October 10, 2013
Conflicts of interest
Conflicts of interest in the Syria debate: An analysis of the defense industry ties of experts and think tanks who commented on military intervention
Storyboard 75: The big book of narrative
Since the first stirrings of the Nieman Foundation’s narrative writing program nearly 20 years ago, the staff has tended a treasure trove of resource material devoted to excellence in journalistic storytelling. Much of that material went online first via the Nieman Narrative Digest and, in 2009, here at Nieman Storyboard. Storyboard 75 represents some of the most popular posts from our archive so far. Essays, interviews, how-to’s and analyses of narrative journalism.
Kumar Valavhadas Pallana (1918-2013)
5 Minutes With Kumar, episodes 2 - 3 - 4
The Rituals of Kumar
“THE YOUNG AGE IS A STUPID AGE”
OR
NO HUSTLE, NO BUSTLE
An interview with Kumar Pallana (1918-2013).
The Rituals of Kumar
“THE YOUNG AGE IS A STUPID AGE”
OR
NO HUSTLE, NO BUSTLE
An interview with Kumar Pallana (1918-2013).
Pink?
"I am not a ranter by any means and I have been pretty quiet about “Pinktober” and what has come to be known as “Pinkwashing” in breast cancer circles, but seeing October 13th advertised as “National No Bra Day” and as a “fun” way to support people with breast cancer has pushed me over the edge."
A perspective worth considering.
Musical Trains
A Robot Train That Lets You Write Music With Magic Markers: "... much of Suzuki's work focuses on new ways to visualize music. Looks Like Music is his new project, an alternative to standardized Western musical notation synesthetic enough for even dyslexics to understand. Even cooler? It's music notation done with robots." [more inside]
King of diamonds, king of spades! Bezos was king of the kingdom of work
The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store, Brad Stone (Businessweek) "Amazon’s culture is notoriously confrontational, and it begins with Bezos, who believes that truth shakes out when ideas and perspectives are banged against each other. Wilke and his colleagues argued that lubricants were available in supermarkets and drugstores and were not that embarrassing. They also pointed out that Amazon generated a significant volume of sales with such e-mails. Bezos didn’t care; no amount of revenue was worth jeopardizing customer trust. “Who in this room needs to get up and shut down the channel?” he snapped." [more inside]
with your Minimum Requirement of Stephen Fry... and some other stuff
CBS made a deal with producer Greg Garcia ("My Name Is Earl", "Raising Hope", "Yes, Dear") to make two pilots recently. One, "The Millers" with Will Arnett, premiered as a series last week to good ratings and lukewarm reviews. The other remains unsold but CBS (in a semi-unprecedented move) has put the pilot up online. So sit back and waste 22 minutes with a rather "Earl"-esque complex-concept comedy starring Stephen Fry as a loyal butler and Rupert "Ron Weasley" Grint as "SUPER CLYDE".
Native peoples have fought these mascots since 1963
There has long been protest about the name of Washington's NFL team - the "Redskins". In September, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell changed his stance from supporting the name, to saying "if one person is offended, we have to listen." Then last week the President of the United States sided with changing the team's name. Shortly afterward, the NFL agreed to have representatives meet with the Oneida Nation about the name in the next month. Then yesterday Washington team owner Dan Snyder wrote a letter to fans and season ticket holders in an attempt to defend the name "Redskins". But one writer tells what Snyder essentially said with his letter. Amid an official campaign and groundswell of support for changing the name, Ray Harbritter of the Oneida Nation professed "This is not going to away this time" [more inside]
Which Is Creepier: Mom's Costume, or the One In the Box From the Store?
Josh Clark from the Stuff You Should Know Podcast, has put together two amazing galleries of old Halloween costumes. Really old, homemade costumes, and Seventies and Eighties costumes.
Coming Soon
The character posters for Lars Von Trier's "Nymphomaniac" are , ahem, here (NSFW).
Leveraging Imperfections of Sensors for Fingerprinting Smartphones
SensorPrint is a proposal to exploit subtle imperfections in accelerometers as a unique fingerprint for smartphones [pdf]. It's easy to demonstrate the idea: Generate a unique ID for your own device. SensorPrint joins other hardware-based tracking concepts in the pursuit of non-configurable, location-aware, un-deletable "cookies" on your mobile device. [via]
“No other institution would have hired Glenn Greenwald.”
Freedom of Information. The New Yorker looks behind the scenes at The Guardian under current editor Alan Rusbridger, including the investigation of the News of the World phone hacking scandal (previously), overseeing the release of US diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks (previously), and the continuing reporting on NSA material obtained by Edward Snowden (previously).
Godspeed, Scott Carpenter
Scott Carpenter has died at 88. As the commander of Aurora 7 in 1962, Carpenter was the second Mercury astronaut to orbit the Earth. He is best known for having wished his friend John Glenn "Godspeed" as the latter launched into orbit. [more inside]
The Last Hunt
Worse, he is wearing a helmet and will be teased mercilessly by his peer
Greg Shapiro presents Planet Nederland, not a BBC nature show, showing the Dutch in their native habitat. [more inside]
Noble Nobel Offices
Nothing makes a carrot more appealing than turning it into a centipede
If you're looking to play with your food and you've mastered the hotdog octopus (aka octodog), and you're sad that so many of the modern foods-and-crafts projects lack poetry to describe the crafting process, take a peek at Aunt Jo and Uncle George's Kritters of the Kitchen Kingdom from 1922. (And as you could expect, it's dated and a bit racist.)
Points for creativity?
"In a bizarre case involving threats of kidnapping, beatings and physical torture — including the use of an electric cattle prod— two rabbis were charged in New Jersey on Wednesday in a scheme to force men to grant their wives religious divorces." [more inside]
Where will we be in the year 2000?
On the cusp of a new century, Hildebrand’s, a German chocolate company, produced a set of cards depicting the year 2000.
"Once, there was a boy from a small pueblo … "
"He's the most enthusiastic actor I've ever worked with, and it makes you wanna make roles for him." According to Rodriguez, "Everyone calls him Machete now. Even his mom calls him Machete." He's had hypodermic needles jabbed into his neck. He's had a power drill run through his brain. He's had an immolating crucifix speared into his vampire heart. Charles Bronson and Robert De Niro have killed him. Stone Cold Steve Austin and 50 Cent have killed him. Mickey Rourke has killed him twice. In 2010, after nearly three decades of bit parts as brutal, doomed toughs, Trejo finally starred in a movie. In a couple of days, the gonzo sequel Machete Kills will hit theaters, cementing Trejo as just about the least likely Hollywood franchise star you can imagine. (previously)
Nostalgia, Brought To You By Web Technology
2070 Paradigm Shift
Sam Hyde of the satirical sketch-comedy group Million Dollar Extreme managed scam his way into giving a TED Talk at TEDx Drexel. The results were marvelous. [more inside]
Fifty Shades of Orange
"But Bryzgalov still has one more fan-fiction story than Cliff Lee, Allen Iverson, Evan Mathis and most other Philadelphia professional athletes that do not play hockey. Because this phenomenon doesn’t happen for baseball, basketball or football." The Philadelphia City Paper on Flyers Fan Fiction.
Like a boss
Subway by Omid Singh, Winner of the Audience Award, 2013 No Budget Film Festival, interview with Omid
Lana! LANAAA!
Archer does Danger Zone [slyt]
Who Sits On All The Money?
Playing Space Invaders on a mountain
Here's three minutes of giant telescopes shooting lasers into space. (Also on Youtube). [more inside]
In 1492 Christopher Columbus Destroyed Our History
Why celebrating Columbus Day is wrong, and Bartolomé Day is right. (according to theOatmeal.com)
Unlikely to produce portals to Hell after watching, but no promises.
Eye – a video optical illusion that can produce hallucination like effects for a few minutes after you watch it. [blinky slyt | via]
IKEA or Death
Shootout at the Goodreads Corral
A couple of weeks ago, Goodreads — a massive social networking and cataloging site for books, readers and authors — announced a change in its moderation policy. From now on, the site’s administrators would be deleting “reviews that were created primarily to talk about author behavior.” [more inside]
Despise what you do. Despise your whole crew. You're so out of touch.
Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize in Literature
Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Munro is praised by the Swedish Academy as a "master of the contemporary short story." You can read a long interview with her at the Paris Review website and read some of her short fiction at The New Yorker's website: Amundsen, Gravel, Face, Deep-Holes, Free Radicals, Dimension, Wenlock Edge, The View from Castle Rock, Passion, Runaway and The Bear Came Over the Mountain.
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