Favorites from dis_integration
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Let's Go Shopping!
The Intercept have just published an expose on the 2014 catalog of British spy tech maker Cobham, who sell their gear to “clients and partners in over 100 countries” including US police forces. Among the equipment is an array of cellphone-intercepting IMSI catchers, better known as Stingrays (previously); handheld or car-mounted direction finding devices to pinpoint a cellphone's location; and surveillance cameras hidden inside everything from street lights to bug zappers and trashcans along with receivers, recorders and viewing devices. A full copy of the 120 page catalog itself is available as well.
Help! Wasps!
My room has just been invaded by about a dozen wasps. I had to close the window to stop more coming in, so now they're all trapped in here. What should I do?!
Biographies of interesting women
Mefites, I trust you way more than the random lists on Goodreads. Could you suggest some recent-ish biographies of interesting, mostly not-very-well-known women?
looking for cheap small low level programmable computer
I want to exercise my brain more using assembly language or even machine code on a microprocessor. I played with a webbased MITS Altair simulator but now I want to program a real device.
I've seen some microprocessor learning kits that come with a small keyboard and display, but not too many cheap options. I'm not looking for something to program via USB, everything has to be onboard. And it has to be as cheap as possible, cause I don't know if the hobby will stick.
Top Ten Words I am Sick Of Seeing On Artist Statements
Andrea Liu seeks to problematize this continually deferred relationship in her essay entitled, the Top Ten Words I Am Sick Of Seeing On Artist Statements.
Deep Sadness
Deep Sadness
is an artwork.
Sierra Gets Creative
Jimmy Maher of The Digital Antiquarian tells the story of Sierra Entertainment's gamble on the MS-DOS/IMB platform shaped PC gaming as we know it: from creating the first game with a cinematic score (and later helping to make the Sound Blaster a standard feature of home PCs); to pioneering the genre of adventure games with rich storytelling; to a female-friendly marketing and design strategy that was decades ahead of its time.
Syria's worst case scenario is the current one.
Syria’s Paradox: Why the War Only Ever Seems to Get Worse.
" The average [civil war] now lasts about a decade, twice as long as Syria’s so far. But there are a handful of factors that can make them longer, more violent and harder to stop. Virtually all are present in Syria."
Fashion, faux-sophistication, youth culture, and 1700s gender panic
Why did Yankee Doodle put a feather in his hat and call it "macaroni?" As you've probably guessed, the song is not about noodles; macaroni refers to a fashion trend in high-society England of the late 1700s. NPR's All Things Considered looked into the history of the rhyme with librarian and author Chris Roberts. But what happened to the macaroni trend? Atlas Obscura tells a story of youth culture, old men yelling at clouds, and social panic over the erosion of gender norms. (Previously: The Etymological Evolution of Dude)
The Country Restaurant
The Most Exclusive Restaurant in America
Damon Baehrel’s methods are a marvel, and his tables are all booked until 2025. Or are they?
Damon Baehrel’s methods are a marvel, and his tables are all booked until 2025. Or are they?
Grad Students Can Now Unionize
The National Labor Relations Board ruled today that graduate students at private universities can unionize, reversing a previous decision in 2004.
"There were Americans everywhere." U.S. partiers wash up in Canada.
An estimated 1,500 Americans illegally and unexpectedly washed up in Canada late Sunday after strong winds blew them across the St. Clair River near Sarnia, Ont.
“The world’s first organic universal bitter blocker”
In its Aurora, Colorado production facility, MycoTechnology is fermenting mycelia, later blast-drying them into an odorless, tasteless powder called ClearTaste—what marketing manager Hahn would call “the world’s first organic universal bitter blocker.” Not a black coffee drinker? You could be with just a tiny sprinkle of the stuff. It works on the molecular level, bonding to taste receptors on your tongue and blocking signals to your brain that translate to perceiving bitterness. Such a substance could have big implications for the health of the United States’ sugar-addicted society. But like all food additives, it has its mysteries—and no one is sure exactly what your body does with it once it’s inside. (SLWired)
Are identify theft monitoring services worth it?
More than one such service exists. Do they work? Are they worth it? Should I sign up?
John Locke: Against Freedom
If Locke is viewed ... as an advocate of expropriation and enslavement, what are the implications for classical liberalism and libertarianism? The most important is that there is no justification for treating property rights as fundamental human rights, on par with personal liberty and freedom of speech.In an essay in Jacobin entitled John Locke Against Freedom, Australian economist John Quiggin argues that Locke's "classical liberalism offers no guarantee of freedom to anyone except owners of capitalist private property."
What are the best works of art that have been made for the internet?
I am interested in looking at art made for the web. Can you provide great examples?
"The hair stood up on the back of my neck. There's two of them!"
Stealing Bitcoins with Badges: How Silk Road’s Dirty Cops Got Caught.
Ars Technica explores the investigation into two federal agents/contemporaries who were, unbeknownst to one another, simultaneously robbing the online drug marketplace they were tasked with bringing down.
"We don't deserve what is being offered right now as dessert."
There's a crisis in Chicago. A gelato crisis.
40 years of partying like a punkette
The Story of Feminist Punk in 33 Songs: From Patti Smith to Bikini Kill, the songs that have crushed stereotypes and steered progress (Pitchfork). More than a list of songs, it's an overview of feminist expression through raw music, from 1975 to 2015, with an introduction by Vivien Goldman. "Because nothing beats jamming and singing with your sisters. That is punk. Punk freed female musicians. It is yours. Sing it, play it, live it now."
The Only True eSport: Quake
Greetings everyone, Tyrone here to tell you about the only true eSport: Quake! [con Grand Finals 2016--greatest Quake Duel of all time!! ...] I suggest you stop playing your filthy-casual baby tier MOBAs, and bow to the king. Quake.
Your favorite web dev stack sucks.
Tired of dealing with oldfangled frameworks and hopelessly uncool databases? Want to get on board with the newest technology for making web sites?
Thinking About Causality
Causation can be separated from antecedent conditions only if we can control them.
This is a thought provoking essay by Joe Boswell on the notion of searching for the cause of cancer or the reason a marriage failed. It reaches back to Bertrand Russell's idea that science is the search for antecedents not causal relationships.
Canada and Denmark host polite turn-based "war" over tiny worthless rock
Canada and Denmark have been locked in a dispute over ownership of tiny 1.3-square-kilometer Hans Island since 1933. In 1984, the dispute heated up when the Canadians planted a flag. Incensed Danes removed the Canadian flag, hoisted the Danish one, and left a bottle of Danish schnapps with a note welcoming the Canadian military to Denmark. The Canadians were left no choice but to respond in kind, with Canadian whiskey. Since then, the Canadian and Danish militaries have mounted several expeditions and left several bottles of liquor for their counterparts, keeping the dispute active. Academics have proposed international condominium status, but some consider this a solution in search of a problem, what with the free alcohol and mutual concern about Russian Arctic expansion.
So, the unknowable kicks in
Logic hacking
- "Writing shorter and shorter computer programs for which it's unknowable whether these programs run forever, or stop... the winner of the Busy Beaver Game for N-state Turing machines becomes unknowable using ordinary math - somewhere between N = 5 and N = 1919."
How do I make the leap to giving up alcohol?
I've been drinking too much for the past decade and I know in my mind that I should probably give it up.
I can hold the thought of all of the rational reasons why I should stop, but I need to get over that hump where I finally announce that I need to go sober. How do I finally get there?
Lael Wilcox bikes alone across U.S. in 18 days
Last week, Lael Wilcox demolished the field at the Trans Am Bike Race, a 4400-mile unsupported trek from Oregon to Virginia ("unsupported" means she had to carry all of her own supplies). Wilcox shattered the old women's record by three days and became the first woman and first American to win the race.
Cherry Replica wasn’t a blockbuster per se....
The (menacing) pumkpin is only one of the many novelty keys available on Keypuller a community effort to catalog every computer keyboard key cap ever produced. Please consider contributing and enjoy the small selection of keyboard mods they have. Shopping options, including many other novelty keys available at PimpMyKeyboard. Love this stuff and wondering where your people are? Head over to Geekhack, a very busy forum of keyboard enthusiasts. [previously, via]
Now You Can Visit the Oldest Library in the World
al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco, is the oldest library in the world, but until last month, only researchers had access to it. Built in 859, the library was a beacon for scholars, poets, and theologians for hundreds of years, but in recent years it had fallen into terrible disrepair. Now a massive, three-year restoration effort hasn’t just revitalized the building – it’s opened an ancient center of scholarship up to a new generation of readers!
Debunking Beer Can Chicken
A Waste of Good Beer, An Inferior Cooking Technique, And Dangerous
In the words of Sterling Ball ... "I think Beer Can Chicken is a religion. We need a little separation of faith and science here."podcast
Code Newbie: help me figure out my next step
I'm a grownup with no particular aspirations for a tech career. Because I wanted a challenge and some intellectual stimulation, I took an introductory computer science class for non-majors, and I really enjoyed it. Now I want to take another CS-related class. Help me figure out which one to take!
“My name is Sadiq Khan and I’m the mayor of London!”
Sadiq Khan, “a Labour Party leader, a former human rights lawyer and a son of a bus driver from Pakistan” has been elected Mayor of London with “the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history.”
Acceptance Speech. A March profile in The New Statesman.
His rival, Zac Goldsmith, “accused Khan of ‘pandering to extremists’.” In an op-ed in The Guardian on lessons learned during the campaign, Khan has referred to the Tories as ‘using tactics “straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.” They were also decried by the Tory-affiliated Conservative Muslim Forum.
Acceptance Speech. A March profile in The New Statesman.
His rival, Zac Goldsmith, “accused Khan of ‘pandering to extremists’.” In an op-ed in The Guardian on lessons learned during the campaign, Khan has referred to the Tories as ‘using tactics “straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.” They were also decried by the Tory-affiliated Conservative Muslim Forum.
Professor Sun Ra Has Got Something To Say To You
It's Spring of 1971 and you're a student at UC Berkeley, where artist-in-residence Sun Ra is offering a lecture series entitled "The Black Man In The Cosmos." The Weather Underground is blowing up bathrooms. The Ed Sullivan Show is grinding to a halt. As the weeks roll on, Charles Manson will get the death sentence (later reduced to life in prison) and the Rolling Stones will drop Sticky Fingers. But you? You're in the pocket of something Next Level and way above all that noise. Sometimes Ra hauls in his keyboard and treats the class to extended solos. Mostly he delivers his own signature blend of arcane afrofuturistic dharma:
Part One. Part Two. Part Three. Part Four.
Les Américains souhaitent se faire plaisir et ne pas se limiter
Do You Speak Touriste?
[PDF, 3 MB, in French] and the accompanying website is the Parisian tourism board's guide for workers in the Parisian tourism sector on traveler preferences from 17 different countries on subjects such as their habits, preferences for transportation, views on quality and price, dining times and specific cultural tics -- for instance, the fact that Americans "are hoping to have fun and not limit themselves"* or that the Japanese "won't complain about anything immediately, at least until they return home."**
At Tampa Bay farm-to-table restaurants, you’re being fed fiction
Farm to Fable Part 1: The restaurant's chalkboard makes claims as you enter from the valet parking lot. At the hostess stand, a cheery board reads, “Welcome to local, farm-fresh Boca.” Brown butcher paper tops tables and lettuces grow along a wooden wall. In a small market case, I see canned goods from here and produce from somewhere. Check the small print: blackberries from Mexico and blueberries from California. With the tagline “Local, simple and honest,” Boca Kitchen Bar Market was among the first wave of farm-to-table restaurants in Tampa Bay to make the assertion “we use local products whenever possible.” I’ve reviewed the food. My own words are right there on their website: “local, thoughtful and, most importantly, delicious.” But I’ve been had, from the snapper down to the beef.
This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.
The profound impact of LSD on the brain has been laid bare by the first modern scans of people high on the drug. The images, taken from volunteers who agreed to take a trip in the name of science, have given researchers an unprecedented insight into the neural basis for effects produced by one of the most powerful drugs ever created. [Guardian link]
Crowd Source: Inside the company that fakes it all... for a price
It's just theater, right? But the lines get blurry and the waters get murky...
Cherry MX switches sounds
Thinking of getting a cherry mx mechanical keyboard? Here's how the various switches actually sound (asmr warning). Listen to these sweet switches on actual keyboards.
Courtesy notice: the Microkorg is due in one week
Are you looking to try out some classic synthesizers? Perhaps you're trying to find that perfect fuzz bass tone or psychedelic delay/loop pedal. Well come on down to Guitar Center the Ann Arbor District Library!
Can I Toast Whole Wheat in That?
From July 2007 to April 2013, Arstechnica writer Jeremy Reimer wrote a series of articles covering the History of the Amiga.
Now almost 3 years later, part 9 has been released. It covers the game changing (pun not intended but this is the Amiga) Video Toaster.
Toward Truthiness: "After the Fact"
"The era of the fact is coming to an end: the place once held by 'facts' is being taken over by 'data.'...No matter the bigness of the data, the vastness of the Web, the freeness of speech, nothing could be less well settled in the twenty-first century than whether people know what they know from faith or from facts, or whether anything, in the end, can really be said to be fully proved." Jill Lepore's essay for The New Yorker, "After the Fact," looks at the current state of American politics as a symptom of a bigger question: Whose reality is it, anyway?