October 17, 2010
Don't spend it all at once
US Charity offers UK drug addicts £200 to be sterilised, according to a BBC report to be shown this evening, Project Prevention, which pays $300 in the US, "seeks to reduce the burden of this social problem on taxpayers, trim down social worker caseloads, and alleviate from our clients the burden of having children that will potentially be taken away."
Bursting Bubbles
When he first saw a video of a Toronto constable threatening to arrest a G20 protester for blowing bubbles, one YouTube user was so livid, he couldn’t stop writing comments. In fact, the man, who uses the alias “theforcebewithme,” can’t even remember writing the specific comment that now has him defending a $1.2 million defamation lawsuit launched by Toronto’s now notorious “Officer Bubbles.” Const. Adam Josephs seeks to compel the Google-owned YouTube to reveal the identity of the person who created and posted the videos as well as any information it has on the 24 other users who made allegedly defamatory remarks. [more inside]
Microwave science!
THIS WHOLE DAMN COURT IS OUT OF ORDER!
doublin down on new style hip hop with Les Twins
Les Twins at 2010 World of Dance - identical twins Laurent & Larry Bourgeois of Paris (aka Ca’ Blaze and Lil’ Beast of the Criminalz Crew) are turning heads among the b-boys and poppers for their creative "new style" dance moves and freestyle hiphop.
2010 dance battles: vs Bones+Pee Fly VS Laura+Boubou Flexing New Style Dance; vs Old Future Crew; vs MEENR and Russell aka Ironman, pt.1; Part 2
2009: Phone Home and Just Debout pre-selection Paris; 2007: twins criminlaz
At World of Dance, Ruffian posts more background and more clips on Les Twins.
2010 dance battles: vs Bones+Pee Fly VS Laura+Boubou Flexing New Style Dance; vs Old Future Crew; vs MEENR and Russell aka Ironman, pt.1; Part 2
2009: Phone Home and Just Debout pre-selection Paris; 2007: twins criminlaz
At World of Dance, Ruffian posts more background and more clips on Les Twins.
It Gets Better
Rudolf Brazda, one of the last surviving victims of violent persecution of GLBT people by the Nazi regime, and Adam and other deaf gays and lesbians relate their own kinds of It Gets Better stories.
The Patron Saint of Church Abuse?
Mary MacKillop became Australia's first ever saint yesterday (Vatican time).
In a counterpoint to the celebrations, pressure groups are calling for MacKillop, once banished from the church for exposing sex abuse, to be made the Patron Saint of those sexually abused by the clergy.
Home Sheep Home
Hey, look, another cute flash game. With sheep.
Walking away from church.
Organized religion's increasing identification with conservative politics is a turnoff to more and more young adults. Evangelical Protestantism has been hit hard by this development. 'After 1980, both churchgoing progressives and secular conservatives became rarer and rarer. Some Americans brought their religion and their politics into alignment by adjusting their political views to their religious faith. But, surprisingly, more of them adjusted their religion to fit their politics.''Throughout the 1990s and into the new century, the increasingly prominent association between religion and conservative politics provoked a backlash among moderates and progressives, many of whom had previously considered themselves religious.''This backlash was especially forceful among youth coming of age in the 1990s and just forming their views about religion. Some of that generation, to be sure, held deeply conservative moral and political views, and they felt very comfortable in the ranks of increasingly conservative churchgoers. But a majority of the Millennial generation was liberal on most social issues, and above all, on homosexuality.' [more inside]
James Hadley Chase
James Hadley Chase's No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939) did for the gangster novel what Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep did in the same year for the private-eye novel. Both works were clarifiers, intensifiers, transformers. ... But, as so often happens, Orwell raises the important questions, and it is his essay that has kept No Orchids for Miss Blandish alive for serious consideration. (links may contain mildly NSFW cover art) [more inside]
you look so absurd, you look so obscene
From the obscure reference, to the sexy obscure reference, WTF Costumes proves that if you have a Halloween costume idea, someone has probably already thought of it. [more inside]
Get in on the landslide.
Meet "The Count of Pennsylvania". Has it been over 20 years since he was "Romeo in blue jeans", "burning canyons for you"? Michael Penn hasn't had success in the music biz like his brother Sean in the movies, but he's still making good music, and pops up from time to time, like in the "House" soundtrack with a song referencing a different hospital. His latest song is so far available only as a YouTube clip recorded in a living room, but the first verse did show up on a blog right before the LAST election, showing how its overtly political theme has evolved in a short time.
Last.fm Listing History via LastGraph As Wall Decoration
Last.fm Listing History via LastGraph As Wall Decoration - Andy took his LastFM listening history, rendered it via LastGraph as PDF document and created some stunishing simple and yet beautiful wall decoration for his home. [original text is german - read a google translated version here]
"I think the iPad redefines everything"
Perhaps I don’t have the allegiance to paper that I ought to because anybody who invests in The Absolute Sandman, all four volumes, is now carrying 40 pounds of paper and cardboard around with them. And they hurt and they complain, “Oh, I feel guilty.” And I look at it and go, you’re not getting anything that is quantitatively or qualitatively better than the experience you’d be getting on an iPad, where you can enlarge the pages, you can move it around, it’s following the eye, and you can flip the pages. - Neil Gaiman on digital comics. Will this be the year of comics readng devices, as comiXology CEO David Steinberger says? Comixology is certianly leading the way, announcing tools for independant comics creators that will allow them to publish their comics via the comixology store, complete with the "guided views" which are a core part of their viewing experience. One creator who is full embracing digital is Alex De Campi, whose Napoleonic comic Valentine is not only published across a range of devices (iOs, Epub, Android, Kindle) but also in 14 languages, something that would have been difficult-to-impossible otherwise. Previous digital comics, Comixology suggestions
And in them were the fathers of sons—and in them were the fathers of sons.
The Electric Grandmother (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) was a made-for-TV movie from 1982, based on the short story "I Sing the Body Electric!" by Ray Bradbury. It deals in mortality, grief, abandonment, artificial (emotional) intelligence, and other themes suitable for children. [more inside]
You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.
Wanna Play D&D? Nobody to play with? Got a computer? Wanna experience The Temple of Elemental Evil, Castle Amber, The Palace of the Silver Princess, and Danger at Dunwater in your pajamas? Start with Circle of Eight Modpack forThe Temple of Elemental Evil and play the most complete Dungeons and Dragon game ever made. Think 3rd edition is for chumps? Show your true Moxie and revisit the modules of yore with the Classic Adventures Mod for Baldur's Gate II. [more inside]
Waiting for John Frum
Two examinations of the Tanna island prophet known as John Frum. Both with very unusual points of view. God is American parts 1, 2, 3, & 4, and Nate DiMeo's Memory Palace podcast. [more inside]
lasts all summer long
Super WiFi - "How the FCC paved the way for the next generation of wireless innovations." [more inside]
Mandrill mallard
This is a global revolution
An Interview with The Economic Hit Man, John Perkins; where he talks, among other things, about corporate social responsibility; Free Trade; other actors at the State Department and the Pentagon; and the so-called War on Drugs.
Once Brothers
ESPN screened this great documentary about the rise of the Yugoslavian basketball team in the late 80s, and the breakdown of relationships within the team, in particular Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic, as the country disintegrated in the 90s.
Russia Today
Russian films worth watching l Russian cuisine l Russiapedia l Historama l War Witness films l from rt.com the first Russian 24/7 English-language news channel which brings the Russian view on global news. The Russia Today YouTube channel. [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »