July 21, 2015
Phone Home
A rattlesnake in the mailbox.
The transformation of Synanon, founded by Charles E. Dederich, from drug rehabilitation program to wealthy, violent cult. Stripped of its tax exempt status and formally disbanded in 1991 (Dederich himself died in 1997), the downward spiral began in 1978 when two members of Synanon's "Imperial Marines" were charged with the attempted murder of attorney Paul Morantz -- via a rattlesnake in his mailbox. [more inside]
He sang in 21 languages.
Theodore Bikel, multilingual troubadour, character actor and social activist who created the role of Baron von Trapp in the original Broadway production of “The Sound of Music” and toured for decades as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. The prolific Tony- and Oscar-nominated actor and singer was an artist of many passions. He also was once a guest on Buckley's Firing Line to discuss student unrest.
Give the frog 10 minutes, and he'll make the sale!
As-tu une technique particulière pour apprendre le vocabulaire? - Non.
Mile... Mile & a Half
"Mile... Mile & a Half" is the answer that hikers give when you ask 'How far from here to there?', according to this documentary:
Five artists/friends left their daily lives behind to hike California’s historic John Muir Trail, a 211-mile stretch from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney. The trip lasted 25 days and was funded by a successful kickstarter campaign a few years ago.
The movie will wake the wanderlust feelings in you, and is available on the usual channels.
"I just want to hide my weeping. My blinking. Uh, my black eye."
Blair Bogin is a Chicago based performance and visual artist who creates videos/performances about things like living in your apartment, playing Rock Paper Scissors, and monologues on putting things in your mouth. [more inside]
"Is it the book itself or instead the author’s pose that matters?"
Read from left to right, top to bottom, and outside to inside
That's less than $1500 an acre!
FOR SALE: Largest ranch in the U.S. within a single fence. Texas fixer-upper with more than 1,000 oil wells; 6,800 head of cattle; 500 quarter horses; 30,000 acres of cropland; tombstones for legendary cowboys, long-dead dogs, and a horse buried standing up. Favorite of Will Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt. Colorful history of drinking and divorce. Fifteen-minute drive to rib-eyes at the Rusty Spur in Vernon. Ideal for Saudi oil sheiks, billionaire hedge funders, and dot-commers who can tell a cow from a steer. Profitable. Zero debt. Property taxes only $800,000 a year. Price: $725 million.
The truth of Klerksdorp Spheres, and the mystery of Costa Rican spheres
The Klerksdorp Spheres found near Ottosdal, South Africa, Moqui Marbles from Utah and Arizona, and the Moeraki Boulders on Koekohe Beach on the Otago coast of New Zealand all have something in common: they aren't puzzling ancient artifacts or possibly proof of otherworldly connections, but rather concretions, naturally occurring geologic features that are created in the same fashion as pearls. Archaeology Fantasies debunks the myths of the Klerksdorp Spheres, and also details what is know of the giant stone balls of Costa Rica, which retain some mystery to their creation and purpose. [more inside]
Reversal of a long-established trend
Conquistadors no more: Spaniards are flocking to Latin America because they need jobs In 2012, the most recent year for which statistics are available, Spaniards made up some 85 percent of all European immigrants to Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the EU/IOM report.
Unemployment in Spain has hovered around a mind-boggling 25 percent in recent years. But that may be the least of it. Youth unemployment has been double that, at around 50 percent.
"The Fate of the World in the Hands of a Dame!"
Comic book artist Joe Phillips recently presented "Silver Screen Heroes", which places stars from the golden age of Hollywood into modern superhero roles.
“The moderatocracy lives on inside us all.”
When the Internet’s ‘Moderators’ Are Anything But [New York Times] The title suggests a steward of civility and decency. But online, unpaid moderators can become a force for mayhem. [more inside]
Comicbook confidential
The State of Comic Book Retail - David Harper's latest comics industry survey shows bricks and mortar comic stores to be in a surprising period of opportunity and change. But are there now too many comics?
"Poets of the world, ignite! You have nothing to lose but your brains!"
Joe Gould died well over half a century ago after having been gone from his haunts in Greenwich for half a decade. He had been a fixture in the Village for decades, friend to famous writers and artists, living in penury while saying he was working on a massively long work called Oral History of Our Time (coining the term [pdf] "oral history" in the process) from which only a few short pieces were ever published. In the 40s he became famous thanks to a profile called "Professor Sea Gull" written by star New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell. After Gould's death, Mitchell wrote another profile in 1964, "Joe Gould's Secret", where Mitchell said that the Oral History only existed in Gould's mind. After that article, Mitchell never published again in his lifetime despite being on The New Yorker's staff until his death in 1996. Since then, various further secrets have been unearthed about Gould, diaries from the 40s, the identity of Gould's mysterious patron, and now New Yorker writer Jill Lepore has written about Gould's whereabouts in the last years in his life, and much else, in a sad profile called Joe Gould's Teeth. [Joe Gould previously]
BBC Radio One - Star Special
Hello. This is David Bowie. It's a bit grey out today, but I've got some Perrier water and I've got a bunch of records. I think if I was walking outside at the moment, I'd like to be walking on this street. It's Love Street by The Doors. In May of 1979 Bowie sat down at BBC Radio One and played two hours of his favourite music. [SLYT, track list inside] [more inside]
"If it's for the money, you're not doing art. You're doing commerce."
Hackers Remotely Control Jeep Cherokee
Security researchers Charlie Miller (@0xcharlie) and Christopher Valasek (@nudehaberdasher) have found an exploit for Chrysler's Uconnect infotainment system allowing for remote control of many vehicle functions including climate control, audio, braking, and under certain conditions, steering. They plan to release details during a talk at next month's DEFCON 23 hacking conference. Chrysler has already issued a patch for the vulnerability, but it requires a manual update.
Music always finds a way...
The Banjo Bands of Malawi is a video clip featuring three different performances of a certain strain of folk music from the small African nation. Totally raw and homemade instruments are employed in the service of urgent, percussive music (some of it a bit reminiscent of bluegrass) topped off by tight harmony vocals. What's not to like?
Stop calling it "ethnic food"
Lavanya Ramanathan in the Washington Post on why we need to do away with the "ethnic food" label "It's not the phrase itself, really. It's the way it's applied: selectively, to cuisines that seem the most foreign, often cooked by people with the brownest skin."
It is then that I know I have lost. Had lost long ago.
"I had a very hard shell on me."
Why can't men be Olympic synchronised swimmers? - by William Kremer (BBC News Magazine)
"Some kind of bard...aaaasss"
Pulp! The Classics is a new(isn) British imprint producing pulped-up neon editions of various classic novels and plays. The text is untouched, but the day-glo covers are as brash and trashy as as any 1950s B-movie poster. Authors covered so far are Joyce, Shakespeare, Hardy, Kafka, Dickens, Shelley, Stevenson, Austen, Carroll, Conrad, Wilde, Bronte, Fitzgerald, Jerome, Defoe and Doyle. The blurbs aren't bad either.... [more inside]
How Hot Chicken Really Happened
"For almost 70 years, hot chicken was made and sold primarily in Nashville’s black neighborhoods. I started to suspect the story of hot chicken could tell me something powerful about race relations in Nashville, especially as the city tries to figure out what it will be in the future." Rachel L. Martin, "How Hot Chicken Really Happened," from The Bitter Southerner.
Why Is OMI’s “Cheerleader” No. 1?
A look at the current #1 Single on the billboard charts, Omi - Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix) [more inside]
Your Phone Knows if You're Depressed
A new study from Northwestern University examined the potential link between cell phone use and depression. "The study found a depressed person’s average daily phone usage clocked in at 68 mins, whereas non-depressed individual’s came in at 17 mins." source [more inside]
Draw up 40% cuts plans, George Osborne tells Whitehall departments
BBC: George Osborne has launched his spending review with a call for £20bn cuts to Whitehall budgets.
Each unprotected department has been asked to come up with savings plans of 25% and 40% of their budget.
The chancellor said departments had also been asked to help meet a target of 150,000 new homes on public sector land by 2020.
The NHS and per-pupil schools budgets will be protected in the review, which will be published on 25 November.
Mr Osborne, who is currently giving evidence to MPs, said that "with careful management of public money, we can get more for less".
A-B-C-D, follow me!
In the 1970's, Sesame Street wasn't the only educational puppet show in town. The Letter People was a literacy program and television series that taught phonics with an unusual bunch of 26 characters. Here's the entire 60 episode run. The production values improved a bit as the show went on, evolving from black backgrounds and simple sets to more elaborate ones. Every Letter Person had their own theme song, featured in their introductory episode; here's all twenty-six of those in alphabetical, and thus wildly anachronic, order. Absent from the show are the songs of Misters R, X and Q (the last three Letter People to debut in the show - they'd clearly gone through design changes by then, ESPECIALLY Mr. X). [more inside]
o.O
The destruction of Penn Station
We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed. So wrote Ada Louise Huxtable in a NY Times editorial condemning the destruction of Penn Station.
The outrage was a major catalyst for the architectural preservation movement in the United States. In 1965, the New York Landmarks Law was passed, which helped save the iconic Grand Central Terminal and more than 30,000 other buildings from similar fates.
"this is the President Obama who has been developing for some time."
*excited horse noises*
A rarified air.
Exponential Hangover
Web Design: The First 100 Years
So despite appearances, despite the feeling that things are accelerating and changing faster than ever, I want to make the shocking prediction that the Internet of 2060 is going to look recognizably the same as the Internet today.
Unless we screw it up. [more inside]
So despite appearances, despite the feeling that things are accelerating and changing faster than ever, I want to make the shocking prediction that the Internet of 2060 is going to look recognizably the same as the Internet today.
Unless we screw it up. [more inside]
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