January 25, 2013
Raider. QB Crusher. Murderer?
Anthony Wayne Smith was a first round draft pick for the Raiders in 1990. Alternately described as a "big old teddy bear" and "[like] a dog [that] is super beautiful, sweet looking, wagging its tail, and it's acting really friendly, but there's something about that dog.... You worry one day he's gonna bite your hand," he faced the usual hassles of an athlete shifting to civilian life when his career came to an end. Then came the arson and murder. Maybe.
The Longest Hunger Strike
The Longest Hunger Strike "It had been more than a year since Coleman had chewed anything. He’s not suicidal; he’s in prison for something he says he didn’t do. Like 2.2 million people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the U.S., his body is not his own. The only way for him to protest his conviction, to exercise his first amendment rights, he says, is to stop eating solid food."
A Trans Am feels peckish
If you were a hungry 1971 Pontiac, what would you eat? How about a Hemi 'Cuda for breakfast, a Daytona Cobra for lunch, and Kremer 935 K3 for dinner. (Part II) [more inside]
"Now there's just 3 minutes and 33 seconds left."
Voice Over [SLVimeo]
...chewed-off face (seems to be a lot of it going around)
UndeadTeds [NSFW?] is a tumblr featuring one-of-a-kind zombie teddy-bears of a graphic bent. Not for the faint of heart.
"...an enormous erect phallus, and piles of lettuce in the background."
First noticed on tumblr but now available to all, Alex Clayden's paper "Same-Sex Desire in Pharaonic Egypt" which, among other things, tells you about the connection between lettuce and semen and the Ancient Egyptian for "You have a nice ass."
DIY Drones, or rather, Autonomous Aerial Vehicles
Pretty stunning cockpit perspective footage of unmanned aerial vehicles interacting in close quarters, flying with a range of flyers (Echelon FPV). [more inside]
If you liked it, you shoulda put a ring on it.
The Supreme Court of Canada rules that in Quebec, common-law spouses do not have the same rights as married ones. [more inside]
This isn’t spinning, it’s a way of life
Recently, in a candlelit room in Tribeca, a 24-year-old named Zack made a confession. “I’m very open about this, but I’ve been in recovery for the past two years,” he said from a podium, facing a room of two dozen people who looked up at him with approval, acceptance, and even a generosity of spirit. He wore a trucker’s hat over curly blond hair and explained that he was from Florida, an actor and hip-hop dancer (“Woo hoo!” “All right!”). Then he kicked on the music and began pedaling his bike. Inside The Carefully Cultivated Soul of SoulCycle [more inside]
Big money, small pocket
Gary Comer, the late founder of Lands' End, grew up in Pocket Town on Chicago's South Side. When he visited in 1998, he saw that his neighborhood--home to about 2,000 people (and the city's best blues club)--had fallen on hard times. So he spent $86 million to build schools, affordable homes, and a youth center. Has it helped?
GMO Science
Patakk
"My hatred for Japanese cinema includes absolutely all of it."
"Japanese cinema’s preeminent taboo buster, Nagisa Oshima directed, between 1959 and 1999, more than twenty groundbreaking features. For Oshima, film was a form of activism, a way of shaking up the status quo. Uninterested in the traditional Japanese cinema of such popular filmmakers as Kurosawa, Ozu, and Naruse, Oshima focused not on classical themes of good and evil or domesticity but on outcasts, gangsters, murderers, rapists, sexual deviants, and the politically marginalized." The great Japanese director Nagisa Oshima passed away at the age of 80 last week. Appreciations from the Guardian, Slate, Fandor, Telegraph, NY Times, AV Club, and a few in-depth articles over at Senses of Cinema and Film Comment.
88 lines about 44 ____
Inspired by 88 lines about 44 women (official video, NSFW "mondo documentary" footage), here are 88 lines about 44:
fangirls, presidents, bloggers, rats, 2011 news stories, sitcoms,
men (track 8), Simpsons, yelpers, e-cigs, cars, and
mefites.
"A large pizza, please."
In 1974, artificial intelligence researchers at Michigan State University made a giant leap forward in computer-aided communication for the handicapped: they used an early text-to-speech system to order a pizza. Spoiler: Domino's hung up on them. [more inside]
class and privilege in science
Lack of resources, benign discouragement from well meaning adults, active exclusion by powerful gatekeepers: a classroom scientist discusses things that kill opportunity for inner city youth. [more inside]
Migration flows across the world
Peoplemovin illustrates the migration flow in and out of the countries of the world. Click on a country's name on the left to see its emigrants stream to countries on the right; click on a country on the right to see where its immigrants come from. Click in between the country lists to see information on top migration origins and destinations, and the largest migration corridors.
A Folk Singer with a Cat
Trailer for Inside Llewyn Davis - the new film by the Coen brothers possibly inspired by the album cover for The Freewheeling' Bob Dylan.
2012 Fluxblog Survey
Matthew Perpetua (of Buzzfeed) posts his annual survey at Fluxblog:
This 10-disc, 191-song mix is a survey of some of the best and most notable music from 2012. [more inside]
I Need A Beat
One dollar at a time
NYT: Larry Selman died Sunday morning of heart failure. He was 70. Larry was the feature of the Academy Award nominated "The Collector of Bedford Street" (wikipedia). [more inside]
Greenland melting
Melting Point Greenland has some sublime hi-def video of, well, Greenland melting. The summer 2012 melt was unprecedented, it alone rose global sea-levels by 1mm. The scientist-run blog Greenland Melting is following. Why Greenland's melting could be the biggest climate disaster of all.
"Someone is assigned when there is no one else."
The Designated Mourner (2002); a radio adaptation of Andre Gregory's 2000 revival of the Wallace Shawn play, starring Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, and Larry Pine.
This risotto, does it awaken memories for you?
Modern, Old-Timey Love
"We must never travel separately again.” Author Eve Pell on old, young love.
Choosing Not to Be
If it wasn't for my horse...
An overview of the 16 years of music from Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet
Kieran Hebden recently released a 38 minute long collection of unreleased songs he recorded as Four Tet, between 1997 and 2001, called 0181, to stream or download from Soundcloud. If you like what you hear, in 2011 Hebden "leaked" his first Four Tet EP, which you can stream from Self-titled Magazine's website. If you want to hear and know more of Hebden, venture below the break. [more inside]
"Minuit à Paris" peut manger son coeur!
A collection of color photography and film footage of Paris and the surrounding area - from the early 20th century! - has been made available on the website of the Albert-Kahn Museum.
The Hermit of the Herald Square Hotel
In 1907, Ida Wood checked into a suite in the Herald Square Hotel. She wouldn't leave the room again for 24 years.
Get a Bird's-Eye View of America's Housing Patterns
Take that Gareth Morgan!
Mighty fine storyboards you got there
Chris Sanders (Co-Director of Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon) shares several unused storyboards from his upcoming film The Croods.
And not like in Batman Forever.
To celebrate the end of the NHL lockout, Toronto recently hosted a game of shinny: superheroes vs. supervillains, with Commissioner Gordon as referee. [more inside]
Gaming the black dog
Toward the end of 2008 my own sister Christina, who has suffered depression from a young age, experienced a particularly low period. “I began playing Fallout 3 because I needed a distraction. I didn’t think it would help because I was having trouble focusing on anything for very long. I ended up playing it for 14 hours a day for about 3 weeks.” This might be considered unhealthy – some might want to categorise it as “pathological gaming” – but for Christina it was crucial for getting through the day. “It got me out of bed in the morning. Becoming so involved in the storyline and the tasks gave me a reason to keep on going, and it was so far removed from real life that it made me feel better.” -- Over at Rock Paper Shotgun, David Owen takes a look at the link between clinical depression and gaming, if any and if they might help people cope with it.
Parting Moon Shots from NASA's GRAIL mission
Three days prior to its planned impact on a lunar mountain, mission controllers activated the camera aboard one of NASA's GRAIL twins to take some final photos from lunar orbit. The result is some of the best footage of the moon's surface captured so far. [more inside]
A Huge Pile of Gorgeous Old Thai Movie Posters
Driving them to Extinction
The Guinea Worm, which causes Guinea Worm disease (or Dracunculiasis) is on track to be the first parasitic disease eliminated. And with only a water filter. [more inside]
Although IMDb warns that short descriptions of less than ten lines may n
"Although IMDb warns that short descriptions of less than ten lines may not be adequately detailed, I believe that a longer description is probably not reasonably possible. I think I have included everything that bears mentioning."
Andy Warhol's Eat. Also Kiss. Also Sleep.
East India Company?
A recent genetic study suggests that around 2200 BC explorers from India arrived and settled on the continent of Australia. "Unlike their European successors, these earlier settlers were assimilated by the locals. And they brought with them both technological improvements and one of Australia’s most iconic animals." [SLEconomist]
An interactive, up-to-date listing of where all the money is.
Revamped visual data on the world's billionaires: Bloomberg Billionaires
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