January 11
A life unraveling
Over the past year, the [Boston] Globe spent time with an East Boston heroin addict as she struggled through recovery and the prospect of losing her children to the state. Nearly every key moment was witnessed by a Globe reporter or photographer. Brave, broken, loving, at a loss, this is Raquel and her story.Warning: Does not end terribly, but does not end well.
Big dinosaur leaves faint tracks
A few months ago, I went searching for the truth about that missing bone. I was not the first — plenty of others have sought the largest dinosaur that has ever lived. What I found was a quest that has driven some people toward maniacal competition, some to conspiracy theories and others to disregard scientific consensus. It drove me to a little rocky outcropping on a hill in rural Colorado known as Cope’s Nipple.—The Biggest Dinosaur In History May Never Have Existed by David Goldenberg is about Amphicoelias fragillimus, a species of sauropod dinosaurs described by famed paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope from a single, enormous bone, which later went missing. It may have been the biggest of the big, as explained by Prof. Ken Carpenter [pdf] or a fiction created by a typo [pdf], as argued by Cary Woodruff and John R. Foster.
Even then, when we do reach our perceived glories, they fade in a moment
Writing for Thump, at Vice, Angus Harrison beanplates deconstructs, lengthily, Four Tet's remix of Opus by Eric Prydz. Four Tet previously; Eric Prydz previously, 2.
Fresh roses dropped into her lap every day
Cheese robbery in the Netherlands
DutchNews reports on how Dutch cheese farms have recently been plagued by cheese theft. It may sound a little bit like the plot for a children's book, but it's quite serious: thousands of euros worth of cheese are being stolen from the dairy farms. [more inside]
UBI in NYT
It's Payback Time for Women - "Society is getting a free ride on our unrewarded contributions to the perpetuation of the human race." (via) [more inside]
Ashima Shiraishi, Rock-Climbing Wonder
The menu, the venue, the seating
In the Room Where It Happens, Eight Shows a Week and 8 Places to Celebrate Alexander Hamilton's birthday in New York and Beyond
And they rode on in the friscalating dusklight. [SLYT/CNN]
Campus Sexual Assault Under Investigation
Grandmaster Caz to Drake
Punishing your body is not taking care of it.
I don’t mean that you shouldn’t strive for health in 2016, if health is what’s important to you. But a number on a scale is not health. A dress size is not health. Work with your body, not against it. This isn’t some radical tenet of fat-acceptance either – any life coach, self-help guru, or even personal trainer will tell you the same: set reachable goals. Don’t set yourself up for failure. [more inside]
"There is only one road, one bridge across the country"
The Trans-Canada Highway spans the length of Canada with a route over 8000 kilometers long. This weekend, a new bridge crosssing the Nipigon buckled, severing the only road link between Eastern and Western Canada.
First X, Then Y, Now Z : Landmark Thematic Maps and Their Makers
This section reads as would a biblical genealogy of sorts: Alexander von Humboldt (wiki) taught Heinrich Berghaus (short wiki bio)and influenced Alexander Keith Johnston; Berghaus taught August Petermann (wiki); and Petermann collaborated with Berghaus and Johnston. More accurately, it reflects the passing on of the thematic torch lit by Humboldt. There were isolated “ignitions” throughout Europe before him—he, of course, was not the first to construct a thematic map or even to think of how one might do it—but every science needs a founding figure. More than anyone who preceded him, Humboldt provided that role.Landmark Thematic Atlases, from Princeton University Library's Historic Maps Collection website of Landmark Thematic Maps.
More evidence that student evaluations of teaching evaluate gender bias
Inside Higher Ed: There’s mounting evidence suggesting that student evaluations of teaching are unreliable. But are these evaluations, commonly referred to as SET, so bad that they’re actually better at gauging students’ gender bias and grade expectations than they are at measuring teaching effectiveness? A new paper argues that’s the case, and that evaluations are biased against female instructors in particular in so many ways that adjusting them for that bias is impossible. [more inside]
La-Z Rider
January 10
The Fall of Ziggy Stardust
No.1 threat to US electric grid? squirrels.
"This map lists all unclassified Cyber Squirrel Operations that have been released to the public that we have been able to confirm. There are many more executed ops than displayed on this map however, those ops remain classified."
Why doesn’t anyone listen to Ani DiFranco anymore?
“This paper is intentionally solo-authored.”
When Teamwork Doesn't Work for Women Ms. Sarsons discovered one group of female economists who enjoyed the same career success as men: those who work alone. Specifically, she says that “women who solo author everything have roughly the same chance of receiving tenure as a man.”
by Justin Wolfers in the New York Times.
I Found The Worst Things At CES
"Without asking, I started working for @internetofshit with some hot, on-the-floor reporting on the worst technology at the Consumer Electronics Show."
Organic Back-Pack Warmers
Bolt and Keel, the back-packing cats. This past July, two tiny kitties were found, alone in the forest, in British Columbia. They were rescued, and now travel along on their human's outdoor adventures. Christened Bolt and Keel, for their new companion's passion for kayaking and rock climbing, they have their own Instagram account.
The not-so-secret history of comics drawn by women
Delicious Detangling
“A tear in this fabric is all it takes for a story to begin.”
Why the British Tell Better Children’s Stories by Colleen Gillard [The Atlantic] Their history informs fantastical myths and legends, while American tales tend to focus on moral realism.
If Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn were each to represent British versus American children’s literature, a curious dynamic would emerge: In a literary duel for the hearts and minds of children, one is a wizard-in-training at a boarding school in the Scottish Highlands, while the other is a barefoot boy drifting down the Mississippi, beset by con artists, slave hunters, and thieves. One defeats evil with a wand, the other takes to a raft to right a social wrong. Both orphans took over the world of English-language children’s literature, but their stories unfold in noticeably different ways.
The White Man Pathology
On an American road trip, Stephen Marche enters the fray with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in Iowa and gets a view of the campaign trail from the perspective of his whiteness. (SLGuardian)
El Chapo Speaks
A secret visit with the most wanted man in the world.
By Sean Penn
The Tall Man Has Left This Dimension
Early in his career, Lawrence Rory Guy won a Grammy for writing album liner notes for such diverse artists as Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and Itzhak Perlman. More recently as an actor, under the name of Angus Scrimm, he was known for his roles in movies like I Sell the Dead and John Dies at the End or on television in the series Alias. Of course, he is most well known for is iconic role as The Tall Man in 1979's Phantasm and its three (soon to be four) sequels. Late last night, at the age of 89, Angus Scrimm passed away peacefully surrounded by his friends and loved ones. [more inside]
Dressing a windmilling baby is like trying to put a rabbit in a balloon
A new dad's entertaining thoughts on being a parent. "I was congratulating myself today on how I’ve got nappy changing down to a precision art. I’m basically like a Formula One pit crew.. in fact, in many ways, I’m better, because when you’re speed-changing the tyres on Lewis Hamilton’s car he’s probably less likely to piss in your eyes..."
January 9
The great British curry crisis
Maribou State: "We don’t set out to make celestial, sublime music"
The duo of Maribou State have come a long way from impressing Fatboy Slim with their remix of Praise You that landed them on his label. Last year, they dropped their debut album, Portraits (YT playlist, Bandcamp), "occupying a space somewhere between ambient electronic and a more house-nodding, four on the floor sensibility," and they had the honor of getting the first Essential Mix for 2016 (Mixcloud; Soundcloud). “We don’t set out to make celestial, sublime music. We aim for something more uptempo and less atmospheric. But that’s the way it comes out.” [more inside]
"No safe level of drinking": UK alcohol guidelines tightened
"No safe level of drinking": recommended drinking guidelines in the UK have been sharply tightened to no more than 14 units a week (equivalent to six pints of beer or seven glasses of wine) for both men and women, and no alcohol at all for pregnant women. [more inside]
The Case of the Missing Hong Kong Booksellers
One Country, Two Systems? Although none of the booksellers have disclosed their locations, a few have been in sporadic contact with family members to communicate, in opaque terms, that they are “assisting in an investigation.” On the phone with his wife, Sophie Choi, earlier last week, Lee conveyed that he was calling from Shenzhen, specifying that he, too, was voluntarily helping with a case but, strangely, spoke in Mandarin, the standard mainland dialect, rather than his native Cantonese. [more inside]
The operation's greatest success was the evacuation.
One hundred years ago, the last Allied day at Gallipoli. "The evacuation had been carried out brilliantly, of that there can be no doubt." (Peter Hart) After months of agonized fighting between forces from multiple nations, the Allies withdrew from Gallipoli, ending one of WWI's most remembered and discussed campaigns. One hundred years ago today the last British soldiers left the peninsula, leaving behind booby traps, animals dead and alive, material destroyed and as booty, and the victorious Turks. [more inside]
Maths and physics visualizations
Illustrations, diagrams, and animations, many of maths and physics concepts, created for Wikipedia by Lucas Vieira Barbosa.
what's in this sausage, anyway?
"Over the past seven years, Americans have heard an awful lot about Barack Obama and his presidency, but the actual substance of his domestic policies and their impact on the country remain poorly understood. He has engineered quite a few quiet revolutions—and some of his louder revolutions are shaking up the status quo in quiet ways. "
Native ants are diverse; they're beautiful.
Argentine ants altering California's ecosystems as homeowners give them shelter The Kentucky woman found herself waging war on a freezer full of Argentine ants.
Thousands of them had set up shop inside the appliance's insulation, and a steady stream of tiny bodies poured out of the cracks to forage in the kitchen. "There was a fortress within the freezer walls," said Cliggett, who set out baits but still spent nearly an hour a day wiping up the fallen soldiers' carcasses.
The Netflix Bible
What's on Netflix? You know how, when you go to Netflix, it shows you what IT thinks you want to watch..and how finding anything else (or even browsing other categories) is next to impossible...
"What's on Netflix" has a page where, by inserting the number from any of the many, many categories listed on the pages from the first link (note, there are three pages of categories, the navigation is at the bottom of the page) you can browse stuff you never knew existed!
A Beautiful Theorem Deserves a Beautiful Proof
Douglas Hofstadter presents a proof Napoleon's theorem (on equilateral triangles constructed on the sides of another triangle), in the form of a sonnet. (Part of a longer talk; the link should take you to 34:18 in the video.)
Thou Shalt Not Forget the Not
The Risky Business of Bible Translation. Last month, a highly unusual Bible sold at auction for a whopping $47,311.
From its exterior, the book looks rather unassuming: It lacks a general title. It contains only two colors of ink — black and red. Its pages are jagged and frayed, as if cut with a hacksaw.
Yet deep inside this 1631 copy of the King James Version, nestled in the Ten Commandments, lies what is widely considered to be the worst typographical error ever made in a Bible. [more inside]
The Summoning of the Skylark
Cool 3D World, by a pair of artist-musicians, puts out a series of Vines (compiled, 3:57) handcrafted in a warm, cozy town in the Uncanny Valley. Last month, they released their first full-length music video, "The Summoning of the Skylark" (3:40).
All NSFW due to unearthly naked demihuman flesh conglomerations.
Display Preparation Demo
Cinematographer Steve Yedlin (Looper, Star Wars Ep. VIII) has created "Display Preparation Demo," comparing 35mm film and Arri Alexa digital "prepped" with custom film-look algorithms (but doesn't reveal which is which).
After filmmaker Mario Carvalhal asked for a cypher, an email exchange ensued exploring the nature of psychological bias in the film vs. digital debate. (via)
After filmmaker Mario Carvalhal asked for a cypher, an email exchange ensued exploring the nature of psychological bias in the film vs. digital debate. (via)
Don't buy upgrades, ride up grades
Welcome back from your Saturday morning ride! Now enjoy the classic Eddy Merckx profile La course en tête. [101min.] [more inside]
Wherefore Art Thou, ATL?
Looking back at the Atlanta music scene in 2015 & the challenges it faces. (slImmersiveAtlanta)
Neither private nor tegrity
“I don’t even know where to begin...”
Animal Collective - FloriDada (Official Video) [YouTube] [Viewer discretion is advised, this video has been identified to potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy.] FloriDada is from Animal Collective’s Painting With out February 19, 2016, produced and directed by sometime Adult Swim directors PFFR. [more inside]
Politics now more divisive than Race
"When defined in terms of social identity and affect toward copartisans and opposing partisans, the polarization of the American electorate has dramatically increased...Our evidence demonstrates that hostile feelings for the opposing
party are ingrained or automatic in voters’ minds, and that affective polarization based on party is just as strong as polarization based on race. We further show that party cues exert powerful effects on nonpolitical judgments and behaviors.
Partisans discriminate against opposing partisans, doing so to a degree that exceeds discrimination based on race. " (PDF). [more inside]
No war at the dinner table
Last August, the Guardian's Northern correspondent Helen Pidd invited Yasser, a 34-year-old Syrian refugee, to live in the spare room of her Manchester flat while he waited for his wife and baby daughter to join him. Helen and Yasser tell their sides of the story, from navigating the UK's welfare bureaucracy to the English's perplexing fondness for cookbooks and bare floorboards, a family Christmas near Morecambe and a topical Halloween costume. [more inside]