Inside Voices — A Weekend Musical
Carolyn was in this short movie, conceived and produced in 48 hours, executed in a single unbroken take (with mesmerizing camera motion). If you can spare about 8 minutes, I think you’ll enjoy what you see!
Today’s unexpected but welcome moments of grace
She waived a fee. He accepted a slightly expired coupon. Someone bent a rule in my favor. (I may or may not have deserved it.) I bent rules for five different people. (They may or may not have deserved it.) That 1/4 inch post that was too big popped off and under it was a…
Parrots learn to make video calls to chat with other parrots, then develop friendships, Northeastern University researchers say
A new study from researchers at Northeastern University, in collaboration with scientists from MIT and the University of Glasgow, investigated what happened when a group of domesticated birds were taught to call one another on tablets and smartphones. The results suggest that video calls could help parrots approximate birds’ communication in the wild, improving their…
Why Tetris is the ‘perfect’ video game
Rather than wanting to make a film about Tetris the video game as such, Baird was fascinated by this human story that pushed the game into existence. “The original title of the film was actually Falling Blocs, just like the Eastern blocs that dissolved when the Soviet Union collapsed. I thought it was a really…
Thank you, frog and friends, for reminding us all what the Internet is supposed to be for.
this frog and their band pic.twitter.com/bVo6xuakuv — non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) March 26, 2023
My Polish grandmother used to bake these cookies, which my wife picked up at a Ukranian festival. They’re apparently called nut horns. Hadn’t tasted them for 30 years.
My grandmother shaped them a little differently, more like segments of a sphere… the name I must have given them in my childhood is just “powdered sugar crescent cookies.” She packed them in a tin with chocolate chip , oatmeal raisin, fork-impressed peanut butter, and maybe sugar cookies? I would have made a beeline for her…
My colleague @crissycp once again left an amazing Irish soda bread in the break room. (Yesterday, to honor today’s St Patrick’s Day.) What a treat!
The Onion’s Supreme Court Briefing on Satire Is Stunning
From October: A man who was arrested over a Facebook parody aimed at his local police department is trying to take his case to the Supreme Court. He has sought help from an unlikely source, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Monday. –The New York Times,Area Man Is Arrested for Parody. The Onion Files a…
Time lapse movie shows exoplanets orbiting star HR8799, 133 light years away. (Published in a Northwestern University press release yesterday.)
It’s been a Dwarf Fortress afternoon.
Mindset matters. Sometimes it’s an accomplishment just to make it through the day. But we can aspire to be better than the worst parts of our environment & our attitude.
Unearthing a Long Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History, by Africans
Not only is this a fantastic story about language and culture and colonialism, it’s also a great example of how a talented PR writer used journalistic storytelling strategies to turn a scholarly study into an appealing narrative. We start with a very specific, very personal story about a man returning home for his father’s funeral.…
Fun with Geometry — Biological and Theoretical
For some reason today I was thinking of the 3D shape scientists recently discovered in our cells — I had to look it up just now to refresh my memory. Not being an expert in geometry, I would describe the “scutoid” as an irregular prism-like shape with a hexagon on one end and a pentagon…
By the way, humans sent a robot to another planet, and the robot sent us the sound of a dust devil. On. Another. Planet.
Mars rover captures first sound of dust devil on red planet.
I am very happy for these folks, who spent 20 or so years tweaking an insanely complex, completely free game, and are now selling a deluxe version that fans like me can’t wait to buy.
I regularly teach A Raisin in the Sun but haven’t seen a live production in decades. Looking forward to it!
They’ve got magic to do. Carolyn is the Leading Player. (Pippin, Oct 21-29)
Nested (procedurally generated game of expanding drop-down lists)
A text game that you play by opening folders.
I just learned I only have months to live. This is what I want to say. – The Boston Globe
What a storyteller. Boston Globe journalist Jack Thomas, who wrote about his impending death a few months ago, made me laugh out loud several times in this touching essay. Very powerful. He was 83. I’ve had the privilege of having spent more than 60 years working for newspapers. There was not a day when it…
The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books
I didn’t realize how involved the children of divorced dads Packard and Montgomery were in the creation of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” gamebooks. (The children of divorced dad Will Crowther were one motivation for, and were early playtesters for, Crowther’s original Colossal Cave Adventure; the history of parser text adventure games and branching path…