July 25, 2016
In the course of 10 years, VW produced six generations of defeat devices
For the first time the true scale has been revealed of a coldly calculated, deliberate and sustained scheme by scores of Volkswagen executives and engineers to defraud American car buyers and deceive American regulators.
Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house?
Victorian Women of Color: A Rare View — Photos of Women of Color from this era are hard to come by, especially "family" photographs. Sadly these beautiful and touching images go unnamed. A couple of these photos were taken when there was still slavery in the United States. [Downtown LA Life Magazine is] honored to present these images as part of our dedication to the photographic history of our country. [more inside]
The Ghostess with the Mostest
Breast-Feeding the Microbiome
Why do human mothers spend so much energy manufacturing complex sugars (the third most plentiful ingredient in human milk) that babies can't even digest? Why do these complicated chemicals pass through the stomach and small intestine unharmed? What if a large amount of breast milk isn't food for babies at all? What if it is food for microbes?
Say (American) Cheese!
"Don't get me wrong. Not every burger or grilled cheese I eat is made with American cheese, and there are times when I'm happy with a slab of sharp cheddar, a slice of Comté, or a crumble of Roquefort on top. But if I had to pick one cheese to stock in my burger joint, you're damn right it's gonna be American." -- J. Kenji López-Alt, What Is American Cheese, Anyway?
Chase the Clouds Away
Everything you see is sound. Everything you hear is photography.
An interview with Jeff Louviere and Vanessa Brown, otherwise known as Louviere + Vanessa who created the album Resonantia which includes unique visualizations made by photographing water vibrating at the frequencies of musical notes. There is a twelve frame animation that can be viewed by placing the included praxinoscope mirror on the album to reflect images etched in the vinyl. [more inside]
Apocalypse Bona
The BBC after the bomb. The BBC's War Book contains meticulous plans for the organisation's operations after a nuclear attack on the UK. Ordered to be destroyed after the end of the Soviet Union, a rebellious BBC official quietly transferred it to the corporation's archives. Filled with the sort of mordantly amusing detail common to such documents - the BBC would be run by Radio 4, 'informal clothing' only being required, and an abandoned plan to entertain the nation with Round the Horne and Goon Show repeats - the plans help flesh out the way British bureaucracy faced up to an unknowable future that, at the time, seemed sometimes to be very close indeed. Previously.
"Liberals got out of the habit of arguing for their beliefs"
"But it goes way beyond that. Some researchers claim that liberals aren't motivated by feeling of moral disgust, but I disagree. Liberals think incidents like these are disgusting. Racism is viscerally wrong, it's unacceptable, and it needs to stop."
Four years ago Mark Rosenfelder (metafilter's own) wrote The Practical Case For Liberalism (previously). He follows it up now with The Moral Case For Liberalism.
Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.
Fundamentalist theologian and rapture prophet Tim LaHaye, best known as the co-author of the Left Behind books, has passed away at the age of 90 after suffering a stroke.
Noise Patterns
"Tristan Perich’s Noise Patterns comes in a clear jewel case, but it isn’t a CD. It’s a small, matte-black circuit board. Powered by a watch battery, it produces a series of musical compositions built from the on/off operations on the minuscule chip at the center of the device, the same sort of chip you might find in a microwave oven." It's a 1-bit noise-techno album, painstakingly constructed from assembly language instructions that work directly with the binary data of the processor itself. Oh, and every single byte is used. Marc Weidenbaum sits down for a lengthy, detailed interview with Tristan to discuss what Noise Patterns is, and how it was made. (You can order through Physical Editions or Bleep, where there are a few clips to listen to.)
Dunes Cantina
Be kind ⏪
Australia's Guantanamo for Children
Evidence of torture of children in custody in Australia. As seen on Australian television this evening. [more inside]
The door, and someone knocking at it.
>look>exit is a dark, uneasy story by Jessica Hayworth, told in text adventure format and illustration. [more inside]
Darkness moves differently underground.
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