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silveradeptHere's a visually appealing start - architecturally and aesthetically appealing libraries, including the bookshelf that you can sit and read in, geometric sand castles, the use of chalk and blackboard as a fine art medium, using scratch at to create night cityscapes, the University of Iowa beginning a project to digitize fan content and zines of the before Internet era, after substantial donations help them create an impressive collection, digital colorization of iconic black and white photos, a gross of places to educate yourself for free, a lovely short film about a magic painter, and bookstores worth visiting across Canada.
Also Banksy has a theme park. As one might expect, it's temporary, but it will show you the underside of the Happiest Place on Earth.
No love for The Elements of Style at its 50 year mark, for it teaches poor grammar while masquerading as a way to correct poor grammar. And then there's the thought that those who enjoy reading for pleasure have good results when they read for pleasure. (Do you know the process of how donated books get ready to be sold in charity shops?)
An ebola vaccination trial was halted because the results nearly unanimously suggested the vaccine was effective at preventing an ebola infection, which may indicate the ability to faster-track the vaccination into a place where it can be mass manufactured and deployed. If it holds up in effectiveness, we could be seeing the endpoint of a nightmare affecting an entire continent.
Stephen Colbert funded every South Carolina teacher's request on Donors Choose, to the cost of 800K USD. Which is probably a drop in the bucket of his actual fortune, but will likely provide such things as basic supplies to those schools requesting. We could, you know, actually fund our schools and institutions, but that doesn't appear to be on our priorities list.
Localization is not just for video games - movies are often changed so as to read more appropriately for the culture that will be seeing it.
A story to tell young children about racism and the courage of Bree Newsome. Illustrations for when you tell the story of Michael Brown. And black people and civilizations of the ancient world outside of Africa. Oh, and mathematical and physical laws and concepts discovered significantly before white d00ds rediscovered them. So white discomfort at having their privilege exposed is the new normal. As it should be.
A Muslim student was at the front of a campaign raising at least 30,000 USD to help rebuild black churches destroyed by fires and arson in the wake of the mass shooting at Charleston. And the world will be as one. If we can manage to stop inflicting mental health trauma due to racism.
A tattoo artist is helping victims of domestic violence cover their scars with vibrant tattoos, free of charge. And in central and southern California, Meathead Movers will help victims of domestic abuse pack up their lives and move them to a new, safer place.
A suggested reading list for those taking courses on urban design that will include race and justice issues.
The United States Trans Survey would like anyone trans-identifying to talk about their experiences. it runs until September 19.
Finding yourself in anime - when you're ace.
What does it take to make a show that's friendly to the visually impaired? The cast and crew of the CBeebies show Melody have been doing their research.
Restaurant and other institutional crayon discards are melted and then re-molded for donation to children's hospitals. A great way of reusing things that can't be reused by their original entities.
Praise for a Hawkeye title that reads like good fanfic, because it carries all the beats that happen away from the Avengers action.
The surveillance state is more than happy to use smaller spying devices for your mobile communications if it allows them to avoid having to get court orders, among other things regarding security and privacy. Additionally, a reporter in Australia released a portion of cell phone metadata and asked people to find out what they could about him. People did pretty good. Imagine what professionals and algorithms will do with the full suite, and with other data points to correlate with.
Speaking of privacy, check out this must useful sign for library subjects that are sensitive and not likely to be asked about at the help desk.
Even if you're trying to avoid sexist language in your school dress code, the things that are forbidden are far more likely to impact female-identified people than male-identified. Like how in current society women still have to alter their habits and routes to try and avoid harassment, instead of there being consequences to men for their harassment. Oh, and we might note that consequences tend to come down most heavily on the marginalized and those in professions that demand off-the-clock behavior be as firmly regulated as on the clock. So when there are privacy breaches, different people get hit differently. (Also, I very much like the approach of "people who are bigots and malign -ists should have their -isms aired out, but people who are doing things that aren't those kinds of things deserve privacy, because of the added difficulties that often come from being outed.)
A Wired guide to setting Facebook privacy the way you want to.
Women are expected to cook, but men become praised chefs far more often. Oh, that's right, men who take on things that are devalued women's work have to somehow make them worthwhile, so that those men don't suffer negative consequences for lowering themselves. And the more women act and speak like men, the better, at least according to this satire.
dating has always been awkward and weird. Internet dating has not changed this. Nor has Tinder.
Arguing from ignorance sounds horrible to the people who do have the knowledge.
Kate Elliott talks about influences on her story and how common knowledge contributes to one story that actual history refutes hard. And also about science fiction, women representation, and other topics. Which lets us deposit an article about the ways A Wrinkle In Time opened space for women in science fiction, but only after a very long stint in the rejection letters department.
There's also the myriad ways that United States culture takes issue with fat bodies while encouraging fat bodies. The knowledge is available to change conceptions, the question is only as to whether people make the effort to do so. Many people choose to live in comfortable misogyny instead.
Hair coloration is very much a political thing - showing gray doesn't garner respect for older women, for example, while putting pastel colors in your hair is an as an exotic new trend. As is hair styling - being white and wearing a hairstyle culturally associated with black struggles against wrote supremacy sends messages that may not be helpful in expressing allyship.
Obtaining knowledge before wearing the cultural dress of others is also a good idea. This becomes even more important if there are differing opinions about whether someone wearing it is engaging in cultural appropriation or not, and what kind of movements and opinions there are about modernization versus preservation. If something is done with the intent of exoticizing another culture, there's a good chance the impulse has racist ideas. This applies to food as well as to looks.
So you can take a look at old wood block prints from Japan about American visitors and see what you find.
Suffice to say, the line between cultural exchange and appropriation is twisty and weird, but often comes down to the respect involved.
Several accounts of the disaster wrought by the use of an atomic weapon on a civilian population.
A writer gives advice - quit if you need to, especially if it impacts your health and life. If your priorities change, then maybe you give up writing or other things you like doing.
Translation is difficult, but just for language choice, but for all the cultural assumptions that come along with that language choice. The example in the post is Ayamu from Azumanga Daioh, whose regional accent is so thick that she collects a nickname - Osaka. Translating what that means, though, resulted in both a Deep South drawl and a heavy Brooklyn, depending on the translator, because the accent has aspects of both cultures.
An interview with a poet whose lines have inspired much in Supernatural and Sherlock fandom, including deep ambivalence about whether to be proud of that, as the reuse takes poems and turns them into quotes, and not always accurate quotes, as well.
A teenager ticked off the police by SWATting others and then boasting about their hacker skill. The police, unsurprisingly, found them and arrested them.
White America does not forget, does not forgive, and expects everyone else to forgive them. Nothing bends reality like privilege. That is, aside from the active attempts to rewrite history underway from the right wing. As countless black people know, White people are the only people allowed to be visibly angry in public. Or visibly anything, when it comes to the police.
Protozoa hitching a ride on ticks can infect your domestic cats, with a very poor recovery rate.
An updated study from Consumer Reports suggests that rice is not a great grain as a staple, based on inorganic arsenic content, but basmati rices from certain places contain less arsenic than other rices.
The description of white food as if it were an exotic food from a far away, incomprehensible culture.
Debt can be endured, even when it seems like it's impossible to get out from under it. this is true regardless of what you're paid - both the eventual possibility of getting it from under it and the crushing feelings that it provides while you feel like you can't get out from under it. One of the biggest debt problems, though, is the house. It's still possible that home ownership is the only way of building wealth for many non-rich, as the already-rich obtain control over more and more capital and people.
An interactive graphic displaying house styles from the 1900s, by decade.
The telephone is not a perfect communication device. Many people do not find it something they want to expend their energy on. For some people, this is because mobility of telephone has made the experience of a telephone call worse.
Advice on becoming more comfortable with your body. Sometimes it would be nice to see as many of those things about being comfortable with your own head. Lo and behold, not too soon after typing this, what appears but a conversation about how meditative practice often puts one in touch with their intuition, and that being in that state often helps with dealing with the mind. And then, following that, a fairly short set of steps on how to make ideas come into existence, which seems to boil down to: do it when you're passionate about it until you aren't any more. Then move on to the next thing you're passionate about. Maybe leave behind a little comedy about your writing process.
Plus taking about introversion and learning social interactions as a second language. And the possibility that our empathy extends exactly as far as we want it to, instead of being some sort of intrinsic aspect of ourselves triggered by specific situations.
Talking small talk with strangers may improve your own mood, but since there's more than one person in the conversation, will it improve the mood of others?
Quoting devoid of context, with the intent of exclusion, is a fast way to pervert the messages of your sacred texts.
A stat pack on the achievements of both sides during the Iliad campaign, as extracted from Homer. Is it me, or does this graphic suggest that someone could do both epics in Red vs. Blue style, with an appropriate engine and amount of gibs selected, to anyone else?
Want to build your own Ghostbusters proton pack? Paul Feig tweeted out the dimensions and the technobabble you're going to need. Also useful, a method of making a dress that restricts mobility into a garment that is perfect for smiting and running, using just folds and tucks. I think I will also plant the knowledge that Women In Practical Armor will be an anthology you can get.
Diana Wynne Jones wrote her fantasy with an eye toward playing with and subverting the standard tropes of the genre.
Stanford professor finds Rand-esque capitalism in the Greek city-states and attributes ancient economic progress to it. This seems to be a possible case of finding what you want to see in the data, but since there isn't an economic census or stock market report from that time to give direct evidence, it's not that we can all just say "That's silly." Maybe it's just how the data is being described that makes me think someone is projecting a much later idea of capitalism and democracy backward.
Cats have mythic powers...and often tend to be in the houses of the creative. Which is good, because I think I might want or need some of the power in these coloring books meant for grown-ups and big kids and workspaces of famous creative people.
There is again a stationmaster cat for the train lines.
Molded gelatin dishes have an interesting history, first as a way of accessing rich culture, then as convenience, then eventually as desserts and sweets. Elsewhere, a Minnesota Dairy Queen that does not follow the corporate menu that much, instead preferring to create unique items and do custom substitutions using the standard items as a guideline.
The photography of Vivian Maier, whose images capture the reality of the streets in the 50s and 60, discovered after death by a person who bought undeveloped film. Also, a racebent casting of the Sailor Scouts, pictures of women of color during the previous centuries, and beautiful afrofuturist art. And a call for identification of unknown images.
A browser extension pair allows the visually impaired to mark images without alternate text and crowdsourcers to then provide the appropriate descriptive text for that image. Which is great to have, and would ideally end with the best answers getting incorporated back into the page's source.
The city of Melbourne gave each of its trees an email address to make it easier to report problems with them. People do that. But they also send love letters, correspondence, and other communication with the trees. And occasionally, some tree responds.
Google has a project underway where you can have an algorithm compute whether your house would be good for solar panels on the roof, if you live in certain places.
The United Kingdom has many lines that only run one train, often at inconvenient hours, so as to avoid going through the headache of shutting down the train line. They're not published, and there may not be much for knowledge about them, even in the places they exist.
Pictures of the stage in a theater, from the back, so that you can see all the things that are behind the stage that would otherwise be invisible to the audience, along with a short video of the mechanics of a quick costume change.
A scientific theory about the way that electrons spin may help communications get faster by routing bits based on that spin.
A new pentagon design that will tesselate, which is big math breakthrough and may also be the next floor tile design for a bathroom. or the bottom of one of these swimming pools.
MIT research has found that in the formation of habit, neurons may be trying to optimize cost and reward, rather than just seeking reward at any cost.
Brains are weird, in that people suffering from hydroencephalitis over most of their brains occasionally turn out to function perfectly fine, even a bit over average, despite most of their brain suffering from this condition.
ProPublica published a list of surgeon rankings, based on available data, and answers some questions about why they feel confident in releasing that information.
Concrete mixed with bacteria can self-heal, using supplied calcium and any moisture that sneaks into a crack to generate limestone. That's impressive. Perhaps inspired by a well that covers and eventually suffuses objects with minerals?
Tidbits of computer security to help you make your accounts more difficult to be attacked.
Peer in on the process used to draw maps of Arctic ice, and see how political it can be. Then take a look at various data projections on theories about what is causing climate change, and see that it shouldn't be political, if we are truly wanting to go by the data.
Last for tonight, a device that creates penis-shaped cooked eggs, a baker with a flair for the Gothic, and a bacon-flavored superfood, beautiful pictures of the galaxy from one of the planets inside it (and what NASA is up to as of last month, including sending up Nichelle Nicholls with a telescope - the actress comes back, the telescope stays), advertisements for the hidden gems of Japan reachable only by local train lines, panoramic air shots to see locations as the birds do, the evolution and longevity of the Ferris Wheel, art created from pencil leads, attempting to induce the seeing of colors not normally perceived, more pictures of the universe from those inside it, streets in Portugal covered in flowers, a skyscape of a meteor shower, pictures of the oldest trees on Terra, a large Hieronymus Bosch exhibit, dinosaurs and other giant creatures made of of rice straw,
Also the return of gray wolves to California, a wooden cabinet in a scarab design, pictures of whales and orcas, what old watermelons looked like, along with what thousands of years of breeding has done to our crops, the way animals do or don't recognize the signs of being related to reach other, answers to selected cat questions, tips for communication with your cat, the group names of many different animals, cow curiosity assisting in the rescue of a seal pup, the successful return of royal turtles to the wild, a baby orca caught in mid jump with full extension, dogs showing their best side in a photo booth shoot, adorable cats doing silly things, very cute kittens, very cute otters, snakes that hunt by hanging down from a cave ceiling and waiting for bats to fly into them, corgis at the beach, checking your cat's vitals, recognizing heatstroke in your cat, a fully digitized archive of creature sounds, bear and wolf as friends, pictures captured chronicling the lives of canine companions, plants that look suspiciously like other things, tiny horses chasing humans, polar bears frolicking in flower fields, using the family pet as a stand-in for a baby, so as to get the in-laws of one's back about baby making, cats of the Great War, cats in black and white, abandoned kittens swimming to a fishing boat, confectionary cats fishing for dinner (and other confectionary animals), splashed watercolor painting depicting animals, a sheep that avoided shearing by hiding in a cave for six years,
and a Gojira-type kaiju taking their children to work.
Oh, and some very nice yarn and felt works, if you have the money and the inclination.
Also Banksy has a theme park. As one might expect, it's temporary, but it will show you the underside of the Happiest Place on Earth.
No love for The Elements of Style at its 50 year mark, for it teaches poor grammar while masquerading as a way to correct poor grammar. And then there's the thought that those who enjoy reading for pleasure have good results when they read for pleasure. (Do you know the process of how donated books get ready to be sold in charity shops?)
An ebola vaccination trial was halted because the results nearly unanimously suggested the vaccine was effective at preventing an ebola infection, which may indicate the ability to faster-track the vaccination into a place where it can be mass manufactured and deployed. If it holds up in effectiveness, we could be seeing the endpoint of a nightmare affecting an entire continent.
Stephen Colbert funded every South Carolina teacher's request on Donors Choose, to the cost of 800K USD. Which is probably a drop in the bucket of his actual fortune, but will likely provide such things as basic supplies to those schools requesting. We could, you know, actually fund our schools and institutions, but that doesn't appear to be on our priorities list.
Localization is not just for video games - movies are often changed so as to read more appropriately for the culture that will be seeing it.
A story to tell young children about racism and the courage of Bree Newsome. Illustrations for when you tell the story of Michael Brown. And black people and civilizations of the ancient world outside of Africa. Oh, and mathematical and physical laws and concepts discovered significantly before white d00ds rediscovered them. So white discomfort at having their privilege exposed is the new normal. As it should be.
A Muslim student was at the front of a campaign raising at least 30,000 USD to help rebuild black churches destroyed by fires and arson in the wake of the mass shooting at Charleston. And the world will be as one. If we can manage to stop inflicting mental health trauma due to racism.
A tattoo artist is helping victims of domestic violence cover their scars with vibrant tattoos, free of charge. And in central and southern California, Meathead Movers will help victims of domestic abuse pack up their lives and move them to a new, safer place.
A suggested reading list for those taking courses on urban design that will include race and justice issues.
The United States Trans Survey would like anyone trans-identifying to talk about their experiences. it runs until September 19.
Finding yourself in anime - when you're ace.
What does it take to make a show that's friendly to the visually impaired? The cast and crew of the CBeebies show Melody have been doing their research.
Restaurant and other institutional crayon discards are melted and then re-molded for donation to children's hospitals. A great way of reusing things that can't be reused by their original entities.
Praise for a Hawkeye title that reads like good fanfic, because it carries all the beats that happen away from the Avengers action.
The surveillance state is more than happy to use smaller spying devices for your mobile communications if it allows them to avoid having to get court orders, among other things regarding security and privacy. Additionally, a reporter in Australia released a portion of cell phone metadata and asked people to find out what they could about him. People did pretty good. Imagine what professionals and algorithms will do with the full suite, and with other data points to correlate with.
Speaking of privacy, check out this must useful sign for library subjects that are sensitive and not likely to be asked about at the help desk.
Even if you're trying to avoid sexist language in your school dress code, the things that are forbidden are far more likely to impact female-identified people than male-identified. Like how in current society women still have to alter their habits and routes to try and avoid harassment, instead of there being consequences to men for their harassment. Oh, and we might note that consequences tend to come down most heavily on the marginalized and those in professions that demand off-the-clock behavior be as firmly regulated as on the clock. So when there are privacy breaches, different people get hit differently. (Also, I very much like the approach of "people who are bigots and malign -ists should have their -isms aired out, but people who are doing things that aren't those kinds of things deserve privacy, because of the added difficulties that often come from being outed.)
A Wired guide to setting Facebook privacy the way you want to.
Women are expected to cook, but men become praised chefs far more often. Oh, that's right, men who take on things that are devalued women's work have to somehow make them worthwhile, so that those men don't suffer negative consequences for lowering themselves. And the more women act and speak like men, the better, at least according to this satire.
dating has always been awkward and weird. Internet dating has not changed this. Nor has Tinder.
Arguing from ignorance sounds horrible to the people who do have the knowledge.
Kate Elliott talks about influences on her story and how common knowledge contributes to one story that actual history refutes hard. And also about science fiction, women representation, and other topics. Which lets us deposit an article about the ways A Wrinkle In Time opened space for women in science fiction, but only after a very long stint in the rejection letters department.
There's also the myriad ways that United States culture takes issue with fat bodies while encouraging fat bodies. The knowledge is available to change conceptions, the question is only as to whether people make the effort to do so. Many people choose to live in comfortable misogyny instead.
Hair coloration is very much a political thing - showing gray doesn't garner respect for older women, for example, while putting pastel colors in your hair is an as an exotic new trend. As is hair styling - being white and wearing a hairstyle culturally associated with black struggles against wrote supremacy sends messages that may not be helpful in expressing allyship.
Obtaining knowledge before wearing the cultural dress of others is also a good idea. This becomes even more important if there are differing opinions about whether someone wearing it is engaging in cultural appropriation or not, and what kind of movements and opinions there are about modernization versus preservation. If something is done with the intent of exoticizing another culture, there's a good chance the impulse has racist ideas. This applies to food as well as to looks.
So you can take a look at old wood block prints from Japan about American visitors and see what you find.
Suffice to say, the line between cultural exchange and appropriation is twisty and weird, but often comes down to the respect involved.
Several accounts of the disaster wrought by the use of an atomic weapon on a civilian population.
A writer gives advice - quit if you need to, especially if it impacts your health and life. If your priorities change, then maybe you give up writing or other things you like doing.
Translation is difficult, but just for language choice, but for all the cultural assumptions that come along with that language choice. The example in the post is Ayamu from Azumanga Daioh, whose regional accent is so thick that she collects a nickname - Osaka. Translating what that means, though, resulted in both a Deep South drawl and a heavy Brooklyn, depending on the translator, because the accent has aspects of both cultures.
An interview with a poet whose lines have inspired much in Supernatural and Sherlock fandom, including deep ambivalence about whether to be proud of that, as the reuse takes poems and turns them into quotes, and not always accurate quotes, as well.
A teenager ticked off the police by SWATting others and then boasting about their hacker skill. The police, unsurprisingly, found them and arrested them.
White America does not forget, does not forgive, and expects everyone else to forgive them. Nothing bends reality like privilege. That is, aside from the active attempts to rewrite history underway from the right wing. As countless black people know, White people are the only people allowed to be visibly angry in public. Or visibly anything, when it comes to the police.
Protozoa hitching a ride on ticks can infect your domestic cats, with a very poor recovery rate.
An updated study from Consumer Reports suggests that rice is not a great grain as a staple, based on inorganic arsenic content, but basmati rices from certain places contain less arsenic than other rices.
The description of white food as if it were an exotic food from a far away, incomprehensible culture.
Debt can be endured, even when it seems like it's impossible to get out from under it. this is true regardless of what you're paid - both the eventual possibility of getting it from under it and the crushing feelings that it provides while you feel like you can't get out from under it. One of the biggest debt problems, though, is the house. It's still possible that home ownership is the only way of building wealth for many non-rich, as the already-rich obtain control over more and more capital and people.
An interactive graphic displaying house styles from the 1900s, by decade.
The telephone is not a perfect communication device. Many people do not find it something they want to expend their energy on. For some people, this is because mobility of telephone has made the experience of a telephone call worse.
Advice on becoming more comfortable with your body. Sometimes it would be nice to see as many of those things about being comfortable with your own head. Lo and behold, not too soon after typing this, what appears but a conversation about how meditative practice often puts one in touch with their intuition, and that being in that state often helps with dealing with the mind. And then, following that, a fairly short set of steps on how to make ideas come into existence, which seems to boil down to: do it when you're passionate about it until you aren't any more. Then move on to the next thing you're passionate about. Maybe leave behind a little comedy about your writing process.
Plus taking about introversion and learning social interactions as a second language. And the possibility that our empathy extends exactly as far as we want it to, instead of being some sort of intrinsic aspect of ourselves triggered by specific situations.
Talking small talk with strangers may improve your own mood, but since there's more than one person in the conversation, will it improve the mood of others?
Quoting devoid of context, with the intent of exclusion, is a fast way to pervert the messages of your sacred texts.
A stat pack on the achievements of both sides during the Iliad campaign, as extracted from Homer. Is it me, or does this graphic suggest that someone could do both epics in Red vs. Blue style, with an appropriate engine and amount of gibs selected, to anyone else?
Want to build your own Ghostbusters proton pack? Paul Feig tweeted out the dimensions and the technobabble you're going to need. Also useful, a method of making a dress that restricts mobility into a garment that is perfect for smiting and running, using just folds and tucks. I think I will also plant the knowledge that Women In Practical Armor will be an anthology you can get.
Diana Wynne Jones wrote her fantasy with an eye toward playing with and subverting the standard tropes of the genre.
Stanford professor finds Rand-esque capitalism in the Greek city-states and attributes ancient economic progress to it. This seems to be a possible case of finding what you want to see in the data, but since there isn't an economic census or stock market report from that time to give direct evidence, it's not that we can all just say "That's silly." Maybe it's just how the data is being described that makes me think someone is projecting a much later idea of capitalism and democracy backward.
Cats have mythic powers...and often tend to be in the houses of the creative. Which is good, because I think I might want or need some of the power in these coloring books meant for grown-ups and big kids and workspaces of famous creative people.
There is again a stationmaster cat for the train lines.
Molded gelatin dishes have an interesting history, first as a way of accessing rich culture, then as convenience, then eventually as desserts and sweets. Elsewhere, a Minnesota Dairy Queen that does not follow the corporate menu that much, instead preferring to create unique items and do custom substitutions using the standard items as a guideline.
The photography of Vivian Maier, whose images capture the reality of the streets in the 50s and 60, discovered after death by a person who bought undeveloped film. Also, a racebent casting of the Sailor Scouts, pictures of women of color during the previous centuries, and beautiful afrofuturist art. And a call for identification of unknown images.
A browser extension pair allows the visually impaired to mark images without alternate text and crowdsourcers to then provide the appropriate descriptive text for that image. Which is great to have, and would ideally end with the best answers getting incorporated back into the page's source.
The city of Melbourne gave each of its trees an email address to make it easier to report problems with them. People do that. But they also send love letters, correspondence, and other communication with the trees. And occasionally, some tree responds.
Google has a project underway where you can have an algorithm compute whether your house would be good for solar panels on the roof, if you live in certain places.
The United Kingdom has many lines that only run one train, often at inconvenient hours, so as to avoid going through the headache of shutting down the train line. They're not published, and there may not be much for knowledge about them, even in the places they exist.
Pictures of the stage in a theater, from the back, so that you can see all the things that are behind the stage that would otherwise be invisible to the audience, along with a short video of the mechanics of a quick costume change.
A scientific theory about the way that electrons spin may help communications get faster by routing bits based on that spin.
A new pentagon design that will tesselate, which is big math breakthrough and may also be the next floor tile design for a bathroom. or the bottom of one of these swimming pools.
MIT research has found that in the formation of habit, neurons may be trying to optimize cost and reward, rather than just seeking reward at any cost.
Brains are weird, in that people suffering from hydroencephalitis over most of their brains occasionally turn out to function perfectly fine, even a bit over average, despite most of their brain suffering from this condition.
ProPublica published a list of surgeon rankings, based on available data, and answers some questions about why they feel confident in releasing that information.
Concrete mixed with bacteria can self-heal, using supplied calcium and any moisture that sneaks into a crack to generate limestone. That's impressive. Perhaps inspired by a well that covers and eventually suffuses objects with minerals?
Tidbits of computer security to help you make your accounts more difficult to be attacked.
Peer in on the process used to draw maps of Arctic ice, and see how political it can be. Then take a look at various data projections on theories about what is causing climate change, and see that it shouldn't be political, if we are truly wanting to go by the data.
Last for tonight, a device that creates penis-shaped cooked eggs, a baker with a flair for the Gothic, and a bacon-flavored superfood, beautiful pictures of the galaxy from one of the planets inside it (and what NASA is up to as of last month, including sending up Nichelle Nicholls with a telescope - the actress comes back, the telescope stays), advertisements for the hidden gems of Japan reachable only by local train lines, panoramic air shots to see locations as the birds do, the evolution and longevity of the Ferris Wheel, art created from pencil leads, attempting to induce the seeing of colors not normally perceived, more pictures of the universe from those inside it, streets in Portugal covered in flowers, a skyscape of a meteor shower, pictures of the oldest trees on Terra, a large Hieronymus Bosch exhibit, dinosaurs and other giant creatures made of of rice straw,
Also the return of gray wolves to California, a wooden cabinet in a scarab design, pictures of whales and orcas, what old watermelons looked like, along with what thousands of years of breeding has done to our crops, the way animals do or don't recognize the signs of being related to reach other, answers to selected cat questions, tips for communication with your cat, the group names of many different animals, cow curiosity assisting in the rescue of a seal pup, the successful return of royal turtles to the wild, a baby orca caught in mid jump with full extension, dogs showing their best side in a photo booth shoot, adorable cats doing silly things, very cute kittens, very cute otters, snakes that hunt by hanging down from a cave ceiling and waiting for bats to fly into them, corgis at the beach, checking your cat's vitals, recognizing heatstroke in your cat, a fully digitized archive of creature sounds, bear and wolf as friends, pictures captured chronicling the lives of canine companions, plants that look suspiciously like other things, tiny horses chasing humans, polar bears frolicking in flower fields, using the family pet as a stand-in for a baby, so as to get the in-laws of one's back about baby making, cats of the Great War, cats in black and white, abandoned kittens swimming to a fishing boat, confectionary cats fishing for dinner (and other confectionary animals), splashed watercolor painting depicting animals, a sheep that avoided shearing by hiding in a cave for six years,
and a Gojira-type kaiju taking their children to work.
Oh, and some very nice yarn and felt works, if you have the money and the inclination.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-09-12 07:09 pm (UTC)*well, quite like the analogy for adults too :)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-12 07:13 pm (UTC)Also, fixed the one issue I had with the entry, so all the rest should be readable, too.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-13 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-15 12:51 pm (UTC)Banksy's theme park/art exhibition looks creepy; think I'll give it a miss. Hey ho. The article that was linked from that, though, where he clears up that many people think visual art isn't good enough if it's easy to understand, was enlightening. I'm with him on this one: there's too much going on in the real world to put stock in abstract art as statement pieces.
Localization of stories - ugh, I find it in books all the time, much to my annoyance. One book I read for book club, set in Las Vegas, Nevada, had the characters "putting the kettle on" in the middle of the summer. Drove me up a wall. Naturally, my fellow readers didn't cotton on that anything was amiss. I was ranting: "They're in the DESERT! In the middle of the SUMMER! Even if they were going to have a cup of tea, this is America; they don't 'put the kettle on'!"
I'm seriously at the point where I can't tell whether it's that tea drinking has taken off in a massively big way in the US, or it's just the localization of stories. I suppose changing the vegetables the kid feared eating to the more stereotypical one for that culture makes sense, and this will only bother us transplants, but it does feed into the larger sense of fake knowledge I keep running across. "Oh yes, I know all about Place X - I've been there on holiday, and I've watched these localized movies from there, so I'm better informed than the natives!"
I shall stop now.
I quite liked the pieces about the telephone. I could've written the first one, and the second one, with the technical information about the voice bands, was fascinating.
The "fairly short set of steps on how to make ideas come into existence" was interesting - I tend to get obssessed about a thing I'm doing, and culture tells me I'm wrong to do it that way, and that I should instead do a bit at a time, so I've always struggled against that impulse, and berated myself for doing it. Perhaps, like with so much else, it's culture that's wrong on this, instead of me.
Talking to strangers ... I remember my friend Erica saying to me, "You and I will talk to anyone!" after one of us had done that, in line for the Royal Garden Party. I found it such an odd observation. Well, yes; why wouldn't anyone talk to anyone else? How else do you find out about all the interesting people around you? I feel like I missed a memo.
And some really interesting photos to end with, as always. Thanks, Silver.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-16 02:41 am (UTC)I can understand needing to localize when translating across cultures, if it truly is a thing that doesn't map well. There's a difference between things that don't map and things that get changed for the comfort of the audience.
The telephone evolution from "sole distance communication method" to "one of many options available in a smart device" is interesting to think about, especially with the problem of the code band not having moved to accommodate the issues that come along with mobility. I guess that's why many of the phones start coming with a second microphone used to collect the background noise so that it can be filtered it in some manner.
I think, when it comes to talking to people you don't know, if your at a shared event, like a convention or concert, the rules are a little more relaxed about bothering people, because of shared interest and different expectations. But things like ordinary queues and public transit am to be the places where conversing is more frowned upon, perhaps because it those places are where a lot of harassing conversations happen?
no subject
Date: 2015-10-26 07:39 am (UTC)Definitely sharing the poet interview with my poet friends. I believe they will have Feelings about it.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-13 03:49 pm (UTC)Loved the library sign for shy teens, that could be very useful and potentially save some lives.
The blind/visually impaired TV show was awesome, I'll be sharing that with people at work tomorrow. It's an eye-opener, no pun intended, working at a BVI school. I knew there were different stages of blindness, but it's amazing to see them in person. We have a requirement that all students carry their cane and practice at it because you never know if their condition is progressive and they could end up totally blind some day.
Behind the Stage and Quick-change: great! Love the Kaiju cartoon!
I think the most important thing about computer security aside from using good passwords is to NEVER reuse passwords, especially for sites that have personal information or credit card info. That's the best way to get a multi-site compromise happening. It doesn't have to be difficult, though it's rarely explained in simple terms.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-14 05:40 pm (UTC)Not reusing passwords is a good idea for avoiding the big breach. Then again, it seems like most attackers are going after the data stores, rather than the individuals now. It's a bigger payoff for the effort.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-14 06:25 pm (UTC)Should have it up in the next couple of days, I'm trying to get Wednesday's homework in tonight since I'll be out of town for a week.