August 3, 2016
You think they ever get backed up at the gates of Heaven?
Comedian Billy Domineau has written a spot-on spec script that takes place 3 years after the show went off the air: "Seinfeld - The Twin Towers".
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Bagpipe Blues
Rufus Harley debut jazz recording in 1965 was unexpected, mostly because one featured instrument was bagpipes. In seven tracks: Bagpipe Blues, Kerry Dancers, Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me), More, Chim Chim Cher-ee, Sportin', Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child.
“We’re in a crystal arms race,”
The Bedazzling of the American Gymnast [The New York Times] So it begins: the flag-waving excitement, the teeth-grinding anticipation, the blinding sparkle. The Olympics. Wait … hang on. The sparkle? Indeed. Because if Simone Biles — the 19-year-old American who is often called by sports pundits the best female gymnast ever, and whose performance in Rio de Janeiro will be among the most watched of these Olympics — does what most everyone seems to expect and makes off with multiple gold medals, it is very likely that when she climbs the podium, the shininess of the discs around her neck will pale in comparison to the shininess of something else. Her leotard.
Possibilia
POSSIBILIA is an interactive love story set in the multiverse.
The collector who was collected
at once distant, unknowable, and somehow feverishly intimate
Listening to a Jai Paul song sounds like a tuning into a pirate radio station being broadcast directly from someone’s brain. [more inside]
2016 Christmas shopping: underway
As the (northern hemisphere) summer rapidly disappears, the nights draw in and temperatures plummet, so the English are Christmas shopping. Seasonal foods appear on shelves, while the Selfridges Christmas store is now open and big supermarkets flag the approaching holiday. At Harrods, the Christmas range has been launched, while in Derbyshire Christmas pudding production is ramping up, and inns and hotels in towns such as Durham compete for Christmas Day meal bookings. For shoppers too impatient to wait, the 2014 British video game "Christmas Shopper Simulator" (play through). Days to go.
Missouri governor appointed as a public defender to an indigent
As authorized by law, the director of the Missouri State Public Defender office just used his authority to appoint the state's governor, Jay Nixon, as public defender counsel to an indigent. The director is authorized to appoint *any* member of the state bar to represent indigent defendants as a public defender; Jay Nixon is a member of the Missouri bar. This move is the latest in a battle over the governor's big cuts to the public defender department: $3.5 million cut from a $4.5 million budget, leaving the public defender system unable to provide anything other than brief, cursory counsel, which may not meet the requirements of the law.
Foreign Influence
President Obama:
With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections. I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people. And I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.The Intercept: A series exploring how money from abroad has entered the 2016 presidential election thanks to Citizens United. [more inside]
Kim Jong Il: The man who brought love to North Korea’s silver screen
Among the many weird manifestations of Kim Il Sung’s tyranny was a prohibition of romance in the works of North Korean culture ... Growing up on the very best of Soviet and Hollywood movies, Kim Jong Il comprehended that romance could be an essential spoon of sugar to help people better swallow the bitter medicine of social mobilization and various other political campaigns. “People love love,” he once claimed in his characteristically laconic manner. “We must show it on the screen”.[more inside]
"Our world is in constant flux"
Vestige, a set of person-shaped mirrors placed in the Scottish woods, is one of the Reflective sculptures by U.K.-based artist Rob Mulholland.
The six male and female figures represent a vestige, a faint trace of the past people and communities that once occupied and lived in this space…They create a visual notion of non-space, a void, as if they are at one moment part of our world and then, as they fade into the forest, they become an intangible outline.
The six male and female figures represent a vestige, a faint trace of the past people and communities that once occupied and lived in this space…They create a visual notion of non-space, a void, as if they are at one moment part of our world and then, as they fade into the forest, they become an intangible outline.
ENGAGE
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand / A mighty woman
The 2016 US general election is fully underway now. In 96 days, Americans will go to the polls. Current opinion polls show a significant bump for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton coming out of the major party conventions, and according to most polling aggregators she is currently on track to win the election. [more inside]
Now this is a BUS
China has created a Transit Elevated Bus or "straddle bus" and just unveiled a working prototype in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. Be sure to scroll down for the video of it in action.
London Road: a verbatim musical about the Ipswich serial murders
The film London Road [trailer], based on the stage production of the same name, is a verbatim musical by playwright Alecky Blythe All dialogue and lyrics are drawn word for word from Blythe's 2006 interviews with residents of the street, as Ipswich police tried to solve the murders of five local women: Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls (previously on MeFi). The play and film both focus on residents' attempts to regain neighbourhood pride after the media coverage of the murders. However, the musical has not been without controversy. [more inside]
Do your future self a favor.
Set it and forget it. "When your willpower is depleted, you are even more likely to make decisions based on the environment around you. After all, if you're feeling drained, stressed, or overwhelmed then you're not going to go through a lot of effort to cook a healthy dinner or fit in a workout. You'll grab whatever is easiest. And that means that if you take just a little bit of time today to organize your room, your office, your kitchen, and other areas, then that adjustment in choice architecture can guide you toward better choices even when your willpower is fading."
I am my things and my things are me
"Single, childless, I’m all I’ve got: me – and the accumulated external markers of who I am, which are also narrative prompts for the ongoing story of my life. These stories connect me to the past, present, future, and live in nearly everything I own. "
Lee Randall explores the anchoring of self-identity in possessions. [more inside]
UFC Sold -- What's Next?
Last month, UFC, the largest mixed martial arts promotion in the world, was sold for $4 billion. [more inside]
Subway Simulator 2016
Brand New Subway is a browser game that lets you build the New York City subway system, either starting from scratch or working from an existing model (including a few past and future plans). Predictably, this leads to all sorts of idiosyncratic designs which score poorly on the game's metrics for ridership and cost, but do much better on metrics such as Number of Figure 8s Through Hoboken. [more inside]
this is not fine
my birth cry will be the sound of every phone on this planet ringing
Fences: A Brexit Diary
" When everyone’s building a fence, isn’t it a true fool who lives out in the open?" Author Zadie Smith (lotsa previously on the Blue) ruminates on Brexit, as well as class, race, and an uncertain future. (slNYRB)
Putonghua or bust
In China: Chinese dialects fight for survival. Outside China: Meet the Hong Kong academics fighting to safeguard the Cantonese language (Hong Kong); Taiwanese: a doomed language? (Taiwan); Do you speak Singlish? || The Death of Dialects in Singapore (Singapore); Penang Hokkien will be ‘dead’ in 40 years if people stop using it (Malaysia) [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »