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December 7, 2008
Sadie tells Maurice, "You’re a schmuck! You always were a schmuck and you always will be a schmuck! You look, act and dress like a schmuck! You’ll be a schmuck until the day you die! And if they ran a world-wide competition for schmucks, you would be the world’s second biggest schmuck!" "Why only second place?" Maurice asks. "Because you’re a schmuck!" Sadie screams.
Some Jewish humor.
posted by serazin at 11:14 PM PST - 27 comments
Never had an Indian mom? You poor, deprived wretch! Meet
Manjula.
She'll be happy to teach you to make
Naan,
Rotis,
Pani Puri,
Vegetable Pakoras,
Paneer,
Raita,
Navattran Korma,
Palak Paneer,
Pulav,
Malai Kofta,
Aloo Gobi,
Chana Masala,
Hari Chutney,
Ras Malai,
Gajar ka Halwa and
much more! I can... almost... smell her kitchen. *sigh*
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:18 PM PST - 50 comments
As those of you on the wrong email lists can probably guess, Snopes is overflowing with
gang initiation rumors. What you may not know is that the New Jersey police
recently arrested someone spreading those stories for "causing false public alarm."
[more inside]
posted by tkolar at 9:53 PM PST - 23 comments
The coming memristor revolution in electronics and how it works. The newly created memristor, only the fourth fundamental fundamental type of passive circuit element, has the promise of computing advances both prosaic (faster, cheaper and "bigger" flash drives) and momentous (relatively effortless mimicry of brain cells and their activity). This is the story of the memristor's genesis, told by R. Stanley Williams, the leader of the team that created the device.
[more inside]
posted by NortonDC at 7:54 PM PST - 43 comments
The Isleños are
said to be a dying traditional American subculture.
Descendants of Canary Island immigrants of Louisiana, the name Isleños was given to them to distinguish them from Spanish mainlanders, known as "peninsulares." But in Louisiana, the name evolved from a category to an identity
. For a long time they were one of those rare subcultures that found a way to maintain a living tradition as the world around them modernised by carving out a livelihood as crabbers and 'shrimpers'.
Then Katrina hit and the wetlands, which were central to the Isleños identity, essentially dissapeared. Despite the blow to their economy, they still
have their songs and
annual fiestas, evidence of a strong culture which binds their community together, and their
rebuilding following Katrina demonstrated how strong that sense of identity and culture can be. So perhaps the Isleños shouldn't be written off just yet, then. After all, as Isleño Irvan Perez says, "
This is home. Where else would we go?"
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:12 PM PST - 7 comments
Simply Scripts is a repository of screenplays. Sort of a collection of links to scripts hosted on other sites (like official studio or screenwriter sites). There's some neat stuff there. For instance, I found a Coen brothers script (
pdf), based on a James Dickey novel, I'd never heard of before.
posted by Manhasset at 6:23 PM PST - 14 comments
Starting on Thursday Dec 4, 2008, Wikimedia Commons will witness a massive upload of new images. We are anticipating about 100,000 files from a donation from the German Federal Archive. These images are mostly related to the history of Germany (including the German Democratic Republic) and are part of a cooperation between Wikimedia Germany and the Federal Archive...
posted by jim in austin at 1:17 PM PST - 16 comments
A really interesting commentary from Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather, about how he came to write the book and how that book became one of the most iconic films in history. The post includes previously unseen (and illuminating) photos of the cast and the making of the film.
posted by theantikitty at 9:02 AM PST - 24 comments
The economic mess is squeezing everyone but many college students are really feeling it.
Syracuse University has made an emergency appeal for aid for 400 current students who may not be able to return for the spring semester without an infusion of cash;
Harvard University lost an incredible 22 percent of its very fat endowment but is trying to raise money through a
$600 million bond issue.
[more inside]
posted by etaoin at 8:16 AM PST - 39 comments
"The plans for Victory City have evolved over a period of 38 years, nurtured by the vision and dedication of Victory City's inventor,
Orville Simpson II [
no relation]. Mr. Simpson conceived of the general idea of Victory City in 1936, when he was only 13 years old. Afraid of being ridiculed, Mr. Simpson kept his ideas about designing and building the City of the Future to himself … a secret vision he held in his mind... It wasn't until 1960 — after he had embarked on a lucrative career in real estate investing and apartment building management — that Mr. Simpson decided to make his ideas about Victory City known to the general public."
posted by Miko at 6:26 AM PST - 35 comments
