June 1, 2007
Nightmare In A Jar
Alex cf is a young British artist, fresh off of a series of extremely creepy visualizations of Alice in Wonderland characters. His current project is creating amazing looking HP Lovecraft inspired nightmares in specimen jars, which he is more than happy to build on commission.
Dictatorships do it efficiently
"Dictatorships are not hamstrung by the preferences of voters for, say, a pervasive welfare state," says Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute. Unless we abandon welfare programs, he suggests, the free world might be overwhelmed by the staggering efficiency of free-market totalitarianism. Is it just me, or have conservatives been waxing poetic about the benefits of dictatorship lately?
One more knot gets tied, sort of
New Hampshire approves same-sex unions with bipartisan, if contentious support, recognizing both in- and out-of-state unions and marriages. While New York's Eliot Spitzer follows up on a campaign promise, higher courts in California and Connecticut may make decisions on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage later this year, deciding if a civil union is an adequate legal substitution for marriage.
The Myth of the Rational Voter
Why are American voters reluctant to support free market policies when professional economists have achieved near-consensus? Bryan Caplan of the Cato Institute investigates. (pdf)
you have to synthesize
Government Accountability.
Meet 郑筱萸 (Zhèng Xiăoyú) [WIKI]
Former head of the State Food and Drug Administration of China. Recently the quality of Chinese food and drugs has come under fire. You may have heard of tainted pet food from china killing cats and dogs. You might also have read about antifreeze in cough syrup made with impure Chinese glycerin killing people in other countries. Apparently someone in China cares about government accountability, because on May 29th Zheng Xiaoyu sentenced to death.
Ya, I know. That was two links.
'The story is dark enough, drawn from the plain public records, to send a chill to any heart.'
How the Other Half Lives :: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890)
video profiles--from activists to huggers to outers to excons to the religious ....
People of the Web --very well done short video profiles of interesting people online. Mike Rogers of blogactive is on the front page now. Links to previous profiles are on the right, including Kirk Cameron, Caleb Shikles, Sherman Austin, and Josh Wolf.
3 Young Baltimore Figurative Painters
3 young Baltimore figurative painters
Lillian Bayley (toyworld alienation)
Rachel Bone (a saner, calmer Darger)
Alyssa Dennis (bleak figures in a bleak world)
[via New American Paintings]
The $98M Skull
Diamond Encrusted Skull Filter. British Artist Damien Hirst has unveiled a diamond encrusted skull cast with a cool 50 million quid asking price. P Diddy expected to turn up with a bin bag full of readies any minute.
You think you got it bad? Talk to the kid.
"I have $334,442 in 'bad debt' (I’m not counting even my student loans in that figure). It’s likely that this blog will not last long, because its more likely that I am not going to make it." The journey of the "Debt Kid," who ended up with more than $300,000 of personal debt from playing the stock market. He's 23 years old. "I don’t have a choice to succeed or not. I have to succeed. To have any chance of a 'normal' life (wife, kids, ect), my business has to succeed. I’ve promised to pay my mother back (I owe her over 100K). I have to succeed." Suddenly, paying off a few thousand dollars in debt doesn't seem so impossible.
If Wasting Time is Time Well Spent, My Time on Metafilter is All Worthwhile
"Wasting time gets a bad rap", says Lisa Belkin in today's NYTimes, who argues that time often considered "unproductive" or "wasted" in today's workaholic culture is actually time well spent- "Over the years I have come to see that the hours away from the writing are the time when the real work gets done." Readers seem to agree.
Policing Putin's Russia
"OMON knows no mercy and forgives none. This is the way it is, was, and always will be." The Russian OMON (Otryad Militsii Osobovo Naznacheniya), or Special Purpose Police Squad, is one of the most elite police units in the world. Formed in the mid-1980s to combat urban riots, the 20,000-strong OMON now tackles terrorists, protesters, and soccer fans. What drives former soldiers to join the beefy brigade? "Risk," says Major Viktor Kommissarov, "Working in the OMON always involves the risk of death." (in Russian)
On a diet? Don't get a salad; get a burger!
Think those salads at McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and Taco Bell are a good idea if you want something lighter? Turns out you're actually better off getting a double cheeseburger instead. For more info on nutritional facts about fast food, CalorieKing has a good database.
Neighborhood of Make-Believe
Senator Secrecy
A senator places a secret hold on a bill designed to counter secrecy in government. The Society of Professional Journalists, which supports the bill, smoked out Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) as the source of the hold, one of the more obscure parliamentary tactics possible in the Senate. The bill in question is the OPEN Government Act of 2007, which is an overhaul of the Freedom of Information Act. (See also.) Kyl claims the bill would force the release of "sensitive information." Kyl is also behind a measure that would criminalize the leaking of classified information.
We're NOT Going to be Friends : Jack White vs DJ
A Chicago DJ broke the Icky Thump silence and Jack White's heart in the process. Q101's Electra received a presumably illegal copy of the White Stripes' new album and aired the entire thing (a week after the first single's video hit the internet, weeks before the official June 19 release and well before the album had even become prominent on the shadow internet). According to Electra, Jack White called from Spain to sternly reprimand her. In an instant, hearts were crushed and pirates emboldened as the album's radio rip spread through the back channels of the web.
Will Rudy Giuliani be Bush III?
Goal, OUCH, No Fair
Australian Rules football is a tough fast game (previously), and there is no tougher place to play than on the “Gravel”.
The home ground of the Tasmanian Queenstown Crows has recently been inducted into Tasmania’s Football Hall of Fame for a very good reason. Y’see, unlike the lush manicured grounds of other clubs, the Crows have a distinct home ground advantage- their ground is covered in… gravel.
"IamFacingForeclosure.com is over. It will never return."
Casey Serin (discussed on MeFi here), the world's most hated blogger according to CNET, has taken down his "I Am Facing Foreclosure" blog. Why? Speculation abounds among his fans and foes alike. Did the law catch up to him? Was it a result of a crayon-penned contract with his wife? The "real estate bubble's" poster boy has inspired others to create a Caseypedia, to write copious blog entries of their own, and even to host "talkcasts" that function a little like memorial services in the emptiness that follows the sure (?) demise of Serin's own Foreclosure Fridays call-in, chat-in sessions. There's even one tonight!
Mama's got a squeezebox, Daddy never sleeps at night
Today begins National Accordion Awareness Month. Check out some fun accordion facts, and make sure to polka! polka! polka!. (It was big in Sheboygan).
SomeEcards
SomeEcards : When you care enough to hit send.
Choose Your Own Adventure!
Virginia Tech: A "Cho"ose Your Own Adventure. It's early on a Monday morning. You wake up and find you have your dorm room to yourself. The night before, your roommates had been talking about "hooking up" with some girls they met on Facebook while you were busy ignoring them and putting the finishing touches on your three page manifesto explaining why you decided to go on a shooting spree today...
The Conservative Crack-Up
In 2005 Howard Fineman of Newsweek proclaimed the coming conservative crackup to be at hand. In response, Phyllis Schlafly gazed into her crystal ball and saw the Harriet Miers nomination as the springboard to a revitalized conservative movement. Quoting Mark Twain she assured the conservative movement that "the report of its death is greatly exaggerated." Here in the Spring of 2007 the conservative crystal balls are proving Fineman was right. The New Yorker quotes Newt Gingrich as saying President Bush has presided over a Republican Party in “collapse”. Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's speechwriter, opines in the Wall Street Journal that ""President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder." R. Emmett Tyrell, who predicted in 1992 that conservatives would be "laid low by too little imagination" in the face of "infantile liberal folly" never envisaged the crack-up would come instead from a volley of self-inflicted wounds.
Alan Johnston Video Surfaces
Kidnapped BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston said that his captors have been treating him well in a video released today. There was no way to tell when the video was recorded. Mr Johnston was kidnapped on March 12 by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City, and before today, had not been seen or heard from since. [Previously]
The fourth part of three
The fourth part of a trilogy of interviews with Douglas Adams before he got all famous. "I find the difference, for me, between having no money and having quite a bit is that the bills get bigger. And that's it. The lifestyle doesn't change." Well, he certainly didn't. And for that, much thanks.
How I spent the war
How I spent the war. German writer and Nobel Prize winner, Günter Grass tells the story of his tour of duty in the Waffen S.S. (previously )
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