August 12, 2016
Brendan Dassey's conviction overturned in federal court
In a 91-page decision, a federal judge today overturned Brendan Dassey's conviction in Teresa Halbach's murder. (Full opinion available here.) The Teresa Halbach case recently made headlines in the popular 2015 Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, which focused primarily on the case, circumstance, and trial of Dassey's uncle Steven Avery. The case against Brendan Dassey was based in large part on a confession that documentary filmmakers, lawyers, and ultimately a federal judge deemed to be involuntary and coerced. In granting the writ of habeas corpus, the federal judge ruled that the State has 90 days to either release Dassey, or schedule the case to be re-tried by a jury, presumably without the inadmissible confession.
40 years of partying like a punkette
The Story of Feminist Punk in 33 Songs: From Patti Smith to Bikini Kill, the songs that have crushed stereotypes and steered progress (Pitchfork). More than a list of songs, it's an overview of feminist expression through raw music, from 1975 to 2015, with an introduction by Vivien Goldman. "Because nothing beats jamming and singing with your sisters. That is punk. Punk freed female musicians. It is yours. Sing it, play it, live it now." [more inside]
...a moment in history where it is almost hard to catch your breath.
Today, the Hillary Clinton campaign launched a new "With Her" podcast, chronicling her historic run for office. Clinton also released her 2015 tax returns while Sen. Tim Kaine released 10 years’ worth of his. With just 87 days until Election Day, 538's "Election Forecast" looks dire for Republican nominee Donald Trump, who continues to rely on wild, desperate claims to capture each news cycle.
Welcome to McMansion Hell
Worst of the McMansions If you love to hate the ugly houses that became ubiquitous before the bubble burst (1980s-2009) you've come to the right place. Highlights include: McMansions 101: What Makes a McMansion Bad?, and this brief opinionated history of the garage.
Regular Car Reviews: 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser
"The PT Cruiser: The official car of getting your 9-year-old son a balloon-tired mountain bike to make up for pawning his DS Lite in order to buy 'loose tobacco' and zigzags." [more inside]
The bell's already been rung
An Open Letter To Warner Bros CEO Kevin Tsujihara About Layoffs, Zack Snyder, and Donuts from a very disgruntled former employee. [more inside]
We've got the beat.
The River Blindness Eradication Program
How Worm Warriors Are Beating An Unbeatable Worm When the program began, in some areas the disease was so widespread that riverbank communities had been abandoned, he says. Now, "people are suffering less," and people and agriculture have returned to areas where the disease was eliminated. (TW: Graphic medical descriptions.) [more inside]
GMHC
Yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the founding of what would become known as the the Gay Men's Health Crisis. On August 11, 1981, Nathan Fain, Larry Kramer, Lawrence Mass, Paul Popham, Paul Rapoport, and Edmund White met with Dr. Alvin Friedman-Kien and discussed the "gay cancer" that was affecting their friends and lovers. "In 1983 Larry Kramer, one of the founders of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, was kicked out of the organization he helped create, due to his loud and often controversial methods of raising public awareness about the AIDS epidemic." Today, GMHC serves more than 10,000 people per year. [more inside]
fnord
"TECHNOLOGICAL TENTACLES CONTROL US:
In the form of likes, hashtags, imagery and sounds.
It’s our turn to wake up and recognize.
It’s time to think for ourselves and #CONSUME our own thoughts, not what they tell us.
We must CONSUME or we will be CONSUMED."
—Hal Hefner
In the form of likes, hashtags, imagery and sounds.
It’s our turn to wake up and recognize.
It’s time to think for ourselves and #CONSUME our own thoughts, not what they tell us.
We must CONSUME or we will be CONSUMED."
—Hal Hefner
The Curious Case of Dorothy L. Sayers & the Jew Who Wasn’t There
"More than her actual portraits of Jews, what comes through most clearly is the confused urgency of her emotions about them." -- For Moment, Amy E. Schwartz looks at How Dorothy L. Sayers treated her Jewish characters. Some spoilers, some antisemitic quotes.
All Adele covers can go home now
Dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you
At least our overlords will have sick tats.
This robot does tattoos. Appropriate Audiences has modified a 3D printer to tattoo human flesh. [more inside]
Behind scenes video of how the special effects in 'Aliens' were created
Stan Winston School of Character Arts celebrates the 30th anniversary of James Cameron's Aliens with fascinating behind the scenes videos of alien creation and animation.
Slurping Up The Goodness
How Spiders Eat. Infinite Spider Blog is a science and nature blog aimed at nature lovers, naturalists, and outdoor educators.
Everything is Fucked: The Syllabus
PSY 607: Everything is Fucked. What does it mean, in science, for something to be fucked? Fucked needs to mean more than that something is complicated or must be undertaken with thought and care, as that would be trivially true of everything in science. In this class we will go a step further and say that something is fucked if it presents hard conceptual challenges to which implementable, real-world solutions for working scientists are either not available or routinely ignored in practice.
[more inside]
Iceberg, right ahead
If you will it, it is no dreamboat
Reinventing the Hebrew language, so transgender campers can fit in. When Zev Shofar, a 14-year-old from Takoma Park, started going to Jewish summer camp seven years ago, the children all learned the Hebrew words to introduce themselves. “Chanich” means a male camper; “chanichah” means a female camper.
But what if Zev didn’t feel male or female — neither a chanich nor a chanichah?
Zev’s camp didn’t have a word that worked for Zev. In fact, the Hebrew language doesn’t have any words. Like many other languages — Spanish, French and Russian, for example — Hebrew assigns each noun a gender.
In Israel, or anywhere else that Hebrew is spoken, there’s no linguistic solution, either. But now there is at camp. Zev is a chanichol.
Fun Fact: Ramen and spaghetti are related and must never lay together
The The Katering Show is back for season two! Join food intolerant, Kate McCartney and her intolerable smug foodie co-host, Kate McLennan for their 2nd Season, as they take a Sassy Swipe™ at the Food Culture Revolution and make a range of vaguely edible recipes. [more inside]
San Fransokyo
Why Tokyo is the land of rising home construction but not prices - "The city had more housing starts in 2014 than the whole of England. Can Japan's capital offer lessons to other world cities?" (via) [more inside]
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