A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Sep 24 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Bees Plan Routes to Minimize Travel Distance

Bees Plan Routes to Minimize Travel Distance

As part of our continuing coverage of bees, I’d like to bring to your attention some research by folks at Queen Mary, University of London, as summarized by Virginia Morell for ScienceNOW:

Bumblebees foraging in flowers for nectar are like salesmen traveling between towns: Both seek the optimal route to minimize their travel costs. Mathematicians call this the “traveling salesman problem,” in which scientists try to calculate the shortest possible route given a theoretical arrangement of cities. Bumblebees, however, take the brute-force approach: For them, it’s simply a matter of experience, plus trial and error, scientists report in the current issue of PLoS Biology. The study, the first to track the movements of bumblebees in the field, also suggests that bumblebees aren’t using cognitive maps—mental recreations of their environments—as some scientists have suggested, but rather are learning and remembering the distances and directions that need to be flown to find their way from nest to field to home again.

So this isn’t some major natural algorithmic discovery or, as Wired put it, “BEES SOLVE TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM” (fuck Wired), but it’s a pretty cool find that bees will in some way remember distances and plan routes to minimize travel.

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Sep 23 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Japanese Collectors Face a Record Shortage of Obscure Music

Japanese Collectors Face a Record Shortage of Obscure Music

Wonderful story about Japanese music collectors in The Wall Street Journal by Neil Shah:

For decades, Japan’s record shops have scoured the globe for records to feed the nation’s collectors. Employees of Japanese retailer Disk Union once spent $20,000 in a day at Nashville’s The Great Escape record store hunting for tunes including ones treasured by Japan’s soft-rock and easy-listening fans. With U.S. record stores closing, this focus on obscure music is making supply difficult to find—and fueling secretive competition.

…

Japan has surpassed the U.S. as the biggest seller of CDs, vinyl and cassette tapes, with 25.4% of global sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan. Tower Records Japan Inc.—which survived its U.S. parent’s closing in 2006—opens its 87th store this month.

…

Much of what the Japanese want goes for higher prices. Collectible artists in Japan include female pop singers like Patti Page, whose “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window” was a 1950s hit, and 1980s teen idol Debbie Gibson. A “Doggie” record-single goes for $5 in the U.S. and $30 in Japan, while Ms. Gibson’s LPs can fetch $200 on eBay. The Japanese “like sugary sweet pop,” collector Alec Palao says.

Japan is apparently all about the cheap crap that none of us care about any more.

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Sep 22 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea’s Music Video Sensation

Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea’s Music Video Sensation

Max Fisher for The Atlantic:

Gangnam is a tony Seoul neighborhood, and Park’s “Gangnam Style” video lampoons its self-importance and ostentatious wealth, with Psy playing a clownish caricature of a Gangnam man. That alone makes it practically operatic compared to most K-Pop. But I spoke with two regular observers of Korean culture to find out what I was missing, and it turns out that the video is rich with subtle references that, along with the song itself, suggest a subtext with a surprisingly subversive message about class and wealth in contemporary South Korean society. That message would be awfully mild by American standards — this is no “Born in the U.S.A.” — but South Korea is a very different place, and it’s a big deal that even this gentle social satire is breaking records on Korean pop charts long dominated by cotton candy.

My gut reaction to this piece was that perhaps it was a bit of overanalysis of a funny music video.

It’s difficult to imagine that much of this could be apparent to non-Koreans, which [Jea] Kim told me is why she decided to write it up on her blog. “I thought people outside Korea might take it just as another funny music video. So I wanted to explain what’s behind [it] and the song.”

Oh. Well then.

Check the piece.

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Sep 21 2012
Mark Twain, probably

The Journeyman Project series rules, as most people should be aware. This is a 1992 preview of the first game in the series.

I kind of get giddy whenever I see the “This presentation was created using MacroMind Director” message anywhere. BLAST FROM THE PAST

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Sep 20 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Jesus’ Wife Mentioned on Fourth-Century Papyrus Fragment

Jesus’ Wife Mentioned on Fourth-Century Papyrus Fragment

Elizabeth Lopatto, Bloomberg:

A scrap of papyrus dated to the fourth century has written on it in the ancient Coptic language, “Jesus said to them, my wife,” reopening the debate about whether Jesus was married, as some early Christians believed.

Neat. I found this part pretty fascinating too:

“One of the things we do know is that very rarely in ancient literature was the marital status of men discussed,” [Professor Karen] King said in a conference call with reporters. “Silence in marital status is normal.”

Only women were identified in terms of family relationships, as someone’s sister, mother, or wife, King said. The question of whether Jesus married came up later when people wanted to use him as a model for their lives, she said.

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Sep 19 2012
Mark Twain, probably

#MuslimRage: How a Cynical Social-Media Play Became an Awesome Meme

#MuslimRage: How a Cynical Social-Media Play Became an Awesome Meme

Really good analysis of NewsWeek’s #MuslimRage debacle by Megan Garber for The Atlantic:

@Newsweek: COVER STORY: Ayaan Hirsi Ali on how she survived Muslim rage—and how we can end it

@Newsweek: Want to discuss our latest cover? Let’s hear it with the hashtag: #MuslimRage.

The tagged reactions to Newsweek’s proposal have been … mixed. Some tweets are funny. Some are satirical. Some are cruel. But they are pretty much united in their rejection of Newsweek’s premise that “Muslim rage” is something to be talked about, under the magazine’s brand, on Twitter. Which is also to say: People rejected glibness. They rejected cynicism. They rejected reductive branding. And they did so, specifically, by reappropriating the hashtag Newsweek had proposed. They treated #muslimrage not in the way Newsweek had framed it, but instead as exactly what it was: a joke.

… Newsweek underestimated both its audience and, with them, itself. While it may still be true that a good magazine — just as a good newspaper — is a nation talking to itself, the standards for that conversation have risen considerably since people have been able to talk to each other on their own. Conversation can no longer exist for conversation’s sake alone — which is also to say that people understand, almost intuitively, the difference between being inspired and being trolled.

Or, as Colin put it:

Colin:
Turns out people are really good at recognizing bald-faced bullshit.
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Sep 18 2012
Mark Twain, probably

This Carol of the Bells medley was preformed at the Christmas Oranges Benefit Concert 12/8/2008. The Creative Stylings of Steven Sharp Nelson & Marshall McDonald join forces with two powerhouse musicians; Clayton McDonald, and Peter Steenblik

Colin:
oh god
Colin:
I can’t believe I’m still watching this ahahahaha
‘Ili:
strangely transfixing
Colin:
I think it’s because I honestly can’t tell how choreographed this is
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Sep 17 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Invasion orders found wrapped around cigars in field led to bloodiest day in U.S. history

Invasion orders found wrapped around cigars in field led to bloodiest day in U.S. history

Christopher Sullivan, AP:

… Gen. Robert E. Lee’s secret Special Orders No. 191, detailing the Southern commander’s audacious plans for an invasion of enemy territory that would propel the Confederates to victory. Carelessly left behind as Lee’s army marched north, [a] copy was spotted in a field by the Indianans, and Lee’s name jumped out as Mitchell and Bloss read it.

When they passed their stunning find up the chain of command, Lee’s counterpart, the famously cautious Union Gen. George McClellan, exclaimed, “Now I know what to do!”

Four days later came the cataclysmic clash along the Antietam near Sharpsburg — what James McPherson, the eminent Civil War historian, has called “arguably … THE event of the war.”

The orders were found wrapped around a few cigars in a farm field. History is totally weird sometimes.

NBC News’s PhotoBlog posted images of the orders and a bunch of neato historical photos.

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Sep 16 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Q&A: Author Michael Chabon on the Vinyl Soul of ‘Telegraph Avenue’

Q&A: Author Michael Chabon on the Vinyl Soul of ‘Telegraph Avenue’

Michael Chabon’s new book, Telegraph Avenue, came out last week. He’s a pretty cool guy and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

James Sullivan of Rolling Stone conducted a short Q&A with Chabon about promotion, inspiration, and this:

I have a turntable within an arm’s reach in my office, but I find myself resorting to the ease of clicking on iTunes. It’s a pain in the neck to flip the album every 20 minutes.

Well, if you look at it that way, yes. But dude, let me tell you, you need to get up every 20 minutes. And sitting [at a computer] is bad for your hands, your wrists and your arms, and bad for your circulation. And now they’re starting to say people who spend their day sitting in a chair may live less long. At this point it has become a habit for me. The record ends and I get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, stretch a little bit. Then I flip the record over or put a new one on. I incorporated it into my routine. Sometimes the writing is going really well, and I sit there a little while longer, and then at some point I notice the silence and I get up.

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Sep 15 2012
Mark Twain, probably

How to Boil Water without Bubbles

How to Boil Water without Bubbles

Katharine Sanderson in Nature magazine:

One trick to test whether a frying pan is hot enough is to sprinkle water on it. If the surface is sufficiently above the boiling point of water, droplets will skip across the pan. Those jittery beads of water are held up from the hot pan by a cushion of steam. The vapour cushion collapses as the surface falls below the ‘Leidenfrost temperature’, causing furious bubbling and spitting when the water droplet hits the surface and boils explosively.

The Leidenfrost effect lies behind the discovery, published today in Nature, that water can be made to boil without any bubbling if a surface is specially treated so that the vapour cushion does not break down. The key is to make the surface very water-repellent, according to Ivan Vakarelski, an engineer at the Clean Combustion Research Center at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, and his colleagues. The effect might be used to carefully control how metals are cooled and heated, or to reduce drag on ships.

Finally! Every time I put on a pot of water, I get bugged the hell out by all those bubbles. It’d be pretty neato if the pot were perfectly serene, without any of that pesky indication of the water’s temperature.

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