August 20, 2007
49 unusual creatures with whom we share the planet
25 Weirdest Animals. See also: 24 bizarre creatures of the deep. Not responsible for nightmares related to the viperfish, the oarfish, or the star-nosed mole.
First they came . . .
Porn Star Registry List. As part of the Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act (Sec. 503, p. 51), the "Department of Justice wants to come up with an official list of every porn star in America - and slap stiff penalties on producers who don't cooperate." Is this an effective way to make sure porn movie producers don't hire underage actors, or is this, as Paul Cambria alleges, a violation of first amendment rights?
The Butcher Says...
To call Pat Fish the best British songwriter of the past twenty-five years is an invitation for some awfully suspicious stares. Pat who? But he might be just that. Known since the early 1980s as the Jazz Butcher (Or The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, or JBC, and at times later as Sumosonic, The Black Eg, and Wilson), Fish remained detached enough to avoid the indie-rock vortex of the last decade, dooming himself to obscurity while leaving behind one of the most valuable buried treasures in all of alternative music.
How Would Jesus Rock?
Christs, Communists, & Rock 'n' Roll is an excellent introduction to a tradition of anti-rock writings and recordings by the Religious Right. In the 1960s, there was David Noebel who wrote Communism, Hypnotism, & the Beatles and The Marxist Minstrels. In the early 1970s, Reverend Riblett constructs a seven-foot cross out of rock music records and sets it aflame with gasoline. Michael Mills finds hidden Satanic messages in Bow Wow Wow and the Grateful Dead, while Bob Larson valiantly debates Mandy, a 13-year-old fan of the Cure. The motherlode is probably the cassettes of John Todd, who traveled the fundamentalist circuit in the 1970s claiming to be a former witch and a member of the Illuminati, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. (more inside)
A Soviet Poster A Day
A Soviet Poster A Day delivers what it promises, one propaganda rich helping of Soviet art every day to help you on your daily doings.
Michael Vick, explained
You probably heard the news today and saw earlier threads about Michael Vick, but ESPN has done an amazing job wrapping up the entire case into a handy one-page FAQ. Written by a sports lawyer, it explains all the interesting aspects of the case: what happened, when did it happen, and what results we'll likely see.
Pilgrim's Progress
Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone? Quickly. Where did the Mayflower first land in North America? Nope. Not Plymouth, but Provincetown. On Nov. 21, 1620 the Pilgrims set foot on the sandy tip of Cape Cod. After spending five weeks there, they sailed across Cape Cod Bay to Plymouth. Today Provincetown celebrates the 100 year anniversary of Cape Cod's Pilgrim Monument. The 252-foot granite tower which had its cornerstone dedicated by then President Theodore Roosevelt juts high above the relatively flat terrain of Provincetown and serves as a reference point for landlubbers and sailors alike.
ITV Chart Show Indie Charts 1989-1994 on Youtube
Bloody awful: How money and politics contaminated Arkansas's prison plasma program.
Blood Money : A widow is fighting to open records on how tainted blood plasma from Arkansas prisoners entered the U.K. and led to the death of her husband.
Genetic discrimination
U.S. military practices genetic discrimination in denying benefits. "Those medically discharged with genetic diseases are left without disability or retirement benefits. Some are fighting back."
The Invisible Manuscript
The Invisible Manuscript. An interesting account of Ralph Ellison's struggle to write a second novel after Invisible Man, and the work his literary executor, John Callahan, is doing to produce Three Days Before the Shooting, a Modern Library edition of the second novel based on Ellison's work. (Callahan edited Juneteenth from a subset of this material.) [more inside]
Gallery on Lockdown
You’d need years to really study these murals of Califonia’s history - the artist certainly had a lot a free time to create them. You'd probably also need a special invitation to engage in a multi-year study in the gallery - and you probably don't want one.
The Idiot's Lantern
It is Saturday
morning at 8:00. It's 1969. Your parents are asleep. What'll it be? CBS of course, with The Jetsons, then The Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner
Hour, Dastardly and Muttley
and their Flying Machines, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop,
Scooby Doo, The Archies, The Monkees, The Wacky Races, The New Adventures of Superman
and Jonny Quest. On Channel 4
NBC fights back with
Heckle and Jeckle, then The Grump, The Pink Panther, HR Pufnstuf, The Kellogs Banana Splits Adventure
Hour, Jambo, The Flintstones and Underdog. Channel 7 is ABC which trails with Casper, then Cattanooga Cats, Hot wheels, The Hardy Boys, George of the Jungle and Fantastic Voyage. Good times.
Just another guy blogging for the Good Society
Peter Levine promotes civic engagement in Maryland youth and is working with Prince George's County to create an 'information commons.' He writes about citizenship (1, 2, 3), Iraq (1, 2, 3), literature (1, 2, 3), and other things.
Crochet-y
Crochet artwork. Some of it's a little violent. Some of it a little kinky (but SFW). Some is just a little...odd. But it's all pretty damn cool.
'A child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.'
Arthur Miller's Missing Act :: For all the public drama of Arthur Miller's career ... one character was absent: the Down-syndrome child he deleted from his life
Perfect Game: 900
Skee-Ball! (warning: music) Perhaps the longest-running branded arcade game ever invented was created in 1909, originally with a rotator-cuff-injury-inducing 36-foot long alley. Once shortened to a more manageable 14' (10' for the Chuck E. Cheese kiddie model), the game's popularity took off, remaining largely unchanged except for the 1970s electrification of the scoreboard. It's both a nostalgic pastime and a present-day boardwalk staple, even enjoying some hipster revivalism in the form of BrewSkee-Ball. You can even try building your own game.
Mister Andy Kaufman's gone wrestling
Andy Kaufman { Mighty Mouse, Elvis impersonator, Bachelor #3, Latka Gravas/Vic Ferrari, the host of his own TV special, trouble-maker [?], Dostoevsky's Idiot, "born again" Christian, percussionist, inter-gender wrestling/bitch-slap champion, lounge singer Tony Clifton [?], bit player, Elayne Boosler's ex-boyfriend, and the Man On the Moon } RIP [YA RLY]
It's not spam, it's BACN.
It's not spam, it's BACN. A web-term that was influenced by the proliferation of web 2.0 social networks used to describe "notifications you want, just not right now."
Twitter requests, facebook notifications, bill-payment receipts, etc. Even though you're expecting the e-mail, *and* you want to read it, now is just not a good time to click the "read" button. You want to; you just don't have time right now.
Hopefully the video and numerous blog postings in the last 24 hours will help to bring awareness to this new web-term recently brought to light this past weekend at Podcamp Pittsburgh.
Old lives and memories lie silent beneath the blue water.
When the Quabbin Reservoir is low, they say a church steeple rises from the water, a ghostly reminder of the towns submerged by the flooding of the Swift River Valley in 1939.
Enfield: "The residents of Enfield held a farewell ball in the town hall for their lost community."
Prescott: "The youngest of the four towns and the first to give up its identity in 1928"
Greenwich: "Where eastern Massachusetts saw four luckless, shabby towns, the residents saw a home."
Dana: "The Rabbit Run was used by school children. It was the only means of getting to daily classes at Athol High School"
'I had one guy in here who swore he remembered being a little kid on a boat with his dad, paddling around the steeple,"... He tries to set such visitors straight, but 'you can't just tell people they're crazy."
Enfield: "The residents of Enfield held a farewell ball in the town hall for their lost community."
Prescott: "The youngest of the four towns and the first to give up its identity in 1928"
Greenwich: "Where eastern Massachusetts saw four luckless, shabby towns, the residents saw a home."
Dana: "The Rabbit Run was used by school children. It was the only means of getting to daily classes at Athol High School"
'I had one guy in here who swore he remembered being a little kid on a boat with his dad, paddling around the steeple,"... He tries to set such visitors straight, but 'you can't just tell people they're crazy."
Wear your pants high, Simon!
Channel 4's Star Stories! exposes the truths behind the rising & falling of some of your favo(u)rite celebrities: Madonna, Simon Cowell, Britney Spears, George Michaels, Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta Jones, Posh and Becks, and Take That. Partial episodes: Brad/Jen/Angelina and Jude Law. Occasionally NSFW (language/simulated sex)
Where are the bears when you need them?
Glamping. When you want to touch nature but you don't want nature to touch you.
Make your own cool, colorific card holders
DIY business card holders from paint chips from industrial designer Aaron Tang at designverb, step by step.
Who's Laughing Now, Chuckles McVermin?
With the French embrace of Pixar's Ratatouille, one of the movie's locations has become an unlikely tourist attraction. "Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles" reads the sign above the door of Aurouze, where the bodies of rats 80 years dead hang suspended by iron traps in the storefront window. Meanwhile, American scientists tickle rodents to record thier tiny gales of laughter. Viva la difference!
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