November 27, 2014
The Quiet German
"All the little girls and boys love that wonderful crunching noise."
As if we needed more proof that Weird Al Yankovic has more fun at his job than most people, here's a nine minute behind-the-scenes look at the recording of his 2006 "Straight Outta Lynwood" album.
Thomas King wins Governor-General’s Award for fiction.
Thomas King wins Governor-General’s Award for fiction In February, King won the British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. On Tuesday, he won the Governor-General’s Literary Award for Fiction for The Back of the Turtle, his first novel in 15 years. [more inside]
The Spring Bok-Choi Riots of 1981
Following a question posted on social media forum Reddit asking if gardening in New Zealand was illegal, a satirical thread on the topic has gone viral. "My brother was killed in the Moutua Gardens protest. My uncle lost an arm in the 1981 Spring Bok-choi Riots. My sisters were arrested and thrown into prison, without trial, by a police-led mob after they were discovered re-potting gardenias. Every day I live in fear, alienated by my community for having relatives marked by the Green Thumb. I envy the dead."
"I'm alive and I know what it means to be Lakota."
"... I love the version of the Thanksgiving story in the movie Addams Family Values, because I get to see the Indians win." [SLGuardian]
Game level: extreme
How to play the game of life when you are Black. Mike Sholars, associate editor at the Huffington Post Canada, on what it takes to "win". [more inside]
I can tell by the pixels & by seeing a lot of shops in my time
LEGO’s letter to parents, and how not to tell a fake when you don’t see one
According to the website of the Independent newspaper, LEGO UK has verified the 1970s ‘letter to parents’ that was widely tweeted last weekend and almost as widely dismissed as fake. Business as usual in the Twittersphere — but there are some lessons here about dating type.[more inside]
Kitty Queer
What I did not know is that Claremont included this sort of girl-on-girl sensuality in all of his comics, hiding it from the CCA as heterosexual female friendship. It wasn’t until 1992 and Davis’s fairly blatant art that I got the hint; actual straight women maybe don’t feel this way about their friends. It was entirely possible, I realized slowly, that finger sucking and licking was not a strictly heterosexual activity among friends.Chris Claremont, the X-Men, Kitty Pryde, hiding in hindsight pretty blatant lesbian flirting from the Comics Code Authority and telling Rogue you think you might be gay by Sigrid Ellis, editor of Apex Magazine, the Queers Dig Timelords and Chicks Dig Comics anthologies as well as Image Comics' Pretty Deadly.
Bonobo, inspired by beautiful hip-hop, London scenes, and a tumble dryer
From the rather common "skate punk into alternative music" origins to a bedroom producer who signed with Ninja Tune, Bonobo, the stage name for Simon Green, has continued to change musically. From the lone musician who made sample-based music, he has expanded into working with field recordings, studio musicians, and live shows where the band took a four bar drum break transformed it into a seven minute epic drum-sax solo battle, to which the crowd tried to clap along. You can see him live tomorrow at the Alexandra Palace in London in a special Boiler Room session, but until then, there's plenty more to see, hear and read. [more inside]
Death of an Expert Crime Writer
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL, best known as crime writer P.D. James, died today at the age of 94.
"Oops I Was Racist, Black Guy Come Here."
Racism Insurance Coverage for White Privilege is a clever short promoting the upcoming Sundance favorite Dear White People.
"The Little Big Man of the London underworld"
RIP 'Mad' Frankie Fraser aka The Dentist, ex enforcer for the Richardson gang and declared Britain's 'most dangerous man' by two Home Secretaries, spending 42 years in prison. In his later years he found work as an after dinner speaker, television personality and tour guide (last year he received an Asbo after an argument in his old people's home over someone sitting in his favourite chair)
Goodbye Turducken
The Nameless Turkey from a dimension beyond that which mortals can comprehend, which brings madness to all who gaze upon its unholy visage.
Thanksgiving Travel? Vermont Turkeys Used To Walk To Boston
"Turkey drives" were an autumnal tradition from the 1800s to the early 1900s, and involved the overland strolling of flocks of turkeys from all corners of Vermont to their destination — and demise — in Boston.
Now is the time to engage.
Dear White Allies: Stop Unfriending Other White People Over Ferguson. "...Please try and remember how USEFUL you could be should you decide to be brave enough to speak up to the folks more likely to hear YOU than me." [more inside]
Honey, let's us preserve the moment in pictures!
When FDR moved Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving and Black Friday not just American anymore!
Retailers prepare as Black Friday goes global. And even the UK is getting more and more into the feel of a Thanksgiving meal. Wow, even Denmark is joining the fray too!
"the family is the unit of cultural preservation."
Top 10 Martin Gardner Physics Stumpers
The list to follow is offered purely in a spirit of fun and education, and is not intended to be definitive. It concerns only the most basic physics concepts, and nothing electronic.
No answers are offered. [more inside]
Phillip Hughes, 1988-2014
"He was a fun-loving, care-free sort of see-ball, hit-ball guy with a cheeky grin" ... "We would have late-night coffees and he would just be in awe of the fact he was playing for Australia.... He would just say 'I'm going to go out there and smash it bro'. That was how he would talk. He would not think about it. He would just go out there and whack the ball. He was just positive all the time, he never moaned or complained.Australian test cricketer Phillip Hughes has died in hospital two days after being hit by a bouncer during a match between South Australia and New South Wales in Sydney. [Warning: graphic images.] [more inside]
Eckerd College paper schools it's college president on sexual assault
President of Eckerd college Donald Eastman III wrote a letter to the students about preventing sexual assault. His recommendation? Less alcohol and less casual sex. The college's student paper, The Current, responds in a civil, well spoken and cogent rebuttal.
DIY Diagnosis: How an Extreme Athlete Uncovered Her Genetic Flaw
She started by diving into PubMed—an online search engine for biomedical papers—hunting down everything she could on Charcot-Marie-Tooth. She hoped that her brief fling with a scientific education would carry her through. But with pre-med knowledge that had been gathering dust for 30 years and no formal training in genetics, Kim quickly ran head first into a wall of unfamiliar concepts and impenetrable jargon. “It was like reading Chinese,” she says.
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