March 12, 2018
here's that new thing that you're choosing...
If you've been keeping up with Polygon videos, you may have noticed Brian David Gilbert's appearance in a multitude of new series such as Week in Revue and Gill and Gilbert. BDG has a knack for melding music and comedy, and has created many skits on his Youtube channel (previously). [more inside]
Now kindly undo these straps.
The Vatican, the exorcists and the return of the Devil in a time of enchantment: "This re-emergence of the Devil in popular Western culture is part of a new engagement with an enchanted world. Popular culture has embraced a realm of preternatural beings both good and evil – vampires and fairies, witches and wizards, werewolves and wraiths, shape-shifters and superheroes, succubi and incubi, elves and aliens, hobbits and the denizens of Hogwarts, not to mention zombies."
Thousands of Czech Movie Posters 1930-1989
Over 20,000 posters, all originals, no reprints. Also books, magazines, exhibitions, and other stuff.
Never Nonchalant
"When I'm not lucid, there is such a tie to feeling as though I've always been the same, as though I've always been sad or scared. And it feels shameful. It feels as though people prefer lucid, high functioning, somewhat normal brain chemistry me, and that the other version is a burden, an inconvenience to be around."
A web-comic celebration of both.
Based on actual events.
More or less. Travel Oregon has produced a lovely, Studio Ghibli-esque piece about what it's like to visit Oregon. [more inside]
"The main thing," he says, "is tastefulness."
The Shocking Assassination of President Guy Fieri by Hudson Hongo [Motherboard] “Good luck finding someone who's actually optimistic about the future of online entertainment, given that major platforms like YouTube and Facebook are currently locked in a death race to the bottom to win meager slices of our attention. Certainly not Hudson Hongo, who, as news editor of Gizmodo, knows as much about this algorithmically mediated, brain-flattening future as anyone, and who brings us a dispatch from the only logical conclusion to the content wars.”
"That thing," he said, "should be in a museum."
The Wadsworth Atheneum has acknowledged that a secretary-bookcase purportedly built as a memorial to a real soldier who died at Antietam is actually a fake. The forger, Harold Gordon, constructed not only the secretary, but also a backstory and supporting documentation. [more inside]
The contrition and shame of inappropriately creaming your scone
Hello. Do you eat correctly? Do you spread or dollop your cream? Do you use science? Do you have no shame? In Cornwall, the jam is applied first. But in Devon, the cream has been applied first for the last 1,021 years. While all this may confuse German tourists and future Royals (say it like this), issues are further muddied by opinion pieces and afternoon/cream tea differences. However, to widespread disgust, a person in Cornwall recently used the Devonian approach, continuing the conflict (more). Unfortunately, in apologising (Facebook) to dissuade a boycott or membership cancellations, a photograph of a scone containing sultanas exacerbated tensions. (compromise) There is - currently - no hard border between Devon and Cornwall, despite the recent conflict. God Save The Queen.
Classic Mario music but... cHAngED
Super Mario Bros 2 with its music frequency table "reversed.". I'm not sure what that means exactly but it's certainly an, um, unique sound. The same thing done to Mario 3. [more inside]
"Using the Power of science. Science! Science!! I like it."
The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry is a BBC Radio 4 show and podcast that features Dr. Adam Rutherford for Biology and Dr. Hannah Fry for Mathematics answering everyday science mysteries sent in by listeners. [more inside]
I am fully aware that this sounds like the ravings of a madman...
The SimuLife Diaries • The Verge's Bryan Bishop finds himself in a four-day "immersive story experience" which includes a reunion with an old UT professor he's never before met, alternate timelines, and discovering he's married to a US Senator. Mind the warble. [more inside]
Phantom Secure Boss Customized Phones for the Sinaloa Cartel
CEO Gets Busted for Selling BlackBerry Phones to a Drug Cartel FBI arrested Vincent Ramos, the founder and CEO of Canada-based Phantom, with charges of racketeering conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs, as well as conspiracy to distribute narcotics, and aiding and abetting.
Return of the Astro-Goth
Meet Yugen Blakrok, The South African Rapper Featured on the “Black Panther” Soundtrack. Listen to her album "Return of the Astro Goth" here, and follow her on soundcloud here
Masha Ivashintsova (1942-2000)
Russian Masha Ivashintsova photographed constantly but never showed her work to anyone. In late 2017, a relative stumbled on boxes of negatives and undeveloped film gathering dust in an attic. Here are some of the 30,000 images from the remarkable discovery. [more inside]
Finding Dmitry
I found an undeveloped film in an old Soviet camera, got the images developed and found 19 black & white photos of a boy and his first day at school. I decided to find him almost 30 years later.
Sundog champion
Journey into Antarctica's wild interior with photojournalist Christopher Michel (via Smithsonian and Earther).
Stop de Kindermoord
The Netherlands is known today as a haven for pedestrians and cyclists - but this wasn't always so. In the 1970s, a growing epidemic of traffic deaths led to a nationwide advocacy movement called Stop the Child Murder. The result was a transformation in Dutch street design which has rendered its public spaces among the safest in the world. With American traffic fatalities on the rise, activists are beginning to call for Americans to get truly angry about traffic violence.
Abolishing ICE is the moderate option
“The detainees prioritized by Trump’s approach included community leaders, doting parents and children: a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy in San Antonio; a grandmother described as the “backbone” of a Navy veteran’s family; a father of two in Detroit who had lived in the U.S. since he was 10.” 'No One Is Safe.' How Trump’s Immigration Policy Is Splitting Families Apart. (TIME) Created as part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, ICE dramatically increased deportations compared to its predecessor, the INS. “Each deportation conducted by ICE cost taxpayers an average of $10,854.” (CNN Money) A mass-deportation strike force is incompatible with democracy and human rights, It’s time to abolish ICE.(The Nation)
To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It
The National Geographic asked a preeminent historian to investigate their coverage of people of color in the U.S. and abroad. Here’s what he found. This story is part of The Race Issue, a special issue of National Geographic that explores how race defines, separates, and unites us.
From Our Lips to LifeHacker's Ears
AskMetaFilter, March 4: What songs does everyone recognize, but not know?
LifeHacker (with credit to AskMetaFilter), March 12: Here's a Playlist of Songs You Know But You Can’t Name
LifeHacker (with credit to AskMetaFilter), March 12: Here's a Playlist of Songs You Know But You Can’t Name
Flowetry in Motion
It's time for the 2018 Minnesota State High School All Hockey Hair Team. Does your salad have luscious lettuce flow? Is there always a fan blowing your locks back? Is your hair game as important as your hockey game? Then welcome to Hockey Hair, Hockey smiles, and members of the Caterpillar Club, looking to round out their extracurriculars for their college resumes.
Hockey will always have short-hairs and long-hairs. Unless you don't have a head, it's better to be long-hair. Why? Because the long-hairs are livin' free.
(low) power to the people
As Low-Power Local Radio Rises, Tiny Voices Become a Collective Shout. In 2016, Number of U.S. low-power FM radio stations has nearly doubled since 2014, and the Next Generation Of Local, Low-Power FM Stations Expands In Urban Areas. But what is Low Power FM (LPFM)? Frequently Asked Questions from the Prometheus Project, a Philadelphia, PA-area group that promotes "participatory radio as a tool for social justice organizing and a voice for community expression." Since LPFM license applications in the US opened and then closed in 2013, it's unlikely that a new application series will open. Learn More About Low Power FM, including a channel database and Wikipedia category [more inside]
Welcome to the Loser Factory
In the first Chart Party of 2018, SBNation editor Jon Bois dissects the inner workings of March Madness, and looks at how realistic the idea of Cinderella stories are in the system. (SLYT)
Lisa deserved better.
I watched all 629 episodes of The Simpsons in a month. Here’s what I learned: The show hates Lisa.(Previously)
How tickled he was
RIP Sir Ken Dodd, comedian and entertainer, one of the last of the musical hall generation and dodger of the tax man right up until the end. [more inside]
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