April 26, 2009

Morality and context.

How wrong is it to use a kitten for personal sexual pleasure? Depends on whether you've washed your hands.
posted by limon at 9:02 PM PST - 96 comments

Capitalism is evil, give me money so I can protest it.

I STEAL YOUR MONEY. Not for the easily-color-blinded. Plenty of good insane here. Click the big green X and go exploring. TORMENT is particularly busy.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:58 PM PST - 36 comments

Amanda Palmer covers Neutral Milk Hotel

Amanda Palmer, of Dresden Dolls fame, returns to her high school in Lexington, MA to assist with an original, student-written play. Running May 7-9th at Lexington High School, the play, entitled "With The Needle That Sings in Her Heart", is inspired by (and features live music from) Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and is about "Anne Frank as imagined by an artist, and about how Anne uses her imagination and fantasy-mind to escape the horrors she experiences in a death camp." [more inside]
posted by The Pusher Robot at 7:18 PM PST - 41 comments

"Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might have been."

The Dzrtgrls explore mines, ghost towns, rockhounding spots, petroglyphs, geocaching and metal detecting sites, and take lots of great pictures in the process.
posted by rollbiz at 6:55 PM PST - 12 comments

Law, Loneliness, Accomplishment and Courage

Maira Kalman, illustrator, author, artist, and designer, visited the United States Supreme Court. She recounts her experience and shares her reflections in this wonderfully illustrated blog.
posted by New Frontier at 6:10 PM PST - 9 comments

A holiday we will go!

Welcome to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located to the right side of India, where you can take a ride on an Elephant on the Beach, swim with the local Fauna, and snorkel or scuba dive to your merriment. [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy at 6:00 PM PST - 10 comments

Filling me up with the shivers

Violin. Them Heavy People. Egypt. The Kate Bush 1979 Xmas Special (QLYT)
posted by fire&wings at 5:26 PM PST - 21 comments

Elephant Diary, Day One: Rolled in mud. Considered meaning of life.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick runs an orphanage in Kenya. For elephants. The orphanage has been the focus of a report on 60 Minutes and a special called "The Elephant Diaries" on BBC1. At the orphanage, elephants are taught skills they will need to know in the wild, including how to play football.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:24 PM PST - 11 comments

I love chicken. Chickeny chicken chicken.

My gut reaction was that the story--although a legitimate consumer complaint—seemed to reinforce a cultural stereotype about Black people and chicken. I know for a fact that no one on our staff meant for that to be the point of the story, but the fear that we would be accused of this sounded an alarm to me. It’s sad that I even had to worry about this.
Last week a couple of Popeye's restaurants in Rochester ran out of chicken. And local ABC affiliate WHAM decided to run a story. Some people complained, and WHAM responded. Warning: Second link contains some idiocy.
posted by hifiparasol at 4:28 PM PST - 135 comments

Iambic Petameter

Look at this lovely hamster.
posted by william_boot at 4:11 PM PST - 38 comments

A New Thaw for Russia?

The global financial crisis has severely affected the Russian economy. The unstable situation in the country has contributed to a growing rift between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev. As increasing numbers of Russians become disillusioned with Putin's promise of comfort and security in exchange for authoritarianism, Medvedev has shown some willingness to take the country in a more liberal direction. Some analysts, however, remain unconvinced.
posted by nasreddin at 4:01 PM PST - 25 comments

Enlightenment Therapy

Enlightenment Therapy: How a Zen master found the light (again) on the analyst’s couch. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 2:24 PM PST - 39 comments

Vintage Postcards and Ephemera

Moody's Collectibles sells vintage postcards, but they also make available a huge catalogue of their stock. You can browse geographically by US State, by country, and by topic. Or, you can search for anything from alligators to the California Zephyr. They also have a blog. [more inside]
posted by Rumple at 2:23 PM PST - 8 comments

Minimums No Longer Mandatory?

Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to repeal mandatory minimum sentences associated with drug offenses. If passed, the federal government would join eighteen other states in abandoning the "tough on crime" stance of the 1980's when it comes to drug offenders. State reforms include including New York's legislative repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, Michigan's repeal of 650 lifer sentencing, North Dakota's repeal of one-year mandatory minimum sentences for first-time drug offenders, Arizona's Proposition 200, which required probation and treatment for nonviolent drug offenders, Louisiana's decision to restore eligibility for parole and probation to nonviolent offenders, and the Kansas Sentencing Commission's recommendation for mandatory treatment for nonviolent offenders. [more inside]
posted by Law Talkin' Guy at 1:03 PM PST - 46 comments

Male mental illness in History

No matter their approach, the typical French physician who accepted the notion of male hysteria continued to think that its victims were in some way sexually abnormal: "Thus, despite Charcot's innovative work, the male victim of hysteria in late-nineteenth century French medical imagination was still frequently envisioned as an effeminate heterosexual, an overt homosexual, or a physical or emotional hermaphrodite." If not different sexually, male hysterics were said to be different in other ways, such as race or nationality, among whom African, African-American, south Asian, Arab, or Eastern European Jewish men predominated. Outside of France, other methods of denial appeared, such as the suggestion that male hysteria was restricted to Frenchmen. The medical literature of the time is full of evasions and denials and contradictions of the truths that Charcot had quite obviously demonstrated.
- Macho Misery, an extensive and interesting review of Hysterical Men: The Hidden History of Male Nervous Illness. [more inside]
posted by Kattullus at 9:37 AM PST - 9 comments

America: Semi-Godly, Individualist Consumers

Do you have good or bad memories of prom? Maybe you wish you would have gone to prom in a sweet ride or without your embarrassing brother. Maybe you just had problems getting a date. Whatever it is "prom is a notoriously awkward situation." Maybe you had a reason to stay home from prom. Whatever your reason, not going to prom is considered unamerican. Of course dancing at prom may make you ungodly(pdf). If you do decide to go to prom do remember that the twirlability is the most important thing. Finally, don't forget prom is All About You
posted by aetg at 7:47 AM PST - 137 comments

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