Here's the thing.

explore-blog: J. K. Rowling’s hand-drawn spreadsheet for Harry...

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:51:12 -0400

J. K. Rowling’s hand-drawn spreadsheet for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

"You mean the generation that paid three times as much for college to enter a job market with triple..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:32:00 -0400

“You mean the generation that paid three times as much for college to enter a job market with triple the unemployment isn’t interested in purchasing the assets of the generation who just blew an enormous housing bubble and kept it from popping through quantitative easing and out-and-out federal support? Curious.”

- When comments are better than the article, Atlantic edition (“The Cheapest Generation: Why Millennials arent’ buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy”) via kthread

Pretty much. Also housing is still a bubble, and rational economic actors don’t buy houses at grossly inflated prices.

prettyclever: Myou Ho Lee

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:26:54 -0400

prettyclever:

Myou Ho Lee

expose-the-light: Acoustic Levitation At the U.S. Department of...

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:17:41 -0400

expose-the-light:

Acoustic Levitation

At the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have been experimenting with sound waves and pharmaceutical solutions, levitating soluble drops between two speakers facing each other. While their research has produced some visually fascinating results, it has also led to the discovery of a far more effective method for creating amorphous drugs, which happen to be the more desirable of two forms that pharmaceutical drugs can take.Watch Video Here.

GIFs by Science-llama

notational: staceythinx: Aerial views of rice fields...

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:27:25 -0400

notational:

staceythinx:

Aerial views of rice fields in Indonesia (Makassar, Sulawesi) from peace-on-earth.org

Aerial views are certainly some of the most beautiful Images we create as humans these days.

kenyatta: Shipping containers serve as homes for Shanghai...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:44:29 -0400

kenyatta:

Shipping containers serve as homes for Shanghai families

The containers, which house different families, were set up by a landlord who charges a rent of 500 yuan (£55) per month for each container.

Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters

Say hello to our Snow Crash future present.

confusababel: LITTLE PEOPLE STREET ART

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:31:10 -0400

confusababel:

LITTLE PEOPLE STREET ART

Wikipedia’s Sexism Toward Female Novelists

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:25:00 -0400

Wikipedia’s Sexism Toward Female Novelists :

kenyatta:

ericmortensen:

It appears that gradually, over time, editors have begun the process of moving women, one by one, alphabetically, from the “American Novelists” category to the “American Women Novelists” subcategory. So far, female authors whose last names begin with A or B have been most affected, although many others have, too.

This isn’t a Wikipedia problem. It’s an everything problem. Women are always being filed away as “other”. There are binders full of them.

The good news is that Wikipedia is relatively easy to fix. Keep an eye out for this nonsense. If you see something, say something. Or just edit the damn wiki and fix it yourself.

And then move back over to the everything problem.

As far as I can tell, this is not actually happening. In the last month a great many American women from the List of Women Writers have been added to the list of American writers. But that’s different. Adding != subtracting.

Update: I missed the “category” part. I wasn’t reading closely. But the Times is still absurdly tone deaf. There does appear to be a move to break up the monolithic “American Novelists” category. Someone has also started a American Chicano novelists sub-category. Someone proposed a general “ethnic” category, but it doesn’t look like that went anywhere. There is also now an American male novelists category. I’m guessing that is new. Wikipedia reflects us, and it is handy to have a reminder from time to time that for a lot of us, heterosexual white men are the norm. Anyone else is an exception. I don’t see a “American gay novelists” sub-category, though “gay novelists” curiously redirects to “gay novels.” Not the same thing.

Anyway. I’m a little embarrassed for Fillipacchi, and reminded that a whole lot of people still don’t understand about anarchy, community and process. Or the internet.

joehillsthrills via Kenyatta. “It is 2011 and you...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:03:53 -0400

joehillsthrills via Kenyatta.

“It is 2011 and you don’t think there’s a black kid who lives with his aunt in Queens who likes science? Who takes photography?” — Donald Glover on comments he received during his campaign to be the next Spider-Man (Video)

kenyatta: Sunil’s friends and family made a video pleading for...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:33:09 -0400

kenyatta:

Sunil’s friends and family made a video pleading for him to come home 11 days ago. (by S Tripathi)

I think this story is going to mess with quite a few peoples’ ideas of what “good and evil” even mean.

And “normal”.

via alexkthegreater.

In outer space, if you don’t have enough hands you can...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:38:06 -0400

In outer space, if you don’t have enough hands you can just set your microphone down and it won’t really go anywhere for a bit.

prostheticknowledge: bit.code Mechanical installation from 2009...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:38:43 -0400

prostheticknowledge:

bit.code

Mechanical installation from 2009 is a physical 1-bit glitch display - video embedded below:

BIT.CODE plays with the re-encoding of information and the recognizability of signs. It works with the infinite possibilities for combination of a finite number of bits, the smallest units of information.
The bits appear as black and white elements on the individual segments of the string. Each string is coded with the same bit pattern, which is reminiscent of Morse code. If the strings are moved in parallel, words seemingly appear (for a certain period of time) from ‘out of nowhere’ and disappear again. The perceived information causes a short opportunity for pause, a moment of serenity, of clarity – before the incessant flow of constellations, motions and changes starts anew.

Link

thirstypirata: abluegirl: Living Wall These vegetated...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:50:34 -0400

thirstypirata:

abluegirl:

Living Wall

These vegetated surfaces don’t just look pretty. They have other benefits as well, including cooling city blocks, reducing loud noises, and improving a building’s energy efficiency.What’s more, a recent modeling study shows that green walls can potentially reduce large amounts of air pollution in what’s called a “street canyon,” or the corridor between tall buildings.

For the study, Thomas Pugh, a biogeochemist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, and his colleagues created a computer model of a green wall with generic vegetation in a Western European city. Then they recorded chemical reactions based on a variety of factors, such as wind speed and building placement.

The simulation revealed a clear pattern: A green wall in a street canyon trapped or absorbed large amounts of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter—both pollutants harmful to people, said Pugh. Compared with reducing emissions from cars, little attention has been focused on how to trap or take up more of the pollutants, added Pugh, whose study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

That’s why the green-wall study is “putting forward an alternative solution that might allow [governments] to improve air quality in these problem hot spots,” he said.Compared with reducing emissions from cars, little attention has been focused on how to trap or take up more of the pollutants, added Pugh, whose study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

That’s why the green-wall study is “putting forward an alternative solution that might allow [governments] to improve air quality in these problem hot spots,” he said.

Full Gallery

want

Progress. But for how long?

landscapearchitecture: Tokyo’s subway system is arguably one of...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:54:49 -0400

landscapearchitecture:

Tokyo’s subway system is arguably one of the most complex in the world. The map itself can be an immediate turn-off for any unfamiliarized straphangar. But exactly how do all these lines run underground, overlapping as they carry hundreds of thousands of passengers each day?

Tokyo University graduate student Takatsugu Kuriyama decided to answer that question be recreating an accurate three-dimensional model of Tokyo’s lifeline by using multi-colored tubes strung with wire. Different color liquids pulsate throughout all 18 lines, creating a staggering picture of what goes on below the streets of Tokyo every day.

"The results from the first 12 months are striking. Even with only half of the 54 uniformed patrol..."

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:27:00 -0400

“

The results from the first 12 months are striking. Even with only half of the 54 uniformed patrol officers wearing cameras at any given time, the department over all had an 88 percent decline in the number of complaints filed against officers, compared with the 12 months before the study, to 3 from 24.

Rialto’s police officers also used force nearly 60 percent less often — in 25 instances, compared with 61. When force was used, it was twice as likely to have been applied by the officers who weren’t wearing cameras during that shift, the study found. And, lest skeptics think that the officers with cameras are selective about which encounters they record, Mr. Farrar noted that those officers who apply force while wearing a camera have always captured the incident on video.

”

- Wearable Video Cameras, for Police Officers - NYTimes.com (via iamdanw)

I vaguely recall from my Sociology of Work class that changing the lighting in a factory can improve work speeds, until workers adjust to the change and slow back down. Also, most diets work right up until the dieter figures out just what they can still snack on. So yes, shaking things up creates change, but shaken things eventually settle. How do we change the culture of a police force so that they don’t feel fundamentally entitled to beat the crap out of anyone who insults them? (And is that entitlement at all related to feeling entitled to park wherever you please or run through red lights that happen to be inconvenient?)

Fosterhood in NYC: The Current Daycare and Foster Stipend Situation

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:08:07 -0400

Fosterhood in NYC: The Current Daycare and Foster Stipend Situation:

fosterhood:

Last I reported, Sandy had attended Jacket’s previous daycare only two days for two hours each. Both times Asia had to pick her up because daycare staff was afraid she was going to choke from crying so hard. I haven’t taken Sandy back. I believe that I could successfully transition her but not…

Another rundown of the finances of foster care. They don’t add up. It is crazy.

"Robert Edwards had been on the popular dating site OKCupid.com for about six months when the..."

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:12:21 -0400

“

Robert Edwards had been on the popular dating site OKCupid.com for about six months when the administrators asked him to be a community moderator. “They wrote and said I am a responsible user, whatever that means,” he recalled, admitting that at first he was befuddled. Though fairly active on the site, Edwards, a medical professional who lives in the Mission District, had remained a confirmed bachelor.

But curiosity drove him to click the “moderation” button, and within minutes he was reading people’s messages to each other and perusing profiles flagged for possible terms of service violations.

Online love-seekers might not be aware of it, but OKCupid has deputized random strangers to gain access to intimate conversations between others — correspondence that many users, as well as Internet privacy experts, assumed to be private.

”

- Testing Online Privacy Limits, OKCupid Lets Strangers Read Intimate Messages | San Francisco Public Press (via new-aesthetic)

Wow. Also, nice job San Francisco Public Press. Like work like this? Join SF Public Press and support work like this.

joelzimmer: Falling DUMBO, Brooklyn

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:09:08 -0400

joelzimmer:

Falling

DUMBO, Brooklyn

nattyrootlivin: soulbrotherv2: African brilliance from...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 20:52:37 -0400

nattyrootlivin:

soulbrotherv2:

African brilliance from Cameroon.

24-year-old Arthur Zang, a Cameroonian engineer, invented the Cardiopad. The Cardiopad is a portable, touch screen device that enables heart examinations such as the electrocardiogram to be performed at remote locations while results of the test, are transferred wirelessly to specialists who can interpret them.

Arthur Zang also became a finalist in the 2012 CPS Distinguished Award for the Sciences.

Image and commentary via African Heritage City.

But you’ll never hear about him on CNN, MSNBC or FOX.

Now, if Arthur Zang where a young MIT student, you would hear all about him on CNN, MSNBC and Fox.

pheezy: ——-

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:04:30 -0400

pheezy:

——-