July 4, 2016
MOTHER, WRITER, MONSTER, MAID
Rufi Thorpe writes about being an artist and a mother in Vela.
Six Easy Pieces, 19th century edition
The translation of science into laypeople's terms is now a well-established part of our culture; so is the idea that we should make science exciting for children. Michael Faraday (d. 1867) figured this out earlier than most; like Richard Feynman, he was not only a world-class researcher, but a world-class educator. The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (previously) he initiated remain an annual tradition, almost two centuries years later.
Recently, Bill Hammack (previously) created a beautiful, verbatim re-enactment of one of Faraday's most simple and elegant series of lectures on The Chemical History of a Candle, together with a series of commentary videos (though the lectures themselves remain remarkably clear).
suggests that Bangladesh’s militant networks are internationalizing...
Bangladesh Attack Is New Evidence That ISIS Has Shifted Its Focus Beyond the Mideast [The New York Times] Friday night’s assault on the Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic district of Dhaka, in which at least 20 hostages and two police officers were killed, marks a scaling up of ambition and capacity for Bangladesh’s Islamist militancy, which has until now carried out pinpoint assassinations, mostly of critics of Islam and members of religious minorities. [more inside]
#weareamerica
15-time WWE World Champion, actor (and Mandarin speaker) John Cena has a message for you this Fourth of July: loving America means loving all Americans.
"I've been doing this for fifteen years." — the choreographer
While OK Go's progression from treadmill to unicycle to zero-gravity has broken all kinds of ground in ambitious, creative, music video, the new video for LA band AJJ's Goodbye, Oh Goodbye takes the form to entirely new places. Planned and choreographed over the course of six months, and shot in a single take in an LA warehouse, the video centers around a judicious use of... well, it's best left unspoiled. (Here's a making-of video, for the curious.)
Protozoan Pac-Man
Space Junk
Bonhams is hosting an auction of Space History on July 20th. Now is the time to get that full scale Sputnik model for your living room.
Happy America Day!
Enjoy thirteen versions of "The Stars And Stripes Forever", wince with self-recognition at The Oatmeal's America Explained To Non-Americans and schedule a trip to one of ten distinctive July festivals and events. [more inside]
"The Most Fascinatingly Boring City in the World"
Humans to attempt insertion of Jupiter
Mission Juno Tonight, Earth species Homo sapiens sapiens, with ongoing support from photosynthesizing relatives in the Plant kingdom, will attempt the delicate task of inserting a large machine into polar orbit around the highly radioactive gas giant Jupiter. After using a slingshot maneuver around Earth and Jupiter's tremendous gravitational pull to become "one of the fastest human-made objects ever built," it is hoped Juno will collect data for 20 months, shedding light on the composition of the planet and what it can tell us about the origin of the Sol system 4.6 billion years ago. [more inside]
Scooby OEDy Doo!!!
The latest update to the Oxford English Dictionary is online and on its way to print. With more than 1,000 new words and nearly 2,000 revised or expanded entries, the latest additions include more of the "initialisms" either originated or popularized on the internet like tl;dr and ROFL as well as indicators of cultural direction like Starter Marriage, Goldilocks Economy and something that has been hanging around pop culture for over 45 years, the Scooby Snack. [more inside]
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