Interesting Things

It is always October 19th.

As you know, October 19th is a state of mind and you must keep it in your heart as well as your head.

Via The Atlantic Wire

From the "You Can't Choose Family File":
Kim Jong-Un has a nephew who is...surprisingly forthright. I was going to snark about this but...it is worth the time to be experienced.

Food & Beer:
It is no secret that I like beer and food. In fact, even though I was recovering from the colonization by a distant cousin, I made myself a lovely meal last night and had something great to drink with it. The food was baked chicken over a rosemary and balsamic tossed fettuccine and the beer I had was a Brooklyn Brewery Local 2.

Selectism had a post about wandering through the Great American Beer Festival. It did make me want to try the Ghost Dog Extra Pale Ale from Trinity Brewhouse (specifically because it is not listed on the website for the Trinity Brewhouse and the only reference to it seems to be the post on Selectism). As a nice followup to something like the Great American Beer Festival, Serious Eats has a wonderful slide show about the 20 Recipes to Help Cure a Hangover.(The breakfast Banh Mi has me salivating and reminding me that I need to motivate to go get some breakfast.)

Do you have someone in your life that likes art? Architecture? Puzzles? All three? Yeah, you need to get them the Pop-Out Guggenheim Museum Puzzle.(Coolhunting)

The Dark Internet
The Atlantic has a piece about the actual nature of the internet and the metrics used to measure popularity.
They conveniently offer a tl;dr version of their argument:

tl;dr version
1. The sharing you see on sites like Facebook and Twitter is the tip of the 'social' iceberg. We are impressed by its scale because it's easy to measure.

2. But most sharing is done via dark social means like email and IM that are difficult to measure.

3. According to new data on many media sites, 69% of social referrals came from dark social. 20% came from Facebook.

4. Facebook and Twitter do shift the paradigm from private sharing to public publishing. They structure, archive, and monetize your publications.

Via the Awl.

Union College & Philip Schuyler

Via the Schuyler Mansion Facebook Page:




Philip Schuyler, an Albany native, stayed true to his word. Despite growing political pressure on him to support an Albany committee’s competing application for a charter to establish a northern college in his home city, he remained committed to the citizens of Schenectady. In a letter to the Albany committee in response to their plea Schuyler writes, “ I am bound by every consideration which ought to influence a moral mind to support the application of our brothers of Schenectady…”

On February 1795 the Regents met again to consider the latest Schenectady petition and voted in favor of the long desired Union College charter, the first the N.Y. State Board of Regents had ever granted. Philip Schuyler continued to demonstrate his support for the new college not only through personal financial contributions. In his capacity as state senator, Schuyler proposed a legislative provision to pay to the trustees of Union College 1,500 pounds to be applied to the purchase of teaching apparatus and books.

In accordance with its charter Union College became the first non-sectarian college in the country as intended by its founders. Historians surmise that the name Union was given to the college because it was brought into being by a movement supported by all classes and all religious sects within the community.

Completely Trippy

Full disclosure: I have had a fever for the better part of thirty six hours now, and I do not know if this is wonderful, insane, terrifying or a combination of the three.

All I know is that there is a dog faced girl, a ballistic missile with a brain, and a quote from Nietzsche.

True Vulture

From the original post: "The Museum of Contemporary Arts Los Angeles has just launched MOCAtv to house original art video content. Their first video features animator Galen Pehrson teaming up with Death Grips (with some voice and sounds from Jena Malone)."

Via Boooooom!

Interesting Things

Yes, the Yankees lost. I am not a Yankees hater, in the least, but...I thought that the incredible pissiness of both sides last night was awesome. The Yankees fans with the "A least we got here, losers" and everyone else with the joy in seeing the mighty fall. One would expect Yankees fan to be better about this, to understand that this is jealousy, however, with certain noticeable exceptions, Yankees fans have a tendency to be humorless. (I said I was not a Yankees hater, I can hate on the fans all I want.)

Image from NY Post via The Daily Beast

One of the reasons that I enjoy Wednesdays so much is because I can listen to the Slate Culture Gabfest, and one of the big reasons for that is the crush that I have on Dana Stevens. Well, this week, you can suggest what classic movie she is going to review next. I voted for Robocop but...the choice is yours.

From the Why Does This Matter File: Britney Spears may have smoked meth at some point in the past. (Gawker)

More hatred for cell phone in restaurants...this time...it is people taking pictures. (See the end for the Emily Post thing) However, the reason this is interesting is the connection to Albany. See the story from the AP.

Because I cannot go a day without something zombie related: Uncrate has a list of Essentials for Zombie Hunters...and remember, when the motorcycle is not the expensive thing on the list, you may be in trouble.

Home Designing has "A Hipster Loft" and...I am trying to figure out what makes it so...hipstery. I like it a lot and would happily live there. Opinions?

Movie Projects That No One Wants: A Live Action Family Circus.

Interesting Things

From the BBC: 30 Of Your Britishisms Used By Americans
Favorite: "Wonky, adj. Shaky or unsteady."
Yeah, because that is totally what people mean by wonky.

While Gawker, and the NY Times, buried the BlackBerry yesterday, The Atlantic is here to sing the praises of the device manufacturer.

Speaking of handsets that deserve to have their praises sung, David Galbraith writes in Gizmodo about the design philosophy of Apple, as well as the future of the brand.

And one more about software/hardware companies, with...design issues: Oracle Broke Their Boat. (Deadspin)

I have decided on my makeup for Halloween. (Boing Boing)

File Under Florida is Weird or "I'll Have What She's Having": FL Couple Refused to Stop Having Sex at a Restaurant. (Eater)

Via Salon: When We All Shaved Our Heads. There are lice issues involved. It really is not that big a deal. The shaving of the head, not the lice. I assume that lice is a very big deal.

Which is why they probably need this: A Drug That Removes Bad Memories While You Sleep(Popular Science)
Anyone else think of this?

The Weird Birth of the Moon (io9)

Interesting Things

I am willing to bet that you, before last night, had not given that much processing power over to binders since you were in the third grade and were worried about which Trapper Keeper would look coolest.*

Yes, there was a debate last night, and "Binders" won it (Atlantic Wire).

From The New Yorker: Mitt Romney's Binders and the Missing Women

Via Binders Full of Women
The Daily Beast: Mitt Romney's "Binders Full of Women" Comment Sets the Internet Ablaze
I did have two quips that I was proud of:
1) Obama just said "My hometown of Nairobi..." but he pronounced it "she-cah-go". Interesting.
2) Romney's Pension: Binders full of women.

In other news:
There is a newly discovered planet! 4.7 Light Years Away! Earth-like! (io9) (which, according the WikiAnswers** would take about 15 years to reach.) Discover's Bad Astronomy has a post that has more science...if you are into that sort of thing.

Bad Astronomy also had this:

Gawker helps out with a Loser's Guide to Owning a BlackBerry in 2012. This is presented without comment.

Trolling and Reddit: Slate's Culture Gabfest has a segment with Adrian Chen this week. Chen was the journalist for Gawker who "doxxed" one of the famous on the internet members of Reddit. It is an interesting listen.

*When you were younger, wasn't getting a Trapper Keeper exciting? Then it stopped being exciting and became a chore. This was around 6th grade for me, but I may be misremembering.

**I have no clue regarding the veracity of this claim. However, I am man enough to admit, after three beers or so, I will quote this as Gospel.

Interesting Things

Internet Trolls
Full Disclosure, I am not a huge fan of Reddit. I do not know why I have never used it as a resource, just that I never have. That is part of why I find this story fascinating.

So, there was this guy...he was the ultimate troll on a site well known for trolling. Gawker figured out who he was and outed him. He was then fired. The Atlantic then published a long form guide to understanding internet trolls, specifically regarding the outed douchebag.

Speaking of Trolling
Slate is definitely trolling with the headline "What do pandas taste like?". You know that you want to know what they taste like and you also have recipes that you want to adapt for panda as the protein.

The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead season three premiere set the record for basic cable viewing. (Vulture)

Speaking of the apocalypse...
As it is the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there have been some amazing posts showing up...including this one: "We Will All Fry" Never Seen Notes from the Cuban Missle Crisis. (The New Yorker)

Randomness
Dr. Seuss' Malaria Pamphlet.(Flavorwire)
Bon Iver on Austin City Limits (Pretty Much Amazing)
Beautiful but Complicated Cufflinks (Uncrate)

Just a gorgeous home in Seattle's Capitol Hill. (Contemporist)
And Stephen Colbert weighed in on the American Family Association and their symbolic protest. (Mediaite)

And I see old movies...

Last week, I took the time to see two old movies presented in new ways...

On Thursday, I saw Solaris at EMPAC.

Solaris Travel Poster via io9.com

Seeing the classic Solaris on the big screen is something that anyone who enjoys film should most definitely do.  It is worth it for the vistas and, more importantly, for seeing the film in almost the same way that the director intended. It may be crass to say that movies belong in theaters, but it is true.  There was something different, for me at least, about having to move my head to see the entirety of the screen.

Plus, EMPAC is such a lovely space for seeing films like this

On Friday, I saw Nosferatu at the Sanctuary for Independent Media.

Now, I am not a fan of this film.  As you probably know, I prefer my living dead ravenous for brains but...it was the music that set this apart.  The brilliant scoring by the Andrew Alden Ensemble gave this film the gravity that it had been lacking when I had watched it before.  There were elements to the score that reminded me, in a very positive sense, of John Murphy's "In the House - In a Heartbeat".

Here is a brief video I took just so you can hear a snippet of the score.

Interesting Things

A Man Jumped From Space

And Gawker found a way to make it seem...tawdry
However, after the jump, io9.com had a good piece on the post jump press conference.

The Walking Dead Returns
Everyone's favorite zombie apocalypse series returned last night for the third season premiere. Both io9 (which has given me my new favorite description of Lori: "Everything I Do Is A Poor Decision" Lori and The Atlantic offer recaps.
Celebuzz does have the infographic most made of win when it comes to season three...

How much do you tip?
Last week, The Billfold had a piece on the personal economics of tipping (which...well...I had some issues with, but that it just me...and probably a lot of misplaced guilt.) entitled On Leaving Too Much. Apparently, I was not the only person who had issues with the piece and Gawker offered The Final Word on Tipping as a retort. But it did get me thinking...how much do you tip? Are you a dollar per drink person? How much does the young person who gets your coffee for you get?

Randomness

Without comment: Anti-bullying initiative promotes homosexual agenda. (Gawker)

If your data provider thinks that you are being bad, they will take away your ability to play in the sandbox until you sit in time-out, or...if you are accused of copyright infringement, you may be asked to take a user education class in order to have access to the full series of tubes restored. (Boing Boing)

And this made me giggle: Tom Brady (who plays football for some organization based in the general New England area...is made a victim of a fairly tired meme. (Deadspin)

The Kennedy News for Monday: Questions about RFK's Papers and the Cuban Missile Crisis (Slate) and Sotheby's is going to auction off the letters of Robert McNamara, including correspondence with the former First Lady. (The Daily Beast)

And I need to start paying better attention to things...
While I had trouble sleeping over the weekend, I caught up with podcasts, including NPR's All Songs Considered. Seeing that it had been a little while since I last visited them, I had some real catching up to do...including this gem, The Most Important Band of Your College Years. The open to the show references a band from the area called Kamikaze Hearts, which...I am loathe to admit, I was not familiar with. However, the great folks over at All Over Albany were on it and were able to edify me.

Two Pictures from Saturday

TEA and I after his soccer game. Photo credit to Ami

The Troy Waterfront Farmers Market is one of my favorite places on the planet. Yesterday, even though it was chilly, was just a good day for it, and I was so very impressed with the bounty of the region in the autumn.

Interesting Things

I realized that I had been spamming my "Friends List" on Facebook every morning with the news that I found interesting, I also realized that I had this space that I was not using.

So...Interesting Things:

AP Classes Are A Scam: Via The Atlantic, the headline speaks for itself.

That cry you heard last night emanating from the Northeast? Yeah, Derek Jeter, Captain of the New York Yankee, fractured his ankle. (ESPN)

Did that e-book cost too much? According to Mashable, Amazon announced that it will be offering credits to accounts of Kindle users due to price fixing by publishers.

Oh! Shiny! Mal Renyolds in the house! Nathan Fillion made a surprise appearance at NYCC on the Firefly Panel. (io9)

Are pictures of cats on the internet art? On Flavorwire, there is a slideshow of pictures of cats as art.
The staple remover is not cool, right? These Jac Zagorry staple removers are awesome. (Uncrate)

And finally...
Texas lost to Oklahoma by a score of 63-21 yesterday and Deadspin wondered out loud about the future of this storied program under the stewardship of Mack Brown.