January 17, 2013
Trickle-Down Feminism
"When the National Football League locked out its referees’ union this year, it seemed to delight in exploiting the perceived “women vs. labor” split, putting a woman on the field for the first time as one of the replacement refs. Feminists cheered, labor folks groaned, and those of us who are both buried our heads in our hands, angered by the cynical move, wanting to cheer new ground broken for women but having learned the hard lesson that not all first steps by women are progressive. Whether it’s City Council speaker Christine Quinn in New York City blocking paid sick days or Marissa Mayer taking the helm at Yahoo or Shannon Eastin taking the job of a locked-out worker for less money, we have to recognize that some first steps are taken on the backs of workers, many of whom are also women." -- Sara Jaffe writing about mainstream feminism's obsession with the glass ceiling and corresponding lack of attention for working women's issues: trickle down feminism.
Writes upside down!
The Smithsonian Magazine breaks down the history of the Fisher Space Pen, including the old myth about how the Russians just used pencils instead.
Epiphany School - DJ /Rupture mixes
DJ /rupture has made "8+ hours of mixes" available for free download (with a donate button). [more inside]
Exposure
According to producer Tony Visconti, the secret nature of David Bowie's latest project was almost compromised by guitarist Robert Fripp, who, he claims, was invited to contribute but declined, and then blogged about it.
Fripp, however, claims that he was never asked and never blogged, but concedes that he might have dreamt the rumour into being.
Mexican Drug Cartel Animated Infographic
A short animated infographic that pretty clearly explains the extent of the illegal drug and weapon problem shared by Mexico and the United States.
Fringe Oral History
"TVGuide.com talked to stars John Noble (Dr. Walter Bishop), Joshua Jackson (Peter Bishop), Anna Torv (Olivia Dunham), Jasika Nicole (Astrid Farnsworth), Lance Reddick (Phillip Broyles), Blair Brown (Nina Sharp), Mark Valley (John Scott), series co-creator Abrams, executive producers J.H Wyman, Jeff Pinkner and Bryan Burk, Warner Bros. President Peter Roth and Fox's Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly about the bumpy road to the series finale, starting with the conception of the show. This is the first in a four-part series. Check out Part 2 and Part 3." (Part 4 is pending.)
lighter of my lifeboat, firearm of my loincloths...
The N+7 procedure modifies text by replacing each noun with the seventh one following it in a dictionary.
The N + 7 Machine is a page that implements the procedure for N <= 15 on text that you enter or paste in. [more inside]
" I think it may be a front for a cult."
According to Yelp reviews, a Chicago-area Taco Bell is one of the best dining experience in the city people on r/Chicago over at reddit call it "magical.
Ground Bud
Fuck Yeah Creepy Victoriana
BECAUSE HE GODDAMN WELL COULD, THAT'S WHY
'News of impending fatherhood affects men in different ways. Some guys pump their fists. Others light cigars. A few flee. When 33-year-old Colin Furze learned that his girlfriend was pregnant, he channeled his paternal excitement into building the world’s fastest baby stroller.' The twin-exhaust, 10-horsepower, gasoline-fueled pram has four gears. And cupholders. And it can accelerate to 50mph in less than 30 seconds. [more inside]
Happy Birthday Art!
In 1963 French artist Robert Filliou, a member of Fluxus, proposed a public holiday to celebrate the presence of art in our lives. He decided that art had been invented on January 17th, 1,000,000 years prior, meaning 2013 is Art's 1,000,050th Annivesary! [more inside]
Kerbal Space Program
Kerbal Space Program is a cartoon-ish game in which you build rockets from pieces and launch/fly them around in a simulated solar system using basic orbital mechanics. It has an active forum, extensive modifications, a whole site dedicated to plugins and mods, and its own subreddit. This youtube video demonstrates the latest version, 0.18. [more inside]
Spider of the year 2012!
The Meta Bourneti spider is a rare slug eating spider, found throughout the UK and parts of Europe. It lives in complete darkness, and is usually found in caves. It was named European Spider of the Year in 2012.
A cluster of them has been found to be living in the pitch black tombs of Highgate Cemetery
"What does Liloing Involve? NO Skill No expensive gear and NO BRAINS."
Liloing: "the art [pdf] of enjoying oneself paddling down a river on an inflatable rubber mattress,* shooting the odd friendly rapid." Groups like Span Outdoors organize liloing trips, and much discussion of liloing can be found at bushwalk.com. (*i.e., a lilo)
Learn Korean Easy!
Soundtracks for 2013
Old Man Look at My Life, I'm a Lot Like You Were
The aging of Obama. "Photos of Barack Obama on Election Night 2008 look like they were taken much longer ago. Now his face has deeper creases and crow’s feet, while his hair has turned white." Maybe damaged cell tips are to blame.
Car-toons, with the emphasis on 'Car'
Cartoon Brew's animation historian Amid Amidi posted an almost-definitive collection of Automobile-themed cartoons from the 1950s and 1960s. [more inside]
Afterlife 2.0
"Hi-Fi is my biggest passion in life and I will take it to the grave."
Not the Ending, but an Ending.
On January 8th, 2013, the 14th and final book in the Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, was released and concluded the the adventure that began nearly 23 years ago (for readers) of Rand, Egwene, Perrin, Nynaeve and Mat. [more inside]
"... Russell has only three degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon"
Bertrand Russell in Bollywood: The Old Philosopher’s Improbable Appearance in a Hindi Film, 1967 [SLYT] "The year was 1967. Russell was by then a very frail 95-year-old man. Besides finishing work on his three-volume autobiography, Russell was devoting much of his remaining time to the struggle for peace and nuclear disarmament. To that end, he sometimes made himself available to people he thought could help the cause. (See our March 2012 post, “How Bertrand Russell Turned the Beatles Against the Vietnam War.”) So when he was asked to appear in a movie called Aman, about a young Indian man who has just received his medical degree in London and wants to go to Japan to help victims of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Russell said yes." [via: openculture.com]
Keen need to think again about quinoa
The costs of importing non-native foodstuffs: Despite the call to vegans in the headline, this is an issue that effects all eaters as international lands are stripped to feed the appetites of more wealthy nations. The appetite of countries such as ours for this grain has pushed up prices to such an extent that poorer people in Peru and Bolivia, for whom it was once a nourishing staple food, can no longer afford to eat it. Imported junk food is cheaper. In Lima, quinoa now costs more than chicken.
The torture of tedium
When you have severe ADHD, even a simple trip to Ikea can be nearly impossible.
Just you, the artist, and some new friends.
House concerts are becoming more popular across the country. In Cleveland, Mechanic Street House Concerts has been hosting six shows per year since 2009, most recently opening their doors to the Shivering Timbers with Tom Evanchuck.
Bed, shelter, home, refuge.
The journey with no destination.
"We board in northwest London on a regular bus, with the intention of heading into the heart of the capital, where there is a much greater choice of night buses when it gets later and colder. By now the group seem to have fully accepted my presence and are keen to tell me about their lives. The most pressing question I have is: why? Why would you eschew safety and warmth and comfort for this? It turns out that while a couple of kids might be along for the ride, for most this is their only option.
A boy with huge brown eyes, who is so small he barely looks older than 12, tells me: “I’m allowed home in early mornings to have some food and change my clothes, but I have to be gone by the time my mum wakes up.” When I ask him why, he shrugs, as if the answer is forgotten or irrelevant."
The Economic League, The Consulting Association, and Worker Blacklisting
The Economic League and the Consulting Association blacklisted workers and sold the information to employers [Socialist Worker link].
"Police held regular meetings with senior members of the blacklisting operation with information flowing both ways"
"Union officials provided information about their own members that ended up on the blacklist files. Ian Davidson MP described this as "the union putting the kybosh on someones employment""
"Kerr and other blacklist spies were sent undercover into union meetings" [more inside]
"Police held regular meetings with senior members of the blacklisting operation with information flowing both ways"
"Union officials provided information about their own members that ended up on the blacklist files. Ian Davidson MP described this as "the union putting the kybosh on someones employment""
"Kerr and other blacklist spies were sent undercover into union meetings" [more inside]
Critical hit vs. productivity
Brian Posehn has started a new podcast where he plays Dungeons and Dragons with his friends: Nerd Poker. [more inside]
Shinier, happier people.
Major scaled is a Vimeo user who digitally transposes sad songs into a major key. Here's their cheerful rendition of REM's Losing My Religion. [more inside]
2012 in 366 seconds
James Bernal took one second clips every day of 2012 and created a 366 second video of context-free goodness. [a similar previously] [via]
Mike Seeger & Alice Gerrard. Mike Seeger. Mike Seeger in Concert.
Homemade American Music, a movie by Carrie and Yasha Aginsky: A history of rural southeastern traditional American music, as told and played by Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard. Mike and Alice recount their own involvment with this music, and briefly trace its history as we meet their mentors: the late Tommy Jarrell, Lily May Ledford, Roscoe Holcomb, Elizabeth Cotten and many other musicians.
Mike Seeger interviewed (mp3 link) by an inexperienced but eager young Oberlin student in 2003. Mike also plays gourd banjo and jew's harp on air. He talks about Dock Boggs toward the end. Mike Seeger playing (mp3 link) at the Oberlin Folk Festival in 2003. About minute 18 he gives a lesson on playing jew's harp.
Mike Seeger interviewed (mp3 link) by an inexperienced but eager young Oberlin student in 2003. Mike also plays gourd banjo and jew's harp on air. He talks about Dock Boggs toward the end. Mike Seeger playing (mp3 link) at the Oberlin Folk Festival in 2003. About minute 18 he gives a lesson on playing jew's harp.
Struggles to think of a title
Can non-Europeans think? So the question remains why not the dignity of "philosophy" and whence the anthropological curiosity of "ethnophilosophy"?
The sky above the port was the color of Metafilter
Back in 2000, R. Talsorian Games released on their website a series of overviews of what they considered to be classic Cyberpunk movies, along with notes on incorporating their characters and ideas into games. [more inside]
NSFW. Changing female body image through art
The Great Wall of Vagina an exhibition by English artist Jamie McCartney described as a revolutionary with a bucket of plaster.
Included in the exhibition is Physical Photography which brings echoes of Cynthia Plaster Caster.
Then there are Great Wall of Vagina Videos.
For those wanting a cast of their vagina the artist Mearle Gates is the man to turn to.
Included in the exhibition is Physical Photography which brings echoes of Cynthia Plaster Caster.
Then there are Great Wall of Vagina Videos.
For those wanting a cast of their vagina the artist Mearle Gates is the man to turn to.
Tree Houses and Hotels
Takasugi-an by Terunobu Fujimori
4treehouse by Lukasz Kos
Lake-Nest Tree House and Lantern House by Roderick Romero [more inside]
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