April 12, 2013
Frontline: The Bombing of al-Bara
Frontline journalist Olly Lambert captures the event of a Syrian government air strike on the town of al-Bara. Powerfully upsetting and tragic, his footage conveys the sheer terror afflicting the lives of Syrian refugees struggling to survive under the Assad regime. [36min SLYT] [more inside]
Dial 4-6-5-6-5-3-4
1st Triple Play of 2013. The Yankees pull off a unique 4-6-5-6-5-3-4 triple play.
It's the first turned by NY since they executed a more conventional version in 2010. But as an A's fan, I prefer this one, which is is bit more uncommon.
Heads above the rest? No. Below.
We all know that people messed around with photos long before there was Photoshop. But you might not have realized how crazy the Victorians were about headless portraits. They literally lost their heads over this trend. Check it out.
A Most Virtuous Aurora
"Hopefully this also means that I finally can close the case on the auroras from March 17. Go here to be transported back to March 17, to a small town in northern Sweden called Östersund. Welcome!" As mentioned on Space Weather.
"That" is not all he wrote
The new James Joyce commemorative coin has a typo. "While the error is regretted, it should be noted that the coin is an artistic representation of the author and text and not intended as a literal representation."
Sounds with an "eternal essence"
Sometimes called the "Alan Lomaxes of India," the founders of Amarrass Records are on a mission to record and revitalize interest in traditional music from India, Turkey, and beyond. Over 100 videos on their YouTube channel chronicle their field recordings and festivals featuring artists like Lakha Khan, the Barmer Boys, Bombino, and many others. [more inside]
The Sacred and the Profane, under one roof! (But not for the first time)
A French auction house has gone ahead with a planned sale of Hopi katsinam. Such a sale would have been illegal in the United States. A depiction of the Crow mother sold for more than $200,000. [more inside]
When dinosaurs ruled yr ♡
(^_^) Jurassic♥Heart is a Japanese-style 彡☆ dating sim ☆ミ that finally lets you date a dinosaur (^_-) [more inside]
Trans 100
The Trans 100 is a list curated by We Happy Trans based on nominations of 100 key trans people breaking ground in American culture, arts, social justice, and politics. [more inside]
Gene genie, let yourself go
After a decade or so of legal back-and-forth between Utah-based Myriad Genetics and medical researchers, the ACLU, and the Public Patent Forum, the US Supreme Court will hear a case next week which attempts to address whether genes — isolated (derivative) or original — can be patented. The stakes are high on both sides: opponents use Myriad's actions to argue that giving short-term monopoly control over humanity's genetic constituency is not in the public interest, while proponents defend the use of patents to spur private research in biotech, alternative energy and other nascent industries.
Discourse on the otter
An event is not a decision, a treaty, a reign, or a battle, but the reversal of a relationship of forces, the usurpation of power, the appropriation of a vocabulary turned against those who had used it, a feeble domination that poisons itself as it goes lax, the entry of a masked otter.
Son of a bitch I got stuck on a pitch.
Notes from meetings. Madeleine Di Gangi (very creatively) doodles the (very boring) goings-on during meetings. Via Free Range blog from Working Not Working.
I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it.
Jonathan Winters, the wildly inventive actor and comedian who appeared in such films as "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Loved One" and played Robin Williams' son on the TV show "Mork & Mindy," has died. He was 87. [more inside]
Attack of the zombie directors (or: "Whatevah. I do what I want!")
When Shareholder Democracy Is Sham Democracy: Directors in 41 publicly traded companies remained in their posts despite "resounding votes of no confidence" from their shareholders, prompting New York City’s comptroller, John Liu to observe that the right to elect directors, "one of the few rights afforded shareholders is illusory," and “Shareowners need accountable directors who will ensure the company isn’t being run for the benefit of insiders at our expense.” Meanwhile, studies seem to back Liu up: "...firms with stronger governance exhibit a higher propensity to pay dividends and, for dividend payers, pay larger dividends." [more inside]
Nuit et Brouillard
Night and Fog is a 1955 documentary directed by Alain Resnais.
It is mortifying, for both its brutal imagery, and poetic narration, but moreso, the fact those two could seemingly live together.
Censored by the French over one shot it only came to fruition after writer Jean Cayrol, a camp survivor himself, agreed to write the script.
The soundtrack was by Hanns Eisler, whose music was banned by the Nazis in 1933.
[What follows is 30 minute documentary film concerning two Nazi concentration camps. Please be warned there are some very NSFL/triggers ahead.] [previously] [more inside]
It is mortifying, for both its brutal imagery, and poetic narration, but moreso, the fact those two could seemingly live together.
Censored by the French over one shot it only came to fruition after writer Jean Cayrol, a camp survivor himself, agreed to write the script.
The soundtrack was by Hanns Eisler, whose music was banned by the Nazis in 1933.
[What follows is 30 minute documentary film concerning two Nazi concentration camps. Please be warned there are some very NSFL/triggers ahead.] [previously] [more inside]
Mars Eats Probes
We Found Hope in a Mega Millions Ticket
“This restaurant lifestyle is killing us,” Mandy said one night as we took a break from our creative endeavors to eat Walgreen’s off-brand ice cream sandwiches on our front stoop in the cool, salty night air. “Look at us. It’s two o’clock in the morning and we’re still awake. Working. Eating. Drinking shitty wine. Every night. It’s unhealthy! How can I work well if I don’t live well?”
“Yeah, it’s the pits. But what can we do?” I ate my ice cream sandwich slowly, nibbling around the edges.
Mandy finished her sandwich in two bites and crumpled the paper wrapper into a ball. “I’ll figure out something...”
“This is historic legislation, and it’s time to right this wrong.”
Yesterday, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed Senate Bill 97, the Scottsboro Boys Act allowing for posthumous pardons. Bentley has said he wanted to close a chapter of state history. The Scottsboro case led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision against excluding Blacks from juries. [more inside]
Like Poohsticks, only brighter
Find a variety of colored glow sticks. Drop into the top of a waterfall. Take pictures lasting several seconds to several minutes. Enjoy. [more inside]
Why Etsy Doesn't Have a Gallery in New York
Does anyone here speak art and tech? "Indeed, for a certain sort of hoodie-wearing entrepreneur more keen on trips to Tahoe than the Tate, the rules of the art world can seem especially opaque." No, they are two different cultures. "The traditional art world appears to be recognizing that it is going to need to collect some of this money to continue operating in the manner it has grown accustomed to. What it doesn’t seem to recognize is that it may be selling the wrong thing, a brand of social status that the technology culture is not interested in buying."
Smaller Wallets, Larger Households?
A dozen ultraleft voluntarists arguing about shower schedules is a noise complaint; 120,000 downwardly mobile yuppies doing it out of necessity is a substratum. The material realities of declining wages, ballooning debt, and skyrocketing rents at the core of the neoliberal city have conspired to herd young people into unprecedentedly dense, poor, and precarious kinds of living arrangements. - Andrew Fogle on how the economic crisis is changing how people live together.
Al Gore Is Fat, Therefore Global Warming Doesn't Exist
Studio Rayyan
The art of Omar Rayyan "Rayyan’s artwork includes fantasy-inspired paintings of dragons, mythological creatures set against a backdrop of seemingly ordinary buildings and people, works of abstraction such as the teapot hat on a man drinking a cup of tea in “Mists of Oolong,” and all manner of woodland creatures as one might expect to find in an animated Disney film or a children’s book of fairy tales."
Hockey Is For Everyone
The National Hockey League Players' Association and the National Hockey League recently advanced their commitment to make the NHL the most inclusive professional sports league in the world by teaming up with the You Can Play Project (previously), an advocacy organization fighting homophobia in sports. The organization was created by Philadelphia Flyers scout Patrick Burke in memory of his brother, Brendan Burke. Less than a year after it was created, You Can Play has addressed some recent instances of homophobic comments from professional athletes in the US. They also have put together a number of videos, presented on their YouTube channel, or on the You Can Play website.
Google Inactive Account Manager
Google has announced a new feature called Inactive Account Manager "that makes it easy to tell Google what you want done with your digital assets when you die or can no longer use your account."
Cats vs dogs
The Internet is cat; books are dog. "We're reading dogs and clicking cats."
Thanks for your non-purchase of the Mumble Indie Bungle!
Mumble Indie Bungle. "The idea for the collection, in keeping with the titles, is that it’s meant to be this set of crappy indie games that someone perhaps bought for you, mistaking them for the originals," blogged Pippin Barr at the outset of his latest project. Now you can play such not-hits as Gurney (not Journey), Proteas (not Proteus), World of Glue (not World of Goo), Spy Parity (not Spy Party) and 30 Flights of Loathing (as opposed to Loving). Don't want to commit to playing these "games" yourself? Just watch this playthrough. (Previously and previouslier.) [more inside]
Just a bunch of athletes competing for the sweetest kittens
No one will ever believe you
What does oil represent? Us. Gamers.
More amusing than it has any right to be.
Ruled by “Dave” and “Nick”
In a sense what we have is the Americanisation of Britain, or at least of England. A society where everybody has then sense that they can be anything they want to be, and where hardly anybody can. Crooked Timber's Chris Bertram on the evolution of British society since the seventies.
"There’s no heavy lifting in pointing out that a band sucks."
Self-proclaimed Rock and Roll Sociologist, Paul Lawton (of The Ketamines) has a Tumblr called Slagging Off where he critiques his fellow Canadian musicians. A recent post attacking government sponsorship of the arts earned Lawton an interview with Vice Magazine and a rebuttal from indie-rocker (and robot-lover), Dan Mangan. Unsurprisingly, Lawton has responded to Mangan's rebuttal.
Random Access Memories
With Daft Punk's new album coming out, The Creators Project is interviewing their collaborators about their careers, production and playing techniques and working with Daft Punk.
Giorgio Moroder
Todd Edwards
Nile Rogers
It's Just Toronto
Between 1986 and 1993, rather than showing a test pattern, Global Television would, in the dead hours of the night, broadcast long videos of walking and driving through Toronto. [more inside]
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