Bridget

artofdogs:

Brussels Griffon - photo by Derek Glas 

itscolossal:

Anatomical Specimens Made from Hand-Dyed Wool and Silk by Lana Crooks

As Austin’s SXSW ratchets up, the rest of the music world takes a breather, resulting in a mercifully brief Music Dispatch today. So we will share some new tracks from Prince, Death Grips, and Beat Connection, and then we will leave you be, with plenty of time to finish packing your ten-gallon hats, belt buckles, and extra pair of chaps as you head to the Lone Star State’s premiere music festival. Just remember, TSA requires all spurs to be checked. Now, on with the news!

Yesterday, the supposedly decommissioned Death Grips finally announced the release date of the long-awaited second half of their the powers that b double-album, Jenny Death (Tuesday!). Today, they share a new, The Bends-ian single from the EP, “On GP”. The experimental rap-rock group has insisted this will be their final album, but we will believe it when we see it. According to Death Grips’ Facebook page, the video above was filmed in the echo chamber of Studio 1 at Sunset Sound Recorders. [Pitchfork]

President Obama, was the guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night. When asked about Kanye West’s recent self-aggrandizing quote, “Obama calls the home phone, by the way,” Obama clarified his relationship with his fellow Chi-Towner, “Look, I love his music, he’s incredibly creative, but I don’t think I have his home number.” This is, at least, a huge step up from the last statement Obama gave on West: “He’s a jackass.” [Consequence of Sound]

Upload Audio – Download Music – Psy -Gangnam style
Prince and his 3rdEyeGirl project follow up last fall’s Plectrumelectrum / Art Official Age double album with a new, genre-blending single, “What If”. They premiered the single on Louisville’s WFPK, where they kicked off their countrywide Hit & Run Tour, of spontaneous, unannounced shows. I’m really curious what your opinions are on this new track. Is Prince in peak form? Is this track a complete mess? Please share your thoughts in the comments below! [Spin]

An immaculate Impala Super Sport and a bag of lobsters stars in Meyhem Lauren’s wry, French Connection-y music video for “100 MPH”. Action Bronson also makes an appearance (somebody’s got to work the grill, after all). [Stereogum]

Many are calling foul following the verdict in the “Blurred Lines”/”Got to Give It Up” suit, for what could become a dangerous precedent for music copyright litigation. Radio.com’s Jeremy D. Larsen described the case as hinging on a matter of “feel”: “That ‘feel’ might spawn any number of lawsuits in which one artist thinks another artist borrowed a “feel” a little too liberally.” According to Rolling Stone, this opportunity is not lost on the estate of Marvin Gaye, who are already looking to add to the $7.3 million they won in the “Blurred Lines” case by possibly going after Pharrell’s “Happy” next, believing it takes it’s essence from “Ain’t That Peculiar”. Okay, now you are just getting greedy.

Are you looking for the perfect, upbeat, electropop soundscape to compliment your perfect, upbeat Friday night? Try Beat Connection’s glimmering single, “Illusions”, on for size. If you happen to be in Austin, you have seven chances to see this group perform at SXSW! [Spin]

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Featured art by afromation (Williams), via DeviantArt

In the early '80s, the state-sponsored British Broadcasting Corporation decided that computers were going to be kind of a big deal, and created the BBC Micro desktop PC to promote computer literacy. Now, they're doing it again—this fall, one million UK schoolkids will receive a free Micro Bit.

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Compulsion Games' We Happy Few has a striking BioShock-esque art style, a terrific Brave New World-inspired premise and survival mechanics akin to Don't Starve. But after playing it for about 20 minutes at PAX East, I don't know yet if it's fun.

Continue reading…

After a patch of relative silence, the company behind the Rock Band franchise has confirmed it will be releasing its fourth iteration this year. A new Guitar Hero likely won't be far behind. Once again, college dorm rooms across the country will ring out with classic rock, the clicking of plastic keys and endless swearing.

But before we all resume our button-mashing, it's worth asking: Were all those hours worth anything? Acing DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames" on Expert may have made us feel like rock gods, but did any of that actually help anyone become a better musician? As it turns out, a wide range of scientific research thinks it actually has.

Source: YouTubeThe basics. According to several studies and surveys, music games provide rudimentary development of the same skills required to play real instruments, such as a sense of meter, pitch, inter-limb coordination, hand-eye coordination and dexterity. Read More

The New York Police Department has been altering Wikipedia entries about its own racist and corrupt behavior, according to a report by Capital New York.

The report states that IP addresses at 1 Police Plaza were used to redact pages about the deaths of Eric Garner, Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo, all unarmed black men killed by NYPD officers. The department also edited entries on other cases of NYPD misconduct and corruption, producing a distorted version of history that minimizes its misdeeds. It's a tactic used to rewrite history for a long time.

And just when you thought public trust in law enforcement couldn't get any lower.

At one point, Capital breaks down the changes NYPD users made to the entry titled "Death of Eric Garner," the 43-year-old who was choked to death by Officer Daniel Pantaleo on Staten Island in July. Read More

In spite of the beautiful 62-degree weather and sunshine breaking through the cloud cover, winter has well and truly come to Austin, TX this morning as HBO opened the doors to its SXSW headquarters, the aptly named SXSWesteros. What was once a humble bar called Gourdough’s has been transformed into a version of the Seven Kingdoms in miniature. Okay, not as miniature as the opening theme, but it’s still pretty damn fun.

With a massive replica of the Iron Throne in the corner, you can lay your claim to all of Westeros and get photographic proof that you are the Once and Future King/Queen/Khaleesi/whatever monarchic title you self-identify with. While the Iron Throne is definitely an amazing photo op, HBO also enlisted a production company called Red Paper Heart to create an interactive swordfighting experience like none other. First, you pose for a portrait, taken in profile. Next, you step up onto a stage and pick up a wooden sword modeled after Arya’s practice sword from Game of Thrones. (They’re so detailed in fact that they were designed by an actual Game of Thrones prop master.)

The screen commands you to “Get Ready”, then targets begin popping up on the screen. Using your sword like a Wiimote, you slash at them in order to rend them asunder. Don’t try to get cute and stab, though — it won’t register. The sword controller itself was surprisingly responsive, and soon I found myself trying to perform increasingly elaborate strikes. Granted, I’m a bit of a ham, but it’s hard not to have a good time once you’re up there.

Red Paper Heart senior producer Lisa Walter told me that HBO came to them asking for an interactive experience. Seven weeks later, they created the highlight of SXSWesteros. By embedding complex sensors like accelerometers and gyrometers into the sword, they are able to communicate with an app constructed in Cinder. With each strike, the portrait comes more and more into focus, revealing a seriously impressive picture, pulling from a vast library of different assets. The idea, Walter told me, was to create a portrait that feels organic within a 3D space in order to create a unique dichotomy.

The end result looks a little something like this:

Thanks to robust programming behind the scenes, virtually every     portrait will be different. Walter has made dozens of portraits of herself while testing the experience and no two were alike. All of them, however, were decidedly rad. The naturalistic imagery combined with the real wooden sword in hand makes for a supremely satisfying, tactile experience that is far more fun than any run-of-the-mill photobooth. Basically, I got to be Arya Stark for three minutes — all of the fun of being one of the best characters on the show without the muss and fuss of having most of your family members murdered. Now that’s what I call a win-win.

On your way out, there is a “social media-powered vending machine” in celebration of the release of Catch the Throne: The Mixtape, Vol. 2, which features artists like Talib Kweli and Mastodon performing Game of Thrones-inspired hits. Simply follow the Twitter-based instructions on the screen, and you’ll be rewarded with a prize. In my case, it was a Catch the Throne iPhone case.

And for those of you who are 21 and over, Brewery Ommegang offered an early tasting of its Game of Thrones-inspired beer. The latest offering is a Three-Eyed Raven Dark Saison Ale, which pours about as dark as its winged namesake, but tastes much better. Actually, I can’t say for certain as I haven’t eaten raven meat, but let’s call it an educated guess, shall we?

If you’re at SXSW, you can take the Kingsroad to SXSWesteros, which is open to the public from 10:30am – 5PM CT from Friday, March 13 through Sunday, March 15, and from 9am – 2pm on Monday, March 16th. Brewery Ommegang’s sampling begins at 12pm each day.

$31,213. 

The amount comes courtesy of the Knot, an online wedding planning resource, which released its 2014 Real Weddings Study on Thursday. 

The study polled around 16,000 brides and grooms to pick their wedded brains about budgets, guest lists and destinations. It found that the average wedding cost was up from $29,858 in 2013, while the average number of guests came in at 136, down from 149 in 2009. Yep — smaller weddings, more money.

Here's a look at how the costs break down:

Source: The KnotRounding out the data is the most expensive place to get married (Manhattan, $76,328 on average), the least expensive place to get married (Utah, $15,257 on average), the average marrying ages (29 for women, 31 for men), the most popular month to get married (June) and the average length of an engagement (14 months). Read More

There has been another study about Millennials, and no, the results are not inspiring.

A new report from the Educational Testing Service, makers of the GRE, found that young people in the United States, despite being the most well-educated generation in American history, fall far behind most of their international peers in reading, math and tech know-how.  

The study found that American Millennials scored lower than their peers in 15 of 22 tested countries in reading, tying for third from the bottom. Math scores were even more abysmal, with the United States in dead last along with Italy and Spain. In "problem solving in technology-rich environments," the U.S. Read More

Breaking Bad map by Tom Lamb in Albuquerque, NM

Links: Buy map / Web site / Tumblr / Instagram / Etsy

One of last year's most bizarre and surprising hits on PC was Goat Simulator, and it's coming to Xbox 360 and Xbox One next month.

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Dying Light patched out its famous loot-harvesting weapon-duplication trick once again this week. And once again, someone found another way to perform the same exploit. Follow the new instructions in the video above, especially if you need help surviving hard mode. Thanks to Reddit's Uber-Lurker for the PSA. Step-by-step instructions included below:

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There are all sorts of colognes and perfumes out there promising to help you attract the opposite sex with "human pheromones" — products with names like "Liquid Attraction" and "EvoMuse."

Their manufacturers point to scientific studies showing that these chemicals can improve mood and trigger a sexual response in the opposite sex.

But the basic truth is that we have no evidence human pheromones even exist — and these studies can all be traced back to a single fragrance company called Erox that managed to convince dozens of scientists their two "pheromones" were worth researching in the first place.

In a recent review in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Oxford biologist Tristram Wyatt tells this strange story, starting with a 1991 paper presented at an Erox-funded conference that identified two molecules the company would later patent (androstadienone and estratetraenol) as "putative human pheromones."

"When it comes to explaining where they get them, it simply says, 'These putative human pheromones were supplied by the Erox corporation,'" Wyatt says. "That was the sum total of the evidence that these might actually be human pheromones."

This small, dubious paper has since been cited by dozens of other studies examining the molecules — and, in some cases, finding effects from them. And the story of how that happened reveals some of science's biggest weaknesses.

There are no known human pheromones

Watch: Tristram Wyatt's TED Talk on human pheromones.

A pheromone isn't just a distinctive smell specific to an individual or one that evokes an emotion for you. It's a chemical that's emitted by all similar individuals of a species and always triggers a reflexive, identical response in others.

Scientists have identified pheromones in single-celled organisms, insects, plants, and a few vertebrates such as pigs and goats — but not, so far, in humans.

Normally, scientists like Wyatt — who studies animal pheromones — go through a very rigorous process to identify a new pheromone. The key is to start with a specific, consistent response that always comes after an individual has smelled a certain mixture of chemicals. Pheromone-driven responses are binary: they either happen, or they don't.

A good example is the 2014 discovery of a sex pheromone emitted by male goats. Previously, scientists knew that putting a male goat in a group of females would lead the females to begin ovulating, and they suspected a pheromone might be responsible. So they used the act of ovulation as the theorized response to a possible pheromone, and started hunting for it.

Because castrated goats don't trigger ovulation in females, the scientists next compared the odors emitted by normal male goats with those emitted by castrated ones. Then they identified the chemicals secreted only by the non-castrated group. Finally, they isolated and tested each chemical on the female goats, ultimately discovering that a molecule called 4-ethyoctanal could reliably trigger ovulation.

A gas chromatograph shows the particular molecules present in the secretions of castrated and non-castrated male goats. (Murata et al. 2014)

In humans, you might find a sex pheromone by using erections or other signs of sexual stimulation as the response. But humans are far more complicated than goats — and we don't behave sexually in such a binary, reflexive way.

As a result, no pheromone has ever been found this way in humans. So what's the deal with all those pheromone sprays on the market?

Everything goes back to one 1991 paper from scientists with ties to a company that sells "pheromones"

In 1991, an American company called Erox was interested in patenting a pair of chemicals (androstadienone and estratetraenol) to use in perfume and cologne. To lend legitimacy to the molecules, Wyatt says, "they sponsored a Paris conference on mammalian olfaction, almost as a product launch." (Erox did not respond to requests for comment on this article.)

A number of respected scent scientists attended, and the proceedings were eventually published. When that happened, a small study by a pair of University of Utah psychiatrists entered the scientific literature.

Both the university and the paper's lead author, Luis Monti-Bloch, had a stake in Erox (which was founded by former Utah professor David Berliner), and Monti-Bloch would go on to work for the company. But the paper didn't mention these conflicts of interest.

What it did say is that androstadienone and estratetraenol, when injected into the human nose, elicited a physical response from the nasal tissue of females and males, respectively. The authors called these chemicals "putative pheromones" — even though they hadn't been isolated through the process normally used to find pheromones, and had been supplied by Erox in the first place.

The source of the paper (top), and the brief note on the source of the molecules (bottom). (Monti-Bloch and Grosser, 1991)

In 1994, Erox patented some uses of those molecules in fragrances and began selling them.

Then in 2000, the widely respected psychologist Martha McClintock cited the 1991 work in a new study showing that androstadienone seemed to have a positive effect on the mood of women, and estratetraenol on men. She was careful to note that "it is premature to call these ... human pheromones" — but, Wyatt says, "other people took the lead from that to use them in their own studies."

Because the molecules could be easily purchased — compared with actual human pheromones, which would have to be painstakingly isolated — research on them took off. In the years since, dozens of studies have been published showing that they improve mood, trigger sexual responses in the brain, and, most recently, affect the way we perceive gender. Erox still exists, and it cites these studies as evidence that its products increase sexual attraction.

(Erox)

But here's the thing: even though androstadienone and estratetraenol are chemically related to testosterone and estrogen, respectively, there isn't even evidence that they're secreted by all men and women, which would be the first requirement for a true pheromone. In fact, says Wyatt, "estratetraenol has only ever been found in the urine of pregnant women in the third trimester."

So how did all these studies come to the conclusion that the chemicals trigger a response? The answer reflects a broader problem in psychology — and in science as a whole.

The human "pheromones" story reveals some of science's biggest weaknesses

(Shutterstock)

The truth is that you could pick any number of different naturally occurring molecules and shove them into people's noses, and some of the time you'd find an effect. Sometimes, this could be the effect of random chance (especially if the studies are small).

But even if a study is well designed, it doesn't indicate the molecules are pheromones — all sorts of plant oils, like lemon oil, Wyatt points out, have also been found to improve mood. The real way to identify a pheromone is to start with a specific, binary, reflexive response (like, say, goat ovulation) and find a molecule that consistently triggers it — instead of finding a molecule and then trying to see what it does.

Now, if scientists published the results of all studies ever performed on these molecules, doing things backward might not be as big of a problem. But if they only publish the positive results, it's going to look like a real pheromone when there are actually just a lot of false positives or random effects.

This sort of positive publication bias is a growing problem across the sciences — especially psychology — and some journals, such as Plos One, have begun publishing negative or inconclusive results in an effort to remedy it. Still, it's currently estimated that more than 90 percent of psychology papers present positive results — which is way more than would be expected if there weren't biases involved.

A 2010 study found that all disciplines publish disproportionately positive results — including more than 90 percent of psychology papers. (Fanelli 2010)

There's also a related problem: a lack of replication, which has plagued psychology as a whole in recent years. Because researchers largely get funding to conduct and publish brand new work, rather than try to reproduce other research and see they find the same result or not, flawed findings often don't get exposed.

Finally, there's what Wyatt calls the "echo chamber" problem: when a paper on androstadienone or estratetraenol gets submitted to a journal, many of the people asked to review it have probably done their own research using the molecules and have already accepted that they're pheromones. Even though critics consistently pointed out the problem with these "pheromones" all along, this echo chamber can amplify a single random result into a long series of papers and citations.

But after two "lost decades" of human pheromone research (as Wyatt calls them) some scientists are now searching for pheromones the right way. There's some preliminary evidence that secretions from lactating human mothers might trigger suckling responses in infants. Ongoing work in this area could identify actual human pheromones — although it seems unlikely that anyone could sell them to help you attract the opposite sex.

People using NYPD computers have made edits to — and even attempted to delete — Wikipedia pages describing cases in which the department's officers were accused of racial bias and brutality in the deaths of black men, according to a Capital New York report.

The publication discovered that these changes were linked to IP addresses connected to the NYPD.

These NYPD-linked users tweaked the language in hundreds of pages, including making changes to entries describing the NYPD-involved deaths of Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo. They made deletions, additions, and word replacements that made the narratives appear more sympathetic to police.

Here are some examples of the changes Capital New York identified in the entry for Garner, a 43-year-old black Staten Island man whose July 17, 2014, chokehold death during a confrontation with an NYPD officer attracted national scrutiny about perceived racial bias and misuse of force, and protests when the officer who killed him was not indicted:

"Garner raised both his arms in the air" was changed to "Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke."

"[P]ush Garner's face into the sidewalk" was changed to "push Garner's head down into the sidewalk."

"Use of the chokehold has been prohibited" was changed to "Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited."

The sentence, "Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them," was added to the description of the incident.

Instances of the word "chokehold" were replaced twice, once to "chokehold or headlock," and once to "respiratory distress."

Users with NYPD IP addresses also edited entries on stop-and-frisk — a policy the department infamously implemented in a racially biased way.

Yes, Wikipedia is meant to be edited by the public, but the site's rules, Mediaite explained in its report on this topic, discourage users from making changes to pages that involve their own interests.

An NYPD spokesperson told Capital New York that the matter of the edited entries is "now under review."

Read the entire report at Capital New York.

Further reading:

The NYPD shutdown that's cut arrests in half in New York, explained

Why 2014 could be a turning point for America's racist criminal justice system

How subconscious racism complicates policing

Utility boxes are a very popular canvas for street artists. They’re big metal boxes usually painted a plain, drab color, which makes them practically cry out for attention from those with an eye for urban beautification. Today the Department of Astonishing Optical illusions is applauding the work of Portuguese illustrator and street artist Diogo Machado, aka Add Fuel, who painted a utility box in Lisbon with spray paint and stencils to make it appear as though its plain grayish exterior is cracking and falling away to reveal a beautiful interior covered in traditional Azulejo tiles. Part of Machado’s ongoing Street Ceramic series, it’s an eye-catching piece of commentary about what might be hiding under the city’s surface.

Head over to StreetArtNews for additional photos.

Visit Add Fuel’s website to check out more of his artwork.

[via Colossal and StreetArtNews]

Portuguese chef Joaquim Sousa has recently taken the internet by storm with a magical chocolate dessert. His “dessert du jour” looks like a ball at first sight, but once the hot cream is poured – it blooms like a flower!

The chef currently works at Ipsylon restaurant located in ‘Hotel The Oitavos’ in Lisbon.

You can find more of his magic tricks on his Facebook profile.

More info: Facebook | Youtube (via: laughingsquid)

New from GreenLight Collectibles: High School Teacher to Meth Kingpin Edition: For the first Breaking Bad release (coming in May, 2015), the RV will be joined by a Challenger SRT-8 and a 300 SRT-8. Rumor has it that the Aztek will follow. 

With three feature films penned by Max Landis slated for release in the next year — American Ultra, Victor Frankenstein, Mr. Right — along with his feature directorial debut, Me Him Her, short film Wrestling Isn't Wrestling and a gaggle of smaller projects, the 29-year-old filmmaker has to manage a heap...

St. Patrick's Day is Tuesday, but that won't stop the Los Angeles Police Department from raining on your parade. Whether you're Latino, Asian American, African American, white or Armenian, we're all going to be a little bit Irish next week. But if you get popped this weekend for a DUI,...

There's no reason you would ever need to rig up an NES to run Netflix. Which is why it's so great that these two delightfully insane Netflix engineers did it for us. Because at long last, we can finally see the House of Cards intro in all the horrific, 8-bit glory absolutely no one ever intended.

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jetau:

Dying Light ~ random

Crustypunks

After being rescued and nursed back to health by a young family in Newport, Australia, a magpie named Penguin has become a regular visitor and friend at the Bloom family’s home, playing with them and coming in to hide when it rains.

Penguin was discovered flying on the ground near a library in 2013 by Noah, who is now 11. After being nursed back to health by husband and wife Cameron and Sam and their children (Reuben, 13, Noah, 11, Oli, 9), Penguin was allowed to fly free, but still returned often to spent time with the family. She plays catch, saunters through their home and even perches on their shoulders.

The bird waits for the family to leave their home before flying on her own way in the morning, and greets the kids when they get home from school; “It’s like a dog wagging its tail – she sits there in the tree and flaps her wings like she’s excited,” Noah’s father told ABC News.

More info: Instagram (h/t: abc.net.au, dailymail)

“Little baby magpie came into our lives when she fell from a tree at about 3 weeks old”

“We gradually nursed her back to health with a proper Magpie diet and lots of cuddles”

“She watches tv, jumps on the tramp with the kids, flies into our bed in the morning and cuddles up”

“I never thought she’d become as much a part of the family as she has. [The kids] love her like a dog, but better”

“She’s free to fly – she often will just hang out around us in the morning then when the kids go to school she’ll do her own thing”

“If you flap your arms like wings – she’ll flap her wings”

“She spends a fair bit of time cruising inside the house, picking up the kids’ scraps and playing games. She’s pretty domesticated”

“When the kids play handball here with their friends… Penguin just flies from kid to kid, sort of gets involved. It’s pretty fun. It’s chaotic”

“If other magpies are around she’ll make a beeline for the house and fly in here so she doesn’t get bombed and pecked – they really attack her”

“A few months ago there was another baby magpie, a local one. She started playing with it and it came into the house”

“Penguin and this one were just… talking and carrying on together. It was really cool”

 

I've used a lot of VR headsets , but the tagline of Nautilus VR's new Kickstarter project scares the hell out of me: "Virtual Reality Underwater." Call me crazy, but that sounds dangerous. And yes, also a little awesome.

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