December 3, 2013
Paul Crouch is Dead.
TBN head Paul Crouch died Saturday, November 30 at 79. Under Crouch, TBN grew to “84 satellite channels and over 18,000 television and cable affiliates around the world.” But he was a controversial figure, even among televangelists. (Previously on Metafilter, [via Slacktivist])
The achilles heel of the Occupy movement: Special Snowflake-ness?
RAWStory.com reports on a study published by Psychology Today that claims the reason the OWS movement has not gained more traction within the Democratic Party (as compared to the rapid growth of the Tea Party on the other side) is that liberally-minded people see themselves more as a unique collection of beliefs that happen to be joining with other individuals, where conservatives see themselves more as part of a homogenous group of people with similar beliefs.
Krampus: Saint Nicholas' Dark Companion
While Saint Nicholas may bring gifts to good boys and girls, ancient folklore in Europe's Alpine region also tells of Krampus, a frightening beast-like creature who emerges during the Yule season, looking for naughty children to punish in horrible ways -- or possibly to drag back to his lair in a sack. [more inside]
Optigain
The Optigan (previously) was a home organ introduced by Mattel in the 70's which enjoyed modest success as a home organ and proved popular with musicians for its easily tweaked sound (which came on pre-recorded optical such as those used for theatrical movies) and as a cheap alternative to the Mellotron. [more inside]
Ida Maria performs 69 through a peephole.
I’ve Created a Muenster
The Bob's Burgers Experiment is a blog that documents one guy's ongoing attempt to devise recipes for and cook every pun-laden Burger of the Day featured on the show.
Papyralysis
Are paper books becoming obsolete in the digital age, or poised to lead a new cultural renaissance? [more inside]
"Abysmally poor judges of their true incapacitation from sleep loss"
Black hi hats
Drummer Dave Black was a long time educator in drum set education. Here he shows that a drummer can express himself completely only using one instrument, in this case the the hi hat.
It's time for another Santastic release
It's not the holidays until DJBC releases another Santastic mash-up compilation. Yes, we have covered these compilations in the past.
Check, please
There’s nothing better than spending a night out to dinner at one of your favorite restaurants, reveling in the food and the service, and those quality after-dinner mints in the little wrappers. Until you run into one of these people: The 44 Worst People in Every Restaurant
tipsforjesus- Doing the Lord's work, one tip at a time.
A bit more than the standard 20% A group of "football fans" have been spreading a bit of joy... (with Notre Dame playing the Grinch)
Kinanaskomitin
Combining the voices of many struggles, peoples and nations, from LA to Chicago, Detroit to New Brunswick, Germany to Palestine, Phoenix to Greece, Nəxʷsƛ̕áy̕əm̕ , Tsalagi and Six Nations, to Anishinaabe and Mi’kmaq, and everywhere in between, the #NationHood Mixtape brings together an amazing array of hip-hop, spoken word, beats, ideas and sounds from artists across the world. [more inside]
Print What You Like and Print Friendly: optimize websites for printing
Print What You Like and Print Friendly are two similar free web services that address the same desire: remove unwanted elements from webpages before you print them or save them as a PDF. Additionally, both sites include bookmarklets, as well as extensions/addons (PWYL: Chrome; PF: Chrome, Firefox). [more inside]
Westeros and beyond
Jonathan Roberts is a fantasy mapmaker, who produced the maps for the official Game of Thrones atlas. He talks about mapmaking to Wired here. He also has a website with lots of nifty maps, as well as tips on making your own.
Temporary Secretary
In 1961, when Brian Epstein began negotiating a management contract with the Beatles, he employed Freda Kelly as his secretary. She remained within the group's inner circle until their breakup and beyond. The breakup of the Beatles was publicly acknowledged by McCartney in a 1969 interview. Kelly, who by this stage had a husband and was expecting her first child, was relieved. She felt ready to move on with her life. But although she stopped working for the band officially in 1972, she continued to reply to fans' letters for another three years every night at home after dinner, until each one had been answered. "You can't just close a fanclub overnight," she says. Good Ol' Freda: The Beatles' secretary tells her story
What 100 years of dog breeding looks like
Just how much have dog breeds changed in the past hundred years? A lot (and for the worst). [more inside]
El Empleo / The Employment
I don't know French. What about Hebrew?
–Can you tell us in 25 seconds a synopsis of your new picture?
–Uh, in 25 seconds? Yes, it's a picture, it's a drama about um human emotion in the United States, it deals with the tragedy of divorce as it relates to the child and those who have to suffer continually from the effects of an unhappy home.
–Sounds like a very serious picture.
–Yes. It is.
–There's no comedy in it whatsoever?
–No, I try and keep as much comedy out of my films as possible.
A 40-minute Woody Allen from 1971 promoting Bananas. He does not answer a single question truthfully. via
–Uh, in 25 seconds? Yes, it's a picture, it's a drama about um human emotion in the United States, it deals with the tragedy of divorce as it relates to the child and those who have to suffer continually from the effects of an unhappy home.
–Sounds like a very serious picture.
–Yes. It is.
–There's no comedy in it whatsoever?
–No, I try and keep as much comedy out of my films as possible.
A 40-minute Woody Allen from 1971 promoting Bananas. He does not answer a single question truthfully. via
Let Me Live That Fantasy
It's December which means it's that time of the year; DJ Earworm Mashup - United State of Pop 2013 (Living the Fantasy) is up. [more inside]
full stop
When did our plainest punctuation mark become so aggressive? (New Republic) “In the world of texting and IMing … the default is to end just by stopping, with no punctuation mark at all,” Liberman wrote me. “In that situation, choosing to add a period also adds meaning because the reader(s) need to figure out why you did it. And what they infer, plausibly enough, is something like ‘This is final, this is the end of the discussion or at least the end of what I have to contribute to it.’”
Bias for Action
I am working at the new Amazon fulfillment center in Haslet, Texas as a seasonal, part-time picker. It is winter. We aren’t workers here: we are associates. It is a job that I can do hung-over and high and I can make just enough money here to technically have my own apartment, a place to store all my empty beer cans and all my crumpled Taco Cabana wrappers and all my stacks of shitty sci-fi novels. - Fulfillment
We just can't roast enough chickens fast enough
Judy Rodgers, whose deceptively simple and extraordinarily delicious roast chicken made San Francisco's Zuni Cafe famous, has died. She was 57 and had been suffering from cancer for more than a year. [more inside]
Look up to the sky and say it
Subway: Let that bread smell soak into your clothes
Honest Slogans is graphic designer Clif Dickens' take on popular brands and what their slogans really should be. Highlights: Sperry ("You probably haven't even been on a boat"), Web MD ("Convince yourself that you have a terminal illness"), Netflix ("Spend more time searching than actually watching"), and Ticketmaster ("Yeah ... we're going to charge you whatever we want").
Last month, Roger Moore sold his luxury caravan in Malta.
As the Jimmy Saville abuse scandal surfaced, an old internet rumour resurfaced with it in the form of a transcript (NB very NSFW text) purporting to be an out-take from a 1999 episode of Have I Got News For You in which Saville featured. But who was behind it and why did it endure? (previously) [more inside]
Where No One Has Tugged Before
The New Statesmen Moustache the question.
Why Movember isn't all it's cracked up to be "One of the Movember mantras is: “Real men, growing real moustaches, talking about real issues”. The slogan is as misguided as its campaign: Movember is divisive, gender normative, racist and ineffective against some very real health issues." [more inside]
Bad sex, or good sex written badly? With added cheese.
In the UK Guardian: Eight passages of raunchy prose are in contention for Literary Review's bad sex in fiction award. [some passages are ikky to read] [more inside]
High-speed rail in unlikely places
High-speed rail projects may be struggling in California and facing increased opposition in the UK, but they have gotten a boost in two unlikely countries. In Iceland, a country which currently has no working railways, a plan to build a high-speed rail line from Keflavík airport to downtown Reykjavík, using either conventional HSR or maglev technology, is being explored. Meanwhile in Australia, the conservative federal government has committed to safeguarding a corridor for a Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney-Brisbane high-speed rail network, a project commenced by the previous Labor minority government after pressure from the Greens. [more inside]
Repent Replenish Repeat
"‘The gene does not lead,’ she says. ‘It follows.’"
Get Busy
“Storm from a clear sky”
Researchers have located a sunken World War II Imperial Japanese submarine on the ocean floor off the coast of Hawaii. [more inside]
Great selfie. Not a trace of duckface
Eagle steals a camera that was set up to film crocodiles, flies off with it and transports it over 100 kilometers. The motion-sensitive camera was triggered three times, so we get to see the young sea-eagle fly away with it, setting it down and pecking at it. The camera was found and recovered through sheer luck. The footage is worth seeing.
Gravity Visualized
Dan Burns explains his space-time warping demo at a PTSOS workshop at Los Gatos High School, on March 10, 2012. [more inside]
R.I.P. Junior Murvin
The gentle genius behind Police And Thieves. So often delivered live by The Clash. "You should hear Junior Murvin singing this song... He can sign it as high as the roof!" A sweet, sweet voice, now quiet.
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