May 27, 2013

"Misplaced Honor"

NYT Editorial Filter -- "Now African-Americans make up about a fifth of the military. The idea that today we ask any of these soldiers to serve at a place named for a defender of a racist slavocracy is deplorable; the thought that today we ask any American soldier to serve at a base named for someone who killed United States Army troops is beyond absurd. Would we have a Fort Rommel? A Camp Cornwallis?" [more inside]
posted by bardic at 10:41 PM PST - 794 comments

"I love the idea of witnessing the birth of that word."

"In 1872 two men began work on a lexicon of words of Asian origin used by the British in India. Since its publication the 1,000-page dictionary has never been out of print and a new edition is due out next year. What accounts for its enduring appeal? Hobson-Jobson is the dictionary's short and mysterious title." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:47 PM PST - 10 comments

Two Cathedrals

My subject is War, and the pity of War.
The Poetry is in the pity…
All a poet can do today is warn.

Two 20th century choral masterpieces share more than Biblical texts. Benjamin Britten’s well known War Requiem, Op. 66 and Rudolf Mauersberger’s lesser known Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst were both written in response to the destruction of medieval architecture and major churches in WWII bombings. Since 1956, the cities of Coventry and Dresden have been twinned to promote peace and understanding. [more inside]
posted by Madamina at 9:32 PM PST - 10 comments

Chris Kyle's Tragic Quest to Help Troubled Veterans

In the Crosshairs: Chris Kyle, a decorated sniper, tried to help a troubled veteran. The result was tragic. [Previously, Via]
posted by homunculus at 5:45 PM PST - 70 comments

A very patient dog

Jack the dog is very good at balancing objects on his nose and head. (via)
posted by insectosaurus at 5:42 PM PST - 25 comments

Please don't frack with my beer

German Brewers Say Fracking Will Mess Up the Country's Beer (via The Atlantic) Brewing the world's best hefeweizen, you see, requires great drinking water -- and fracking, they said, "could reduce or even completely eliminate the security of the water supply." In a letter (in German), the organization (Deutscher Brauer-Bund) argued that this newfangled way of extracting energy would conflict with Europe's oldest food purity law, the Reinheitsgebot of 1516.
posted by michswiss at 5:17 PM PST - 37 comments

The Hand Of Vecna?

A shrine in Mystic, Connecticut contains the right arm of Saint Edmund, former Archbishop of Canterbury.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:58 PM PST - 32 comments

The WeiboScope is a peek at what's happening on Sina Weibo, right now.

The WeiboScope - Displays the most widely reposted posts on Weibo with pictures within a 10K user sample with 10,000 or more followers. Combine it with Google Translate and you get an insight into what's being talked about on Weibo! (from the good people at University of Hong Kong's Journalism & Media Studies Centre)
posted by awfurby at 4:40 PM PST - 8 comments

More Belgian/Italian Goodness

Sarah Ferri serves up blues and jazz and other good stuff. A Place on the Moon. The Hungry Villain. Dancing at the Supermarket. And the ear-worm that is On My Own. That is all.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:37 PM PST - 2 comments

Don't click that

@HuffPoSpoilers. "I give in to @HuffingtonPost click-bait so you don't have to." [more inside]
posted by Lexica at 3:41 PM PST - 39 comments

He’s my, well was my best bud.

Journalist Brody Levesque and military widow Karen Morgan on what Memorial Day means for LGBT Americans. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:35 PM PST - 4 comments

We choose to run after the cheese on this day and break the other limb

The annual cheese-rolling event, now unofficial and unsanctioned, has taken place at Cooper's Hill. 3,000 people attended this year, watching several races down the steep Gloucestershire hill. After a police warning to the 86 year old maker of previous cheeses concerning legal liabilities, a foam disc was used as a stand-in cheese. Despite failing to raise funding for a inspirational documentary, Kenny Rackers, an American cheese racer, attended and won the first race. [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 1:37 PM PST - 26 comments

Hitting golfballs on the moon

YouTube user AKAcronny has an interesting animation style, which he applies to making fan videos for They Might Be Giants songs:
Can't Keep Johnny Down ( <-- best, watch this one) - Certain People I Could Name - Skullivan - Everything Right is Wrong Again
posted by JHarris at 1:08 PM PST - 9 comments

They fought like demons

Women soldiers fought, bled and died in the Civil War, then were forgotten
posted by maggieb at 11:41 AM PST - 11 comments

First world problems. Analyzed.

The high salaries of the Silicon Valley are not enough to send your children to college, buy a house, and retire when looked at alongside living expenses. You need to play the equity game. [more inside]
posted by straight_razor at 11:30 AM PST - 218 comments

Where You Are Is Where This Library Goes

The folks at Mellow Pages, a community-run library/salon in Brooklyn (recently profiled in the NYT), have put together a how-to guide for building a similar kind of space in your neighborhood: short version here, long version (and Google Doc) here.
posted by Cash4Lead at 11:08 AM PST - 12 comments

Psych!

A secret asian man has spoofed his way into numerous VIP parties in Cannes pretending to be PSY of Gangnam Style fame. Now revealed as a French Korean adoptee living in Ireland, Denis Carré gave a short interview to GQ.
posted by Iteki at 9:57 AM PST - 37 comments

for when Watership Down isn't available at the video shop

English singer-songwriter Keaton Henson's video for Small Hands, directed by Joseph Mann. [more inside]
posted by threeants at 8:41 AM PST - 8 comments

The Making Of Kubrick's 2001

There have been countless words written about Stanley Kubrick’s visionary masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey — some good, some bad — but after 45 years, this superb book remains the only one you’ll ever really need. It is such a shame that this book is out-of-print. It is filled with everything you ever wanted to know about 2001. It leads off with Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “The Sentinel” and closes with a complete reprint of Stanley Kubrick’s interview with Playboy magazine. In between are profiles, interviews with technical advisors, effects secrets revealed, letters to Stanley from the moviegoing public, as well as reviews of the film, both good and bad. A fascinating snapshot of a moment in history when the world was caught off guard by a motion picture. Search your local used book stores, like I did. If you’re a Kubrick fan, it’s worth the effort.
Long out of print, The Making Of Kubrick's 2001 (edited by Jerome Agel, known for his work coördinating McLuhan's The Medium Is The Massage and his coauthoring of Buckminister Fuller's I Seem To Be A Verb) is now available to read online, thanks to Cinephilia and Beyond.
posted by hippybear at 8:23 AM PST - 53 comments

Would you buy that for a dollar?

What with the American mortgage scandals of a few years back and the resulting global financial death crisis, quite a few cities have had problems with long term abandonment of housing stock. Buffalo is trying to do something about it, by offering houses for sale for one shiny dollar. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 8:11 AM PST - 43 comments

What Jane Saw

On May 24th, 1813, Jane Austen visited a blockbuster art exhibition--the first major retrospective of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the premier English portraitist of the 18th century. Debuting 200 years to the day later, What Jane Saw is a room-by-room virtual recreation of the exhibition, based on the original catalog of the paintings and contemporary depictions of the building where it was held.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:38 AM PST - 8 comments

"...your trauma high is always someone else’s trauma."

Fire School
posted by zarq at 5:59 AM PST - 13 comments

Tell Dr. Kiernan Shipka more about that

Kiernan Shipka uses her Mad Men character Sally Draper's experience as child-in-counselling to help other child stars in need of psychological help.
posted by orange swan at 5:42 AM PST - 27 comments

I don't like Wired's original title: weird framing

I’ve given a great deal of thought to the topic of different ways of thinking. In fact, my pursuit of this topic has led me to propose a new category of thinker in addition to the traditional visual and verbal: pattern thinkers. ~ Temple Grandin
posted by infini at 5:28 AM PST - 51 comments

I'm kind of a big dill.

The very funny design/performance art work of Phil Jones.
posted by Toekneesan at 4:57 AM PST - 6 comments

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