This stealthy undertaking was not an act of robbery or espionage but rather a crucial operation in what would become an association called UX, for “Urban eXperiment.” UX is sort of like an artist’s collective, but far from being avant-garde—confronting audiences by pushing the boundaries of the new—its only audience is itself. More surprising still, its work is often radically conservative, intemperate in its devotion to the old. Through meticulous infiltration, UX members have carried out shocking acts of cultural preservation and repair, with an ethos of “restoring those invisible parts of our patrimony that the government has abandoned or doesn’t have the means to maintain.” The group claims to have conducted 15 such covert restorations, often in centuries-old spaces, all over Paris. - Wired.com "The New French Hacker-Artist Underground"
posted by The Whelk on Jan 24, 2012 - 20 comments

Remembering a forgotten hero on the anniversary of his death. Early in the morning of June 17, 1972, security guard Frank Wills called police after someone repeatedly taped the latch on a door at the apartment complex where he worked. That act changed politics forever; one reporter said “It was one of the most important phone calls ever made in American History.” Mr. Wills did not benefit from the circus that followed, however. After two arrests for shoplifting he died penniless on September 27, 2000.
posted by TedW on Sep 27, 2006 - 62 comments

Breakin' III: Electric Snowshoes. (.MOV) It's not often you get to type the words Breakdancing Creationist (slightly less often than 'surfing bankrobbers). But really, this is best because of the dancing. Well, and the stoner-ific 'Stare at my hands, man' bit. Still not enough breakin' for your Friday? Another pair of performers here(embedded WMV). (Rich via Banana Nutrement.
posted by klangklangston on Nov 11, 2005 - 6 comments

Nixon Ordered the Watergate Break-in. Jeb Stuart Magruder, the deputy director of Nixon's 1972 campaign, revealed in a PBS documentary to air on Wednesday that Nixon personally ordered the bungled break-in at the luxury Watergate Hotel complex. It took 30 years, but the truth finally comes out.
posted by zaelic on Jul 27, 2003 - 18 comments