August 21, 2010

Sterling Hall, 40 years on

“No, no. Academia is now part of the real world. Everything goes.” Just before dawn, on August 24, 1970, Dwight and Karl Armstrong, Leo Burt, and David Fine parked a van outside Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin. The van was filled with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, and when it blew, it killed Robert Fassnacht, a young physicist working through the night. The Army Mathematics Research Center, the bombing's target, was untouched. The bombers, known as the "New Year's Gang," went underground, and enthusiasm for the radical movement in Madison was permanently dampened. The University of Wisconsin collection of transcribed interviews about the Sterling Hall Bombing. [more inside]
posted by escabeche at 10:02 PM PST - 32 comments

Colors of antiquity

Richard Meier [...] once declared that “white is the most wonderful color of all, because within it one can find every color of the rainbow.”
"We think of white marble figures as aesthetic monuments ... frozen in a museum installation."
Most scholars haven't paid much attention to the light traces of pigment that remained on the surface of marble statues, but a flood of recent exhibitions has set out to put their color back.
Listen to Helen of Troy, in the Euripides play that bears her name:
My life and fortunes are a monstrosity,
Partly because of Hera, partly because of my beauty.
If only I could shed my beauty and assume an uglier aspect
The way you would wipe color off a statue.
It is a wonder how it took us as long as it did to realize the colorful truth behind some of Man's oldest artistic relics. [previously] [via]
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:49 PM PST - 41 comments

HERCULE

Hercule: Sunday Morning Fever + Little Green Man. "One of the most valuable and rare Italo Disco 7" of all time gets a timely reissue on DJ friendly 12" vinyl. what you have here is a remastered, cleaned up version of this quirky funk disco nugget that sounds as dope today as when it was released back in 1978." Produced by Jean-Pierre Massiera.
posted by puny human at 6:39 PM PST - 13 comments

If you want Yours, take a short piece of Lead Pipe and go out and Collect.

Although Fables in Slang were written in 1899, they describe people who are clearly recognizable today. Partly because of his style, though, George Ade (1866-1944) is forgotten as H.L. Mencken predicted he would be. From 1890 to around the close of WWI, Ade was widely known within the US as a humorist and playwright. [more inside]
posted by jet_silver at 5:48 PM PST - 6 comments

Homeboy got a mind that a map couldn't find

The Rap Map is a mashup of notable places and geographical lyrics in rap and hip-hop. It's brought to you by Rap Genius, a site that explains rap lyrics like "I'm getting jacked, I'm breaking myself" (Warren is getting “jacked” (robbed) and “breaking himself” (generally befuddled)) and "One day you're cruising in your 7, next day you're sweating, forgetting your lies" (Street life can be tough — one day you’re riding high in your BMW 7 Series luxury car, the next day you’re arrested and cracking under pressure. The rest of this verse is a classic warning that the hustling lifestyle is not for everybody)
posted by desjardins at 5:36 PM PST - 44 comments

Hang 'em all!

In what seems to be a growing trend, Australian voters have spoken a resounding "meh". Rejecting both major parties, the most likely result of yesterday's election is a hung parliament.
posted by coriolisdave at 4:44 PM PST - 187 comments

Everybody and Hobbes

A Star Wars/Calvin & Hobbes mashup t-shirt has gotten a lot of buzz, but the 'relentlessly cheerful' James Hance did it first (and it went semi-viral just a few days earlier). But Calvin and Hobbes have gotten 'mashed-up' before... a lot.
« Cthulhu and Hobbes.
« Batmin and Robbes.
« Fight Club (spoiler) illustrated and in text (previously).
« The controversial (for here) Calvin and Jobs.
« Calvin Rockwell
« Kraven the Hunter from Ryan Dunleavy's mashup collection (previously).
« Buddy Cops (incorrectly labeled as P.I.s).
« Semi-related: C&H meet Christopher Robin & Pooh, Hobbes Meets Tony and Role Reversal.
« And, of course, Calvin and Hobbes. [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:24 PM PST - 27 comments

The Most Isolated Man on the Planet

The Most Isolated Man on the Planet.
posted by homunculus at 2:40 PM PST - 74 comments

The Church of Fear of the Stranger in Me

Christoph Schlingensief is dead. [more inside]
posted by Glow Bucket at 2:21 PM PST - 4 comments

Little North Korean girl playing guitar.

Little North Korean girl playing guitar. North Korean children playing guitar.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:33 PM PST - 37 comments

Set the kids free!

Do we worry too much? Lenore Skenazy, who let her 9-year old ride the subway on his own and wrote about it, says yes. A lot of people were very unhappy about it. Now she finds herself at the head of a movement, complete with its own manual, to let kids be more self-reliant. [more inside]
posted by TNLNYC at 12:15 PM PST - 125 comments

The American Great Plains rival the Serengeti

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.
posted by stbalbach at 12:14 PM PST - 33 comments

The Tragic Death of Practically Everything

The Tragic Death of Practically Everything -- a sad litany of technological defeatism and FUD.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:49 AM PST - 31 comments

I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific...

Tomorrow after 37 previews and 1000 performances, Broadway will bid farewell to the critically-lauded, award-winning, first-ever revival of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical South Pacific. [more inside]
posted by cvp at 8:05 AM PST - 17 comments

The Small Person Acquisition Project

j and Bear have a baby. The Small Person Acquisition ProjectMP3.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:58 AM PST - 21 comments

Hulk Smash!

Macho Salad. [SLYT]
posted by Fizz at 6:31 AM PST - 34 comments

Dirty tricks, but by whom?

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is wanted by the Swedish police, for a rape charge, according to the BBC. WikiLeaks has, of course, been highly controversial, since it published 91,000 documents on the war in Afghanistan. [more inside]
posted by ijsbrand at 4:52 AM PST - 535 comments

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