October 1, 2009
"What have we got to lose?"
We welcome anyone to visit our town! There are no commandos in the streets. There is no fence or gate being built around Hardin. People are free to come and go as they please. APF is not running our town or our police force. [more inside]
Fundable.com is closed permanently
Fundable.com is closed permanently. According to the site's current index, there is bad blood between the two founders of the site, Louis Helm and John Pratt. The recent story of Mary Robinette Kowal being ripped off was apparently the final straw. [more inside]
You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid
CGI-brows short mockumentary
CGI-brows (link goes to video on Vimeo which contains a naughty word but is otherwise SFW.) A short mockumentary about extreme emoting through SFX by RocketSausage (Dir. Andrew Gaynord) which has won the Virgin Media Shorts People's Choice Award for 2009.
"The Muslim Georgetown"
Zaytuna College in Berkeley, CA will accept its first students in the fall of 2010 or 2011. Founded by Sheik Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, it will be the first accredited Islamic college in the United States, open to men and women of all religions.
Kakapo Love
'You are being shagged by a rare parrot'. Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine have been revisiting the animals on the edge of extinction which Douglas Adams described in Last Chance to See. Here they make the acquaintance of an amorous kakapo.
Sex, drinking, and how women see themselves
Women write about sex and drinking:
Drunk on You: Alcohol Disinhibits, But At What Cost? by A.V. Flox
Being Drunk Makes Everything OK by Amanda Mosner
I've only had sex drunk: how do you have good sex sober? by Heather Corinna
Do you need to be drunk to have sex? by Julia Macmillan
Do women need to get drunk to have sex? by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Why women need a drink before sex by Liz Hoggard
Drunk on You: Alcohol Disinhibits, But At What Cost? by A.V. Flox
Being Drunk Makes Everything OK by Amanda Mosner
I've only had sex drunk: how do you have good sex sober? by Heather Corinna
Do you need to be drunk to have sex? by Julia Macmillan
Do women need to get drunk to have sex? by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Why women need a drink before sex by Liz Hoggard
Richard Whitehurst's Rape Tunnel
An article in an art-related blog
recently mentioned a new installation by a Columbus, Ohio conceptual artist named Richard Whitehurst: an exhibit reachable only by a tunnel, growing progressively narrower, with the artist waiting to rape anybody who attempted to pass. [more inside]
Rifqa Speaks (NSFW)
Rifqa Bary, the Ohio teen who ran away from her Muslim parents because she believed they would kill her for converting to Christianity, has appeared on a weekly anti-Islam conference call hosted by the National Day of Prayer Task Force (headed by the wife of Focus on the Family's James Dobson, Lou Engle of The Call & Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council). Rifqa, who is in custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families and was not authorized to be on the call, shared some of her story and then launched into an extended passionate prayer. DCF officials are investigating how she came to be on the call.
43,000 Words Worth
43 photographs of Afghanistan provide a striking sense of personal identity to a conflict that is often remote and abstract.
Ce soir sera une bonne soirée!
On September 10th, to celebrate their initiation week, 172 communications students at the University of Quebec at Montreal decided to put on a show. After weeks of preparation, the costumed and prop-wielding crowd enacted an exuberant, complex, and flawlessly-choreographed performance of the Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" that sprawled through the campus's multi-story Judith Jasmin Pavilion... and they did it all in one continuous take (on their second try). The feat is just the most recent example of "lipdubbing" -- a video phenomenon where a single camera moves through a crowd of highly coordinated lip-syncers in a single seamless take, with the original recording dubbed over the finished product. [more inside]
The C-17 Globemaster III
January: Newly sworn-in President Obama says, "We need greater investment in... essential systems like the C-17 cargo... aircraft, which provide the backbone of our ability to extend global power." April: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says, "Our analysis concludes that we have enough C-17s, with the 205 already in the force and currently in production." May: The Office of Management and Budget proposes the termination of the C-17 program with a savings of $17 billion. July: The 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill includes funding for the program. September 29: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) proposes an amendment to strip that funding - "You can't walk through these hallways without bumping into a lobbyist from Boeing." September 30: By a vote of 64 to 34, the Senate defeats the amendment.
Gay Liberation
1969: The Year of Gay Liberation is an online exhibit of the New York Public Library focusing on the radical gay rights movements of the late sixties and early seventies, focusing on the organizations The Mattachine Society of New York, Daughters of Bilitis, Gay News, Gay Liberation Front, Radicalesbians, Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries and the Gay Activists Alliance, and the events of the Stonewall Riot and Christopher Street Liberation Day. This is but one part of the NYPL's fine LGBT collection, which includes, among other things, resources for teens, AIDS/HIV collections, and digital collections on ACT UP, Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen, Bessie Bonehill, Gertrude Stein, Gran Fury, Julian Eltinge, Richard Wandel and Walt Whitman.
A Truly Shocking Gitmo Story
A Truly Shocking Gitmo Story: "the U.S. government tortured an innocent man to extract false confessions and then threatened him until he obligingly repeated those lies as though they were the truth." His lawyer notes, "The Obama Department of Justice, with Attorney General Holder piously proclaiming that this Administration repudiates torture, and follows the rule of law, in fact is following the Bush playbook to the letter." Unbelievable Evidence, but Good Enough for Seven Years in Prison notes, "Al Rabiah's treatment is reminiscent of what happened to Mohammed Jawad, the Afghan who was captured as a young teenager and held for almost seven years before he was released last month. Both detainees were locked up based mainly on coerced confessions that appear to have been false, and it looks like both might have remained imprisoned but for the intervention of the federal courts. " Also: Judge's Order to Release Kuwaiti Detainee Puts Obama in a Bind.
Great Circle
Lilliputia Redux
In Kunming, southern China, a community of dwarves has set up its own village to escape discrimination from normal sized people. "As small people we are used to being pushed around and exploited by big people. But here there aren't any big people and everything we do is for us," said spokesman Fu Tien. [more inside]
Can a woman ball a man?
Monkeys inform humans about walking
What can we learn from quadrapeds about our own bipedal gait? Recently, a group of researchers has taught rhesus macaques how to walk, and then used neural recordings to develop a model of a functioning brain-machine interface (BMI) designed to take the signals from your brain and use them to interface with a prosthetic leg, which would allow previously paralyzed patients to literally walk again. [more inside]
"Bringing much-needed lubricant to this meeting"
Ever wonder how the people on Mad Men make it through the work day while drinking so much? The women of Slate spin-off The XX Factor gave it a go, and documented the results. You can listen to their Political Gabfest podcast with a "pie-eyed" Emily Bazelon here. This topic was discussed recently in AskMe.
Urban Drum Crew
Good Day Sunshine
Filmmaker, Peter Sorcher, will be showing his documentary "Eat the Sun" at this year's Mill Valley Film Festival. The film follows people who practice sungazing. The leading proponent of sungazing, Hira Ratan Manek, is seen as a teacher by some and a scam artist by others.
"Post-recession Meccas for the young"
Ardipithecus: We Meet At Last
Ardipithecus: We Meet At Last. (Single Link Carl Zimmer)
Google Asks: "What Would Email Look Like, If It Were Invented Today?"
Google began inviting volunteers to a public preview test of their new Wave web-based collaborative email and document communications platform yesterday, which enables users to "communicate and work together in real time." Initial reviews this past May seemed positive. (Previously) [more inside]
Lottie the Otter joins, among others, Rabbit the Rabbit.
Lottie the Otter is Winnie the Pooh's newest pal in the new book (released Oct. 5) Return to Hundred Acre Wood. Lottie is said to enjoy cricket and is a stickler for etiquette. [more inside]
Inconvenience truths
At 145 miles away by car, this spot between Glad Valley and Meadow, South Dakota, is the farthest spot from a McDonald's in the contiguous USA. This fact and a lovely image of the contiguous United States visualized by distance to the nearest McDonald's come from Stephen Von Worley. (via Strange Maps)
Clockwords
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