December 29, 2010
"Would you like me to hold a trial and then hang them?"
"Cablegate Comix" is a series of comics "recounting true stories that came to light on November 28, 2010 — when WikiLeaks published confidential documents of detailed correspondences between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world." 1, 2, 3, 4 [more inside]
Late night images of women
In My Darkest Hour There are a number of songs that evoke a similar image... these three share a kinship.
Arlo's song is his alone. Billy Joel's "Light as Breeze" was written by L. Cohen.
And, the final entry is L. Cohen's , which reverses the image a bit...and then turns it around again..."Suzanne"
It's got a good beat and you can dance to it, finally.
Vadrum drums over some familiar classics ... Mozart's overture to The Marriage of Figaro (original). The William Tell overture (original). Rossini's overture to The Barber of Seville — you'll recognize it at 1:20 (original). Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca" a.k.a. "Turkish March," from Piano Sonata No. 11, K. 331 (original). [more inside]
TXTNG & DRIVNG... IT CAN WAIT
What it says on the tin.
Muppets With People Eyes. [SLTumblr]
Look at (Vintage London) Life
IN Gear, swinging London of 1960s and SOHO bohemian Coffee Bars of London, 1959. These are a few of the 500+ vintage documentary shorts called "Look at Life" that ran at the Odeon and Gaumont cinemas during the 50s and 60s. (via Dangerous Minds) [more inside]
What a Face
Starting by fighting for her own children's rights, she ends up in government implementing the UN Convention on Disability Rights.
Wherein we witness a public brawl about journalism, privacy, and ethics
Journalistic flamewar erupts over secret chat logs. It's a disagreement between Salon's Glenn Greenwald and Wired.com's Kevin Poulsen over the proper use of IM chat logs between Bradley Manning and Adrian Lamo. Revelant links within. [more inside]
Being Canadian
What does it mean to be Canadian? It isn't about an ethnicity, a religion, a language, or a shared heritage or history. From CBC's Ideas comes the two-part radio documentary, Being Canadian. "From east to west, public intellectuals and private citizens (both new and old Canadians), tell film-maker Sun-Kyung (Sunny) Yi about the concerns, the questions, and the challenges of living together in a multicultural and diverse society." It is also the story of how and why a Korean family became Canadian, first in the law, and then in their hearts.
Scott Pilgrim: The Last Airbender
The Dead Keep It
The division of post-WWII Berlin reached everywhere in the city, even underground, sealing stations throughout the long decades of the Cold War. They were the first “ghost stations”, which can now be found everywhere: the Paris Metro (previously), Los Angeles, the London Underground, New York City, and the aforementioned Berlin, remaining as entombed time capsules that are passed by millions every day.
The Loophole Artist
Jonathan Blattmachr, one of the country's leading estates and trusts experts, feels that helping his clients reduce their tax liability helps the IRS close loopholes that he and his colleagues use. As with most attorneys, there are some clients who weren't happy with his work, but Mr. Blattmachr pushes on with his efforts.
Today, we're going to blow up a creeper.
A Minecraft Rube Goldberg Machine. Some of the tricks use include:
Controlling Water with Redstone
TNT Cannons
Holding up sand with torches.
Star Light, Star White II
ELLE does it again. Indian actress and former "Miss World" Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is said to be considering legal action after becoming the most recent victim (previously on MeFi) of the magazine's skin-lightening addiction. In India color is strongly associated with caste, and lightening is a multimillion dollar industry. [more inside]
Harry Potter beheaded on QI christmas special
"You'll live on in films forever!" Daniel Radcliffe beheaded on QI christmas special (SLYT)
Feel like nobody really cares whether you live or die these days? Well, you might be on to something...
The Empathy Deficit: "A recent study finds a decline in empathy among young people in the U.S." In fact, the report concludes "empathy levels have been declining over the past 30 years." Podcast on this topic here.
Clifford Doerksen
19th-century newspaper ads for patented stomach cures and digestive aids [...] foregrounded mince pie as the K2 of digestive summits. But for every published warning on the dangers of mince, the newspapers published a poem, essay, or editorial praising it as a great symbol of American cultural heritage or a nostalgic reminder of mother love and better times bygone—or even, as the State of Columbia, South Carolina, asserted in 1901, a beneficial Darwinian instrument that had "thinned out the weak ones" among the pioneering generations.So wrote Cliff Doerksen in his wonderful, James Beard award-winning article Mince Pie: The Real American Pie. Doerksen not only gives the history of this once most American of foods, he also makes two mince pies from 19th Century recipes to see if they are indeed all that. This is but one of many great articles Doerksen wrote for The Chicago Reader in recent years (links to a selection below the cut). Sadly, Cliff Doerksen passed at the age of 47 just before Christmas. [more inside]
...leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the Dark Side
Meet the woman without fear. Growing up as a Buddhist, I was taught a lot about fearlessness and conquering fear (previously). But being fearless may not be all it's cracked up to be. [more inside]
Newsflash: Terrorism existed before 9/11
Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam!
In 1996 a film was released that combined the animated Looney Tunes with the reality based basketball star Michael Jordan. That film was called Space Jam. Incredibly, Warner Brothers still maintains the movie's website, which is a snapshot of web design from the time period. [more inside]
Giving 'em the gears.
There's weird taxidermy, weirder taxidermy, and weirdest taxidermy. There's even weird taxidermy auctions. But, all in all, these animals are the same old stuff. Lisa Black however has come up with a new spin on an old concept - steampunk taxidermy. Some images may be NSFW.
To Pixar, with love.
A video montage tribute to Pixar Animation Studios by video mash-up maker and film-lover Leandro Copperfield. [more inside]
Boston Big Picture 2010 in Photos
The processes that process food before food becomes processed food
Various harvesting machines: Plum. Cucumber. Potato. Chicken. Green bean. Cherry. Asparagus. Tree. Sugarcane. Tomato. Coal. Carrot (another view.) Grape. Onion. Pecan. Watermelon. Chestnut.
Nollywood
Nigeria's film industry produces 50 films a week. "Nigerian films are as popular abroad as they are at home. Ivorian rebels in the bush stop fighting when a shipment of DVDs arrives from Lagos. Zambian mothers say their children talk with accents learnt from Nigerian television. When the president of Sierra Leone asked Genevieve Nnaji, a Lagosian screen goddess, to join him on the campaign trail he attracted record crowds at rallies. Millions of Africans watch Nigerian films every day, many more than see American fare. And yet Africans have mixed feelings about Nollywood."
So that recession is over - really?
According to The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the US recession which started in December 2007 actually ended in June 2009.
But unemployment (not to be confused with under-employment), always considered to be a lagging indicator, has continued to rise. [more inside]
Tuck your children in and beatbox them to sleep.
Dream Thread
The book “Traumgedanken” (“Thoughts about dreams”) contains a collection of literary, philosophical, psychological and scientifical texts which provide an insight into different dream theories. To ease the access to the elusive topic, the book is designed as a model of a dream about dreaming. Analogue to a dream, where pieces of reality are assembled to build a story, it brings different text excerpts together. They are connected by threads which tie in with certain key words.
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