October 31, 2017
“We now appreciate good things more,”
Jan 5, 1967 was not a good day for things flying in the skies of Nevada
Tom Mahood - known for his investigation into what happened to the Death Valley Germans - searches for a lost spy plane.
You never said anything about choreography
Yes, yes, it's just Halloween, too early for Christmas music. But if you hope to play this arrangement of the Hallelujah Chorus for handbell quartet before the end of the year, you'd better get to rehearsing.
Escalade ‘Monster’ Killed
The proposed Escalade tourist development in Grand Canyon is defeated. The Navajo Nation Council, tonight, put an end to a years-long battle to kill a controversial proposal to build a tourist development at the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers. [more inside]
Underneath the beautiful green meadows of peace are mountains of bones
The First Time I Met Americans. "The first time I ever saw Americans was when I was 12 years old. It wasn’t actually blond-haired, blue-eyed Americans that I was seeing up close. The Americans I saw that day were F-4 Phantom bombers, brutally attacking small towns on the shore of Ha Long Bay. It was Aug. 5, 1964, and I was at the beach on a school trip, swimming with my classmates. That was right after the Tonkin Gulf incident, the day President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his decision to expand the war throughout Vietnam." [more inside]
Қазақстан/Kazakhstan/Qazaqstan
On October 26, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree that Kazakhstan would transition from the Cyrillic script to Latin by 2025 [more inside]
Bring Up the Bodies
“I’m full of crucial information you can’t get anywhere else.”
Ignorance really is bliss: Video games are better when they tell us less [Digital Trends] “Communication is one of the biggest challenges of video game design. How much information do players need before they go where you want them to go? Looking back, the games we think of as “retro” were often vague in telegraphing what players should do. In the modern era, the pendulum has swung the other way, and now many developers seem to err on the side of caution, guiding players through even large, open-ended experiences. But it doesn’t have to be that way. While it is important to make sure gamers can find out what to do and where to go at any given moment, those mechanics increasingly come at the expense of discovery, diluting some of the greatest joys to be found in exploring virtual worlds. Fortunately, in the last few months, we’ve seen a wave of games experimenting with ways to look past the clutter of in-game UI, using everything from photo-modes to minimalist maps, to put their games worlds’ in the spotlight.” [more inside]
Half Vampires are bullshit
Fright Night vs The Lost Boys - which 80s teen vampire flick rules the night?
Fusebead pixelart
Johan Karlgren (aka Pappas Pärlor) and his kids Zelda and Kai love fusebeads and old videogames! Together they create pixel street art and pictures. Want to try it yourself? He has tips and tricks on his website.
The United States Of American Media, Inc.
At Popbitch, the story of American Media, Inc. (publishers of National Enquirer) in four parts: (i) The Tabloid Triangle; (ii) Angels And Un-American Activity; (iii)
Suburban Decay; and (iv) Electile Dysfunction.
My measurements are: 13,000 girls suffer sexual abuse in our country
On Sunday, Miss Peru 2018 contestants declined to give their measurements during the introductions and instead each shared a statistic on violence against women and girls in their country. Pageant organizers prominently displayed newspaper clippings of cases murdered and assaulted women behind the catwalk, and the final segment featured contestants answering questions on what laws they would change to combat gender-based violence. [more inside]
Abuses within Florida's juvenile justice system
On October 15th, the Miami Herald published a six-part investigation into Florida's juvenile justice system. It uncovered what the paper referred to as a "Fight Club" culture of pervasive violence (between residents at facilities for juvenile delinquents) that was encouraged by officers, youth workers and staff. [more inside]
"End the scourge"
A couple of Halloweens ago, Tristin Hopper, a columnist for the National Post, recorded a video condemning Kerr's Molasses Kisses, a Halloween candy that is fairly ubiquitous - and controversial - in Canada. This year, just in time for Halloween, the Post republished the video alongside a column by Hopper, entitled "End the scourge: This Halloween, only the righteous can stop the Kerr’s Molasses Kiss." A war of words has ensued between Hopper and Kerr's Candy, which has refused to take the criticism of their confection lying down, taking to social media to defend their product. It may be an uphill battle. In 2016, the CBC surveyed viewers on Halloween candy, with the molasses kiss ranking dead last.
Happy Samhuinn!
The Samhuinn Fire Festival of 2015. Every year on October 31 the Beltane Fire Society (previously) celebrates the Celtic holiday Samhuinn (aka Samhain, aka Halloween) with a fire festival performance in Edinburgh’s Old Town. [more inside]
Mo' Wax + Nike = downtempo beats for shoe geeks, shoe worms
It's the mid-to-late 1990s, and you're a big shoe company, how do you get in with the kids to push more kicks? Team up with an underground-ish music label to make some laidback beats then get various sports celebrities talking about your shoes, and mix the two together, of course. This actually happened two decades ago, when back in 1997, James Lavelle's Mo' Wax label (previously) teamed up with Nike to make a CD to promote shoes. The result was seven tracks of uncredited vintage '97 trip-hop tracks (likely to be Rich File and Ils) accompanying by the chopped-up chatter of sports celebrities of the day Andre Agassi, David Robinson, Monica Seles, Robbie Fowler, Giacomo Leone, Anita Weyermann and Jason Kidd.
"Most drug dealers had a Hell of a story to tell"
In the late 80s and early 90s crack cocaine brings violence and tragedy to the streets of America. For the generation of kids coming up in The Struggle, it brings prison time, destruction or death. But for some of the survivors, there is a way out: Hip-hop. This is the story that's never been told; Planet Rock: The Story of Crack & the Hip-Hop Generation
The delay doubled every time a wrong PIN was entered.
"In January 2016, I spent $3,000 to buy 7.4 bitcoins. At the time, it seemed an entirely worthwhile thing to do." - Thus begins an Epic Tale of Losing $30,000 In Bitcoin.
Three survived...
Dead of Night was a British 1970s supernatural anthology tv series. Sadly only three episodes now exist... but one of those is claimed by some to be one of the most horrific dramas ever to be broadcast. [more inside]
Beyond the Monster Mash
Looking for something to listen to today? How about this three-hour Halloween music show from WFMU? When you’re done with that, how about last year's, or the year before that, or the year before that? (The DJ's name may be a problem for UK readers, more below the fold) [more inside]
Thou surly fat-kidneyed pignut!
What Would Sarah Polley Do?
Drone spotted near Gatwick Airport
On Sunday 2 July, a drone was spotted on the approach path to London's Gatwick Airport. This video shows the disruption it caused.
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