December 29, 2013
Revitalizing lies to perpetuate your disguise
Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours.
Back at the beginning of 2010, Peter Gabriel released Scratch My Back, an album of covers of various artists. He had hoped those same artists would, in turn, cover songs he had written. Well, it didn't all come together as smoothly as he had planned, and not all the artists participated, but he's finally released And I'll Scratch Yours. NPR has a limited time preview of both albums running right now. [more inside]
"To my friends, everything; to my enemies, the law."
When he was arrested in Siberia in 2003, billionaire oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was "the Bad Bad Leroy Brown of Russia...In a nation of mobsters, he is king, a stone-cold ruthless genius." [more inside]
It all started in Washington Square...
The Coen Brothers latest film "Inside Llewyn Davis" is fictional, but it aims to portray the very specific time and place of the Greenwich Village Folk scene in the early 60's. Reviewers have already noted the similarities between the movies characters and some real life counterparts, starting with Llewyn Davis himself and legendary folk singer Dave Van Ronk. [more inside]
The Dark Enlightenment
As the term suggests, the Dark Enlightenment is an ideological analysis of modern democracy that harshly rejects the vision of the 18th century European Enlightenment—a period punctuated by the development of empirical science, the rise of humanist values and the first outburst of revolutionary democratic reform. In contrast, the Dark Enlightenment advocates an autocratic and neo-monarchical society. Its belief system is unapologetically reactionary, almost feudal.
The many bloggers who constitute the movement style themselves as “Dark Lords of the Sith,” self-described fearless truth-tellers, who—mixing their cinematic metaphors—offer Matrix-evocative “red pills” of awakening in the form of sulfurous conclusions about the state of the world. Indeed, questioning the prevailing Western narrative is typically a Dark Enlightenment writer’s modus operandi, skewering the values of the liberal establishment. [more inside]
The many bloggers who constitute the movement style themselves as “Dark Lords of the Sith,” self-described fearless truth-tellers, who—mixing their cinematic metaphors—offer Matrix-evocative “red pills” of awakening in the form of sulfurous conclusions about the state of the world. Indeed, questioning the prevailing Western narrative is typically a Dark Enlightenment writer’s modus operandi, skewering the values of the liberal establishment. [more inside]
One Weird Old Trick to Undermine the Patriarchy
"Bilbo, it turns out, makes a terrific heroine. She’s tough, resourceful, humble, funny, and uses her wits to make off with a spectacular piece of jewelry. Perhaps most importantly, she never makes an issue of her gender—and neither does anyone else."
Catch Me If You Can: Real Estate Edition
Ryan Mullen was on the run for over 14 years. Then, a professional skip tracer named Michelle Gomez got on the case.
Project Lucidity
HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA, GAZING AT YOU WITH THAT BUSTER KEATON LOOK
HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA, RISING FROM THEIR SLUMBER, CLAWING UP THROUGH THE COLD MOIST EARTH, LICKING THEIR FANGS, READY TO USE THAT GROUPON
Psybrid Theory
What you didn't realize you needed: Psybrid Theory. "Linkin Park’s entire first album, gangnamfied for your listening pleasure!" [Youtube playlist] (via)
Proof of Heaven? Hold off on that QED.
Dr. Eben Alexander's book Proof of Heaven has a complex backstory. One that's not very heavenly. [more inside]
The shameless pursuit of discounts
Old words never die; they just wend their way to their just deserts.
12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms. We generally know what the idioms we use every day mean, but do we give much thought to the individual words that make them up, or why we rarely, if ever, see some of them out of that context? Maybe they're just plain outdated. [more inside]
American Recipe
You may not know his name but you will certainly know his work: Morris Cassanova (aka Mr Chicken) designs and makes signs for most of the fried chicken shops in the UK. Meet Mr. Chicken
Which dreamcatchers?
The Daily Routines of Famous Writers
“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” The daily routines of famous writers. [more inside]
Remembering Rudolph and his creator, Robert L May
Robert L May was a bit of an outcast as a child. He skipped a few grades and was younger and smaller than his classmates.
Robert L May dreamed of writing the great American novel, but instead, became a catalog writer at Montgomery Ward in Chicago. It was here in 1939 that he wrote Rudolph and 2 million copies were made and distributed to children.
The company later gave Robert L May the rights to the story.[NPR audio story]
See and hear the original sketches and story read by his daughter. [more inside]
Robert L May dreamed of writing the great American novel, but instead, became a catalog writer at Montgomery Ward in Chicago. It was here in 1939 that he wrote Rudolph and 2 million copies were made and distributed to children.
The company later gave Robert L May the rights to the story.[NPR audio story]
See and hear the original sketches and story read by his daughter. [more inside]
Here Be Duck Trees
The old man looked deep into him. "Mr. Feinberg, I have some advice,"
But really, Feinberg picked up the phone that day for the same reason Americans yield to their instinct to give money to those felled by spectacularly unkind fates: He felt helpless but wanted to help, and his version of helping was to volunteer for one of the worst jobs in the world. Hagel placed a call to Attorney General John Ashcroft, and after a series of backroom discussions, Ashcroft appointed Feinberg the special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, working pro bono, as he almost always does on behalf of the dead. That work and the work that has followed it, his growing collection of aftermaths, have changed him. He has become smarter, humbler, more acute, more uniquely fitted to his task. Virginia Tech, the Deepwater Horizon, Newtown, Boston—he managed each of those horrors, and each was managed better because of what he has learned. But all of them were shaped, because he was shaped, by September 11.Kenneth Feinberg: The Nation's Leading Expert in Picking up the Pieces [more inside]
The Myth of the Medieval Repression of Science
In the academic sphere, at least, the "Conflict Thesis" of a historical war between science and theology has been long since overturned. It is very odd that so many of my fellow atheists cling so desperately to a long-dead position that was only ever upheld by amateur Nineteenth Century polemicists and not the careful research of recent, objective, peer-reviewed historians. This is strange behavior for people who like to label themselves "rationalists".-- The Dark Age Myth: An Atheist Reviews “God’s Philosophers”
21st century birdwatching
Drone Survival Guide is a downloadable poster of robotic birds. It's also available on mirrored paper for those in harm's way.
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