January 16, 2015
Photos- The 1940s, Detroit
Detroit in the '40s, thriving industry (note: some photos of racial conflict)
Katie Queen of Tennessee
This video of The Apache Relay song Katie Queen of Tennessee is great - kids from the Nashville Dance Center dancing their hearts out while the band plays a sweet country song in a 19th-century barn owned by Vince Gill and Amy Grant. And the kids aren't even dancing to the song.
Sad drone on ground
Canciones De Mi Padre
Linda Ronstadt - Canciones De Mi Padre Complete Concert (YouTube) "Entire performance of Canciones De Mi Padre, Spanish for Songs Of My Father. During Linda Ronstadt's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony on April 10, 2014, Glenn Frey of The Eagles speech mentioned the album is the biggest non-English language seller in American record history. Linda Ronstadt's 1987 album has been RIAA certified Double-Platinum with over 10 million copies sold worldwide. Linda Ronstadt won the Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album at the 31st Grammy Awards." [more inside]
A Sticky Wicket
It's summer in Australia and that can only mean one thing: lots and lots of cricket! (Some previous discussions of cricket on Metafilter.) Cricket has long had a reputation as a "gentlemanly game", which quietly ignores the increasing popularity of women's cricket that has existed since 1745. Times change and some substantial technology is now being used to assist the umpires and referees. As the sport becomes more professional and attracts more money, controversy is increasing in these less genteel times. However, there is now one great ethical dilemma facing cricketers: should the batter voluntarily walk (dismiss themselves) when they know they are out, even if the umpire fails to give them out? [more inside]
U.S. Supreme Court to rule on same-sex marriage
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear cases on same-sex marriage. The focus of the Court’s review will be a decision issued in early November by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which upheld bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. The Court will rule on the power of U.S. states to ban same-sex marriages or refuse to recognize such marriages when performed in another state. Hearings will likely take place in April, and a final ruling is expected in late June. [more inside]
“I have great faith in fools - self-confidence my friends will call it.”
On Edgar Allan Poe by Marilynne Robinson [New York Review of Books]
"Edgar Allan Poe was and is a turbulence, an anomaly among the major American writers of his period, an anomaly to this day. He both amazed and antagonized his contemporaries, who could not dismiss him from the first rank of writers, though many felt his work to be morally questionable and in dubious taste, and though he scourged them in print regularly in the course of producing a body of criticism that is sometimes flatly vindictive and often brilliant.
Family Recipe
Isabella Rossellini's daughter Elettra has a witty, attractive food/recipe blog where she shares a customizable pasta dish her grandfather, the iconic director Roberto Rossellini, used to make.
Paddle Boarding Among Icebergs in Lake Michigan
Eric Holder (mostly) ends Federal asset forfeiture
The Justice and Treasury Departments no longer authorize local police to take people's cash, cars, and homes without evidence of a crime. Maybe police will do that less then! Previously: they've been doing that a lot.
MORTDECAI IS COMING
News of a late Friday
In the 21st century, it almost goes without saying the past year was the hottest year on record. But it's worth mentioning 2014 was the hottest ever recorded, according to NASA and NOAA who independently confirmed. Drum roll: it was the 38th consecutive year of above-average temperatures. 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000. Nobody born since 1976 has experienced a colder-than-average year on Earth. The coldest spot on Earth during 2014 (on average) was the eastern half of the United States. The hottest on average was most of Europe. British wine growers rejoice. [more inside]
Another type of pole dancing
The average fit male in the United States can do eight pull-ups. The average fit female can do one. For this woman, numbers are kind of beside the point.
#BossWitch
Hermione Granger and the Goddamn Patriarchy. (slBuzzfeed)
That was close. We almost passed the Bechdel Test.
How to write an Oscar-nominated movie, 2015 edition by Alexandra Petri.
We let the crazy flag fly here at House Crazy
House Crazy is a blog about weird and/or beautiful houses, like this "bizarre house-like thing in the [California] desert", this obnoxiously opulent ski chalet or thismagical San Francisco Victorian. There are also interesting articles on crime scene houses like the the House at Hex Hollow and the house where Sharon Tate was murdered.
I. M. Poster
A picture is worth a thousand calories
The music of Kiasmos curls itself around you, snug as a glove
If a band opened their set saying they were going to wake people up with techno music, you would probably not expect the musicians to be a BAFTA-award winning modern classical composer and a member from an electronic pop/dance group, but that's how Kiasmos introduced their music during Iceland Airwaves/KEXPort in Reykjavík. If you like what you hear there, here are a few more tracks on Grooveshark, and read on for more on the members of Kiasmos, Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen. [more inside]
Someone spent a lot of time thinking about this.
But his favourite game is Scrabble, so what does he know
The game ends in nuclear war only about 5 percent of the time. That’s a good thing. It gives Ananda Gupta faith in humanity.Twilight Struggle is the best board game in the world (and Ananda Gupta is its designer) and is all about replaying the Cold War. The worst games? Tic-tac-toe, Snakes and Ladders, Candy Land, The Game of Life and Monopoly, according to Oliver Roeder and based on ratings taking from BoardGameGeek. (Twilight Struggle previously.)
Who is Dread Pirate Roberts?
The trial of supposed Silk Road chief Ross Ulbricht is now underway. His defense rests on the claim that while Ulbricht did found Silk Road as an experiment, he relinquished control a number of years ago and is now the "fall guy" for those who were truly in charge. According to Ulbricht's defense, he was not Dread Pirate Roberts, and that there may be a number of other people who were. One of those possible operators? According to a DHS agent who took the stand yesterday, it could have been Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès.
You look good, girl
Bea A Day
Mike Denison made Bea Arthur art every day for a year. He is now working on #BettyADay, art inspired by Betty White
Flavorstone Blue
Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?
From guilty pleasure to Emmy Awards: The delightfully weird history of Lifetime movies
New York: A Documentary Film
The much esteemed eight-part history of New York City "New York: A Documentary Film" is available. (approximate length 17 hrs. 30 min.) [more inside]
dating while autistic
Idle vapourings of a mind diseased
Some corner of a foreign planet
Beagle probe found on the surface of Mars 12 years after contact was lost with the probe on its descent it has been spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter [more inside]
Stories as agents of personal transformation
recently on Aeon: not only do stories shape our thought processes in many ways similar to lived experience, they may also strengthen empathy as readers map the narratives of authors.
« Previous day | Next day »