June 26, 2019
High Weirdness by text
Writer Erik Davis has a new book out. High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experiences in the Seventies. It is a slightly watered-down version of his 2015 PhD thesis for Department Religious Studies, Rice University, which is now available online. The main topics are the altered consciousness experiences and related documents of Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson, and Philip K. Dick. [more inside]
"Do you have trouble remembering your dreams?"
It's a feeling we at ANIMA know only too well. You're deep in a surreal world where you can be anybody you like, where you can do anything. And then you wake up, and the dream fades. It's gone, like smoke on the breeze. Or is it? Here at ANIMA we've built something we call a dream camera.ANIMA, the new solo album from Thom Yorke, is available to stream or download now. Visit Netflix to watch the ANIMA "one-reeler", directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. [more inside]
Israel Folau, Employer's Rights, Homophobic Speech
‘These are the culture wars, white society bickers over the bodies of PoC. Shelton makes a martyr out of Folau knowing he will never suffer the same repercussions despite holding the same views & being in a far more powerful position to influence policy & society.’
- Ruby Hamad, "Folau’s Fall Is A Story Of Whiteness" for Meanjin [more inside]
And the days just Inch-eonwards
An Angolan family of five has been living in an airport in South Korea for over six months now, awaiting the outcome of their asylum request. The father says was tortured in prison and will be killed if he returns. South Korean officials repeatedly tried to deport the family, who are trying to follow UNHCR procedure, but a Korean man has hired them a lawyer and is fighting to have them assessed for refugee status. In the meantime they are sleeping on airport furniture and dependent on the kindness of strangers for food and other necessities.
Live at the Hong Kong Café
When Bill Hong said yes to the promoters, he was trying to be practical. He knew the restaurant needed more customers; maybe letting a few young bands play could help bring them in. He never could’ve foreseen that his family’s establishment, the Hong Kong Low—located on a small street called Gin Ling Way—would become a focal point for a seminal music scene: West Coast punk.
Double-whammy in Miami: The first 2020 Democratic presidential debates
Three senators, four current or former representatives, a mayor, a governor and a former Cabinet secretary all walk onto a stage ... followed the next night by a former vice president, four senators, a congressman, a former governor, a mayor and a pair of entrepreneurs. It's not a joke set-up, it's the first Democratic primary debate, split into two nights, starting tonight, Wednesday, June 26, 2019. [more inside]
Hayley to the HHOF
A few days ago, a medical school student at the University of Calgary was writing an exam, when her phone rang. Of course, she couldn't answer. Hayley Wickenheiser had to wait until her exam was over to find out that -- as every pundit and observer had expected -- she had been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on her first year of eligibility, as the greatest woman who has ever played the sport. [more inside]
TENNESSEE 22182
Laughing Squid on the restoration of the two-wheeled prototype car, the Gyro-X, which looks like a sports car put through a photoshop wringer. A bit more from the Lane Motor Museum. Some individual video links: inside the restoration process in 2013; some post-restoration garage and show footage; more tidbits on the restoration process and recreating the gyroscope; vintage, silent footage of the original prototype in the late 60s.
2 Awesome Seattle Trans Musicians
Reverend Dollars (Soundcloud link) is an amazing musician and DJ in Seattle, Left At London is another trans woman making really great music in Seattle as well. [more inside]
Delta Delta Delta, can I help ya help ya help ya?
The Strange World of Sorority Rush Consultants -- Would you pay an expert to get your daughter into the sorority of her dreams?
where does money come from?
Neoliberalism has tricked us into believing a fairytale about where money comes from (Mary Mellor, The Conversation).
Motion capture madness
Ed Sheeran's new music video features motion capture.
How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
Gangsta's Paradise but every other beat is Amish Paradise
Less Than the Secret History of the Fortress of Zero Solitude
Fall, 1982. A new freshman class arrives at arty, louche, and expensive Bennington College. Among the druggies, rebels, heirs, and posers: future Gen X literary stars Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, and Jonathan Lethem.
Truly, she is America's Judge
Judge Judy’s Lifetime Achievement Is Teaching Us to Laugh at the Less Fortunate The 1993 Los Angeles Times article that first brought Judith Sheindlin national attention begins with the case of a crack-addicted mother who gave birth in a bathroom, unattended. The mother pushed, and her infant fell to the floor and broke his skull. Sheindlin, then a Manhattan Family Court judge, wondered aloud if there was anything to be done about the woman. A moment later, she clarified: “Can we stop her from populating half the planet?”
Stories like this are noticeably absent from Jazmine Hughes’ glowing New York Times Magazine story about Sheindlin, which devoted several paragraphs to her new hairstyle (a clip-on ponytail) but none to the allegations that dogged her throughout her career: that she is both racist and profoundly contemptuous of the poor. [more inside]
Freedom To Starve
“Workers even lack the power to hold their bosses to account for a wide range of abuses at work — even when those abuses are illegal, such as sexual harassment and wage theft. The scale of wage theft — effected by forcing workers to work off the clock, work overtime without extra pay and numerous other scams — is vast. It exceeds the sum total of all other thefts in the U.S.” Capitalist Workplaces Set Bosses Up to Be Authoritarian Tyrants (Truth Out) “Employees won a few of their smaller, concrete goals, such as getting laid-off people rehired, but the international caved in to management when it came to the demands among Lords-town wildcatters for greater control over their own working conditions. “They were unable to win freedom from work,” Loomis said, “or freedom from that kind of work, because they were just starting a conversation and it never had the time to really come to fruition.” The Road Not Taken (New Republic)
Learning from our ancestors: Chavin and Wari water systems still work
Rain seldom falls on the desert lowlands of coastal Peru, so people in the area have always depended on the water that flows down from the Andes during the rainy season. But streams in this part of the world come and go quickly, so indigenous people built a system of canals and ponds to channel excess rainwater and create groundwater. Now a group of researchers says that a scaled-up version could help improve Peru’s water management. And at a fraction of the cost of developing modern reservoirs. Ancient Peruvian engineering could help solve modern water shortages (Ars Technica; research abstract). Related presentation PDF: Learning from our ancestors: Using modern hydrological techniques to understand ancient water harvesting practices [more inside]
A game based on a mod of a game based on a mod of a game.
What is an autobattler game? Get to know this new game genre. [Dot Esports] “What are these “auto-thing” games and why is everyone talking about them? Autobattlers came out of nowhere and skyrocketed in popularity as the rising video game genre of 2019. A few months after a Dota 2 fan-made mod called Dota Auto Chess found success in the genre, it died to give birth to two other titles, Auto Chess and Dota Underlords. Riot Games’ League of Legends mode Teamfight Tactics then appeared to fight them for players. Autobattlers are tactical strategy games with drafting elements from card games. Matches feature eight players and take place across several rounds. Players fight each other in one-vs-one matches defined at random. Players fight each other by placing a set number of units on a board as they wish. These units, or pieces, fight each other automatically when a round starts.” [YouTube][Dota Underlords Trailer][Teamfight Tactics Trailer][Auto Chess Trailer] [more inside]
People in plastic houses
600,000 recycled PET water bottles went into the making of this house in Nova Scotia, which borrowed techniques from the boat-building industry.
« Previous day | Next day »