August 3, 2011
There can be only ten.
NPR Books is asking people to vote for their ten favorite science fiction / fantasy books of all time. The list is exhaustive; the picking only ten is hard.
Puppies with flaming machetes?
Battlepug is a webcomic about cute dogs and barbarian warriors. It's by Mike Norton, best known for his work on Runaways and Young Justice.
Sandiego?
"Looking at the world through via Google Earth offers striking images of the diversity of our planet and the impact that humans have had on it. Today's entry is a puzzle. We're challenging you to figure out where in the world each of the images below is taken. (You'll find answers and links at the bottom of the entry.) North is not always up in these pictures, and, apart from a bit of contrast, they are unaltered images provided by Google and its mapping partners. So I invite you to open up Google Earth (or Google Maps), have a look at the images below, and dive in. Good luck!"
at 18:43: "...which kind of explains why there's never been a funny show about lawyers"
In 1979, the producers of "Taxi" were hot, and got carte blanche to make another sitcom for ABC. So they adapted John Jay Osborn's novel "The Associates"*, his follow-up to "The Paper Chase" (which, as a TV series, had just been cancelled by CBS) about young lawyers at a prestigious New York firm. It starred a very young Martin Short as a very young (and surprisingly normal) Junior Associate, Wilfred Hyde-White as a very old Senior Partner and some other folks you may or may not recognize. It bombed. But the next-to-last episode to be aired before the plug was pulled was something you would never expect any broadcast network in 1980 (or maybe even now) to show, in which young lawyer Short represented a network against a rebellious producer, titled "The Censors". And yes, that is John Ritter as a Hollywood actor in character.
Bonus content: "The Associates" pilot episode in two parts. via the world-class blog by Ken Levine of M*A*S*H, Cheers and the Seattle Mariners
* TOTALLY not related to John Grisham's "The Associate"
Bonus content: "The Associates" pilot episode in two parts. via the world-class blog by Ken Levine of M*A*S*H, Cheers and the Seattle Mariners
* TOTALLY not related to John Grisham's "The Associate"
Food Network Humor
World's Largest Etch-A-Sketch
Boeing are currently testing the latest version of their venerable Jumbo Jet, the 747-8. Yesterday, in one of the last test flights prior to certification the new 747 flew for 17 hours, a distance of over 11,000 miles. The flight path can be seen here. [more inside]
High-end items for Detroit office bought with money for poor people
The Human Services Department in Detroit awarded a $1.2 million no-bid contract to a nonprofit named Clark & Associates. The Department then used $210,000 of the money to buy high end office furniture. [more inside]
Thrones and Dominions
Earth, formed in 1989 by Dylan Carlson, are pioneers of the modern drone metal movement. [more inside]
זו הכלכלה, טמבל
Over the past three weeks, Israel has experienced what may perhaps be the largest, spontaneous / grass roots social protest of the secular middle class that it has witnessed in decades. Thousands of demonstrators in cities and towns throughout the country have been protesting cuts in government funding to health care and education, and massive, exorbitant rises in taxes and housing costs -- and demanding change. Tent cities have sprung up in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and in public gardens and parks throughout the country. And they may not be going anywhere: polls indicate Israeli support is "exceptionally high". [more inside]
Saint Petersburg's New Holland Island
Closed to the public for more than 300 years, St. Petersburg's New Holland Island is about to get a major makeover. The 410M USD redevelopment project, managed by none other than the power couple Dasha Zhukova and Roman Abramovich, aims to transform Russia's first military port into a residential and commercial area while preserving the island's historic warehouses. Take a look at New Holland Island.
King of Soda Pop
Maroczy vs. Korchnoi
A New Meaning for “Soul Mate” [PDF] - the curious case of a game of chess between Hungarian Géza Maróczy and Russian GM Viktor Korchnoi... curious, at the very least, because it began more than thirty years after Maróczy's death. The game itself, and further analysis [PDF again].
You don’t need to be depressed! Just rent a funny movie. Or go and get yourself a massage.
Don't get hysterical
Indian man has hysterectomy after doctors find uterus. The 35 year-old farmer and father of two had a full female reproductive system, which was removed from his stomach at a Chhindwara district hospital. Joan Rivers is probably not surprised.
Killing heat
Summer's here and the time is right...for American high school football players to drop dead. [more inside]
NYC subway construction worker channels Frank Sinatra
Gary Russo from Queens sings Summer Wind, the Frank Sinatra classic, on his break from helping build the 2nd Avenue subway. (Here's Sinatra singing it.)
Antoni Gaudí
"Hiroshi Teshigahara's Antonio Gaudi is a spare, astonishing, and haunting documentary on the designs of famed turn of the century Spanish architect, Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926). A profound influence on the Spanish art nouveau movement, Gaudi's sensual adaptation of Gothic, Middle Eastern, and traditional architecture is a truly a unique artistic vision. Teshigahara immerses the viewer into Gaudi's unorthodox vision using lingering takes and mesmerizing panning sequences, accompanied by an equally eclectic soundtrack that vacillates from lyrical symphony to disquieting near silence. The film, largely structured without verbal narrative, unfolds as a figurative mosaic of Gaudi's early influences and nascent vision in the mid 1800's - from an overview of the Catalonian culture, to the contemporary works of other prominent architects, to the medieval art and architecture pervasive in the region." (Janus/Criterion, 1:12, color)
Everyone deserves a little mariachi
It's halfway through the work week, so let's just chill out and watch this mariachi band serenade this happy beluga whale. (SLYT)
Your NEW friendly neighborhood Spider-man
"Ultimate Marvel is an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring reimagined and updated versions of the company's superhero characters"
Today the imprint has introduced a new version of Spider-Man, Miles Morales, a half black-half latino male teenager. Fans are already talking about why this matters.
More Lessons in the Practical Science of Political Extortion
The other political hostage crisis in Washington: "The government is likely to lose more than $1 billion in airline ticket taxes because lawmakers have left town for a month without resolving a partisan standoff over a bill to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration." The standoff has resulted in a partial shutdown of FAA operations, leaving 4,000 airport safety workers out of work and forcing airport safety inspectors to work without pay. The dispute hinges on Republican legislative proposals designed to make it more difficult for FAA workers to organize into labor unions.
African electronica comes into its own
Want to know what's going on in African electronic / dance music? The BAZZERK blog will help bring you up to speed. Chock full of fun, fresh stuff. [more inside]
Greyfriars Bobby A Hoax
And all the winds go sighing
David Munrow was a pioneering performer of renaissance and medieval music. He amassed an impressive discography in all too brief career, formed the Early Music Consort of London and gained a popular audience through his music for the hit BBC TV series The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R. In 1976, after the death of his father, he hanged himself at the age of 33. A year later, Voyager carried his recording of "The Fairie Round" to the outer planets and beyond.
There's no Cure for Student Loans
Since 2005, it has been nearly impossible to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. HR 2028 and S.1102 aim to make private student loans again dischargeable in bankruptcy. [more inside]
Read All About It
"Reading printed text is so fluid and transparent for most people that it's hard to imagine it feeling any other way. Maybe that's why it took a dyslexic designer to create a typeface that optimizes the reading experience for people who suffer from that condition." [more inside]
If I Could Have Light In A Bottle
MIT students created water bottle light bulbs that diffract natural sunlight and provide the equivalent of a 55 watt light bulb out of an empty plastic bottle, water, and a few drops of bleach. They are being installed and used in shanty towns where no natural light gets into the makeshift tin roof homes.
When they want to kill a dog, they say it's crazy.
When they want to kill a dog, they say it's crazy. A photo essay from Haiti by Jared Iorio.
One sister with no soul...
Lost Hitchcock film partially recovered. Starring Betty Compson
as twins, three reels of The White Shadow have been discovered; Hitchcock was credited as the writer, but is considered by some to have been the co-director. It becomes the oldest extant Hitchcock film, and is part of a partially-explored cache of nitrate film help by the New Zealand Film Archives.
Lights and Music
Illuminate -- Amazing performance from "America's Got Talent"
I never heard that she had any other Name than the Princess Seraphina.
Princess Seraphina was an 18th Century cross-dresser who brought a thief to court for stealing her clothes. Her trial provides a brief glimpse into the life of queer men in 18th-Century England.
"We're gonna party like it's 1929!"
Hobo Wedding : "On Memorial Day weekend 2011, my groom and I joined hands, entwined bootlaces and shared a single bean in matrimony at what very well may be the first hobo-themed wedding. We invited our friends and family to share in our happiest of days, wear their shabbiest, drink moonshine, eat their fill of BBQ and pie, dance to a live jug band and howl at the moon."
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