November 14
Exuberance and Irony: Recommendations are Open for the Otherwise Award
The Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree Award) celebrates science fiction, fantasy, and other forms of speculative narrative that expand and explore our understanding of gender. Recommendations are open for the 2024 award - the deadline is November 15. [more inside]
Letters from an American 11-13-24
In this time of madness, Heather Cox Richardson shares wisdom and small seeds of hope* regarding the days to come. "The rift between the pre-2016 leaders of the Republican Party and the MAGA Republicans is still obvious, and Trump’s reliance on Elon Musk and his stated goal of deconstructing the American government could make it wider." [more inside]
Car software patches are over 20% of recalls, study finds
[Ars Technica] Sep 2024 "Software fixes are now responsible for more than 1 in 5 automotive recalls. That's the key finding from a decade's worth of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall data, according to an analysis from the law firm DeMayo Law. While that's a sign of growing inconvenience for drivers, the silver lining is that a software patch is usually a much quicker fix than something requiring hardware replacement."
If we can go out on any high note for 2024, this is a good option
Users are advised to keep humans in the loop
I've been reading about Magentic-One: A Generalist Multi-Agent System for Solving Complex Tasks, [more inside]
Koala intruder in bedroom startles couple getting home from work
Koala intruder in bedroom startles couple getting home from work. Something soft and cuddly on a bed can be a welcome sight if that something is inanimate, like a pillow — but in the early hours of Wednesday morning an Adelaide couple were forced to contend with a friendly, if unexpected, intruder.
Aileen was a bird
My great-aunt went on to earn her master’s degree at Smith College School for Social Work, and then settled in a teaching position in the newly formed Richmond Professional Institute at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. That’s where she briefly mentioned meeting “Anne, a newcomer from Ohio” in 1929. The two would be together for the rest of their lives. from Odd Birds by Shane Mitchell [The Bitter Southerner]
November 13
Who was Grampa Pettibone
'About Sensations', 1948 Aviator film (slyt, 5:30) ((CW warning, sexism)) "In 1943, Lt. Robert Osborn, in collaboration with Commander Seth Warner, created the “sage of safety” character for a column in the BUAER News Letter produced by the Bureau of Aeronautics to address the increasing aircraft mishap rate. Osborn’s illustrations commingled with Warner’s narrative accounts of aircraft accidents." " Case in point: this 1945 Navy training film produced at Warner Bros. Cartoons featuring cartoonist Robert Osborn’s character Grampa Pettibone. I’d never come across anything about this in all my years of research."
'The Grampa Pettibone collection' [more inside]
And ya know getting them out will be a bloody story
Content Warning: Incredibly ugly upcoming U.S. Politics.
Stephen Miller and Donald Trump's public promise for a "bloody story" - plans for sweeping raids and mass deportations of 10 to 20 million people living in America are expected to start when Trump assumes office and begins on day one. [more inside]
returning to earth
“To look at the Earth from space is like a child looking into a mirror and realizing for the first time that the person in the mirror is herself” [ap: Samantha Harvey’s space-station novel ‘Orbital’ (g) wins the Booker Prize for fiction]
Bits of sunshine in the news
That staff of Reasons To Be Cheerful staff sharing interesting news: See what stories caught our attention this week, from a scrappy, solar-powered New York lifestyle to early media literacy lessons in Finland.
10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won
The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation. [more inside]
"Central Casting"
SubTropolis
With a depth of up to 160 feet, the temperature inside the network of tunnels and chambers hovers between 68 and 72 degrees all year round, with humidity sitting at a comfortable 40 percent. Thanks to the miners’ use of an extraction technique called the “room and pillar method,” the enormous underground cavities left behind are supported by 16-foot pillars; the space is open, regular, and, expansive enough to accommodate nearly anything that can fit through its above-ground, drive-in entrance ramps. from Since the ’60s, Ford Has Stored Cars Underground in a Kansas City Cave [Hagerty]
Porygon Was Innocent
90s kids remember when an episode of Pokémon sent hundreds of viewers to the hospital with seizures or convulsions. But there is far more to the story of Pokémon’s banned episode. Writer AJ of Anime Feminist takes a closer look at the investigation of the incident, and its lasting effects on photosensitivity research and accessibility standards.
Schools vs Screens
Phones had become kids’ entire worlds: their classrooms, entertainment and their primary connection to friends and peers. (slMacleans) [more inside]
"No one likes the glue traps"
"He’s pulled strings like that before. And it baffles me, right? Because it really does make zero sense." A sweet, strange, short piece of memoir (note that the title has a NSFW profanity in it) about a workplace, and saving geckos, and a sorting-out of a misunderstanding, and what builds trust.
“Be Positive. If everything kicks off, that's your blood type.”
[CW: strong, bleak/dark/violent humour, profanity] Frankie Boyle's American Autopsy was recorded shortly after the 2016 US election, and includes contributions from guests Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan, Michelle Wolf, Desiree Burch, and (unfortunately) Richard Osman. The show is based around three propositions concerning America, voted on by Americans in the audience. Link originally from a late 2016 post.
Hack of the Day
Some people imbue meaning and sentimental importance to certain objects
He’s an optimist at heart. You’d like him. I, of course, don’t know who you are, dear reader, but I know you’d like my dad, Bob Gruber, because everyone likes Bob Gruber. He can tell a good joke and he loves to tell them. There’s a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln, that I was reminded of, just the other day, from of all things a garbage can: “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” I don’t share Lincoln’s there’s-something-to-like-about-everyone optimism about our fellow men, but my dad does. from How It Went by John Gruber [Daring Fireball]
Federal government invests $28 million in fight to save Maugean skate
Federal government invests $28 million [US $18.25 million] in fight to save Maugean skate.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese heads to Tasmania to announce $28 million to improve water quality in Macquarie Harbour — the last known refuge of the endangered Maugean skate.
November 12
A Narcissist's Prayer. The Trauma Survivor Mantra.
A line
Rhythmical Lines "When he was eighty-five, Wacław Szpakowski wrote a treatise for a lifetime project that no one had known about. Titled “Rhythmical Lines,” it describes a series of labyrinthine geometrical abstractions, each one produced from a single continuous line." [via]
gotta get that good dumpling!
8th dose of Female Fronted Metal 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
Don't know about you, but I had a pretty rough week so I'm indulging myself with Jinjer and Spiritbox, starting with one of the greatest collabs of the current millenium: Spiritbox - Circle With Me ft. Tatiana Shmayluk of Jinjer [more inside]
Mood
My-co-lor-ology
The Mushroom Color Atlas is a resource and reference for everyone curious about mushrooms and the beautiful and subtle colors derived from dyeing with mushrooms. But it is also the start of a journey and a point of departure, introducing you to the kaleidoscopic fungi kingdom and our connection to it. My hope is that through this Atlas everyone will be inspired to learn more about the mycological world, and begin to understand the importance of the networks, connections and symbiotic relationships that live in our forests. Most importantly, understanding our impact on these delicate networks and our role as stewards of the land, bringing positive change to our local environments and our planet. [via The Morning News]
"Never take your accounts department for granted ever again"
Aftermath, the tech and gaming blog founded by webugees from Kotaku, is one year old! In a lengthy post on their site, founders Luke Plunkett, Gita Jackson, Riley McLeod, Nathan Grayson and Chris Person discuss what running their little co-op business is like, and the issues they face in keeping it afloat.
I went away just when you needed me so
"Everlasting Love" is one of two songs to become a Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s* and the only song to become a UK top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. [more inside]
This morning for no obvious reason, I remembered the Fuel Rats.
"I find it reassuring that in a game that is in some ways a libertarian power fantasy (you and your spaceship, go anywhere do whatever you want), and a PvP universe, one of the first things people did was create a volunteer ambulance service."
Over on Mastodon, Dave Anderson walks us through the story of the Fuel Rats, the emergency refueling service of Elite:Dangerous.
For when everything isn't awesome
Mobile Crisis Construction is an Australian initiative to turn rubble back into homes, schools and hospitals in war-torn or disaster-hit countries like Ukraine. Its Lego-like MCC Crisis Blocks "employ simple technology that works with standard brick coursing height and length, and can be laid with unskilled labour due to their interlocking design". They need no mortar and are produced on site with a mobile factory housed in a shipping container, each of which can produce enough bricks for 5-10 homes in a week. The Perth-based charity has been funded by the local Ukrainian community.
Elon Musk's Perfect Disinformation Machine
Hidden changes are warping the already broken ecosystem that determines how many citizens—particularly in America—construct their sense of reality. (slSubstack) [more inside]
"no skips, no shortcuts"
"In his best run, Jammy had become the richest person in the world in eleven years, three months, eleven days, and twenty-three hours (in-game timer)..." "Any Percent" by Andrew Dana Hudson asks: "Imagine you could play a video game that let you live a whole human life in a matter of minutes. What would it mean to 'win' in that game? What would it mean to speedrun?" in an ultimately hopeful "proletarian-themed" science fiction story deliberately published on May Day, 2023 to celebrate International Workers' Day. I pair it with Grace Petrie's energetic song "Fixer Upper" which starts "I woke up from an awful dream / in June of 2016" yet finds a way to lead to "everything you dream is possible / it's waiting to be made .... come grab a spade!" [more inside]
Spies, bikes and smuggled ink: Fighting pollution and the Stasi
...in the Shadow of the Berlin Wall. [BBC] "Named 'Operation Trap', the Stasi's attempted to crush a group fighting for a cleaner environment – and for the right to speak out. The secret police's tactics ranged from interrogations and jail to bizarre mind games. In one incident, informants who managed to infiltrate the environmental movement covertly took coffee from a shared pantry without putting money into the coffee kitty. That plan did not work out. On the contrary: Operation Trap became one of the very rare cases in history in which the Stasi was forced to back down."
An observer that comes much closer to the original friend
Of course, it’s possible that an AI’s thoughts could never stand in for observations made by a human, in which case Wigner’s paradox will continue to haunt us. But if we agree that such an AI could be built, then detailing how such an experiment could be run helps to reveal something fundamental about the universe. It clarifies how we can determine who or what really counts as an observer and whether an observation collapses a superposition. It might even suggest that outcomes of measurements are relative to individual observers—and that there’s no absolute fact of the matter about the world we live in. from Can AI Save Schrödinger’s Cat? [Scientific American]
November 11
Why this couple built their house out of hemp
"It seemed too good to be true": Why this couple built their house out of hemp. Having never built a house before, Dan decided his first would be his dream home — a sustainable, off-grid hemp house in Tasmania, rendered with a horse poo mix and with an outdoor composting toilet.
The Long Road to End Tuberculosis
Free Ebooks for Getting Free (Not the Free Thread)
Haymarket Books is offering 10 free ebooks on a range of topics relating to anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist thought and action, alongside an 80% off sale, making all of their other ebooks only $2 each. The free bundle features Angela Davis and Rebecca Solnit, along with others (list in the readmore). While the sale ends on November 15th, the free ebooks should be available until November 22nd. [more inside]
Deflock the Surveillance State
DeFlock is a crowd-sourced map of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) around the world. Want to post an ALPR in your town? Logon to Open Street Map and follow these handy instructions! (via 404 Media)
Globally great guitar
Forget about Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, Page and Van Halen; we want to highlight the guitarists who have made an impact outside of the usual rock’n’roll axis of axes. It’s a list full of invention, customs passed down through generations and a focus on rhythm as much as volume. These are the musicians who defined soukous, bossa nova and Touareg desert blues, who soundtracked revolutions and revelations, and made their traditions that little more recognisable to a global audience. These are our guitar heroes... from 50 Global Guitar Greats [Songlines]
Ella Jenkins, Chicago's first lady of children's music, dies at 100
“I got interested in percussion — tapping on tin cans, boxes, knees. I sang. I whistled. Though, `Girls don’t whistle,’ my mother told me.” Recognized with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 2004, she was known by generations of children for her folk songs, featuring simple tunes and call and response lyrics.
Among her many honors, she is a featured artist in the Smithsonian Folkways collection.
A forthcoming biography entitled This Is Rhythm
Ella Jenkins, Children’s Music, and the Long Civil Rights Movement will come out in April.
There is also a documentary in the works.
Check Out the Stunning New Images of Jupiter From NASA’s Juno Spacecraft
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has just released stunning images of Jupiter, captured during its 66th flyby of the largest and oldest planet in our solar system. The Juno mission has been studying the Jovian system—Jupiter, along with its rings and many moons—to learn about the giant planet’s formation and evolution with the hope that it might shed light on the development of the entire solar system, per a NASA statement. The solar-powered spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August 2011 and reached Jupiter in July 2016.
A new single-take video from Jungle
What is your happy place?
Everybody needs a happy place. What's yours? What's a place you can visit or even just think about that gives you a sense of calm and relaxation? If yours is the semi-regular #freethread on MeFi, boy do I have good news for you... You are there.
"Interior Chinatown" on Hulu, Nov. 19
"Just a month before its debut on Hulu, the first trailer for Interior Chinatown has been released. Based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Charles Yu, who won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, the series will follow Silicon Valley’s Jimmy O. Yang as Willis Wu, who accidentally witnesses a crime and starts to discover family secrets and Chinatown's criminal underground." [more inside]
Which Contemporary Film Snob Director Are You? a handy flowchart
It's dark, it's late, you're drunk, and you're ready to admit to MetaFilter that you're really a famous cult filmmaker. But if you're not sure, follow this handy flowchart by Adam Fromm: Which Contemporary Film Snob Director Are You? It's funny, it's clever, it's easy to navigate, it's a giant JPG image. [more inside]
Anti-Asian Structural Violence, an Example
Charlet Takahashi Chung, voice actress for Overwatch and other video games as well as films, documents and recounts (TW: trauma, PTSD, racism, misogyny, classism) in a series of Instagram posts her recent harrowing ordeal aboard a 4+hour long, Canada-U.S. flight on WestJet Airlines, where in the first-class cabin she was subjected to implicit racism and misogyny perpetrated by its entire flight crew and the instigating white passengers seated behind her; WestJet has remained practically silent. Chung used her phone to capture a Kafkaesque nightmare of distributed white supremacy, and she is making these recordings, written statement, and debriefing public to show the extraordinarily personal consequences of macro- and micro-aggressions. [more inside]
Microscope Museum
The Microscope Museum is an on-line 'collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments' (also available in Portuguese).
Something odd has happened with American memory
“Disinhibition” is a word that has recently migrated from the lexicon of psychology into that of American politics. It refers to a condition in which people become increasingly unable to regulate the expression of their impulses and urges, and this year it very obviously applied to Trump’s increasingly surreal, vituperative, and lurid rhetoric. But it now must also apply to the institutions of American government: with allies on the Supreme Court and with control over the Senate and (most probably at the time of writing) the House of Representatives, Trump will have no one to regulate his urges. from Letting It All Hang Out by Fintan O'Toole [The New York Review; ungated]
November 10
Hundreds of modified trees described as national treasure
Hundreds of modified trees on outback property in outback New South Wales described as a national treasure. You may have heard of scar trees, but how about trees-in-trees? These different types of modified trees tell a story about Indigenous culture, if you know how to read them. [more inside]