November 3, 2013
The Cry of Jazz
"Edward Bland’s 1959 documentary The Cry of Jazz is one of the most remarkable films I’ve ever seen. An early statement of the black nationalism that would become famous in the late 60s, Bland argues in this 30 minute film that only African-Americans have the soul and history to play jazz and that whites need to understand their inferiority in the genre is precisely because of their racist history. It’s an amazing film." -- Apart from articulating a debate that's perhaps as old as jazz itself, The Cry of Jazz also is the earliest recorded appearance of Sun Ra and his Arkestra.
Chess 2: The Chessening.
Chess 2 - How a street fightin' man fixed the world's most famous game. The rules are available here for free.
"The Republic of the Fittest"
Little Libertarians on the prairie. Book research by Christine Woodside suggests that Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter, novelist Rose Wilder Lane, secretly ghostwrote the Little House books as an anti-New Deal fable, according to family journals and letters. Lane was also a friend of Ayn Rand and may have coined the term "libertarian." Tactical omissions in the massively popular frontier history of self-reliance include the land grant that gave 160 acres for a mere filing fee; the loss of their first homestead after borrowing money to save it, and Laura's blind sister receiving education funding from the territorial government (and not from Laura's job as a teacher).
Social Network Analysis Collaboration Knowledge Service (or, SNACKS)
Real heroines reimagined as Disney Princesses
There was the world inside the plane and the world outside it
Flying on Air Force One the day Kennedy died: "In the small aft cabin, behind the bedroom, Sergeant Ayres is removing two rows of seats to make room for a casket. ... Johnson then asks [Robert] Kennedy where he should take the oath of office and what its exact words are. The questions are met with silence before Kennedy replies that he will find out and call back. He hangs up." Esquire [more inside]
Deep Tranquil Sea
If you tuned in to the live feeds of the Okeanos Explorer dives this past summer, you might really enjoy their highlights video.
(links back to the same address as the original post but I thought the new material was worth it)
The Threshold of Masculinity
Facial hair on men. Point: "The beard implies a monastic indifference to worldly cares, a hermetic withdrawal from ordinary concerns, and a fixed focus on the higher mysteries, whether divine, philosophical, or the split-finger fastball." Counterpoint: "Enough. It's time we stop congratulating these men for simply presenting a secondary sexual characteristic with no accompanying display of follicular craft or even basic self-control."
Danse Macabre
Danse Macabre. "For a period of time, while we believe it to be perfectly still, lifeless flesh responds, stirs and contorts in a final macabre ballet. Are these spasms merely erratic motions or do they echo the chaotic twists and turns of a past life?" [NSFW, SLV, Via]
Open Sesame!
You live in Haight Ashbury. You'd love to install a garage in your historic home but there are architectural restrictions against doing so. Well, with the right group of guys, there are ways around it.
The herbalist's new clothes?
A new study has identified product substitution and contamination in the herbal supplement industry on a massive scale. As the New York Times reports, one-third of the US herbal supplements tested by researchers had no trace of the advertised herb in the product, and many products were entirely composed of fillers such as rice, or contained dangerous contaminants and allergens. Only two of the 12 companies tested exclusively sold products that did what they said on the tin. Pro-supplement organisation the American Botanical Council has questioned the findings, due in part to what it says are flaws in the DNA technology used to identify herbal ingredients.
Miss International Queen 2013
25 of the most beautiful women in the world vied for the crown, Miss International Queen. [more inside]
The First Botnet, 25 Years Ago Today
Is it always awesome working at Google?
"A job at Google. It's career heaven, right? How could a gig at the biggest, most ambitious tech company on the planet possibly be bad? Well, take a look at this Quora thread, which is being used by current and former Google employees to dish the dirt on working for Big G."
Well, I was at the dentist
The latest video for hardcore band FIDLAR, called Cocaine, stars Nick Offerman and his surprising hidden talent. ((Very(very)) NSFW) [more inside]
Apparently there are a lot of video games based on this novel
On Megami Tensei:
Based on the Japanese horror novel series by Aya Nishitani, this one’s about a student computer genius, who’s also the reincarnation of an ancient Japanese deity, who uses his giant clunky 80s mainframe to summon up some horrifying devils. This involves some not-bad animation of a well-endowed teacher’s frilly brassiere heaving up and down as she becomes the conduit for horrifying monsters from another dimension to invade our world. Then giant piles of red goop start crushing students and a big blue hairy devil named Loki fights our student computer genius hero, who fights back with his reincarnated girlfriend and his magic sword and his pet devil animal throughout several alternate universes.let's anime presents: The Top Ten Least essential OVA (anime) of the 80s. [more inside]
Captain Justice
Stop calling the DA "the Government!" it hurts her feelings or something. The defense responds..'Should this Court disagree, and feel inclined to let the parties basically pick their own designations and ban words, then the defense has a few additional suggestions....defense counsel does not wish to be referred to as a "lawyer," or a "defense attorney." Those terms are substantially more prejudicial than probative. See Tenn. R. Evid. 403. Rather, counsel for the Citizen Accused should be referred to primarily as the "Defender of the Innocent." This title seems particularly appropriate, because every Citizen Accused is presumed innocent. Alternatively, counsel would also accept the designation "Guardian of the Realm."'
Secondhand Glow
An examination of how near-ubiquitous internet connectivity has reshaped our public spaces and social mores--and what to do about it:
"It would be unfair to say [a person consulting her smartphone] isn’t engaged in the city; on the contrary, she may be more finely attuned to neighborhood history and happenings than her companions. But her awareness is secondhand: She misses the quirks and cues of the sidewalk ballet, fails to make eye contact, and limits her perception to a claustrophobic one-fifth of normal. Engrossed in the virtual, she really isn’t here with the rest of us."
"Why Scandinavian Prisons Are Superior"
On Scandinavian prisons: why they are superior; what Norwegian high-security prisons are like; about a lower security Norwegian prison.
National Theatre's 50th Birthday Extravaganza
Not a bad cast ... Last night, London's National Theatre staged a two-and-a-half hour show to celebrate its 50th birthday, using extracts from many of the best plays it's put on during that period. Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon, Benedict Cumberpatch, Simon Russell Beale, Ralph Finnes, Helen Mirren, Francis de la Tour, Alan Bennett, Christopher Eccleston, Penelope Wilton, Rory Kinnear, Roger Allam and Anna Maxwell Martin were all among those taking part. The BBC screened 135 minutes of the show live, and it can still be seen on the iPlayer till November 9. The Telegraph and The Guardian joined the applause.
Plot Heroin Lynch / Exposure Tornado Drug / Body scanner Chan
NSA Haiku Generator - "Create a poem out of the NSA search terms that flag you as a potential terrorist!
I'll have a burger and some of those yellow oily things.
The complexities of French Fries. We have the secret history, most outrageous, and the best. Now we've taken all the fries and put them in a fry museum, the newly opened Frietmuseum." Everything you've ever wanted to know about the fry."
The door flew open, in he ran, the tall long-legged Scissors-Man!
Shockheaded Peter (Struwwelpeter, Wikipedia), the classic 19th century German children's book of cautionary tales and grim fates, has been brought to deranged life through simple yet strange animation. [more inside]
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