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Odetta, folk singer and so much more, has died at age 77. The NYT has the final word with Odetta. “You’re walking down life’s road, society’s foot is on your throat, every which way you turn you can’t get from under that foot. And you reach a fork in the road and you can either lie down and die, or insist upon your life.”
comment posted at 2:36 AM on Dec-3-08

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Rome, which was badly damaged by Allied bombing in July 1943, again praised Pius XII, a pope seen by Jewish leaders and other critics as having turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, and who is nonetheless on his way towards beatification, a step towards sainthood. The Vatican contends that Pius XII worked behind the scenes to help many escape the Holocaust, although many Catholics question the beatification.
comment posted at 6:33 PM on Dec-1-08

Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss turned 100 on Friday. NPR's Frank Browning offers an appreciation of his work (audio). Anthropologist Dan Sperber (at OpenDemocracy) offers a succinct appraisal of his influence. Patrick Wilcken (TLS) writes about "the century of Claude Lévi-Strauss."
comment posted at 11:38 AM on Nov-30-08

Some forty-three classic Warner Brothers cartoons. (Sorry, no index page.)
comment posted at 4:53 AM on Nov-28-08

Richard Serra: Man of Steel.
comment posted at 6:35 AM on Nov-27-08
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comment posted at 1:33 PM on Nov-27-08

The Ievan Polkka ("Eva's Polka"), as sung by the Finnish quartet Loituma (lyrics). Suddenly, in a flash (previously) of brilliance, youtube is inundated with lots and lots of remixes. Most contain Bleach girl Orihime Inoue spinning a leek (now lovingly known as Leek Girl). Others teach you how to dance, play piano, and, of course, sing. But don't forget Rick!
comment posted at 6:15 AM on Nov-27-08

In economic hard times, public libraries generally get a lot busier. With that in mind, here's a handy list of the top 20 things librarians in public libraries wish patrons knew or did (original article here).
comment posted at 2:36 PM on Nov-26-08
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From The Economist (remember who they endorsed recently?): What Congo Means for Obama.
comment posted at 4:41 AM on Nov-26-08

When I heard NPR's remembrance of Tom Gish yesterday, I figured someone would beat me to posting about him here on the Blue for sure, but apparently not. Gish, who died last week at 82, was the editor and publisher of The Mountain Eagle, a rural Kentucky newspaper. While still covering typical small-town happenings over the last 50+ years, he and his wife Pat (and eventually their kids) brought to light myriad injustices, from political corruption to poverty, safety violations in local mines to illiteracy. I found this appreciation, with bottom line proof of the Gish's popularity and influence, despite the death threats, firebombing, boycotts, and other hardships they endured:

"The population of Letcher is less than half what it was when they moved up here," said Ben Gish, editor of The Mountain Eagle and the couple's son. "But circulation has more than tripled."
comment posted at 4:18 PM on Nov-25-08

The perfect Sunday nosh: A short history of the bagel. In an age when allegedly edible breadstuffs that my grandmother would have barely recognized have become ubiquitous, did you know that even the Pharaohs had a yen for the iconic Jewish comfort food that is as much a symbol of New York City as baguettes are to Paris? Bagels turn out to be surprisingly easy to make at home, too, though they won't be the same without a schmear and some nice Nova. (Previously on Ask.) Extra credit: the history of everything.
comment posted at 9:54 AM on Nov-23-08

Come And Visit The Garden Of Earthly Delights
comment posted at 4:49 PM on Nov-20-08

Lady Dottie's a "sixty-something blues queen with body pillows for boobs and more swagger than Space Ghost." Her band, The Diamonds, is a bunch of young hard-rockers. (Think Kings of Leon or the MC5 backing up Etta James.) Their new record kicks all kinds of ass - as do their live shows.
comment posted at 4:52 PM on Nov-20-08

The invisible hand of the Free Market guides insurance payments to hospitals "Call it the best-kept secret in Massachusetts medicine: Health insurance companies pay a handful of hospitals far more for the same work even when there is no evidence that the higher-priced care produces healthier patients. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true: Massachusetts General Hospital, for example, earns 15 percent more than Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for treating heart-failure patients even though government figures show that Beth Israel has for years reported lower patient death rates."
comment posted at 4:48 AM on Nov-19-08

Joyce explained. (via)
comment posted at 6:33 AM on Nov-15-08

A complete archive of French magazine L'Officiel de la Mode, from 1921 to 2008. It's a treasure trove for fans of fashion, photography, advertising and design.
comment posted at 3:51 PM on Nov-14-08

Nabokov and the Moment of Truth. VN talks about metaphors of time, great books, and reads the first line of Lolita.
comment posted at 4:04 PM on Nov-14-08

Mitch Mitchell, best known as the drummer in the Jimi Hendrix Experience, dead at 61. The last member of the trio to pass away, Mitchell was found in his hotel room early Wednesday morning. Give the drummer some!
comment posted at 8:13 PM on Nov-12-08

What happens if you post a letter using coins instead of stamps?
comment posted at 4:24 AM on Nov-12-08

Tolerance over Race can Spread, Study Says. ...psychologists have been able to establish a close relationship between diverse pairs — black and white, Latino and Asian, black and Latino — in a matter of hours. That relationship immediately reduces conscious and unconscious bias in both people, and also significantly reduces prejudice toward the other group in each individual’s close friends. This extended-contact effect, as it is called, travels like a benign virus through an entire peer group, counteracting subtle or not so subtle mistrust. A matter of hours...hmmmm... that might explain the subject of this thread.
comment posted at 6:19 AM on Nov-8-08
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Here is the post. Here is the post. Here is the perfect post.
How does such a number function? What kind of thing is it?
We will look into that. We will investigate that.
comment posted at 2:44 PM on Nov-2-08

Charlotte Dennett who read for the bar in Vermont, is now running for Vermont Attorney General on the Progressive Party ticket. Her platform: Prosecute George Bush for murder. Her choice for chief prosecutor: Vincent Bugliosi.
comment posted at 7:54 AM on Nov-2-08

Even though you recycle the plastic you discard, you sometimes feel guilty about how much you throw out and worry about where it's going. Would you like to be a little more hands on and proactive and recycle some of your plastics yourself? If so, I've got some ideas for you.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Nov-2-08
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The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace, Rolling Stone (warning: long article; could make you cry)
comment posted at 8:45 AM on Nov-1-08
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comment posted at 7:36 AM on Nov-2-08

Though Bessie Smith is regarded as the queen of the early blues singers, Martha Copeland was singing the blues and its variants (and doing a fine job of it) back in the 20s as well. Head over to Internet Archive to hear Martha sing her versions of two of the tunes that made Bessie so famous: I Ain't Got Nobody and St. Louis Blues, the latter with backing vocal chorus from the Hall Johnson Choir. Check out her Dying Crap Shooter's Blues and Sorrow Valley Blues. And there's plenty of Martha Copeland goodness for your ears (RealPlayer) here and here.
comment posted at 8:04 AM on Oct-26-08
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Celebrating 120 years, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is offering 10 symphonies as free downloads, available until November 24!
comment posted at 6:04 PM on Oct-20-08

The unthinkable? Would Project Censored resort to censorship? Missing from Project Censored's #1 Story (on Iraq) is any mention of the body of science which contradicts their "over one million Iraqi deaths" headline. There's no mention of the studies which produced lower estimates (IFHS, CRED [pdf], ILCS, etc). And no mention of the leading demographers, epidemiologists and statisticians who disagree with Project Censored's figure: Beth Duponte Osborne [pdf], Debarati Guha-Sapir, Olivier Degomme, Mark van der Laan, Jon Pedersen, Paul Spiegel, Stephen Fienberg, etc.
comment posted at 4:59 AM on Oct-20-08

In 1953 a student named Stanley Miller did an experiment showing that the simple chemicals present on the early Earth could give rise to the basic building blocks of life. Miller filled a flask with water, methane, hydrogen and ammonia—the main ingredients in the primordial soup. Then he zapped the brew with electricity to simulate lightning, and, voila, he created amino acids, crucial for life. Now, scientists have reanalyzed this classic experiment, and found that the results were even more remarkable than Miller had realized.
comment posted at 5:38 AM on Oct-18-08

Another member of the "Pants Down Republicans" in trouble: PJ O'Rourke has cancer.
comment posted at 2:39 PM on Oct-17-08

Palin as President
comment posted at 4:37 AM on Oct-15-08

another day, another word
comment posted at 8:20 PM on Oct-14-08

AssaultCube is a free first-person-shooter. Set in a realistic looking environment, it's fast and arcade-like. Available for Windows, OS X, and Linux (via)
comment posted at 6:27 PM on Oct-12-08

Sequoia Capital presentation on the bleak scenarios for the economy and how start-ups should prepare. Last week the famous (the firm funded Apple, Oracle, Cisco and Google, among others) venture capital firm Sequoia Capital held a meeting for the firm’s portfolio companies. There, partners presented their views on what went wrong with the economy, what the prospects are for a quick recovery (Hint: the presentation is called 'R.I.P. Good Times' ) and what startups can do to survive. Here are the PowerPoint slides used in their presentation. I suggest a stiff drink before viewing. VIA
comment posted at 8:16 AM on Oct-12-08

M a x T un d r a :v:
comment posted at 3:47 PM on Oct-11-08

Paul is NOT dead. Paul goes into the studio, alone, no songs prepared at all. Thirteen songs in thirteen days -- one each day -- Paul playing every instrument, writing lyrics on the fly, ripping a line from a poem, the next spontaneous, off the cuff, really gutsy. The album, Electric Arguments, to be released next month.
comment posted at 6:58 AM on Oct-11-08

Don Helms, the steel guitarist in Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys band, died on August 11. He was 81. Don provided the smooth-as-silk string stylings for over 100 of Hank's tunes, including Hey Good Lookin' and I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. See Don demonstrate some of that steel guitar goodness in a snazzy version of Blues Stay Away From Me, or this instrumental rendition of Hank's Cold Cold Heart, or this sprightly little number, Fireball Mail.
comment posted at 3:15 PM on Oct-7-08

…if you are the single newspaper in San Francisco or Kansas City or St. Louis, you are just highly constrained about how rigorous you can be in the accuracy of your reporting. Because the whole model is: You are appealing to everybody. Because the whole model is: You are appealing to everybody. … That's why the existence of an independent media sector is so important.

Talking Points Memo is one of the more notable successes in independent journalism and using blogs as a format for journalism. It has broken at least a couple of stories that got picked up by the mainstream press: The Duke Cunningham bribery scandal, and the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal. It's grown from being a one-man shop in 2000 to a staff of ten today. Josh Marshall talks about how it came to be.
comment posted at 3:31 PM on Oct-7-08

Overlooked New York, Impassioned New Yorkers from an Artist's Perspective by Zina Saunders, who is now becoming better known for her darkly humorous political images. Her blog on the illustrator blogsite, Drawger.
comment posted at 5:07 PM on Oct-5-08

Chrissie Hynde: “[A] complete rock star in every sense of the word”? Nope: “I consider myself an animal activist first and my music as more of a hobby that gives me a platform to fight for animals.”
comment posted at 7:28 AM on Oct-5-08

A Hunter-killer stalks its prey in your bloodstream.
comment posted at 5:33 AM on Oct-5-08

What Are You Doing Here?
comment posted at 10:57 AM on Oct-4-08