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Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na naaaaaa
comment posted at 2:16 PM on Jul-23-11
comment posted at 7:43 AM on Jul-24-11

"In this column I want to look at a not uncommon way of writing and structuring books. This approach, I will argue, involves the writer announcing at the outset what he or she will be doing in the pages that follow."
comment posted at 9:32 AM on Jul-23-11
comment posted at 1:54 PM on Jul-23-11

British figurative painter Lucian Freud, whose uncompromising, fleshy portraits made him one of the world's most revered and coveted artists, has died aged 88. Tate Gallery Google image search. [NSFWish]
comment posted at 7:02 PM on Jul-21-11

Pop Pilgrims : "When the AV Club Travels, we always make time to visit pop culture landmarks. If something memorable happened in the world of film, tv, books, or music, we want to go there. We're not just tourists, we're POP PILGRIMS."
comment posted at 7:19 AM on Jul-20-11

Behold the infectious ecstasy of the Rainbow Sponge Lady. (SLYT)
comment posted at 3:00 PM on Jul-19-11

Can't Hug Every Cat.
comment posted at 9:27 AM on Jul-8-11

You're Gonna Miss Me (YT)
comment posted at 10:04 AM on Jul-7-11

Will young men ever grow up? 'They're often called lost boys, the many young men' in Canada, 'who keep postponing adulthood.' 'Social scientists are trying to figure out why their numbers keep growing.' 'In the past, marriage and family were markers of adulthood, writes Michael Kimmel in his book Guyland, but in a world where young women put off children for careers, where job security is a thing of the past and their parents' values hold little allure, young men can postpone adulthood almost indefinitely.'
comment posted at 11:27 AM on Jul-6-11

Jane Scott, who wrote about rock and roll in The Cleveland Plain Dealer until her retirement at 83, has died. "It was the singular combination of Kleenex, peanut butter, a shower cap and earplugs that let Jane Scott thrive in her chosen field for nearly 40 years."
comment posted at 9:23 AM on Jul-6-11

Drugs and the Meaning of Life - Sam Harris on why taking psilocybin or LSD is "one of the most important rites of passage a human being can experience".
comment posted at 5:23 AM on Jul-6-11

Born in Lexington, Virginia in 1928 , friends with Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and victim of art vandalism, artist Cy Twombly died today . Some of his works can be seen here and here.
comment posted at 3:56 PM on Jul-5-11

Fancy a jaunt in a dirigible, do you? Read along with Popular Mechanics and get a feel for it, go along for a 30 minute ride (YT in 4 parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, playlist with all 4), or try a flight sim or two.
comment posted at 9:52 AM on Jul-5-11

"It seems that the majority of health claims made, in a large representative sample of UK national newspapers, are supported only by the weakest possible forms of evidence." So states the Guardian's Bad Science columnist and blogger Ben Goldacre in an article describing a study he performed with several colleagues investigating the quality of health advice given in British newspapers. The study can be found here (only the abstract is free for those who don't subscribe, unfortunately). The Guardian's science editor, James Randerson's critique of the article. Goldacre replies in the comments.
comment posted at 4:50 AM on Jul-5-11

PBS Newshour covers recent advances in medical technology in an 11 minute video.
comment posted at 3:35 PM on Jul-4-11

MONSTER is a 1969 song about America by Canadian band Steppenwolf.
comment posted at 5:27 PM on Jul-4-11

Worn-out Words: [Guardian] Last year Ledbury poetry festival asked poets to name their most hated words. For this year's festival – running from 1 to 10 July – they've asked for the expressions that have become such cliches that they have lost all meaning. Here are their responses: please add your own.
comment posted at 5:28 AM on Jul-1-11

60 percent of Americans using a prominent tax deduction believe they get nothing from "government social programs." Cornell professor Suzanne Mettler describes what she calls the "submerged state," in which tens of millions of Americans benefit from $1 trillion of federal subsidies to private activities while believing they receive no benefits from the government.
comment posted at 8:51 AM on Jun-29-11

Jimmy Murphy was a great country musician who has had less recognition than this MeFi'r feels is justified. Some of his songs are irreverent (but with precedence). Others a bit poignant, if in his signature upbeat kind of way. The man cooks. "When you get salvation you'll know it by it's tone"
comment posted at 4:16 AM on Jun-29-11
comment posted at 7:58 AM on Jun-29-11

John Hyduk, a middle aged blue collar worker in Cleveland, writes about his daily existence.
comment posted at 8:57 AM on Jun-28-11

10 Myths About Introverts
comment posted at 4:46 PM on Jun-26-11

In 1976, at the age of 27, Patricia Rose began a relationship with the married, 62-year-old billionaire John Kluge. At the time, Kluge owned MetroMedia, a company that started life as the Dumont TV network and would go on to become Fox television. Previously, Patricia had been married to British pornographer Russell Gay. She had posed nude in Knave Magazine and had a bit part as a belly dancer in The Nine Ages of Nakedness. In 1981, Patricia Rose and John Kluge married. Soon after, construction began on the Albemarle Estate, a 29,000 sq ft., 45 room home in Virginia. Patricia and John were the 1980s power couple. In 1990, they divorced, and Patricia kept the house and went on to found the Kluge Estate Winery. Now, everything has come crashing down.
comment posted at 4:01 PM on Jun-25-11

Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" arranged for 8 pianos - performed by Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Claude Frank, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, James Levine, Mikhail Pletnev, and Staffan Scheja.
comment posted at 12:01 PM on Jun-25-11

The title track on Michael Jackson’s hit album “Thriller” began life as a very different song - called “Starlight.” WNYC's Soundcheck gives us a listen.
comment posted at 7:51 PM on Jun-22-11

Russian freediver Natalia Avseenko recently swam naked with belugas whales in sub zero water.
comment posted at 6:56 PM on Jun-21-11

Unbound - like Kickstarter but for books. The idea is simple, authors pitch their idea and interested readers then pay a specified amount to bring the idea to life.
comment posted at 11:26 AM on Jun-21-11

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.
comment posted at 7:24 AM on Jun-20-11

"...authorities would try to find the culprits and would seek to clean up the monument, but it was unlikely to happen right away."
comment posted at 5:04 AM on Jun-20-11

Stuck. On their way home from photographing Formula Drift Palm Beach, Joe Ayala & Larry Chen found themselves stranded over night in Dallas Fort Worth as their flights home were canceled
comment posted at 4:26 AM on Jun-18-11

It was music to be heard, not listened to. It was the soundtrack to the relaxed, sophisticated, mature vision of the good life. It was music for lovers. It was upbeat, elaborately arranged, chart-toppingly popular, and yet has been almost written out of the popular music history books, dismissed as “elevator music”; soulless, toned-down, pre-chewed, limp cover-versions of popular songs for old people. So sit back, put aside the politics and angst, slip into something comfortable (preferably with someone of similar description), and allow yourself to experience The Joy of Easy Listening [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
comment posted at 10:49 AM on Jun-16-11

Satan your kingdom must come down.
comment posted at 4:10 AM on Jun-16-11

Do Artists Have a Moral Responsibility in War? is a thoughtful, question raising 40 min video and podcast by NYT journalist Alan Riding.
Should Artists Speak Out Against War? Goes at some depth into the nuances of this complex question by describing the Cultural Life In Nazi-Occupied Paris
comment posted at 5:24 AM on Jun-15-11

Go the F**k to Sleep as read by Samuel L. Jackson (no really). Audible is offering it as a free download (registration required). [Go the F**k to Sleep previously]
comment posted at 5:10 AM on Jun-15-11

It's no secret that throughout their long career, the Rolling Stones have covered lots of tunes by black singers and bands from the worlds of soul, blues, R&B, reggae and early rock'n'roll, and have, of course, been heavily influenced by these various genres in their own performance and songwriting. Perhaps a bit lesser known is that several of the most iconic and legendary figures in black music have covered Stones songs as well. Here's Brown Sugar by Little Richard, Satisfaction by Aretha Frankilin and Otis Redding, Under My Thumb by Tina Turner, Start Me Up by Toots and the Maytals and, rather unexpectedly, Let's Spend the Night Together by blues great Muddy Waters
comment posted at 4:38 AM on Jun-15-11

Berlin, circa 1921: The painter Hans Richter turns his talents to film and produces one of the earliest abstract films, Rhythmus 21. Clocking in at just over three minutes, it's a significant departure from the newsreels, romances, cliff-hangers, and penny-dreadfuls that made up the bulk of film production in the early ’20s—the first decade in which the film industry began to play a major economic and cultural role around the world.
comment posted at 1:54 PM on Jun-14-11

The Backfire Effect. (from the always awesome you are not so smart)
comment posted at 4:48 AM on Jun-14-11

Buranovskie Babushki is a charming group of grannies from the village of Buranovo in Udmurtia, Russia who came one place away from being the national entry to last year's Eurovision with their crowd-pleasing folk number. Since then, they've been covering a few western classics in their native language. Here's a few: Yesterday; Venus; and Let it Be.
comment posted at 8:07 PM on Jun-12-11

The Quora answer for "Why is U2 so popular?".
comment posted at 12:45 PM on Jun-12-11

It's either really smart, or really stupid. Perhaps some genius in an advertising agency thought took the phrase "there are no stupid questions" to heart and decided to launch it as the new mantra for Diesel Jeans - Be Stupid.
comment posted at 6:19 AM on Jun-12-11

David Mamet discusses free-market economists, studying Kaballah, Aristotle's conception of drama, Tennessee William's expensive habit, and his love for Sarah Palin. Oh, and his HBO movie about Phil Spector (whom he believes is innocent). Previously, previously, and previously.
comment posted at 6:26 AM on Jun-12-11

Street View New York 1982. Black and white photographs of New York City streets [ a work in progress] | Street View 1982 Storefronts NYC. Created by Dan Weeks.
comment posted at 9:16 AM on Jun-11-11

The A. V. Club has an exhaustive and revealing four-part interview with Dan Harmon, creator of Community, in which he discusses the conception and production behind every episode of the show's ambitious and flawed second season.
comment posted at 5:54 AM on Jun-10-11

Images of Brooklyn NY, 1974. (via)
comment posted at 4:25 AM on Jun-10-11

"There are few more relentlessly tragic and depressing stories in the history of showbusiness than that of Lena Zavaroni."
comment posted at 2:51 PM on Jun-8-11

People who use Sony don't make very good passwords. "None of this is overly surprising, although it remains alarming. We know passwords are too short, too simple, too predictable and too much like the other ones the individual has created in other locations. The bit which did take me back a bit was the extent to which passwords conformed to very predictable patterns, namely only using alphanumeric character, being 10 characters or less and having a much better than average chance of being the same as other passwords the user has created on totally independent systems."
comment posted at 4:25 PM on Jun-7-11

Ray Bribiesca: "Crazy Shots" (via "60 Minutes" video extra) Interview of "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan highlighting Ray Bribiesca, the Vietnam War veteran responsible for some amazing combat footage.
comment posted at 6:10 AM on Jun-5-11

Louis Theroux: Miami Mega Jail -> BBC: Ep1, Ep2. YT: Ep1, Ep2.
comment posted at 6:32 AM on Jun-4-11
comment posted at 9:02 AM on Jun-4-11