Alex Honnold Climbs Yosemite's El Capitan Without a Rope: “Years ago, when I first mentally mapped out what it would mean to free solo Freerider, there were half a dozen of pitches where I was like, ‘Oh that’s a scary move and that’s a really scary sequence, and that little slab, and that traverse,’” Honnold said. “There were so many little sections where I thought ‘Ughh—cringe.’ But in the years since, I’ve pushed my comfort zone and made it bigger and bigger until these objectives that seemed totally crazy eventually fell within the realm of the possible.”
Has Coffee Gotten Too Fancy? - The New York Times: Locol charges just $1 for a 12-ounce coffee, or $1.50 if you want milk and sugar. Rather than offer free condiments and pass on the cost to all customers, those who want milky, sweet coffee pay for their pleasures, while drinkers of black coffee get a break. As for getting it chilled, that’s on the house: Iced coffee costs the same as hot.
Fairytale Prisoner by Choice: The Photographic Eye of Melania Trump: Melania Trump is the woman least fit for public service in the entirety of the United States of America. We should expect nothing from her. She's living inside a dark fairytale, and in fairytales the women trapped in towers never save anyone but themselves.
To Be a Genius, Think Like a 94-Year-Old - The New York Times: The more I talked to Dr. Goodenough, the more I wondered if his brilliance was directly tied to his age. After all, he has been thinking about energy problems longer than just about anyone else on the planet.
Zoo Sues Studio For Traumatising Raccoon Used In 'Erotic' Ad: A Russian zoo says it's suing an advertising studio for overstimulating a raccoon it loaned out for a run-of-the-mill television commercial that instead ended up featuring a surprise topless model. The frustrated animal has since become obsessed with human breasts, an official told the BBC, which is hardly ideal behavior in a petting zoo.
The 'Impossible' Veggie Burger: A Tech Industry Answer to the Big Mac - The New York Times. I suspect the choice will eventually be taken out of peoples' hands, as the cost of beef goes up simple business requirements will kick in. Mass produced burgers generally have a lot of filler in them; and whatever proportion of meat they do have isn't high quality. Which all adds up to the basic truth that cheap burgers can contain almost anything and people will still buy them. The burger connoisseur in the article could probably be made happy with the addition of more fat, besides which he has a vested interest in dismissing a veggie burger (he has an audience to play to). The world will end up eating more veggie alternatives not because they care, but because they will get good enough to replace supermarket meat at a cheaper price. The mince in a mid-week family spaghetti generally isn't top quality anyway; so if there was a healthy, indistinguishable option that cost $2 instead of $10 why wouldn't you use it?
To Save Real News - Zeldman on Web & Interaction Design: Design won't solve all the problems facing newspapers, but it will help. And unlike more “immersive” approaches such as WebVR, original full-screen imagery, and original embedded video, the basics of solid, readable design should not be out of budgetary reach for even the most cash-strapped news publisher—budget being a problem for any business at any time, but especially for newspapers now.
The self-indulgent backstory is eminently skippable, but if you care:
David Bowie - Let's Dance: the playlists starts with a Bowie track for obvious reasons. I also listened, a lot, to the live version of Sunday from the Reality tour as it was a truly astonishing moment during the show and a memory I treasure. But after a while, I found Let's Dance felt like a better choice for the mix tape.
The Sheep Of Sam Clams Disco: saw Skunkhour live. Didn't really think that would ever happen, but it did and it was awesome. Took a mate along to the show, his observation was they're Australia's answer to The Roots which isn't a bad way to put it.
Iron Maiden - If Eternity Should Fail: up the Irons! Finally saw Iron Maiden live. This track opened the show. So, so good!
System Of A Down - B.Y.O.B.: not sure how I got onto it but listened to a lot of SOAD this year.
The Avalanches - Frankie Sinatra: couldn't quite believe we were really going to get a second album. I didn't really dig a lot of tracks on the album (gasp!), but this track is brilliant.
Meat Beat Manifesto - Asbestos Lead Asbestos: dug into the MBM back catalogue a bit and got this song stuck in my head for days.
Covenant - Sound Mirrors: first track released off the new album and it's a good'un.
Deftones - Hearts/Wires: saw them live, supported by Karnivool. Would have included a 'vool track in the mix tape but they haven't released their new album yet ;)
Leonard Cohen - Everybody knows: obvious reasons. My young teenage self found a sort of grim joy in music like this - songs that spit in the eye of the evil of the world, while still keeping a sweet humanity.
Dan Sultan - Magnetic: saw Dan Sultan live, correcting the mistake I made by missing him on his Blackbird tour.
Caiti Baker – Heavy On My Heart: bonus! Caiti Baker supported Dan Sultan and she absolutely blew the roof off the Manning Bar. Great set and really hope to see her release more solo stuff.
Seth Sentry - Punch In The Face: heard this once on a Sunday afternoon out the back of The Vic, but never knew what it was. Just remembered one line from it - if your best friend's a racist / your best friend's an arrrrrrsehole. Finally worked out it was this Frenzal cover from Like A Version 9.
Garbage - Empty: finally saw Garbage live for the first time. Hard to pick a favourite from the gig... I loved seeing Queer live, Even Though Our Love Is Doomed was an amazing set piece in the gig, Sex Is Not The Enemy and #1 Crush both went off in a big way. In the end I picked Empty as it's one off the album they were touring; and it's a great track.
Dead Kennedys California Über Alles: dug through an old box of CDs to find this album, which feels freakishly contemporary given the year's political climate.
Twelve Foot Ninja - Sick: somehow picked up the name of this band from shirts and posters at other gigs and checked them out... subsequently thrashed their two albums at the end of the year.
Neuroscientists Found The Most Relaxing Song. Well actually they helped create it: The song was actually created for the purpose of stress reduction—it was a collaboration between the band and a group of sound therapists.
Boom Technology supersonic jets: Startup wants to fly NYC — London in just over three hours. Interesting on two levels. First, fast transport yay! Second, current airline businesses are focused on the high-end tickets to the detriment of the low-end experience. So if something like this lops the head off, quite a few airlines will be in deep trouble if they don't respond somehow. Do they become budget airlines, or do they offer a more affordable but better-than-cattle-class experience? Yeah ok they'll all become overpriced budget airlines, but still it's an opportunity.
New South Wales backpedals on plan to make cyclists carry ID | Life and style | The Guardian: The government collected $1.3m from 3,171 fines issued to cyclists [...] Over the same seven-month period, only 15 fines were issued to motorists for violating one-metre passing rules introduced at the same time, raising $4,857. Confirming what was already known - there is no intent to enforce the one-metre rule, there is intent to get cyclists off the road.
Moral Machine: MIT experiment asking people to judge what a self-driving car should do in an emergency brake failure.
Oddly well-produced video of a guy punching a roo in the face and not immediately being kicked to death:
Donald Trump Prepares for White House Move, but His Tower May Still Beckon - NYTimes.com: Returning home to Trump Tower from the White House may not be Mr. Trump's only embrace of the familiar. His aides say he has also expressed interest in continuing to hold the large rallies that were a staple of his candidacy. He likes the instant gratification and adulation that the cheering crowds provide, and his aides are discussing how they might accommodate his demand.
Donald Trump Doesn't Like This Any More Than You Do: Donald Trump likes going to rallies. He likes hearing people scream his name in ecstasy while calling for the imprisonment and death of his enemies. He likes going on TV. He likes hearing about how high the ratings were after he goes on TV. ... What Donald Trump does not like, however, is keeping his promises, sitting still for more than five minutes at a time, or doing any kind of work whatsoever, tedious or otherwise. ... Donald Trump looks like he wants to die.
Reince Priebus, Stephen Bannon Picked For Key White House Posts : NPR: Well, it's kind of similar to how the campaign went down, aside from bringing Priebus in to now sort of run the trains. You know, make the trains run on time and the day-to-day stuff. I do not buy that anyone in politics would use that phrase accidentally. That right there is a dog whistle.
Trump's supporters talk rebellion, assassination at his rallies - The Boston Globe: Anger and hostility were the most overwhelming sentiments at a Trump rally in Cincinnati last week, a deep sense of frustration, an us-versus-them mentality, and a belief that they are part of an unstoppable and underestimated movement. Unlike many in the country, however, these hard-core Trump followers do not believe the real estate mogul's misfortunes are of his own making. They believe what Trump has told them over and over, that this election is rigged, and if he loses, it will be because of a massive conspiracy to take him down.
My first virtual reality groping: My high from earlier plummeted. I went from the god who couldn't fall off a ledge to a powerless woman being chased by an avatar named BigBro442. ... What had just happened? I hadn't lasted 3 minutes in multiplayer without getting virtually groped. FFS, gaming world.
Look Who's Smiley Now: MoMA Acquires Original Emoji - The New York Times: This emoji set was acquired through a licensing agreement with DoCoMo that lets the museum display the images in a range of forms. Starting in December, MoMA will show the emoji in the museum lobby, in a display that incorporates both 2-D graphics and animations.
People run around, then get tackled. For 5-30 seconds anything at all is allowed so long as you don’t introduce edged weapons. When people start getting tired of stomping the poor sod on the bottom, someone picks up the ball and legs it. They get tackled but a cat in the alley outside rolls snake eyes in an illegal craps game; so you have a scrum.
The scrum involves getting the biggest bastards from your home town to tape their ears back, form up and ruin their backs in the quickest time possible. You have to push about three inches above the turf but if you are so ill mannered as to fall down because you’re experiencing tremendous force on a slippery surface, you are deemed to be bounders and cads and a penalty will be awarded.
The cat roles a seven and now you have a line out, where you shout random words before a couple of your mates pick up the lightest and least-liked guy on the team and hurl him into the air. If you’re lucky you can also scone the guy with the ball and retain possession.
Around this point a couple of guys who haven’t done much will have a kicking battle, showing that egg shaped balls can travel amazing distances and give the front row a bit of a breather.
Repeat for 80 minutes and declare the All Blacks winners with a margin determined by the crap shooting cat’s last five rolls, retire to the pub.
But I may not have all of the details exactly right.