Favorites from dis_integration
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I accidentally bought a giant pig
The vet that said if Esther really was six months old, she was possibly a sick runt and would grow to about 200lb, the size of a very large dog. But by her first birthday she had blown past 250lb; she was on track to be at least 500lb.
Fun Time da ya Time Fit da Bus-Rida
An oldie but a goodie: All 25 of the G.I. Joe PSA parodies, made by Eric Fensler circa 2003, Remastered in HD and Compiled in one youtube video (previously, previouslier)
Good Good Goofs
The first episode (content warning: tarantulas) of the TV Show based on the podcast My Brother, My Brother And Me has dropped. What's MBMBAM, other than "an advice show for the modren era"? Well there's this long and very thoughtful meditation on the McElroy Brothers' brand of goofy kind humor. Or you could find out from the fans directly. Or just listen to some classic bits like Amelie, I Hate You, Ron, or Tim McGraw's Krav Maga.
Mental illness?
Depression Is an Unlikely Advantage in the Fight Against Fascism
Life under the yoke of depression is frighteningly similar to life in Trump’s America, and knowing one can teach you how to approach the other.
Dust off that R.E.M. record: this is gonna hurt.
It turns out ASLR (address space layout randomization) can be universally defeated.
By javascript. Running in a browser. This is likely to greatly increase the number of javascript exploits in the coming days. In all browsers, on all systems. Arstechnica has an end-of-the-world article here.
Demoralizing and disheartening times.
Almost three weeks into his presidency, President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, has allegedly been telling senators that comments that attack judges are "demoralizing" and "disheartening." This morning, the president "[told] airline CEOs they—& govt.—are using “obsolete” equipment “the airports give you.” Trump says his pilot, “a smart guy,” told him." This evening, the Senate will vote on Trump's nomination for HHS Secretary, Tom Price.
a feeling of wanting to punch people when I heard them eating
Researchers have discovered a biological basis for misophonia (previously): "Brain imaging revealed that people with the condition have an abnormality in the emotional control mechanism which causes their brains to go into overdrive on hearing trigger sounds."
I thought these were jeans!
I Work From Home
by Colin Nissan [The New Yorker]
HAL: Apple’s Other Super Bowl Commercial
In 1999, while the world was gripped in fear of the Y2K bug, Apple's advertising firm TBWA/Chiat/Day had an inspiration for the perfect representative to reassure everyone their Macintosh computers would be fine: HAL 9000. With Stanley Kubrick's blessing, Apple aired their third Super Bowl commercial, "It Was a Bug, Dave", 15 years after their most famous one.
Pictures From Women’s Marches on Every Continent
Crowds in hundreds of cities around the world gathered Satuday in conjunction with the Women’s March on Washington. New York Times compiles photos from a LOT of marches into a single page illustrating the vast numbers and global reach of the sea of pink hats.
Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence
New York Times
President Obama on Tuesday largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning.
House GOP votes to gut independent ethics office
House Republicans voted in a closed-door meeting Monday night to strip the independent Office of Congressional Ethics of its powers to speak publicly, report crimes, get anonymous tips, and act independently. If this amendment is passed, the Office will now be under the control of the House Ethics Committee. The Ethics Committee is run by members of the House, the body that the Office was intended to investigate.
A day in the life of Auschwitz today
"After" is a stark and haunting short film by Polish director Lukasz Konopa
In 1947, the Polish government established the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, which has since been visited by about 1.72 million people from around the world. Konopa deftly captures a setting where the horrors of the past and the activities of the present exist side by side.
The Widowhood Effect
What it’s like to lose a spouse in your 30s.
Christina Frangou talks about the experience of losing her husband to cancer at the age of 36.
This holiday, bake some bleeps and bloops with your family
Acid Techno/House producer TB Arthur (@jeparleacid) made a minor splash in 2014/15/16 due to a mysterious/contrived backstory, periodic single releases, a mix for Boiler Room Upfront, and a live session at Smart Bar.
For the holidays, Mr. (Ms.?) Arthur has a new release for all the producers out there: “Psychedelic Cookbook” is a 100% Royalty Free Sound Library created in TB Arthur's analog studio: over 900 MB of basslines, beats, percussion, synths, vocals, tops & more. All the inspiration you need for building your own original tracks in any DAW or hardware sampler.
Need ideas? Try Bandcamp’s list of 30 tracks to celebrate the 30th anniversary of acid house or FACT’s list of the 20 best Acid House records ever made.
For the holidays, Mr. (Ms.?) Arthur has a new release for all the producers out there: “Psychedelic Cookbook” is a 100% Royalty Free Sound Library created in TB Arthur's analog studio: over 900 MB of basslines, beats, percussion, synths, vocals, tops & more. All the inspiration you need for building your own original tracks in any DAW or hardware sampler.
Need ideas? Try Bandcamp’s list of 30 tracks to celebrate the 30th anniversary of acid house or FACT’s list of the 20 best Acid House records ever made.
Capturing The Know-It-All Demographic
Writing
at the lefty quarterly journal The Baffler, Stanford Social Innvoation Review editor (and former Boston Review editor) David V. Johnson offers a critical look at Ezra Klein's and Matt Yglesias's Vox.com. He labels it "explatainment" and considers its relative sucess at one of its intended central missions, to become an authoritative source of information (not merely journalism) in the style of Wikipedia. Vox's well-known penchant for liberal-educated-white-guy mansplaining is addressed, as well the biases (hidden and not-so-hidden) inherent in modern hybrid information-entertainment delivery.
Who Killed Alberta Williams?
Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams?
is an 8-part podcast series from the CBC investigating the murder of Alberta Williams.
Do Pilots Dream of Electric Geese?
Pilots and flight attendants on flights longer than about 10 hours are required to have places to sleep. On the longest-haul flights, these are required to be flat and isolated from passengers. Want to take a peek at where your flight attendants and pilots sleep when taking you from New York to Mumbai or Dubai to Panama? I'll bet you do!
2016 National Book Awards
Tonight, the National Book Foundation will honor and celebrate some of the year's best American literature at the 2016 National Book Awards ceremony. Hosted by Larry Wilmore, the event will be livestreamed, or you can follow on Twitter at #NBAwards. If you can't wait for bookish goodness, the recording of last night's readings by the finalists is available; Young People's Literature finalist Nicola Yoon called it one of the most inspiring nights of her life. This season hasn't been without controversy, however: the various ways the awards reflect the current state of publishing have been criticized but also defended.
I'm a kniiiiiiiiiiiiife...
All 92 episodes of the seminal animated talkshow Space Ghost Coast to Coast are now available for free streaming on Adult Swim.
City Boy
TOKYO CULTURE STORY｜今夜はブギー・バック(smooth rap) in 40 YEARS OF TOKYO FASHION & MUSIC
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'A chronological music video that compilates 40 years of Tokyo fashion and music from 1976 to 2016.'
Democracy suffers if our news environment incentivizes bullshit
Hyperpartisan Facebook Pages Are Publishing False And Misleading Information At An Alarming Rate.
The rapid growth of these pages combines with BuzzFeed News’ findings to suggest a troubling conclusion: The best way to attract and grow an audience for political content on the world’s biggest social network is to eschew factual reporting and instead play to partisan biases using false or misleading information that simply tells people what they want to hear. This approach has precursors in partisan print and television media, but has gained a new scale of distribution on Facebook...
Building "sandcastles" is a bit of a test...
Calvin Seibert builds modernist sand castles.
"Nature will always be against you and time is always running out. Having to think fast and to bring it all together in the end is what I like about it.
I rarely start with a plan, just a vague notion of trying to do something different each time. Once I begin building and forms take shape I can start to see where things are going and either follow that road or attempt to contradict it with something unexpected."
Wheeeow
Cat likes broom rides
(don't we all?)
Nobody Wins
After a year of tense anticipation, the day of reckoning is finally here. GWAR turns in a special Election Day contribution to the AV Club Undercover series, taking on AC/DC's "If You Want Blood, You Got It." This year's performance interpolates Boston's "Foreplay" as an intro, as well as two special election-themed guests. NSFW: extensive silly costume gore, some nudity, general bombastic ridiculousness. (previously)
♪♫ 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.
developers! developers! developers!
Michael Tsai collects reviews of The New MacBook Pro and The State Of The Mac from Apple's MacBook event on 27 OCT.
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.
Randy Newman's Putin
"Putin" is a new song and video by Randy Newman, from an as-yet untitled album due next spring. A review in Pitchfork by Greil Marcus. A Washington Post interview about the song. A Telegraph interview from last year. His last album of new material was 2008's Harps and Angels (not counting five film scores and two volumes of his Songbook series). His last music video was 2012's "I'm Dreaming" (prev).
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."
A Book by Its Cover: The strange history of books bound in human skin
"Anthropodermic bibliopegy, or books bound in human skin," writes Megan Rosenbloom in Lapham's Quarterly, "are some of the most mysterious and misunderstood books in the world’s libraries and museums. The historical reasons behind their creation vary [...] The best evidence most of these alleged skin books have ever had were rumors and perhaps a pencil-written note inside that said 'bound in human skin'...until now." Anthropodermic biblipegy on Metafilter previously and previously. Warning: links may contain details disturbing for some.
Can we stop attacking left-of-Clinton/anti-establishment folks on here?
There is no problem with individuals expressing views critical of Sanders, Stein, Snowden, Greenwald etc. The problem is when an echo chamber develops making pro-establishment-ism the only acceptable position and vehemently jumping on views to the contrary with more emotion than reason.
It seems to me that MeFi 2016 has become such an echo chamber. This is no doubt due to the very real threat posed by Donald Trump and the Republican Party, and the consequent necessity of a Clinton win, but has developed to the point where it has the effect of recursively self-amplifying a pro-establishment position and silencing more radical/anarchist/antifa or otherwise anti-establishment views.
2016 Wants Plenty of Mirth. Try these.
The culture editors at Slate asked Maria Semple to recommend three funny books with living authors. Then, rather cleverly, they turned around and asked those authors to recommend three funny books. Result: 83 of the funniest books ever, accoding to some of the funniest authors ever. Check 'em out if you need something to help you get through November.
How the education gap is tearing politics apart
"The possibility that education has become a fundamental divide in democracy – with the educated on one side and the less educated on another – is an alarming prospect. It points to a deep alienation that cuts both ways. The less educated fear they are being governed by intellectual snobs who know nothing of their lives and experiences. The educated fear their fate may be decided by know-nothings who are ignorant of how the world really works. Bringing the two sides together is going to be very hard. The current election season appears to be doing the opposite." [SLGuardian]
Mary Cavendish: 17th century duchess, author, scientist, philosopher
Browse through the history of science fiction and you don't see many women named. One of the first is Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who published a proto-SF novel in 1666, 152 years before Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Also notable, Mary Cavendish published her book, titled The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World (Internet Archive), under her own name. The book is a curious mixture of themes and styles: part science fiction, part fantasy, part scientific musing, part political tract, part social commentary and satire, and part autobiography. This diversity of topics reflected the amazing life and interests of its "Happy Creatoress," a woman of means but without formal education of her male peers.
Happy Birthday, Ms. Andrea
Today, Andrea Dworkin, "radical feminist" would have turned 70 years old.
(Trigger Warning: written depictions of rape, assault)
Welcome to the Analog Upside-Down
The synth sound of Stranger Things,
on the Roland Juno-6, Roland Juno 106,
Sequential Circuits Prophet 5,
MiniMoog Model D
, and Ableton Live. Link via .
Wandertalk covers the Stranger Things theme.
The attention of readers is not, she says "a boiled egg" but "an omelet.
On Not Reading by Amy Hungerford [The Chronicle Review]
“The activity of nonreading is something that scholars rarely discuss. When they — or others whose identities are bound up with books — do so, the discussions tend to have a shamefaced quality. Blame "cultural capital" — the sense of superiority associated with laying claim to books that mark one’s high social status. More entertainingly, blame Humiliation, the delicious game that a diabolical English professor invents in David Lodge’s 1975 academic satire, Changing Places. ”