December 29, 2014
Bad Memories
Bad Memories is a supernatural horror radio play by Julian Simpson. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 07 January 2011, as an installment of the Friday Play. The play won a 2011 BBC Audio Drama Award in the category of Best Use of Sound in an Audio Drama. [more inside]
Operation Just Cause, December 20, 1989
Twenty-five years ago this month, early on the morning of December 20, 1989, President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Just Cause, sending tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of aircraft into Panama to execute a warrant of arrest against its leader, Manuel Noriega, on charges of drug trafficking. Those troops quickly secured all important strategic installations, including the main airport in Panama City, various military bases, and ports. Noriega went into hiding before surrendering on January 3rd and was then officially extradited to the United States to stand trial. Soon after, most of the U.S. invaders withdrew from the country. [more inside]
水尻自子
My Book, The Movie
They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it. --Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels
For authorial input on film adaptation, try My Book The Movie, by Marshall Zeringue, also of The Campaign for the American Reader, the page 69 test (previously), and the page 99 test. [more inside]
Chickenhawk nation
The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win.James Fallows on the Tragedy of the American Military: "honoured" but not taken seriously.
The Boy In The Dress
At 6.55pm on December 26th the BBC screened an adaptation of David Walliam's children's novel "The Boy In The Dress." Reaction on Twitter was mixed, but the reviews were more positive. 13 year old actor Billy Kennedy who starred in the programme has written a blog post about working with all the famous people in it, and the Radio Times asks its online readers what they thought of it.
Privilege doesn't mean you don't suffer
On Nerd Entitlement: an essay by Laurie Penny in the New Statesman, responding to a discussion on Scott Aaronson's blog about sexism in STEM fields and nerd culture.
All these Yahoo Directory listings will be lost, like tears in the rain
Search Engine Land (December 27, 2014): "The Yahoo Directory, the core part of how Yahoo itself began in 1994, officially closed today, five days ahead of when Yahoo had said the end would come." The Internet Archive save of Yahoo for October 1996. [more inside]
Brands Saying Bae
It's cool when a corporation tweets like a teenager. It makes me want to buy the corporation's products. Brands Saying Bae.
"Science is when you think a lot."
Two enjoyable chapters [PDF, 33 pages] from the book Math from Three to Seven: The Story of a Mathematical Circle for Preschoolers. "This book does not purport to show you how to create precocious high achievers. It is just one person's story about things he tried with a half-dozen young children."
The Class Struggle in the North Pole
Something About Bridges, Trolls, etc...
In an effort to not favor any of its member countries over the others, the European Central Bank decided to feature fictional bridges on a series of banknotes. So the Dutch built the bridges.
"It was just a combination of tragedy and fun I guess you might say"
Southern filmmakers and the Southern Foodways Alliance have partnered to create Counter Histories, a series of shorts documenting the struggle to desegregate Southern restaurants.
Smuggling Lego is the new Smuggling Diamonds
Teeny, tiny, blockity, sellaby, black markety. A new underground currency has hit the market. Lego and Lego sets. Unrelated, go head, suffer a Lego firewalk. I dare you.
Virginia's Express Lanes Are Operational
10 years of planning and several years (and almost $1 billion) of construction have come to end on I-95 south of Washington DC as the controversial "Express Lanes" are fully operational today. [more inside]
Kim Kardashian doesn't visit Versailles. She is Versailles.
"The work speaks volumes: She is her own best creation, a businesswoman, a brand, a socialite, a TV star, a wife, a mother, and the essential member of a sprawling family who are all getting rich under the umbrella of her fame. But most important, Kim Kardashian works full-time as professional metaphor. " - Rachel Syme on why Kim Kardashian's Hollywood was the most important game of 2014
2014 has taught us that a critical mass of people want to talk feminism
"From a seven-year-old who took on a supermarket to the girls who stood up to authority against violence, racism and inequality, these girls make the future look bright." Laura Bates looks back at a year of young feminist action in the Guardian piece, "2014: a year of brave, inspiring, young feminists". More feminism year-in-reviews below the fold. [more inside]
There is a season, churn, churn, churn.
There are many, many black days. The most famous, probably, is Black Tuesday, the Wall Street crash of 1929 that is commonly held as the start of the Great Depression. Its polar opposite? Black Friday, the day after the US Thanksgiving Holiday, where buying is the thing. George Soros, amongst others, broke the UK Pound and the government of John Major on Black Wednesday, and the peak of the 1988 Yellowstone Wildfires happened on Black Saturday.
But there's another black day -- a day that happens every year. A day that is today. Black Monday. [more inside]
“What the hell am I going to do at home?”
Len Berk, 84 years young, is The Last Jewish Lox Slicer at Zabar's.
She described Yair as “a total sweety”.
Working together——but not at exactly the same time
"69 demands that we take our unique physical forms, our torsos of varying lengths, our genitals of all sizes and sensitivities, and, instead of bending the position to accommodate them, bend our bodies to the will of the pangeniticon, of the pleasuring machine, of the system that is 69."
An undeniable 85-song sampler of the year in hip-hop
SEASONS GREETINGS
Urge Overkill “Stalker” discusses her antics
In the early 1990’s Urge Overkill went from hometown band to national stars, despite the attempts by two local women to stop them. If you frequented the North Side during that time, you may have seen two women dressed similarly to the band, passing out an anti-Urge Overkill newsletter preaching about the “evils” of the band with a megaphone.
Quake on an oscilloscope
« Previous day | Next day »