January 22, 2009
Is [Israel + Palestine=Isratine] > [Israel / Palestine]?
Israel + Palestine = Isratine? Or so it should be, Libyan leader Qaddafi argues, promoting the one-state solution. While he is not the first to raise the one-state solution, it is a bold proposal, particularly so soon after the widely-condemned Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
Trees and branches
academia.edu is a project by Richard Price, who recently completed a Ph.D at Oxford on the philosophy of perception. In collaboration with a team of people from Stanford and Cambridge, he's launched this website, which "shows academics around the world structured in a 'tree' format, displayed according to their departmental and institutional affiliations" and "enables academics to see news on the latest research in their area - the latest people, papers and talks". [more inside]
The Crystal Cube
Pushing to the Future of Journalism
The Nieman Journalism Lab is a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age. At Harvard they are working with the Business School on new business models, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society on understanding online life, and the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations on one potential path for news organizations.
Pirating the 2009 Oscars.
For the Raincoat Crowd
The History of the Pussycat Theater Chain—When Cathouses ruled California A zany, photo-laden (mildly NSFW) story of the rise and fall of one of America's seminal theater chains.
Deals of the Day
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank gave a bank, whose capital ratio equaled only 1.88% of assets at the bank, versus a desired level of about 6%, TARP money after heavy lobbying. Frank inserted into the bill a provision to give special consideration to banks that had less than $1 billion of assets, had been well-capitalized as of June 30, served low- and moderate-income areas, and had taken a capital hit in the federal seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (WSJ link) [more inside]
Pants Optional
Littlejohn Comics.
Littlejohncomics Sketchbook : Thoughts can be funny. Illustrated thoughts can be funnier. Brought to you by Isaac Littlejohn Eddy. [more inside]
Soy Milk: I'm Sam Adams, and I'm here to seduce you.
Sam Adams, the recently elected openly gay mayor of Portland, Oregon, has come under fire for lying about a relationship he had with a teenage legislative intern in 2005 named Beau Breedlove. When first asked about the relationship in 2007 during the election campaign, Sam (then 42) claimed he was being a mentor to the young man.
Sam recently cut short a trip to DC to return to Portland to publicly apologize and control damage over a new article in which he admits to having a sexual relationship with Beau. It's got the town divided over whether he should resign of if the whole thing is being blown out of proportion.
Chooglin'!
1000 novels worth reading [about] from the Guardian
1000 novels worth reading [about], from the Guardian. Part of its ongoing 1000 series: 1000 albums, 1000 films, 1000 artworks. More than a list, it includes sub-articles and paragraph long write-ups of each.
Fast Food Feud
What the man said.
Obama Annotated. Marc Ambinder's play-by-play of the inauguration speech, courtesy of the Atlantic.
NSA Spying: Cat now out of bag.
Russell Tice, former NSA security analyst, just came on the Keith Olbermann show revealing that the NSA's domestic surveillance programs were not only far greater in scope than formerly thought, but also were specifically targeted at journalists.
"The oods are good, but the goods are odd."
The Ukrainians have a station about 50 miles south of Palmer, called Vernandsky. We all piled onto the resupply icebreaker ship one weekend and took a trip down to pester them and say hi, sort of a "Howdy, neighbor!" type thing. That was cool, they have a still there and make their own vodka. It's, uh, potent. Tsaven Nava talks to SA about working in Antarctica.
2668 Days Without an Attack, I'm Having One Now
After the Obama party, the Bush team continues to spin. "Whether Barack Obama is standing on the Capitol steps to be sworn in a second time depends on whether he succeeds in replicating Bush's achievement." "If Obama weakens any of the defenses Bush put in place and terrorists strike our country again, Americans will hold Obama responsible -- and the Democratic Party could find itself unelectable for a generation."
Icelandic grannies and anarchists protest shoulder to shoulder demanding new elections in Iceland
Protests have rocked Reykjavík since Tuesday: Envious of Obama, Icelanders hurl yogurt and stage riots for new leaders, Global financial crisis overwhelms tiny Iceland, Flickr set of pictures of Tuesday's protest in front of parliament (complete with pepper spray on camera lens), AFP photos from Tuesday's protest, video from protests 1, 2, 3 & 4, Icelandic protesters pelt PM's car (includes short video). New age of rebellion and riot stalks Europe, The Icelandic "Facebook Revolution", Iceland is Burning part 1 & part 2 and Reuters factbox on Iceland and its economic crisis.
The First 100 Days
Oh those vaunted "first 100 days," they are finally upon us. Roosevelt's legendary time period has long been applied to new administrations, but never so emphatically or with such hope as to the Obama administration. And now you can follow them! For commentary, there's The First 100 Days, for mainstream media there's Obama's First 100 Days, for a comparison between old and new there 100 Days: Starting the Job, From FDR to Obama, for new media there's Obama's First 100 Days, and finally, for a government perspective there's First 100 Days.
I smell an idea for an ironic t-shirt...
The secret in the safe deposit box
The Letter of Last Resort. At this very moment, miles beneath the surface of the ocean, there is a British nuclear submarine carrying powerful ICBMs ... there is a safe attached to a control room floor. Inside that, there is an inner safe. And inside that sits a letter. It is addressed to the submarine commander and it is from the Prime Minister. In that letter, Gordon Brown conveys the most awesome decision of his political career ... and none of us is ever likely to know what he decided.
Silly String
Yarn Bombing. I guess it had to happen eventually. Graffiti with yarn some say. Keeping trees, benches and what have you warm and fuzzy.
Is it still an honor if they nominate you?
And the nominees for the Razzies worse movie of 2008 are:
Disaster Movie,
The Happening,
The Hottie and the Nottie,
In the Name of the King - (Which was based off a video game),
Meet the Spartans
,
and lastly..... (Drum roll)
The Love Guru.
Sadly enough I have seen most of these movies.
(Previously) 2, 3 [more inside]
The Printed Blog is exactly what it sounds like
In yet another strange marriage of media new and old, The Printed Blog launches next week. The paper will be distributed in Chicago (home of the once-great, now-bankrupt Chigago Tribune) and San Francisco, and it’s free. “Why hasn’t anyone tried to take the best content and bring it offline,” asks founder Josh Karp. What about people who don’t live in Chicago or SF? They can get the PDF … online.
All hoomanity kin now live off th' fat o' th' land -- namely Shmoos!
In 1948, Al Capp introduced the Shmoo to the cast of characters in his popular comic strip, Lil' Abner. What started out as a cute, tasty, malleable parable quickly morphed into a merchandising fad of giant proportions, even by today's standards. [more inside]
Iridescent Dinosaurs
The popular image of dinosaurs is probably wrong. Is the dinosaur related to the chicken? [more inside]
Short films, court métrages and more from up north
Mentioned here earlier in its beta form, Canada's National Film Board has released the bulk of its films online, for free, in the NFB Screening Room.
With hundreds of films from the 1920s onwards, including groundbreaking work by animator Norman McLaren, documentaries, dramas, bizarre anti-smoking (or pro-smoking?) screeds and much, much more, it's a breathtaking trove of amazing film to be discovered from north of the 49th. [more inside]
Super Useless Super Powers
Super Useless Super Powers. A cute website with dinky cartoons and fun descriptions of those super powers which, if you were to be blessed with one, would be pretty much damn-near useless.
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