October 2, 2012
The Holy Soul reads
Allen Ginsberg's four box set "Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Poems & Songs 1949-1993" is a collection of released and unreleased recordings. Eight poems are free on Soundcloud.
More Ginsberg, including Howl, "What Would You Do If You Lost It?" and with Paul McCartney.
Previously
"they were never meant to be smoked in the first place."
Cigarettes: The Most Stable International Currency. In China, expensive cigarettes (not to be confused with counterfeits of popular brands) are sometimes used as bribes.
Cash can be difficult to handle, or outright illegal, in some places. Since a smoking ban (and subsequent black-market trade in cigarettes) in US prisons, canned mackerel (previously on MetaFilter) has become the exchange medium of choice. [more inside]
The Sea Firefly
Umihotaru is an artificial island on the Tokyo Bay Aqualine that has had to reinvent itself as a tourist trap to justify the continued maintenance of a little-used bridge-tunnel crossing.
World's Best Father (FCVO "best")
Perfect Bacon, Every Time
a symmetrical doodling program
Anything can be made into a sexy costume these days.
10 Inexplicable and Possibly Offensive Halloween Costumes You Can Buy (But I Don't Recommend It) Haven't we all wanted to dress as a sexy crayon or a sexy body bag at some point?
Minifig, I can walk!
Is That Really a Word?
Live-Giffing the 2012 Debates — October 3rd marks the first presidential debate for the 2012 American elections. There will be literally hundreds of live blogs offering differing perspectives and blow-by-blow accounts. Elevating the discourse as only they can though, Tumblr will have a crack team of GIF artists cranking out instant animations of the best debate moments, from zingers to gaffes to awkward silences. The place to take it all in will be the purpose-built Gifwich live-GIFfing blog. [more inside]
>_
An Adventure 65 Million Dominoes In The Making
Arnie quotes
The shorter wit and wisdom of Arnold Schwarzenegger - highlights from his autobiography 'Total Recall'
Even if I tried, even if I wanted to
Same Love. A song and film produced by Seattle hip hop artist Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in support of legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington State.
Grupo Cine Liberación 1968-2012
"The death in Buenos Aires of Argentine filmmaker (in Spanish) and theorist Octavio Getino was reported on the same day as that of the historian Eric Hobsbawm in London. Worlds apart and different spheres of activity, perhaps, but both contributed in major ways to the broad current of independent and international critical culture that grew up after 1968, even though Hobsbawm remained a Communist and Getino was always a Peronist." - Michael Chanan, with a video interview of Mr. Getino from 1982.
"Kansas was a big part of a big part of music where bands were often named after geographical locations."
Pussy Riot in Prison
Although three members of Pussy Riot "have been sentenced to two years each on the absurd charge of 'hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,'" they remain unbowed. In this GQ interview Nadya Tolokonikovoy relates that "prison is a place for ascetic practices," and states "In any case, I'm happy I got two years. For every person with a functioning brain, this verdict is so dumb and cruel that it removes any lingering illusions about Putin's system. It's a verdict on the system."
Their Beeb
In the two years building up to the government’s NHS reform bill, the BBC appears to have categorically failed to uphold its remit of impartiality, parroting government spin as uncontested fact, whilst reporting only a narrow, shallow view of opposition to the bill. In addition, key news appears to have been censored. The following in-depth investigation provides a shocking testimony of the extent to which the BBC abandoned the NHS.
Nothing's changed
The Smiths are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to reunite - ever. [more inside]
Not Just for Summer Anymore
The Weather Channel is teaming with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s Hydrologic Prediction Center (HPC) to name winter storms in the US starting with the 2012-2013 winter season. [more inside]
The case against online pagination
Metafilter doesn't do fedoras well
The problem is that the fedora has become a go-to accessory for a peculiar subculture of love-entitled male nerds whose social inexperience and awkwardness manifests in a world rocked by a gender revolution—a tectonic shift in the makeup of formerly cloistered, rule-bound clubs. They aren't bad people – they simply need a place from which to draw a sense of manhood, if not from women.
"Do not let your self-worth be defined by bullies.”
"I am more than a number on a scale" La Crosse, Wisconsin news anchor Jennifer Livingston responds to a fat-shaming email directly on-air. [more inside]
"Cocaine for Snowblindness"
You're about to be the base doctor at Halley Research Station in Antarctica for a year. For ten months, no one gets in or out. Fourteen lives are in your hands, including your own. What do you put in your medical kit? And how do your choices differ from those of your predecessors (Eric Marshall and Edward Wilson) a century ago?
Southern California in the 1940's
Travel: My Father’s Color Images of Southern California in the 1940′s. Pretty much what it says on the tin. Some nice color snaps. The main reason I posted this is I can't stop looking at this shot of the Universal Studios' back lot.
Take Those Damned Goggles Off
Television Without Pity re-capper Jacob Clifton has written a short steampunk story for Tor.com. “There’s a level on which the story is an indictment of using steampunk as a fashion or trend. It came about because I wanted to see what would happen if you substituted Jane Austen for Jules Verne in the steampunk equation...” The Commonplace Book
"A ruling against the Kiobel plaintiffs would be disastrous"
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court returned from summer vacation, and among other things, it heard the second oral argument of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.. Esther Kiobel and eleven other Nigerian plaintiffs are accusing oil companies of complicity in a brutal crackdown on protesters that included torture and murder; during the first round of arguments, "some of the court's conservative justices signaled a willingness to shield corporations from liability in U.S. courts over allegations that they had aided or acquiesced to foreign governments that abused their own people." Meanwhile, a group called People Against Legalizing Murder has launched MurderisBad.com - which Shell has allegedly blocked from its employees.
A loaf of bread, a pot of marmite, and thou.
"We have a man in the Marmite factory whose job it is to watch Marmite evaporate. Literally like watching paint dry" explained St.John cheerfully. How to make your own Marmite.
This Land is Nina's
Nina Paley's take on This Land Is Mine You will never be able to think of this song the same way again. (SLYT)
Dodging Corporates Taxes? There Is An App For That.
How Apple uses a Nevada based investment fund to (legally) avoid paying corporate tax on some of its massive profit.
Pluck those strings
This winners for the MacArthur Awards have been announced , and among the fellows is Chris Thile. [more inside]
"I didn’t want to go back to my old job"
An interview with Jamie Bestwick, now aged 41, on what motivates him as the world's greatest BMX vert rider.
Golden Dawn: fascism becomes more popular again.
Golden Dawn [Wiki summary] progress report: "One survey last week showed a near doubling in the number of people voicing "positive opinions" about Golden Dawn, up from 12% in May to 22%" as Golden Dawn have become vigilante enforcers where the police cannot [Guardian - short summary] and provide food and clothing for the ethnic Greek poor. "Kaiti Lazarou, 55, the owner of a newspaper and cigarette kiosk in Piraeus, agreed. “I myself have gotten food and potatoes from them in Syntagma Square,” she said. "I would not be surprised if they become the government one day, and why shouldn’t they? They protect the Greeks, while Samaras and the government are out of touch with the people" [NYT - somewhat more detailed, and with useful links]. Golden Dawn is also setting up foreign offices to collect aid [Canadian example] to distribute in Greece, both providing benefits to ethnic Greeks and attacking immigrant stalls and community centres [example attack on a Tanzanian community centre, where the police allegedly stood by].
The Throne of Zion
my feelings in the bedroom, Brisbane, driving my car and anything from overheard conversations
"There’s a recurring idea in David Nichols’ excellent Go-Betweens book, the belief that The Smiths were unfairly taken to heart by the world’s introverted bookworms when The Go-Betweens were obviously so much better, so much more literary etc, but there’s a teenage desperation at the heart of The Smiths’ music that The Go-Betweens never touched. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As someone who loved the Smiths as a teenager — and still in some respects admire them — I’m not a teenager anymore. In my 20s, I liked the Go-Betweens. In my 30s I loved them. As I prepare to enter my 40s, I am in awe of them. By the time I reach my 60s, they might be all I listen to." [more inside]
Controlling Brains With a Flick of a Light Switch
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