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Have you ever wondered what happens when a freight train drives through a tornado? Let me show you (2:01 SLYT)
comment posted at 7:24 PM on Jul-10-09
comment posted at 7:30 PM on Jul-10-09

“But it was clear to me that any time you deny one group of people the same right that other groups have that is a clear violation of civil rights and I have to speak up on that.” The Southern Christian Leadership Conference — the 50-year-old civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others — is seeking to remove the president of its Los Angeles chapter in response to his support of same-sex marriage in California.
comment posted at 3:07 PM on Jul-10-09
comment posted at 6:55 PM on Jul-10-09
comment posted at 7:47 PM on Jul-10-09

The saddest sweetest craigslist personal you'll read today.
comment posted at 6:49 PM on Jul-9-09

Today's Inspiration is a blog "for those with an interest in illustration from the 40's and 50's to share their knowledge, views and opinions." This week it is featuring a guest blogger analyzing Norman Rockwell's illustrations for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. This blog can always be counted on to inform you about illustrators and cartoonists you've likely never heard of. Also advertising icons and my favorite: Smokes for Mom! It's all on Flickr too.
comment posted at 1:26 PM on Jul-9-09

A year before his passing at the age of 102, LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann pens a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs (who had remarked publicly about his own use of the hallucinogenic as a creative factor) asking for Jobs' support for further research into the use of LSD in psychotherapy. In the remainder of the article, Ryan Grim touches briefly on the use of LSD by scientists and computer programmers who have transformed the world through novel discoveries and inventions.
comment posted at 1:33 PM on Jul-9-09

Warren Buffett says his favorite economic indicator (last 30sec) is the FTSI or Freight Transportation Services Index (blue line). Since 1979, across four recessions, the index "shows a strong leading relationship to the economy", with an acceleration of freight leading the economy "by an average of approximately 4 to 5 months". Explanation of the index (recommend PDF version), most recent analysis (July 2009).
comment posted at 11:49 AM on Jul-9-09

An examination of the Swedish soul must begin, I’m afraid, with sex. (via and related)
comment posted at 6:47 AM on Jul-9-09
comment posted at 7:42 AM on Jul-9-09

How I lost my health insurance at the hairstylist's is one story among millions about the insanity of US health care. 59% of the American public and 59% of physicians support single-payer national health insurance, but in a recent prime time town-hall meeting on health reform proposals, ABC did not air a single question about single-payer. HELP is on the way. At a HELP hearing on single-payer, Kucinich pwned a doctor who claimed Canadian health care was worse than the US's.
comment posted at 1:56 PM on Jul-8-09
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comment posted at 5:34 AM on Jul-9-09
comment posted at 7:55 AM on Jul-9-09
comment posted at 9:05 AM on Jul-9-09
comment posted at 12:00 PM on Jul-9-09
comment posted at 12:19 PM on Jul-9-09

The Great Rock n Roll Swindler has died. Allen Klein, who once managed both the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, died in New York on Saturday, aged 77, after battling Alzheimer's disease.
comment posted at 4:25 PM on Jul-7-09

Have Love, Will Travel is a song with an instantly recognisable opening that was originally recorded by Richard Berry in 1959 and subsequently covered by The Sonics, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Crazyhead, Bruce Springsteen, Jim Belushi & Dan Akroyd, The Black Keys and at least two ukulele duos to name a few. (single song, MLYTP)
comment posted at 10:49 AM on Jul-4-09

The Death of Macho - "The axis of global conflict in this century will not be warring ideologies, or competing geopolitics, or clashing civilizations. It won’t be race or ethnicity. It will be gender. We have no precedent for a world after the death of macho. But we can expect the transition to be wrenching, uneven, and possibly very violent."
comment posted at 3:46 PM on Jul-2-09

The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies
comment posted at 2:33 PM on Jul-2-09

"If some of the same genetic risks underlie schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, perhaps these disorders originate from some common vulnerability in brain development...Of course the big question then is how some people develop schizophrenia and others develop bipolar disorder." So hold off on the celebrations.
comment posted at 2:55 PM on Jul-2-09

One recent celebrity death that most likely fell under the U.S. radar was that of Terry Black, who in the early 1960s was Canada's answer to Fabian. Growing up listening to CKLW, I remember Terry Black for "Goin' Down (The Road to L.A.)", recorded with his wife, Laurel Ward. Black had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis just a year ago, and apparently died from complications of the disease.
comment posted at 4:13 AM on Jul-2-09

One of the hardest things for people to understand about the universe is just how big it is. There are three approaches typically used in describing its size. The first, the song, was pioneered by Monty Python (NSFWish, wireframe of naked woman) and then done just as masterfully by the Animaniacs. The second, the zoom method has been featured twice before here on the blue. The third method is the comparison method (skip to 1:30, unless you like looking at a image of the solar system with terrible distorted orbits), yielding some truly beautiful videos (this one found via the fantastic Bad Astronomy blog). These videos go, at most, as far as looking at the local cluster or the Virgo Supercluster. There are two videos that attempt to show the size of the entire universe, one unsuccessfully (although with great music) and one successfully. (Warning, all links except the first one, are to YT videos).
comment posted at 4:10 PM on Jul-1-09

Negative reviews prompt author meltdowns: Alice Hoffman. Lee Oi-soo. Alain de Botton. Ayelet Waldman. Previously on MeFi.
comment posted at 2:15 PM on Jul-1-09

Vanity Fair recently published "It Came From Wasilla", Todd Purdum's lengthy profile piece about Sarah Palin, her involvement with and the inside workings of the McCain campaign, and her political future.
comment posted at 4:24 AM on Jul-1-09
comment posted at 4:58 AM on Jul-1-09

Debate over government-funded services heats up. [SLSO]
comment posted at 1:30 PM on Jun-30-09
comment posted at 3:54 PM on Jun-30-09

Meet Scott Campbell, a 13 year old swapping his MP3 player for a Sony Walkman cassette player for a week.
comment posted at 7:11 AM on Jun-29-09

The Book of Genesis illustrated by Robert Crumb. Extracts of Crumb's latest work, years in the making and to be published in October, are serialized in the French cultural weekly Telerama during this summer (warning: bad interface, text in French). Short interview with the author here.
comment posted at 11:18 AM on Jun-27-09

Greil Marcus writes Real Life Top Ten for the Believer Magazine, in which he lists "anything that remotely has to do with music, a dress Bette Midler wore at an awards show or a great guitar solo in the middle of a song that otherwise wasn't very interesting." But he's been writing this column online for just about 10 years.
comment posted at 12:58 PM on Jun-25-09

A Prison Nightmare. On June 23, 2009, the National Prison Rape Commission released its final Report and proposed Standards to prevent, detect, respond to and monitor sexual abuse of incarcerated or detained individuals throughout the United States. More prisoners reported abuse by staff than abuse by other prisoners.
comment posted at 6:01 AM on Jun-25-09
comment posted at 1:09 PM on Jun-25-09
comment posted at 1:37 PM on Jun-25-09

Artheme Swallows his Clarinet is a rather bizarre short film from 1912.
comment posted at 5:49 AM on Jun-25-09

Tuesday night is comedy night at the Big Fish
comment posted at 8:49 PM on Jun-23-09

Genesis Revisited scientifically summarises the scientific field of Creation Science (warning: science) [transcript]
comment posted at 4:17 PM on Jun-22-09

Its previous owner named it the Old Kentucky Home. For Thomas Wolfe, it was the home of his youth, a boarding house run by his mother, Julia Wolfe. Now it's known as the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, located in Altamont Asheville, North Carolina, and its website offers fair overview of Wolfe, and even his legendary editor, Maxwell Perkins. Wolfe, the author of Look Homeward, Angel (.txt file), Of Time and the River (.txt file), and You Can't Go Home Again (.txt file), among other works. Text file copies courtesy of Project Gutenberg Australia.
comment posted at 8:58 PM on Jun-19-09

The overall effect is like listening to an erudite gentleman employing $20 words while he screams at a bunch of punk kids to get off his front lawn. A review of Mark Helprin's Digital Barbarism : A Writer's Manifesto.
comment posted at 3:13 PM on Jun-19-09

Beck intends to record cover versions of selected albums in a day, unrehearsed, with guest musicians and then to release them on his website. Pitchfork announced it yesterday here. The first song is Sunday Morning.
comment posted at 4:41 AM on Jun-19-09

Is Dexter Romweber about to finally get his due? One of the great underground geniuses of rock, in the late 1980s and early 90s Romweber fronted The Flat Duo Jets. Their brand of raw, pared-down rockabilly proved cathartic and influential, if never commercially viable. Now Jack White, who has always acknowledged his musical indebtedness to Romweber, has produced a new 7" EP (in addition, a new album, not produced by White, features Exene Cervenka, Chan Marshall, and Neko Case). Romweber seems poised to receive some long overdue recognition. It's about time.
comment posted at 4:48 AM on Jun-19-09

Civilization is a video mural created by video artist Marco Brambilla and Toronto-based studio Crush for an elevator in the Standard Hotel in New York. It depicts a journey from hell to heaven as the elevator goes up, or from heaven to hell as it goes down. [Via]
comment posted at 5:02 AM on Jun-19-09

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off. The author [Sandra Tsing Loh] is ending her marriage. Isn’t it time you did the same?
comment posted at 7:14 PM on Jun-17-09

Behind them on the stage, a giant watermelon. In their hands, little tiny guitars, which they play like mosquitoes on speed. They scat, they dance, they get halfway through the alphabet. Their percussionist has the coolest little drum kit ever, but that doesn't stop him from playing the stage floor and the walls. Who are they? Why, The Five Racketeers, of course! And who's that lady who storms the stage for a little shimmy at the end of the clip? Well, that's Eunice Wilson, and she stuck around to do another number with the fellows. You want more, right? OK! Then let's head down to the All-Colored Vaudeville Show, for some serious oooold-school entertainment.
comment posted at 4:16 AM on Jun-17-09

Blastolenes are mighty hot rods built by artists. And the meaning of it all from Kevin Kelly.
comment posted at 2:52 PM on Jun-11-09

In a fascinating, still-ongoing conference on The inkWell, Richie Unterberger talks about the process of researching and writing about the Velvet Underground, for his recently published day by day chronicle of the group. (book excerpts here)
comment posted at 3:41 PM on Jun-10-09

As someone who's not interested in being threatened with a lawsuit, I thought I'd mention that Michael Savage is in no way connected to Rockstar Energy Drink, which just happens to be run by his son, with his wife acting as director, treasurer, and secretary of both companies, and run from the same address. When Charles Tsai claimed otherwise, his Facebook boycott group was taken down, his account was disabled and he was forced into making a public apology.
comment posted at 5:54 PM on Jun-8-09

"The Musical Cliché Figure Signifying The Far East", a.k.a. The Oriental Riff
comment posted at 9:08 AM on Jun-7-09