March 27, 2014
Spoilers!
George RR Martin has published a chapter of the Winds of Winter on line. SPOILERS!
The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Crime
"Debate has surrounded the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes for decades. Some have argued medical marijuana legalization (MML) poses a threat to public health and safety, perhaps also affecting crime rates ... we analyzed the association between state MML and state crime rates ... Results did not indicate a crime exacerbating effect of MML on any of the Part I offenses. Alternatively, state MML may be correlated with a reduction in homicide and assault rates, net of other covariates." (Press Release) [more inside]
The History of Threes
M. Bison
Q&A with John Carter Cash
In this reddit music thread, John Carter Cash talks in some detail about what it was like to grow up with his father, Johnny Cash (1932-2003). [more inside]
We are personally affected by his actions
Brendan Eich, creator of Javascript and co-founder of Mozilla, has been named Mozilla's new CEO. In light of revelations about Eich's 2008 donation of $1,000 supporting California's Prop 8 gay marriage ban, pop and pop indie app company Rarebit is protesting Eich's promotion to the top position by withdrawing its Color Puzzle game from the Firefox Marketplace and halting development for Firefox OS. Rarebit owes its existence to the Supreme Court's reversal of Prop 8 and DOMA—before its cofounders were married, founder Michael Catlin was in the US on a temporary work visa. Eich made a statement of support for LGBT people in Mozilla, but did not address the donation. [more inside]
Lessons for Other States from Kansas' Massive Tax Cuts
I'm Gonna Do Something Incredibly Entertaining For You People
Safe for work unless there are concerns about the word merkin: Nadia Kamil's Feminist Burlesque (single link video)
"I am honor-bound to protect you, brother."
The Interpreters We Left Behind. "As our troops pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we're abandoning fixers and translators to the dangerous countrymen who view them as traitors. Asylum in the U.S. could be their last hope. If only we'd let them in."
The time to be HAPPY is NOW
"Let's face it, comedy's a dead art form."
"This is a project I've worked on for around 14 months! It contains just about every character that appears in Futurama." The cast of Futurama. [more inside]
A kind of institutional doppelgänger
How long can your digital life keep up the appearance of your actual life? A Michigan woman quit her job in 2008 and told her neighbors she was going abroad. Her bills were paid automatically and her neighbors mowed the lawn until her money ran out in 2013, when the bank foreclosed on her house. A mummified body believed to be hers was discovered in the garage, but authorities are struggling to definitively identify it. There's a Facebook page set up by her family dedicated to finding out what happened to Pia Farrenkopf.
OMG who stole my ads?
Dispatch from Haiti: Quiet Before The Storm
Dispatch from Haiti: Quiet Before The Storm "For the past five years, I've traveled annually to Haiti. When I first went there as a reporter I ended up staying through an earthquake, a cholera outbreak (and the protests it inspired), and a fraudulent election (plus more protests) over the following two years. I just made another trip there to consult on a research project.
And when I come back to the States, here's what people always ask me:
How are people doing down there? Are things getting any better?"
NLRB Says College Football Players Can Unionize
The NLRB has ruled that football players at Northwestern University are college employees and can form a union. [more inside]
"smart, rich, and very cunning"
Scan the shelves in any bookstore in China and you are likely to find best-selling self-help books based on Jewish knowledge. Most focus on how to make cash. Titles range from 101 Money Earning Secrets From Jews’ Notebooks to Learn To Make Money With the Jews. The Chinese Believe That the Jews Control America. Is That a Good Thing?
Shut Up About "Clickbait"
Ninety-two years ago, a 34-year-old Chicago man named Joseph Wozniak woke up missing one of his balls, which had been surgically removed by hoodlums.
As the Lawrence Journal-World had the story, he was on his way home from the bar when "four men leaped on him, put a bag over his head, and loaded him into an automobile." They then drugged him and stole one of his testicles, presumably "for an experiment in gland transplantation, perhaps for the purpose of rejuvenating some infirm or aged man." This is how the front page of the paper looked on Oct. 14, 1922. (SL: GAWKER EMPIRE)
The big lesson here? Beware!
On April 4th, DailyCandy and Television Without Pity will be shuttered by NBCUniversal. TWOP's forums will remain until May 31st.
"What message are we sending to young people?"
Julianne Ross asks: Must Every YA Action Heroine Be Petite? Amy McCarthy asks a similar question: Why do all our young adult heroines look the same? Mandy Stewart also offers up her own advice: Be Divergent and Other Lessons for My Daughter. Interview with Veronica Roth on her book 'Insurgent' and feminism. [more inside]
the intimate story of a woman who spoke truth to power.
"Anita", a documentary by director Freida Mock, which opened in New York and Los Angeles last weekend, looks back on the journey of Anita Hill, who famously testified that her former boss and then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her. Trailer [more inside]
A literary list of lists: best sentences, opening and closing lines
The American Scholar recently shared their pick of 10 11 best sentences, plucked from novels. And if you fancy such lists, The Atlantic collected some authors' favorite first lines books, and Sabotage Times has a list of 20 best opening lines from books, while the Shmoop blog has 25 best opening lines, plus (snarky) speculations on the thought processes behind those lines. And then American Book Review goes all out with a list of the 100 best opening lines (3rd party commentary) and 100 best last lines from novels. [more inside]
Is this the end for last.fm?
CBS-owned music site Last.fm have announced an end to streaming radio services. In a move widely attributed to the punishing costs of licensing, last.fm will now source music from Youtube and Spotify rather than from its own bespoke music database. Existing subscribers, particularly Canadians, are not best pleased. With Pandora stocks already in trouble due to licensing costs, what does this mean for the future of user-curated internet streaming radio? [more inside]
Action Movie Kid!
Dreamworks animator Daniel Hashimoto turns his three-year-old into an action movie hero. (via) [more inside]
You've probably never heard of it
"You shouldn't dream your film, you should make it!" ~ Spielberg
Filmmaker IQ offers an extensive variety of free online courses, articles and tutorial videos for aspiring filmmakers. Their image gallery is also fun to browse through. [more inside]
Please, critics, write about the filmmaking
Please, critics, write about the filmmaking Movies and television are visual art forms, and aural art forms. They are not just about plot, characterization and theme. Analytical writing about movies and TV should incorporate some discussion of the means by which the plot is advanced, the characters developed, the themes explored. It should devote some space, some small bit of the word count, to the compositions, the cutting, the music, the decor, the lighting, the overall rhythm and mood of the piece.
Who cleans the toilets in Galt’s Gulch?
"I’m just trying to color a sketch of how hard a problem practical logistics are. Supply chains are really, really tricky, and it would be quite a trick to sign up for them without entraining a bunch of stuff to do with credit supply, labor and safety laws, and so on. That bureaucracy is sometimes bad, sometimes unnecessary and corrupt, but it’s also what makes it work. The real world is not a packet network – physical objects come with complex and inseparable contexts, and they are produced by a huuuge machine full of flywheels with unfathomable inertia." -- Charlie Lloyd writes about living on a small island, seasteading and how independent you can really be in the modern world.
The $780,100 Homepage
Eight years after the Million Dollar Homepage (previously) sold out its pixels and funded Alex Tew's college education, 22% of the page has fallen victim to link rot. Article inspired by musings from our own Fearless Leader.
Say "Green Cheese"
Camera Used by Astronauts on Moon "Pulls $940 Gs" at Auction — The history of Hasselblad cameras used (and perhaps abused) during the Apollo moon missions.
Rugs of War
Afghan war rugs Traditional rug-making techniques meet contemporary political imagery. See also the 'Rugs of War' project.
Showin' how funky 'n strong is your fight
As Michael Jackson couldn’t fluently play any instruments, he would sing and beatbox out how he wanted his songs to sound by himself on tape, layering the vocals, harmonies and rhythm before having instrumentalists come in to complete the songs.
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