accurately dependence on grain, is what separated farmers from foragers, Jacob from Esau. Grains underpin civilization: portable, easily renewable, nutritionally dense foods that can be grown in surplus and stored — or kept from those the holder deems unworthy...So how did grain fall from sacred to commonplace? To become something tossed about without thought, wasted, even scorned?" Hank Shaw, proprietor of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, considers the miracle of seeds from grasses in "A Grain of Wheat." [more inside]
Maybe Don't Force Your Rapidly Developing AI to Play QWOP?
The world has lost another champion of justice and compassion
Scharlette Holdman has died at 70. She tirelessly fought to save those facing the death penalty. You can read about her and her work in books and articles, or listen to a radio program. I had the privilege of meeting her in the 90's in San Francisco. She was dedicated, smart, angry, and hilarious - and all to a degree most people I know never approach. RIP. There is more justice in the world because you were here.
GRAAAAPES!
A giant lizard doesn't wag his tail. He won't knock you over when you walk in the door and drown you in welcome-home kisses. But Scott and his wife Ice know their 20-pound Argentine red tegu loves them [soft music and ambient] — in his own lizardly way [soft music and ambient]. Be sure to watch the FAQ [narration].
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What's next - banned bookings week?
Most mefites are aware of the link between librarians and intellectual freedom through initiatives like Freedom to Read week and Banned Books week. This week a controversial request to hold a memorial for a lawyer who defended far right extremists at a branch of the Toronto Public Library has Canadian librarians
caught between obligations to their principles and obligations to their patrons.
Ravens Once Again Demonstrate a New Intelligence
Navy rescues an elephant at sea
The elephant was found 10 miles off the coast of Sri Lanka, struggling to keep its trunk above water after being carried away by the strong current. [more inside]
September 1942 - Making the New York Times
In September 1942, Office of War Information photographer Marjory Collins paid a visit to the offices of the New York Times, located at the iconic One Times Square and an annex on 43rd Street. There, she documented each step of the messy, physical process as news coming in over the wires was sorted, edited, rewritten, laid out, and printed, all under an ever-approaching deadline... (Mashable)
The history of Oxfam Campaigns in posters
An archive of over 700 posters from Oxfam campaigns through the decades. A fascinating survey of the history of design and social change.
Liu Xiaobo, rights activist, 1955 -- 2017
Liu Xiaobo, Chinese professor, political dissident, human rights and civil rights activist, prisoner of conscience, Nobel peace prize laureate (2010, previously), died from liver cancer while under state custody. [more inside]
The Calibri Font Is Threatening to Bring Down Pakistan’s Government
The official investigation into the offshore assets of Pakistan's Prime Minster, Nawaz Sharif, and his family has alleged that Maryam Nawaz forged documents based on their use of the Calibri font, which was not publicly available when the documents were supposed to have been submitted. The Joint Investigation Team's report could have severe consequences for Sharif, since filing a false statement could make him constitutionally ineligible to be a member of Pakistan's parliament. The Wikipedia has also gotten involved as a reference for the history of Calibri and when exactly it might have been available. [more inside]
Llamasoft Presents... NINE INCH NAILS
The first video from the new Nine Inch Nails EP has been released, and it has an unexpected ingredient: A hefty helping of urban legend turned Jeff Minter game Polybius.
The Dread Gorgon
"To isolate the origin of the Gorgon's petrifying terror, it is necessary to pare back centuries of accretions reflecting terrors peculiar to each passing age and stare down the original Gorgon—the grotesque, bulging-eyed, disembodied head." Caroline Alexander writes of Medusa's head as an evergreen "talisman of terror" in her essay, The Dread Gorgon.
A Long-Sought Proof, Found and Almost Lost
As he was brushing his teeth on the morning of July 17, 2014, Thomas Royen, a little-known retired German statistician, suddenly lit upon the proof of a famous conjecture at the intersection of geometry, probability theory and statistics that had eluded top experts for decades.
You want towers made of ants? This is how you get towers made of ants.
In a new paper, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have studied the way ants use their bodies to construct towers when they run into a tall obstruction while looking for food or escaping to new areas. They suggest that the ants build these structures without a leader or coordinated effort. The paper's authors built on previous research that shows how simple behavioural rules can lead to the creation of a resilient structure. Kind of like Castells, but for fire ants. If you prefer your fire ants in a different configuration, they also make rafts.
Chiffon and on and on.
We've seen lots of cakes covered in heavy fondant and mirror-finish glazes, but Singaporean baker Susanne Ng's pastel-hued Instagram is full of "naked" and fluffy chiffon cakes, fashioned into everything from cute penguins to rainbows (lots of rainbows!) to a cloud cake that looks as light as air. Her YouTube channel has a few videos, and her website is chock full of more cakes, cupcakes, and recipes, including these adorable animal macarons. Bonus: Cakespy's The Story Of Chiffon Cake.
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