October 2007 Archives
October 31
Don't be silly...money doesn't grow on trees. It comes from the sea!
Here's an odd unforeseen consequence of the Columbian drug trade: fishermen along Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast have been been getting rich off of "white lobster"—cocaine dumped overboard by Columbian drug traffickers that, through a fortuitous arrangement of sea currents, washes ashore. [more inside]
The store clerk, who had talked with Curtis, referred to him as “The Cross-Dresser” ...
Closeted gay GOP elected official with an anti-gay voting record #756,394 --(Special Halloween Edition!) GOP Washington State Representative Richard Curtis says he’s not gay, but police reports and court records indicate the Republican lawmaker from southwestern Washington dressed up in women’s lingerie and met a Medical Lake man in a local erotic video store which led to consensual sex at a downtown hotel and a threat to expose Curtis’ activities publicly…. He resigned today.--Curtis is the third conservative lawmaker in just as many months to resign amid allegations of soliciting gay sex.
Bubbling up--and being sat on--by the DC Press Corps is a potentially devastating sexual scandal involving a leading Presidential candidate.
Bubbling up--and being sat on--by the DC Press Corps is a potentially devastating sexual scandal involving a leading Presidential candidate.
An fine gallery of fine mustachios
An excellent resource for connoisseurs of facial hair that is firmly above-the-lip. Also good for people interested in amusing blogs, vintage photography and glossaries. [more inside]
Inesct Candy
Love is a burning thing.
"The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me, and the love I have for her. We connect somewhere between here and heaven." Johnny Cash's last performance on July 5, 2003 at the Carter Family Fold. Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk The Line, and Ring Of Fire.
God loves bankrupting bigoted idiots
Everybody's favorite hate mongering church just got hit with an $11 million fine by a jury that found they had invaded a family's privacy and inflicted emotional distress when they picketed a Marine's funeral. [more inside]
Pizdaus
Not enough random context-free images in your life? Try Pizdaus! [nsfw]
Junior Generals
Junior General is intended to promote the use of historical simulations as a tool for teaching history by providing free resources that anyone can use. To go with their teaching scenarios they make available thousands of paper solders for download and printing. Everything from stone age primatives thru Myceneans, Confederate gunboats to US Iraq infantry and futuristic Cyber Assault Droids. Also available are accessories like castles, houses, trenches, battering rams and hangers.
Boo!
Spooky halloween sounds via wfmu.
"Talk about a budget label classic! I was first introduced to this LP by Jack Diamond. Side 1 is pretty standard horror sounds, but Side 2 is where the magic is found! I love these remarks by a friend which pretty much sums it up:
"Side 2 of this album is unlike other Halloween sound effect records floating around in that it is all theremin! And get a load of those track titles?! It sounds as if someone let a 5 year old kid noodle around for a while. It's super scary!"
Pencils down, please
National Novel Writing Month (seen before) starts Nov. 1. The goal: complete a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, Nov. 30.
If you'd like to start, or are otherwise working on a novel, Sean Lindsay and others would like you to please
stop. [more inside]
Thin times for the manorexic
Eating disorders aren't just for women. While commonly understood as a condition that hits women, eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia can be and are devastating (to say nothing of 'underdiagnosed') for men, too. This is the story of Jeremy, an 88-pound 36-year old guy. [more inside]
Nader sues Democratic Party for conspiring against democracy
Yesterday, Ralph Nader sued the Democratic Party for conspiring to prevent him from running for president in 2004. The lawsuit alleges that defendants used “groundless and abusive litigation” to bankrupt Ralph Nader’s campaign and force him off the ballot in 18 states, and names as co-defendants the Kerry-Edwards campaign, the Service Employees International Union, private law firms, and organizations like the Ballot Project and America Coming Together that were created to promote voter turnout on behalf of the Democratic ticket. According to attorney Carl Mayer from the team that filed the suit, interviewed this morning by Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, "what this lawsuit will do, and the importance of it is, is to set a precedent so that the two-party monopoly system that shuts out minor parties in a way that other Western democracies never do, that this will set a precedent to prevent this type of intimidation and harassment."
Invisible and Redoubtable Beings
"The Great God Pan," by Arthur Machen. "The Beckoning Fair One," by Oliver Onions. "Green Tea," by J. Sheridan LeFanu.
"The Boarded Window," by Ambrose Bierce. "The Horla," by Guy de Maupassant.
I think the dragons be somewhere on the other side of Mordorsoft Mountains.
Eating, drinking make you die.
Body fat causes cancer according to a scary report from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund that reviewed 7000 studies. Obesity creates "a low-grade chronic inflammatory state" that promotes cancer. This report seems more foreboding than others of its ilk, e.g.: "Even small amounts of excess body fat, especially if carried at the waist, increase risk." Drinking is also carcinogenic: better limit yourself to 2 drinks a day if you're male and 1 if you're female. (Of course, breathing is also bad, and so is sunlight. ) Conclusion: you can live a really long time if you don't like to eat or drink, though you want to avoid taking this to extremes.
The 2007 Frédéric Bastiat Prize
The 2007 Frédéric Bastiat Prize for Journalism has been awarded to Amit Varma (economics journalist for Mint and writer of the interesting India Uncut blog). Clive Crook (Atlantic & FT) was second. The Prize was developed to encourage, recognise and reward writers whose published works elucidate the institutions of the free society, including free trade, property rights, the rule of law, freedom of contract, free speech and limited government. [more inside]
groovy dancing girl
And not a sign of The Crypt-Kicker Five....
Looking for Halloween music, but want to avoid the cliché and overplayed Thriller and Monster Mash? (YouTube Links) Three Halloween "mix tapes" have been posted over at the AMG blog: 1, 2, 3. (Samples included.) Or, here's another option. (Halloween mixtapes were also discussed recently, on AskMefi).
North American Comet Catastrophe 10,900 BC
On May 23, 2007 a multi-disciplinary team of scientists announced (YouTube, 70mins, 7-parts, part1-1 is a summary) the finding of physical evidence strongly suggesting that, around 12,900 years ago (10,900 BC), a massive Shoemaker-Levy type comet hit the atmosphere, air burst over the Great Lakes region of North America and probably engulfed much of the continent in a fireball and subsequent firestorm with catastrophic effects for life and climate. [more inside]
Bicycles
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of mankind" - H.G. Wells
No way to escape the power unknown!
"In the streets on Halloween, there's something going on ..." What better day to celebrate the German power metal band Helloween?
Have a nice lunch
Nardwuar The Human Serviette. Who is Nardwuar? Nardwuar is a singer, DJ, VJ, record label impressario, and patriot. Perhaps most infamously though, he is an interviewer, and it is there his true genius shines. Nardwuar has interviewed everyone from Snoop Dog to Jean Chretien (it was in fact Nardwuar who got Chretien to utter that famous line about pepper). [more inside]
Never Get Busted Again
"We would pull over cars that had college bumper stickers, because we knew college kids often partied with marijuana...we would pull over 'Vietnam Vet' plates, because a lot of our vets developed a habit over there...I would look for Mexicans. I would look for black people. It works." A former Texas narcotics officer is selling a DVD that can teach you how to avoid arrest. (Unless you're black, Mexican, a veteran, or a college kid, presumably.) Youtube. More youtuberance.
Why don't anteaters get sick? Because they're full of anty-bodies!
Taking care of an incredibly alien-looking, yet impossibly cute anteater isn't easy — in fact, it's a lot of aard verk!
"This place is an Uzbek mafia den."
Looking to rent or buy? You can check out the schools and inspect the foundation all you want, but only Rotten Neighbor cares to warn you about your potential community. [more inside]
Dakou ("Saw Gash") CDs
Dakou ("Saw Gash") CDs are shipped to China to be dumped in landfill sites. As you might expect, they don't always make it to the tip. [more inside]
Plus c'est la merde
Plus ça change... (that's a 15941x261 pixel, NSFW-ish jpg).
Mud, Sweat and Tears
"The vast tar sands of Alberta in Canada hold oil reserves six times the size of Saudi Arabia's. But this 'black gold' is proving a mixed blessing for the frontier town of Fort McMurray, fuelling both prosperity and misery. As the social and environmental toll mounts, Aida Edemariam reports on the dark side of a boom town" - Mud, Sweat and Tears.
I'm the gosh-darn Batman!
Little Batman. Like Batman, but little. He fights crime. He likes bats. Sometimes he misses mom and dad.
Monks back on the streets of Burma
Monks march again in Burma. Approximately one hundred Buddhist monks marched in protest oif government policies in the central city of Pakokku yesterday. One monk who spoke to journalists claims more marches will be organized. Will we see a resurgence of the mass marches--and crackdowns--of August and September?
Pumpkin Carving Templates
Looking some some ideas for cool jack o'lanterns? These free templates could help. From HP, Dremel (scroll down), eHow, DLTK, Pumpkin Masters, Hershey's , Reader's Digest and SpookMaster. Or watch the videos on the Do It Yourself Network for more carving tips and tricks.
You spin me right round, baby, right round
The Fine Art of Japanese Pen Spinning Crazy Japanese experts show their amazing spinning skills. Here's a handy instructional video so you can get your start. A little digging reveals that web resources on this ancient discipline (known in Japan as "rōnin mawashi") indeed are plentiful
McSpaced
Plans are afoot for a US version of Spaced the seminal British zeitgeisty eve-of-the-Millennium sitcom that packed in huge numbers of film homages while turning the traditional man-and-woman-in-flatshare sitcom scenario on its head. The makers went on to make Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. [more inside]
Steve Ballmer Halloween
Steve Ballmer dressup flash game for Halloween.
October 30
That's some scary music
Krzysztof Komeda wrote and played some scary stuff. Then there's Bernard Herrmann. Poe for Moderns is awesome, complete with a Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross-esque version of "The Raven". And if you haven't heard Frankie Stein and His Ghouls, well, you haven't lived. And if that doesn't thrill you, maybe this will? [more inside]
a major artist admits to being on OINK!?!
Trent Reznor speaks about being a member of oink, torrents and file sharing, as well as other interesting things. NIN cd cover artist, known online as Demonbaby, also speaks about labels, file sharing and oink. It's a lonnng rant.
Child Soldiers in Burma
Neptune's Navy: The life and opinions of Paul Watson, anti-whaling vigilante
A list of Watson’s campaigns in the eighties reads like a catalogue of Tintin adventures. In 1981, he secretly entered Siberia to document a Soviet food-processing facility that was converting illegally harvested whale meat into feed for animals at a fur farm. He succeeded in avoiding the K.G.B. and in outmaneuvering the Soviet Navy around a pod of gray whales. (Greenpeace, which visited the facility the following year, got caught; one of the Greenpeace activists told me, “I was taken into a room with a K.G.B. guy who asked, ‘Do you know Paul Watson?’ ”) In 1982, from a chartered airplane, Watson dropped paint-filled light bulbs on a Soviet trawler in the northern Pacific. He has used spoiled pie filling, fired from water cannons, as a weapon at sea. During the Falklands War, he contacted the British Navy and offered to assist its fleet by ferrying medical supplies to the front—“so I could head off any Argentine move to kill penguins,” he told me. The British declined the offer.Neptune's Navy [print], the life and opinions of Paul Watson, anti-whaling vigilante and founder of Sea Shepherd. [more inside]
What level of Arcane spell is that?
You never hear about a psychic winning the lottery, but apparently witchcraft is worth a shot.
Introducing the fabulous Lindha Kallerdahl
We used to call it speaking in tongues, now it's music. Introducing the fantastic Lindha Kallerdahl! A Swedish export, she's performed with Sonic Youth and won the "Jazz in Sweden" prize. Here's her site and here are a few samples on Myspace. I like "The Meaning of the..."
Like Freakonomics man...
I wish my brother George was here.
In 1956, Time Magazine wrote, "He is the summit of sex—the pinnacle of Masculine, Feminine and Neuter. Everything that He, She or It can ever want." (Wait. Seriously???) Behold the evolution of The Liberace Show: from dapper virtuoso to sequined, wacky showman. [more inside]
cant stop wont stop progress
RIP Robert Goulet
But if I'd ever leave you,
It couldn't be in autumn.
How I'd leave in autumn I never will know....
Robert Goulet, who shot to fame playing Lancelot in Camelot (the musical, not the model) passed away today. He had been waiting for a lung transplant.
It couldn't be in autumn.
How I'd leave in autumn I never will know....
Robert Goulet, who shot to fame playing Lancelot in Camelot (the musical, not the model) passed away today. He had been waiting for a lung transplant.
Vodka "Pills"?
Curse of the Long Tail
Sorry PR, you're blocked. Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine calls out the 300+ PR "professionals" who cannot be bothered to look for the right person to send their announcements to. Then, he publishes their e-mail addresses online, for all to see. If you were thinking of using a PR firm this year, here are 300 that you might want to give a miss. via
Guardian columnist Dina Rabinovitch dies
"There is no template for the way I am living now. There has always been a plethora of instructions before...No matter what the life change, these days there's a how-to book, a lifestyle column in a Sunday magazine; none of that mid-century fumbling in the dark like Ian McEwan's honeymooners on Chesil Beach. Except for right here, at the front line of breast cancer. Nobody has written the manual yet."
Dina Rabinovitch lost her long-running battle with cancer today.
MakeMyLogoBigger Cream
MakeMyLogoBigger Cream is a clinically proven formula which embiggens your logo, gets rid of annoying whitespace, adds SEO magic crystals and reams of powerful marketing text! See Also.
Scary Stuff
Scary Stuff: Count Floyd's Scary Little Christmas Promo,
Dr Cube's Posse,
A Scarier Skeleton by Jack Handey [mp3],
The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra Trailer [previously],
Shining,
Plan 9 From Outer Space - Best Lines,
Re-Enactment - Pan's Labyrinth, [previously]
Scream in 30 Seconds and Re-Enacted by Bunnies,
Season of the Witch,
The Thing in Lego,
REM & Muppets - Furry Happy Monsters. Happy Halloween everyone!
SquatRx
SquatRx is a series of videos focusing on proper form and technique in the Barbell Squat. Topics include how to correct lower back rounding, the use of bands and chains, and how to set up a Westside regimen.
The G-Shot: Viagra (in a needle) for women?
Is it "Viagra for women," or merely a placebo for women who want more orgasms? The G-shot, a little collagen injected into a sensitive place, is gaining more attention. It's not just weary working moms looking for a recharge. When a 19-year-old coed decides it's the answer to stop faking orgasms, how much longer before it's as ubiquitous as the little blue pill?
your clothes want to die
Alarmingly, these are not lovesick zombies. Remember this game? Same guy, new game, same descent into madness.
Are Gay Neighborhoods Worth Saving?
The NY Times looks at the decline of gay meccas. The GLBT Historical Society of San Francisco has held several discussions about the Castro district. A shift in values, gentrification, and violence are named as factors in the "de-gaying" of the Castro. The area's famed Halloween party has been canceled and revelers told to stay out. What will happen to this gay destination?
Dinosaurs Attack!
Gore Lovers Click Here. When I was 12 years old, there was nothing cooler than this card series, aside from maybe Transformers The Movie. Where's the movie for this IMHO superior companion piece to the Mars Attacks! series? I think this is the ideal property to be the first all-CGI feature with an emphasis on gore. [more inside]
Exxon Whines to Supremes
Corporate Citizenship On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil. The spill was the largest in U.S. history and tested the abilities of local, national, and industrial organizations to prepare for, and respond to, a disaster of such magnitude.
Oil from the massive spill, which coated 1,200 miles of Alaskan coast, continues to threaten the damaged ecosystem there, long after experts believed it would dissipate.
Facing a $5 billion damage award, Exxon appealed, and won reductions to $4.5B, then $2.5B. It was still too much, the company argued.
Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Exxon's appeal. Justice Alito has recused himself. [more inside]
Illustrations of primates
Look at that tail! Stephen Nash has illustrated the most endangered primates (image gallery: part 1, part 2) -- so faithfully over the years that one now bears his name. The just-released "Primates in Peril" report has full profiles of each animal, along with all of Nash's illustrations (including those replaced by photos in the gallery above -- don't miss the sumatran orangutan!).
no photos
Strictly No Photography is a site where people can upload and share photos taken in places where you are not allowed to take photos. Lots of photos from art galleries, airports, museums, and even places in Glasgow (nsfw).
The State gives and the State taketh away
The Guajurati State Government has been directly implicated in a massacre of over 2,000 moslems during riots in 2002.
There has been surprisingly little coverage by world news media. via pickledpolitics a British based SE Asian current affairs / political blog.
RIP Fup. Store Cat.
RIP Fup. Store cat. The longtime Powell’s Bookstore resident died peacefully surrounded by her co-workers on October 25th. She was 19. Photo album. Those not familiar with Fup can catch up with more than 150 newsletter entries.
reasons to be angry
Account of MRSA
A LIFE or DEATH STRUGGLE with MRSA recounted almost real time. Best to start with the original posting, linked at the beginning, and then go back. Read from the bottom to get the sequence. It's a terrible story, made worse by the stupid accident that led to the struggle. I accidentally ran across this blog before the fight was over and am shocked by how things went.
Pilkipedia!
Pilkipedia is the only online encyclopaedia and community based around Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais. Includes downloads of all their XFM radio shows from 2001-2005. [via]
Live anonymous edits to Wikipedia on Google maps
These isles are full of noises
BODcasts "The Bodleian Library launches its first series of BODcasts with readings by celebrated poets including Seamus Heaney, Bernard O’Donoghue and Mick Imlah." MP3s of talks and readings given on an evening in celebration of the publication of the journal Archipelago. [Via]
Hrm, where can I find an idea?
The Ideas Catalogue is a weird and wacky thing. It features ideas of things, and nothing more. They are for sale, and some have been bought.
I can't eat, I can't talk - Been drinkin' mean jake, Lord, now can't walk - Ain't got nothin' now to lose - Cause I'm a jake walkin' papa with the 'Jake Walk Blues' - The Allen Brothers
mp3s:
Jake Leg Blues - Mississippi Sheiks
Jake Walk Blues - The Allen Brothers
Alcohol and Jake Blues - Tommy Johnson (lyrics)
Articles:
"Jake Leg," about how the blues diagnosed a mysterious 1930 epidemic is a pdf scan of a New Yorker article from September 15, 2003 from here. The Jake Walk Effect is from North Carolina Moonshine, as is The Jake Leg in Song See also Paralysis In A Bottle (html) [more inside]
Jake Leg Blues - Mississippi Sheiks
Jake Walk Blues - The Allen Brothers
Alcohol and Jake Blues - Tommy Johnson (lyrics)
Articles:
"Jake Leg," about how the blues diagnosed a mysterious 1930 epidemic is a pdf scan of a New Yorker article from September 15, 2003 from here. The Jake Walk Effect is from North Carolina Moonshine, as is The Jake Leg in Song See also Paralysis In A Bottle (html) [more inside]
New Evidence in the case of the West Memphis 3
New evidence in the case of the West Memphis 3 claims that "there was no DNA from the three defendants found at the scene, the mutilation was actually the work of animals and at least one person other than the defendants may have been present at the crime scene." [previous thread]
Your Bottom Dollar
Saving Justin Berry
Journalist's efforts to rescue teen from porn questioned. Kurt Eichenwald, author and NYT journalist discovered teen Justin Berry prostituting himself online and intervened, financially and legally. Eichenwald even appeared with Berry on Oprah. Two years after his initial expose was published, his life is in ruins. [more inside]
Address: 123 Sesame Street (The Nest Behind The Apartment)
It's the most remarkable word I've ever seen! Big Bird tries to pronounce the alphabet. More Big Bird goodies inside... [more inside]
October 29
Britain's Weirdest Tombstones
IN MEMORY OF
HANNAH TWYNNOY
Who died October 23rd 1703
Aged 33 Years.
In bloom of Life
She’s snatched from hence,
She had not room
To make defence;
For Tyger fierce
Took Life Away.
And here she lies
In a bed of Clay,
Until the Resurrection Day
In anticipation of Halloween, BBC History magazine announces the winner (pdf link) of its "Mysterious Memorials" contest. (It's not the one above.) View the complete list of runners-up here.
HANNAH TWYNNOY
Who died October 23rd 1703
Aged 33 Years.
In bloom of Life
She’s snatched from hence,
She had not room
To make defence;
For Tyger fierce
Took Life Away.
And here she lies
In a bed of Clay,
Until the Resurrection Day
In anticipation of Halloween, BBC History magazine announces the winner (pdf link) of its "Mysterious Memorials" contest. (It's not the one above.) View the complete list of runners-up here.
Found Art From Jail
Jail Finds is a flickr set of art found stuffed inside books by the account holder at the jail where they are a volunteer running the book cart.
Tibetan Eye Candy
Thangkas! what is a thangka? Look it up in this Encyclopedia of Buddhism pdf then take a tour in Darumsala with Werner Herzog [more inside]
In Search Of . . .
Project Pterosaur The goal of Project Pterosaur is to mount an expedition to locate and bring back to the United States living specimens of pterosaurs or their fertile eggs, which will be displayed in a Pterosaur Rookery that will be the center piece of the planned Fellowship Creation Science Museum and Research Institute (FCSMRI). Although, sadly, it may not be real.
The 2007 Japan Series
Now that the "World Series" is over, you can enjoy Joe Posnanski's coverage of the Japan Series in the Kansas City Star (on account of Nippon Ham Fighters coach Trey Hillman going to coach the KC Royals in 2008.) It's great to see Posnanski's perspective of Japanese baseball as he compares and contrasts American and Japanese baseball. It's also interesting to see American mass media cover Japanese sports when the Japanese mass media is going ga-ga over the US World Series (due to 3 Japanese players, Matsuzaka, Matsui and Okajima being in the finals.)
Slaves to Armok: God Of Blood, Chapter 2.0
Dwarf Fortress
Version 0.27.169.32a, released October 29, 2007 A.D.
You are now free to waste the remainder your life.(prev)
Version 0.27.169.32a, released October 29, 2007 A.D.
You are now free to waste the remainder your life.(prev)
Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog
Haven't you ever wished the US Government had an official blog? Now they do. It's called Gov Gab.
Mouse, that is.
AIDS Invaded U.S. in 1969, Study Finds.
Long before storied 'Patient Zero' Gaëtan Dugas [previously] scientists now believe that HIV/AIDS "invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic." A new study to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that researchers conducted a genetic analysis of stored blood samples from early AIDS patients and now believe that HIV first entered the United States in the 1960s -- and not the 1980s. Other "studies suggest the virus first entered the human population in about 1930 in central Africa, probably when people slaughtered infected chimpanzees for meat."
License to Murder
The State Department has promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in last month's murder of 17 Iraqi civilians. Richard J. Griffin, the head of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security which granted the immunity, announced his resignation effective last Thursday.
The REAL milkman of human kindness (sorry, carsonb)
The Big-Nosed Bastard from Barking has been very, very busy. In the past month, Billy Bragg has won the Classic Songwriter Award from Q, then collaborated with Beethoven (some of the B-Man's fans mutter darkly), and taken the hand of a small, matronly admirer before kindly giving it back to her, along with an autographed copy of the score. (He's prepared for the fallout: "I'll probably get struck off Morrissey's Christmas card list." ) [more inside]
Diskothi-Q: The Football Albums
The Football Albums. Music and football. Surely there's something better than "Hail to the Redskins" and "The Superbowl Shuffle?" One man believed there could be. That man was Peter Hughes, Inland Empire indie rock mini-star, sometime member of Nothing Painted Blue and the Mountain Goats, baseball diarist, and leader of the now-defunct band Diskothi-Q.
In 1999, Diskothi-Q released The Football Albums: a double CD of 32 songs, one for each team in the NFL. All are now freely downloadable as .mp3s: AFC and NFC.
(.mp3 links follow) Get ready for the big game this weekend by pitting "Colts" against "Patriots." Revel in the untamed savagery of "Eagles" or sympathize with the touching lament, "(Nobody Cares about the St. Louis) Rams."
MST3K is back on the air! Kinda, sorta.
Satellite News passes on the news that Best Brains, Inc. is back in active business, with new 'Bot content appearing online.
Beginning November 5th, BBI will be launching its very own website at MST3K.com. The site will feature brand-new animated adventures of Crow, Tom Servo and Gypsy. We're told the goal is to have one new adventure each week (though "some settling may occur with shipping," they added). The Web site will also feature work from the original series (which BBI is now calling "the legacy series"), behind-the-scenes footage and other material culled from the BBI vault. [more inside]
Iraq Out How
The focus of the current issue of Mother Jones is the Moral Dilemma of Leaving Iraq.
199 Peter Cook videos
199 Peter Cook videos (in case you don't know who Peter Cook is, he's often considered the funniest English comedian of the 20th Century, this myspace page has a concise biography).
Lines and splines
So You Want to Create a Font (Part 1, Part 2). For something with a less presumptive title, there’s this, this, this, this, this, or even this, Eric Gill’s An Essay on Typography.
Read Print.
Read Print. Online books, poems and short stories.
It's a Big World After All
It's a Big World After All. The Disneyland Small World ride is going to be closed for 10 months in 2008 due to refurbishing. The main reason for the refurbishing: the ride isn't built to accommodate today's average passengers' body weights.
The Man In Black
The Johnny Cash Show 1969-1971:
Ray Charles - Ring of Fire (this, my brothers and sisters, is how you cover a song and make it your own)/
Bob Dylan - I Threw It All Away/
Derek and the Dominoes (w/Carl Perkins)/
Roy Orbison - Crying/ The Cowsills/
Joni Mitchell - The Long Black Veil (sublime) [more inside]
The Unqualified Reservations of Mencius Moldbug
Unqualified Reservations is a fascinating ongoing commentary on society and governance in postmodernity. He's currently on about the pwning of Richard Dawkins, after writing about Mediocracy and Official Journalism. It might be best to first read his earlier posts in which he defines the self-invented terminology he's fond of using, like: Formalism, The Iron Polygon, Universalism, Neocameralism, and The Rotary System. [more inside]
Image our own paint-in!
It's good to touch the green green grass of home
Under the sea? A bounty of sealife!
Some lobsters have recently fled a German supermarket. Why'd they want to flee? Maybe they didn't want to be killed so they could live to be older then these clams. Maybe they wanted to run away and have wacky undersea reproductive hijinks! (Link safe for work, unless you work for the Krusty Krab.)
Im in ur city, burnin ur church
Paul David Addis has been arrested once again. You may remember him as the man that set The Man on fire 4 days early. This time he went after Grace Cathedral. This is the second SF church to be hit by attempted/successful arson in the past week.
RIP Robin Prosser
Robin Prosser was a former concert pianist and systems analyst who suffered from an autoimmune disease similar to lupus for over 20 years. The disease left her in constant pain and made her allergic to most pharmaceutical painkillers. Only medical marijuana brought her relief, but last spring the DEA seized her medicine. Unable to cope with the chronic pain any longer, she committed suicide on October 18th. [Via Andrew Sullivan.]
Flyin' high.
Reporter, Columnist, or Blogger
Last weekend, The Oregonian's Sports columnist John Canzano wrote about the two DUIIs by the son of the Oregon Ducks' coach. On Saturday, the Ducks football team beat the USC Trojans. The next day, Canzano wrote a story about the win. Before he wrote that story however, he wrote a blog post on what happened during the fourth quarter. Columnists are often held to different standards than reporters; and bloggers are often held to even different standards. It seems journalists are still learning the ropes of what standards they are held to under these different media. As a commenter JPound added to the post, "Before blogs, this unfortunate interaction would only have seen the light of day in a memoir."
Romance via vague, anonymous e-mail
ProposalToMary.com I will send out the proposal to Mary to 50 complete strangers, people I don't know – hoping, that they will forward my proposal to as many people as possible, which in turn forward it etc. And some day, I hope, it will reach Mary, after it has travelled a very long way. Guess this guy isn't in a big rush to be with his one true love?
We'll never have to go outside again!
The Last Supper is now available in high definition at the click of a button. Feel free to take a gander and then cross it off your list.
What's that tune?
iden.tify.us is like AskMe, but only for the question, "Hey guys, what is this song?"
Hi. Bye.
Hundreds of paintings, one masterpiece mural
Mural Mosaics! Artists come together to create beautiful themed murals, made of hundreds of relevant paintings. [more inside]
Come for the beaches - stay for the waterboarding
"...the locusts noisily thanked us and turned their jaws toward our crops, swallowing our greed whole..."
In 1958, Chairman Mao started a war. His foe: millions of hungry animals across China, particularly the sparrow. Villages and cities were mobilized to execute the birds en masse. Their crime: pecking away at fields and storehouses, stealing precious grain from the mouths of China's masses. Entire families brandished pots, pans, and other weapons of cacophonous warfare to panic the birds into forced flight, causing millions of them to drop from the skies. [more inside]
Poor Devils
Devil facial tumor disease has ravaged the population of Tasmanian Devils in the last decade. DFTD is a transmissible cancer, i.e. the tumor cells themselves (which differ genetically from their host animal) are the agent responsible. The disease is spread by biting and other contact, and the resulting grotesque tumors interfere with feeding and lead to starvation. Poor immune response may be partially responsible. This is actually not the only such disease: canine transmissible venereal tumor is an analogue that has been known to be contagious since the 19th century. (CTVT, however, gets a proper immune response.) [more inside]
Pencil me in
then we were niggy's band
Saul Williams releases his album with several payment options: $0.00 gets you 192k mp3s, and 5 bucks buys your choice of 192k or 300k mp3s, or FLAC. All DRM free of course. Trent Reznor, who was recently sighted complaining about the insane prices for his last album in new zealand, is to blame. Need a taster? Saul and Trent have leaked a track on pirate bay.
Dork Talk by Stephen Fry
Guys and Dolls revisited
Owen Smith, is a painter in the social realist milieu and has been commissioned among others by The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Atlantic Monthly.
His paintings recall the covers of Pulp magazines and paperback novels of the 1940's and 50's.
EveryScape
EveryScape launched this morning. It's a ground-level mapping service similar to Google's "Street View", only it offers you an "autodrive" feature that automatically moves you through a city or down a ski slope. There are links to information about stores and restaurants in the view and the ability to go inside buildings and look around. It currently features views from Aspen, New York, Boston, and Miami. And of course the obligatory view of a colorful mime with a man-bag. [via]
China Miéville says libertarianism's all at sea
Remember the Freedom Ship? (Previously). Well, it's still no nearer reality. China Miéville reckons it's due to the fact that it's a perfect example of the libertarian fantasy. Some libertarians take issue with his portrayal of the movement. Meanwhile the serious seasteaders think he must be talking about someone else. Maybe one of these guys?
Just like google maps, but more internetty.
The Online Tool for Precision Vectorization
VectorMagic is a new site that uses technology from the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to transform your bitmap images into vector art that can be scaled without becoming blurry of pixelated. Here's the first image I submitted, before and after.
Imaginary cities, the creatures that live in them, and the hats they wear
"Introducing the new Portable Halo, a device that will revolutionize lies." The art of Swedish illustrator Mattias Adolfsson, strongly recommended for fans of Gahan Wilson. Also check out his Flickr set of fictional cityscapes, sketchbook samples, and the rest of his sprawling real/imaginary world.
Nicod Lectures
Since 1993, the Institut Jean Nicod has awarded the annual Jean Nicod Prize to a leading philosopher or cognitive scientist for his or her work in the interdisciplinary study of the mind. The recipient is expected to deliver a series of lectures. The lecture series of this past year's winner, philosopher Stephen Stich, is entitled "Moral Theory Meets Cognitive Science: How Cognitive Science Can Transform Traditional Debates", and is now available online in video form. Also available is the lecture series of the previous year's winner, evolutionary anthropologist Michael Tomasello: "Origins of Human Communication". [more inside]
Guitar + Trampoline
The most important Evangelical you've never heard of
Christianity is not just a series of truths but Truth -- Truth about all of reality. And the holding to that Truth intellectually... brings forth not only certain personal results, but also governmental and legal results.When the Religious Right cruised onto the cultural scene in the late 1970s, the road map was drawn by oddball Pennsylvanian Francis Schaeffer. Generally regarded as the first (perhaps only) Evangelical philosopher, Schaeffer's views on the fundamental clash between Christian and secular belief systems became the talking points for a generation of American Christians. The movement's trajectory, though, left many of Schaeffer's more nuanced beliefs by the wayside. His son's recent writings suggest that it didn't take long for the father of the Religious Right to regret what he'd birthed.
I say play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. Play what you want and let the public pick up on what you are doing, even if it takes them fifteen or twenty years. - Thelonious Sphere Monk
October 28
A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye
The Yamanote Halloween Train vs. Japanese Netizen Rage The Yamanote Halloween Train party was planned to be held on Saturday night in Tokyo. However, sometime on Saturday morning, the Japanese megaforum 2ch.net discovered an English-language post about the event on JapanProbe, and translated the information about it into Japanese, igniting a raging storm of anti-foreign hatred and sending over 10,000 visitors to the popular English-language blog about Japan. Scroll down for an interview with a JR employee about the event. [more inside]
FCC Moves to Change Ownership Rules Again
The FCC, again, moves to loosen ownership rules for television and newspapers. A similar proposal in 2003 drew huge public opposition. This time, there is a narrow window for public comment, ending in mid-November. You can contact the FCC or go to the Common Cause page. [more inside]
Keep on Truckin'
Go Truckin' with Ina Ray Hutton & her Melodears. The dance craze's name was used as double entendre in the song "Trucking My Blues Away" by Blind Boy Fuller. That song's refrain of "Keep On Trucking" has echoed in comics and music. [more inside]
Winemaking
Jack Keller's winemaking site has not only the basics of home winemaking in 5 parts [12345], but also information on more advanced topics, including acidity, blending, and using a hydrometer. Equally interesting is his extensive collection of recipes for making wines out of things other than grapes, including dandelions and other edible flowers, wild plants (including nettles!), cabbages and beets, tea and coffee, mint, pomegranates, and pumpkins. A complete list of recipes is here, if you'd like to click through alphabetically, and a list of specially-requested recipes is here (scroll down a bit).
Gap Unveils New 'For Kids By Kids' Clothing Line
I don't believe you, you're a liar. Play it fucking loud!
While its classical cousin may have been around a little longer, the second edition of the BBC's Electric Proms provided a true smorgasbord of special performances by the likes of Ray Davies, Sigur Rós, Paul McCartney and Mark Ronson - and many more. All performances can be streamed until the end of this week. [more inside]
Things I Have Failed To Masturbate To
The kid can sing.
Five year old boy sings the Koran. So beautiful.
The Honey, The Power, The Light
"To never stop fighting means not knowing victory / So give me blank books to fill up with history" sing Adam Kline and Joanna Newsom in The Honey, The Power, The Light [youtube] [more inside]
Friggin aye
State of the Party-state The ever-excellent Jonathan Ansfield gives his take on the recently concluded Seventeenth Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Ridiculous game winning play from Div. III football
Trinity University won their football game this Saturday on a crazy play, (somewhat reminiscent of "The Play" minus the mayhem of the fans and band rushing the field.) This one looks more like a grade school game of keep away. What happened to the defense??
condom earworm PSA from India
The Condom Song is a charmingly bizarre safe-sex message from India. Music and humor are often used to promote safe sex and pregnancy prevention, alternatives to shock tactics. Bangkok's safe sex theme restaurants represent a slightly more novel approach, a chain called Cabbages and Condoms. Whatever the style, condom promotion is much more mainstream than when the Golden Girls' had their first awkward encounter and British comedians tackled uncomfortable condom language. NSFW
Go Go Mania!
The year 1964 was a watershed period in British music. Before that year, British popular music was barely heard outside of the U.K. But when the Beatles achieved American success, a seemingly endless number of British bands and singers were suddenly able to crack the American market.The features opens with footage from a November, 1963 Beatles concert in Manchester - She Loves You [more inside]
By the end of 1964, some enterprising filmmakers decided to create a cinematic year-in-review to highlight this new wave of British music talent. The result was “Pop Gear,” a strange but jolly little production that serves as a celluloid time capsule for that remarkable musical year.
Language, biodiversity, and a story of salvation
Don Berto’s Garden. "The plants of the ancient Maya whisper their secrets to those who speak a shared language."
Never run after a bus. There'll always be another one.
A 400 year old clam has been slaughtered by ruthless 'scientists'. How much could this clam have told us about history, about longevity, about life? Probably not much--it's a clam.
What's in a Name?
Our notions of names and gender may be showing some 'fluidity.' A long-time trend of male names losing their popularity or even their acceptibility once the same names become popular for girls may be shifting to a new 'gender fluidity.' While it's still true that fewer and fewer boys are named Leslie, Shirley, Kim, Ashley, Shannon, Whitney, or Carol, other names have emerged as unisex monikers: Jordan, Angel, or Peyton. Logan has re-emerged as a more clearly male name. See this article in today's N.Y. Times Magazine. The essay was penned by Sam Kean: is that Samuel or Samantha? Does it matter?
teh cute being fed and feeding others
California Burning
Pictures of California Wildfires. Some fire resources: Fire maps, Official Information and an up to the moment news blog. In related news, Twitter proves to be useful, while anger rages as evidence of arson mounts.
More Photos here and here.
Big wheels keep on turnin'
Suddenly, a man in a vintage hat rides up, hip-hop blaring from a glowing Plexiglas container shaped like a tropical fish set above the back wheel of his bicycle, control lights flashing. Fossil Fool, a rolling rapper from San Francisco who rides the college circuit preaching the benefits of peddling, grabs his microphone, cranks up the volume and starts to rap. Paul Freedman, aka Fossil Fool, is one of the founders of Rock the Bike, which makes Soul Cycles -- bicycle-based, often human-powered hi-fi and PA systems -- for "playing clean, powerful, uplifting music at street festivals and off-grid parties." RTB recently made a mobile DJ booth for Austin's DJ Manny; here's how. Attention, party-throwers: In 2008, you may well be able to rent or borrow a Soul Cycle for your own shindig.
Photos by Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak.
Protecting Whistleblowers, You Bet!
Congress at Work The U.S. House Judiciary Committee sends an email to all persons who had sent messages to its "tip line." The email described the measures the committee was taking to safeguard the tipsters' identities. All the the email recipients' addresses were in the To: field. Oops. [more inside]
Your child was sold into slavery in Japan
NO CUSSING.
Join the No Cussing Club™. Look at some people who don't cuss. Become one of them. Then buy a CD, a T-shirt, and a mood ring type color changer thing about hugs. But not before you learn the story behind it all.
A fly in the ointment
October 27
Trash into treasure
About 15% of the average American's household waste is compostable. Even apartment dwellers can turn their potato peelings and coffee grounds into gorgeous, nutrient-rich plant food with the help of worms. You can even buy the little dudes online!
Once you have your worm farm set up, the big question is "Can I compost this?" You may be surprised at how often the answer is, "Yes!"
"My father was one of the finest sportswriters of his generation. But his legacy is more complicated than that."
Forgive Some Sinner. "With age 70 bearing down hard upon him, Dad had by then written for better than 40 years, during which he had become celebrated, later disgraced, and I would like to think ultimately redeemed... Good as some of his old stories are, it always seemed to me that his own was better than any of them; I only wish he had written it himself." Mark Kram Jr. examines his late father's complicated legacy.
Iwo Jima re-enacted
This series of photographs, Iconic Moments of the 20th Century, was enacted by pensioners in a home for the elderly in Glasgow. Aged volunteers pose in their everyday outfits and in the vicinity of their Home to re-create scenes from well-known historic photographs
The Visible Man
The Visible Man: The Visible Man: An FBI Target Puts His Whole Life Online This piece was particularly fun to write: A short profile of Hasan Elahi, an artist guy who accidentally got put on the feds' watchlists. He realized the best way to keep the FBI off his back was to go totally transparent -- so he started photoblogging everything he does, all day long, to establish a constant alibi.
the gateway to heaven on earth
In Philip Roth's latest novel, Exit Ghost, his literary alter-ego, Nathan Zuckerman, exclaims after hearing Richard Strauss's "Four Last Songs" that "the composer drops all masks and, at the age of 82, stands before you naked. And you dissolve."
Renee Fleming performs Im Abendrot, September, Beim Schlafengehen, Fruhling. Head Butler provides some interesting background on Strauss and the different performances. [more inside]
DM of the Rings
DM of the Rings (comic). The Lord of the Rings if it were a Dungeons and Dragons game. [more inside]
You got your pizza in my Happy Meal!
Where Smaller becomes Greater
Many masterpieces of Persian Art were produced during the period of the Safavid dynasty 1502 - 1736.
Minature paintings developed into a high artform.
A brief history of Muslim Minature Painting.
For Better or For Worse
For Better or For Worse has become a hybrid. Lynn Johnston has been making some changes to FBOFW gearing up for the time when the characters will stop aging in the strip. Unlike most comics which are frozen in time, the characters in For Better or For Worse have gotten older, made changes in their lives, fallen in love, and had children. Some people aren't so happy with this fundamental change in the strip. However, FBOFW is no stranger to controversy. Michael, the oldest child of the Patterson family, had a gay friend who came out in the strip prompting some papers to run completely different strips on the days the homosexuality issue was mentioned. In recent years, however, the internet has been abuzz over the issue of middle child Elizabeth's love life.
Thankfully we can read all about it from youngest child April's perspective.
(Previously)
Tu stultus es and get off my lawn
Dumbening.com: Measuring the Dumbening of America for Like 20 Years. With Special Reports: God Clarifies Stance on Radical Islam, Why Children are Stupid, The Elderly: Pros and Cons, Ten Reasons to Bomb Denmark and Guest Columnist Pat Robertson offers This Week in God's Wrath. Fake news not your thing? Then check out Stupid Children, a humor blog with links to real news stories of people behaving stupidly (last post is from 2006, so maybe people have gotten smarter since then). This rash of humor sites is all well and good you say, but some pretty serious people have dared ask: "Is our children learning?" Columnist Mark Morford [SF Gate] responds with a resounding NO: American Kids are Dumber that Dirt. Though the reaction from the reddit crowd has been swift and severe.
Would you burn a used million dollars from this man?
Strays From the Flock Get a Blog
Armchair atheists are a dime a dozen. For the real deal, meet these former Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians (many of whom used to be ministers or Bible college professors), who offer an (ex-)insider's take on the problems of religious belief.
formal and contemporary
The Young Gallery has an exceptional collection of photographs by both renowned and recently discovered photographers. The feast of visuals includes elegantly haunting images of African wildlife by Nick Brandt, Night Views of cities by Floriane de Lassée, salad vegetables by Viktor Polson, nudes and portraits by Patrick Demarchelier and images of Tibet, Mongolians and Tibetans by Richard Gere.
October 26
The WarGames IMSAI
A (too?) in-depth article on the IMSAI 8080 featured in the movie WarGames. [more IMSAI images and info at 1000bit, the Obsolete Computer Museum, Erik Klein's Vintage Computers, and good ole' Wikipedia]
Ihre Papieren, Bitte!
"How do you deal with fear? Is it safer for them if I act or stay quiet? I don't want to get on a list."
A forgotten gem of the rust belt
The Buffalo State Hospital is a vast complex of moldering Victorian buildings, sitting right in the middle of a residential neighborhood of Buffalo. It is also an architectural gem, not only by Buffalo standards, but for the nation as a whole. It is one of the largest and most complex commissions of New England architect H. H. Richardson, who is known for promulgating his unique, heavy looking stone Romanesque variant of the then dominant Queen Anne style. The Buffalo asylum’s grounds were planned by landscape architect (and designer of Central Park) Fredrick Law Olmsted. [more inside]
Kidnapped
From Our Own Correspondent BBC journalist Alan Johnston gives his account of being kidnapped in Gaza for 114 days. Best in his own voice [mp3]. [more inside]
A well-done "The Band" fan site
The Band is one of the more user-friendly fan sites I have come across. What I appreciate most is the (unadvertised) chord charts. They are not always right but they are often not wrong. Subtle, theatrical chromaticism, your name is Mozart Robbie Robertson.
Foxy!
Water, water everywh—Oh dear.
So you've all heard about how global warming will lead to rising sea-levels, but what about falling freshwater levels? [more inside]
Opera by Gorillaz about Monkey
Damon & Jamie's Excellent Adventure is a documentary following the Gorillaz' boys - Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett - as they attempt to make an opera based on classic Chinese novel Journey to the West [or for them - the 70s television show Monkey]. The documentary follows the two year process with a decent section on Albarn's approach to learning a new form of music.
peers over parents
So he didn't read the baby books! BFD says Judith Rich Harris, author of the "No Two Alike", and originator of a controversial theory about personality development. Namely, that when it comes to our kids' adult personalities, what we did as parents doesn't really matter much at all.
Cuba: an accidental revolution
Cuba: The Accidental Revolution. Hasta la revolucion ? Maybe, but some revolution is dictated more by need than by politics. In this
documentary, we are shown how Cuba is converting from oil-subsidized agricolture to organic agricolture with remarkable results. The presence of a police state isn't conveniently forgotten, as much as the facts that public education, public healthcare and limited, regulated free enterprise markets are helping Cubans in the transition from the illusion of freedom in a subsidized economy to a far less comfortable and rich, but more sustainable and independant economy.
Curiosities of Literature
Cat Found!!!
Cat Found!!! Not very friendly, I think he might be scared.
Ben Libet
Recently passed Benjamin Libet conducted some famous experiments that had incredible implications on how we think about free will and consciousness. The results of these experiments are open to interpretation.
Slice it!
Flash Friday: Gravity Golf
Actual, actual, actual vampires
Champion flash animator Pascal Campion
Flash Friday Fun: The frenetic, fun flash animations of Pascal Campion.
My favorites: The Door, the Saul Bass like les tomates and the bouncing ball brilliance of Catnip. [more inside]
My favorites: The Door, the Saul Bass like les tomates and the bouncing ball brilliance of Catnip. [more inside]
Georgia AG insists the sentence was cruel but totally normal
Georgia's Supreme Court has agreed that Genarlow Wilson's 10-year prison sentence without the possibility of parole and accompanying lifetime sex offender status was cruel and unusual. Previously on MeFi. [more inside]
Chewing on the Red White and Blue
Love American Style Season One Volume One is coming to DVD on November 20th. The series ran on ABC-TV from 1969-1974, was nominated for an emmy for best comedy series (won for music) and often featured pilots that had been turned down by the networks. Some would later be picked up after airing on Love American Style; two such shows were Happy Days and Wait til Your Father Gets Home. The original theme song was performed by the Cowsills, here is their live version years later. As a kid, I actually hoped my dating life might be fun and humorous like the show, no such luck.
When salting water for cooking use 1 tablespoon of salt for every 4 quarts of water
The only recipe for boiling salted water you'll ever need. Well, the reviews are entertaining, anyway.
Voters get Santorumed
Pennsylvania polling places regarding September 08 elections to have everything but voters.
Yet more pics of plants.
One whose "putrid-smelling blossom attracts herds of carrion beetles" and seven more similar charmers. Some fearsome vegetables. A very lovely "previously." (From Taz, circa 2003.) Some plants that've been given new, animated features and a soundtrack. And finally, this: it has to be the most annoying website in history, but it presents some very nifty ideas for vegetable-based costuming you might be able to use for Halloween, plus Richard Simmons is featured. Click on "fashion" for the lettuce gowns, tomato hats and just all kinda fabulous Carmen Mirandesque madness.
Apple presses Ctrl-Eject on Cease & Desist machine for student's iPod ad
Meet the FEMA
FEMA Press conference regarding the California fires has everything but reporters.
Jazz on the Screen
Jazz on the Screen "This searchable filmography documents the work of some 1,000 major jazz and blues figures in over 14,000 cinema, television and video productions."
Don't Believe the Hype
The Internet Hype Machine Bubble. Idolator has an introspective on the boom and bust cycle of the online indie music scene, focusing on the band Black Kids, who with only one EP under their belt, are already being hyped to an extreme extent. With the conversation taking prominence over the music itself, are we seeing the dark side of the Cluetrain? [more inside]
Seoul Takers
Halloween Subway Where? Korea, of course!
The anxiety of influence
Sibling rivalry. Meet Edward Mapplethorpe, photographer. Yes, he's related to the other one. They're brothers -- which has actually made things harder for Edward than you might think.
In his latest show, just wrapping up at NYC's Foley Gallery, Edward does amazing work using darkroom techniques alone: "The exhibition is composed of unique works solely created in the darkroom without the use of traditional cameras."
(This one is my fave from the current show; of his earlier work, I particularly like this one and this one [nsfw].)
The software patent cold war is getting less cold
[Patent Lawsuit Filter] On Wednesday Sun Microsystems announced a counter suit against Network Appliance, wherein they will draw on their "defensive portfolio" which is "one of the largest patent arsenals on the internet". They are going to be requesting a permanent injunction to remove all of NetApp's filer products from the marketplace, and also seeking monetary damages (half of which they've pledged to donate to the Software Freedom Law Center and Peer to Patent Project). Last month, NetApp sued Sun for patent infringements in ZFS. Earlier this month in Texas, the first ever patent infringement lawsuit against Linux distributors was filed. [more inside]
Supra-terranean Homesick Blues,
Supra-terranean Homesick Blues: Somewhere up there in the clouds, there exists a town called Shillong (wiki), a quaint picturesque town that is often called India's rock-capital. Every year, they celebrate Bob Dylan's birthday with a big bash, a splash that evokes nostalgia, piety, devotion and hard cash. This year though, they'll celebrate Bob Dylan with an even bigger bash, the world's largest strumming session. [more inside]
Do Ya Think My Caboose Is Sexy?
"It means more to me to be on the cover of Model Railroader than to be on the cover of Rolling Stone." Rod Stewart has spent 12 years, and thousands of dollars, working on his model train hobby. Via. [more inside]
October 25
Comics by Shintaro Kago
Abstraction by Shintaro Kago is distilled surrealism, a fourth wall-smashing comic that amazes at every turn. (NSFW) [more inside]
Freely-available textbooks
The Soapbox.
The Soapbox is a collection of photographs, texts of speeches, transcripts of debates and political ads from Australian election campaigns (both State and Federal) from 1901 to the present day. More materials will be added when they become available.
Modern Plastic Surgery
Be a Music Faun Yourself. A sign of the popularity of this operation is that in big cities so-called Faun-Clubs are founded one after another, where entrance is only allowed with pointed ears. The reverberating success of this new look is supported by more and more celebrities with pointed ears, amongst whom we can find not only musicians, but, for example, models, as well. via
CalSky map to find Comet Holmes/17P
Here's an excellent map if you want to see Comet Holmes/17P tonight (the comet that, until a couple of nights ago you would have needed a pretty good-sized telescope to even see. Then (out of the blue, as it were) it unexpectedly brightened by over 1,000,000 times to become an easy object for your naked eye –even with the nearly full moon in the sky). I did not know about CalSky but (despite some less-than-attractive web design) is truly the best of the web for online astronomy info and sky maps! [more inside]
Hot Pants Homo
Gay Pulp. Enjoy Queens in Drag. Thrill at The Killer Queens. Puzzle about The Flesh Mast in this fascinating (and mildly NSFW) photoset from one Miss Magnolia Thunderpussy.
The (smart) rats have left the ship
In the wake of Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal, several of the paper's top reporters have left for safer ground. Among them is Tara Parker-Pope, who joined the New York Times on October 3rd. Her blog, Well, currently accounts for three of the paper's top ten e-mailed stories: in addition to number 1, Five Easy Ways to Go Organic, she has number 5, Shhh...My Child Is Sleeping (in My Bed, Um, With Me), and number 8, Drug-Resistant Staph: What You Need to Know. Touché Rupert.
Equine nasal strips
Nasal strips for horses. I thought it was a parody when I saw it on Cardhouse, but no, they exist. Now your steed can nicker and snort as if with nostrils of Teflon.
Waltz for Debby.
Sad, head-down legendary jazz piano. (Single-link YouTube)
More Bill and the Wiki. [Previously]
Hopefully more of a reminder than a double.
Ask MetaFilter is now obsolete!
zuni food
James Beard Chef of the Year (2004) Judy Rodgers espouses the benefits of salting early. She is the chef-owner of the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, and the author of the incredible Zuni Cafe Cookbook. Her Roast Chicken with Bread Salad is a revelation, and really not that hard to do at home.
Fly your freak flag.
We Are Multicolored. Remix the flags of the world.
Vibrations make the world
String Theory in two minutes or less, or if the Reader's Digest Condensed version of string theory is too terse, spend an hour with Dr. Michio Kaku and Brian Greene. (previously) (via /. and WBAI)
Coptic Book Art
Daniel Essig creates wooden-covered art books and book-based sculptures. "Using a fourth-century binding style known as Ethiopian style Coptic, he creates mixed-media book structures that incorporate unusual woods, handmade paper, found objects, fossils, and mica. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he has a studio at the Grovewood Gallery." [Via MonkeyFilter, which has links to other book artists.]
Manifold Menus
Manufold Menus [4.4MB PDF - mirror]: Cooking on train motors, including recipes, cooking vessels (really, plastic bags and Gladware) pictures of where to stash the food, and resulting dishes.
The total value of all your mines, mills, money bins, and so fourth is one multiplujillion, nine obsquatumatillion, six hundred and twenty-three dollars and sixty-two cents!
A miniature of Scrooge McDuck's money bin. (in the words of the model maker) This is a set of images documenting a model of the world's richest duck's money bin, built by me, using blueprints created by the great Don Rosa and Dan Shane.And remember Carl Barks - the mind behind the idea of a man storing all his money in a giant concrete bin.
evolutionary lit crit
Mister Rogers talks about games
Mister Rogers asks a kid how to play Donkey Kong. Later in the clip, Keith David shows up and demonstrates how the buttons in an arcade machine work. [Via.]
What did the Potato say to the Onion…
Potato and Onion are the stars of their very own Web Comic! It started with an off-color quasi joke and
never let up. They Dressed Up
Wore Disguises,
Got a hip new look and even
fought zombies…
With Zombies!
Asian Traditional Archery
The Asian Traditional Archery Network! Atrocious, frame-y site design hides oddles of cool articles about: The Chinese repeating crossbow, archives from Instinctive Archer magazine, the Buryat bow of Mongolia, and why shooting nurtures the mind's eye. Perhaps the best indication of the depth and breadth of the site can be seen on this page of excerpts from the ATARN newsletter. There's also a small picture archive, but there are a lot of other pictures and illustrations scattered over the site.
Come on now! This is America. Time is money!
RC Model Crashes [youtube] B-52, P-51, RC Model crash filmed with an on-board camera, Monoplane crash, Thunderbolt crash, Dogfight and mid-air collision
It's entirely possible her cunning plans are still underway...
He owned a chain of hair salons. She was a computer science student at University of Leicester. Together, they stared at many a kid from the games section of their local toy store, challenging them to try a grown-up game. Now you can find out what happened to the couple on the Mastermind box. (Via.)
Scientists are getting a bit nervous.
In what it calls "the final wake-up call to the international community," a UN report (press release, website, 21 MB PDF) warns that damage to the environment is reaching a "point of no return" and now threatens "humanity's very survival." Oh, c'mon, tell us what you really think.
extreme survivors
The world’s toughest animal. Tardigrades, are sometimes called water bears [embedded video] or moss piglets. They are the coolest things on 6 to 8 legs and are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Freeze them, boil them, dry them, expose them to open space & radiation - after 200 years they'll still be alive! And some have just come back from a a rocket trip. [more inside]
Chris Chester, B and The Providence of a Sparrow
'There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes?'Chris Chester, author of Providence of a Sparrow: Lessons from a Life Gone to the Birds, a meditation on his life with B, an English Sparrow which he raised from a hatchling fallen from the nest, died suddenly early this past Spring. His nephew Marc Mowery has created Chris Chester - born May 14, 1952 died April 17, 2007 to his memory and has posted 6 of 8 short videos of Chris and Rebecca Chester and the sparrow named B on YouTube.
And here is The Sorrow and the Sparrow: The Life and Death of Chris Chester
Excerpt and video links within [more inside]
Yo Adrian!
If you like boxing (or "Rocky") you might enjoy this youtube video of the Arturo Gatti - Mickey Ward fights recut to resemble Rocky II. [more inside]
Turnabout is fair play.
Ladies and Gentleman, introducing Chiasmodon niger, the Great Swallower!
No, not that one. (NSFW) This is ... The Great Swallower!! Step right up ladies and gentlemen!
Yes, sonny, I know this has been posted on the internets before, g'wan home, kid, y'bother me... Step right up! The Great Swallower, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Farecast top cities Christmas index
An interesting post detailing how airline prices for the holidays have been going up faster than last year.
Naomi Klein approves of none of these
Five Easy Ways to Go Organic
Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran
The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That the White House Doesn't Want You to Know [print version] profiles former NSC Middle East policy experts Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann and how the Bush administration turned down a March 2003 peace offer from Iran. [more inside]
Who would you slap?
Who would you slap? (audio NSFW) Osama? Bush? Still want to slap Blair? Maybe Paris? Jerry? Maggie? [Thanks urban75 editor!]
Growing up and living with Crohn's disease
Political courage
Today is the fifth anniversary of Senator Paul Wellstone's death. Wellstone's friend and Senate colleague Mark Dayton writes in today's St. Paul Pioneer Press that Wellstone's vocal opposition to the Iraq War in the days leading up to his death in an airplane crash offers an example of rare political courage.
To Read or Not to Read
MindPapers - David Chalmers organizes, streamlines and expands his collection of papers related to mind and neuroscience.
Facebook to blue screen shortly
Microsoft buys stake in Facebook. Microsoft has paid $240m (£117m) for a 1.6% stake in Facebook that values the hugely popular social networking site at $15bn (£7.3bn). Facebook spurned an offer from Microsoft's rival Google, which was also keen to invest the site.
Microsoft will also sell internet ads for Facebook outside the United States as part of the deal that took several weeks of negotiating. Mark Zuckerberg started the online social networking site in his Harvard University dorm room less than four years ago. [more inside]
feedback.
No nudes is good nudes?
Nudism, in the modern, Western, sense seems to have started in Germany (NSFW) back around the turn of the century, and despite the efforts of the Nazis to eradicate the practice Free Body Culture (FKK), as the Germans call it, enjoyed great popularity in East Germany, the Communists thought it expressed solidarity, and everyone else thought it reflected West German freedoms they were being denied. After the reunification it turns out the West Germans aren't so hot on FKK after all...
In Germany opponents say nudism is disorderly, in the USA they say its child porn in disguise (SFW) Laws in the USA vary widely. In Arkansas its not only illegal to be nude, but its also illegal to talk about nudism, while in New York its legal for women to be topless, as long as they aren't being paid for it. As usual the gods send mixed messages.
The Williamsburg Avenger
When two Williamsburg hipsters met at a party, they exchanged more than just telephone numbers. Hell hath no fury like a hipster infected. Meet the Williamsburg Avenger. (via Gawker)
French Theory
This post isn't about the great Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine - too many guitar posts recently - it isn't about the Belgian singer Katerine (nothing to say). It is about the French singer Philippe Katerine, who has been changing the way lyrics are written, as well as giving a whole range of new topics to French song. With Je vous emmerde (F*** you) he explains what's on a loser's mind. Excuse-moi is about the things a man focuses on during sexual intercourse in order to avoid early ejaculation. The individual struggling with an meaningless society is always present : Borderline (warcraft version with English subtitles). His lists and his humor clearly link his work with the texts of Poets like Raymond Queneau, Boris Vian (and Serge Gainsbourg), or the prose of Georges Perec. He can be Elegiac, Paradoxical, Funky, prosaic, he's always twofold.
I wants to get funked up.
From 50's doo-wop crooner (and hairstylist extraordinaire) to 60's soul stepper to 70's psychedelic funk overlord and beyond, Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under A Groove takes a loving, informative and very entertaining look at the career of the legendary George Clinton and his unstoppable, hydra-headed funk machine. [more inside]
October 24
The Final Girl
There's been a lot of discussion about the Final Girl,and while some champion the moniker, others decry her infantilization.
poop LOL
Catherine Roraback
Catherine Roraback was the only woman in her class at Yale Law School. She was a founder of the Connecticut ACLU, and a president of the National Lawyers Guild. During her long career she defended labor organizers, immigrants, civil rights organizers, Black Panthers, and maybe most famously, Estelle Griswold before the United States Supreme Court in the case that legalized the distribution of birth control. She died this week at age 87. [more inside]
Umm, would you re-position my beef pellets?
Staging a UFO crash to attract Men in Black.
What Really Happens When Women Rule?
"This will be a woman’s world, and men will have to learn to fit in." The Wilson Quarterly examines the historical, cultural, and sexual implications of matriarchy. Via.
Taiwan military scraps loving hug policy
"We are not that close!" The Taiwan military scraps its loving hug policy for new recruits. Soldiers need hugs, and perhaps insurgents do too?
Archaeography
"Proposition. We are all archaeologists, even if we don't realize it. An archaeological sensibility - working on what is left of the past, heritage, museums, collecting culture, antiques, retro styling, family genealogy, local history, tourists visiting the past - is a vital part of the contemporary zeitgeist. Archaeography and Archaeographer are photoblogs that explore the connections between photography and archaeology." Mining a similar vein is The Nonist's Archeography Project.
Justice -- The Ultimate 80's Super Band
Justice "live" on Jimmy Kimmel -- An interesting solution to the problem of 'performing' electronic music.
Wild Turkeys: Pigeons 2.0
Wild turkeys up to 4 feet tall are strolling on the sidewalks of Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline, Mass. Animal control officer Pierre Verrier suggests shooing turkeys away with a purse. But some people need to be near the turkeys.
Songs in the (Off) Key of Life
She thinks it started here, but actually it goes way back. There are some undoubted classics, and of course this posse is famous.
Usually it's unintentional (previously), but a person could make it their personal signature, which could get old. Not to mention dangerous (previously but thankfully not since).
Cardboard Tube Fighting League
TubeDuel The CTFL was created out of a desperate need to better train and arm citizens with cardboard tubes. The goal of the CTFL is to provide organized cardboard tube based events that help spread cardboard awareness.
Memory and Sleep
Mapping Memory. "Turn the human brain upside down and all around to see how memories are saved (or lost)." National Geographic has a great interactive 3D map of the brain as part of an excellent feature on memory. [more inside]
Must See TV?
Wanna sell your TV show idea? There is no shortage of advice out there, or contests. Here are the winning pilots picked from this year's New York TV Festival, sort of a Sundance for TV newbies.
Homemade Halloween Candy
Make your own Halloween candy bars. The take on a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is superb. However, to temper chocolate properly, you'll need an accurate kitchen scale. The behind-the-scenes video is pretty cool.
Pouring from the annals of government design
Remember the new, inscrutable license plate put out by the state of Oklahoma commemorating 9/11? Well, apparently the CIA can design logos pretty well too. Presenting the Terrorist Buster.
Layer Tennis
Layer Tennis. Head-to-head graphic artist competition!
MST3K: The Shorts
During its run, Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed on over 50 short films. Almost all of them are now on YouTube or Google Video. See the list (shamelessly cribbed from here) inside for links. [more inside]
A History of Pedestrian Crossings
A history of pedestrian crossings. Complete with exciting Flash simulations! More exciting histories here.
Google widgets
Top 10 Google Tools you forgot all about. Though some of these (Google Books, Google Trends and Google Base) have been mentioned a few times on MeFi, there are still some diamonds in the rough like Google Alerts, Google Code search, Google Notebook, Google's latest/experiment ideas and Flight Simulator in Google Earth.
What chefs crave
My Last Supper Famous chefs and their final meals. [slideshow]
Global Theme Issue: Poverty
The Public Library of Science has collected articles about global poverty as part of the Council of Science Editors Global Theme Issue on the subject. While many of the articles listed at the CSE site are not online, some journals, like the American Journal of Nursing have their articles available.
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
COW! ON! AMERICA! Cows have invaded America! Until the 1850s cows had invaded our families and now they want back in! They dominate our roadways! Who can escape their mystical dancing, their skills at running, their mastery of computers, and their lovely parades. They plot our destruction, corrupt our children with fan clubs and feed on the living. They even went global! When will the maddness end???
stretchable electronics
Electronic, animated tattoos [scroll down to video, which is nsfw]. The latest body jewelry, Skintile Electronic Sensing Jewelry. [more inside]
Bring on Noise.
Director Henry Bean has written and directed a new movie, Noise. It's about the bad kind of noise: car alarms that won't stop going off, garbage trucks that wake you up, endless horns honking. You know the pain. [more inside]
In the future, everybody will be wrong for 15 minutes
What happened to the future? Forbes has a terrific special feature on the future that offers a smörgåsbord of cool things. In addition to the usual predictions and "whither the videophone" discussions, there are also interviews with futurists such as David Brin, Robert Sawyer, Stuart Brand, and Nicholas Negroponte about their mistakes and surprises (as well as an article on the value of futurists and one on why you don't want to make futurists angry). On the fiction side, it features short stories by Cory Doctorow, Max Barry, and Warren Ellis, all dealing with the American workplace in 2027 during a financial crisis, as well as a discussion of nine great books about the future. It ends with a quiz about your ability to predict what will happen next year - Forbes will send you your score in January 2009.
Hey Jerry, would you like a piece of cheese?
Creative Cardboard
The Cardboard art of Chris Gilmour.
Rave Culture In North Carolina
Rave Culture In North Carolina
See also Digital music and subculture: Sharing files, sharing styles [more inside]
See also Digital music and subculture: Sharing files, sharing styles [more inside]
Bradypus lotharius, amirite?
I bet you fall in bed too easily with the beautiful girls who are shyly brave and you sell yourself as a man to save but all the money in the world is not enough
Liz Phair has gone from indie rock's princess to indie rock's bête noire over the last few years. But way, way before she was any of those, she was a just another post-collegiate twentysomething who had moved back into her parent's house and who recorded odes to Speed Racer and parodies of "Wild Thing" into her 4 track tape recorder to pass the time. [more inside]
guitar player
Sometimes you've got a song or a tune but something's missing : call Mike Stern, he could add some stuff.
Down with the old folks at... MySpace.
Each of the following MySpace Music pages features bios and/or photos and/or videos and/or miscellaneous related materials and/or up to four songs by each of the following Old Time, Traditional, Appalachian folk (and related) artists: Lowe Stokes, Clarence Ashley, Charlie Poole, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, Roanoke Jug Band, Roscoe Holcomb, Hobart Smith, The Weems String Band, Burnet & Rutherford, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, John Masters, Dock Boggs, Tampa Joe & Macon Ed, William Stepp, Buddy Thomas, Buell Kazee, Isidore Soucy, John Salyer, Cousin Emmy, Luther Strong, Elizabeth Cotten, Fred Cockerham, G.B. Grayson, Melvin Wine, Lewis Brothers, Uncle Dave Macon, George Lee Hawkins and Wilmer Watts. And here's some general Old Time (etc.) pages, featuring various artists: Dust To Digital, Traditional Music of Beech Mountain and North Carolina Folklife Institute. [more inside]
October 23
100 miles in 24 hours - can your horse do that?
The Western States Trail Ride, more commonly known as the Tevis Cup, is an equestrian competition held annually in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. It begins near Squaw Valley, and ends in Auburn - a distance of 100 miles, to be covered in under 24 hours. [more inside]
Nerd It Through The Grapevine
Raisin Hell, a tale of fourth-grade Halloween woe by Eric Feezell. "I was deep in thought, mulling over ideas for a Halloween costume, a fresh, heart-stopping one. Something that had never been done before... Suddenly I witnessed something stupendous. Instantly, any ounce of reason contained in my young mind evaporated. I saw a California Raisins commercial." For reference: a list of California Raisins commercials on YouTube.
WYLD CANADA!
WYLD CANADA! 120 red-hot slabs of '60's teen garage nastiness from The Great White North (and a fifth volume here.) All the Canuck garage rawk you could ever want, from 49th Parallel to The Witness Inc. [more inside]
a suburban counterterrorist
Behind Enemy Lines With a Suburban Counterterrorist "In fact, it's distinctly possible that Rossmiller, alone at her computer, has a better track record than the Justice Department. "
One man, one vote. Chuck Norris is The Man, he has The Vote.
Sorry, Americans, the 2008 presidential contest is over, Chuck Norris endorses Mike Huckabee for president. Also, here's Chuck's plan for his presidency.
My, Easter eggs aren't what they used to be in 1995.
YES on Sound Transit, NO to RTID
Proposition 1 - Sound Transit & RTID: Dan Savage is for it ("I want 50 miles of light rail so bad, I don’t give a shit if they pave 180 miles with baby mice," sorta), while the Sierra Club is against ("It wants to support the Sound Transit/light rail portion of the ballot issue, but not the Regional Transportation Improvement District part, which seeks more money to expand and repair roads and highways"). On November 6, voters in Washington's King, Pierce and Snohomish counties will decide.
Wake Up Cat
Before Kid Nation, there was Robbers Cave
"In the summer of 1954, twenty-two fifth-grade boys were taken out to a campground at Robbers Cave State Park, Oklahoma. [...] Ostensibly it was an unremarkable summer camp. [...] what they had really done for two and a half weeks was unwittingly take part in an elaborate and fascinating psychological experiment." [more inside]
Pencil pushers - Pencil collectors
The Art of Sharpening the Pencil (You've GOT to check out the bizarre pencil sharpener at the bottom of the page. "You'll poke your eye out!"). [more inside]
Hello Cleveland!
Dennis Kucinich had a UFO encounter. [one link newsfilter]. "The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him."
I guess this sort of puts him in the company of other delusional nutjobs that have seen giant UFOs.
Please Allow Me to Introduce My Bug
They keep doing this: 1869: European Gypsy Moth - thank you, Leopold Trouvelot! 1956: Africanized Bee - thank you, Prof.Warwick E. Kerr! 1957: Cactus Moth - thanks, unknown Caribbean cactus-hater! 1978: Asian Harlequin Ladybug (previously on MetaFilter) - thanks, USDA scientists! [more inside]
The Worst Mayor In America
He once stopped a school bus on a busy interstate because he “needed a hug” from the kids inside. He’s been known to strap weapons to his chest and leg that he has no authority to carry or conceal, then wear them in public. He once bulldozed an elderly woman’s house, promising to build her a better one. He then forgot to build it. He recruited a team of kids to torch a row of dilapidated shotgun houses, without clearance or first turning off the utilities. Meet The Worst Mayor In America.
The Superset
Out of the fire, into the flood
In Chapter 3 of his 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning book The Control of Nature, John Mcphee describes the catastrophe from debris flows following wild fires in the Los Angeles area in 1978. [more inside]
Smile, Mahtha
Northeast Historic Film is the best of quirky Maine. They archive home movies, collect postcards of New England movie houses, and study depictions of New England in major films. Browsing the list of collections is tantalizing; if only some of these were available as clips or on YouTube. They're one of many archives preserving home movies. Also.
No dearth of mirth today
Happy 6010th birthday, world! Technically, God created the world (or possibly the entire universe?) the night before Sunday, October 23rd, 4004 BCE, but the 23rd is the day that some Young Earth Creationists still hold to be the Earth's birthday. Anglican Archbishop James Ussher arrived at this date in his 1650 magnum opus, Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti, and while many other dates have been interpolated from the Pentateuch, Ussher's has become the best known, probably because (starting in 1701, at the behest of Anglican Bishop William Lloyd) his chronology was included in copies of the King James Bible (and, centuries later, in editions of the Scofield Reference Bible). [more inside]
The horse is out of the barn
Most have forgotten Abdallah Higazy, but he's proceeded with his lawsuit against the FBI. In an interesting twist, the details of the threats made against his family by FBI Agent Michael Templeton have been classified. Sadly for the Second Circuit, they released the unredacted version briefly before withdrawing and replacing it with the classified decision. Good on How Appealing for keeping the opinion online. [more inside]
Welcome to Guardian America.
Welcome to Guardian America "So what is Guardian America, what makes a British newspaper think that Americans will want to imbibe its view of America and the world, and why, having decided to undertake such an improbable project, would the paper place it in my hands? Fine questions. Let's explore." [more inside]
Where the wild things are
Build your wild self using a flash game from the New York zoos and aquarium and the wildlife conservation society. [more inside]
WHAM! BIFF! OW!!
Storming the Pink Palace
Amazing Spider-Man: 100,000. Shonen Jump: 250,000
Wired has a nice history of manga in the US available on their website in PDF format. Westerners: remember to read from back to front, or you'll spoil the story for yourself! (Via.)
Warming Climate Fuels Mega-Fires
Warming Climate Fuels Mega-Fires (11-minute video) 60-Minutes reports. "Recently there has been an enormous change in Western fires. In truth, we've never seen anything like them in recorded history. It appears we're living in a new age of mega-fires -- forest infernos ten times bigger than the fires we're used to seeing."
Phonetics
Phonetics for beginners: play around with phonemes, start with the chart.
The Worst Swearword in the World
Jon Ronson decides "I'm going to tell my son the worst swearword in the world". His follow up article is also interesting. Incidentally, his "Bad Science" colleague from The Guardian did uncover a list of the worst swearwords from the BBC no less (and previously)
October 22
Folktunes.org - The Folktunes Archive for teaching and learning.
Viola Lee Blues by Cannon's Jug Stompers
The House Carpenter - Clarence Ashley
Old Dan Tucker - Judge Sturdy's Orchestra
Minglewood Blues - Cannon's Jug Stompers
Coo Coo Bird - Clarence Ashley
Sally Gooden - Eck Robertson on fiddle
The Worried Blues - Samantha Bumgarner
Dark Holler - Clarence Ashley
Cocaine Habit Blues - The Memphis Jug Band
All are from Folktunes.org, a list of annotated links to mp3s at the Internet Archive with lyrics and history on each page. It's like a functional annotated academic SomeOfTheCoolest78sAttheInternetArchiveFilter .
The House Carpenter - Clarence Ashley
Old Dan Tucker - Judge Sturdy's Orchestra
Minglewood Blues - Cannon's Jug Stompers
Coo Coo Bird - Clarence Ashley
Sally Gooden - Eck Robertson on fiddle
The Worried Blues - Samantha Bumgarner
Dark Holler - Clarence Ashley
Cocaine Habit Blues - The Memphis Jug Band
All are from Folktunes.org, a list of annotated links to mp3s at the Internet Archive with lyrics and history on each page. It's like a functional annotated academic SomeOfTheCoolest78sAttheInternetArchiveFilter .
Roxanne Shanté: Who Needs a Royalty Check
Roxanne Shanté may be the only person whose Wikipedia entry lists her occupation, truthfully, as "rapper, psychologist." In the credits for the Beef 3 DVD she explains how her record contract's throwaway education clause paid for her to get her PhD. She also shares the backstory of Roxanne's Revenge. Some more classic Shanté: with a skinny Biz Markie in 1986, BDP vs. Juice Crew, an old Wack It video. [via]
Donald Fauntleroy Duck
Splendid chap, both of them
The Two Doctors: "David Tennant's Tenth Doctor is set to meet Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in a special scene commissioned for BBC One's Children in Need." [more inside]
Just paddle on down to Aintry
War and Deliverance [Original format] How "an old movie may offer perspective on American attitudes behind the invasion of Iraq." By Christopher Dickey, son of the man who wrote the novel Deliverance.
Step 2: Flatten the baby before actually beginning the hugging process.
San Diego burns
The San Diego area is in grave danger right now from two major fires being fanned by Santa Ana winds. The SD Union Tribune is maintaining a special Google Map in real time showing what's burned, and what's in danger, who's supposed to evacuate, and where they're supposed to go.
RIP: Killing Joke's Paul Raven
Paul Raven, bassist of seminal industrial post-punk outfit Killing Joke, has died after suffering from a heart attack at his home in Geneva, Switzerland.
United Visual Artists
Interview with United Visual Artists: Anyone who saw Massive Attack's 100th Window tour will remember the amazing 'stream of data' graphics they used on stage, these guys did that and other work for the likes of U2 and Basement Jaxx
Valerie Plame v. The CIA
Wilson et al v. McConnell et al. This site has all the legal documents surrounding Valerie Plame's legal case against the CIA over her new book. CIA censors blacked out 10 percent of the copy, as can seen in this excerpt from the book, and Plame is not allowed to speak freely in her interviews. [Via No Quarter.] [more inside]
the doctor fish
Garra Rufa treatment, video, before and after pics. Fish that will eat you alive and make you healthy, "when you get over the ick factor, the nibbling can have a calming affect". [more inside]
Peter Jackson Does WWI
make the logo bigger
Why is the new NYC taxi logo so ugly? The bumpy design process probably had a lot to do with it. The Times invited eight designers to try improving on it. Perhaps you can do better? (Ob. soundtrack)
Van Halen Off Key
The worst sounding thing ever? Van Halen, on a show of their reunion tour in North Carolina, attempting to match up their pre-recorded background synths for "Jump" with their live instruments & vocals. The pre-recorded material is accidentally being played back at a higher pitch, approximately 1.5 semitones sharp of the key from the guitar/vocals.
UK Under Seige From A Plague of Cannibal Ladybirds
They bite, they stain, they squeak, they pheromone. Looks like they've taken Brixton. Collect them up and send them to the Professor, or let the Harlequin Survey know. Here's what they look like and where they came from. Dammit, now we've got your ladybugs.
Who are the world's best manufacturers of red tape?
The US may be the economic superpower, and China the new manufacturing powerhouse, but there is one industry in which Africa still leads the world: the manufacture of red tape. The World Bank releases its 2008 Doing Business report (overview, pdf) on the ease of, well, doing business. The USA is pushed into third by plucky New Zealand and Singapore but overall Eastern Europe has overtaken East Asia as the most business-friendly environment behind high-income OECD countries. [more inside]
Post Peak Oil Post
"The world is at the beginning of a structural change of its economic system. This
change will be triggered by declining fossil fuel supplies and will influence almost
all aspects of our daily life."
The new Oil Report from Energy Watch Group makes a strong case that we have now passed peak oil. [more inside]
This word, crucifixion, I don't think it means what you think it means...
"The Passion narrative is a coded description of the attempted rape of Jesus by pygmies." -- David S. Katz in his book The Occult Tradition, discussing the, uh, theozoological work of völkisch "philosopher" Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels (1874-1954). Oh, he also has Firepower 4+ (pdf). [more inside]
some amazing contemporary guitarists from the United States
Pushing the envelope and changing the frame within which improvisational jazz has evolved for years is the focus of many contemporary jazz musicians. As far as the guitar is concerned, merging Hendrix's legacy with be-bop and the rhythms of popular music has been a primary objective. This can be traced back to the guitar of Pete Cosey in Miles Davis's groups of the 70'S. Jean-Paul Bourelly has been directly influenced by him, and Dave Fiuczynski's group, The Headless Torsos, pays its dues to Miles here. The rhythm concept behind such a shift is explained by wayne Krantz at the outset of this documentary. One can hear how close it is of Kevin Eubanks solo playing. Other guitarists of interest : Mitch Stein, Oz Noy, Charlie Hunter.
Some faaabulous music videos.
Now that it's OK2BGAY, you can totally meet up with other dudes for Soccer Practice and hardly anyone cares. Can I get a What What?
"A French chef in Marseilles taught me this."
Chef Gordon Ramsay cooks up a cup of tea, drinks Spunk with Ricky Gervais, and teaches Jonathan Ross to cook a lobster properly (language NSFW).
Open Content Alliance Digitizes Library Collections
The Open Content Alliance poses a threat to Google and Microsoft's competing library digitization projects. OCA was founded by the Internet Archive, whose main claim to fame is the Wayback Machine, designed to archive the internet's web history. OCA's mission is to open the nation's library collections to universal web search by digitizing books and making them as widely accessible as possible. [more inside]
October 21
Start me up
Windows Startup Sounds - 1.0 to 98 to ME to Vista watch. A piano composition incorporating the sound effects heard in Windows. A different Windows remix (All YT). To get embarrassed at a public library, press here. To disable, press here. Previously-posted I’m sure: Windows noises & Icon Wars.
solar chic
The Solar Decathlon is a just-completed competition in which 20 teams of college and university students competed to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. View a photo gallery or take video tours of the homes. Inhabitat has been blogging the event - here's their view of Germany's winning entry. [more inside]
Pachinko! (Bring the Noise).
Tokyo-Ga: this excerpt from a Wim Wenders film offers an interesting little glimpse into the world of pachinko, a gambling obsession for so many in Japan. But while most are gazing hypnotically into the noisy little machines in order to win prizes or money, others are circuit bending them to make them even noisier. [more inside]
WE WILL FIND HIM
Find He-man! SEPTEMBER 14 - SARAH saw He-Man slicking his hair back, using the fountain water at Madison Square Park. The once dull, dirty, water is now a sparkling lush blue, and is filled with rare tropical fish.
Hey Hey We're the Monkeys
Serious monkey trouble for the deputy mayor. How to end the scourge? "One approach has been to train bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys..."School children are nervous, but at least one monkey is charged with protecting commuters. Of course, serious monkey problems are nothing new. Baby monkeys aren't even safe. Better learn how to prevent or survive an attack.
LED Hat Making 101
These Sharks Don't Look Fake.
Spectacular video of cage diving with Great White Sharks in Guadalupe, Mexico. More movies and pictures of the Great White Shark.
Put your hands in the air.
Who spends 4 days peeling eggs?
Waitless.org: a Sprint marketing site, with a lot of useful time saving tips.
Jell-O Shot Recipes
What is the best tasting Jell-O shot?
The Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics
A Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics, a web-based textbook brought to you by the folks at NASA. [more inside]
Stereotypography
Why is Lithos is so pervasive on the covers of books by African American authors? What does Hot Tamale, or Bagel, or Faux Chinese imply? Rob Giampietro and Jessica Helfand share ruminations on stereotypography.[3quarksdaily] [Design Observer] [Giampietro+Smith]
Why did Sumerians use base 60 mathematics?
An hour has 60 minutes and a minute has 60 seconds because the Sumerians used a base 60 counting system. Why 60? A plausible explanation is that they could count to 12 with one hand, and to 60 with both hands. Alternate explanations from the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
Your $7,250 speakers cables are crap! Mine cost $43,000.
Journalist Accepts $1 Million Challenge: Do $7250 Cables Sound Better or Not? (Or they could use these $43,000 cables instead). At least, it sounded like acceptance, even to James Randi. But then... maybe not.
So while you're waiting to find out if you should spend that much for cables, maybe you can buy something from this collection of fine audiophile products. $400 for a pair tweeters may not be too bad. You can use them with your $350,000 amplifier, and your awesome-looking $100,000 turntable. Make sure you set aside $13,416 for a decent power cable, though, or you're just wasting your money.
The Art and Flair of Mary Blair.
Goth butterflies
The world’s weirdest moths l Moths that drink the tears of sleeping birds
l Awesome moth camouflage l Buff Tip moth l moths magnified l Jim des Rivières' moth portraits [more inside]
A Little Halloween Treat
Dude, pop that zit.
Watch out for those fingers!
NFL great Max McGee dead at 75
Max McGee was not expected to play in Superbowl I. He ended up catching 7 catches for 138 yard and two touchdowns including the first ever in Superbowl history.
After retiring he became one of the most popular broadcasters the team ever had.
He also was one of the founders of Chi-chi's restaurant.
He died from a fall on Saturday. He was 75.
Alan Moore tribute to Robert Anton Wilson
And How Are You Tonight, Mr Wilson? Alan Moore pays tribute to Robert Anton Wilson. [Via Technoccult.]
October 20
Nippertippers
Vigilante conservationists or racist thugs? Some residents of northern Ontario towns claim Torontonians without fishing licenses are poaching in public waters. Their solution? Sneak up behind the anglers and throw them (and their gear) in the lake. After a 13-year old and a 72-year old were both dunked, the most recent incident ended in a car chase that put a 23-year old in a coma. The catch? All the victims are Asian. The locals call it nipper-tipping.
Prince of Polyhistoria
Double the CO2 from ships
What do you know? Just when I thought ships were the way to go, I learned that global emissions of carbon dioxide from shipping are twice the level of aviation, one of the maritime industry's key bodies has said It came out on the BBC News this week.
Country Blues Guitar Filter: Keys to the Highway: Some Country Blues Resources
CountryBluesGuitarFilter: Keys to the Highway: Some Country Blues Resources --although Weenie Juke Radio is now dead and gone, Weenie Campbell lives on, with forums, guitar lessons and linkage galore. Keys To The Highway lists lyrics and guitar keys and tunings for some notable artists. And the one for the Mississippi Sheiks is a link to the fine country blues music blog Done Gone, which has on its front page list of links just about every prewar, country blues and related site worth linking. As does Weenie Campbell. And at WeenieCampbell there are also some audio lessons in mp3 from the great guitarist and guitar teacher John Miller, these days a resident of my fair city.
Oh, deer
Oh, deer. "The catching was slow and they looked back to check their lines. They saw what appeared to be a seal with its snout out of the water, but they didn't think any seals were around their fishing grounds and they kept watching."
Selling (out) our Women
List of Ads Offensive to Women. Topping the list: Dolce & Gabbana: This ad is beyond offensive, with a scene evoking a gang rape and reeking of violence against women. In an interview, NOW Foundation President Kim Gandy said, "It's in Esquire, so they probably don't think a stylized gang rape will sell clothes to women, but what is more likely is that they think it will get them publicity. It's a provocative ad but it is provoking things that really are not what we want to have provoked. We don't need any more violence. [more inside]
The column's name is "Words & Stuff." The column's name is called "Logophilia Weekly."
"Words & Stuff" is a column on wordplay. It lasted from January 1997 to September 2003. The six alphabets of content include pangrams, nonlimericks, monosyllabism, names for wind, Gilbert and Sullivan's Xena, Warrior Princess, and an interesting cameo in Hamlet. Other highlights, with more in the archives. [more inside]
Urban Exploration Pictures
Like to poke about in abandoned buildings? Sure you do. But since you're not doing so right now, this guy has quite a few photo sets to tide you over. [more inside]
Remarkable persons
If you are a fan of longtime MeFite peacay's extraordinary blog, BibliOdyssey - and who isn't? - you can now get the coffee table version, The Annotated Archives of BibliOdyssey. (Or, in the U.S.) Forward by artist Dinos Chapman (NSFW). Kudos, peacay! Via.
Behold the power of ... underwear?
Panties for Peace "This is a way for women around the world to express their outrage."
No Change Given
JMW Turner - Broadening the landscape
If you like 'fantasy' art (as opposed to comics :) and you're in DC I'd highly recommend checking out the JMW Turner exhibit at the NGA! [more inside]
Hulk Bugs
Gamma rays make certain microscopic fungi grow faster Researchers have found that melanin—the same pigment that's the natural ultraviolet filter in people's skin—might enable some fungi to harness the energy of gamma radiation as well as to shield themselves from it. [more inside]
When is being raped at gunpoint not being raped?
Hooker raped & robbed by justice system. Apparently, if you're a prostitute and you're gang-raped at gunpoint, that's not actually rape, but "theft of services". In Philadelphia, judge Teresa Carr Deni ruled exactly that in a case where a woman posted a Craigslist ad offering sex for money -- but when she met with her John, instead of the agreed upon exhange, he pulled a gun on her, raped her, then invited four other men to rape her as well. As if this weren't sad enough, a near-identical case -- with the same defendant -- came up four days later, and the prosecutor decided not to even try it as to not put the woman through the misery of being so resoundly denied justice. Devolution is real, spuds.
Back to the Futurismo.
Piggybacking the opening of the Rome Film Fest, a group of self-styled cultural "terrorists" struck Rome yesterday, dyeing the Trevi fountain red. In an elaborate manifesto, the previously unknown group Azione Futurista is claiming to represent "precarious workers, the unemployed, the elderly, the ill, the student body and workers alike", and have announced that "we are coming with our vermilion to colour the grey of your everyday" - "a blob of colour will bury you all." [more inside]
"If the news goes down too easily, it can't be good for you."
Amusing Ourselves to Depth: Is The Onion our most intelligent newspaper?: "While other newspapers desperately add gardening sections, ask readers to share their favorite bratwurst recipes, or throw their staffers to ravenous packs of bloggers for online question-and-answer sessions, The Onion has focused on reporting the news. The fake news, sure, but still the news. It doesn’t ask readers to post their comments at the end of stories, allow them to rate stories on a scale of one to five, or encourage citizen-satire. It makes no effort to convince readers that it really does understand their needs and exists only to serve them. The Onion’s journalists concentrate on writing stories and then getting them out there in a variety of formats, and this relatively old-fashioned approach to newspapering has been tremendously successful." The article is based on the premises of the late media critic Neil Postman, especially from his book "Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse In The Age Of Show Business."
A Profound Sense of Time
A Profound Sense of Time. "PZ Myers on the process that prompts the growth of all vertebrates from embryos to unspecialized segments to multicellular animals."
October 19
What goes around, comes around...
Chasing women will take years off of your life. But hey, things always even out somehow. You'll just return the favor to your poor, innocent mother.
watch the great illusion drown
Dweller on the threshold.
Airline Branding Weblog
Airline Branding Weblog. Can you say "Awesome"?
Is that Sex Panther?
Hai Karate. An aftershave so powerful, it will drive women right out of their minds. That's why we have to put instructions on self defense in every package. More from Wikipedia.
The Flatter the Landscape the Flatter the Accent
Not that there's anything wrong with that
The world's most famous boy wizard has had to dodge claims of being gay ever since he first appeared in print. Some claim him to be a gay icon, others wonder that there is something about Harry and still more waste their time making gay Potter mashups online. It seems, for some reason, that everyone wants to know. Is Harry Gay? Nope. Dumbledore is.
Yacht spotting
You’ve heard of train-spotters and maybe even plane-spotters. Now comes a new innovation in the world of voyeurism: yacht-spotters. Yacht-spotters are boat-obsessed individuals around the world who hang around docks, marinas, shipyards and ports snapping photos of megayachts and charting their migratory patterns. Some are in the yacht business; others live by the water or own boats themselves. But all share what they call a “passion” for rich people’s boats. (via) [more inside]
Dog First Aid Kit - Required Items
Dog First Aid Kit A breeder writes a list of must-have items that should be included in all First Aid Kits for dogs.
Bacterial marketing: the other Oskar Schindler
Upon the Nazi invasion of Poland, pediatrician Eugeniusz Łazowski and his friend Stanisław Matulewicz fabricated a fake typhus epidemic to save Polish Jews from the Nazis. Knowing that typhus-infected Jews would be summarily executed, non-Jews were injected with the harmless Proteus OX19, which would generate false positives for typhus. [more inside]
Segregated Seattle
Segregated Seattle: For most of its history Seattle was a segregated city, as committed to white supremacy as any location in America. Segregated Seattle is a student/community created website and digital archive sponsored by UW's Civil Rights and Labor History Project. Check out the segregation maps, the short films and slide shows, Activist Oral Histories, and a page where you can browse the site by time period or topic. And the Restrictive Covenants Database will help Seattle homeowners determine if the fine print in their deed forbids the property from being "used or occupied by any person of the Ethiopian, Malay, or any Asiatic race."
"Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution"
Two executives of the alternative newspaper chain Village Voice Media were arrested last night after running a story about grand jury subpoenas [PDF] they received seeking reporters' notes and information on who visits their Phoenix New Times Web site. The article, titled "Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution," claims that the grand jury investigation stems from a long-running feud with controversial county sheriff Joe Arpaio (who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff"). The subpoenas demand New Times turn over all notes, tapes and records of the reporters who have ever written about Arpaio. The subpoenas also seek online profiles of anyone who read four specific articles about Arpaio and profiles of anyone who visited the paper's Web site since Jan. 1, 2004. Also sought is information on what Web users did while on the site. [more inside]
Here kitty kitty kitty...
Chat Noir A little Friday Flash fun to polish off the week - couldn't be easier: the cat will try to escape off the board. Block it by clicking on circles -it can't cross the dark ones. (via del.icio.us)
Killer B's
bmovies.com should be fairly self-explanatory.
Dynamic, articulate, so high he can eat a star
2007 is the year of Weezy. In just 10 months, Lil Wayne has recorded more tracks than many artists will in a lifetime; beat Radiohead to the punch by giving away not only the best rap album of the year, but some runners up as well; found a spot on MTV's "Hottest Rappers" list and become the darling of street-heads, hipster fanboys and even highbrow cultural pundits across the nation. [more inside]
Movie Bookmarks
A sample of the Cleveland Public Library's collection of movie bookmarks, on Flickr. The bookmarks were designed starting in 1926 to promote Hollywood feature films of the day as well as the Library's vast collection of print materials, which many of those films were based on. Mutiny on the Bounty. Silver Dollar. Last of the Mohicans.
Dragging Sheep
An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces [PDF] was mentioned recently on the Skeptics Guide to the Universe Podcast.
Wot's...Uh The Deal?
Pink Floyd fans may not need no education but Gilmourish, an exhaustive review of the guitars and audio effects of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour (with help from an insider), will leave most comfortably numb.
Quiet Intro | Instrumental Kicker | Quiet Verse | Heavy Chorus
Swine Before Pearls
On ham, with a fascinating (well, unless you're kosher) history of colonial curing methods.
100 Artists Project
The 100 Artists Project is compiling two books of sketches from 100 people to be auctioned in support of two charities. Anyone can contribute artwork.
What's your equation?
Upside the head
Whack a Mole Nerd - Flash Friday
The Moleskine Project
Haarlem Renaissance.
Just lately I was thinking of the Dutch Invasion. No, not this one. Not this one either. I mean this one. There was, of course, Shocking Blue, with their classic hit, Venus, and their lesser-known Never Marry a Railroad Man and Mighty Joe. Then there was the George Baker Selection, with Little Green Bag and Una Paloma Blanca. Then you've got the very, er... unique Ma Belle Amie, by Peter Tetteroo and the Tee Set. And how 'bout that Golden Earring, eh? Radar Love? Amirite? And of course, the inimitable Focus, with their mega-hit instrumental, Hocus Pocus. By now you're probably asking yourself "Why didn't they ever put a bunch of these Dutch bands out on little platforms sticking out of the ocean, and throw in some go-go girls, and film the whole thing from helicopters?" Well, THEY DID! Those crazy Dutch! [more inside]
If I had a hammer...
Adios, amoebas!
Social amoebas Dictyostelium discoideum respond to a dwindling food supply by clustering into a multicell colony and moving to a place suitable for making spores. [more inside]
The Man Booker prize one ups Radiohead.
Every novel on the Man Booker Prize shortlist will be made available for free online [link via bookslut]
And yes, the band did play on.
Giant Waves Over Iowa
Welcome to Fright Night
The stalled documentary American Scary may never see a DVD player, but that doesn't stop you from celebrating the lost art of the late night horror host. Vampira, Zacherley, Ghoulardi, Morgus, Sinister Seymour, Svengoolie, Doctor Madblood, Elvira, Joe Bob, and many more are all on the tubes. Who was your favorite?
Lucky Dube Shot Dead
Lucky Dube Shot Dead - Lucky Dube, the South African Reggae musician, has been shot dead by car hijackers in Johannesburg. In front of his son. [more inside]
"[W]hat I really wanted to hear ... was a bit of swing, some empty space, and palpable bass frequencies."
Q: Is [country] somehow more soulful than Wilco? A: Oh, hell yeah.: Sasha Frere-Jones writes a polemic on why indie music lacks a certain something. Writes more and more and talks about it, too. The Voice weighs in. Slate says it's class, not race. Or perhaps kt's response is more your speed?: not everything needs critical assessment or whatever.
October 18
Jackson Pollock's lost painting?
Who The Fuck Is Jackson Pollock? is a documentary about Teri Horton. She purchased a painting from a thrift store for $5 and later found out that Jackson Pollock may have painted it. Some video here and the "forensic evidence" here.
Dot's Daily Diary
Dorothy's Daily Diary
1945 and 2007 share the same calendar, so this year Dave is posting a page a day from his mother Dorothy's diary. Sis and Dave chime in with memories, background, and news of the day. Via
1945 and 2007 share the same calendar, so this year Dave is posting a page a day from his mother Dorothy's diary. Sis and Dave chime in with memories, background, and news of the day. Via
Test Your Mechanical Aptitute
Are you fairly handy? Well how about theoretically handy? Take this test to find out how mechanically apt you are. [more inside]
It burns!!!!!
So you're at your favorite night spot , and your looking to impress the ladies (or the men for that matter) why not have a few Zippo tricks up your sleeve? What better way to enjoy a coffin nail than with a flourish? More inside? Yes.
[more inside]
Handmade Rock'N'Roll Patisseries To Die For
Deadlicious is an English language blog from France focusing on weird and kitschy art of all kinds. Online since May, the last few weeks alone have featured vintage monster model kits, Nazi sex paperback covers, lots of crazy comics (including King Kong) and bizarre action magazines, Hammer vampire posters, old motorbike helmets, Japanese plastic toys, UFO zines from the 1950s and 60s, French art from 1910 depicting the year 2000, as well as some pictures of famed Mexican masked wrestler Santo I'd never seen before. Plus there's over 300 more features in the archives.
I was a pre-teen Glicknick.
This man kept me awake at night as a child, As I stared, bleary-eyed, at my flip-card style analog alarm clock, willingly watching the hours go by, thinking, "How am I going to be able to wake up for school tomorrow?" And laughing, laughing. I place the blame for my night-owl-ness squarely in his lap. [more inside]
Meeting Resistance
Know Thine Enemy. "In a video Op-Ed by documentary filmmakers Molly Bingham and Steve Connors, Iraqis explain the roots of the insurgency." [more inside]
La Cucaracha - 2007
Gaoth! brrrrr
Today is a Very Special Day. Be free, O Dangly Manbits. (Of course, no respectable day such as this would be without a teeny bit of kilt origin controversy.)
The Daily Show Online
Kid Nation Shocker!
Kid Nation Shocker! slyt, 2 minutes. (FSM and MeFites forgive me.)
"impeccable grace and beauty"
"And I am even supposed to love our enemies.”
"Killing others is not loving them.” --meet US Army Captain Peter D. Brown, just granted Conscientious Objector status due to his religious beliefs and honorably discharged after first being denied and taking them to court---only
224 applicants were approved for it during 02-06, out of 2.3 million serving. [more inside]
Bitter Pill
Portland, ME school board approves distribution of birth control at King Middle School, where students are as young as 10. Students must have a signed parental permission slip to use the student health center, unless a student requests confidentiality, in which case birth control pills could be prescribed without a parent's knowledge.
Heil Hosers!
Nazi aircraft came in from the north, first sighted at Norway House. Selkirk was the first to fall prey, but by no means the last. The Nazi war machine was converging on Winnipeg.
February 19, 1942: If Day, the day Manitoba fell to the Nazis.
February 19, 1942: If Day, the day Manitoba fell to the Nazis.
No Shirts!!!
Improv Everywhere's latest mission: 111 men of all shapes and sizes shop shirtless at the Abercrombie & Fitch store on 5th. Avenue. [more inside]
I do not understand about google at this time
Airtist
Perhaps you were looking for some trance-y didjeridoo/jews harp/beatbox music today. If so, you're in luck.
Step 1: Unyoke the Artists
Bike Hacks
Bike Hacks! Bored with your generic two-wheeler? Check out this collection of funky bicycle modifications. My favorite is the grocery cart.
Who's got the button(s)
Pop into the Buttonarium. You may find it fasten-ating.
The secret life of refrigerators
The secret life of refrigerators. Some people want to know if the light goes out when the door shuts. Others want entertainment on the outside of the fridge. Me? I just like to see the 'more inside'.
Downtown Eastside Seeks Foreign Aid
Vancouver group asks UN (rather than local government) to help homeless Canadians The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) met with United Nations representative Miloon Kothari this week and appealed to the UN to intervene on behalf of homeless people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
via [more inside]
Toronto's Smallest House
Looking to buy a house in Toronto? Why not buy Toronto's smallest house (about 300 square feet), built in a former driveway. via.
Benazir's Homecoming.
Two-time Former Pakistani PM, Benazir Bhutto Returns After 8 years. The leader of a Pakistan's most progressive and liberal political party, but tarnished by serious corruption and money laundering charges, Benazir Bhutto landed in Karachi today welcomed by thousands, reminiscent of her return to take on a previous military dictator in 1986. Bhutto has recently lost popularity because she has sought a deal with General Musharraf and tried to obtain an amnesty from corruption charges. Can she use her thunderous return to overcome such setbacks and lead the second largest Muslim country again?
NYC photos 1968-1972
"New York City 1968-1972" Some very compelling black and white street photography by Paul McDonough. via
White Dudes Making Web Sites
In April 2007, A List Apart and An Event Apart conducted a survey of people who make websites. Close to 33,000 web professionals answered the survey’s 37 questions, providing the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide. [more inside]
The Last Psychiatrist reviews Kerouac’s “On The Road”
Kerouac's On The Road: The 50th Anniversary Of A Book I Had Not Read I can't be the only one whose impression of the book, from hearing about it but not actually reading it, was that it was about young, potent men, lost in a growing commercial society, two coiled springs ready to pop, looking for adventure-- America style. And this Road Trip that launched a thousand, other boring, useless road trips, was about young men looking to experience the world, really see, really live, really feel, free of the constraints of an artificial post war soulless society . . . That impression is wrong. You know what the book is really about? It's a primer on how to be a narcissist.
Woke up this mornin', had those MySpace blues...
Each of the following MySpace Music pages features bios and/or photos and/or videos and/or miscellaneous related materials and/or up to four songs by each of the following Delta Blues (and related) artists:
Ishmon Bracey, Mance Lipscomb, Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, Charley Patton, Blind Boy Fuller, Skip James, Bukka White, Blind Willie McTell, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, Babe Turner, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Howling Wolf, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Tommy Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis, Big Joe Williams, Mississippi John Hurt, Ramblin' Willard Thomas, John Lee Hooker and Oscar Buddy Woods. And here's some general Blues pages, featuring various artists: Delta Blues, Pre-War Blues and Blind Blues. You see, Delta Blues lovers, I comb MySpace so you don't have to! [more inside]
Adopt a Vortex!
Adopt a Vortex! Because nothing says "I love you" more than naming a European weather system after your special someone. Interestingly, lows are cheaper than highs. [via]
"Because the internet needs prophylactics for memetically transmitted diseases."
StupidFilter is a work in progress which aims to recognize online stupidity programmatically. Keep in mind we grade stupidity on a scale of 1 to 5. Someone might get a 1 or 2 for a comment that used no punctuation, whereas a comment consisting of nothing but text message abbreviations with a dash of LOLLLLL thrown in for good measure would probably rate a solid 4 or 5. There is a certain amount of subjectivity, and our software is aware of that; scoring will be normalized to eliminate excessively generous or harsh estimations of stupidity. Read some examples of "the tyranny of idiocy" in their collection of Random Stupidity .
October 17
Tommy Johnson - Cool Drink of Water
"Poor people sending even poorer people $100"
What is the most important antipoverty program in the world? The surprising answer is remittances, the earnings sent from overseas workers back home - which, according to a new study, totals over $300 billion a year. There is an interactive map that shows you the impact per country: over 10% of the GDP of economies such as Morocco, Jordan, and the Philippines comes from these payments, which are often the largest source of investment for most developing countries. The New York Times has a neat feature showing how global migration and remittances are tied together.
Give us this day our daily Google.
I knew it would eventually happen. I didn't expect it so soon. The Church of Google.
Burma
Risking all: the Burmese jokers who laugh in the face of danger. In Burma (Myanmar), comedians are targets in the junta's war on words. [Via BB.] [more inside]
PEZ dispenser modification
Learn New Words, Give Free Rice
Give ten grains of rice for each word you get right. It builds up very quickly.
Ametrica!
The U.S. is of course one of three countries that still use the English system of measurement, but Amy Wang (originally from metric-system-using Taiwan) won the Adobe Design Achievement Award in Environmental Graphics and Packaging in 2006 for “Ametrica!”, a campaign to get the U.S. to switch to the metric system instead. Whether you’re for or against metrication in America, Wang’s project is fresh and practical. [Via.]
Double Shotgun Mounted Bed
How many times as this happened to you? (warning: video/audio). It's late at night, you're in bed & you need to kill someone with a shotgun, only to find out the gun is ALL THE WAY across the room. Well, friend, your prayers are answered.
IM IN UR WASTELANDS, RUINING UR LITERATURES
IM IN UR WASTELAND BURYING UR DEAD
april hates u, makes lilacs, u no can has.
april in ur memoriez, making ur desire.
spring rain in ur dull rootzes.
april hates u, makes lilacs, u no can has.
april in ur memoriez, making ur desire.
spring rain in ur dull rootzes.
another beautiful french guitarist
To me, he embodies The classical guitarist with all the clichés attached. But he can also make any material his own, or use forms with humor. He's got good compositions too.
War in Iraq continuing to go to plan.... well, everyone else's plan but the Administration's
Turkish MPs back attacks in Iraq. [BBC] The vote was taken in defiance of pressure from the US and Iraq, which have called on Turkey for restraint. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the motion does not mean a military operation is imminent. But he said Turkey needed to be able to respond to a recent rise in bomb attacks blamed on PKK rebels from Iraq [Previously].
Also, [SeaTimes] Flourishing Kurdistan raises specter of war. Needless to say, this is giving the Bush Administration a four alarm Turkish headache on two fronts.
Voodoo Funk - 11 African funk mp3 mixes
Voodoo Funk - 11 African funk mixes from a vinyl archaeologist in Guinea
Like a Boot to the Head
That which cures all (mental) ills. Andy Kadir-Buxton claims to have found a simple cure-all for mental illness, namely boxing someone in the ears. He also claims to have a cure for infertility in women and a solution to the energy crisis/global warming.
These shoes rule. These shoes suck.
How you'll wear shoes in the future... "You start with a 'bone': the made-to-measure core of the shoe that cradles your foot. You cover the bone with one of many 'skins,' the shell and sole of the shoe that creates the look everyone else sees."
MRSA... the global medical communities dirty little secret.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus.
In 2005, invasive MRSA infections were estimated to have killed 18,650
in the United States alone. This may be a conservative estimate. It is going global. It is
changing politics.
It may become pandemic. [more inside]
Poker is a game of chance. But some chances are better than others.
Poker is pretty popular, and it seems like almost everyone is making money at it. At the tables, on Wall Street, and online.
The World Poker Tour helped create the current boom and, with the World Series of Poker, helped make poker players into rock stars. [more inside]
I saw the light, I saw the light
John Lennon’s lighthouse. He said, ‘Well, actually, I invited you because I wanted to know if you can build the lighthouse in my garden,’ and I said: ‘Oh, dear, no, no. It’s just a conceptual idea. I don’t know how to build anything.’
Yoko makes a dream of John's come true in Iceland. It’s geothermal. Amy Goodman's take on the subject. And, of course, video.
The Blues, Left Blue
The Uncensored History of the Blues is a fantastic podcast exploring some rougher aspects of blues history. From the Delta Blues Museum.
Smart Man With Foot, Head in Wrong Places
Something of a wild man - James Watson, the Nobel-Prize-winning DNA researcher, has made some (more) provocative remarks. Dr Watson told The Sunday Times that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really". He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true". [more inside]
Amazing Union Square Strangers
Anatomy of an Authentic Skateboarder
1. Upturned sun visor.
2. scruffy, gnashing teeth, beedy-eyed mug that only Aphex Twin could love.
3. Lots and lots of chest hair.
Meet the Amazing Strangers of Union Square, photographed and commented on by Normal Bob Smith. [previously]
1. Upturned sun visor.
2. scruffy, gnashing teeth, beedy-eyed mug that only Aphex Twin could love.
3. Lots and lots of chest hair.
Meet the Amazing Strangers of Union Square, photographed and commented on by Normal Bob Smith. [previously]
Has Skynet come online?
RepRap is a self-replicating rapid prototype machine (3D printer) using fused deposition modelling. You can build one, although I'm not sure why you'd need to....
“Please do the necessary things to stop production of the book.”
"“If the book were to be published as it is in its present edited form, I may never write another story, that’s how closely, God Forbid, some of those stories are to my sense of regaining my health and mental well-being.”
The New York Times reported today that Raymond Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, is pushing to republish the stories in Carver's acclaimed 1981 breakout collection, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," in their original, unedited form. [more inside]
Reverse Graffiti
Reverse Graffiti. Alexandre Orion makes it for a cause and sometimes gets caught [YouTube]. "Moose" of Symbollix makes it for fun and profit. [more inside]
Can I play too
Future Patron Saint of Abu Ghraib
On October 28, the Pope will beatify (certify as Blessed) several martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, among them Gabino Olaso Zabala. Only thing is, Zabala is known to have participated in the torture of a fellow priest. Disturbingly, some Catholics are rallying behind a man who never publicly regretted his abusive past.
Get the skinny on your zip
Zipskinny Enter your zip code and get US census info-plus compare with other zip codes.
Stringbean. And his banjo. And those pants.
For lovers of old-time, mountain banjo styles and songs, Roscoe Holcomb and Dock Boggs are revered figures. To many, however, plucker and singer David Akeman remains uncelebrated or unknown, even by his stage name of Stringbean. Is it because he was for a time actually famous as a country music showbiz staple, and therefore lacks folk cred? Or maybe the purists just can't get with those low-hanging pants the man was known for, his original hillbilly homeboy styling? Or was it cause on any given tune his left hand would likely be off the neck of the banjo more than on it? Whatever the reason, it's time folks took a new look at Stringbean. After all, the lines between folk and commercial styles have always been blurry in American music. Let's hear it for Stringbeeeeeeeaaan! [more inside]
Stephen Colbert is running for president... in South Carolina.
31 hours, 4 minutes
31 hours, 4 minutes. Blowing the doors off the previous record of 32 hours, 7 minutes, Alex Roy of Team Polizei and co-pilot Dave Maher set a new transcontinental driving record in a modified BMW M5. Of course, to pull off such a feat today required a modest collection of equipment: thermal night-vision camera, binoculars, radar detector, radar jammer, CB and police scanners, oh, and a spotter airplane. As you might expect, not everyone is celebrating. Some photos.
October 16
The Men of Kent are suspect
Two recent reports on immigration in the UK, a published study on its economic effects, and an expert panel report on its and public service consequences, paint very different pictures. Not that the press need logic or evidence: they made their minds up about those Poles a long time ago, like people did about the West Indians, Bangladeshis and Jews . Is a rational debate on immigration even possible?
Terrorism or fearmongering?
Tame Iti, Maori activist, is no stranger to controversy - with his full facial moko he has a face you won't soon forget. But is he a terrorist? Recently, the New Zealand Police force carried out a series of "raids" against a "training camp" in the north island, in the first use of the Terrorism Suppression Act, legislated in 2002. The act itself is not without it's critics but the country seems divided about the raids. Deluded extremists? Harmless Activist? or Real Threat? Some have claimed the raids are politically motivated, enacted by a police force with a declining public image. The whole case is racially loaded [more inside]
Mirror prank.
Mirror prank. (YouTube, SFW)
Kinky inky
Way too much thought about tentacle porn on this page, which details the history, current usage, and 'media' coverage of what to many seems the extreme of internet porn weirdness. Also covered are Lovecraftian stories, trinkets, movies, bestiality-inspired poetry and modern pictorial porn (this is weird porn, NSFW, I'm warning you). Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bleach my mind.
Money, Beautiful and False
Stephen Barnwell makes meticulous bills for fictional worlds, such as the Dream Dollars of a lost Antarctic colony, complete with symbolism and backstories. He has introduced several new, more politically controversial fictional currencies for less ideal worlds: the United States of Islam, the State of War, and the Empire of America. He is not the only artist who imagines currency, there are the beautiful notes of Kamberra and the strange work of JSG Boggs [prev] who hand-draws almost real bills that subvert the lines between money and art, occasionally running into issues with the Secret Service on the way. On the borders between reality and fantasy is the new currency developed by foreign exchange specialists Travelex, the Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination, introduced to solve some of the problems in money in space, and which may actually be used by space tourists. [prev.]
Armenian genocide
Genocide: An inconvenient truth "The Armenian genocide bill has been attacked by both the right and the left -- and it may make matters worse. But it's necessary." [Cookie.]
Many See It As Circular
How do you see time? Florentine graphic designer Camilla Torna is collecting hand-drawn personal visions of "time." It started as a personal collection from friends and students in the 1990s. In 2006 it was on-line with a submission form. Submissions are can be sorted by theme words, style or age of artist. Ages range from those in their first decade of life to those in their 70s. (Via Information Aesthetics)
My Roommate Is Such A Dick
My roommate is such a dick! (portions probably nsfw)
everything big is small again
World's Largest Things including the world's largest collection of the world's smallest versions of the world's largest things, in a mobile museum. Seen previously, but much expanded -- now on Flickr, blogspot, lomohome, and friendable on MySpace. I found it while trying to look up this ball of postage stamps.
Thy spotless Muse, like Mary, did contain The boundless Godhead
"No notice was taken by the press of artist-writer Sheri Martinelli's death in November 1996, unfairly ignoring the significant role she played in the cultural history of our time." Just to drop a few names. Nin. Pound. Parker. Gaddis. Cummings. Bukowski. Brando. A staggering roll-call for a life almost forgotten.
Leave the SIV, take the cannoli
At a time when fed-up American citizens are petitioning Congress to end the imprudent financial practices that caused the housing bubble sub-prime mortgage crisis liquidity crisis impending recession -- including the banning of SIV's and refusing any bailouts for Wall Street, banks, or mortgage companies -- the United States Treasury Department has just announced the creation of a giant-mega-ultra SIV called "M-LEC" made up of assets from several of the largest American banks. Already unofficially nicknamed "Sivie Mae" (or worse, "the Frankenstein Fund"), it would be an off-balance-sheet way for these banks to pool and price the ABCP's that they've lately been having trouble pricing and thus selling -- i.e. the liquidity crisis. [more inside]
Google for Google's Sake
Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema
I wanna live in los angeles, but not the one in los angeles
Los Angeles Uber Alles. A passionate argument (by mefi's own bldblog, no less) for why Los Angeles is the greatest city in America. Dissenters, please see the more inside: [more inside]
How one young man became one very funny, "Christian" old woman
Melba Jackson has long been the terror of local Christian radio hosts and various sports programs. Her contributions have tickled many a listener, wondering exactly who this elderly woman from a rural area is, exactly. Turns out she isn't a she at all, but a very talented and shy young man by the name of Brother Russell. [more inside]
Uli's Novel of Roy in Clingfilm
Roy Orbison in cling film ... and now, in print. "Any self-respecting bookshop should have a Clingfilm Wrapping section and the book will most likely be located there." Confused? Read the original story, followed by MeFi's first encounter (of many) with this phenomena in 2003.
Either Make an Offer or Geeeeeettttt Ouuuuuuttt
If a seller told me his house was haunted, would I be obligated to disclose this information? You think disclosure of ghosts is funny? The fact is, a Haunted House falls into the characteristic of "stigmatized" housing. Disclosure of this information, and the laws surrounding it, are typically up to the state. Some Agents have written columns on how to tame your ghosts so that the house sells. Of course, some ghosts can be very helpful and promote the property value for you. Would you live in a haunted house? [more inside]
geopolitics of opium 2007
The amount of Afghan land used for growing opium is now larger than the combined total under coca cultivation in Latin America - Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. No other country has produced narcotics on such a deadly scale since China in the 19 th century. Opium in Afghanistan: Eradicate or subsidize? [more inside]
Selling out
The Moby Quotient [I]n the late 1990s, the techno artist Moby, as hip as they come, openly boasted of having sold every track of his breakthrough album "Play" to an advertiser, or to a film or TV soundtrack. The album should perhaps have been called "Pay." In homage Bill Wyman of Hitsville has dubbed his formula for determining the offensiveness of a rock-based advertisement. (accompanying article)
He's no Ghandi...oh wait
The Nobel Foundation sheds some on the missing Nobel Peace Laureate--Mahatma Gandhi.
Biplanes and triplanes and Zeppelins-- Oh My!
I’ll write about every R.E.M. song, eventually.
Pop Songs 07 is a blog by Matthew Perpetua, founder of Fluxblog, in which he is attempting to write about every R.E.M. song eventually. With the recent release of Stereogum’s tribute to Automatic For The People, Drive XV, (free mp3s of covers of every track on the record by a range of indie rock acts) he was asked to write an essay about the album: Sweetness Followed: 15 Years After Automatic.
Portraits in the Wall Street Journal
Want to know the story behind those iconic drawings used by the Wall Street Journal for their mug shots? The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has the scoop. (The site's layout is not the best, but it's worth digging around.) You can see how two artists render the same portrait of Yahoo's Jerry Yang. And read about how the first rendering of Gorbachev left out his signature birthmark. An artist named Kevin Sprouls started it all. Lately, Slate wonders if George Bush is looking a little frowny.
French guitar
French jazz guitar is often mistaken for swing guitar, or gypsy style guitar. It's true that great french guitarists, like Bireli Lagrene or Christian escoudé, are still playing in this style. But curiosity is a trademark of most of the French guitarists, and even Bireli Lagrene gave a try to various kinds of jazz. French guitarists have been attracted to Be Bop from the start (btw, even Django has been). Maybe you've heard of Sacha Distel ? [more inside]
John Fahey - Fare Forward Voyagers
John Fahey - Fare Forward Voyagers
John Fahey - Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Phillip XIV
Clips from a 2 hour performance at the Euphoria Tavern in Portland, Oregon from 1976. Among the cognoscenti at FaheyGuitarPlayers, the consensus is that these clips display Fahey in rare form on a very good night.
Apart from Fahey, Bohemia Visual Music aka Mike Nastra, the contributor of these clips, provides an interesting assortment of way too hip YouTubery offerings including, among others, Spike Jones, Dimandas Galas, Gene Krupa, Tuxedo Moon, Sun Ra, Pere Ubu and the Holy Modal Rounders.
John Fahey - Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Phillip XIV
Clips from a 2 hour performance at the Euphoria Tavern in Portland, Oregon from 1976. Among the cognoscenti at FaheyGuitarPlayers, the consensus is that these clips display Fahey in rare form on a very good night.
Apart from Fahey, Bohemia Visual Music aka Mike Nastra, the contributor of these clips, provides an interesting assortment of way too hip YouTubery offerings including, among others, Spike Jones, Dimandas Galas, Gene Krupa, Tuxedo Moon, Sun Ra, Pere Ubu and the Holy Modal Rounders.
How to Make Israeli Palestinian Peace Summit Succeed
The greybeards of the U.S. foreign policy establishment have spoken out to the Bush Administration telling it what it needs to do to have a successful Mideast peace summit: advocate a return to '67 borders, Jerusalem as capital of two states, solution of refugee problem with financial compensation to Palestinians, security guarantees for Israel.
Signatories of the statement include Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, Nancy Kassebaum, Carla Hills, Thomas Pickering, Ted Sorensen and Paul Volcker. A pretty formidable bunch. [more inside]
"Do unto others what they'd like to do to you... But do it first!"
Soapy Smith was "the king of the frontier confidence men." Born Jefferson R. Smith, he gained the nickname "Soapy" after running a successful scam that the Denver newspapers dubbed "The Prize Package Soap Sell Swindle." He ran criminal enterprises in Colorado and Alaska until his death at the hands of vigilantes in 1898. Every year his descendants hold a wake in his honor. His story has inspired several books and movies. The Soapy Smith Preservation Trust maintains an extensive archive of his life and times.
Mitt Romney does not approve of this either
October 15
A modern-day warrior mean mean stride, today's tom sawyer mean mean pride
Rush Rush is a Canadian rock band comprising bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Gary Lee Weinrib, guitarist Alexander Zivojinovich, and drummer and lyricist Neil Ellwood Peart.
Bewitched by Ayn Rand, obsessed by nuclear war and enraptured by cheap science fiction, Rush were role models to geeks everywhere, yearning to be cool, but failing. Still, they rocked, in their own way. [more inside]
The Hooke Folio
That's one small check for a woman, a giant bill for all Amerikind
When it comes to the nation's finances, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling is Public Enemy No. 1. A national milestone - the first baby boomer files for Social Security benefits. These people want to fix it. This woman isn't sure it needs drastic fixing. Neither are these people. If we're worried about not having enough workers to pay for it, is this issue a problem or a solution?
Japanese USB drives
The challenge, take the usb drive to new levels, you may have seen the mimobot usb drives, pretty hip but perhaps only Japanese-influenced since manufacturer Mimico is Boston based. The true Japanese usb style is undeniably unbalanced, por ejemplo: The USB Chameleon (video), the Self-destruction USB hub (video), the USB motorcycle engine hub (video), and no movie here but you will be happy to know that the Kore Janai robot USB drive is the "perfect cool toy" with the uncool appearance. Full context found here
Life in the Enclave
The SY Empire: A rare and fascinating look inside the secretive Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn, which has drawn a bright line against assimilation called the Edict that casts out for life any "SY" who marries a gentile, even if they convert. (Crazy Eddie -- who knew? Seinfeld's mom -- who knew? Isaac Misrahi -- who knew? "J-Dubs" -- who knew?)
Twist and Shout. And Twist. And Shout.
Twist and Shout. Twist and Shout. Twist. Twist and Shout. Twist. Shout. Twist and Shout. Twist. Twist and Shout. Shout. Twist. Shout. Twist and Shout. Twist. Twist and Shout. Twist. Twist. Twist. Shout. [more inside]
There are no traffic jams along the extra mile
Zappos brings customer to tears (in a good way)
Bolshevik storm the Winter Palace
QSL Cards ahoy!
Slats.org's awesome gallery of QSL cards. QSL cards were like business cards for ham radio and CB nuts. They'd hand them out and trade them with other operators and featured their location and contact info. Bighappyfunhouse bought a boatload at a swapmeet and scanned them in. Great, crude, amusing, folksy art from a bygone era. [via projects]
The Yogurt Encyclopaedia.
The Yogurt Encyclopaedia (254kb pdf). With information such as how to make your own yogurt, the origins of yogurt and many recipes using yogurt, the Yogurt Encyclopaedia certainly... contains a lot of information on yogurt. [more inside]
Travel the world; use less carbon, see the sights. Don't forget the penguin.
9000 miles by ferry, train, bus, bicycle, horse, foot and car. In a bid to reduce his carbon footprint, Joseph Tame swapped 11 hours in a plane from Japan to England for a month-long adventure across Eurasia. Along the way he has a Chinese Imperial Guard hold a penguin, stays in a Mongolian Yurt, experiences a "road" trip or two, misses some trains, and befriends a chipmunk.
Mushroom Singdom!
The Great Lost Heartland Rockers.
The Iron City Houserockers were Pittsburgh's entry in the Heartland Rock Sweepstakes that occured after the success of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger. They had literate lyrics, tough rock and roll backing, and clear-eyed vision. Led by Joe Grushecky, a special ed teacher by day, produced by Miami Steve Van Zandt of the E Street Band, and possessed of tunes like "Junior's Bar" (youtube), they seemed poised to hit the big time, but it never quite happened, which is the music audience's loss. He is, however the subject of a loving tribute in the form of "A Good Life: The Joe Grushecky Story" (trailer).
"Everything is determination. I know with time things will be okay."
Being the Big Blog
For those times when MeFi isn't enough on its own: Google Reader has just started showing the number of subscribers to various blogs, adding hard numbers to the existing top blog listings, which use links to measure popularity. Here is a detailed comparison between TechMeme's Top 100 and actual subscribers, as well as a list of top blogs by subscriber in a neat embedded spreadsheet. They offer a good way to find interesting things to read.
All Under Heaven
Antique Maps of China A database of 230 maps, charts, pictures, books and atlases from the Special Collections of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library. You can browse thumbnails of maps dating back to the 15th century, then download a splendid colour PDF, for example, the 1923 map Carte des environs de Peking. There are also some world maps and ones of a few other places.
Stealing Life, profile of 'The Wire', by Margret Talbot
Margaret Talbot's wonderful profile of David Simon, the creator of "The Wire." Simon said, he and his colleagues had “ripped off the Greeks: Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides. Not funny boy—not Aristophanes. We’ve basically taken the idea of Greek tragedy and applied it to the modern city-state.” He went on, “What we were trying to do was take the notion of Greek tragedy, of fated and doomed people, and instead of these Olympian gods, indifferent, venal, selfish, hurling lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no reason—instead of those guys whipping it on Oedipus or Achilles, it’s the postmodern institutions . . . those are the indifferent gods.”
Excellent.
Who says Republicans don't have a sense of humor? Yes, this really is linked from the homepage of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's minority site.
That's MSTafilter to you
So besides RiffTrax (prior) and The Film Crew (some time back), what else are former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni doing with their undoubtedly-copious free time?
Frank Conniff is working with cartoon historian Jerry Beck on the charming stage show and internet flash video series Cartoon Dump, which presents extremely crappy 60s TV cartoons like Mighty Mr. Titan, Big World of Little Adam, and Bucky and Pepito sandwiched between segments of a dysfunctional children's show. [more inside]
buzziest pics
I'm an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!)
"I called [Stephen] Colbert with a dare: if he thought it was so easy to be a Times Op-Ed pundit, he should try it. He came right over. In a moment of weakness, I had staged a coup d’moi. I just hope he leaves at some point. He’s typing and drinking and threatening to 'shave Paul Krugman with a broken bottle.'”
A narrated bike-ride through NYC with David Byrne
A narrated bike-ride through NYC with David Byrne (requires Quicktime)
Advantages for sale to the most advantaged?
I Can Get Your Kid into an Ivy. A look at the practices of college admission consultant Michele Hernandez, who boasts a 95% acceptance rate for fees of up to $40, 000.
Made to be Broken: laws you can ignore
American Lawbreaking. "This series explores the black spots in American law: areas in which our laws are routinely and regularly broken and where the law enforcement response is … nothing. These are the areas where, for one reason or another, we've decided to tolerate lawbreaking and let a law—duly enacted and still on the books—lay fallow or near dead." The first two entries are prescription drug abuse and internet pornography.
too quiet...
If Bruce Schneier, the expert voice of security moderation, is "worried" than so am I. Since the beginning of the year Storm, an advanced, distributed worm network has been growing quietly as its authors tweak its social engineering attack. Now it seems that it is in place and waiting. Schneier's article. Digital Intelligence and Strategic Operations Group has been monitoring Storm for a year. OWL.
The Little House In Ballard
Edith Macefield is stubborn. Man, is she stubborn. That's what her mother told her when she was a little girl back in the 1920s. It's a characteristic that has followed her all her life. Now that unrelenting stubbornness has won the 86-year-old woman admirers throughout Ballard. Macefield refused to sell her little old house where she has lived since 1966 to developers, forcing them to build an entire five-story project, which includes a grocery store, fitness club and parking garage, around her. She was offered $1 million to leave. She turned it down flat.Old Ballard's new hero
Newsfilter, local interest filter, too, but, oh, man, it lifts the spirits. Her's is the last house on the block, the one in which she grew up, the one her mother died in. She is going to be surrounded by five storys of shopping mall but she isn't moving. It's like The Little House come to life. And bonus points: Mike's Chili Parlor, the other hold out on the same block, is the bomb. So you get two Old Lost Seattle treasures in one post.
we know a place where no cars go
"Not much chance for survival, if the Neon Bible is right." Presented by Arcade Fire which is a band that hails out of Montreal. Okay. So I'm easily entertained, but you will believe a turkey can roast marshmallows. Requires flash.
Biggest 3D street painting ever.
Biggest 3D street painting ever. As part of the 2007 Moose Jaw Prairie Arts Festival, German painter Edgar Müller and a team of artists turned River Street into, well, a river. Müller and his associate Manfred Stader have done other interesting trompe-l'oiel works around the world.
October 14
Who or what shot first?
The debate rages on -- who really did it? Did Han shoot first? Did Greedo shoot first? Perhaps Greedo really really shot first. Or maybe the first shooter was something different altogether.
Cats and War
What Cats Know About War. A reporter adopts cats to reconnect with life amid unremitting death. [Via linkfilter.] [more inside]
Windshield cowboy!
Like a windshield cowboy ... never ridden on a house says the guy from Mexico ... Vincente Fox also says Bush is "quite simply the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life".
Interestingly though, around the world this story is reported differently. In India he is "petrified of horses", while Germany just says he's scared. It seems most American news just covers it as "doesn't like horses". As the real cowboys I grew up with would say "all hat, no horse".
Disrespectful Cockalorum
Blackburn makes manifest a propensity for turgid language. Not content with foisting “cockalorum” (meaning, boastful talk), “froward” (willfully disobedient) and “mordaciously” (bitingly) on the reader, he may be the first judge to use both “contumelious” (scornful) and “contumacious” (pigheaded) in the same opinion. Judge Robert E. Blackburn's ruling [pdf] granting a motion for a new trial based on attorney misconduct is an interesting read for those who enjoy the use of uncommon, flowery and "big" words. [more inside]
Through a glass . . . lovely
A day by day account of the progress of the manufacturing of 12 Glass Windscreen panels by artist Mario Muller. The pieces are a commission by the MTA Arts in Transit program for Kingsbridge Road station in the Bronx. The work is being done at Franz Mayer of Munich in Germany.
More on the artist here
and here.
Protest Songs
So are you ready to march on Washington to protest in song? Here are some lyrics. Some examples from the 60's. Something sweet from Bob Dylan. Speaking of Zimmermans, here's Roy's take on Iraq. [more inside]
Things that go bump in the night.
Cinema Fiction vs. Physics Reality (PDF -- HTML version without addendum here) Two physicists examine certain features of popular myths regarding ghosts, vampires, and zombies as they appear in film and folklore. See also Real Zombies (audio) on the science of zombiefication. Also of interest are Psychological significance of Immortal beings (audio) and Blood Fighting: Dawn of the Robots and Zombies (video), which delve into the prominence of vampires, zombies and other things that go bump in the night in popular culture. Not to your liking? Well, check out some classic (and some not-so-classic) horror tales inside. [more inside]
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. He served a dark and a vengeful God!
Quick, before Tim Burton's "re-imagining dark gems of the 1970s" spree continues with the film version that will obliterate all recollection of the original musical thriller's style! Check out 1982's Emmy-winning televised performance of Sweeney Todd, with George Hearn and the inimitable Angela Lansbury. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. Or, just skip to the highlights, A Little Priest, Epiphany. Also, check out the style of the inventive, minimalist revival or read the original penny dreadful!
Mysterious Ice Circles
Mysterious ice circles are large rotating ice disks on ice covered rivers or other bodies of water. Their origin and nature is controversial. Perhaps they are related to UFO's or something more prosaic, like pancake ice.
Pork Flies (Sort Of)
So You Think The V-22 Is Ridiculous? [previously]
Let me present you its dumb brother, the DuPont Aerospace DP-2. (No relation to the chemical conglomerate). [more inside]
The smell of sweat turns me on.
"Stars and Losers" and "Claustrophobic Me," two short stories by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez (author of Dirty Havana Trilogy and often called the Caribbean Bukowski), Cuban writer of the dirty realism style.
It's Sunday. So have Optimus Prime phone your friends.
Online portfolio of Andrew Bell
drawnline: The commercial and personal work of Andrew Bell.
Iraq was just the beginning.
Iraq was just the beginning. According to retired General Wesley Clark, a top-secret memo detailed a plan for “taking out” seven countries in five years, ending with Iran. [more inside]
October 13
Charity begins at home
About two weeks ago, 41 Democratic senators signed a letter which was sent to Clear Channel Communications, complaining about something Rush Limbaugh said over the air. Clear Channel turned the letter over to Limbaugh, and Limbaugh is auctioning it off via eBay, with proceeds going to charity.
The drought went down to Georgia, it was lookin' for some crops to steal...
Georgia's going dry -- and we're not talking liquor stores. Record temperatures in Georgia and a long drought have left many Georgia cities wondering when the taps will run dry. Some towns have only a few weeks of water left, while rivers near Athens have nearly dried up. A broken water main hasn't helped the problem, and some fear that the University of Georgia campus there may shut down for lack of water. What's more, Atlanta itself is already feeling the pressure, as Lake Lanier, a water source for 3 million residents, falls by 1.5 feet per week and has only a three month supply remaining. While there have been more severe (pdf) droughts in Georgia's history, rising population numbers have increased demand to now unsustainable levels.
Australian Federal Election 2007 on November 24
And we're off! Prime Minister John Howard has set the date for the Australian Federal election as November 24th, meaning we're up for a long six-week campaign. With Kevin Rudd leading the PM by between 16 to 18 points (depending on who you read) in recent opinion polls, this election seems the most likely to provide a change of Government since Howard was first elected 11 years ago. Antony Green's usual excellent election guide is up and running here, along with an excellent calculator which shows which seats are up for grabs dependent on a 2 party preferred swing. You might also want to check out the Vote-O-Matic, a fun but entirely disposable quiz which aims to help you decide who you'll vote for. [more inside]
"We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers"
"We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers." Evolutionary psychologist Andy Thomson analyzes suicide terrorism from the perspective of evolutionary biology. The presentation was part of the Atheist Alliance International convention in D.C. last month.
Asemic Writing
Asemic is a magazine of asemic writing, which is writing without semantic content. The editor is Australian Tim Gaze, who's made the asemic books Aussie Runes and The Oxygen of Truth, volumes 1 and 2. "Only words lie; asemic texts cannot lie." [more inside]
10.8% say, "shove it."
How depressing is your job? The Office of Applied Studies, a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, released a report ranking various occupations in order of the number of depressive episodes experienced by workers. "Personal Care & Service" occupations (defined by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics here) top the list. One wonders if these are the occupations contributing to the growth of the so-called "service economy," and if so, are we heading for a deepening national malaise?
Watterson on Schultz
Bill Watterson comments on Peanuts as part of a review for David Michaelis's new biography of Charles Schultz. [more inside]
The man who knew too much
The man who knew too much. "He was the CIA's expert on Pakistan's nuclear secrets, but Rich Barlow was thrown out and disgraced when he blew the whistle on a US cover-up. Now he's to have his day in court."
9/11 changed everything? And the NSA is only looking at overseas and terrorist-related phone and internet records?
to gather information about Americans' phone records --... the NSA had approached the company (Qwest) about participating in a warrantless surveillance program to gather information about Americans' phone records.
...Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts. ... -- The Administration's crimes and illegal spying on all of us and Quest's punishment for not going along with their plans.
The story of Virginie & Kek
Newsfilter For Terrorism Junkies
The Global Incident Map is an interactive map displaying "terrorism events and other suspicious activities" happening at this very moment (updated every 5 minutes) all around the world. Click on the various icons for "event details" or scroll down for "announcements, alerts and breaking news." Via.
Technocrat
The best political speech I have ever watched (Real media) - [WMV] - Howard Dean talks politics at Johns Hopkins on Thusday October 11, and does so using intelligent, complex ideas and later responds to questions with long, detailed, complicated answers.
The Waterhobo
God is a DJ. He doesn't do requests.
Attention Scum! You can now catch Simon Munnery's occasionally brilliant comedy series on YouTube. If you only have three minutes to spare then make do with this fuzzy three minute clip of The Security Guard. If video is not your thing then you can enjoy Munnery's superb articles here (you could start with this one).
Finally, you could treat yourself to his book How To Live which contains large chunks of all the above.
November on the treadmill
With the Beasts
Advocate or Adumbrate? Martin Amis writes an open letter to Yasmin Alibhai Brown for her suggestion that after reading everyone's favourite last living Marxist Terry Eagleton's comments on this (posted previously), Amis is 'with the beasts' on Muslim-hating. He may have been adumbrating not advocating, but is there another way to describe patronising and smug?
October 12
Plans for simple plywood boats
Hannu's Boatyard is a site by a Finnish guy who offers free plans for two dozen simple plywood boats you can build, along with photos illustrating the build process of each. He also describes basic woodbending technique and some of the design process, in a pleasing writing style that makes me want to get off the internet and make things. My favorites: Portuguese style dinghy; tiny stubby halfpea; round, Welsh-style coracle -- if you click on no other link today, click on the coracle link and scroll down at least to the black and white photo.
The Life and Death of Jesse Jubilee James, Featuring Harlan Ellison
In the grand tradition of Kaycee Nicole, Anthony Godby Johnson, and Kodee Kennings, Jesse James was a studly volunteer firefighter and 9/11 hero who A History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olson's friend Audrey fell in love with over the internet. He turned out to be not what he seemed. None other than Harlan Ellison himself took part in the intervention, and the ensuing confrontation of the perpetrator was recorded for posterity. Via.
Can you explain that again, but this time IN SONG AND DANCE?
nuglah is a really odd kid that uploads some really weird youtube videos. Lots of melodrama and poor chromakey. I love it:
The Unicorn Kingdom Club | Legend of the Unicorn Kingdom | Legend of the Unicorn Kingdom 2 | A Hopscotch to remeber! | Casandro Crumbrow | Twilight Princess Thief!!! and more… GIF
Thompson's Glitch-Folk Debut
"I want those two minutes of my life back." Musique concrète Fred Thompson-style -- a merciless videohack of the candidate's performance at the GOP debate on MSNBC, October 9, 2007. While almost anyone can be made to look foolish edited this way, not everyone was impressed by Thompson's unedited presence at the debate, his TV debut as a presidential contender. Some believe, however, that the former Law and Order D.A. is just the man to "restore the Republican Party to Reagan's default settings."
I Am Emily X
I Am Emily X is "the true-life diary of a frontline Planned Parenthood worker and activist", created in response to the 40 Days for Life Campaign. "*For their safety and protection, Emily X represents a small handful of Planned Parenthood workers and activists, who may or may not be named Emily."
That's it! Back to Winnipeg!
Sweet guinea pig of Winnipeg! 250 stories about Winnipeg! (and Manitoba...)
Images of unknown provenance
*M*I*R*R*O*R* *W*O*R*L*D* Photographs Of Unknown Origin [NSFW]
Inside a combustion engine
There is a dildo in the anus covered with a condom
NewsFilter: "A Montgomery minister found in his home this summer died with his hands and feet bound behind his back and dressed in two rubberized suits, an offical autopsy showed. ... The Rev. Gary Michael Aldridge was found dead June 24. Police ruled the 51-year-old pastor of Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone at the time of his death and that there was no foul play involved."
He's a Liberty University graduate and former Liberty dean. [more inside]
September 2007 polar sea ice anomaly
Video (8MB, MPEG) of arctic sea ice extent, recorded from January to September 2007. [other formats] This summer a dramatic decrease compared to previous years in the extent of the north pole ice cap was observed. Scientists are freaked out [bugmenot]. This summer, the Northwest Passage was open for a few weeks, allowing three ships to traverse it. [more inside]
Gentlemen Ranters
Gentlemen Ranters, a "brilliant compendium of reminiscences of the great days of Fleet Street". Via (check the comments for a more depressing viewpoint).
Lady Jaye P-Orridge has died.
Lady Jaye P-Orridge passed away Tuesday in the arms of her partner, industrial/acid house music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge at their home in New York.
Never mind the Black Helicopters, look out for the Dragonflies.
Reports have been circulating of insects hovering over anti-war rallies recently. Paranoia? Research? It's getting discussion in a lot of mainstream places.
You and I were/weren't meant to fly....
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is proposing new rules regarding passenger pre-screening both domestically and internationally. Interestingly, this includes flights that overfly the continental US without ever touching the ground. [more inside]
Send in the Clowns
He served in law enforcement for over 20 years. He's been a youth counselor, an ordained minister, a Big Brother. He deplores the rampant proliferation of "smut" in America. He bills himself as Klutzo the "Christian" Clown and visits orphanages overseas. Of course he's up on charges.
Hipkiss database of old maps
Do you know the way to San Jose? I found this googling for map images for an animated title sequence I am doing. Wow. A treasure trove of antique maps of every age, description and location.
"Three snags will lead to disqualification"
The World Conker Championships sponsored by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health! Health and Safety gone mad, again? No, they are fighting back against being blamed for taking the fun out of playing conkers. Mine's a fifty-sixer!
Your book is in another castle...
The Library Arcade features one surprisingly entertaining flash game about pleasing library patrons, and one less entertaining, but probably more directly applicable, game about shelving. You can also try to discover the cause of a mysterious disease using your research skills in an arcade-like game [username: Tammy, password: Allgood]. More on the discussion of the role of games in libraries.
You should read Gunnerkrigg Court
Gunnerkrigg Court is a lovely and strange webcomic by Tom Siddell. While its scenario bears a passing resemblance to Harry Potter (magic school, main character with a strange destiny, etc.), there's something quite different going on here. Chapter One, for instance, deals with how to get an anthropomorphic shadow back to its forest home, using only a box of discarded robot parts and a young girl's initiative. And that's just the beginning. Need a more trustworthy endorsement than mine? Neil Gaiman likes it.
Yesterday threatens to devour to-morrow.
I Love It When a Plan Comes Together
Bring Back...The A-Team (parts two, three, four, five, six, and seven). In 2006 Justin Lee Collins tried to reunite the surviving cast members of The A-Team. [more inside]
Pedal Power
Jason Lewis has become the first man to circumnavigate the Earth using human power alone. It only took him 13 years: he set off from London in July, 1994 and ended his expedition in October, 2007, having travelled 46,505 miles (on foot and by pedal boat, roller blades, kayak, and bicycle). [via QI] [more inside]
Something rotten in the state of Han
Corruption Threatens China's Future In a new report for the Carnegie Foundation, Pei Minxin offers an estimate that official corruption in China may cost as much as USD86bln each year - 0.65 percent of GDP and more than the education budget. He calls for economic and political reform; his critics might say no surprise there.
All the news that's fit to print
Censored: The scariest news may be the stuff you haven’t seen yet. David Phinney thought he’d struck journalistic gold. The veteran reporter, who has done freelance work for PBS, ABC, The New York Times, and other news companies, learned from a disgusted American contractor that the Kuwaiti company hired to build the U.S. embassy in Iraq was using forced laborers trafficked in from Asia. [more inside]
Gore wins Nobel prize
Albert A. Gore Jr. shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted." Still not running for president.
October 11
What does it feel like to die.
Sigur Rós interview goes badly, very, very badly.
Sigur Rós have been doing publicity for a documentary about the band called Heima (trailer). They went on NPR's The Bryant Park Project and did an interview which went achingly wrong. On the show's website, interviewer Luke Burbank describes it as "possibly the worst interview in the history of electronic media." [more inside]
They Kick Ass for the Lord
Crazy.
You've never heard a box of Stoned Wheat Thins, a big tub of Necco, a little wooden frog, a Tupperware bucket, an empty jar and a theremin sound this good. It's Crazy. No, really, it's Crazy. [more inside]
The Fever Dream of Comrade Koolhaas
Delirious Moscow: a survey on stellar and interstellar Soviet constructivist architecture, or, buildings in the time before Stalin (with pictures).
Portal Clones Already
2D Flash Portal A competent 2-d scroller featuring mechanics from the new Valve game Portal.
Once upon a time almost everyone was a biogenic robot.
Marquee anagrams / aqua ear man germs
After the Flatbush Pavilion theater in Brooklyn closed down, people started rearranging the letters on the marquee to spell their own messages. [more inside]
Your Grandmother's Vibrator.
A Slide-show History of the Vibrator. [NSFW] A timeline of important milestones. [NSFW image] The vibrator museum. [safe] More history, more pictures [safe] Hysterical: A Short History of the Vibrator [safe]
Favela Rising
Favela Rising is a recent documentary exploring the AfroReggae (in Portuguese) movement and the amazing story of one of its founders, Anderson Sa. AfroReggae (MySpace page has music on) was born in the Vigário Geral favela as a way to give the community an alternative to the drug trade and to fight police oppression. [more inside]
Connecticut and New York's Wandering Hobo
"Since 1862, many have heard the tale of a wandering vagrant who traveled in an endless 365-mile circle between the Connecticut and Hudson rivers. The strange man only spoke with grunts or gestures and dressed in crudely stitched leather from his hat to his shoes." [more inside]
me parece bonita
First she was a dancer but after an injury she had to sing to make a living. She still dances a little during her songs (a rare feat among flamenco cantaoras). I first heard about her when she made a whole record (cd) of Edith Piaf's songs in spanish. You can get a taste here. She talks about it here (spanish + french, excerpts). She sang les feuilles mortes too. But nothing equals seeing her, I think : so here she is with two covers from a recent documentary : a song by Edith Piaf, a song by Lola Flores. Btw, If you get into french songs in the flamenco idiom, try this.
Hawkes' Eye View
Fiddler on the Prairie
Fiddler on the prairie. The story of a 1970s high school production of Fiddler on the Roof. The school was in Billings, Montana.
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Ask any one-time resident of Excelsior, MN about Jimmy "the bum" Hutmaker and you are sure to hear a tale about their experiences with a treasured local character. Some of those tales are the stuff of the best urban legends. In fact, many wrongly believed that the man who walked Main Street with a cigar invariably clenched in his teeth was homeless. Perhaps the most remarkable story about this beloved man was the tale about a day back in the 60s when Mr. Jimmy met a man named Jagger in the old Bacon's drug store. Excelsior lost a piece of history last week when Jimmy died. Since hearing the news, I am finding myself saddened by the loss of a character from my youth. RIP Mr. Jimmy.
Not your father's Christian comics
It's the Oil
It’s the Oil (Stupid)
Epicurean Delights of the State Fair
John Stilgoe wants you to go outside and look at things a little differently.
John Stilgoe is a professor at Harvard who teaches his students how to, among other things, mindfully observe the urban and suburban environments they inhabit. [more inside]
Crusty Row, Thompkins Square Park, Lower East Side and Me
Nobel Prize in literature 2007
Mind the Gap
Mind the Gap: an essay by Paul Graham on wealth, riches, poverty, and why income inequality might not be so bad. [more inside]
In the hollow of an unarmorial age
“Iraq War Memorial: Death of Prince Harry" features the in fact hale and hearty royal scion "laid out before the Union Jack with pennies placed over his eyes and head rested on the Bible...Prone with his unfired gun still holstered, Prince Harry is represented clutching a bloodied flag of Wales, and holding to his heart a cameo locket of his late mother, Princess Diana, while a desert vulture perches on his boot...a bronze casting of Prince Harry’s 'severed ears' also set for display at the Trafalgar Hotel will be offered on eBay." Via.
"Put your boob in my scotch. Come on, put your tit in my drink."
Bob Log III plays distorted trash grimey blues slide guitar with his hands, he drawls through a telephone attached to the bubble face of the motorcycle helmet he wears, and he drums with his feet. He is known to ask women to stir his scotch on stage with their breasts, which is sadly Not currently Safe for Work. Sometimes he asks them to sit on his knee, bouncing up and down on the blue glittery jump suit he wears whenever he plays. [more inside]
ethnomapping in Brazil
Brazilian Ethnomapping: Inside a thatched-roof schoolhouse in a village deep in Brazil's Amazon rain forest, Surui Indians and former military cartographers huddle over the newest weapons in the tribe's fight for survival: laptop computers, satellite maps and hand-held global positioning systems. Some of the resulting maps.
Ballmer's Been Busy
Steve Ballmers's been busy. Whether it's attacking Google and Linux (or being attacked back), berating the moms of 13-year-old girls who hate Vista, or just being called an alcoholic, the perennial Microsoft CEO been everywhere these days.
What happened to the good old days when he just yelled a lot?
What happened to the good old days when he just yelled a lot?
October 10
Brandon Hardesty
Brandon Hardesty [wiki, previously] is a comic actor who is best known for his movie re-enactments and his appearance on a Geico commercial (for which he was well compensated). He asked his thousands of YouTube fans for scene requests. He has now (despite a recent bout with mono) completed performances of the top five five winners: 5: Clerks, 4: Fight Club, 3: Full Metal Jacket, 2: Reservoir Dogs and 1: Pulp Fiction. [YouTube unless otherwise noted] [more inside]
doctor delicious and molecular gastronomy
Carbonated watermelon. Gelatin spheres with liquid centers. Broths and sauces whipped into foams. When the world's best chefs want something that defies the laws of physics, they come to one man: Dave Arnold, the DIY guru of high-tech cooking. Want to turn your kitchen into a science lab? Check out 25 extreme kitchen gadgets. Related, previously on Mefi: molecular gastronomy.
New SyHersh video intvu
"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said
Jimmy Carter speaking out today with statements
"The United States tortures in violation of international law, former President Carter said Wednesday. "I don't think it. I know it," Carter told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said.
The confluence of neoliberalism and neoconservatism allows white students one last chance to party like it’s 1899.
Although not a new phenomenon, it seems that over the last year “ghetto,” “gangsta,” “south of the border” and “taco and tequila” parties have become college chic and cool. Parties at more than a dozen colleges and universities received national coverage in the past year, with countless others going unnoticed save for the pictures posted to sundry websites. It is tempting to interpret such events as clichéd racist expressions. They are, after all, contemporary minstrel theaters that allow middle- and upper-class white Americans to cross moral and social boundaries by racial crossdressing. But such easy explanations keep us from fully appreciating the circumstances on today’s college campus that make minstrel parties pleasing and powerful for so many.
At Last, the 1967 "At Last, the 1948 Show" Show
In 1967, before "Monty Python", before "The Goodies", and before "Marty", John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman teamed up to create a groundbreaking show that influenced (and provided sketch material and dialog for) much of what we know today as British Comedy. Most of the material was erased when its owner, Rediffusion London, disappeared in England's 1967 TV franchise reshuffle. Here is almost all of what survives of "At Last, the 1948 Show".
recycled web visuals and other web tools
Design Patterns, Reuse, recycle, but don’t reinvent the wheel unless necessary. This collection captures findings of consistent, unique or interesting interfaces and design flows from across the web. One of the many tools, tutorials etc. from Smashing Magazine's list, Best of September 2007. [more inside]
WWII Interogators
Fort Hunt's Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII. After 60 years of silence, the World War II veterans who interrogated Nazi prisoners of war at Fort Hunt are telling their story. [Via The Reality-Based Community.] [more inside]
The "Nuclear Nav"
The "Nuclear Nav." On March 11, 1958, Captain Bruce Kulka was the navigator on an Air Force B-47 Stratojet carrying nuclear bombs to an airfield in North Africa. Somewhere over the southeastern US, the captain sent him to back the bomb bay to check on a cockpit warning light. As he climbed through the narrow space around the Mark 6 nuclear bomb, Kulka grabbed the emergency release pin by mistake. [more inside]
The internet is no longer lacking pictures of women playing electric guitar in the shower
A month ago Randall Munroe of XKCD drew a comic lamenting the internet's lack of pictures of women playing electric guitar in the shower. He registered wetriffs.com and soon the submissions started pouring in. The gallery is now up. [nsfw]
What The Fuck?
Why We Curse. An article by Steven Pinker, exploring the roots of modern "dirty words" and the psychohistory of how and why we use the expletives we use. [more inside]
He Likes Beer But Can Not Obtain Food
Green Grumbles
"This blog is intended to document our experience in creating a “green” home in the city of Chicago. We hope to share our experience, good and bad, in creating a place to live ecologically, happily and with minimal impact upon our world." [more inside]
Mockingbird 2.0?
Rehearsing the next terror attack. before 911, the government paid little attention to the role of media and public communications in its national exercises. In 2003, Ogilvy PR was asked by the Department of Homeland Security to develop and manage a full-scale, sophisticated media element in support of TOPOFF 3, its most comprehensive terrorism response exercise ever. The result was a simulated yet eerily realistic news broadcast via the Virtual News Network. The TOPOFF 4 exercise is scheduled to take place October 15-19, 2007.
Warbiking
David McCallum's Warbike, which chimes away as it passes by (and detects) stray wifi signals. Torontonians can ride the Warbike for free until the beginning of December as part of Interaccess. [more inside]
Compose. (No ideas but in things) Invent!
No Ideas But In Things is a photoblog of dials, buttons, knobs, levers, handles, switches, and other pieces of user interface design.
Spot the Five Differences.
Spot the Five Differences. It is fun. [flash]
Dicks, dames, death
Twenty hard-boiled pulp stories from a revived Black Mask Magazine. (Unfortunately, stories are mostly in PDF form.)
Joy Division - Heart and Soul, what will burn
Control, the biopic covering the the life and untimely death of Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis, opens in the US today (on a limited release) [ trailer | fan site | on set interview ]. This is director Anton Corbijn's debut full length film [ interview ] and was co-produced by Tony Wilson (a giant in the Manchester and UK music scene, sadly missed. Check out 24 Hour Party People [trailer | clip]) . Control opened in the UK several days ago and the reviews are largely positive [ Guardian | Times Online | Independent | Channel 4 | Time Out | Manchester Evening News ]. [more inside]
Silly People - Games Aren't Just for Kids
According to the ESA, the average gamer is "33 years old and has been playing for twelve years" and the average buyer of video games is 38. So then, why do members of the mainstream media, as well as politicians (more here and here) continue to reference gaming as something akin to a child's toy? In the wake of the British Board of Film Classification again banning the controversial Manhunt 2, despite edits to tone down the game from its publisher, Newsweek's N'Gai Croal takes a look at "The Problem (and the Danger) of the continued Infantilization of Videogames".
I do not plan on voting for or against any US legislation not directly related to Texas Independence
Texan Larry Kilgore is running for a seat in the US Senate. Agree or disagree with the man, he certainly has the courage of his convictions.
Vandals destroy controversial Serrano photographs
On Friday, October 5th, a group of self proclaimed "National Socialists" burst into the Kulturen Gallery in Sweden and destroyed nearly half of Andres Serrano's exhibit "The History of Sex". They videotaped themselves in the act (alternate youtube link, with stunning comments), set it to a heavy metal soundtrack and released it on the internet. (WARNING: Assume all links are NSFW). [more inside]
Anonymous Group Suicide in Japan
Why is anonymous group suicide so popular in Japan? From 2003 through 2005, 180 people died in 61 reported cases of Internet-assisted group suicide in Japan . . . All but two of these cases have proceeded according to a common blueprint: The victims meet online, using anonymous screen names, and then take sleeping pills and use briquettes, charcoal burners, and tape to turn a car or van into a mobile gas chamber.
Mistaken for a man.
NYC woman files lawsuit after bouncer confuses her for a man and ejects her from women's bathroom. A woman is held in the men's jail after being mistaken for a man. Activists look for solutions.
Salcedo's Shibboleth
Other artists have made holes in gallery floors, including Richard Wilson, and Einstürzende Neubauten. None so big as Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth though. How does one go about making a 548ft crack in the floor of the Tate Modern?
White People’s inherent prudish squareness
The gift that keeps on giving
The quicker you succeed the better. Declassified documents show Secretary of State Kissenger
gave a green light to the Argentine Junta, whilest Rev. Christián González aka Christián von Wernich, also leant a hand, showing that The Catholic Church's involvement with fascism and the Dirty War was far from dead. The Vatican was instrumental in witholding detail. The Desaparecidos probably exceeded 12,000.
You say you want a revolution/Well, you know, we all want to change the world
Revolution in Jesusland: a new blog, written for secular progressives about the currently building movement within conservative evangelical christianity of people who are passionate about and working towards many of the same goals: "eliminating poverty, saving the environment, promoting justice and equality along racial, gender and class lines and for immigrants—and even separation of church and state." If you want a place to start, the about page is here. [more inside]
Josie's Lalaland - short CG/animation film
Josie's Lalaland (embedded QT) is a delicate and ethereal short CG/animation film by Yibi Hu. It is his response to a couple of real world events. [more inside]
Papa Kourand: Roots of Konono No. 1
The full-on, amped-up sanza sounds of Konono No. 1 have been celebrated here at MeFi not once but twice, and they are indeed wonderful. Björk's been working with them a bit lately, too. But let's go back a few decades, and take a listen to the unplugged version of this type of music: mesdames et messiurs, Papa Kourand, the grand old man of the sanza! [more inside]
October 9
"He was a nice enough bloke at first..."
Murder And The Masseuse. Jenny went into the massage business—actual massage, not a euphemism for selling sex—after she nearly murdered her boss.
Israel pwns Syrian RADAR with US-supplied infowar software
Report: Israel 'blinded' Syrian radar. After Israeli missile strike on Syria confirmed by both sides, the question remains – how did Israel's non-stealth jets infiltrate Syrian airspace undetected? US aerospace experts tell Aviation Week magazine that Israel used new US-developed technology that lets users invade and manipulate enemy communication networks.
The West Coast connection/U.S.-Latvia Axis of Hate
On July 1st, 26 year old Fiji-native Satender Singh was gay-bashed to death by several Slavic immigrants in Sacramento. [more inside]
writing and the Net
Is the net good for writers? "Now the web — and its democratizing impact — has spread for over a decade. Over a billion people can deliver their text to a very broad public. But what does it mean for writers and writing? What does it mean for those who specialize in writing well?"
I'm so regretting not being a Community Studies major now.
And I thought us UC Santa Cruz students and alums only had to deal with the defensive ticks we developed by being the stepchild to that other University of California in the Bay Area. But no! We apparently attended the Worst School in America!
The always endearing David Horowitz, in addition to posting an article showing the university's crimes-against-academia/cool-classes, was on Fox News decrying the University's policy of turning patriotic Midwestern kids into Molotov-throwing Marxists. After watching that clip, I do have to wonder what career paths are available to someone with a skillset that includes "Can organize anti-capitalist revolutions."
The always endearing David Horowitz, in addition to posting an article showing the university's crimes-against-academia/cool-classes, was on Fox News decrying the University's policy of turning patriotic Midwestern kids into Molotov-throwing Marxists. After watching that clip, I do have to wonder what career paths are available to someone with a skillset that includes "Can organize anti-capitalist revolutions."
Tubular Salad.
On the menu this evening: 3) Human Catapult, trebuchet-flavored with a side of net. Human catapult, with parachute landing. Short version. Human catapult, without release. 2) Hammer juggling, well done. 1) X-wing vs. Y-Wing.
The Common Good
Ron Howard's Directorial Debut
When one isn't enough
Sick of the single link youtube post? Try a Hershey Bypass
David Gildersleeve's art
David Gildersleeve is hell of artist, but it's his wordless "boy prints" that really stand out, despite the not so good web interface. [more inside]
Under A Green Sky
Earth, 2100 AD. Atmospheric CO2 has doubled to 1000 ppm. From shore to the horizon, there is but an unending purple color -- a vast, flat, oily purple. No fish break its surface, no birds. We are under a pale green sky, and it has the smell of death and poison. Paleontologist Peter Ward's new book links past mass extinctions to global warming and shows, absent major changes, "Our world is hurtling toward carbon dioxide levels not seen since 60 million years ago, right after a greenhouse extinction." Maybe it's time for a heresy: nuclear energy's green, and renewables aren't.
Neuroscience and Mysticism
Searching for God in the Brain. "Researchers are unearthing the roots of religious feeling in the neural commotion that accompanies the spiritual epiphanies of nuns, Buddhists and other people of faith." [Via MindHacks, which points out a few niggling omissions in the article.]
Dew it yerself
Can't we just go Dutch?
If European and North American societies are morally responsible (print-friendly) for safeguarding free speech, should we also take financial responsibility for its proponents' safety (pf)? Hitchens seems to think so.
Today's moral dilemma is brought to you, of course, by the West's favourite Voltairian nightmare: prominent Islam critic, former Dutch MP, and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Today's moral dilemma is brought to you, of course, by the West's favourite Voltairian nightmare: prominent Islam critic, former Dutch MP, and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
John Simpson, on actors
French Fry Coated Hot Dogs!
The French Fry Coated Hot Dog and other artisan hot dogs from Korea.
Governing Migration
A Virtual Cartography of European Migration Policies MigMap conveys a picture of how and where the production of knowledge is currently taking place in the field of migration – and of who is participating in and has access to it. It investigates precisely how the new forms of supranational governance that can be observed in the European migration regime function. It looks, for example, at how European standards in politics and civil society are implemented, and at the authorities, persons and institutions taking part in this process. It examines how the various key players in the public and private spheres are interrelated and funded, as well as at the ways in which these spheres overlap or differ in terms of focus, location or personnel. Finally, it analyzes how responsibilities are allocated and legitimized – and explores the theories, data and discourses upon which current paradigms in migration are based. [more inside]
You = 13 cents
The Facebook Apps Top 30. Opening their source code to application developers, facebook won a strategic gamble. Now, these developers are making their own deals. The I am Hungry application went for just over $20,000, or around 13 cents for data of every user who signed up. But don't worry, you have a chance to bid for yourself.
Team Fortress 2
Ignis Solus is a machinima made using Team Fortress 2. If you can't get enough, check out the Valve created ones. Meet the Engineer, Soldier, Heavy Weapons Guy and Demoman .
what is a randonneur? why, french for badass, of course
It is the oldest currently active bike ride in the world. Older than the Tour, the Giro and Race Across America, the Paris-Brest-Paris is a 1200km (750 mile) odyssey from the outskirts of Paris to the coast of Normandy and back that must be completed in 90 hours. It is no longer a professional race, having fallen out of favor amongst racers who viewed it as too grueling for too low a set of stakes. Instead, PBP and its offspring (London-Edinburgh-London, the Rocky Mountain 1200 and Perth-Albany-Perth) are ridden by a group of amateur riders known as randonneurs. [more inside]
Alexandra Boulat
Alexandra Boulat, one of the world's top women photojournalists
has passed away. Her work will continue
to inspire (quicktime slideshow+audio). [more inside]
"If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album, you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want, pay $4 through PayPal."
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails plans to join Radiohead in the self-distribution game. Reznor's public feud with Interscope records reached its head recently; the musician was forced to finance the alternate reality game promotion of Year Zero himself and was shocked at the record label's pricing in Australia. With the release of Year Zero Remixed, Reznor will be free to go his own way.
Falling
Hillary Clinton Falling In pantsuit or Bikini. Made by Planet Dan. That is all. (Previous empty suit)
Unusual Homes. Amazing Architecture. Strange Places. Fascinating People.
African Time
There is time, and there is "African time". The Ivory Coast is fighting chronic lateness with a contest that offered a $60,000 villa as its grand prize. The winner, legal adviser Narcisse Aka, is known by his colleagues as "Mr. White Man's Time" and said that his punctuality makes him feel like "an extra-terrestrial."
Who's Soft on Terrorism?
Who's soft on terrorism? Surely not the Democrats, who are about to enable the National Security Agency to extend its secret domestic wiretapping program after saying otherwise for months. Surely not the Republican White House, determined to rush out a new Osama bin Laden video even if it burns an intelligence connection spying on Al Qaeda that has been carefully cultivated for years.
The Christianity Candidate
He's the candidate God would vote for, if God could legally vote. Not endorsed by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, or that Sam Harris dude. Previously.
I fought Vinderen Elektriske, and won
They stole an image of my son and just had to pay $4000. About a year ago I was surprised when I saw an image of my son in an ad for a shop called “Vinderen Elektriske”, selling electronics.
30-Year Laptop Battery?
Betavoltaic Batteries are supposed to last 30 years, run cool, and be inert and harmless when depleted. The batteries, which generate electricity from radioactive decay, have a 50-year development history, but breakthroughs at the U.S. Air Force Research Lab are said to make the batteries practical for use in consumer applications. So why doesn't the Air Force lab's website feature this discovery? Maybe because it's a hoax, or a scam.
Django
The most creative jazz musician to originate anywhere outside the United States (Duke Ellington) is maybe the great guitarist Django Reinhardt. It is true that he gave birth to a style which is now played by many musicians. His achievements are outstanding, if we consider the events of his life. He still fascinates both the scholar (great links but in need of some work : see french wiki for more biographic details) among other things because of controversial details (his survival during WWII and the very origin of swing manouche (gypsy jazz)) and the aspiring guitarist (more) (essential resource). But it's maybe better just to listen - and watch - him play. Further watching : Nuages, an amateur documentary in 1 2 3 4 5 parts. Previously.
Rachmaninoff had big hands
Rachmaninoff had big hands. (More from Igudesman and Joo (flash), former students of Yehudi Menuhin). [more inside]
Rube Goldberg meets Flash Friday
Launchball : Think a stylised, fluoro version of The Incredible Machine. And when you finish the level, it reveals a science fact -- which you can pretend to read and claim it's educational...
Where there is no doctor
"Where there is no doctor", a "village health-care handbook", was originally published by Mexican health activists in 1973 as a response to a critical lack of medical care among Mexico's poor. Now available for free download, the book covers such topics as "Family Planning" [pdf], Healing without Medicines [pdf], Common Medicines, their uses and doses [pdf], the right and wrong uses of modern medicines [pdf], and (in the midwives edition) DIY abortion [pdf]. [more inside]
October 8
im in ur bibul, rewritin teh Scripchur
It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your cats are? They might be off helping to translate the Old and New Testaments of Teh Holiez Bibul. [more inside]
Joe Brainard, New York School cartoonist
Did the New York School invent alternative comics? Joe Brainard, more often recognized as an artist and poet in the second-generation New York School, produced several comics in the 1960s, collaborating with Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Ron Padgett, Robert Creeley, and many others. This series of blog posts by Gary Sulllivan (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8) examines Brainard's comics in the context of American poetry and underground comics. [more inside]
Child Labor Travesty or Pap Smear? You Decide!
While other children their age spend their days in school, forming friendships and worrying over their grades, these two young ragamuffins spend long nights camped out in front of hot night spots they won't be able to legally enter themselves for at least half a decade. Please open your hearts, ladies and gentlemen, to the littlest paparazzi. [more inside]
50 best breasts
you cant eat applause for breakfast
Breakfast looks different to different people. That alone made me wanna post this cuz that's just hella cool, but after I saw that, I started wondering what does breakfast sound like? Why should we even bother with breakfast? Here's some more thoughts on breakfast. Hungry yet? This was a great movie by the way. I guess that one was okay too. So what did you have for breakfast? [previously]
Long Live the Queen!
The Victoria Regina Tarot, assembled from steel and wood engravings from nineteenth-century illustrations, now has an online reading generator with several original spreads.
'I think there is a good future for this type of system...'
A new generation of bike rental is here, where you pick up the bike where you start your ride and drop it off at the destination. Vélib' and Vélo'V are the high-profile, wildly successful products of the JCDecaux ad firm in the cities of Paris and Grand Lyon. Velib' provides 10,000 bikes for cheap hourly rental beginning this past summer. In exchange for fully underwriting the €90 million of expenses, JCDecaux wins exclusive rights to all the city's billboards. JCDecaux' rival Clear Channel beat them out of the gate by a couple months, opening Bicing in Barcelona to similar success, although at a smaller scale. [more inside]
Silhouette pirouette
So, can we just skip dinner?
From San Francisco, that bastion of liberal decadence and sexual liberation, comes Moaning Lisa. (Tame, but probably not work safe.) [more inside]
Single link to a post a weird insects
"We gave our final concert, The Band's final concert. We called it The Last Waltz."
At San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving 1976, The Band served turkey dinners to an audience of 5,000 and played Don't Do It, Theme from The Last Waltz, Up on Cripple Creek, The Shape I'm In, Who Do You Love, It Makes No Difference, Such a Night, Helpless, Stage Fright, The Weight, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Dry Your Eyes, Coyote, Mystery Train, Mannish Boy, Further on up the Road, Evangeline, Ophelia, Caravan, Forever Young, Baby Let Me Follow You Down, and I Shall Be Released with a ton of guests (listed in link titles). [more inside]
Theroux reads Borges
Paul Theroux reads Jorge Luis Borges’s short story The Gospel According To Mark and discusses Borges with The New Yorker’s fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. mp3
Cephalopod Awareness Day
Death! / Plop. / The barges down in the river flop.
New contender for world's worst poem. Yes, the mighty William Topaz McGonagall seemingly unassailable position as writer of the sublime The Tay Bridge Disaster is under serious threat... [more inside]
“Blue Monday” Owners’ Club
“Blue Monday” Owners’ Club Photos of actual original “Blue Monday” sleeves (Peter Saville die-cut design) as brandished by their owners. Also You Are There! photos of searching for “Blue Monday” in the wild and finding it. (Creaky old frame-based site)
public panopticon
Myanmar is apparently using photos sent to websites, television stations and other media to arrest protesters taking a cue from and praising(!) China's post-handling of Tienamen square in '89. Relations are mighty cozy between the two nations (according to the big one), but the words "vassal state" are starting to be bandied about.
warsawa ... tourist trap?
modulation is visiting warsaw. not a city which has ever appeared in my top ten tourist destinations, but i am much more inclined to visit it after reading his thoughtful reflections on its architecture and history not to mention obscure (and in classic polish style, rarely open to the public or about to be shut down/demolished because they are too popular, attractions.)
Jesus Malverde: Narco-Saint
lunchdate finder
Ever wanted to have lunch with a few total strangers? Check out Noonhat. There's some background on the blog. More from an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Kumbaya, my Lord! Kumba.... *TASER*
ASCAP loves your cookies, but business is business. You may remember, back in 1996, when ASCAP cracked down on The Girl Scouts for singing popular campfire songs and not paying copyright fees. Today, MCPS-PRS - UK's performance rights organization - has sued a popular car repair firm because its employees listen to radio at the work too loudly, and that it therefore constitutes a public performance. [more inside]
Martin's Unusual Penis
Martin (no last name given) has done some fascinating and unusual things to his penis. In this interview, you can read about Martin's genital evolution, see pictures of the results, and find out the motivations behind Martin's actions. Despite what you might think, this is totally not safe for work. Via.
Straight to Hell
Do you have a hard time relating to popular country music? Hank III is doing his best to play country music the way he thinks it should be. Not everyone likes him, but he drives some folks wild. [more inside]
Usability issues and principles
30 Usability Issues to be aware of In this article we present 30 important usability issues, terms, rules and principles which are usually forgotten, ignored or misunderstood. What is the difference between readability and legibility? What exactly does 80/20 or Pareto principle mean? What is the law of proximity? What is meant with minesweeping and satisficing? And what is Progressive Enhancement and Graceful Degradation? What is banner blindness? How can you measure eye-tracking? Why fold area isn't that important. OK, it’s time to dive in.
Bee afraid
Hark(ness), a panda!
In 1936, the American widow Ruth Harkness became the first person to capture a living panda from the wild.
get your ghoul on
Morbid Anatomy - an excellent blog with a focus on art, medicine, death, and culture. Great viewing anytime, but it might also be a good reference source for any macabre seasonal celebrations!
The Mystery of Andree
In 1897, pioneering Swedish balloonist Salomon August Andrée and two companions took off for the north pole in a hot air balloon. In 1930 their bodies were found, along with records of their expedition. This archive of newspaper articles tells their story. (So does Wikipedia, of course.) Many of the photos they took are here, along with a lot of text in Polish that I can't read any more than most of you can, so don't come complaining to me.
Doctor Steel versus The Hammer of God
Not only does Dr. Duncan Steel have a manly name, he's also one of the guys responsible for keeping those pesky asteroids away from Earth.
Che Guevara's death
So why do you think we have an appendix?
Theories about the appendix abound. (scroll down)
But a new one is outlined in an interesting article in today’s Independent (UK) referencing the work of Duke Medical School researchers in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. [more inside]
Astronomy Media Player
Astronomy Media Player - a generous collection of astronomy podcasts all gathered in one spot.
Postsecret strikes again
The ability of Postsecret to reach out and touch everyday lives has not waned with its increased popularity and reknown. "I feel the same way. I often wonder why I even have a phone because I rarely receive calls."
Then he offered a metaphorical ear.
"If there was a way we could contact each other, that would be cool. My phone number is 605-212-7787." [more inside]
October 7
Deep Space Pharma
Growing drugs in space. If the rainforest runs out of undiscovered medicines, just grow new drugs in space: Wired reports that "a swaggering Texas investor" wants to turn the International Space Station into a kind of orbiting drug lab: "If people knew what I already know," he says, "the International Space Station would be considered one of the most valuable resources our world possesses." Think of it as New Jack City in zero-G – full of weird, crystallized proteins (and billion dollar cures).
"It's a ghost, and its spirit seems only to have grown."
Swamp Ghosts. Of all the wrecks on Papua New Guinea (PNG), none is as fabled as the "Swamp Ghost," a B-17E Flying Fortress that ran out of fuel on an ill-fated bombing mission in early 1942 and was ditched in the Agaiambo Swamp about eight miles inland on the northern coast. There the plane rested, intact and more or less unmolested, in soggy splendor for 64 years—that is, until May 2006, when an American salvager took it apart and removed it. This caused such a controversy that the plane was stopped from leaving the country. The story of the Swamp Ghost illustrates the international debate over ownership of salvaged wrecks and war surplus, told from a personal perspective by a journalist whose war-correspondent father died in PNG during WWII.
Hearts of Darkness
This article, about rape in the Eastern Congo, (nytimes, bugmenot here) makes for hard and disturbing, yet important, reading. [more inside]
What would Shakespeare say?
In one fell swoop, some 16,000 hyphens have been eliminated from the sixth edition of The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, published last month.
Sad Books Are Bad Books
The Happy Endings Foundation aims to eradicate sad thoughts from all literature.
Online Virtual Rubik's Cube.
Bored? Here's an online virtual Rubiks cube for you to play with. Stumped? Here's a step by step guide to solving the damn thing. And here's two more, previously.
small world
HOMOPHONI
Handicapped Fraud
The number of handicap tags has been increasing in recent years and so has abuse, for example nearly one-third of temporary placards found on cars parked in downtown Boston were being used by people who were not disabled. Handicap Fraud is a website for anonymously reporting seemingly able-bodied people who park in handicap spots. Free post-it-notes "You've been reported" available. [more inside]
flubber blue
Reporter whacks man with shovel [video]. d30 (dee-three-oh) is a specially engineered material made with intelligent molecules. They flow with you as you move but on shock lock together to absorb the impact energy.
Ghost cycles for the rest of us
"A Ghostbike is a junker bike that has been painted stark white and afixed to the site where a cyclist has been hit or killed by a car driver." [more inside]
The kids are allright
This is what happens when paranoia overwhelms common sense. A high school in NY state banned backpacks and bags from the student body. The whole situation reached a critical mass when a security guard pulled a young woman out of class because she had a small purse. He asked her if she was on her period. Way to humiliate teenagers. [more inside]
Bre and his friends make things.
Bre and his friends make things like space ballons. Sometimes they launch them and are unable to find them. Although the project has been abandoned the videos are very informative and show what amazing things a small team with a little money and off-the-self technology could do. Earlier this year a Canadian team had success with their space balloon and got some amazing aerial photos.
WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier
WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin's letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written. "Dear Kate, Just a line to let you know I’m going on alright. We had an exciting time and this time up the line. We had only been in about six hours when fritz’s came over to us. We had an hour and a half of it but we beat them back and they lost a good many men too not many got back I can tell you. We lost #### (pencilled out –censored?) which I’m sorry to say and about #### wounded. I think the mug will be all right for Willie which Jack is getting for him. If you send me anything it will come in very nice the chocolate is very good I should like a bit of cake, if you could afford it really gets crushed so if it is not packed careful. With best love from Harry"
The Elephant in the Room
The logo for the 2008 GOP convention was unveiled this past week. People are like, what? “Wide stance? Check. In Minneapolis? Check. Prison stripe-wearing? Check. Starry eyed? Check.”* [more inside]
Andy Kehoe
The Ramones, live in 1979.
The Lincoln Douglas monuments
During the 1858 senatorial campaign, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas faced each other in a series of seven official political debates. The first debate took place in this north-central Illinois town on August 21. [more inside]
Trespassed Against: Nickel Mines, One Year Later
"My first day on the job was the Amish school shooting at Nickel Mines in Lancaster County, Pa. in October of 2006.
Here is some video of what I saw that day." Raw footage from that terrible day, recently posted to YouTube. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [more inside]
What's the drug of the day?
More fun from the Daily Mail. Apparently Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones has decided to post bits from his upcoming autobiography. 1| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 [more inside]
Just four words. Our legacy. Our epitaph.
"Humanity will wither and die. It’s inevitable now..." It's a work of fiction, or so one would hope. I humbly submit for your perusal if not approval, Humanity’s Final Message to Those Who Would Come After by Jeff Harrell. "It’s not hard to understand why. The big picture is scary. The big picture is that we’re all dying. Every last one of us." [more inside]
Flamenco goes orchestral
Flamenco guitar is such a subtle and delicate mean of expression that it looks like arranging flamenco music for a number of musicians isn't practical or efficient. Nevertheless, many attempts have been made to use flamenco phrasing or colors within large ensembles : in a classical piece like The Aranjuez Concierto, in jazz when Gil Evans teamed with Miles Davis to greate several pieces entitled Sketches of Spain, or more recently, with the beautiful work of Maria Schneider, or the small units of Louis Winsberg. One of the most convincing score has been recently produced by Juan Carmona, a gipsy guitarist from Marseille, a work performed by many philarmonic orchestras.
KaosPilots
The KaosPilots, deemed "the world's most adventurous alternative business school", teaches social entrepreneurship and leadership through real-life situations. [more inside]
October 6
Gregory Vershbow's photography
Gregory Vershbow's photography. Oddly enough, a photographer's online gallery that doesn't break your brain to navigate does, in fact, exist. [more inside]
On the brink of artificial life
Venter made an artificial chromosome and may have already created artificial life in his lab. Is it a solution for global warming, or a plot for world domination? Anyway, it's a lot to think about and discuss.
speculative landscapes and radical reconstruction
An interview with Lebbeus Woods -- designer and illustrator of speculative futuristic landscapes and buildings. Woods just set up his own website, which has an amazing quantity of drawings, photographs, and text focusing on his lesser known projects [for those willing to deal with a frustrating flash interface and sound. It's better in IE than Firefox.] [more inside]
arhiva7 - choose your destination
Triumph of the Flow.
Triumph of the Will - the Director's Cut This rare director's cut of Triumph of the Will (German: Triumph des Neger) is a propaganda film by the German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the Nazi getting fonky at Nuremberg. The film contains excerpts from rhymes kicked by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including dat Brooklyn flava by Adolf Hitler, interspersed with footage of splifted party members.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to listen to "Rid of Me" without a (more) severe bought of castration anxiety.
PJ Harvey suggests that all the castration imagery of Rid of Me isn't necessarily metaphorical. [more inside]
online scrapbook for digital mementos
Haditha
The Erosion of a Murder Case Against Marines in the Killing of 24 Iraqi Civilians. "Last year, when accounts of the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha by a group of marines came to light, it seemed that the Iraq war had produced its defining atrocity, just as the conflict in Vietnam had spawned the My Lai massacre a generation ago. But on Thursday, a senior military investigator recommended dropping murder charges against the ranking enlisted marine accused in the 2005 killings, just as he had done earlier in the cases of two other marines charged in the case. The recommendation may well have ended prosecutors’ chances of winning any murder convictions in the killings of the apparently unarmed men, women and children." [Via The Agonist.]
Great Modern Buildings
The Guardian is running a neat little feature on Great Modern Buildings of the world, starting with this interactive guide thing on the Empire State building.
Longest suspension bridge in the world
Plans for the longest suspension bridge in the world have gotten another go-ahead. The bridge from Java to Sumatra would have a center span of 3km and island-hop a total of 30 km. Concepts have been floated for several years, now focusing on a bridge rather than a tunnel project. [more inside]
The New Comedy of the Sexes
Eastern vs. western culture, in icons
An art exhibition depicting some of the differences between eastern and western culture, using iconography. Examples include but are not limited to “opinions,” “waiting in a queue,” and “leaders.” And a couple more.
Abroad with Jonathan Meades
"Britain is the most censored country in the developed world, which is bad enough. What is worse is that most of Britain does not object." Ladies and Gentlemen, for the truth about the British Isles, I put it to you that there is only one source worth consulting- Jonathan Meades. (Youtube linkdump ahoy...)
Abroad
in
Britain (1990), Further
Abroad
(1994), Even Further
Abroad
(1997), Abroad
Again In
Britain
(2005), and Abroad
Again (2007).
(and more besides).
Creeping Climatic Catastrophe - 2007 a "mega disaster"
A record number of floods, droughts and storms around the world has been characterized as a climate change "mega disaster" by a senior UN official, a measure based on 13 emergency "flash" appeals (PDF, map) issued so far this year (pic gallery) - three more than in 2005 which held the previous record. Sir John has expressed frustration at how little media attention in the west is being devoted to what he terms a global "creeping climatic catastrophe".
In a secular age, an authentic miracle must purport to be a hoax, in order to gain credit in the world.
The Mahikari Hoax The Harvard Asia Quarterly tells the story of Fujimura Shinichi, a once-renowned amateur Japanese archaeologist nicknamed 'God's Hands' (神の手） for his seemingly preternatural talent for finding artifacts, who was caught planting planting stone tools, some of which he had fabricated himself, others he had taken from other sites, at an archaeological dig in Miyagi, northern Japan. [more inside]
Let's all go to the Fire Dances... again
Who is Jeremy Coleman? According to the Beeb (in 2001), vocalist and keyboard-player Jaz Coleman was the co-founder of post-punk rockers Killing Joke, whose recording career lasted from 1980 to 1996 (with a brief hiatus in 1982, when Coleman fled to Iceland to await the apocalypse). Until it was Resurrected in 2003. [more inside]
No one really misses Angelfire.
The Sculpture of Christopher Conte
October 5
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness..."
Too Hot To Hear. Fifty years ago today, a San Francisco Municipal Court judge ruled that Allen Ginsberg's Beat-era poem "Howl" was not obscene. Yet today, a New York public broadcasting station decided not to air the poem, fearing that the Federal Communications Commission will find it indecent and crush the network with crippling fines. More on Allen Ginsberg here. Via.
A horse is a horse... Unless of course...
Are Zebras black with white stripes, or white with black stripes? Find the answer to this, plus many other fun zebra facts and many great zebra pictures and photos for your desktop at the appropriately titled Fun Zebra Pictures & Facts website. [more inside]
Why Democracy?
Why Democracy? "In October 2007, ten one-hour films focused on contemporary democracy will be broadcast in the world's largest ever factual media event. More than 40 broadcasters on all continents are participating, with an estimated audience of 300 million viewers. Each of the broadcasters - an A-Z which includes everyone from Al Arabiya to ZDF - will be producing a locally-based seasons of film, radio, debate and discussion to tie in with the global broadcast of the Why Democracy? films."
I'm being followed by a moon shadow...
God gives the gift of schadenfreude
TelevangelistFilter: No matter how many times we do this, it's still so very satisfying. Richard Roberts, President of Oral Roberts University, son of its founder, and that guy who's always on TV, denies a lawsuit alleging political corruption, misappropriation of funds, scores of text messages to underage males coming from the cellphone of his glassy-eyed wife (also always on TV).
Mad About the Boys
Mad About the Boys "Until he fled the country in January, accused of embezzling more than $300 million, Lou Pearlman was famous as the impresario behind the Backstreet Boys and 'NSync. Turns out his investors weren't the only victims, colleagues reveal: Pearlman's passion for boy bands was also a passion for boys."
Neighbourhood Watch 2.0?
Frustrated with perceived inefficacy of local law enforcement and government, residents of Calle de la Montera have started posting video of criminal behaviour (mainly prostitution) on their street to YouTube. The Data Protection Agency (tasked with privacy enforcement) is not amused (in Spanish; machine translation), but the neighbourhood watch group maintains it is not breaking the law (m.t.).
Philosophy and Neuroscience
The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement (PDF). A paper by Andrew Brook and Pete Mandik on the relationship between neuroscience and philosophy. [Via MindHacks.] [more inside]
What makes "T" part of "GLBT"?
Up for consideration is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has been written to provide a comprehensive Federal prohibition of employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Last week, Barney Frank released a Statement saying that it is a mistake to continue seeking inclusion of "gender identity" as part of the Act. Or to put it in other words, there'd be protections for only the "GLB" part of the larger "GLBT community". [more inside]
Shipping container architecture
Shipping container architecture. A comprehensive repository of information, links, photos, and videos of shipping containers used as buildings or parts of buildings. More. Even more.
Hostile takeover at BME?
"Last night false charges were filed against me and I just got out of prison, upon which I discovered that I had been locked out of administrative sections of all the servers as well as being totally locked out of BME." (Google cache, copy available here) Shannon Larratt, founder of the Body Modification E-Zine has seemingly been the victim of a hostile takeover. [more inside]
BugMeNoLonger, Broken Coupon Codes
I love coupon codes, but I hate having to dig through all the ad pages with broken ones to find one that works. Behold: RetailMeNot.com, a site that ranks codes by success rate.
When the pen, brush, and record were mightier than the sword
Ellsworth Kelley, Bill Blass, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and a host of lesser known but equally talented painters, designers, sound engineers and actors served together during World War II in the Ghost Army – the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, a unit whose existence remained an official secret until 1996. German soldiers referred to them as the "Phantom Army," because one moment they were in one place, and the next, they were attacking their flanks or from the rear. Together, they made rubber tanks and fake Jeeps; their changing unit insignia were designed to fool spies and allied units alike. They recorded the sounds of Allied units building bridges or moving troops and broadcast them from special sound trucks, leading the Germans to conclude that the U.S. Army had more troops in more places than it did. "Guys drew, or painted, all the time," documenting their lives, the lives of their fellow soldiers, and that of the local populations in wartime Europe.
Old Good Fellows
Before testosterone coursed through their bodies and caused corruption they were The Sopranos. Frankie, Bobby 'MoFoChild' Breen, Frankienoinfo, Graham 'Freeda' Payn, Donnie 'Alleluja, Jackie [sans kilt], Master Joe Peterson and Joselito was a cutie too.
The First Pocket Photography
Cereal Entertainment
Friday Fun Filter: Test your cereal knowledge.
beautiful ways to span a gap or a river
Construction of the World's Highest Bridge, Millau Viaduct in France, which is slightly higher than the Eiffel Tower. It is now included in a list of Google Earth extremes. World's most interesting bridges. Gallery of beautiful world bridges. [more inside]
Oh Blackwater, keep on rollin', Mesopotamia moon won't you keep on shinin' on me.
"Not associated with Blackwater USA." "Blackwater USA is not responsible for this site." "This is an independent site and is not affiliated with Blackwater USA." There's a new trend in the blogosphere, of anonymous people putting significant effort into creating blogs defending military contractor Blackwater USA. Just another bunch of passionate amateur fans showing Old Media how to report a story, or a calculated Astroturf campaign by a well-heeled PR firm? Maybe these guys know.
October 4
I swear, I'm just looking at the pictures!
Eldon Dedini NSFW is one of several 1960's Playboy cartoonists featured over at the Animation Archive. [more inside]
It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing
G-Spot Ramplified has just received a popular endorsement. Could George be following the groundwork originally laid by 50 Cent? Are celebrities and their sex toys now an acceptable part of everyday life? Will Madame Tussaud be replaced by these guys?
[links nsfw]
Covering Photography: Photographers and Book Design
Covering Photography "A web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design," with lots of ways to discover photographers like Arthur Tress.
NoseRub
Decentralized social network: "...build your social network in one place and have other NoseRub clients connect to it instead of you having to build multiple networks on multiple social networks. The best part is NoseRub is released under the open source MIT license." via eHub. Previously related.
So, it wasn't the Happiest Town on Earth?
Remember the Town Disney Built? -- 50% of the homes in Celebration, Florida are up for sale. A failure of corporate-owned and -planned Community™? or just a fallout of the bursting of the housing bubble? And whither New Urbanism? [more inside]
No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
[Newsfilter]: Fighting a recording industry lawsuit for file sharing saying "it wasn't me!" is probably a really, really bad idea. Jury awards recording companies $222,000 for willfully infringing the copyright on 24 songs in first-to-trial file sharing lawsuit.
Solitary Delights of Infinite Space
7 Means of Movement: Flying From "Come Fly With Me" to "Waitress In The Sky," Locust St. impresses us with all things aeronautical.
Johnny Reb Among Us
The Union is Dissolved! Or, at least it will be, if these unusual allies have their way. While waiting for the results of the Second North American Separatist Convention, you can read up on the separatist groups who attended the first convention last fall.
Brilliant Innovator
Alessandra Sanguinetti The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams (flash, a bit NSFW) All at once.
Collect 'em all!
This is James Savage's spare room, which contains one hundred Apple computers. He has more than 150 in his house and all of them are working perfectly, from an Apple II+ and a Lisa to the latest MacBook Pro. (One entrant among many in Gizmodo's Best Computer Rig contest.)
What is a website containing a rediculous amount of Jeopardy! information?
The J! Archive is an impressive collection of answers and questions from Jeopardy! It includes not only every answer (of those revealed on the show), but also the correct and incorrect questions supplied by the contestants, how much was wagered on each Daily Double and Final Jeopardy, and the contestant's scores after Single and Double Jeopardy. [more inside]
Elizabeth "Grandma" Layton
Elizabeth "Grandma" Layton was coaxed by her sister at the age of 68 to take a blind contour drawing class in Ottawa, Kansas, in order to possibly help alleviate her 35-year bout with clinical depression. By the time of her death in 1993, her work (article includes quicktime link of Elizabeth discussing her work and photo gallery) had been shown in several museums, including the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art, and celebrated as an honest depiction of aging, mental health, and feminist issues (google book link) in the US. [more inside]
Sex like a handshake
Sex like a handshake (even baby sex?) Titilation and humor from Vanessa Woods, researcher at the Lola Bonobo sanctuary. (Previously)
New Marathon WR
2:04:26 Sunday 1 Oct. Haile Gebrselassie set a new World Record (by 29 seconds!) when he won the Berlin Marathon. He's held the WR at 2k and 3k (indoor), 5k (several times) (1998 part 1, 2) , 10k (several times), 10mile, 1/2 marathon, one hour (also) and 25k. Bonus: Alan Webb bests the American Record for the Mile this summer: 3:46.91
Secret authorization of severe interrogation methods
Secret U. S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations. The New York Times has a 4000-word report today on secret Justice Department opinions--never previously disclosed--authorizing severe interrogation methods. Congress has outlawed cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; in response, Justice declared that the CIA's most extreme interrogation methods are not cruel, inhuman, and degrading. These secret opinions, issued in 2005, are still in effect. Most lawmakers did not know they existed. White House response: "This country does not torture."
Our father who art in elevator shafts
A Paternoster lift [wiki] is a cyclic elevator with "an endless chain of cabins moving at a moderate speed; some passing downward past a line of entrances and other cages moving upward past another set of openings. Passengers may embark or alight at any floor whenever they please, without delay. " (As seen on TV!) They're still in use in the the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, and the UK among other places. (Via this list of interesting elevators.)
Honesty, deception, and autism
An interesting article by Simon Baron-Cohen on honesty, deception, and autism.
Composer spoofs HSM to plug Broadway show
Theatre composer imitates teen heartthrob to plug his upcoming Broadway show. Features a cameo from one of Broadway's teen heartthrobs. [more inside]
Not All Black & White
Using Color In Information Display Graphics - a resource from NASA, "intended to help designers who are not color experts find usable color designs" [via] [more inside]
Fear of a Left Planet
It's the first Monday in October and time for Supreme Court Justices to compare liberals, unfavorably, to the Ku Klux Klan. In his new memoir, released on the first day of the Supreme Court's 2007 term, Justice Clarence Thomas writes that he grew up fearing the KKK, but now knows he had "been afraid of the wrong white people all along. My worst fears had come to pass not in Georgia but in Washington, D.C., where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony. " No small man, he also comments on Anita Hill's bad breath. Slate's spectacular legal columnist, Dahlia Lithwick, notes that "in the few hundred pages of his new book, Thomas has managed to undo years of effort by his colleagues to depoliticize the judicial branch." As usual, only Jon Stewart can make us laugh through the tears.
Going to the Beijing Olympics? Don't be black!
As Beijing prepares for the Olympics next year it is trying to clean up some of the shadier sides of the city. Apparently, one way of doing this is going to the popular bar street, Sanlitun, and arresting and beating all the men who appear to be of African decent, even if one happens to be the son of a diplomat.
A Toy Factory in China.
How To Travel With Just One Bag.
Tired of waiting an hour for your luggage? Can't fit all your gear into a tiny suitcase? Struggling to find the perfect carry-on? OneBag can help.
Crackbook
"To find people you know who are not using Crackbook, pick up the phone and give them a ring" Via somebody on Facebook of course. Not short on the English - read toilet - humour, Crackbook does manage to capture the uglier sides of social networking: "Michael Thomas is frantically detagging himself from photos of him with other women before his girlfriend Sharon Oliver notices." [more inside]
Fly Jumpers Junior
Fly Jumpers Junior are a new product that give the wearer near-superhuman abilities, according to the promotional video on this amazon UK page. The vid also includes a surprising, albeit hilarious gory ending. The problem? These are Fly Jumpers Junior, aimed at kids. As one reviewer has already noted, isn't this a bit too much for advertising a product aimed at children?
Urban Abandonments
7 Deserted Wonders of the (Post)Modern World. 7 More Deserted Wonders of the Modern World. 7 Submerged Wonders of the World. 7 Underground Wonders of the World.
October 3
voudou party in Brooklyn
Stephanie Keith met a Vodou priest at a Buddhist interfaith event in New York. He invited her to photograph and experience the religious world of his Haitian culture. Ten ceremonies later, she offers her images and reflections on these late-night rituals [5 minute video]. [more inside]
"He saw the type designer as a kind of public servant"
It’s easy to talk about Adrian Frutiger in the past tense, since his most influential fonts – Univers, Egyptienne, and the eponymous Frutiger – are all at least thirty years old. But he is still alive, and in the summer of 2006, as he was presented with the Society for Typographic Aficionados’ annual Typography Award, type designer Mark Simonson gave a presentation on how Frutiger [pdf, 18 MB] affected, and continues to affect, him and all others who benefit from good typography.
Please. Do not Reply to All.
It's a lesson all listserv managers dread learning the hard way: Don't let your subscribers "Reply to All." The WSJ Washington Wire reports on an incident today in which one user's reply started all those on a Department of Homeland Security "Open Source Intelligence Report" e-mail list on a chain-reaction of replies and counter replies that offers lessons on how (not?) to run an e-mail list. Maybe Michael Chertoff was on to something last year when he stopped using e-mail at all.
Exotic Names for Exotic Shapes.
The Johnson Solids are a set of 92 semi-regular polyhedra, all of which are uniquely named and numbered. Except for the familiar square pyramid they all have exotic names like the Hebesphenomegacorona. A Hebesphenomegacorona in space. Number 26, the Gyrobifastigium, is unique in that if copies of itself are properly stacked together they will leave no gaps, thus making it the only space filling Johnson Solid.
The First Time News Was Fit to Print
The first time the Simpsons, the iPod and Microsoft were mentioned in the New York Times. Also, Times Square, Marijuana and Googling plus much more (up to 9 volumes so far-scroll down for a list with links) with links to the actual articles or PDFs. Some others are Hillary Rodham, Nintendo, the Drudge Report and the VCR.
A 4-star Ruby On Rails book is free for 60 days
"Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications" book is free for 60 days. Reader reviews give it 4-stars at Amazon. Like most first editions, there are a few typos to watch out for. [more inside]
My momma told me . . .
Picture if you will Mississippi, a state still sweltering from heat, and injustice. A place where juke joints in and around Clarksdale are still home to the blues. Junior Kimbrough redefined the blues here. He started playing at a young age, but he was 62 before he released his first album, just 5 years before he died of heart failure in Holly Springs. Sad Days, Lonely Nights [Youtube] [more inside]
Dear Ketel One Marketing Department...
"My dad started crying, I started crying, my brother started crying," says Carl Nolet Jr., who sounds on the phone like he's not kidding. "It was exactly what we wanted to say. It was simple, it was black and white, it was genuine."
Dear Ketel One Drinker
Don't You Like Our New Oh So Minimalist Ads?
Dear Ketel One Drinker
Don't You Like Our New Oh So Minimalist Ads?
Master of the TV Theme Tune
Ronnie Hazlehurst RIP. Who? Well if you've seen any of the BBC's sitcoms and light entertainment programmes from the 70s onwards, you would have probably heard his work... [more inside]
Babies are sponges
You can teach your mini-me all kinds of wonderful things. Among them to settle themselves to sleep, to use american sign language or be physically superb.
Now, you can teach them to save themselves from accidentaly drowning in the pool (flash vid).
100 wallets dropped in front of hidden cameras to test honesty...
Wallettest. "...Each of the 100 wallets contained $2.10 in real money, a fake $50.00 gift certificate, some miscellaneous items and a clearly written ID card identifying the lost wallet's rightful owner. We were curious as to how honest people would be and wanted to see how different groups would compare to each other. For example, who would return the wallets more often... men or women? Young or old?" Results.
The Man Who Didn’t Shoot Malcolm X
The Man Who Didn’t Shoot Malcolm X. Khalil Islam, formerly known as Thomas 15X Johnson, was convicted of assassinating Malcolm X and served 22 years in prison. One of the co-defendants later swore Khalil Islam was innocent. "The fact was, I was just the patsy. The perfect patsy." [more inside]
Best straight out of the car
Under the sea!
Darling it's better down where it's wetter. For $2.5 million, this beautiful home can be yours: Jelly-fish 45, designed by Giancarlo Zema is a floating dwelling unit for up to six persons. It's spacious dimensions are 10 metres high with a diameter of over 15 metres. The Jelly-fish 45 would be ideally situated in sea parks, atolls, bays and seas rich in flora and fauna. The Jelly-fish 45 allows the sea dwelling owners to live either above or below sea level in perfect harmony with the ocean environment.
The Problem with Atheism
Sam Harris critiques contemporary atheism. Harris, best known for Atheist tracts "Letter to a Christian Nation" and "The End of Faith," calls for a more nuanced, modest atheism rationality.
The Right (wing) to Voice an Opinion
Clear Channel backs Rush Limbaugh regarding his comment about troops who speak out against the war as being "phony soldiers." Clear Channel CEO Mark P. Mays said in a letter to Rep. Harry Reid: "While I certainly do not agree with all views that are voiced on our stations, I will not condemn our talent for exercising their right to voice them," Mays wrote. This appears to be a flip-flop from when Clear Channel blacklisted the Dixie Chicks.
Green Grass
Cry of Brazil
Choro (the Portuguese for 'crying', pronounced "shoh-roh") is a style of Brazilian music that originated in Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth century. Choro combines Afro-Brazilian rhythms with conventions of European dance music. It is primarily instrumental music with great scope for improvisation and is traditionally played by flute or clarinet, guitar and/or cavaquinho (page includes English translation), although banjo or bandolim are also commonly heard.
Some names to know in choro are Pixinguinha (1897-1973), Jacob do Bandolim (1918-1969), and Paulinho da Viola, (born 1942). [more inside]
Not for acrophobes.
Human flight. Birdman suits enable the wearer to fly. You can jump from land or sky. If that's not exciting enough for you, add a rocket.
Leave them all behind
Shoegazer 101 Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze or shoegazer; practitioners referred to as shoegazers) is a genre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted until the mid 1990s, peaking circa 1990 to 1991. The British music press (notably NME and Melody Maker) called this genre "shoegazing" because the musicians in these bands often maintained a motionless performing style, standing on stage and staring at the floor while playing their instruments; hence, the idea that they were gazing at their shoes. The shoegazing sound featured extensive use of guitar effects, and indistinguishable vocal melodies that blended into the creative noise of the guitars. Some notable bands are Ride, Lush, Swervedriver, Slowdive, Curve, and American bands Lilys and the Swirlies. [more inside]
So you like electronic music?
If you like electronic music, you probably already know about some of the blogs that offer free live set downloads. You might even know about mpiii. But, they all pale in comparison to the one and only mixes db.
Vikings come to Boston
Why is there so much Viking-themed architecture in Boston? The answer lies in racism and baking powder. Eben Horsfeld revolutionized bread-making in the 1890s when he developed Rumford's Baking Powder. Inspired by a Norwegian superstar and nationalist and a mysterious stone, he became convinced that the Viking Lief Ericson had landed in Cambridge, which he called Norumbega, and funded monuments and research to that effect. The Boston elite, threatened by new Irish immigrants, quickly seized on this concept, since it showed that the cleaned-up Viking, and not Catholic Columbus, that had first settled their sacred city. A century later, it was discovered that the Vikings did reach America first, though never Boston.
Doody Calls
So you want to own a dog, but without all the hassles of dog ownership? Well, there's always doggy
daycare, dog walkers and even bakeries that cater to Cujo. But in the end, you're still stuck with the
worst chore of all - picking up all the yard mines that Poopsy has left for you. Not anymore.
criminals, corpses & crime scenes - a vintage collection
Crime and punishment - a curiously compelling and quirky collection of historic crime photos, including unusual mugshots, corpses & crime scenes. A few favorite characters: idle and disorderly persons; "something amazing" about Harry; a cocky quartet; an illicit drug trader who "drives his own motor car and dresses well"; a subject who refused to open his eyes; charged with conspiring to procure a miscarriage; and guilty of unlawfully possessing cocaine.
This is just one of many marvelous vintage image sets from a historical consultant from Amsterdam - a mammoth treasure trove!
This is just one of many marvelous vintage image sets from a historical consultant from Amsterdam - a mammoth treasure trove!
What "overweight" looks like and why BMI is nuts.
Illustrated BMI Categories, a Flickr project where you can see what "underweight," "normal," "overweight," "obese," and "morbidly obese," BMI categories look like on real people (safe for work) (mostly women). I think that many people would be surprised by what 180lbs looks like.
In addition to not looking what you might have expected fat to look like, it may also not mean what you thought it meant: [more inside]
Handbags of Horror
Handbags of Horror High-fashion handbags: They're expensive and ugly. So ugly, in fact, that they could only have been inspired by monsters from horror movies. Radar compares and contrasts.
Free as the wind
There are several ways to roam the world. But if you want to do it like a king, you have to master this. Maybe mix it with that. Or this (spanish spoken here). Then, you can bring your old acoustic guitar, hit the street and sing.
The Alternative Nobel Prize
The Right Livelihood Award "celebrates and supports people of vision. People who have ideas and apply them in concrete initiatives for the public good. They give hope for tomorrow, for a world in peace and balance. They demonstrate how we can overcome oppression, war, poverty, the destruction of our environment, and a widespread sense of meaninglessness and fear."
The coolest man alive.
October 2
Fugue States, YouTube Edition
Britney is not known for her fugues. But you- do you think you got the clever to write a fugue? Get Bach, JoJo!
Aphorisms - James Geary Books
Aphorisms: "A minimum of sound to a maximum of sense." [ram] Journalist, gnomologist and author James Geary has just released Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists [Amazon. recent NPR interview here]. It draws from such aphorists as Shakespeare,
Voltaire, Emerson, Shaw, Mae West, Woody Allen and Steven Wright. Also discussed is chiasmus, the Jefferson Bible and some meta. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in your reading have been like the blast of triumph..." [more inside]
It really hurts the knees
How to use an Indian Toilet
The Forgotten Lens
50mm, the Forgotten Lens Why You Should Ditch That Zoom for a Classic 50mm "Normal" Lens. [more inside]
Speed Levitch's The Cruise
The Cruise, director Bennett Miller's timeless portrait of New York City, free thinking and the 1990s as lived by Timothy "Speed" Levitch.
In eleven beats on youtube: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Meet The Lollipops
The Lollipops are a collection of stylized cartoon drawings by Craig Robinson of famous rock stars (mouseover text will reveal the artist). 26 of them in alphabetical order appear in this ad for The Observer, entitled "From Abba To Zappa."
Duh?
Have you noticed quite a number of stupid things lately? Perhaps now you will find them documented in the Encyclopedia of Stupid.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch
King of Fruits, Tempter of Adam, Prize of Paris: It's apple-picking time. The apple's origins reach into prehistory. Thanks to tremendous genetic variance in each new generation, humans have cultivated a dizzying number of named varieties, as many as 17,000, of which 7500 are available as growth stock. In the past, different apples were prized for particular strengths: cider pressing, storage, cooking, drying, or eating out of hand. Despite this bounty, just 15 shelf-stable, shiny, easy-to-pick varieties account for 90% of apple sales today. But heirloom apple growers are working to preserve the old flavors of the Roxbury Russet, the Westfield Seek-No-Further, the Fallawater, the Limbertwig, the King Luscious...
Whaddaya want, a rubber biscuit?
These were the times of your life. The genesis of 16 magazine.
Legs McNeil starts PUNK magazine. Henry Mancini pens the Pink Panther Theme? The Flaming Lips play Beverly Hills 90210? Pink Floyds performance at Live 8. Gene Autry? Pavarotti? King Sunny Ade? The Archies! Fugazi! WXPN's 885 Most Memorable Musical Moments, in progress now. You can listen to the stream here
Canadian border guards gone wild
Facebook and MySpace posts embarrass Canadian border guards. PDF. Another example of Jan Wong's advice in 15 minutes of shame, about a 2005 incident at a Toronto private school: Don't write anything you wouldn't want someone to forward to [the national newspaper].
In China, it is a common thing to stumble over the bodies of dead babies in the streets.
In the 19th century, English author Favell Mortimer wrote several books describing various countries to children. Apparently she didn't travel much. [more inside]
Yes, but does it swing?
Harvard Scientists Build a Device to Smoke Weed During Brain Scan
It's not often one gets one's bong in the scientific literature, let alone one designed to allow you to smoke weed inside an MRI scanner... [more inside]
Ahimsa
On June 15th, 2007, the UN unanimously adopted a resolution declaring October 2 to be the "International Day of Non-Violence." October 2 is also Gandhi Jayanti, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi,a national holiday in India in honor of the man called the "Father of the Nation". Previously on Mefi, Gandhi's heirs - five champions of non violence and Everything you wanted to know about Gandhi. [more inside]
Living in the Mall
Living in the Mall is an art project by Providence artist Michael J. Townsend that has come to an abrubt end. "Eight artists snuck into the depths of Providence Place mall and built a secret studio apartment in which they stayed, on and off, for nearly four years until mall security finally caught their leader last week." Townsend's wife, Adriana Yoto, also documented the project at her website.
Who Moved My Cheese?
...This site is my year-long cheese course. I mean that in both senses of the word. By next year I will have sampled at least 365 different cheeses, some old favorites, some brand new to me…
More delightful cheese collections: French library of fromages, French boxes of Camembert, Polish cheese labels, etc. This is not the first & only cheese blog, there are many others. Not to mention the Venezuelan Beaver Cheese (YT). Tastings and pictures of all 43 cheeses from the sketch
One continuous Line (x2)
you can gouge away, stay all day, if you want to
School libraries are wasting away, unused by children and underfunded by headteachers, according to research which found that pupils borrow on average only one library book a term.
More fun than humans should be allowed to have
The 12 Memorable Moments From The Late Show With David Letterman. Inspired by his recent interview with everyone's favorite socialite cum ex-convict, Paris Hilton, here are is a YouTube link dump of some of Dave's crazier moments over the years, including, the Alka-Seltzer suit, Borat, Pee Wee Herman, Drew Barrymore, Jerry Lawler slapping Andy Kaufman, Sam Kinison, Cher, and the incomparable Crispin Glover. [Previously]
Behold, the zoomable panorma
Science Daily reports that researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, have built a low-cost robotic device that enables any digital camera to produce breathtaking panormamic images called Gigapans.
Adding up US subsidies for auto travel with and without the costs of war
In the U.S., motorists do not pay their way. The US government spends more on highways and other auto-related expenses than it receives from auto-related taxes, unlike almost every country in Europe. In a recent report [pdf], Mark Delucchi calculates automobile-related costs and revenues in three different ways and concludes the subsidy is around 20-70 cents per gallon or $24-105 billion in 2002. But what are automobile-related costs, you ask? [more inside]
"We realised what a fascinating archive of images we were sitting on."
The London Zoo's historic photographic archive went online today. According to news reports, the pictures will be offered for sale to fund conservation programs. Via.
Les Ballets Trockadero
Freaks in the Big Top the Artwork of Mark Bryan
October 1
to sit it out or dance
Awesome disabled dancers: Clayton ‘Peg Leg’ Bates, the one legged tap dancer, via, playing a pirate l Reynaldo Ojeda does a fabulous one legged salsa l Chinese Disabled Performing Arts Troupe (they are deaf) doing the Thousand Armed Buddha of Compassion Dance l armless ballet dancer, Simona Atzori, (who paints as well) l Mahesh, "I can dance...without legs." [more inside]
Burma's dissent
Virtual Studio Visitor
Any experienced studio engineer or producer knows that the presence of visitors in the studio can dramatically affect the performance of singers and musicians. Using advanced proprietary computer modelling, the Virtual Studio Visitor plug-in convincingly emulates the effect of various studio visitors on a performance, without the need for the visitors to actually be present. Also from the visionaries at Sonic Finger: the Dead Quietenator provides you with the highest quality pure digital silence, including several highly sought-after vintage silences previously unattainable.
What was your first concert?
Mine was The Fixx opening for A Flock Of Seagulls in '82 when I was 12 and it was the first time I smoked dope... I know this is the worst kind of query-Metafilter post but I can't resist. It is a fun article and I bet you have a better story.
Lyon's Electronic Office
In October 1947, the directors of J. Lyons & Co (think - teashops, nippies, bakeries, ice-creams, steakhouses, hotels, Wimpy Bars and Dunkin' Donuts), decided to take an active role in promoting the commercial development of computers.
In 1951 the LEO I computer was operational and ran the world's first regular routine office computer job.
Dick Cavett?
Dick Cavett had a nice little run on T.V.
He became quite a celebrity based on his intellectual conversations with notable persons of the time.
The Faces of War
The Faces of War, a fascinating document of the prosthetic masks used to cover serious facial injuries from the battlefield. Before plastic surgery was widely practised and used to reconstruct the horrific facial injuries of the First World War soldiers, men with the most serious facial injured were often hidden away from society.
Men such as those recorded in watercolour, and in pastels (warning: some may find these images disturbing); patients of Harold Gillies, pioneer of facial reconstruction at Queen's Hospital, Sidcup, the wars major centre for facial reconstruction and plastic surgery.
Men such as those recorded in watercolour, and in pastels (warning: some may find these images disturbing); patients of Harold Gillies, pioneer of facial reconstruction at Queen's Hospital, Sidcup, the wars major centre for facial reconstruction and plastic surgery.
Social history viewed through various fashions
Ladies, please remove your hats. Irate parents wrote indignant letters to the principal. Make do and mend. Teddy boys (the first real manifestation of youth culture?): horsewhip all of 'em. You can take a maxi up but you can't let a mini down. Although midis did have some compensations. [more inside]
Jumpin Jive!
I got a gal in Kalamazoo, and a lucky number. Jumpin Jive! Is that the Chatanooga Choo-choo? No, even better! It's the Nicholas Brothers!
Rebus Retires
Exit Music. The King of Tartan Noir, Ian Rankin has retired his detective John Rebus. Ageing him with each novel, Rebus has finally reached the retirement age at Edinburgh CID; Although that may not stop him... [more inside]
Put Up or Shut Up
Last weekend's PICNIC'07 conference in Amsterdam featured a Green Challenge: to come up with the best marketable green idea that could be developed and sold to consumers within two years. Dutch decentralized renewable energy company Qurrent took down the big €500,000 prize for the Qbox: a device which creates optimizing energy algorithms for all devices in a home. See also: Green Thing.
Iran So Far Away
I Can't Help It - My Boner Won't Go Down!
Apparently the lead singer from Tool has had sex with many of the luminaries of Country Music. [more inside]
Shifting Targets - The Administration’s plan for Iran by Seymour Hersh
This summer, the White House, pushed by the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney, requested that the Joint Chiefs of Staff redraw long-standing plans for a possible attack on Iran, according to former officials and government consultants... Now the emphasis is on 'surgical' strikes on Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in Tehran and elsewhere, which, the Administration claims, have been the source of attacks on Americans in Iraq. What had been presented primarily as a counter-proliferation mission has been reconceived as counterterrorism... The former intelligence official added...'Meanwhile, the politicians are saying, 'You can’t do it, because every Republican is going to be defeated, and we’re only one fact from going over the cliff in Iraq.' But Cheney doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Republican worries, and neither does the President.'Shifting Targets by Seymour Hersh
See also 'The President Has Accepted Ethnic Cleansing'
The Birotron: The Keyboard of the Future
In 1975, armed with a big pile of 8-track car stereos and a whole lot of moxie, Dave Biro set out to change the sound of rock music. He failed spectacularly. This is the fascinating and tragic story of one of the rarest instruments in rock music- The Birotron. [more inside]
Dot Matrix Fun
You can print a line on a Epson Printer located in Brugg, Switzerland. There is a live video stream to see what you're printing as well as a light switch so you're not printing in the dark (snapshot).
Deanna Molinaro's Not-for-Children Books
Deanna Molinaro's Not-for-Children Books consist of two bizarre picture books involving sea creatures, and a surprisingly touching story about an alligator. While you're there, check out a few additional paintings and drawings.
The Barry White Effect
Language Log is a great linguistics blog I have been reading, and I thought that Metafilter might be interested in these posts about sex differences in language use. The (less-technical) articles to which the bloggers are responding are all within the responses, so I didn't link to them. The Barry White Effect (voice pitch seems to correlate with reproduction) - Gabby Guys (men talk more than women) - Young Men Talk Like Old Women (usage of certain words) - Gender and Tags ("Certainly we don't seem to find real women and men as sums of the characteristics attributed to them") Are any of these differences actually caused by the speakers sex? The really fascinating thing, to me, is how unbelievably hard it is to study such a distinction.
I am not a number, I'm a mefi front page post
I am not a number, I am a free man.
Forty years ago "The Prisoner" made it's American debut on CBS.
A surreal
and challenging science fiction series that follows "Number 6," a former government operative sent into
a seemingly idyllic but twisted prison known as "The Village". Over the course of
seventeen
episodes,
Number 6 struggles to retain his identity in the face of sophisticated and relentless
attempts by the powers-that-be (led by people known only as "No. 2") to extract his secrets.
It ended with a final episode that defies
explanation and caused it's writer (the show's star Patrick McGoohan) to go into hiding after it aired. [more inside]
National Geographic Photos Online
National Geographic Magazine is all about the photos. Check out the Editor's Choices. Other goodness includes the Daily Dozen, a jigsaw puzzle generator, and user-generated photo galleries.
Swimming Across Tahoe
After a six hour swim, Karen Gaffney finished crossing Lake Tahoe. She's also done the English Channel as part of a relay. Karen also has Down syndrome and is a motivational speaker. [more inside]
You can censor if you're rich
Craig Murray censored for attacking Alisher Usmanov. Ex UK ambassador to Uzbeckistan; Crag Murray has had his blog dumped by fasthosts and the bloggers (302 so far) fight back. Euro MP Tom Wise repeats some of Murrays allegations which have been published on the European Parliament website. Lots of Shenanigans;
The controversy; An extremely rich man was accused of being a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist Oh, and he also wants to buy Arsenal FC.
Image Seam Carving, Online.
The Thousand Islands and Special Sauce
Thousand Islands The Thousand Islands are a chain of islands that straddle the U.S.-Canada border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. The islands stretch for about 50 mi (80 km) downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario. The U.S. islands are in the state of New York. The islands, which number 1,865 in all, range in size from over 100 km² to smaller islands occupied by a single residence, to even smaller uninhabited outcroppings of rocks that are home to migratory waterfowl. [more inside]
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Radiohead
The new Radiohead album is now available for pre-order from the band's website. How much for the download version you ask? Name your own price.