Favorites from Potomac Avenue
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The tide rolls in
The O.C.E.A.N. model washes away democracies
"How good a model is, however, depends on how well it can predict the way a test subject will answer certain further questions. Kosinski charged ahead. Soon, with a mere ten “likes” as input his model could appraise a person’s character better than an average coworker. With seventy, it could “know” a subject better than a friend; with 150 likes, better than their parents. With 300 likes, Kosinski’s machine could predict a subject’s behavior better than their partner."
Points of Inflection
Points of Inflection
is a blog by John Roe, a math professor at Penn State who specializes in coarse geometry (one-sentence summary: what is geometry like if you can tell when points are getting farther and farther apart but not when points are getting closer and closer together?) He has terminal cancer and is teaching his last course this semester. He is a devout Christian who teaches about the mathematics of sustainability and who has strong words about the proposed new head of the EPA. He lost his trans* son last year. He climbs rocks.
“I have never seen myself as a spokesman. I am a witness. ”
“Has the American Dream Been Achieved At the Expense of the American Negro?” [YouTube]
Historic debate between James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley Jr. at Cambridge University.
and the price you pay is to cut the culture and religion
The Erasure of Islam from the Poetry of Rumi
Rozina Ali revisits the cultural legacy of Rumi in the West: 'The erasure of Islam from Rumi’s poetry started long before Coldplay got involved. Omid Safi, a professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at Duke University, says that it was in the Victorian period that readers in the West began to uncouple mystical poetry from its Islamic roots. Translators and theologians of the time could not reconcile their ideas about a “desert religion,” with its unusual moral and legal codes, and the work of poets like Rumi and Hafez. The explanation they settled on, Safi told me, was “that these people are mystical not because of Islam but in spite of it.” This was a time when Muslims were singled out for legal discrimination—a law from 1790 curtailed the number of Muslims who could come into the United States, and a century later the U.S. Supreme Court described the “intense hostility of the people of Moslem faith to all other sects, and particularly to Christians.” In 1898, in the introduction to his translation of the “Masnavi,” Sir James Redhouse wrote, “The Masnavi addresses those who leave the world, try to know and be with God, efface their selves and devote themselves to spiritual contemplation.” For those in the West, Rumi and Islam were separated.' [Rumi previously]
It be filled with my LOVE always
"One of the most enigmatic objects on display in the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is "Ashley's Sack." On loan from South Carolina's Middleton Place, this unbleached cotton sack features an embroidered text recounting the slave sale of a nine-year-old girl named Ashley and the gift of the sack by her mother. Until now, Ashley's identity has been unknown. New research by Mark Auslander traces Ashley's Sack from the initial gift during the era of slavery to the present."
Distributional National Accounts: Trading Places
Economic growth in the United States: A tale of two countries
- "An economy that fails to deliver growth for half of its people for an entire generation is bound to generate discontent with the status quo and a rejection of establishment politics."
Four podcasts with episodes mostly under five minutes long
- Random Tape is a podcast of random audio recorded by producer David Weinberg.
(The last two episodes are longer than five minutes. Don't start there.) - Sidewalks is a podcast of short interviews and other audio recorded on the sidewalk.
(The most recent episode is longer than five minutes. Don't start there.) - Poetry Now is a podcast of modern poets reading poems, from the Poetry Foundation.
- Poem of the Day is a podcast of poems from throughout history read by poets and actors, also from the Poetry Foundation.
How do I find the old BBC documentary The Mind Traveller?
I'd like to watch the old documentary but his official website says it is currently unavailable and googling has turned up very little. Does anyone more savvy know?
Mind Traveller: Oliver Sacks
Keep the Change: The Beads that Bought Manhattan
The story of the purchase of Manhattan is one of the most contentious and oft-disputed stories in American history. That modest sale has gone down in history as the biggest swindle ever perpetrated.... But what may be the most surprising fact about the whole transaction is that in 1626, and for a long time afterward, both parties were very happy with it.The complexities of navigating the economics of desire, an excerpt from Aja Raden's Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World [Amazon].
The Art of Recording
Soundbreaking is an 8-part documentary series about the art of producing records, featuring both legendary and lesser-known producers like Quincy Jones, Linda Perry, Don Was, RZA, Brian Eno, Questlove, and of course George Martin.
Stay The Fuck In Line
I wish I'd written this song a week ago, but I'd never even heard the phrase until this afternoon.
♪♫ The world turned upside down. Finally, it's US election week.
574 days since Hillary declared she would run, and 2 days left for the frontrunner and all of us till election day. While the world watches e.g. [Guardian] [RTE] [Denmark] [Russia] [Sweden (lonely)] and [France], analyses, reacts, or organizes election parties [Australia] [New Zealand], the polls bounce around but generally favor Hillary, the UK bookies, other odds and an increasingly angry Nate also still favor Hillary, and Politico only sees three narrow paths to victory for Donald. Meanwhile, the Democrats get the vote out, it's not been the best of years for Trump's New Jersey chum (also November 10th 2015), there are fears of an election "cyber attack", political phrases are becoming fatigued, celebrity social media remains divided, Mr Kaine duets with Mr Bongiovi, and Hillary and Donald (in Reno) near the end.
Roadside Picnic in Poughkeepsie
Spill Zone, a comic by Scott (author of "Uglies") Westerfeld, with art by Alex Puvilland and colouring by Hilary Sycamore. Updated weekly, anticipated completion May 2017.
Man Without a Movie Camera - Brows Held High
Man Without a Movie Camera - Brows Held High
Kyle Kallgren's video essay on Leos Carax's Holy Motors (HM, previously)
"What else you gon' do?"
Vince Staples is interviewed by Simone White
I never wanted to be a rapper; I like to be quiet in my music. Actually, having this job, I don't know… I know that certain music made me want to feel and do stuff on the wrong side of the fence, so my whole thing is being mindful of that reality and not pretending it's not there. That's more of a responsibility where I'm from, you know? Life has a soundtrack. And certain music is a soundtrack to a certain type of identity or feeling. So what happens sometimes when you don't pay attention to what you say and what you do, like 50 Cent, the Game, and those kinds of guys—they made us feel like our lives were worth nothing, basically.
how do you solve a problem like Peter?
Peter Thiel[readme] (Paypal inventor, venture capitalist, libertarian, vampire, techno-optimist, futurist, tranhumanist, lawsuit-machine finanicier and inflation-predicting billionaire) is supporting Donald Trump for President of the United States, and thinks America made a (one of many) wrong turn granting women the vote. Why?
This has made some of his compatriots in Silicon Valley (and New York, but not Chicago) anxious.
This has made some of his compatriots in Silicon Valley (and New York, but not Chicago) anxious.
A combo of trust and earnest nerdiness
The New York Times Company recently acquired The Wirecutter and The Sweethome, "product-recommendation services that serve as a guide to technology gear, home products and other consumer services." Some guy without a blog thinks that is awesome news, and that Brian Lam doesn't get the credit he deserves for building a successful business that doesn't have to cater to either advertisers or investors, but relies instead on "a combo of trust and earnest nerdiness".
Gripping nonfiction books about THINGS
I realized recently that I like nonfiction books that are about things -- books that don't have an obvious narrative, but that are exciting to read nonetheless. Any suggestions?
Out of Bounds
The Fantastic Ursula K. Le Guin
- "Ursula Kroeber was born in Berkeley, in 1929, into a family busy with the reading, recording, telling, and inventing of stories. She grew up listening to her aunt Betsy’s memories of a pioneer childhood and to California Indian legends retold by her father. One legend of the Yurok people says that, far out in the Pacific Ocean but not farther than a canoe can paddle, the rim of the sky makes waves by beating on the surface of the water. On every twelfth upswing, the sky moves a little more slowly, so that a skilled navigator has enough time to slip beneath its rim, reach the outer ocean, and dance all night on the shore of another world."
The A858 Project Has Concluded. You may unsubscribe.
A little more than five years ago, a previously unused Reddit account began posting seemingly random strings of numbers and text in a new subreddit it had created. To the casual eye, there wasn’t much to see. The subreddit shared the same inscrutable set of numbers and letters as its moderator; the sidebar and comments provided no clarifying information.
It's dusty in here
Borrowed Time.
A short animation done by Pixar animators in their spare time.
6. Chloë Sevigny is basically Forrest Gump
This is a king whom Paris Hilton (a major political figure in Los Angeles at the time) makes a point to walk over to chat with during a timeout ...and then leans over to laugh at a joke by — not a forced laugh, I have it on good authority that it was a funny joke — later on in the game.Sam Donsky answers the question: What Is the Best Night Any Celebrity Has Ever Had at Madison Square Garden?
Curmudgeons
Curmudgeons is a 16 minute long film directed by Danny DeVito and starring Danny DeVito, Lucy DeVito, and David Margulies. NSFW due to adult themes and language, no nudity.
The disrespect of our ambitions and intellect
Fifteen months ago, Donald declared and we commented; two months earlier, Hillary did likewise. And now, here we are near the end of an divisive and damaging election. As Donald's campaign struggles under many allegations [BBC] [NBC News] [Guardian] [New York Times] and increased conversation on abuse, Hillary pulls out a 7 point lead in a Fox poll, a gap in the Real Clear Politics poll average and a large victory chance in 538 (though, cautionary words about poll bounces). Michelle Obama spoke about the language of this election (FPP title from her speech) [BBC] [New Yorker] [Washington Post] and in The Guardian: "She lent her extraordinary ability to say what people are feeling to every English-speaking woman in the world".
Elsewhere, Trump-stooge Chris Christie is facing a criminal summons and Utah could be a three-way race which leads to a small possibility of President Evan.
Power of tower
Building human towers in Spain
- Every year in Spain, a Catalan tradition of building Castells—human towers reaching up to 10 stories—takes place.
The Ballad of Balloon Boy
Seven years ago, an incredibly stupid mystery captivated CNN.
Today, thanks to cable news, Balloon Boys are everywhere.
The Staten Island Ferry Disaster Memorial
"...Adding to the tragedy, is that this disaster went almost completely unnoticed by the public as later that day another, more “newsworthy” tragedy would befall the nation when beloved President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. The Staten Island Ferry Disaster Museum hopes to correct this oversight by preserving the memory of those lost in this tragedy and educating the public about the truth behind the only known giant octopus-ferry attack in the tri-state area."
Rescued!
Herman Melville was an obscurity when Carl Van Doren (with Raymond Weaver's help) started promoting his work in the 1920s. Domenico Scarlatti was a completely forgotten Baroque composer until Ralph Kirkpatrick wrote his biography and republished his sonatas, which are now part of the keyboard canon. Petrarch discovered Cicero's letters and supposedly kicked off the entire Renaissance. What are some other examples of famous artists, writers, historical figures, etc. whose reputations were revived by a single person?
The largest refugee camp in the world, Dadaab in Kenya, 25 years old
While the International Court of Justice in The Hague takes up a dispute between Kenya and Somalia over maritime oil and gas reserves this week, Human Rights Watch alleges that Kenya's plan to close the Dadaab refugee camp complex, amidst protest from Somalia, violates the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention, which requires that repatriation of refugees must be voluntary. Earlier this year Kenya's Interior Ministry announced that the camp, covering 50 km² (20 mi²) and home to nearly 300,000 people, would be closed by November. Ground was broken to construct the earliest portions of Dadaab in October 1991 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as a temporary measure to aid Somalis fleeing from their country's civil war, but as the years passed the site became home to refugees from other conflicts and to refugees from drought and famine, at its height holding more than half a million people.
Musical Passage
We invite you to listen in on a musical gathering that took place in Jamaica in 1688. These three songs, 'Angola', 'Papa' and 'Koromanti', performed at a festival by enslaved African musicians and copied in musical notation by a Mr Baptiste, are the first transcription of African music in the Caribbean, and, indeed, probably in the Americas. Thanks to this remarkable artifact, we can listen to traces of music performed long ago and begin to imagine what it meant for the people who created it.
Helicoprion, the buzz-saw shark, one of the truly unique ancient animals
The fossil remains of Helicoprion are limited to some crushed cartilage and its teeth, which aren't unusual for fossil remains of sharks and shark-like fish. But those teeth are unique: formed in a spiral saw-type formation, known as a spiral dentition or toothwhorl, with the older teeth pushed into the center of the spiral by the newer teeth. Since a whorl was first discovered in 1899, there have been a number of theories about how the teeth were used, leading to numerous creative but largely untested reconstructions, until 2013, when a new CT scan enabled the researchers to make a new, improved reconstruction of Helicoprion. That scientific article is not so visually exciting, so let's enjoy Ray Troll's illustrations, and Mary Parrish's updated illustration.
Ellen's Stardust Diner
Two weeks ago, workers announced the highly publicized formation of Stardust Family United under the Industrial Workers of the World, which is supported by over 70 employees of Ellen's Stardust Diner, a restaurant in midtown Manhattan recently profiled for by the New York Times. Ken Sturm, owner, then fired six long-time employees in retaliation for their efforts to form a union to protect and improve their working conditions. Ellen's, a diner which primarily employs Broadway and off-Broadway singers, has been a mainstay source of income for many since 1995.
everything comes down to SA vs. 4chan
now, you can look back at that and cringe, or (if you were around back then) look back and that and go “man, how the hell is neil cicierega still an internet celebrity?”, tho you could ask the same thing about dril, who back in those days was a newgrounds superstar who i will not reference or link out of courtesy / a sense of shared guilt – christ, some of my old shit is on youtube too, apparently i was an ~indie animator~ worthy of archiving when i was 12 – but imo the interesting thing here is how the transition from paleozoic (specifically, permian) to mesozoic (the current era) internet culture occurred alongside a total shift in aesthetics. if you’re old enough to remember the permian internet, you look back on it and cringe – you can’t help it. why?
Auditing Algorithms and Algorithmic Auditing
How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy
- "A former academic mathematician and ex-hedge fund quant exposes flaws in how information is used to assess everything from creditworthiness to policing tactics, with results that cause damage both financially and to the fabric of society. Programmed biases and a lack of feedback are among the concerns behind the clever and apt title of Cathy O'Neil's book: Weapons of Math Destruction."
They say it's the biggest gathering of Native Americans in 100 years.
Last week, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota emerged as climate change heroes when, with little political clout or media spotlight, they halted construction of the $3.7 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline. The defiance, based on a desire to protect both Sioux burial grounds and the waters of the Missouri River, evoked America’s ugly racial past—and present. “It feels like 1875 because Natives are still fighting for our land,” tweeted Native American writer Sherman Alexie, about a week before the pipeline security loosed attack dogs on the protesters, causing the internet to compare images of the ensuing chaos to images of Selma in 1965. A delegation from Black Lives Matter has visited the resistance camp, as have Amnesty International and MSNBC. But it's not the non-Native visitors who are the most interesting: what may be most important about the Standing Rock camps is that they have brought about the greatest gathering of Native Americans in more than a century. "Not since Little Big Horn have we stood together in this way," wrote one camp organizer. "The heart of the aboriginal world has been reawakened."
Period dramas that are more Cold War than Corset
I've realised that I really like period dramas that are a) set in the 20th Century, particularly post-war b) often feature a workplace environment. Mad Men, Mr Selfridge, Halt and Catch Fire, The House of Elliot. Are there any others I should know about? Extra points if it has interesting costumes and has me looking up historical details on Wikipedia after an episode.
Hargeysa International Book Fair, celebrating literature in Somaliland
This year, Somaliland is celebrating its silver jubilee (though there are concerns and disappointments), and recently held its 9th annual Hargeysa International Book Fair in the (unrecognized) country's capital. The theme this year was leadership, and its connection to art, culture, and creativity. HIBF is the biggest annual event in Somaliland, drawing 11,000 attendees this year, it's an advertisement for a republic that showcases itself as a kind of "anti-Somalia."
Is The Texas AG Leading A Nationwide War Against Transgender People?
Most of the media focus on Transgender rights up until now have been on "Bathroom Bills" that are being presented across the country, yet in doing so, we are, as Chase Strangio, Staff Attorney for the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project states, ...ceding the terms of this conversation to the people who want to expel trans people from public life and write us out of existence."
But is that really happening? Are there people who want to write trans people out of existence?
But is that really happening? Are there people who want to write trans people out of existence?
Sail Away... Sail Away...
Because sometimes, when the stresses and hardships of earthly existence threaten to overwhelm, you just really need to see two Pokemon dancing to Orinoco Flow.
A project of the Rational Dress Society
"Just as we reject the mini-mansion in favor of the city, refuse the automobile in favor of the train, JUMPSUIT offers a way to forego the insular logic of self-expression in favor of forming communal bonds."
El Hombre de 1000 Caras
MAMBO!
with Luciano Rosso and Yma Súmac. Perhaps you prefer the Macarena? Don't miss his duet with a charming young lady.
There's more.
There's more.
Colloquially known as the 'underboob selfie'
As Thailand is discovering, the smartphone — for all its indispensability as a tool of business and practicality — is also a bearer of values; it is not a culturally neutral device.
And if digital imperialism is happening — if smartphones and other gadgets are bearing cultural freight as they cross borders — there is little doubt as to which nation’s values are hiding in the hold.