Lordy, what a week. I know that not everyone runs on the same cycle of work and days off as the Monday-through-Friday structure in the US. Since I have a fairly complicated worklife, Friday isn’t necessarily the traditional end f the week for me. But boy howdy, it surely feels that way most of the time. Therefore, I am celebrating the moment with a sassy lemon ginger kombucha. So, pour your favorite tasty adult beverage- seriously no matter what time it is, and dig in to some fascinating Quickies.
Something new from xkcd:
Serena Versus the Drones
Randall Munroe writes, “One of the most exciting things about writing How To was that, for a few chapters, I was able to reach out to some extremely cool people who were willing to apply their unique expertise to ridiculous tasks. Among those who generously agreed to help was Serena Williams. Here’s a portion of the chapter “How to Catch a Drone”, in which Serena helped test whether tennis serves could be an effective countermeasure against flying robots … by taking a drone out onto a court and hitting tennis balls at it until it crashed.”
[A swing o’ the racket to Steve for this!]
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Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today is pretty interesting.
ASMR stands for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.”
The short description is that: “It typically refers to the “tingly feeling” that travels from the head downward that some experience in response to certain sounds, feelings, or descriptions. These can include soft whispering, crinkling paper, or a gentle touch.”
Do enjoy the couple of paragraphs on ASMR. You might be charmed to know that:
“A fairly well-known ASMRist (ASMR artist) was nimbused television painter Bob Ross, who would bring on ASMR in his audience with his soft, even voice and calm brushstrokes.”
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Mad Art Lab’s Jamie shared this with us: “My grad school friend Kate has created a line of clothing that is meant to confuse license plate camera databases that are used by police to track cars of anyone the police feel like tracking(even when they don’t have good cause.”
This is a very interesting intersection of technology, activism, and fashion!
This Hacker Made Clothes That Can Confuse Automatic License Plate Readers
“Designer Kate Rose presented her “adversarial fashion” line of clothing, which introduces garbage data into license plate reader systems, at DEF CON 27.”
“Digital security professional and fashion designer Kate Rose doesn’t just design textile patterns. She sullies the databases gathered by license plate readers by creating clothes covered in fake license plates.”
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A bit difficult to look at—I mean, we all want Winnie-the-Pooh happy and cuddly and here he is decidedly not—but carrying a necessary message in these uncertain times: Thought Provoking Illustrations Imaging How Beloved Fictional Characters Would Handle Ecological Disasters
“French illustrator Baptiste Drausin, aka the baptman, has created a truly thought-provoking, if not terrifying, series that imagines how beloved fictional characters from stories, comics and television shows would be affected by an ecological disaster and how they would deal with the consequences.”
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So you probably know already that as I type this, the Amazon is on fire. And people will continue to document life and people will continue to make art so people in Brazil have shared images of their world.
People Share Apocalyptic Photos Of Sao Paulo Which Went Pitch Black During Daytime From Amazon Fires
“On Monday, Brazil’s most populous city suddenly plunged into darkness as thick black clouds from the raging Amazon forest fires slowly crept over the busy metropolis. In an interview with Folha De S. Paulo, meteorologist Franco Nadal Villela said the darkening was caused by a cold front from the east of São Paulo meeting with the fine dust brought in from the fires in Mato Grosso do Sul.”
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You might be interested in viewing:
A Chilling Compilation of the Fires Currently Raging Across the Amazon
“What began as a “day of fire” a week and a half ago has now turned daytime skies in São Paulo an inky black. The Amazon has been in deep, deep trouble ever since far-right president Jair Bolsnaro took over running Brazil. Advocates feared his regime would commit ecological “genocide” in the Amazon and with each passing month, those fears are becoming reality.”
The excerpt above, used for the video post, is part of this article by Brian Kahn on Earther:
Smoke Has Blotted Out the Sun in São Paulo as the Amazon Burns
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If you are a jigsaw puzzle aficionado, then do I have your new jam!
New in the Colossal Shop: The 1000-Piece Full Moon Puzzle
And it’s round! Y’know. Like the moon.
“Toronto, Ontario-based Four Point Puzzles utilized high-resolution NASA imagery to create a circular full moon puzzle. The rounded object invites a unique challenge for those used to rectangular puzzles, and when finished it reaches a 26.5″ diameter. The 1000-piece puzzle is newly available to The Colossal Shop, joining color-changing, geode-shaped, and other puzzles inspired by the moon.”
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And now for something that is sure to blow your mind:
A precise, three-word address for every place on earth.
A tip o’ the fez to George for the info.
You can hear him discuss this at the top of his show: Geologic Podcast #626
I sent a note to George Hrab about this already, but I’m afraid that What3Words might not be as good as I’d hoped it would be. Here’s the link to some of the problems with it: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2019/03/why-bother-with-what-three-words/