We Recommend: Your Friday Freebies

Each Friday, our contributors send in a bunch of (legally) free stuff they’ve come across this week to help you waste your weekend. You’re welcome.

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Article: ‘Apple Cores Are A Myth‘, by James Hamblin for The Atlantic

Recommended by: Chris Harrigan

Apples might not be free, but knowing the best way to eat one whole is. Not only that, it could save the world US$13 billion, which kind of makes it more than free. So says core-enthusiast James Hamblin who, in this public service announcement, demonstrates how, if you just eat the apple from its vertical axis (rather than the more common horizontally-oriented one), you can eat the entire thing without even noticing.

For Hamblin, not only is this not-disgusting, it’s an exercise in philosophical freedom: “The core is a product of society, man… it never existed.” Right on.

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Writing: ‘Writing‘, by Tully Hansen for Overland

Recommended by: Elmo Keep

Would you like to know what writing on the Internet could be like if someone took a stylistic leap with the medium in a meaningful, insightful and beautiful way?

Then put aside some quiet time and click here.

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Email Tool: Unroll.me

Recommended by: Amelia Schmidt

Do you subscribe to a million things? You might say no, but the answer is probably actually yes. You don’t even know about them — they’re insidiously living in the depths of your inbox. Why not clean that out?

Unroll.me hunts through your email to find all of your subscription, and gives you the option to scroll through them and unsubscribe to each with a single click, or roll a few of them together to make a handy digest.

You have to share this on Facebook to use it for your hundreds of spam emails, but it’s worth it. It’s a sweet joy for those of us who crave neatness.

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Website: The Useless Web

Recommended by: Andy Huang (‘Yep, Chloë Grace Moretz is Pretty Much The Coolest 16-Year-Old Of All Time‘)

The Useless Web may in fact be the greatest directory (or “depository,” as Tony Abbott wouldn’t say): it takes you to a different, ridiculously impractical and randomly selected site every time you click on it.

Endless hours I have spent being compelled by this glass-loving pug; trying to understand this mango; being advised “shake vigorously” this long black wibbly thing, in addition to watching a bajillion running puppies fill up the screen. Every click is a surprise and it is highly addictive — so procrastinators beware (and warned)!

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Film Clip: Interactive Video For ‘Like A Rolling Stone’

Recommended by: Nathan Jolly (‘Grease Isn’t The Family Friendly Film You Remember‘)

Everybody would have heard of this by now because we have the Internet on our fridges and phones, but for those who are yet to witness this innovative piece of video art by 27-year-old director/video artist Vania Heymann, put aside six minutes of your workday to have your mind blown apart (much in the way the original track did to countless others when it premiered in 1965), then write-off the entire hour, because there are going to be multiple viewings, I assure you.

Put simply, this video — which we’re unable to embed; it will arrive if you click on the image below — allows you to flick through 16 cable television channels at will; each time, the people on screen will be lip-synching along to the song, regardless of when you drop-in.

Countless celebrities are involved, just under 90 minutes of footage was shot, and the entire thing works magically. And it does seem like magic, despite being able to see the strings. Most importantly, like Dylan’s finest work, this concept pushes forward the medium in which it works without seeming gimmicky or overreaching — which is hard for a format as eyeroll–inducing as the ‘interactive video’.

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Film Clip: Another Bob Dylan Film Clip

Recommended by: Ben Jenkins (‘Casting The Julia Gillard DocuDrama‘)

What you all seem to be forgetting is that Bob Dylan already made the greatest film clip of all time, back in 2009. It’s for Must Be Santa, Dylan’s much-mocked-but-actually-not-too-bad Christmas album. Directed by our very own Nash Edgerton, the clip features Bob in a long blonde wig and no fewer than three different festive hats; plus there’s a jovial accordion player, an inexplicable lyric change to feature a handful of American presidents, and it ends with Edgerton throwing himself through a plate glass window. Enjoy!

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YouTube Channel: Empire of Enthusiasts

Recommended by: Elizabeth Flux (‘Junk Explained: What Is This Bitstrips Thing All About?‘)

Empire of Enthusiasts is the nerd debrief show you didn’t realise you needed until you find yourself six episodes in wondering where the last hour and a half went. Filmed in front of a live audience, the panel discusses current nerdy topics, ranging from Magic: the Gathering to Veronica Mars to Thor. That list doesn’t even do it mild justice.

Taped in front of a live audience, the panel regularly features guest speakers, and, on one occasion, bonus lens flare.

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Music: Majestic

Recommended by: Jack Arthur Smith

Originating from Stuttgart, Germany as a blog dedicated to remixes of all things aurally delightful, Majestic is now an online hub, a multiple eargasm-enducing horn of musical plenty showcasing “music in a new way” from artists across the globe.

My current favourite is Majestic Casual (an offshoot specialising in the more, shall we say, flamboyant electro), and I’m particularly spoofing over this little number from five-piece Sydney-based synth band, Panama, remixed by the utterly genius duo Classixx (the two behind this life-changing track). Enjoy.

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Article: ‘Stop Juicing; It’s Not Healthy, It’s Not Virtuous, And It Makes You Seem Like A Jerk‘, by Katy Waldman for Slate

Recommended by: Amelia Schmidt

Shocking news just in: diets consisting mainly of puree’d fruit are not particularly healthy. Also, your body doesn’t really need help to “cleanse” itself — there are organs called the “liver” and “kidneys” that do a really good job of that already.

Juice is delicious, sometimes, and an acceptable way of eating fruit as part of a balanced diet — if you include the fibre — but not a diet in itself. If you are trying to clean out your intestines, you’re completely misunderstanding how they work. Learn more! Get angry! Tell your friends!

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GIF: This GIF

Recommended by: Steph Harmon (‘You Need To Read ‘The Dream Boat’‘)

Look at it.