September 2, 2009
Messy, Painful, Bloody and Dirty
Critics of modern farming practice have swayed popular opinion in recent years. Now farmers are talking back. Farmer Blake Harris takes critics of farming to task for misrepresenting his trade. Another farmer says it's not so simple.
More false stories in the news
Roxanne Shanté, considered by some to be a queen of hip hop, got Warner Music to pay for her PhD in psychology. Except, a Slate investigation says it never happened. [more inside]
More crime fiction than you can shake a dagger at
Euro Crime offers a staggering amount of reviews, publishing news and other information on crime fiction written by european authors.
LRRY
What has two legs, two wheels, and two flame throwers? That would be LRRY.
Deus Ex Barba
Beardyman's Northern Tour: 1) 101 2) Scotch Dedication 3) Everything is made of Cheese! 4) Dubstep Meatloaf 5) Don't Worry
(note: loud music and loads of expletives)
(note: loud music and loads of expletives)
Petabytes on a budget
Petabytes on a budget: How to build cheap cloud storage disclaimer: I use Backblaze myself, but I thought this article was cool enough to share without being fanboyish
Float like a leprechaun, sting like a bee
In the 1860's, Abe Grady emigrated to Kentucky from Ennis, Ireland, and married a freed slave. Yesterday, one of their great-grandchildren paid a visit to Ennis. Muhammad Ali met his cousins, and was named an honorary freeman of Ennis. [more inside]
Anatomy of the Blazers' offense
Basketball-filter: The Portland Trailblazers' offense broken down and explained with custom videos. [via]
A Day Without Ceiling Cat Watching, Without Keyboard Cat Playing You Off
A Day Without Cats on the Internet Because why should all the fun on 09/09/09 be for Beatles fans, Apple geeks, 99-cent-store customers and post-apocalyptic steampunk ragdolls. Oh, and also President Obama. Is there anybody NOT doing something special on 09/09/09? Maybe... Satan? (long boring talk by nutcase about Large Hadron Collider and Nostrdamus) [more inside]
"In my next conscious moment, I was dimly aware that I was facedown on the pavement. There was blood in my mouth."
"A Mugging on Lake Street" : John Conroy -- author and former staff writer of the Chicago Reader best known for his articles on police torture finds himself a victim of a "senseless" crime and is forced by circumstance to examine his own opinions about race, hate crimes, and violence. (last link is referenced in original article)
Latin American Science
History of Science in Latin America and the Caribbean [flash required] – the history of science from a Latin American perspective.
By day a mild mannered pencil-monkey...
"Oh. Weird. That poor bird"
In Mem'ry of that Caravan
Duke Ellington recalled "... that's one of those things Tizol came up with. See, it wasn't in tempo, he stood [and played it] sort of ad lib. He played it, [the] first ten bars, we took it and worked out the rest of it." That thing was Caravan, and the instigator was Juan Tizol, who was a trombonist in Duke Ellington's orchestra. The track, originally recorded in 1936, became a jazz standard. The lyrics were penned in 1936 by publisher and manager Irving Mills, adding to the exotic feeling and romance of what is considered by many to be the first Latin jazz piece, before the late swing era and first decade of bebop when Latin Jazz (also called Afro-Cuban Jazz) came into prominence. The track didn't cross into other genres until Les Paul created his version of the track in 1948, which lead to other covers, and eventually a successful cover by The Ventures (source). [more inside]
The last one is a little sad.
Tree Portaits. Plants with personality.
all caps email results in firing
69 Must-See SciFi Sights in the U.S.
SciFi Wire lists 68 science fiction sights that can be found in the U.S. The sights include the "Ghostbusters headquarters," Captain Kirk's future birthplace, and Mothman museum.
Where's that wheelchair?
Lou Barlow has a new solo record, and is promoting it by releasing some videos and a making-of documentary every week this month on Lootube. [more inside]
Limit Your Exposure : In depth annalysis of Mad Men
AMC's Mad Men is the best show on telivision that no one is watching (now that The Wire has ended), it's the most adult, most stylish, best written show on television at the moment. And we say "adult" in the sense that it's subtle and complex, not in the "there's a lot of sex" sense (although there's plenty of sex).. Here is some outstanding in-depth analysis of the first episodes of season 3 (spoilers aplenty).
A Joker Mashup
"Why so serious?" Synthesizing Mark Hamill's menacing hilarity and Heath Ledger's intelligent and dangerously unhinged aspects in their portrayals of DC Comic's "The Joker," aspiring voice actor "pgirts" recreates the famous scene from the recent Batman film in a chilling mashup of acting styles, and similarly brings the Joker's monolog from "The Killing Joke" to life. (MLYT)
I'm just a boy with a new haircut (and that's a pretty nice haircut)
With today's economy, DIY haircuts are gaining in popularity. Flowbees and electric clipper sales are up. Did you see the drummer's hair?*
Urinal Protocol Vulnerability
Vox Populi Vox Dei (a werewolf thriller)
From Switzerland With No Love
Swiss private bank Wegelin says goodbye and good riddance to America. Swiss private bank Wegelin announced two weeks ago that it is to stop doing business in the United States. The St Gallen-based bank, Switzerland's oldest, said the decision had been taken in response to stricter measures introduced in the US against tax dodgers and planned changes to estate tax, which would make some non-US citizens liable to tax if they inherited US securities.
In a letter to investors it said Swiss banks were likely to find themselves in an untenable position, as they would be expected to know which clients were liable to pay US tax – "an impossible undertaking", given the lack of clear definitions in the matter.
Play That Monkey Music
Monkeys react to music composed specifically for them, using monkey calls. Cellist David Teie, working with psychologist Charles Snowdon, has created music based on monkey calls that successfully affects the emotional state of tamarinds. Turns out that they don't like human music, except possibly Metallica. What can you do with this information? Well, you could buy - or, hey, create - music for your cat.
"Art too bad to be ignored"
From Sunday on the Pot with George to In the Cat's Mouth* to Think Again, The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) is "the world's only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms."
Some images NSFW [more inside]
Its a long way away.
Lying 2,816 kilometres from the nearest continent; with approx 246 inhabitants; and having no TV until 2001; Tristan da Cunha is the most remote archipelago on the planet. There is an official web page.
In 1961 the Island was evacuated because of volcanic activity but re inhabited in 1963.
Early History; 20th Century History. Here are some pictures from the 1930's; from the 1960's and 70's and more present day.
The Island people have developed their own vocabulary.
( wiki and Related).
( wiki and Related).
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment (Henry David Thoreau)
After hearing our show about moments of death, filmmaker Will Hoffman went out in search of moments of life. What follows is what he found. What is a moment? From the RadioLab Blog at WNYC, [via]
take a vacation whenever you want
Netflix's awesome vacation policy -- famous for crowdsourcing, Netflix is now making waves with its employee handbook. (via fs)
Rockin', beats...beats beats.
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