August 15, 2011
Note to self: invest in a deadbolt.
When Brandon left for camp, his last words were, "stay out of my room!" Unfortunately for Brandon, he has the meanest most awesome family in the entire world. [more inside]
Think Again: War
World peace could be closer than you think. Joshua S. Goldstein, author of Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide writes in Foreign Policy Magazine on why things are getting better. "The last decade has seen fewer war deaths than any decade in the past 100 years."
Why is baseball's appeal fading?
Behold! The worst at-bat in the history of Major League Baseball! Or is it actually the greatest at-bat in the history of Major League Baseball? Sunday afternoon, [San Francisco] Giants reliever Santiago Casilla batted against [Florida] Marlins reliever Jose Ceda, and they were both really terrible. (via SportsFilter)
Keytar VHS nulla, accusamus locavore officia jean shorts ex fanny pack 8-bit etsy veniam sunt.
Priceless art most worth saving
Seven boxes marked "WW3" hold works ready for immediate evacuation if the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC faced catastrophic destruction. An essay published in the Washington Post discusses how Curator Andrew Robinson decides which seventy-four items in his area of responsibility hold top priority out of more than 100,000 watercolors, drawings, prints and rare books.
Are We There Yet?
Jellio is about combining childhood fun with interior design.
"Hot Wheels, Nerf Balls, Spyrograph, View Masters... Remember any of those? Well, that’s the idea behind Jellio. Think of all those times that you flashed back to something from childhood, and it put a huge grin on your face. Well we think you can surround yourself with a few of those memories on a long-term basis."
Marx was right. Capitalism may be destroying itself.
Roubini warns of global recession risk. In a video interview with the Wall Street Journal, Economist Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Global Economics warns that the risk of a global recession is higher than 50%, suggests investing in cash, blames George Bush for the United States' economic predicament, advocates higher taxes, warns of a possible break-up of the European monetary union and states that "Karl Marx was right". [more inside]
A Leap of Faith
Ryan Lizza profiles Michele Bachmann for the New Yorker. Of special note is the in-depth look into the of her political and theological conservatism.
Shepard Fairey beat up in Copenhagen
Shepard Fairey was beat up by punks in Copenhagen — apparently for painting on the site of the former Ungdomshuet. (previously)
Compensation finally awarded for unethically administered meningitis drug
As reported by Agence France Presse, the Guardian and the New York Times, last week four families in Kano, Nigeria received $175,000 each as compensation for the deaths of their children, who participated in a drug trial conducted by Pfizer Inc. (Wikileaks links inside) [more inside]
Sepp Bless the Rains Down in Africa
Brian Phillips of The Run of Play (previously) examines FIFA's history of corruption from the birth of sports sponsorship deals to a serious of mysterious deaths in South Africa before the 2010 World Cup and speculates about the future of embattled FIFA President Sepp Blatter. [more inside]
Informative, entertaining and shocking: the Land Octopus, a satirical cartographic animal
Over the centuries, the high seas have served as a blank canvas for cartographers’ worst nightmares. They have dotted the oceans with a whole crypto-zoo of island-sized whales, deathly seductive mermaids, giant sea serpents, and many more - a whole panoply of heraldic horrors. As varied as this marine bestiary is, mapmakers have settled on a single, favourite species for land-based beastliness: the octopus. Bonus: Satire Maps and Fred W. Rose (YT, 3:32); Fred Rose's Serio-Comic War Map (YT, 1:52). [more inside]
"Somebody should set up the ‘I Hate the I Hate Reading Page!"
Smoke And Mirrors
Special Report: The bonds that turned to dust - the extent and impact of corporate secrecy in the United States and beyond. 'After his fund lost investors hundreds of millions of dollars in the credit crunch' Italian economics professor Alberto Micalizzi 'quietly moved most of its assets into bonds in late 2008. These were no ordinary bonds. They were $500 million of highly illiquid paper purportedly issued by a company in a trailer-park suburb of Phoenix' Arizona, 'on behalf of a small Australian commodities firm -- and backed by the proceeds from $10 billion of diesel from the tiny autonomous Russian republic of Bashkortostan.' [more inside]
This guy is trying to hypnotize me!
Flight into Danger
"Flight into Danger" invented the cliches of the disaster film genre, invigorated the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and changed the life of its author, tractor-trailer company advertising executive Arthur Hailey.
Free syphilis and gonorrhea here!-- the United States Public Health Service at work
Between 1946 and 1948, the United States deliberately infected hundreds with gonorrhea and syphilis in Guatemala. This link goes to a page on the National Archives posting the records of Dr. John C. Cutler, a surgeon with the United States Public Health Service. Some of the 70 links from that page go to files containing graphic images. The National Archives and Records Administration has reviewed these historical records for release, and has redacted only information identifying each patient (updated 8/2/11). The original records are available for public research in the National Archives at Atlanta. Some of the files contain graphic medical images of the effects of untreated sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including syphilis, which may not be appropriate for all audiences.
A preview of some of the Doctor's correspondence is available at Harper's. (Subscription required.)
"... when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."
জয় হে : So you have seven swara's, or musical notes, each associated with elements, animals, chakra's and Hindu gods. Linearly arranged swara's, or sur's in Hindi, form a swaramalika, a chain of swara's. Mixing yours and my swara's, for instance, produces our sur(YT) (text). Once again,(YT) on a Continuum Fingerboard. The seven swara's together are also called a 'sargam', a Devnaagri acronym formed by taking the first letter of each note. Sargam mix with each other and form raaga's, melodic modes that depict the colours, hues and moods in Indian classical music. Assembling known maestros from every corner of the nation, and asking them to play their sargam's, you get desh raag(YT): the Sound of a Nation. [more inside]
No Breasts, No Requests
If you are dancing in a way that could create a baby/fetus/alien -- STOP! It is not behooving of you and awkward.
No Breasts No Requests is a tumblr collection of signs found in and around the DJ booth.
No Breasts No Requests is a tumblr collection of signs found in and around the DJ booth.
Give me my money, please
Since their release in 1978, hit albums like Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Billy Joel’s “52nd Street,” the Doobie Brothers’ “Minute by Minute,” Kenny Rogers’s “Gambler” and Funkadelic’s “One Nation Under a Groove” have generated tens of millions of dollars for record companies. But thanks to a little-noted provision in United States copyright law, those artists — and thousands more — now have the right to reclaim ownership of their recordings, potentially leaving the labels out in the cold.
Today the average color is: gray
NSKYC: The average color of the New York sky, updated every 5 minutes. A webcam pointed at the sky, showing the average color. Now in Washington, DC as well. Interview in the Village Voice with creator Mike Bodge. Looking for cameras in more cities.
Oramics
Radiophonics Workshop Founder Daphne Oram's Oramics Synthesizer "So there Dr. Mick Grierson was, wandering around a French barn, minding his own business when all of a sudden he happened upon an antique: one of the earliest modern synthesizers." [more inside]
An Asterisk of a Different Kind
Ralph Branca's story now manages to combine baseball, tragedy, genealogy, Judaism and the Nazis
The Pianist
Yuja Wang (official site / wikipedia) is a 24-year old, Chinese virtuoso classical pianist who became an overnight sensation in 2007 when she filled in after piano legend Martha Argerich, cancelled a performance with the Boston symphony. Since then, Ms. Wang has become a superstar in her own right, hailed by critics for her precise, passionate performances and lightning-fast technique. But after a recent appearance on-stage in a short red dress and high heels led to a critic's complaint about her outfit, others are now weighing in on whether it is appropriate for a female classical musician to wear revealing clothing. [more inside]
Kids who don't want to have fun need not apply
"Having now played the game, I'd like to take issue with the slogan on the box. 'Fun' this game is not. And 'educational'? Well, if disappointment, conflict and frustration are character building experiences, then I guess you could say there is an educational element to this game." Rap Rat is a bizzare video board game with an aesthetic that can best be described as in your face (gameplay video). [more inside]
Confectionaries of salty death
Alex Papadimoulis (of The Daily WTF fame) and friends review various Finnish salty liquorice candies in the blog called Salmiyuck! [more inside]
Egg-Coddlers.com
Warren Buffet asks for higher taxes.
Stop coddling the super-rich, an opinion piece by Warren Buffet.
"as far as I'm concerned, Montezuma has always been a prick"
National Characters is a long, multi-part essay about how computer games deal with the concept of nations and turns it into a game mechanic. The author, Troy Goodfellow of strategy gaming blog Flash of Steel, focuses on how the fourteen indistinguishable national factions of the original Sid Meier's Civilization have been treated by different games through the years. [more inside]
The Joy of Snow
Snow on Cuba Mall in central Wellington Ok, so it snows all over the world, but here in Wellington, New Zealand, we are experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime cold snap with snow throughout much of the country. The joy of Wellingtonians experiencing snow in downtown Cuba Mall is beautifully captured here on video.
We wanna be free, to do what we wanna do
Christiania, the freetown within the Copenhagen city limits, popular with tourists, has obtained some measure of security after decades of uncertainty. [more inside]
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