April 29, 2007
With nature and a camera
Being the adventures and observations of a field naturalist and an animal photographer - An utterly charming picture of life in Scotland's Outer Hebrides in 1896.
St Kilda - "Many theories have been advanced as to the origin of the inhabitants of this lonely rock, and a curious tradition exists as to its acquisition by members of the outside world. The inhabitants of Harris and Uist agreed to make it the prize for a boat race, and accordingly set out to row across the intervening waste of waters. So equally matched were the crews in regard to pluck and endurance that they arrived at St Kilda almost at the same moment. The Uist men, however, led by a few strokes, and hopes of winning ran high amongst them when Colla MacLeod, the chief of the Harris gang, chopped his left hand off and flung it ashore over the heads of his competitors, and secured St Kilda and its satellites to himself and his descendants for all time."
Granny is graduating
“I never think of my age,” she said. “We don’t die at a certain age. And if people didn’t know they were getting a certain age, maybe the same age their father died or their mother died, I think they’d be better off.”Nola Ochs, 95, will soon become the oldest person to graduate from college, according to Guinness World Records.
"We're the ones that stand up and tell you the truth when we're wrong."
"It's a great thing about this government... the only people that ever stand up and tell the truth are who? Intelligence officers." George Tenet told his side on 60 Minutes tonight. In case you missed it. [via]
A documentary on Llaguno Bridge violent events
Llaguno bridge is a documentary offering an alternative point of view
on some of the violent events that took place in Venezuela during the coup d'etat attempt of 2002 [1]. Some local private television are accused of deliberatedly picking some facts in an attempt to support the ongoing coup ; different videos taken from different angles show how some people were wrongly accused of shooting at unarmed masses of demonstrators. Regardless of political preferences and actual events, it is an interesting documentary on how easily facts can be misrepresented.
Maoist international movement
The Maoist internationalist movement is youtubery at its best, feel free to see what should have been the actual stone roses video, stalin visits berlin,moloko bring it back. elsewhere, one becomes aware of the new order.
Bill Moyers interviewed Jon Stewart
Bill Moyers interviewed Jon Stewart on April 27. The video is on the Moyers' soon-to-be great new site.
Discover The Hang Drum
Is it a wok?! An UFO?! No, it's The Hang Drum! With its distinct serene sound, Hang, as it's also called ("Hand" in Swiss German), was created in 2000 in Switzerland by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer after years of research. It's a versatile instrument that can be customized to produce many different musical scales. Want one yourself? Unfortunately, only a few are custom-made each year by Rohner and Schärer.
More Hang music? Listen to the Hang radio station.
More: videos | music | known artists | a beautiful Hang used by musician Alan Tower
public assets and infrastructure go private--and we pay
Roads To Riches (or We've Got a Bridge in Brooklyn to Sell You--Seriously) -- Why investors are clamoring to take over America's highways, bridges, and airports—and why the public should be nervous.--...a slew of Wall Street firms—Goldman, Morgan Stanley, the Carlyle Group, Citigroup, and many others—is piling into infrastructure ... Assets sold now could change hands many times over the next 50 years, with each new buyer feeling increasing pressure to make the deal work financially. It's hardly a stretch to imagine service suffering in such a scenario; already, the record in the U.S. has been spotty. ...
Brass Eye Available on Google Video
Brass Eye is a hilarious & much missed British parody of "issue" news programs such as 60 Minutes in the U.S. It ran for one year, in 1997 (minus the 2001 special), and only six episodes were produced. Thanks to the miracle of the internets, all six (Animals, Drugs, Science, Sex, Crime & Moral Decline) are available in their entirety via Google Video. If you're unfamiliar with the series, trust me, it's not to be missed. Previous mentions on Metafilter. Discovered Via the good mr hodgman's blog.
Melted Freeway
Environmentalism and the free market
Orion Magazine hosts a two-part essay on the environmentalism movement's attempts to fit within free market capitalism, and the problems therein. Part one, The Idols of Environmentalism, focuses on the cross purposes of capitalism and environmentalism, and the apparent impossibility of the two working together. In part two, The Ecology of Work, the focus is on the human impact of the work and consumption culture.
I, for one, welcome...
Thinking out of the box.
Foldschool offers free downloadable PDF patterns you can use to make children's furniture and "fun objects" out of 4mm corrugated cardboard. via
Cthulhu Ftagn!
Why waste time on playing roleplaying games or writing pastiches when you can actually worship Cthulhu? Join an existing Cthulhu cult or form your own!. They've got a book and everything! (though it may contain big chunks of wiki-plagarism).
As ever, the ability to rock a traditionalist shaved-head-and-goatee satanist look considered a plus.
NYMag's Top Five Tribeca Film Fest shorts
New York Magazine's top five shorts from the Tribeca Film Festival, presented in full, including the 25-minute documentary "Someone Else's War," about third-world contract employees in Iraq. A bit more inside. [via Nerve's Screengrab]
"I like people to support the label, but as a musician, when I write a song I want it to be heard." Ian Mackaye
Fugazi on the web: Instrument excerpts, "Suggestion," "Waiting Room," "Shut the Door," "Reclamation," "Long Division," and much more. (previously 1, 2)
Vintage 80s Cartoon Intros
Dirty, grimey, low down, shiesty / Freaky, feisty, hood rat from the hood
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