A Tragedy of Errors. On Feb. 21, 2010, a convoy of vehicles carrying civilians headed down a mountain in central Afghanistan and American eyes in the sky were watching. "The Americans were using some of the most
sophisticated tools in the history of war, technological marvels of surveillance and intelligence gathering that allowed them to see into once-inaccessible corners of the battlefield. But the high-tech wizardry would
fail in its most elemental purpose: to tell the difference between friend and foe."
FOIA-obtained
transcripts of US cockpit and radio conversations and
an interactive feature provide a more in-depth understanding of what happened.
posted by zarq
on Apr 10, 2011 -
59 comments
Of Another Fashion:
An alternative archive of the not-quite-hidden but too often ignored fashion histories of U.S. women of color.
posted by lalex
on Mar 4, 2011 -
11 comments
The American Festivals Project takes you along on two guys'
National Geographic-funded 2008 tour of the "small, hidden, and bizarre"
festivals celebrated all over the United States. Through photos,
video, and a
blog, discover
Rattlesnake Roundup,
Okie noodling, an American
Fasnacht, the
Idiotarod, and
plenty more.
[more inside]
posted by Miko
on Feb 17, 2011 -
23 comments
In the 1960's, 70's and 80's, urban decay and high crime rates caused retail chain supermarkets to
flee New York City.
(google books link) Korean immigrants filled the gap with corner grocery stores. For nearly two decades they were ubiquitous -- symbols of the group's ongoing quest to achieve the American Dream. But 30 years later,
Where Did The Korean Greengrocers Go? [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Jan 18, 2011 -
19 comments
There are several conventional explanations for why so much corporate money has flooded into Washington over the last three or four decades. Large corporations have much more market power, which translates into more political power. Politicians have become more corrupt or rapacious. The Republican Party has been ever more effective at raising money. The increasing size and scope of the federal government have required that corporations spend more in order to protect themselves. Corporations have greater need to confront the countervailing power of unions.
All of these explanations are wrong.
Everyday Corruption by
Robert Reich.
posted by wittgenstein
on Jun 22, 2010 -
25 comments
Edmunds released data this month on the results of the Cash for Clunkers stimulus.
Freakonomics blog commented. Now the Detroit News has offered a state-by-state analysis of how funds were used. Which state was most likely to trade an American car for another American car?
You guessed it...
posted by jefficator
on Nov 18, 2009 -
37 comments
War Dances:
“I wanted to call my father and tell him that a white man thought my brain was beautiful”. Sherman Alexie doing his thing in The New Yorker, excerpted from his upcoming book (
early review; interview
1,
2.)
posted by Non Prosequitur
on Oct 5, 2009 -
45 comments
Mark C. Taylor, the chairman of the religion department at Columbia, offers a radical proposal in
The New York Times for the restructuring of the American university system. Two key components of the proposal entail ending tenure and shuttering academic departments—replacing disciplines with problems, and then tackling them with a cooperative and multidisciplinary approach, e.g. The Department of the Future of Water made up of geologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and ethicists. Should we
End the University as We Know It?
posted by Toekneesan
on Apr 27, 2009 -
84 comments
Shockingly, a novel about a Nazi officer who abets murder squads, transports Jews to Auschwitz, has sex with his twin sister, possibly kills his parents and then dies rich, old and reflective has caused a trans-Atlantic controversy among literary critics. Published in the original French three years ago, the English translation of
Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones hit American bookstores this week.
[more inside]
posted by zoomorphic
on Mar 11, 2009 -
86 comments
Privileges:
Gender: 10 things only men can do (Askmen.com),
male privilege (wiki),
21 Things Women Can Do That Guys Can't (Cosmo),
female privilege (2 3 4 5).
Race: white privilege (wiki).
Sexual orientation: straight privilege (2) (wiki),
cisgendered privilege.
Body: able-bodied privilege,
non-fat privilege.
Money: non-poor privilege (2),
class privilege (PDF).
Demographics: Christian privilege,
American privilege,
adult privilege,
black male privilege,
Muslim male privilege.
Combo: gamer privilege,
male programmer privilege.
Criticism and essays: victim privilege, "
Point of Privilege", "
We can't be equal while ... ", "
Where's My Extra Piece of the Pie?". And, lest this become too serious:
pirate privilege and
lolcat privilege (the latter via).
(Covered in smaller scope previously.)
posted by WCityMike
on Aug 15, 2008 -
156 comments
This is a collection of the National Archives stored in the
Digital Vaults. You can browse through hundreds of photographs, documents, and film clips and discover the connection between some of the National Archives' most treasured records. With the
Pathways tool you can see the unique and surprising connections between events and people and test your knowledge of history. As you travel through the site and collect documents, images and films, you can then merge the objects to
create your own poster or movie from your collection.
posted by netbros
on Jul 17, 2008 -
16 comments
Land of the Free, home of the geek. Steven Schofield takes photos of british sci-fi fans, dressed in character in their homes. He treats it as 'found' photography, which seems to illustrate the subjects vulnerability. The title of the work is Land of the Free - and illustrates how American culture infiltrates, with the ironic edge of questioning the idea of the freedom of choosing to copy the look of these fictional characters.
via kottke
posted by filmgeek
on Jul 14, 2008 -
36 comments
"Nobody in the antipoverty community and nobody in city leadership was going to welcome the news that the noble experiment that they’d been engaged in for the past decade had been bringing the city down, in ways they’d never expected. But the connection was too obvious to ignore, and Betts and Janikowski figured that the same thing must be happening all around the country."
American Murder Mystery.
Page 2.
Page 3.
Page 4.
posted by wittgenstein
on Jul 7, 2008 -
57 comments
Bobby Dunbar was a four year-old boy that vanished in 1912, while on a fishing trip with his family in a Louisiana swamp. For weeks, searchers combed the area looking for him. The lake where he went missing was dynamited. Alligators were captured and had their bellies slit open to see if the body was inside. Nothing was found except a set of child's footprints leading to an old railroad trestle. Eight months later, the police found Bobby in the company of a drifter with a horse-drawn cart. He protested his innocence but was arrested and charged with kidnapping. Another woman came forward and claimed Bobby was, in fact, her son. But she was an unmarried fieldworker, and her claims were dismissed. The crime became a nationwide
media event and the boy was returned to his parents, and their hometown held a parade in his honor. Bobby returned to his life. Ninety-one years later, Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter uncovered
the truth.
posted by smoothvirus
on Mar 19, 2008 -
78 comments
