September 28, 2014
'the way you remember it...'
How Not To Fuck Up Tools Like A Goddamned Ape
"We haven’t found the right planet."
“Alien 3 was flawed from its inception and it was certainly flawed—actually, pretty fucked up—well before we started shooting. So there you go. Take all of the responsibility, because you’re going to get all of the blame.” — David Fincher [previously]
They have grown so big they no longer simply suck blood
This absolutely horrifying clip from forthcoming BBC documentary Wonders of the Monsoon shows a giant red leech sucking down a giant blue earthworm like spaghetti, deep in the forests of Borneo. [more inside]
The Mysterious Crimes of Valdice
Some of the worst brutality of Communist Czechoslovakia happened in a place most people have never heard of.
By the 1970s and 1980s torture and murder were not routine tools of the Czechoslovak regime. Except in one place, about which even to this day not much is known. No one knows its victims, and the perpetrators live quietly among us. We decided to revive the forgotten story and to bring back to the map of Czech history a place that shows what great power does to people and how difficult it is to find earthly justice: the Third Department in Valdice.
Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.
To create an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Matrix
Spacedrum and Hang, evolution of the steelpan drum
This solo performance of "New Moon" on a Spacedrum by Yuki Koshimoto is mesmerizing, but without much context. Who is she, and what is her instrument? This blog post has a bit more on Yuki, and here is some information on Metalsounds' Spacedrum and other similar metal instruments. If you want more background on the instrument, here's a documentary on the PANArt Hang, something of the predecessor to the Spacedrum, both of which have evolved from the steelpan or steel drum. Going back further, here's Toshi and Pete Seeger, documenting the making of a steel drum, in 1956.
Remodeling consent
Two prominent kink bloggers propose that we change how we think about consent to combat rape culture and to create positive, meaningfully consensual experiences for all. [more inside]
Massive Pro-Democracy Protests in Hong Kong
"Hong Kong police have used tear gas to disperse thousands of pro-democracy protesters near the government complex, after a week of escalating tensions." Hong Kong: Tear gas and clashes at democracy protest. Hong Kong's unprecedented protests and police crackdown, explained. South China Morning Post Topics: Occupy Central [Paywall after a few free articles]. Occupy Central with Love and Peace is on Twitter, and there is a live thread on Reddit.
Six Uncollected Stories by Saki
Six short stories by Edwardian humorist and short-form master H. H Munro (Saki) that do not appear in any yet-published collection of Saki’s “complete” short stories, taken from an appendix in A.J. Langguth’s A Life of H.H. Munro (1982).
Big Shoulders, Big Hair, Big Perfume: 1980s Through Fragrance
"The beginning of my interest in fragrance coincided more or less with a momentous year in perfumery: 1981. It was in that first year of what would later be called the Big Eighties that a Beverly Hills boutique released an eponymous scent housed in a box with yellow stripes that evoked the store’s awning. Giorgio was an immediate and a ubiquitous smash, a powerhouse floral so outsized that restaurants were said to refuse seating to Giorgio-wearing patrons." The '80s ushered in a new era in perfumery. [more inside]
10 things you should never say to someone with bipolar disorder
Are you bipolar? This is a small thing, but there’s a little linguistic point to be made here. Referring to somebody as “bipolar” sort of insinuates that the only thing this person is is an illness. Their entire entity is just a disease. My surname is Parkinson so, can we not add to this, please?
Rather, I think it is more polite to say someone “has bipolar” than “is bipolar”. You wouldn’t say that somebody “was cancer”. You wouldn’t say: “This is Maya. She is diabetes.” But people will talk of someone “being bipolar”.
Assuming a Body
University of South Carolina Upstate based the Critical Lede interviews Gayle Salamon about her groundbreaking transgender study, first published in 2010 titled Assuming a Body.
In the interview, Gayle and the academic panel discuss her book and evenly explore the nuanced tensions that exist between performativity, gender construction and trans identity. [more inside]
In the interview, Gayle and the academic panel discuss her book and evenly explore the nuanced tensions that exist between performativity, gender construction and trans identity. [more inside]
There is a Starbucks inside the CIA
Welcome to the “Stealthy Starbucks,” as a few officers affectionately call it.
Or "Store Number 1," as the receipts cryptically say.
The human being is very often not profitable from the system’s POV
According to the philosopher Anselm Jappe, who has come to Lisbon to give a talk at the Teatro Maria Matos, in capitalism we are defined by our relation to labor. But the system is a “house of cards that is beginning to collapse”. It is time to rethink the concept of labor.
Bloody difficult actually
Want a new timesink but clicker games are not your thing? Let Rock, Paper, Shotgun introduce you to Compact Conflict, a Riskesque strategy game programmed in only 13 kilobytes.
"No negativity—we just want to be admired."
Generation Wuss » by Bret Easton Ellis [Vanity Fair]
"In his books, he used to shoot at the materialistic excesses of his generation. But today, youth has become Bret Easton Ellis' favorite target. According to him, young people are just too sensitive, too narcissistic ,too stupid. But ultimately, as he explains in this exclusive text, he kind of feel sorry for them ( and they love it !)."
I ♥ TO
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