July 28, 2017
Earhart's Peer: Pancho Barnes, Aviatrix
Barnes was a large-living lady, flying, drinking, dancing, rebelling. She certainly didn't fit into her family's wealthy conservative style and eventually they gave up (after she escaped from boarding school and rode a horse into Mexico). She and Amelia Earhart were friends and helped put together a women flyers club. Here's a link to the official site, which has a lot of archives: Pancho Barnes site
TURN ON THE FOG MACHINE
I can't help but sense a certain tension between us.
Dogs love hide-and-seek. They're not so great at hiding, but seeking is where they're Vikings [ambient barks]. Usually [baffled barks].
Replacements cause chaos on the White Way, not just the White House.
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (previously) debuted in 2012 as an intimate soiree at Ars Nova, a small Off-Broadway theatre. This past November, a beefed-up Broadway production opened to rapturous reviews and high grosses, helped in large part by the appeal of crossover singer Josh Groban in one of the title roles. [more inside]
Tampa Bay’s coming storm SL WaPo
‘I am not evil. I could be if I liked.’
On the Isle of Man, in the 1930's, there lived a talking mongoose.
A review of "Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra Special Talking Mongoose" by Christopher Josiffe by Bee Wilson in the LRB.
A review of "Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra Special Talking Mongoose" by Christopher Josiffe by Bee Wilson in the LRB.
“The universe is wider than our views of it.”
Walden has been adapted into a video game, and you can play it right now. [The Verge] “Under the guidance of Tracy Fullerton — professor and chair of the USC Interactive Media & Games Division and director of the USC’s Game Innovation Lab — Walden: A Game has been constructed over the past decade with the support of a small core team, modest arts grants, and many eager students. And now, the game — which not only re-creates Walden pond and the land on which Thoreau lived, but also, to some extent, the text’s spirit — is available to play.” [more inside]
diamonds are forever?
The Nearly Mile-Wide Diamond Mine That Helped Build the Soviet Union. The Mirny Mine [previously] is so large it creates its own microclimate, and Mirny is/was pretty much a company town. [more inside]
Some Uplift For Your Friday
From the "Steven Universe Sing-Along" at this year's SDCC, here is Estelle performing "Stronger Than You". SLYT because we could all use a little more awesome in our lives.
It spread, until people talked of little else
Sure is boring around here. Hey - what if we deliberately crash two trains into each other!
It’s fair to say I’ve studied more dinosaur feces than most
There was the time back in 1998 when Karen Chin needed to know what size animal could produce a fecal mass of 2.4 liters in one go. So she called a physician who studied bowel movements. The physician, driven by who-knows-what mixture of courtesy and curiosity, called her later that day. He explained that in his line of work he typically focused on the health of his patients, as revealed through their bowel movements, not on the volume of matter they produced. He couldn’t give Chin a precise figure. However, he told Chin, it just didn’t make sense for a man, or a man-sized animal, to produce 2.4 liters of excrement. That answer was enough to make Chin’s heart sing. Because she was pretty sure she’d identified the first fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex turd. [more inside]
The Silent Parade of July 28, 1917, likely the first Civil Rights march
'To the beat of muffled drums 8,000 negro men, women and children marched down Fifth Avenue in a parade of "silent protest against acts of discrimination and oppression" inflicted upon them in this country, and in other parts of the world. Without a shout or a cheer they made their cause known through many banners which they carried (PDF), calling attention to "Jim Crowism," segregation, disfranchisement, and the riots of Waco (warning: graphic images), Memphis and East St. Louis.' That was 100 years ago today, and it is remembered as likely the first African American Civil Rights march. [more inside]
I Hacked My Body for a Future That Never Came
In 2012, Adi Robertson had a rare-earth magnet implanted in her right ring finger. Now the magnetism is fading, but Robertson says "I’m the world’s most useless cyborg, and after five years, I’ve learned to live with it."
SwapCuz - A Story of Recreational DNA Testing
A fascinating story of one family's adventures in genealogy and what they found. I've always been both drawn to and wary of exploring some of my ancestry; especially after being contacted by a researcher who linked me to a well known historical event. It's amazing to consider what we think we know about ourselves and what makes up our identies.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
How Hollywood Came to Fear and Loathe Rotten Tomatoes (Chris Lee, Vanity Fair) -- As Wonder Woman soars and Baywatch flops, the power of the review aggregator is looking greater than ever—and studios are looking for a way around it How Rotten Tomatoes became Hollywood's most influential — and feared — website (Ryan Faughnder, LA Times) BONUS: ‘The Emoji Movie’ has achieved the impossible—a 0 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes (Michelle Jaworski, The Daily Dot)
Stop Pretending You're Not Rich
The American myth of meritocracy (slnyt) allows them to attribute their position to their brilliance and diligence, rather than to luck or a rigged system. At least posh people in England have the decency to feel guilty. [more inside]
A (not-so) Inconvenient Tooth
Many people know that the narhwal tusk is a single modified tooth (they’re certainly not unicorn horns). Meet the narwhal expert and dentist who has spent his life discovering that the narwhal tooth is even weirder than you’d think. But there's lots more to learn! [more inside]
GiFood 3D
Ma mère me l’a dit "I can smell burnt toast!" to get her baskets back.
Rebecca and Jim are really, really into Heritage Minutes. Follow along on their website or Instagram as they roadtrip around Canada visiting various sites related to these 87 little slices of Canadiana.
I was busy thinkin' 'bout boys, boys, boys
British pop singer/songwriter Charli XCX, on the video for her new single Boys: "I just want to flip the male gaze on its head and have you guys do the sexy stuff." Starring Joe Jonas eating pancakes, Riz Ahmed telling secrets with teddy bear, Jay Park lounging on an inflatable flamingo, Chromeo having a pillow fight, and 50+ other boys.
More popular than The Beatles
Twenty years ago the man who recorded one of the most successful songs of all time was thrown off a motorbike by a car in Calabar, Nigeria. He hit his head on the road and was rushed to the hospital, where he lay for two weeks, in and out of consciousness, but deteriorating all the time. On June 24, 1997, Prince Nico Mbarga was pronounced dead.
Previous mention of Mbarga.
It's fashion Jim, but not as we know it
Gucci go retro-sf... with a campaign mashing-up Star Trek, Forbidden Planet and Space 1999 among others.
A tree's a tree, no matter how small
Kito the advertising dog
Kito has been in multiple advertising spots for Electrabel, a Belgian energy company, since this first ad. (All in Dutch.) [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »