June 20, 2011
Jason Freeny's toy anatomies
Poppin' Fresh | My Little Pony | Kewpie | Smiley | Barbie | Gingerbread Man | Ducky | Goldfish Sashimi | Jason Freeny is a New York City artist who has fun dissecting | video of how it's done | Previously about Moist Production. [more inside]
Amelié goes to Sweden
Detektivbyrån (The Detective Agency) was a little-known Swedish band that made delightful music often inspired by Yann Tiersen's soundtrack to Amelié. E 18 - Om Du Möter Varg - Generation celebration - Nattoppet - Partyland - Monster - Laka kaffa - Vänerhavet. (Warning: aggressively cute and happy music containing accordion and bells.) [more inside]
Miles Beyond
MILES BEYOND: the web's premier resource on the influential and inspirational electric music Miles Davis played from 1967 to 1991 [more inside]
More Fucking Limber Than Water Itself
This next pitching stance is only attempted by the bravest of souls... SLYT - It starts a little slow, but hang in there until the 3:05 mark.
Something For The Eye, Something for the Mind
Box Art showcases awesome and artistic videogame box art. Eastern Mind writes about obscure Japanese videogames, with a focus on adventures and music games.
Haw Par Villa
Haw Par Villa, also known as Tiger Balm Gardens, was quite possibly the weirdest theme park on the planet. The first park was built in Hong Kong in the 30s, soon followed by another in Singapore. Built by brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, who made their fortunes selling Tiger Balm, the park was really a sculpture garden devoted to all aspects of Chinese mythology. Weirdest and most surreal of all was the section of the park which depicted the the 10 levels of Buddhist hell, featuring demons dismembering sinners, and is best described as "if Heironymus Bosch built a putt putt course."
She Goes Right for the Head Every Time
There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
Stairway to Heaven, played by identical twins Camille and Kennerly, Third Degree Black Belts in Tae Kwon Do, "The Harp Twins". Their YouTube Channel
Does allowing anonymous comments help or hinder?
GigaOM writer: "Anonymity has real value, both in comments and elsewhere." In the wake of the faux lesbian Damascus blogger, the question over whether or not to allow anonymous comments is being raised again. Some claim anonymous comments allow for dissent and are essential to democracy. Other claim that that anonymous comments lead to harsher, uncivil conversation that serves nobody. [more inside]
Of sound mind and but not so much sound body
Life imitates O'Henry's "The Cop and the Anthem" (tl;dr): James Verone robbed a bank to get health care while in jail. In a similar move, Nathan Bootz,
Superintendent of Ithaca Public Schools, "proposed to make his school a prison" to increase the state's spending per-student to the same level as it spends per-prisoner in the jails.
Hello? (((Hello!))) Come to me! (((Me?))) Come, I am here. (((I am here!)))
Whitefield-Madrano is regarding mirrors in the same role that I often give to social media. (Social-media sites seem to me to be self-consciousness machines, encouraging that one maintain a directorial distance from one’s own life experience in order to strategize how to present it in update broadcasts.) But the realities of patriarchy complicate matters considerably; as much as believe we are collectively compelling one another to route our social life through commercial social-media sites, that seems like nothing compared with the coercion involved with fulfilling gendered expectations of self-presentation.Marginal Utility dissects Mirror Fasting. A goal that blogger Whitefield-Madrano recently took up and called a Month Without Mirrors. The initial reason behind her project: "Sometimes I look in the mirror and see myself, or whatever I understand myself to be. Other times, I distinctly see an image of myself."
Philobrosophy: turn your tl;dr into se;ri
Philosophy Bro: Philosophy is hard - I read and summarize, so you don't have to, man. Nietzsche, Rand, Plato, Mills, etc.
Dog Reunion
Overtime, all the time.
The Speedup. Webster's defines speedup as "an employer's demand for accelerated output without increased pay," and it used to be a household word.
It's all about the Bordens
It's all about the Bordens. The Bank of Canada unveils its new series of polymer bank notes. Because no one wants soggy bills when you're makin' it rain.
My mother loved a black man, and no she was not a Kardashian
Republican Leadership Conference hires an Obama impersonator. Hilarity does not ensue. [more inside]
Finally! Validation for wearing a leopard-print top with brown oxfords!
The Sartorial Twist. Why settle for one fashionable ensemble when you can have three?
Something about bells, balls and bulls
Your favorite author sucks. (According your another of your favorite authors.)
Another Notch in Google’s Belt Of Social Fail
Yesterday was the third Sunday in June, the officially recognized date of Father's Day in the US and many other countries. Google really, really wanted to remind you of that fact, not only celebrating the day with a special Google Doodle, but also putting reminders on the front page of Google Search and a special "Reminder: Call Dad" note in the chat roster of Gmail Calling. Many people were not happy about it. [more inside]
Too Big To Be Sued?
The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a class-action gender-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart cannot go forward as the class of plaintiffs affected is "too large." All Things Considered summarized the facts of the case last March; Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reported on the key issue of "class commonality" during oral arguments. The full opinion, authored by Antonin Scalia, is here. Previously.
Growing New Senses
More evidence of brain plasticity: Some blind people are able to use echolocation to perceive space and objects around them in surprising detail, even though the time differences in echoes necessary to do this are two small to be consciously perceived. An fMRI study by Lore Thaler, Stephen Arnott and Melvyn Goodale revealed that people who are especially adept at this use their calcarine cortex (a.k.a. V1 or primary visual cortex) to process spatial information from the echoes.
The original paper. A shorter discussion. (Previously)
You get me
Congratulations Graduates! Here are some comedic commencement speeches to send you off into the world:
Stephen Colbert's advice for the Northwestern graduating class of 2011: Don't follow your stupid dreams. Jokes start right away, serious bits start 18 minutes in.
Amy Poehler addresses the facts of the 9/11 memories of recent graduates.
Comedian Dwight Slade speaks to his own high school graduate.
More? [more inside]
Stephen Colbert's advice for the Northwestern graduating class of 2011: Don't follow your stupid dreams. Jokes start right away, serious bits start 18 minutes in.
Amy Poehler addresses the facts of the 9/11 memories of recent graduates.
Comedian Dwight Slade speaks to his own high school graduate.
More? [more inside]
Who works for congress?
Although much has been said about the demographic composition of the United States Congress, much less has been said about the thousands of staffers who work behind the scenes, drafting legislation, interacting with constituents, and advising their congressperson. The National Journal has created two infographics that attempt to describe this silent, but influential workforce.
George W. Obama
In a 32 page report to Congress [pdf] President Obama concludes:
...the current U.S. military operations in Libya are consistent with the War Powers Resolution and do not under that law require further congressional authorization, because U.S. military operations are distinct from the kind of “hostilities” contemplated by the Resolution’s 60 day termination provision.Now, the New York Times reports that this legal opinion was reached by rejecting the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department. It is instructive to compare President Obama's actions with those of his predecessor, George W. Bush. [more inside]
'Jackass' Star Ryan Dunn Dead in Car Crash
Make Some Noise
A profile of Nadav Samin, aka Siah : the best 90s underground rapper you've never heard of, by Bethlehem Shoals. [more inside]
Irish Football Fans: the antithesis of Soccer Hooligans
Here Come The Lads - "The Irish soccer team will soon arrive for the World Cup with thousands of peaceful fans who love a glass and a singsong." Written before the arrival of Irish soccer fans to the US for the 1994 world cup, with anecdotes from the 1990 World Cup, when the Republic of Ireland qualified for the first time.
The End of the Story
Before Robert Jordan passed away, he dictated the ending of his Wheel of Time" series. This was just another bump in the rocky saga of the series. [more inside]
Big Bird Evolution
Big Bird Through The Years If you grew up watching Sesame Street, how Big Bird is "supposed" to look to you depends greatly on when you did the watching. He started out looking pretty scruffy looking, as seen one of his more famous songs. This song features a Big Bird closest to the one I know. The puppeteer behind Big Bird is Caroll Spinney who received a Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2006 Daytime Emmy Awards. [more inside]
I am the doctor.
'Dumbland is a crude, stupid, violent, absurd series. If it is funny, it is funny because we see the absurdity of it all.' Fresh off the critical success of Mulholland Dr. [previously] in 2001, David Lynch set out in 2002 to conquer the internet, creating a paywalled website to feature original content like his short film Darkened Room, an anti-sitcom called Rabbits, and the intentionally lowbrow DumbLand.
Featuring animation, music, sound effects, and voice acting entirely by Lynch, DumbLand is a black and white Flash animation series with a total running time of approximately half an hour. A few notes on DumbLand from Lynch. [Also previously: David Lynch's Weather Report] [And super-previously.]
Featuring animation, music, sound effects, and voice acting entirely by Lynch, DumbLand is a black and white Flash animation series with a total running time of approximately half an hour. A few notes on DumbLand from Lynch. [Also previously: David Lynch's Weather Report] [And super-previously.]
"Don't tell your mother what we're about to do. Oh, and don't breathe the fumes"
Tips my Dad Says. Last week, MAKE Magazine asked their staff, contributors and readers to share some tips and words of wisdom from their dads and granddads. They received over 140 responses and have created a downloadable card of some of the best.
'Have you ever been alive? Curious sensation isn't it?'
(This Post is NSFW) Marcel Mariën is frequently referred to as Rene Magritte's surrogate son.
Magritte was so surreal he forged himself as well as producing fake Picassos, Braques and Chiricos which Mariën sold in Paris.
Mariën was an artist in his own right being a poet, photographer and publisher.
In 1943 his De Sade a Lenin marked the beginning of an mainly humorous oeuvre that was to continue through to the mid 1980's.
iphotocentral has a large collection of the work of this trickster.
His 1960 film L’Imitation du Cinéma could not be shown in the USA despite having the the support of the Kinsey Institute. A Biography.
Magritte was so surreal he forged himself as well as producing fake Picassos, Braques and Chiricos which Mariën sold in Paris.
Mariën was an artist in his own right being a poet, photographer and publisher.
In 1943 his De Sade a Lenin marked the beginning of an mainly humorous oeuvre that was to continue through to the mid 1980's.
iphotocentral has a large collection of the work of this trickster.
His 1960 film L’Imitation du Cinéma could not be shown in the USA despite having the the support of the Kinsey Institute. A Biography.
Mumbai Train Safety
"Track trespassing is the largest everyday cause of unnatural deaths in Mumbai."
Every day, an average of 7 million commuters ride the Mumbai Suburban Railway. Every day, an average of 10 people are killed crossing the train tracks.
Can the lessons of Cognitive Neurology and Behavioural Economics change this? The results of a pilot public safety project seem promising.
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