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Tony Washington, an NFL prospect, has a black mark on his record. At the age of 16, he was convicted of incest for sleeping with his then 15 year old sister, and forced to register as a sex offender. Washington feels this is the reason he is being ostracized by the NFL.
comment posted at 5:11 PM on Aug-27-10

"Pianist Liu Wei sits quietly to compose himself before plunging into the music. Then he takes off a sock. The 23-year-old, whose arms were amputated after a childhood accident, plays the piano with his toes."
comment posted at 10:59 AM on Aug-27-10

"A Collection of the Best Marriage Cartoons by the Foremost Comic Artists" from 1955. Part Two. The good old days, when you could beat your husband and bash your wife. Selected for the web by a 2010 cartoonist who's better than that.
comment posted at 10:57 AM on Aug-27-10

The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorfer summarizes around 200 answers to this question: "What widely accepted practice, custom or societal norm do you regard as irrational, absurd, offensive, silly, nonsensical, counterproductive, or morally wrong?"
comment posted at 4:07 AM on Aug-26-10
comment posted at 5:12 AM on Aug-26-10

Top female tennis stars hitting the ball in slow motion.
comment posted at 3:48 PM on Aug-25-10

A Letter To My Students A letter from Michael O'Hare, professor of Public Policy at UC Berkley to his students. He lets them know about how the world of his generation cheated them, both by their own and their choices in government leaders, who all fell along the wayside due to the swindle, and how they can pick themselves up by the bootstraps to right it.
comment posted at 9:55 AM on Aug-25-10

The list of New York artists who died of AIDS over the last 30 years is countless, and the loss immeasurable. Last Address uses images of the exteriors of the houses, apartment buildings, and lofts where these and others were living at the time of their deaths to mark the disappearance of a generation. The film is a remembrance of that loss, as well as an evocation of the continued presence of these artists work in our lives and culture. (via)
comment posted at 4:03 AM on Aug-25-10

"If you spend 72 hours in a place you’ve never been, talking to people whose language you don’t speak about social, political, and economic complexities you don’t understand, and you come back as the world’s biggest know-it-all, you’re a reporter." - PJ O'Rourke visits Kabul
comment posted at 9:08 AM on Aug-24-10
comment posted at 10:49 AM on Aug-24-10

The unpleasant hyperrealistic artwork of Karl Persson ( nsfw ) "My intellect doesn’t come into play when I am channeling something subconsciously. There is plenty of time for interpretation after a painting is finished. Whenever I look at my finished paintings it is like analysing a dream"
comment posted at 4:11 AM on Aug-24-10

'They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.' 'The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation.''Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.''The brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.'
comment posted at 3:58 PM on Aug-23-10

The American Great Plains rival the Serengeti, according to National Geographic, but unlike in apparently more progressive Africa, the USA never protected the plains on a large scale. Now private interests under the The American Prairie Foundation are buying up land in Montana hoping to create a multi-million acre preserve that would be the largest privately funded conservation land venture on the planet, bigger than Yellowstone National Park, that one day may see the return of great migrating herds of bison, pronghorn antelope, deer and elk. Not all Montana ranchers are happy with the new Serengeti neighbor.
comment posted at 1:07 PM on Aug-21-10

Beyond City Limits: The age of nations is over. The new urban age has begun. "The 21st century will not be dominated by America or China, Brazil or India, but by the city. In an age that appears increasingly unmanageable, cities rather than states are becoming the islands of governance on which the future world order will be built. This new world is not -- and will not be -- one global village, so much as a network of different ones."
comment posted at 3:38 PM on Aug-20-10

Christiane Kubrick is interviewed by Jon Ronson on the sad events of her life since her husbands death in 1999... After a triumplant screening of Paths of Glory in central London's Somerset House Christiane Kubrick speaks to Jon Ronson, the producer of the revelatory 'Stanley Kubrick's Boxes' documentary. Various Kubrick resources can be found on the web but one of the oldest, academicly themed resources can be found here. Previously on the blue here and here. If you are in or visiting London then the fantastic University Of The Arts archive is amazing. These developments make me sad but let's look forward.
comment posted at 1:30 PM on Aug-19-10

Although Americans' appetite for local, grass-fed beef is growing, regional livestock farmers face a nagging problem: a shortage of slaughterhouses. Now some of them are turning to mobile operations to butcher their animals on their own farms. Mobile slaughter units feed the local food movement
comment posted at 3:50 AM on Aug-19-10

Don't be a dick, you're speaking with God's voice!
comment posted at 1:01 PM on Aug-17-10
comment posted at 1:19 PM on Aug-17-10

Even though Starbucks was founded by an english teacher, history teacher and writer, the company has grown to have a particular relationship with language, especially with its drink menu. Notably, the sizes of drinks defies commonly understood usage as it attempts to engage customers on multiple levels while providing a new experience. Said experience has resulted in a glossary of terms and even step by step instructions on how to order and decode the lingo.

All of this helps to explain the recent trouble English professor Lynne Rosenthal had at a Starbuck's on New York City's Upper West Side when she ordered a plain multigrain bagel.
comment posted at 7:25 AM on Aug-17-10

Real-life Quasimodo uncovered in Tate archives. A new discovery appears to reveal the real-life inspiration behind the character from Hugo's seminal novel, which tells the story of the deaf bell-ringer of Notre Dame and his unrequited love for the gipsy girl Esmeralda.
comment posted at 7:49 AM on Aug-17-10

Many have pointed to the debilitating payments that Haiti had to make to France to compensate slave owners at the begining of the country's history as the key reason why it has been mired in poverty ever since - in stark contrast to it's neighbour the Domican Republic. Now there are calls for France to repay $23 Billion via an open letter. Of course, the US has had it's own debate over this sensitive issue for a while now.
comment posted at 1:25 PM on Aug-16-10

"Darwin Fest" videos of talks given at the 50th anniversary of the Darwin Conference at the University of Chicago in 2009.
comment posted at 2:29 PM on Aug-15-10

Scott Horton writes at harpers.org on most weekends posts about music and literature. Typically he'll post poems or philosophy (and often translate same from one of the many languages he's, apparently, fluent in) and link to youtube clips of music to complement the passages he writes about, along with images of classical paintings. Pretty neat. This weekend the clips are Glenn Gould playing Beethoven's Sonata No. 17, op. 31, no. 2 (1802)(the “Tempest”) tied to a passage by Hegel. And Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and its lyrics which were written by someone named Kuffner. Check it out.
comment posted at 10:49 AM on Aug-15-10

(TYLM) There are actually many ABBA fans who believe their songs sound good even played backwards (and ABBA haters who think they sound better backwards). So, of course, there are now Backwards ABBA music videos on YouTube*: "eM nO ecnahC A ekaT", "emaC uoY erofeB yaD ehT", "emaG ehT fO emaN ehT", "llA tI sekaT renniW ehT", "sleeH revO daeH" "suoV-zeluoV", "yenoM yenoM yenoM"
comment posted at 6:03 PM on Aug-14-10

Among the Flutterers: In this long, thoughtful essay for the LRB, Irish novelist Colm Tóibín examines the relationship between the Catholic church and homosexuality.
comment posted at 2:16 PM on Aug-14-10
comment posted at 5:21 PM on Aug-14-10

Of Course I've Read This, Way Easier to Watch Than Read, This Is The First Book I've Read In Six Years and more delightful Better Book Titles.
comment posted at 8:11 AM on Aug-14-10

Make Art! Change the World! Starve!: The Fallacy of Art as Social Justice
comment posted at 4:47 AM on Aug-13-10
comment posted at 6:13 AM on Aug-13-10

And it doesn't suck. The Jeff Koons BMW art car is out. Here's Wired's take on it, and Autoblog with a little piece of video from the unveiling.
comment posted at 2:17 PM on Aug-12-10

Ack!
comment posted at 7:31 AM on Aug-12-10

A family traveled to France and Germany in 1938 and shot this footage which features two appearances by Adolf Hitler. It's creepy seeing this Nazi spectacle shot by an amateur. It's a perspective I don't know if I've ever seen. The video opens in France and the Nazi footage starts around 1:45.

The collector writes: "The Basement Collection presents: An 8mm film bought at an estate sale back in the 90's. This reel is part of a series of a family vacation movies to Europe in 1938. On this reel the family visits France and then Germany. The footage of Hitler is from a celebration in the Berlin Stadium on what I think is a May Day celebration (May 2, 1938) then another celebration at Berlin's Lustgarten. (on May 1st). (I think the reel was edited together out of order)."
comment posted at 7:54 AM on Aug-12-10

Howard Bloom: Exercising the Animals in the Brain
comment posted at 4:11 AM on Aug-10-10

"Don't go Left/But be polite/Move to the Right/Doing the Reactionary…"
comment posted at 3:24 AM on Aug-9-10

Getting in (and Out of) Line
comment posted at 4:15 PM on Aug-8-10

Don't continue fooling yourself. The earth is growing and expanding rapidly. Despite plate tectonics' popular acceptance in the 60s, Samuel Warren Carey, the father of modern expansion tectonics, was publicly promoting his theories of an expanded earth as late as 1981. One of the theory's most prominent modern spokesmen is comics artist Neal Adams, who has created a number of informative videos about a new model of the universe that even manages to explain why the dinosaurs died out.
comment posted at 1:40 PM on Aug-7-10
comment posted at 8:10 PM on Aug-7-10

Some say the USA is a Plutonomy-an economy dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthy. In a further sign, the top 5% of Americans by income now account for 37% of all consumer outlays (the bottom 80% by contrast share about the same). Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product. In a possibly worrisome sign, the wealthy are cutting back on spending.
comment posted at 3:18 PM on Aug-6-10
comment posted at 6:22 AM on Aug-7-10

Russian Satirical Journals of 1905. MeFi's own peacay presents a selection of the amazing images produced after the lifting of censorship in Russia following the 1905 Revolution: "For a few brief months the journals spoke with a great and unprecedented rage that neither arrest nor exile could silence. At first their approach was oblique, their allusions veiled, and they often fell victim to the censor’s pencil. But people had suffered censorship for too long." Much more available at Beinecke, USC, and Wisconsin.
comment posted at 1:30 PM on Aug-6-10

Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield. "Burchfield’s primary subject was landscape, often focusing on his immediate surroundings: his garden, the views from his windows, snow turning to slush, the sounds of insects and bells and vibrating telephone lines, deep ravines, sudden atmospheric changes, the experience of entering a forest at dusk, to name but a few. He often imbued these subjects with highly expressionistic light, creating at times a clear-eyed depiction of the world and, at other times, a unique mystical and visionary experience of nature." I recommend the slide show in the first link as the best introduction. More audio slide shows from Peter Schjeldahl here.
comment posted at 2:04 PM on Aug-5-10

The Rise of the Pseudo-Conservative. Out of context, one could be forgiven for reading the following words as a critique of the political philosophy embraced by the modern-day Republican party and the various Tea Party groups organized around it: "It can most accurately be called pseudo-conservative. . . because its exponents, although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions. . . Their political reactions express rather a profound if largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways — a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence."
comment posted at 1:28 PM on Aug-5-10

Anyone who wishes to understand American society must be aware that explanations focusing on the cultural traits of inner-city residents are likely to draw far more attention from policy makers and the general public than structural explanations will. It is an unavoidable fact that Americans tend to de-emphasize the structural origins and social significance of poverty and welfare ... If, in America, you can grow up to be anything you want to be, then any destiny—even poverty—can be viewed through the lens of personal achievement or failure. William Julius Wilson on the political and academic failure to recognize structural causes of inner-city poverty. Wilson interviewed in conjunction with the article.
comment posted at 1:33 PM on Aug-5-10

Topic of Cancer. "One fine June day, the author is launching his best-selling memoir, Hitch-22. The next, he’s throwing up backstage at The Daily Show, in a brief bout of denial, before entering the unfamiliar country—with its egalitarian spirit, martial metaphors, and hard bargains of people who have cancer." Christopher Hitchens writes about his cancer. [Via]
comment posted at 4:31 AM on Aug-5-10

"On September 11, 2001, thousands of first responders heroically rushed to the scene and saved tens of thousands of lives. More than 400 of those first responders did not make it out alive. In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked 'What God do you pray to?' 'What beliefs do you hold?'"

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has recently defended the planned Cordoba Initiative Islamic Community Center and Mosque to be built near Ground Zero against critics. Yesterday, after the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to allow the demolition of a building that would be replaced by the center, Mr. Bloomberg gave a speech on Governor's Island (the location seems to have been deliberately chosen) in which he eloquently defended religious freedom. (YT: Video) (Previously on MeFi)
comment posted at 9:39 AM on Aug-4-10

Me and Bobby McGee This is worth watching if only to observe Jerry's keyboarding starting at 2:26.
comment posted at 4:42 AM on Aug-4-10

"[Bank robber Peter Barry] Lawrence, 71, made his getaway in his wheelchair, with $2,000 in cash on his lap... he took a meandering route down Seventh Avenue until the police caught up with him five minutes later. But that was all part of the plan." And an embedded reporter in Afghanistan notes that "many young soldiers told me that they actually live better in the army, even when deployed, than they did in civilian life, where they couldn't make ends meet, especially when they were trying to pay for college or raise a family by working one or two low-wage jobs" (p. 1). Meanwhile, "parents of means are now resorting to buying franchise businesses to keep their adult children employed." Economic life in contemporary America.
comment posted at 10:21 AM on Aug-3-10
comment posted at 4:02 PM on Aug-3-10

"Sorry, vegetarians, but eating meat apparently made our ancestors smarter — smart enough to make better tools, which in turn led to other changes."
comment posted at 10:24 AM on Aug-2-10

Sherlock Holmes is running around modern day London. Airing Sundays on BBC1, The BBC has reinvented the master dectective and his sidekick for 2010. Sherlock is cast as a modern day "high functioning sociopath" while Watson is a former army doctor with PSTD returned from Afghanistan. It has been written and created by Doctor Who writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. Reviews are in and the update is a stellar success. The series has been sold worldwide, however UK viewers can watch with BBC iplayer. Rumor has it that those unwilling to wait for release can find alternative sources for viewing.
comment posted at 3:53 AM on Aug-2-10