Well-titled article on the incredibly cryptic (and still unexplained) #VoynichManuscript:
“Why do people keep convincing themselves they’ve solved this medieval mystery?”
Links
Damn. “We have our own mass murder problem, and we can ill afford to indulge in wistful or lurid looks back to a time when senseless mass killing was so rare that we could remember the names of the killers.”
Damn. “We have our own mass murder problem, and we can ill afford to indulge in wistful or lurid looks back to a time when senseless mass killing was so rare that we could remember the names of the killers.”
Apparently their neighbors reported them for renting it out as Airbnb or similar (which the …
Apparently their neighbors reported them for renting it out as Airbnb or similar (which the city doesn’t allow). Then they painted the house bright pink with giant 😜 and 🤐 emoji on it. Now the neighbors are complaining about the mural, but the city says it’s on private property 🤷♂️
Honestly I’m surprised – it sounds like the kind of area that would mandate specific shades of beige paint.
(LA Times, paywall)
‘Emoji house’ feud erupts as frustrated residents urge Manhattan Beach to take action.
#EmojiHouse #weird #LosAngeles #California
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(conversation includes link to The Guardian article) It made international headlines?
@OldBrushNewPaper It made international headlines?
Oh, of course it did. It’s a weird story with emoji. 🤦♂️ 😂
@OldBrushNewPaper It’s not really the kind of area where people would respond with better murals, though. I could see that happening in neighboring Hermosa Beach, but Manhattan Beach is…how should I say this…stuffier?
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Wow, I should have gone looking for the Easy Reader to begin with. (It’s one of the two local papers in the area.) The owner comes off a *lot* worse with the additional background of how she allegedly treated the last long-term tenants.
The Emoji House war: A neighborhood feud erupts in El Porto
Susan Wieland had been away for a work conference since the end of May, but neighbors sent her the photo. Even so, upon returning to her home in the El Porto neighborhood of Manhattan Beach on the night of June 8, she wept when she actually saw her neighbor’s house. The house, a two-level…– Easy Reader News
Interesting perspective on the difference between retweet and copy-and-paste, and how reducing friction can encourage people to be more awful to each other. The Man Who Built The Retweet: “We Handed A Loaded Weapon To 4-Year-Olds”
Interesting perspective on the difference between retweet and copy-and-paste, and how reducing friction can encourage people to be more awful to each other.
The Man Who Built The Retweet: “We Handed A Loaded Weapon To 4-Year-Olds”
California Condor Comeback
Link: Fintan O’Toole: Trial runs for fascism are in full flow
Link: How the biggest decentralized social network is dealing with its Nazi problem
A history of maps showing California as an island…
A #history of #maps showing #california as an island…which apparently persisted long beyond the point that expeditions had confirmed it was part of the mainland.
California, an island? Meet cartography’s most persistent mistake
The Glen McLaughlin Collection brings together more than 700 historical examples of ‘California as an island’.
And now I’m thinking of the idea of “soft places” in Sandman, where geography remains fluid until an area is thoroughly mapped.
Florida’s Cannonball-Eating Spanish Fort
“The Mystery of Florida’s Cannonball-Eating Spanish Fort”
The rock it’s made from, coquina, is a sedimentary rock made up of compressed seashells. It turns out that under impact, the component shell fragments can shift, absorbing the impact. This explains why cannonballs simply sank into the walls like pressing into foam instead of shattering them.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/coquina-fort-in-florida
Link: Should we resurrect the American chestnut tree with genetic engineering?
Interesting: A “car-sized” meteor exploded in the atmosphere above the Caribbean, 170 miles south of …
Interesting: A “car-sized” meteor exploded in the atmosphere above the Caribbean, 170 miles south of Puerto Rico.
Telescopes observed the asteroid before impact. A weather satellite designed to detect lightning picked up the flash. Debris showed up on weather radar, and a Nuclear Test Ban monitoring station picked up the infrasound.
As usual, people who claim that social justice values are new to comics (in this case Vertigo) and therefore the cause of their decline show that they have no clue about comics’ history. Crack open some early Vertigo, and you’ll find plenty of examples:
As usual, people who claim that social justice values are new to comics (in this case Vertigo) and therefore the cause of their decline show that they have no clue about comics’ history. Crack open some early Vertigo, and you’ll find plenty of examples:
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/vertigo-comic-book-line-sjw-values/
Can Migrating Birds Adapt To Climate Change?
Misinformation is everywhere. These scientists can teach you to fight BS.
Link: A Chilean Flamingo and a (North) American Flamingo Meet in Mexico
LA climate: what causes May Grays and June Gloom.
LA climate: what causes May Grays and June Gloom.
Interesting read: Misinformation & propaganda are guaranteed to spring up around pandemics, but they won’t …
Interesting read: Misinformation & propaganda are guaranteed to spring up around pandemics, but they won’t have quite the same political baggage as elections. Any solutions & mitigations for pandemics should help against political disinformation too.
2024 note: so much for that idea.
Link: Experiment with ‘lost’ wallets reveals that people are surprisingly honest
Link: Experiment with ‘lost’ wallets reveals that people are surprisingly honest https://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-people-are-honest-lost-wallets-experiment-20190620-story.html
Interesting: “The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet.” As mainstream social networks grow ever more hostile, many have withdrawn to quieter spaces. But that has its own drawbacks. What might balance look like – and is it worth it?
Interesting: “The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet.” As mainstream social networks grow ever more hostile, many have withdrawn to quieter spaces. But that has its own drawbacks. What might balance look like – and is it worth it?
- The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet (Yancey Strickler)
- Beyond the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet: Re-learning how to be yourself online
Link: An Old Painting of Vermont’s Ancient Rocks Was Hidden Behind a Wall for Decades
Link: An Old Painting of Vermont’s Ancient Rocks Was Hidden Behind a Wall for Decades
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-painting-behind-wall-in-vermont