BitWrench

Giving In To The Force Peer pressure finally persuaded the Moppet to express a tentative interest in the Star Wars 'verse. She figured that if I could sit through innumerable Disney movies, she could suffer through one Star Wars movie. Maybe. Somewhat archly (because teenager) she decided A New Hope was okay. Okay enough to watch ALL OF THEM. Bubbles came along for the bingefest, and to see the much reviled prequels, which proved to have some worthwhile bits... So now the whole tribe is off to the local cineplex for the newest of the new. Wish us luck!

Chelsea Girl Clare Shenstone http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/oct/16/art http://www.benbrownfinearts.com/artists/37-clare-shenstone/overview/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/clare-shenstone Originally shared by **** Chelsea Girls (1966)

But, Dad... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Bertillon ....thinking 'bout a life of crime... Originally shared by retro junkie French mugshot of 23 month old Francis Bertillon. Crime: gluttony, eating all of the pairs in a basket (1893)

Beyond Plating via Bruce Shark Originally shared by Cheryl Martin http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/the-end-of-a-regime-that-acquiesces-to-disorder?utm_term=.kbjz11l35

Re-re-re-re Respect! The Queen.  Killed it. It does not get any better than this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RIgeu-6Jcs

The incentive to do a really good job is not very strong right now. Unfortunately, this is true of more human endeavors than not. But the author is correct about the variability of "good enough," and the need to be more transparent with results and how they are obtained. Originally shared by Alex Scrivener "I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain." -Fermat "I have a truly marvelous regression result, but I can't show you the data and won't even show you the computer program that produced the result" - Typical paper in economics and finance. ... The solution is pretty obvious: to be considered peer-reviewed "scientific" research, authors should post their programs and data. If the world cannot see your lab methods, you have an anecdote, an undocumented claim, you don't have research. An empirical paper without data and programs is like a theoretical paper without proofs.

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

Turn Left. The Other Left. "I’m an academic, and a proud one, and many of my friends and family are academics, and I grew up within the academic left. But I’m perfectly willing to say that the academic turn within the American left — the way in which the university system has replaced the labor movement as the primary incubator of left-wing ideas — has been an unmitigated disaster." Originally shared by Will Shetterly http://fredrikdeboer.com/2015/12/22/yes-virginia-there-is-a-left-wing-reform-movement/

Beyond Medium Cool Photographer Haskell Wexler is gone, at age 93. Thomas Crown, Matewan, and Roan Inish are but a few of my favorites of his... http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/MZS-QA-with-Haskell-Wexler

Originally shared by Drew McCarthy The Winter Guest It's hard to say why I find this movie so moving and evocative.  The pace is slow, and some folks are likely to find the Scots dialect and culture a bit impenetrable. But there is magic in this film, Alan Rickman's debut, from a play he commissioned based on the anecdotes told by his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star, Lindsay Duncan.  Phyllida Law, Arlene Cockburn, Sheila Reid and Sandra Voe reprised their stage roles in the film, along with Emma Thompson. The interaction between Phyllida and Emma, mother and daughter both in the film, and real life, is a joy to watch, even though it is full of difficulties for them both. "There's quite a lot of full circles in this piece," Rickman muses, "what with Phyllida not being able to do the play until the time when we did it, because she'd been nursing her own mother and she couldn't do any theatre. And then the absolute moment I rang her to ask her if she wo...

Kids Who Die By Langston Hughes. 1938. http://www.blogcitylights.com/2013/07/14/kids-who-die-by-langston-hughes/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5k2pfkXd0c

Epiphany "Bad politics don’t go away on their own, you actually have to fight them." "Maybe it’s counter-intuitive, and it’s certainly unpleasant, but it’s true. In those moments, when we refuse to engage in these fights because they feel childish and below the belt, we forget that the majority of people are standing in the middle, wondering what the hell is going on and looking for people they can trust. When those of us who are thinking about power and trying to grow the base don’t step up to that challenge, the folks in the middle assume that the people bringing in toxicity are the leadership, and they don’t want to have anything to do with it. They find no other voices providing leadership they can feel a part of. So they go home." via Andreas Schou Originally shared by Jordan Peacock Yotam Marom: The meetings are closed, and we all feel kind of bad about it, although this is another thing we don’t talk about often. There isn’t much coherence to how we ended up ...

Escalation of Force Officer Presence Verbal Commands Soft Controls Hard Controls Intermediate Weapons Lethal Force Halt-Halt-Halt-KAPOW! https://plus.google.com/+DrewMcCarthy/posts/CKjZqMMDRmE Originally shared by Will Shetterly "Ho'd it." Emma Bull on the killing of Tamir Rice. http://coffeeem.livejournal.com/242871.html

Elevenses

Do No Harm "It's tragic. You don't want to take a life," he said. "It's the last thing officers want to do. If he shoots the intended threat, that is difficult enough. I can't imagine what the officer is going through." I get that. I really do. But the preponderance of errors seem to be in favor of shooting. I'm just wondering if any police have ever been fired or disciplined for not using their service weapon. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-police-shooting-innocent-victims-20151228-story.html

Coley's Toxins The unlikely 19th century origins of immunotherapy for cancer. http://n.pr/1TDiHUd

Bad Dye Job It just gets better and better... http://www.businessinsider.com/texas-affluenza-teen-ethan-couch-dyed-hair-black-2015-12 Originally shared by Drew McCarthy Puerto Vallerta Squeeze Or maybe Crime and Punishment? Nah. The War on Drugs is obviously fought differently when white people and alcohol are involved. http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/29/us/affluenza-teen-ethan-couch-detained-in-mexico/

Another Silly Wizard Gone Andy M. Stewart has passed away, after suffering with some very difficult health problems. To see Silly Wizard back in the day... Well, it was something, all right. A bit more about Andy from an interview in Dirty Linen back in 1991: http://www.harbourtownrecords.com/andy.html http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2015/12/andy-stewart-of-silly-wizard-has-died.html

Puerto Vallerta Squeeze Or maybe Crime and Punishment? Nah. The War on Drugs is obviously fought differently when white people and alcohol are involved. http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/29/us/affluenza-teen-ethan-couch-detained-in-mexico/

Beat It Beaten biscuits... The Southern version of hard tack. http://tameraalexander.blogspot.com/2012/10/beaten-biscuits-southern-tradition.html?m=1

Ream Master The Clown Prince of the Goodwill Ambassadors in Short Pants is gone... "By Lemon's calculations, he is the sporting world's all-time ironman, having played in 16,115 consecutive games — 11,115 with the Globetrotters through 1979 and an additional 5,000 since then with teams known as the Buckateers, the Shooting Stars and, since 1988, his current team, which he owns." http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/05/sports/la-sp-crowe-20101206 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/sports/basketball/meadowlark-lemon-harlem-globetrotter-who-played-basketball-and-pranks-with-virtuosity-dies-at-83.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article51848380.html

It's What's For Breakfast "There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too. There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue. There were caraway seeds in abundance. Such that work up a fine stomach ache. That could kill a man twice after eating a slice, Of Miss Fogarty's Christmas cake." Sung by the Irish Rovers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzdKDXGIues http://www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/voic33-3-4/cake.html

The Significance of the Lamp-post Not that Lantern Waste, for Day Seven of the #FeelingFestiveHolidayChallenge Pat Kight invited me to participate in posting a festive holiday photo a day for a week or two. Thanks for the invitation, Pat. I enjoyed the challenge.

A Magician Remembered "Dad was someone who committed to the narrative of a situation rather more than the practicality. So he would wrap me up and take me out of bed in the middle of the night to show me the glow-worms in the hedge or Halley’s Comet blazing across a star-filled sky. For him, his daughter seeing these marvels of nature was much more important than sleeping, which I could do any time. He didn’t teach me magic, he showed me it." http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/27/terry-pratchett-remembered-by-rhianna-pratchett-daughter-obituary-2015

Swinging On A Star A hot mess of a movie with some very funny bits. The repartee between Willis and Aiello is worth the cost of admission. The inclusion of "reindeer-goat cheese pizza" might qualify this as a Christmas movie... http://www.film.com/movies/hudson-hawk-bruce-willis

Yakuza “He was the epitome of unflappable cool,” said Patrick Macias, the author of “TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion” (2001), describing the actor’s screen persona. “He could go into a bar, order a whiskey, and then, when a gang burst in and unleashed mayhem, he would continue drinking, showing no emotion — until he snapped and killed everyone.” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/arts/international/noboru-ando-89-mobster-and-film-star-in-japan-dies.html?_r=0

I Blame The Mabinogion Peredur the Son of Evrawc "And he saw a tall tree by the side of the river, one half of which was in flames from the root to the top, and the other half was green and in full leaf." Day Six of the #FeelingFestiveHolidayChallenge

No Room At The Inn Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXiXlwiZNGI Originally shared by Meg L Rhodri Marsden's annual Twitter roundup of Christmas sleeping arrangements in the UK have me shrieking with laughter. You'll just have to look at the pictures to see why. "I arrived first and got the spare room. My brother is sleeping under the Christmas tree." "I don't have a room anymore. I'm just an extension of my dad's bookshelf." "What's the term for HALF a single bed?" "Exercise equipment you say? I give you abswing with broken futon overhang." "I'm sleeping on top of the guest bed - not in it - because the sheets are being kept for tomorrow's guests." "BEHOLD the mighty paper towel curtains and carrot fever dream sheets." "5 foot long Beiber bunk bed. Fucksake." https://storify.com/rhodri/xmas-sleeping-arrangements-2015

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas Just bring him through the front door That's the easy thing to do... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dec9Jb_Ac4 Originally shared by Raymond Arotin Every year I ask Santa for the $95,000 Hippopotamus Sofa from the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, but he never delivers. What the hell Santa?! http://www.hammacher.com/Product/12766 …

Star Light, Star Bright First star I see tonight... ISS flyover  12/25/15, 5:51 PM.

Here And Gone Doing our part to keep Santa's belly shaking "like a bowl full of jelly". Day Five of the #FeelingFestiveHolidayChallenge

Same via Alex Scrivener Originally shared by Chris Sewell When I turn on my AC on Christmas Eve in Maryland

Oh Holy Night

A Passel Of Pointy Things The Fruits of Festive Folding for Day Four of the #FeelingFestiveHolidayChallenge.

Port and Starboard Recreational vessels are also required to use sound signals during periods of reduced visibility and while at anchor. Also #downblouse, and why some people call me Pockets.

Do Not Open Before... Just Do Not Open... Originally shared by David McKeever

Georgy Porgy Pudding Pie... Kissed The Girls And Made Them Cry... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CQpvc8quQ8

Sleigh Bells Jingling

The Who? http://www.sandpapersuit.com/2009/05/so-how-was-that-classic-rock-festival.html Originally shared by Ralf Haring Sadly, probably not the worst idea to write a primer. http://fusion.net/story/248898/who-are-the-beatles/

Oeil de Sorcière The All Seeing Orb is the Star of the Show for Day Three of the #FeelingFestiveHolidayChallenge

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

Getting On In Years I know this cast of characters... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TX9EAavxrus

I Have Achieved The Impossible Not once, but several times.  But I got better... "After dozens of tests and hundreds of puddings, I have some good news for you: It's nearly impossible to mess up a Yorkshire pudding (despite the fact that I managed to back in my fraternity chef days)." Originally shared by Robert Rambusch In the spirit of the season Yes, it's finally that time of year. And so, as we say here in America, "Yippie-Ki-Yay MotherFucker!" To you, and yours. http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/12/food-lab-yorkshire-pudding-popover-best-method-science.html

Let It Snow There's no Business like Snow Business... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IBRa-LsD-w

Choo Choo Two Glenn Miller, his Orchestra, and the Modernaires run it down again... The first gold record ever, with sales of 1.2 million certified on February 10, 1942. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGBwmLRNLJ4

Choo Choo The Christmas Train is coming for Day Two of the #FeelingFestiveHolidayChallenge Pat Kight invited me to participate in posting a festive holiday photo a day for a week or two. Yes, it's a video, not a photo, I get it. Call Standards and Practices if you must.

Fashion Police The real reasons behind the falling out between the ASO and UCI... https://pvcycling.wordpress.com/2015/12/22/asouci-rapprochement-founders-on-vaughterss-fashion-choices/

And Our Love Becomes A Funeral Pyre Come On Baby, Light My Fire... via Kam-Yung Soh https://m.imgur.com/gallery/wtGxj

Staring Down The Barrel Of a Mirro Cookie Press, for Day One of #FeelingFestiveHolidayChallenge Pat Kight invited me to participate in posting a festive holiday photo a day for a week or two. Like the idea? Feel free to join in.

War Face Illustrating the divide between Rah Rah Rhetoric and the workings of the Republic, such as it is. Having a DI in charge of a debate couldn't really be worse than what we've been getting lately... Could it? http://www.stonekettle.com/2015/12/war-face.html

Not Sound Bite Friendly 55 minute lectures don't gain much traction in the modern world. Anybody know what the average length of TEDtalks are? Originally shared by **** Sanders' view -- wacky as it sounds in 2015 -- is that if you speak the truth enough, the masses will come around. I learned about the remarkable bond between a candidate who never altered his core political values over a half-century, and a new generation of voters who were craving the kind of authenticity that only Sanders -- with a real track record, not an agenda driven by pollsters or focus groups -- could provide. _It was a bond that had its more modern roots in the Occupy Wall Street movement, with many veterans of that short-lived 2011 protest -- determined to see real social change and not just make a statement -- getting down with the Sanders campaign, especially after another popular liberal senator, Elizabeth Warren, didn't run. The result was those enormous crowds from Boston to Seattle. http://...

BBS BBY! via Kam-Yung Soh Originally shared by HACKADAY If there’s any indication of the Commodore 64’s longevity, it’s the number of peripherals and add-ons that are still being designed and built. Right now, you can add an SD card to a C64, a technology that was introduced sixteen years after the release of… http://hackaday.com/2015/12/21/giving-the-c64-a-wifi-modem/

More #NotRightFoods Originally shared by Jens Reuterberg This is what happens when you fire your copywriter just before Christmas. #CantBeReal

Christmas Spirit "I grew up in a home where management was sharply divided -- mother adored it, father harrumphed and rolled his eyes." "Dad was correct but Mother was right." Originally shared by Randy Culler Garrison Keillor: You don't have to believe to believe in Christmas http://www.twincities.com/entertainment/ci_29269935/you-dont-have-believe-believe-christmas

Got My Hair Did Originally shared by David McKeever

Waiting For Christmas Or rather, letting Christmas find you... http://sharonrandall.com/2015/12/waiting-for-christmas-dec-15-2015/#more-930

Not Duke's Just another Miracle Spread... http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article50455995.html

Starry Eyed How to make: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZgA2R6_OGk

Ohana Family matters... Originally shared by Will Shetterly http://www.sunnyskyz.com/happy-videos/3572/Underprivileged-Kids-Are-Offered-Two-Gifts-One-They-Want-And-One-Their-Parents-Want-They-Can-Only-Pick-One#L14MPZ7QWbuwpoXA.01

Nashville Obsolete Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch. "We have our ways that we like to live our lives and we are really stubborn," Welch says, laughing... http://m.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/slow-music-revolution-why-gillian-welch-and-dave-rawlings-are-in-no-hurry-20151214-glltpk.html Originally shared by **** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRIARMUp5FM

Spritztastic!

Only Missing Miscegenation Originally shared by Will Shetterly http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/1.671538

If It Ain't Fun... You Ain't Doin' It Right... Originally shared by Bruce Shark If it's not fun, I want you all to STOP. Srsly, stop buying shit, get every one still on your list a journal or a box of crayons. A bottle of whiskey. If it's not feeling good, and you are hating this crazy process, please just STOP... I know several people right now that are whipping themselves into a frothy fury and obsessing about gift buying, and most are sorta past what they can afford to be spending. Invite someone out for cocktails instead and catch up with them. Call someone or mail someone who is having a shit holiday due to loss or pain. Take a bunch of that money you wudda spent on some ungrateful little shit and give it to a women's shelter or throw a surprise tiny cheese and wine party...anything, really, other than feel pissed about something that's supposed to feel good. don't buy shit for people you don't like. don't buy shit for peopl...

In Bed Originally shared by G.K. Nelson Here's a holiday tradition I can completely support. Happy Jólabókaflóđ, y'all.

Santa's Helpers Originally shared by Steven Blatt

Raise Your Hand If you miss Molly Ivins... Originally shared by Andreas Schou "Things are not getting worse; things have always been this bad. Nothing is more consoling than the long perspective of history. It will perk you up no end to go back and read the works of progressives past. You will learn therein that things back then were also terrible, and what’s more, they were always getting worse. This is most inspiriting." -- Molly Ivins

The Problems With Prohibition There are good reasons why most folks on most military bases are not armed at all times.  I, personally, would favor a similar civilian environment, but I agree with the writer that laws attempting to do that could easily create more problems than they solve. Originally shared by Will Shetterly http://difficultrun.nathanielgivens.com/2015/12/16/mass-shootings-and-missing-white-woman-syndrome/

Wage Slaves "The declining aristocracy are ineffectual and money hungry, and in the last analysis they subordinated the values of their political and social heritage in order to maintain control over the black population. The poor whites suffered from strange malignancies of racism and conspiracy-mindedness, and the rising middle class was timid and self-interested even in its reform movement. The most sympathetic characters in the whole sordid affair are simply those who are too powerless to be blamed for their actions." Originally shared by Will Shetterly Martin Luther King on the creation of Jim Crow "Racial segregation as a way of life did not come about as a natural result of hatred between the races immediately after the Civil War. There were no laws segregating the races then. And as the noted historian, C. Vann Woodward, in his book, The Strange Ca...

Putting the Aether In Ethernet Originally shared by James Strickland So... get a call saying no network connectivity... I'm searching for the problem...

War No More Originally shared by Alvin Stearns An American's thought.  With terrorists and rampage shooters in our world, maybe we could eliminate a stupid and useless war?  I propose that we end our war against a concept:  drugs.  People and nations need enemies with an identity:  Nazis and Stalinists, for example.  You know, bad people who  self-identity and who have dangerous, murderous ideology.  We can mobilize an entire nation against those guys and feel good about it. War on drugs?  It hasn't worked.  Not for the people, the nation.  You can't mobilize against an idea.  Alcohol and coffee are drugs, but we're not spending billions of dollars every year to militarize police departments, break down citizen doors, seize citizen assets, fund private prisons (with cushy tax breaks and profit guarantees from states, counties and municipalities) to stop the growing, processing, distribution, sale and consumption of alcohol and coffee.  America tried a war on alcohol on...

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

Hors Catégorie USA Cycling has since ruled that Molly Cameron will be allowed to race with the men at CX Nats. http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/12/news/transgender-athlete-allowed-to-race-in-mens-cross-nationals_391068 http://bikeportland.org/2015/12/10/local-transgender-racer-told-she-cant-race-mens-championship-event-170078

Hermine

Value Engineering For want of an LED... Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh Really? Nobody looked at the units after assembly to check that all was well? Via The Register [ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/15/borg_forgets_blinking_lights_on_routers_hands_biz_leds_and_a_diy_note/ ]. "On affected SKUs, listed in the Products Affected section, two LEDs and two resistors were not added to the Bill of Materials and therefore those LEDs and resistors are not populated on production units. As a result, GE8 and SFP8 WAN ports do not provide visual indication of the link status or data activity. The user is unable to look at the router in order to determine whether the port is active or not active." http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/field-notices/640/fn64063.html

Oh, Well "Don't ask me what I think of you, You might not get the answer that you want me to..." http://www.slapkirk.com via Christopher Butler https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jvR4eUjkag8&feature=youtu.be

Needs More Spam #NotRightFoods Originally shared by Raymond Arotin Christmas Party food ideas... (if you wish to be the office pariah)... Bologna cake with cream cheese and cheez whiz frosting with Ritz crackers.  Yep.

Second in First, First In Second Races initially postponed for light wind, which filled in solidly enough for two fun races. Busy, busy short triangles, no crew errors, read the shifts right, some really nice driving by the skipper, and smooth foredeck on the fussy downwind legs. A beautiful day. Off for chili, beer, and rum cake. Mmmmmmmm. Rum cake.

Active Chute-r Jon Cleary-Pin Your Spin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDW5-tw1vEI

Uplifted

Boarding Party With a knife in your teeth, and a song of piracy in your heart... Off to the races.

Lucky Seven? Originally shared by Richard Stevens How is the iPhone Like Star Wars? http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/3956 http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/3956

Status Originally shared by David McKeever

Let Them Eat Cake MIL-SPEC Cake, that is... Do you know where your P-38 is? Want some? Here's the recipe: http://joyoffieldrations.blogspot.com/2012/09/c-rat-pound-cake-us-army-1958-1980.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SHohZ2ljC4

No Ham and Muthas I remember being fond of the Candy, Chocolate Disk, With Toffee, Enriched, Sweet. Good thing nobody limited the number of commas REMFs could use to describe things. Marines will eat anything, and eat it fast: http://viewsfrommysquadcar.blogspot.com/2014/08/c-rations.html http://terminallance.com/2015/12/08/terminal-lance-408-mre-exchange-rates/

I Blame The Midichlorians Originally shared by Ralf Haring Such a well done mashup! https://youtu.be/KU_Jdts5rL0

Monkey In The Middle Economics Worth reading the comments, too. Originally shared by Will Shetterly http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/12/demise-of-the-us-middle-class-now-official.html

Madam Cyn The original Spice Girl... She never lost her irrepressibly saucy manner, saying: "In my 30s I was doing it, in my 40s I was organising it, and by my 60s I'm just talking about it." "She was promoting girl power long before that band got together," he said. "Anyone who knew anything about Cynthia's life knew she made lots of people very happy," which prompted laughter from the congregation. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3352853/A-Cyn-ful-funeral-wreathes-read-SEX-pallbearers-dressed-policemen-brothel-madam-Cynthia-Payne-laid-rest-suitably-outrageous-fashion.html

Burner Originally shared by Caroline Dow One more sad story of the Ebola epidemic from Liberia. Ebola didn't kill these men, but it might as well have.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/world/africa/they-helped-erase-ebola-in-liberia-now-liberia-is-erasing-them.html?smid=go-share

Practice Variation The battles between Innovation, Diffusion, and competing institutions... Originally shared by The New Yorker Malcolm Gladwell reads a new memoir which argues for unorthodox approaches to fighting cancer. http://nyer.cm/LvPH0zf

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

Runout Groove Redux Originally shared by Steven Blatt http://video.newyorker.com/watch/the-new-yorker-shorts-a-single-life

Achievement Unlocked Little kid, trailing after Mom, trips on door mat walking into YMCA, face plants. Pops right back up, exclaims in a voice full of wonder, "I didn't get an owie this time!" Good job, kid.

Run Out Groove Originally shared by Tim O'Brien

Market Science For Leftovers Originally shared by Alex Scrivener If you have 250 million tons of food to give away every year to local food banks how should you do it? Canice Prendergast of the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how he and a team of economists created an artificial currency and a daily auction for the national food bank Feeding America so that local food banks could bid on the types of food that were the most valuable to them. Prendergast explains the results of the new system and the cultural and practical challenges of bringing prices, even artificial ones, to a world accustomed to giving things away. http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/12/canice_prenderg.html

The Satrap of Sickniks "It’s the same edge that makes Roald Dahl so appealing to children and disturbing to their parents." Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh A friend introduced me to Tom Lehrer's songs some time ago, turning me into a fan of his high-quality comedy and wit. Here's a feature on him by BuzzFeed, via a share on Hacker News [ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10684409 ]. "Tom Lehrer is considered one of the most influential figures in comedy — despite a body of work consisting of just 37 pitch-black songs and a career that stopped abruptly when the counterculture he helped spawn eclipsed him. You can ask him why he quit, but good luck getting an answer. [...] Many of Lehrer’s fans thought the artist might be dead, a belief Lehrer encourages. (“I was hoping the rumors would cut down on the junk mail,” he told the Harvard Crimson in 1981.) But Morris found him where he had always been, in a modest brown house on Sparks Street in Cam...

Go Down Swingin'... John Hiatt-Go Down Swingin': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQVYihwjiI0 You and me and your best friend... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FQVYihwjiI0

A Bold Woman Of Conviction Phila Hach died this week, at the age of 89. http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2015/12/02/grande-dame-southern-cooking-phila-rawlings-hach-dies/76658442/

Tribute To the enduring power of Love... And to the infrequency of the efforts of window washers...

Supernumerary Helping to find the new normal in mass media... Originally shared by Will Shetterly http://flashbak.com/why-charles-m-schulz-gave-peanuts-a-black-character-1968-47081/?utm_content=buffer2f219&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Fits The Description A little worrisome when an interaction like this exemplifies "doing it by the book." http://artandeverythingafter.com/i-fit-the-description/

Disk Driven Originally shared by Julie Bee nice. #musiceveryday   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl1ZrEza7uY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl1ZrEza7uY

Originally shared by David McKeever

#NotTheOnion   Originally shared by Assia Alexandrova No, this is Slate, not the Onion, or ClickHole. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/12/03/dick_cheney_bust_unveiled_on_capitol_vp_ended_terrorism.html

Saturday's Child Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace; Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go; Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for its living; But the child that is born on the Sabbath day Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jLeL-QxbEfI

A Hole In The Ground Where you might meet David Sedaris. As one does... Originally shared by Meg L One of the world's quirkiest bookstores, Atlantis Books, is a cave of books that sits in a hole in the ground in the Santorini caldera. Its owners are fighting eviction for a second time. For book fiend Ruri Sumida who is on G+ hiatus and whose company I miss enormously.  https://medium.com/@tgeorgakopoulos/the-most-beautiful-bookstore-on-earth-cdb6932b3938#.o7lp8glux

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

Wallop Originally shared by Tom Eigelsbach U.S. Geological Survey scientists have determined water twice as salty as modern seawater trapped more than 1,000 meters (0.6 miles) deep under the Chesapeake Bay is 100-150 million years old. The ancient seawater was preserved like a prehistoric fly in amber, partly by the aid of the impact of a massive comet or meteorite that struck the area about 35 million years ago, creating Chesapeake Bay. The seawater trapped deep underground is now in an area roughly the size of a large lake — over 50 miles across. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131120-oldest-seawater-chesapeake-bay-crater-science/

Jurassic Island Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh Cool. A hunt for dinosaurs and marine reptiles in Scotland by Steve Brusatte, etc. finds footprints of sauropods. Also covered by Brian Switek [ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/151201-dinosaur-sauropod-scotland-footprints-science/ ]. "Brusatte however has a gleam in his eye and a bounce in his step. The previous day, he confides, they made a big discovery. They’ve found some footprints, dozens of them, he says quietly. Huge ones belonging to giant, long-tailed, plant-eating sauropods. It’s early days, he emphasises, but it could be a world-class find that changes our understanding of how some of the biggest animals ever seen on Earth lived their lives." http://www.bbc.com/earth/bespoke/story/journey-to-jurassic-island/index.html

Moo Juice Pro Tip: One of them is better in coffee.