August 28, 2015
Hurricane Katrina's forgotten souls
On August 29, 2008 the remains of Katrina's unclaimed dead were put to rest. "Nobody has ever come searching for their loved one in the memorial, as far as I know." (warning: last link has some graphic imagery language)
NSA Mass Phone Surveillance Possibly Constitutional After All
On December 13, 2013, the US district court for the District of Columbia ruled that the NSA's bulk collection of American citizens' telephone records was "likely" to violate the Fourth Amendment (previously on MeFi). Today, DC's federal court of appeals overturned that ruling. The rationale is that the plaintiffs did not prove "that they were affected by the metadata-gathering program," so they did not have standing to challenge it in court. [more inside]
#9 Inadvertent, Manitoba. #33 Wintergreen Slap. #39 Don Henley Tirade.
Superego's Mark McConville (previously: 1, 2, 3, 4) is making some very specific Top 50 lists:
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Top 50 Nastiest Black Diamond Ski Runs in the World
Top 50 Retired Price Is Right Games
Top 50 Canadian Ghost Towns
Top 50 Vape Flavors in America for 2015
[h/t]
Things That Make You Go HURRRGGGHH
Do recipes for moist cakes make your skin clammy? Did that article about hardscrabble pugilists leave you nauseated? Do you feel super-embarrassed (YT) when you have to say completely innocent words like onus or cunning or bean curd out loud? Or even in writing? If so, you are far from alone! Word aversion, or logomisia, is an extremely common phenomenon that affects up to one in five (links to PDF) of us, and it's extremely contagious. [more inside]
It Could Have Been A Utopia
Jaime Prater grew up in the Jesus People U.S.A. commune in Chicago. He set out to make a documentary about the religion, and in the process uncovered widespread sexual abuse of children in the group.
'buttery and mellow, with hints of lemon'
"Good fresh goat cheese is a special and important thing. It should be moist and creamy, without a hint of graininess. Its flavor should be clean and fresh, mouthwateringly tangy but not astringent, lemony but also milky and balanced. An unaged cheese has nowhere to hide its faults."Beyond Chevre: 10 Essential Goat Milk Cheeses to Know and Love - by Liz Thorpe at Serious Eats [more inside]
An extravagant symbol of a man who can’t hide his true nature
“producing much fruit, or foliage, or many offspring”
Can a Novelist Be Too Productive? by Stephen King [New York Times] [Op-Ed]
“No one in his or her right mind would argue that quantity guarantees quality, but to suggest that quantity never produces quality strikes me as snobbish, inane and demonstrably untrue.”
Be Happy for a Few Seconds
Watch a Baby Lose Its Mind Because It Loves a Cat Too Much (here is a direct link to the video if you'd prefer)
Watch the skies
North Dakota becomes the first state to legalize weaponized drones. "Less than lethal” weapons like rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas, sound cannons, and Tasers are now permitted on drones, thanks to the actions of a lobbyist representing law enforcement.
Drones previously.
Drones previously.
Ube Goldberg
New Uber Service Sounds Suspiciously Like a Bus — New Uber "Smart Routes" feature offers passengers fare discounts in exchange for pick-ups along predetermined high-ridership routes. Rather than trying to compete with public transit, FiveThirtyEight points out that Uber and public transit can complement each other. Meanwhile, the yellow cab industry is trying to fight back against Uber with an Uber-like smartphone app for NYC passengers.
You have to learn to love the bomb.
The Late, Great Stephen Colbert “The level of emotion you're getting from me right now—I'm not saying it's dishonest,” he said. “I'm just saying it's not normal. I'd really love to go to bed. I promise you, I do not spend my time on the edge of tears.”
Because the Internet needs more
Rice University Fondren Library maintain a guide to cat videos on the web. But what do they think? Meanwhile, in the UK Labour Party leadership contest, socialists cannot vote, but cats can. And people like watching cat videos on TV. And as for Tinder for cats? There's an app for that. But, why so popular? And why does Larry Ellison like them? So do you want more? Why not go on a cat holiday, or run away and join the cat circus?
line-square-dot
We will show you... The real world we found!
Every day the members of the Bureau of Proto Society debate the cause of the fall of the world from past documentary videos. New Anima(tor)'s Expo short from Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Time of Eve, Patema Inverted). Site will show up as Japanese at first, but there is a translation if you click "EN" in the upper right.
It's Flash Friday at Anatomy Arcade
The Revenge of Flash Friday - It's ALIVE! Anatomy Arcade "makes basic human anatomy come ALIVE through awesome free flash games, interactives and videos." There are two timed games: Whack-A-Bone and Poke-A-Muscle (both feature auto-playing music, but you can turn it off in PAM). For less stress, there are jigsaw puzzles to help you get familiar with the digestive system, skeletal system, muscular system, the brain, the eye and the heart. (Via everlasting blort)
Understanding Politics For Geeks
Vox argues that the reason the technical set gets frustrated with American politics is simple. They have a mental model of the political structure that is divorced from the actual reality of American politics. (SLVox) [more inside]
It Wasn't My Fault!
Former FEMA Head Michael Brown: Stop Blaming Me For Hurricane Katrina (SPL) In which he explains from his point of view what the real problems with the Katrina response were.
Love, Hate, Security, and the Writer
"This was also the tour that I was jumped by a disgruntled fan in the ladies room. A rather tall woman, she may have not been over six feet tall, but only seemed that tall after she slammed me up against the wall, and forced me in a corner (people often seem taller when they’re threatening you). She was angry about the new book, angry about Anita having sex with someone that wasn’t Richard, and angry with me for adding new men to her life, and basically not happy with the way my series had turned in book ten, Narcissus in Chains." Laurell K. Hamilton on book tour woes.
Dear Future Bedmate,
"How To Make Me Come" is a collection of anonymous essays penned by women about their orgasms. (Content NSFW: Text only.)
Under such conditions, Stiob aesthetics made sense
American Stiob: Or, What Late-Socialist Aesthetics of Parody Reveal about Contemporary Political Culture in the West, Dominic Boyer and Alexei Yurchak, paper here in PDF [more inside]
Panic and Tumult in Northamptonshire
A cow in Northamptonshire has gotten its head stuck in a lawn chair. The County of Northamptonshire in England's East Midlands was first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1011), as Hamtunscire: the scire (shire) of Hamtun (the homestead). There are 129 things to do in Northamptonshire, the best of which is a llama farm. But all that changed today, when Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service were summoned to save a cow who had somehow gotten its head stuck in a lawn chair. [more inside]
M.E. called, says that's the third kid died snorting cool ranch doritos.
Absolutely true plotlines from the latest season of Law & Order SVU. [single link imgur album]
Vulture talks to Quentin Tarantino
Frankly, sophisticated audiences are not a problem. Dumb audiences are a problem. But I think audiences are getting more sophisticated — that’s just a product of time. In the ’50s, audiences accepted a level of artifice that the audiences in 1966 would chuckle at. And the audiences of 1978 would chuckle at what the audience of 1966 said was okay, too. The trick is to try to be way ahead of that curve, so they’re not chuckling at your movies 20 years down the line.
There are very few people to root for in this story
GQ's Taffy Brodesser-Akner looks at the culture and economics of sugar daddies.
Mr. Whiskerstein has been catatonic since yesterday afternoon
Cat Hospital, a cat soap opera.
Come Fly With Me
The Federal Aviation Administration has approved the use of a paper airplane drone. Forbes has an interview with the UAV advocate who filed the petition to get an exemption for the paper airplane drone.
You Be Illein'
Why do some people refer to themselves in the third person? asks Vanessa Barford, in a BBC News Magazine article. Misteraitch doesn’t know. The act of referring to oneself in this way is known as Illeism (Wikipedia) (apparently from the Latin ille meaning “he, that”). At Language Log, Arnold Zwicky writes on Illeism and its Relatives, and maintains that illeism in young children ought not be blamed on Elmo. [more inside]
Ftaires! We have found ftaires!
For the last three days, a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service has been telling his stories to the NoSleep subreddit. They are by turns unsettling, sad and and just plain creepy ... and what's with the stairs? Read the comments, too. [more inside]
Real vs Reel
History vs Hollywood fact-checks "based on a true story/inspired by true events" popular movies, and tries to match faces and events with their real-life counterparts.
I'm Raven, your hostess with the mostess.
In 1997, HBO hired animation legend Ralph Bakshi to create an animated sci-fi show for adults. The result was "Spicy City," which only lasted for six episodes. All six of them are on YouTube. [more inside]
F is for farce, P is for police state, S is for slippery slope
A plan to conduct Operation Fortitude, a joint operation between the Victorian Police and the newly-created paramilitary Border Force as not been well received by the people of Melbourne who, to put it mildly, did not like the idea of being forced to show their papers in spot checks this Saturday. As Lenore Taylor says, Australian Border Force has united the nation against it. The Police say it was all a terrible misunderstanding over the wording of a press release typed by a "low level official". The original release has been removed. [more inside]
"This only happened because people organized"
Following on from the New York Times' expose of nail salons, Sukjong Hong looks at the ongoing attemps to organise workers as well as the reactions of manucurists to the piece (also available in Korean). Sukjong Hong is a freelance writer and artist specialising in the intersection between journalism and comics.
Ten millimeter with over-and-under thirty millimeter pump action grenade
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