November 7, 2008
the snob gobbler
Jozin z bazin Mladek & Banjo Band, worth waiting to 2:00. "The song is about this monster Jozin who lives in the swamps somewhere in Moravia and eats only people from Prague - the city snobs." [more inside]
The View-Master Mistress
View-Master. It's was, for many, their first exposure to 3D. But where did all those little dioramas come from? Well, sculptor Florence Thomas for one, responsible for these Tom Corbett images. More. Via. Previously.
Memoirs of a Space Engineer
Memoirs of an [Australian] Space Engineer is a too-short collection of several old-school engineering stories. [more inside]
And he won by thirteen points.
The recent election season in the US was marked by many firsts. One you might not know about: Silverton, Oregon has elected Stu Rasmussen as their mayor. Stu is believed to be the first ever openly transgender mayor in the United States.
The "Near Future Technopop Unit"
Perfume, a three-girl Japanese technopop sensation formed in 2001 now consisting of Nocchi, Kashikuya and A~chan, is about to release their ninth single, "Dream Fighter".
Perfume's July 2008 single "Love the World" was the first technopop song ever to debut at #1 on the Oricon sales chart. The previous highest debut for techno was Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Kimi ni, Munekyun" 25 years ago in 1983.
(original article citing #1 record translated via Google translator) [more inside]
A Viral Antidote for Racism
Tolerance over Race can Spread, Study Says. ...psychologists have been able to establish a close relationship between diverse pairs — black and white, Latino and Asian, black and Latino — in a matter of hours. That relationship immediately reduces conscious and unconscious bias in both people, and also significantly reduces prejudice toward the other group in each individual’s close friends. This extended-contact effect, as it is called, travels like a benign virus through an entire peer group, counteracting subtle or not so subtle mistrust.
A matter of hours...hmmmm... that might explain the subject of this thread.
SFMOMA ArtScope
389 years ago
There he was with his immigration face giving me a paper chase
Remember Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Julie Myers , the immigration chief who had some controversy during her tenure and introduced “operation scheduled departure” where illegal immigrants would turn themselves in and who’s organization was refered to (in so many words) as the gestapo by (Dem) Illinois Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez?
Yeah, she resigned. [more inside]
Awesome
share desk photos
Panoramic view of the Airbus A380 cockpit
Plenty Butter! Plenty Syrup! Very Good!
YouTubing this clip of Smedley serving Chilly Willy a tall stack of pancakes [More butter? More butter! More syrup? More syrup! Nice? Very nice!] led me to Chilly's Video Den at Chilly Willy's Sub-Arctic World. [Warning: Comic Sans font and a whole cold-butt-load of .wmv's] [more inside]
Evolution of the White House
The White House Museum’s website offers a fascinating historical chronicle of the interior of the White House. Though the East and West wings are interesting in their own right, it is the evolution of the President’s Residence that offers the most intimate view of the tastes and lifestyles of the various first families. [more inside]
Eugene and Helene Allen
"In its long history, the White House -- just note the name -- has had a complex and vexing relationship with black Americans." An article that's not quite what you think it is.
Read to the end. Just make sure you have a Kleenex handy.
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"These sho am Quality Folks"
You'll poke your eye out!
"This toy is so fantastic that it's not just for humans anymore. You can find otters, chimps and dogs -- especially dogs -- playing with it." The National Toy Hall of Fame has inducted the stick.
A brilliant talent gone too soon. Breece D'J Pancake.
Transcripts of a troubled mind tells the life and times of Breece D'J Pancake, a brilliant young writer from South Charleston, West Virginia. In a raw, stripped down style, much of his work focused on the people and the language of the Appalachia He committed suicide at the age of 29 and left behind a small, but powerful collection of stories
This Old House
A group of artists calling itself Da! Collective has begun squatting at a six-storey townhouse in Mayfair, estimated to be worth around £6.25 million. And they're inviting others to join them. Under British law, squatters can stay on a claimed property until the owners evict them - something the owners of this property, British Virgin Islands-based Deltaland Resources Ltd., have yet to do. Only 11 years and 11 months until the new home is theirs completely.
Touch the button and someday you'll tell your grandchildren about it
Can you tell a person on television just what you think? If you live in Columbus, Ohio, you would be able to tell the people at a television station how you feel. All you have to do is push a button. The people in this city are trying out a new kind of television called QUBE TV.
Have high oil prices caused the current recession(s)?
CIBC's Jeff Rubin and Peter Buchanan have written an article (pdf, pages 4-6) arguing that triple digit oil prices (and not plunging real estate prices) are to blame for the current economic woes of the OECD. [via]
Get Your Earplugs Ready
Two of the hosts of The Gadget Show, Suzi Perry and Jason Bradbury, took on their most embarrassing challenge to date: they each had to record a song which would be broadcast on the show and judged by industry insiders. Using the latest in home studio (Jason) and pro studio (Suzi) technology, they attempted to perfect their amateur vocal skills and impress the experts. The Results: 'I Can Be Your Robot' and 'Running'.
Tent Cities, USA
As forclosures rise, so do tent cities filled with Americans. Across the country, tent cities are rising everywhere. From California, where foreclosures are taking over 60,000 homes per month, to Vegas, where hungry children sleep in the glittered dust of the wealthy, to St. Petersburg, Florida where the cops are destroying the tents of the homeless to make them leave the city, to the suburbs, homelessness, hunger, and poverty are on the rise. The government's response? Change how "homeless" is defined, so that the numbers appear to be decreasing at the same time that tents are springing up all over the country. [more inside]
Disturbingly adorable even-toed ungulate
Monifa, "I am lucky" in Yoruba, is the world's newest and cutest pygmy hippo, born into captivity at NSW, Australia's Taronga Zoo.
Haleliwia!
Following in the footsteps of (fellow Welshman) John Cale, Jeff Buckley, kd lang, Sheryl Crow, Bon Jovi, et al,
Welsh band Brygin have been given permission by Leonard Cohen (touring for the first time in 15 years and in Cardiff tomorrow night) to release their Welsh language version of Hallelujah. Lyrics for those wishing to sing along and compare to the original.
A marriage made in water
Last week, following torrential rains, Northern and Central Vietnam suffered their worst flooding in the past 25 years, killing more than 70 people and devastating buildings and crops.
Still, life goes on in the inundated Hanoi neighborhoods, and water won't prevent people from walking/driving/boating around the city, getting engaged, marrying and fishing. These folks got their car back and the scenic Ninh Binh region looks like the Ha Long bay. By the way, Google understands vietnamese now.
Foreclosures by Bruce Gilden.
Planet Finance
Wall Street Lays Another Egg. "Not so long ago, the dollar stood for a sum of gold, and bankers knew the people they lent to. The author charts the emergence of an abstract, even absurd world—call it Planet Finance—where mathematical models ignored both history and human nature, and value had no meaning."
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