January 18, 2017
A short but excellent piece by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Google and the Miseducation of Dylann Roof - How did Dylann Roof go from being someone who was not raised in a racist home to someone so steeped in white supremacist propaganda that he murdered nine African Americans during a Bible study?
Tomato, dairy, cut of meat? Feuds started over less
In Search of Ragu - Matt Goulding (Roads & Kingdoms) The beauty of ragu is that it’s an idea as much as it is a recipe, a slow-simmered distillation of what means and circumstances have gifted you: If Zia Peppe’s ragu is made with nothing but pork scraps, that’s because her neighbor raises pigs. When Maria cooks her vegetables in a mix of oil and butter, it’s because her family comes from a long line of dairy farmers. When Nonna Anna’s slips a few laurel leaves into the pot, she plucks them from the tree outside her back door. There is no need for a decree from the Chamber of Commerce to tell these women what qualifies as the authentic ragu; what’s authentic is whatever is simmering under the lid.
Tight as a Boiled Owl
The English language has produced a staggering number of words and phrases for the state of being intoxicated by alcohol. The Drunktionary collects hundreds of them, from "A beat up tank" to "zozzled", all in glorious 2001 Tripod style. [more inside]
"Honey, as far as reads go this is Infinite Jest."
Congresswoman Maxine Waters Will Read You Now (R. Eric Thomas, Elle Culture)
i lik the bred
A Reddit thread about health inspection violations has led to an unlikely yet delightful new meme: in response to a redditor's story about their stepdad's recreation of an 18th century French bakery, redditor Poem_for_your_sprog, also known as Sam Garland, offered the following summation in verse:
my name is Cow / and wen its nite, / or wen the moon / is shiyning brite, / and all the men / haf gon to bed - / i stay up late. / i lik the bred. [more inside]
Rock, Pudge, and a Killer B
The results of the 2017 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame vote were announced this evening, and Tim Raines (in his last year of eligibility), Ivan Rodriguez (in his first year of eligibility), and Jeff Bagwell (in neither his first nor last year of eligibility) were elected. Close watchers anticipated both Bagwell and Raines's elections based on Ryan Thibs's ballot tracking spreadsheet which compiled over 240 votes (more than half of those cast) from public posted columns and a few given anonymously, but the it was still unclear until the announcement whether Rodriguez would have enough support from those who did not make their ballot public to clear the 75% mark required for election. [more inside]
The Creator of the Mirai Botnet Unmasked
Remember the Mirai botnet that took down Dyn and made most of the Internet unusable for a day back in October of 2016? Internet security expert (and also Mirai botnet victim) Brian Krebs, author of excellent blog Krebs on Security, has a massive, four-months-in-the-making investigation unmasking the creator of Mirai, and it reads like a really good thriller novel.
Missing an old friend....
Adam Sandler singing about Chris Farley NSFW Lyrics, poor video quality.
Jamming With The Koopas
Nintendo Special Big Band [SLYT] Spend an hour listening to Nintendo's jazz band jamming away at musical hits from Super Mario, Kirby, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Donkey Kong Country, and The Legend of Zelda. [more inside]
4.6 Billion Year Story
Released in 1992 (the same year as the much more complex Sim Life) and published by Enix, Almanic's E.V.O.: Search for Eden is a Super Nintendo game in which players evolve a custom-made organism across vast geologic epochs and numerous phylums by growing new jaws, fins, tails, wings, horns, lungs and assorted other body parts. A cult classic that predates the more widely recognized evolution-em-up Spore by 16 years, E.V.O. is actually the thematic followup to an obscure 1990 PC-98 evolution-themed RPG called 64 Okunen Monogatari: The Shinka Ron (4.6 Billion Year Story: The Theory of Evolution). For almost as many years, 46 Okunen Monogatari has remained an intriguing mystery for Western audiences, but now a full English translation patch has been released. [more inside]
pepsee blue
pEPsi - "A tribute to Pepsi and Doritos, featuring remixes of some classic, re-imagined hits. Sorry in advance."
Sgt. Pepsi's Thirsty Hearts Club Brand - "Fourteen icy cold tracks to celebrate your white hot love for your favorite blue soft drink. It's Pepsi. Pepsi is blue." [more inside]
Sgt. Pepsi's Thirsty Hearts Club Brand - "Fourteen icy cold tracks to celebrate your white hot love for your favorite blue soft drink. It's Pepsi. Pepsi is blue." [more inside]
Superyacht Consumers No Longer Underserved By Housing Market
America's most expensive luxury home - complete with Dom Perignon-filled fire extinguishers, a candy wall, and the helicopter from Airwolf - can now be yours for a cool $250 million.
I wish it was my idea for him to eat Cheetos, but that was all him
You Must Be This Tall To Enter the Void
"Miguel Marquez Outside" (aka Michael Pederson) takes Jeff Wysaski's "Obvious Plant" fake posters/flyers/shelf tags a step farther with site installations like the Gravity Gauge, the Vicarious Yelling Station and the Small Orange Cones for Minor Hazards.
BBC Radio 4 - The New World
BBC Radio 4 has served up five 45 minute programmes of high quality brain food.
Where intelligent and informed people present shows exploring the topics of; Politics, Power, Population Demographics, Globalisation and Truthy-ness at the start of 2017. It's the Demography, Stupid!, David Willetts investigates how is population change transforming our world? (Wow! The problem with all those baby boomers.) Us Versus Them, John Harris examines the international rise of anti-elitist or 'populist' politics. (Including Trump and Farage.) [more inside]
James Earl Jones reads Walt Whitman
Actor James Earl Jones reads passages from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself", recorded Oct 21, 1973 (via 92Y on Demand)
"The printed book is final and thus unchangeable"
Lincoln's Worst Decision - Turning Down Elephant Herds
As a celebration of the election of President Abraham Lincoln* in 1860, King Rama IV of Siam** offered the U.S. "several pairs of young male and female elephants", with the intent that they be allowed to reproduce, eventually becoming large herds such that the people of America could use them as beasts of burden. Sadly (but probably for the best), Lincoln turned down the offer, noting that the climate of the U.S. probably did not lend itself to breeding elephants. [more inside]
"It was just a matter of doing what you could before the fire arrived."
The world surrounding my father's Montana homestead could disappear tomorrow, and he would make out just fine. I went to see him to find out how he does it—and why [more inside]
Ain't motherhood grand?
Mama cats taking care of their kittens [obnoxious music at beginning, occasional music throughout].
Mama dogs and their puppies [background music]. [more inside]
ＷＥＩＲＤ
What is weird? 366 Weird Movies (not yet complete but has over 200 entries) is a substantial tribute to celluloid oddities and unconventionals, loaded with interesting essays and outside links. Some good, some bad, and some very bad. Here's just a few: Buckaroo Banzai, Robot Monster, Rubber, Rocky Horror, Zardoz, 2001, Skidoo, 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, Evil Dead II, Glen or Glenda, Manos, Pan's Labyrinth, Time Bandits, Pink Flamingos, Uncle Boonmee, and good lord Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny.
Transcribing handwritten texts from the Shakespearean age
Shakespeare's World is a collaboration between Zooniverse and the Folger Library's Early Modern Manuscripts Online project. On the Shakespeare's World website anyone can contribute transcriptions of bits of manuscripts from Shakespeare's time. The project benefits not only Shakespeare studies, but also historians of the early modern period and the lexicographers of the Oxford English Dictionary. Roberta Kwok wrote an article about the project for the New Yorker.
Free School, Under the Bridge
Good people, doing good things --- Rajesh Sharma, a grocery story owner in New Delhi, has spent the last seven years teaching children under a bridge.
Nearly 200 underprivileged children from neighbouring ghettos now come to the school, known as ‘Free School, Under The Bridge’ located in one of the world’s most polluted cities, New Delhi.
England does not want to be just another member of the team
Brexit is the result of an English delusion, a crisis of identity resulting from a failure to come to terms with the loss of empire and the end of its own exceptionalism.
(Or - in song - as once summarised by Flanders and Swann)
(Or - in song - as once summarised by Flanders and Swann)
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