January 5, 2015
nettarot
Southwest Airlines safety announcement.
And if you're traveling with small children, we're sorry. Flight attendant gives the obligatory safety talk, with a twist.
My goal has always been to get this story right
Jay Speaks: The man that many listeners to the popular podcast Serial consider the antagonist and even prime suspect for the murder that is its subject speaks to the Intercept in a 3 part interview, in which he describes the events of the day of the murder, his interactions with Sarah Koenig, and what its like to be hunted by Reddit. [more inside]
A March to the Grave
Joseph Roth and the End of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
No standard biography of Roth exists in English, but this collection of his letters, superbly translated and judiciously edited by long-time Roth advocate Michael Hofmann, provides a more intimate portrait than any biography could. Roth’s letters are a study in authorial candor: in vino veritas, at least in part, for some of them were composed while he was drunk, getting that way, or hungover—the grim trinity that dominated his life more and more until he died of it, plus weltschmerz, in Paris in 1939. He was just short of 45 and had come a long way to die so young. He left behind one masterpiece, The Radetzky March, in which, in a series of vivid set-pieces, he evokes the reality of life high and low during the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s long decline, a vast theme encapsulated in the Trotta family, who ascend to nobility and imperial favor from provincial origins on the obscure fringes of the realm.[more inside]
“I don’t remember exactly,” I say. “It was so long ago.”
On Not Remembering.
For me, dwelling on the past has become a habit of mind. Even more than that, it’s become the material of my work. My drive to make art out of the miserable, the glorious, the confusing material of my past, seems deeply embedded in my creative DNA. If I were a different kind of writer, my past might become merely the trace elements underlying my fiction; if I were a different kind of writer, I could have the multiple “I”s of the lyric poet without being held to any one of them as the absolute autobiographical truth. Instead, I seem condemned to the limited material of my own past.
Braiding Bread
Perhaps you would like to watch some videos of a dentist and self-published cookbook author from Chile
braiding bread beautifully. [more inside]
David Bowie Is
"There was an interesting video installation that featured part of an old BBC documentary on Bowie. The commentary on the then-burgeoning star was fairly contemptuous, including a haughty sniff about how most of his fans were '14-to-20-year-old girls.' This is something that feminist and womanist cultural critics still observe — how a largely young female fan base is used to discredit the integrity and value of artists. This, despite the fact that, over and over, young women have 'discovered' and launched the careers of dozens of influential men and women. Like David Bowie, who is now considered so culturally important that he has a globally renowned exhibit dedicated to his career, which tens of thousands of people have clamored to get into." [more inside]
A Constant Drizzle of Disappointment
The Real Roots of Midlife Crisis In The Atlantic, Jonathan Rauch writes about why the forties are such a hard age for so many people.
Long ago, when I was 30 and he was 66, the late Donald Richie told me: “Midlife crisis begins sometime in your 40s, when you look at your life and think, Is this all? And it ends about 10 years later, when you look at your life again and think, Actually, this is pretty good.”(Previously on Metafilter: another thoughtful essay by Rauch.)
Browser-emulated MS-DOS games
60 Years of Urban Change
Use a slider to compare aerial views of major US cities from c. the 1950s and today from the Midwest, Oklahoma and Texas, and the Southeast. From Shane Hamilton at the University of Oklahoma's Institute for Quality Communities.
HFR till end of the world confirmed
When CNN launched in 1980, then-owner Ted Turner bragged that the 24-hour cable channel wouldn't sign off until the world ended--and would play "Nearer My God to Thee" when it did. It turns out he wasn't kidding: This Is The Video CNN Will Play When The World Ends
The Dignity of Risk
In the wake of increased compliance enforcement of the 1999 Olmstead Decision, which ruled that the unnecessary institutionalization of persons with mental illness was a civil rights violation, a man who suffers from schizophrenia and cerebral palsy struggles with the challenges of independent living after years of homelessness and psychiatric facilities.
"This world is not easy,” he said. “You can’t deal with it yourself. You gotta have somebody."
Wasted
Wicked Professor!
Tops Blooby!
Bored? Like Adventure Time? Try playing one of these many, many Adventure Time games.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"
It really looks like something straight out of a nightmare what the guys at Film Shortage picked this time. Venetian masks are haunting.
Open F|S
The Smithsonian's Freer|Sackler galleries has digitized the entire collection of 40,000 works for high-resolution download for non-commercial use.
Disneyland time-lapppppse
An entire day in Disneyland, compressed to 90 seconds using composites of over 20,000 images taken in time-lapse. Kind of amazing day to night transitions, immense crowds, and nice slow pans across the landscapes show a familiar place in a whole new light.
listen to this in the dark and you will LOSE YOURSELF
The Morning News' Andrew Womack's Top Albums of 2014, with help from youtube commenters. (mlyt + Spotify and Rdio playlists)
"Internet Famous"
That's a lot of science
Every year, Australia designates a week in August and spends that week actively celebrating and promoting science with events, activities, and general sciency-ness. Everybody has a great time doing hands-on experiments, looking at exhibitions, talking, laughing, viewing, inhaling, tasting science. This is known as the National Science WeekWhich is why in August of last year Signe Cane started her Common Year of daily science blogging, inspired to do so by Sarah Keenihan's 2012 (and still going) Science for Life daily science blogging project.
As a science writer and passionate nerd I would like every week to be science week.
Slave songs, songs of hope.
Béatrice "Betty" Bonifassi (wiki) has been exploring music rising from slavery for some time now.
About 10 years ago she recorded a song called No Heaven (4min) with DJ Champion et ses G-Strings, where the influence is present.
She recently released a self titled album with the subtext of chants d'esclaves, chants d'espoir or slave songs, songs of hope. A taste from a live presentation of Prettiest Train / No More my Lawrd . (5min 27sec)
Here is a short interview she did in English talking about the music. (5min)
Lomax audio recordings of prisoners with hoes preforming Prettiest Train (3min45sec). And prisoners with axes give rendition of No More, My Lord (2min50sec) [more inside]
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