June 17, 2018

Apocalypse please.

Political Realism in Apocalyptic Times, by Alison McQueen, traces the responses of three canonical political realists, Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Hans J. Morgenthau to apocalyptic politics. Review here. Interview here. The Apocalypse in U.S. Political Thought. How to Be a Prophet of Doom.
posted by spaceburglar at 11:31 PM PST - 2 comments

TANK - A short film by Stu Maschwitz

TANK is an animated short film that took that Stu Maschwitz a year and half to create..."but I have to warn you, this is not how I would recommend anyone make a film." [more inside]
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:33 PM PST - 10 comments

Hip-Hop Radio Archive

From the legendary Mr. Magic's Rap Attack to tiny college and pirate stations, in the 80s and 90s radio was pivotal to the growth of hip hop culture in the US and beyond. The Hip-Hop Radio Archive is bringing taped recordings out of collectors' basements and into a more secure and public home, tracing the spread of hip-hop by providing regional and historical context for the episodes. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 9:49 PM PST - 11 comments

Go cross-eyed.

OMDO [itch.io] “Plays just like DOOM, except every frame is a random dot autostereogram. If you don't know what that is, you should read more about it here, but the gist is that you have to either go cross-eyed or wall-eyed in order to see the game. Otherwise it just looks like a bunch of random dots.” [via: PC Gamer]
posted by Fizz at 8:50 PM PST - 42 comments

To speak of modern things in an ancient voice

"I watched these pothole crews going up and down my street, and there was a defiant pothole in front of my house that was just staying, that wasn't being fixed. I thought I should fill it in." That was mosaic artist Jim Bachor in 2014, when his 87-year-old neighbor stood lookout as Bachor turned an eyesore into eye candy. Just look at what the pothole vigilante has been up to since then. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:02 PM PST - 15 comments

Get them while they're hot

For centuries -- millennia even -- the biggest goal of Pixar fanatics has been to find the Holy Grail, the rarest of all DVDs to bear the lamp: Made In Point Richmond. Given out exclusively to employees shortly before the studio moved to a larger facility, it was never sold to the public. You could only have a copy if you worked for the company at the time, and though it had grown to a staff of hundreds by the time the disc was printed, it still wasn't as big as it is now.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:39 PM PST - 8 comments

You confront the tough mobile sprout

Houseplants occasionally get a little leggy, but usually not in this direction. Franktasia's quick sketch-up of his most accomplished son, "whomst has defied the restrictions placed on him as a plant," prompts a delightful responses from the Twitter artsy community.
posted by drlith at 5:21 PM PST - 18 comments

Patriotic Patriarchy: Working for the Man

Utopia and work - "The utopianism of full employment is so entrenched, as a seemingly uncontested common sense, it's difficult to imagine a different utopian horizon. But there is one, which emerges from at least three different theoretical and political traditions." (via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 3:03 PM PST - 5 comments

Urban Hammocking: It's a Thing

Swaying gently in an urban hammock has become increasingly popular as lightweight and more advanced hammock designs have become available. There are photos. There are articles. Sometimes permits are required. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 12:05 PM PST - 58 comments

Adding Color Evokes Empathy

The Passionate Photo Colorizers Who Are Humanizing the Past
“I love how colorized photos enable me to imagine these guys walking around today,” one commenter remarked. “I feel like I saw this guy at the store,” wrote another.
[more inside]
posted by hilaryjade at 9:37 AM PST - 30 comments

Bike a scarf in five minutes or less

The Cyclo Knitter is the perfect contraption for those cold waits at a train station when one has forgotten their book. Design student George Barratt-Jones's invention, a five minute stationary bike ride on the machine knits up a simple scarf to cozy in or give away. Watch the bike-scarf-er in action or read more about the design process and construction. [more inside]
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 9:20 AM PST - 21 comments

When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children

"Rearing children should be the common responsibility of the whole community. Any legal rights parents have over ‘their’ children should be dissolved and each child should be free to choose its own destiny."
posted by latkes at 9:00 AM PST - 19 comments

From Little Fanny to Fluffy Ruffles

In the cookie-cutter conservative era of the 1950s, even good, wholesome girls were undressing Elvis, and not just in their minds. During the mid-20th century, the popularity of paper dolls peaked and production boomed like never before. By then, the medium was well-established as a cheap way for young people to make believe: You could be Martha Washington, carefully selecting a regal wardrobe, or a rebellious teen-queen cruising around with famous rock idols. But these simple-seeming toys have a complicated past. [more inside]
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:51 AM PST - 13 comments

André-Jacques Garnerin, Official Aeronaut of France

On October 22, 1797, André-Jacques Garnerin ascended to 3,000 feet in a hydrogen balloon -- and became the first person to parachute from a high altitude. The Paris crowds below watched, mesmerized, as Garnerin detached his basket and parachute from the hydrogen balloon. Anxiety must have diffused through the crowd like bolts of lightening as Garnerin began to free-fall, until seconds later his parachute opened. A small revolution had taken place a few thousand feet above the crowds, as a man began slowly descending beneath his parachute, and the crowds were ecstatic. [more inside]
posted by kmkrebs at 8:20 AM PST - 8 comments

D.L.I.V.E.

In Detroit's busiest ER, a man with his own dark past tries to halt a cycle of violence [LATimes] 'In the first year of the program, Winans received a letter from President Obama honoring his achievements as a mentor. He keeps it in his office along with a photograph of himself in a prison uniform and a portrait of his father taken shortly before he was killed.'
posted by riruro at 6:41 AM PST - 4 comments

Wiki-Food and (mostly) Women

The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery (previously) in collaboration with the British Library is running Wiki-Food and (mostly) Women, a project aimed at improving and expanding Wikipedia's food coverage, especially (but not exclusively) entries related to women and those outside of the Western gaze. Four edit-a-thons have been held to date, and some of the improved articles include Sophie Coe (historian of chocolate), Anna Wecker (16th century German cookbook author) and the use of charcoal in food.
posted by Vesihiisi at 4:43 AM PST - 4 comments

"there is no such thing as negative visibility"

A Clear Look at the Issue of Resolution
Steve Yedlin, ASC [previously] offers an intriguing demonstration on how capture formats, pixel counts and postproduction techniques affect image quality and why simply counting Ks is not a solution when selecting a camera.
[more inside]
posted by Bangaioh at 4:24 AM PST - 14 comments

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