July 19, 2013
"General Franco was supported by right-wing panties"
Times Higher Education compiles its annual exam 'howlers.'
Paths of ...
Illustrator and artist Andrew DeGraff (Tumblr, blog, personal site) has made detailed "treasure maps" out of movies.
Go Backwards
How War in Syria Turned Ordinary Engineers Into Deadly Weapons Inventors
Makers
of War. "The arms manufacturers of Aleppo used to be ordinary men—network administrators, housepainters, professors. Then came the bloody Syrian crisis. Now they must use all their desperate creativity to supply their fellow rebels with the machinery of death." [Via]
Where the water burns
From Slate's 'Behold' photo blog: This Is What Fracking Really Looks Like. See more of photographer Nina Berman's documentation of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region at her website collection called fractured: the shale play.
The Games themselves should be open to all
The International Olympic Committee has issued a statement acknowledging the new anti-gay laws signed by Vladimir Putin last month. The Sochi Olympic Games are set to open on February 7. [more inside]
You are a prominent businessreplicant in the money business.
Porpentine (previously) has deployed her impressive hacking skillz to circumvent copy protection and made available an edutainment game from times past: Ultra Business Tycoon III (NFO file) [content warning for suicide, violence] [more inside]
Killer Whale
The release today of the documentary Blackfish has SeaWorld, the setting of the documentary, in an unusually aggressive yet defensive public relations battle with the makers of the film.
The film centers on the orca that perform in captivity at SeaWorld, and explores the 2010 death of Dawn Brancheau by the actions of the orca Tilikum.
In January, the documentary series Frontline explored the world of captive cetaceans, particualrly at SeaWorld in their film, A Whale of a Business. [more inside]
Grace Lee Boggs on reimagining work, food, and community
Philosopher Grace Lee Boggs speaks on reimagining work, food, and community in Detroit. [more inside]
Dinosaurification
Challenge: draw a dinosaur body on cardboard and have your pet stick his head through it. The Best Western Denver Southwest facebook page is having a contest for pets as part of dinosaur drawings.
Steinway & Sons
#splitsontrees
#splitsontrees (SLYT)
We saw your boobs
"The high street is becoming a no-go area for kids, which is really unfair. Why shouldn't they be able to go into a supermarket, or a newsagent? The people who make the displays aren't thinking about it from a child's point of view. I don't think David Cameron goes to a supermarket with his kids very much." Following the No More Page 3 campaign and a backlash against lads mags, the Guardian asks readers to send in and comment on sexualised images of women on the high street. But is this just another form of censorship, hypocrisy, or even sexual repression?
Portraitlandia
Armed With Madness: Mary Butts, writer associate of Cocteau and Crowley
Mary Butts (1890-1937) was a British modernist novelist whose frequently overlooked writing has had a cult following largely composed of fellow writers such as Robin Blaser and Robert Duncan. [more inside]
BUST IN / HELL NO
A SPOOKTACULAR ADVENTURE - Alex Roberts' charming mostly-ghostly obscenity-laden, Choose Your Own Adventure game is just filled to bursting with spooks, ooks, and skeletons.
Pope to offer Indulgences to his Twitter followers
Needs more Colin James
Hypersexuality does not appear to explain brain differences in sex
A new brain study questions the existence of sexual addiction. The study, posted in the Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology, concludes that so-called "hypersexuality" does not appear to explain brain differences in sexual response.
Mad dogs and Englishmen
An unusually sustained heatwave oppresses the UK, as temperatures have climbed above 82 degrees Fahrenheit for 11 days, the longest hot spell since 2006. Roads melt in England and Wales, rail lines buckle in England and Scotland, hospital admissions spike and wildfires burn. Swimming-related, army training and heat-related, deaths have increased. The Met Office currently hold a Level Three Heat Advisory for several regions (Level Four is "National Emergency"), while tabloids indulge in traditional "England is hotter than {exotic place}" headlines. [more inside]
Darth Pooh, or Winnie-The-Vader
In the spirit of the classic* Satan-worshiping Winnie the Pooh clip [YT, some NSFW language], the voice actor Jim Cummings read some of Darth Vader's lines from Star Wars in the voice of Winnie the Pooh [YT, SFW] [more inside]
I have a bad feeling that a huge and horrible crime happened.
Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way
"My Immortal" has now been brought to life in the only way that could possibly do it justice. My Immortal is classic fanfic which has now been filmed. Special fangz (get it, coz Im goffik) to ONTD 4 helpin me wif da link and spelling.
Timothy Leary as proto-Transhumanist
A new biography of Timothy Leary by R. U. Sirius emphasizes a Transhuman Leary and his SMI²LE (Space Migration + Intelligence Increase + Life Extension) material. Excerpted and discussed on Kurzweil dot net. [more inside]
"You guys...you're all the same!"
While at Cal Arts, before blogs and websites freely shared content, as animation students we would watch short films in a dark cage like room called the Palace. Projected onto the wall we screened “rare” short films, on bulky ¾ inch video cassettes or on mystical DVDs that a teacher had brought in. Of all the shorts we watched in the dingy palace there was one that was etched in my brain as both brilliant and completely insane. It was called “The Big Story,” and it starred three stop motion versions of Kirk Douglas: one as the young up and coming hero, another as the star in his prime, and the third the wise but curmudgie old man. [more inside]
"I didn’t die?"
A Life-Or-Death Situation. "As a bioethicist, Margaret "Peggy" Pabst Battin fought for the right of people to end their own lives. After her husband’s cycling accident, her field of study turned unbearably personal." Via.
The Rains of Castamere
A while back folk duo Paul and Storm created a song 'Write Like The Wind' urging G R R Martin to finish A Song Of Ice & Fire aka Game Of Thrones as soon as possible. During a recent live performance of said song the duo experienced an interruption. MLYT (previous)
Devon, GET THE TABLE.
A 45 minute interview with pro wrestler Bully Ray. Also known as Bubba Ray Dudley of the Dudley Boys. [more inside]
And who shall I say is calling?
Once upon a time, the telephone was a strange, intimidating invention. So in 1974, the fine folks at the phone company made a short film to help children overcome their telephone-related fear and uncertainty. Taking their cues from children's entertainment, they tried to create a fun-filled land of song and dance, not unlike, say, Sesame Street. The end result was not exactly successful along those lines (it turns out that not even a catchy song can make the white pages exciting), but is no less compellingly, weirdly watchable for it. Come with us (and with Telly, a strange, merry man who kind of comes off like one of the Telephone Elves of the Eschaton) to the magical land of Telezonia.
Who By Very Slow Decay
A junior doctor writes about the experience of watching the slow deaths-by-old-age of the elderly. (see also How Doctors Die).
"Can you have it ready for this NFL season?"
The secret history of football's TV first down line.
I Come With The Property
At age 99, Mr. Newton still gets up and goes to work 3X a week. The company doesn't need him to do the work, and in fact the company didn't actually hire him. He showed up at age 86 on a Monday after the property had been sold. He worked for the previous owner, and he came with the property.
"... this alchemist in a jar."
"The mystery of mayonnaise... is how egg yolks, vegetable oil, vinegar (wine's angry brother) salt, sugar (earth’s primal grin-energy), lemon juice, water, and naturally, a pinch of the ol’ calcium disodium EDTA could be combined in such a way to produce a condiment so versatile, satisfying, and outright majestic, that mustard, ketchup and their ilk must bow down before it (though, at two bucks a jar, mayonnaise certainly doesn't put on airs) or else slink away in disgrace. Who but the French could have wrought this gastronomic miracle? Mayonnaise is France's gift to the New World's muddled palate, a boon that combines humanity's ancient instinctive craving for the cellular warmth of pure fat with the modern, romantic fondness for complex flavors: mayo (as the lazy call it) may appear mild and prosaic, but behind its creamy veil it fairly seethes with tangy disposition. Cholesterol aside, it projects the luster that we astro-orphans have identified with well-being ever since we fell from the stars." [more inside]
Save The Cat!
Why Every Hollywood Movie Seems Exactly The Same. - A look at the book that's become Hollywood's new bible.
Sins of the fathers?
The Drone That Killed My Grandson — Dr. Nasser al-Awlaki, Fulbright scholar, founder of Ibb University and former president of Sana University, served as Yemen’s minister of agriculture and fisheries from 1988 to 1990. His 16-year-old grandson Abdulrahman (an American citizen born in Denver, Colorado) was killed by an American drone strike in Yemen on Oct. 14, 2011, two weeks after his father Anwar was killed by a previous drone strike.
Back To The Buzz
The Charlotte Hornets are back! This may signal a return to the iconic teal and purple color scheme made so popular by Starter jackets.
In the desert, the line between life and death is sharp and quick
Unicef Sweden have developed a machine that turns sweat into drinking water. They are asking participants in the Gothia Cup to hand in their sweaty clothes to produce water and are hoping they will "drink some sweat to support clean drinking water. The expectation is to gather sweat from more than 70 different nations".
The goal is to raise awareness about the lack of clean water in the world, with the main purpose of raising money for water purification tablets for children. 780 million people still lack access to clean drinking water. [more inside]
The crumbs off his plate are the entire careers of other people.
Neil Degrasse Tyson waxes eloquent about Isaac Newton [chopped YouTube link, full length video 'SciCafe: Life the Universe and Everything' here] [more inside]
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