October 17, 2007
Tommy Johnson - Cool Drink of Water
"Poor people sending even poorer people $100"
What is the most important antipoverty program in the world? The surprising answer is remittances, the earnings sent from overseas workers back home - which, according to a new study, totals over $300 billion a year. There is an interactive map that shows you the impact per country: over 10% of the GDP of economies such as Morocco, Jordan, and the Philippines comes from these payments, which are often the largest source of investment for most developing countries. The New York Times has a neat feature showing how global migration and remittances are tied together.
Give us this day our daily Google.
I knew it would eventually happen. I didn't expect it so soon. The Church of Google.
Burma
Risking all: the Burmese jokers who laugh in the face of danger. In Burma (Myanmar), comedians are targets in the junta's war on words. [Via BB.] [more inside]
PEZ dispenser modification
Learn New Words, Give Free Rice
Give ten grains of rice for each word you get right. It builds up very quickly.
Ametrica!
The U.S. is of course one of three countries that still use the English system of measurement, but Amy Wang (originally from metric-system-using Taiwan) won the Adobe Design Achievement Award in Environmental Graphics and Packaging in 2006 for “Ametrica!”, a campaign to get the U.S. to switch to the metric system instead. Whether you’re for or against metrication in America, Wang’s project is fresh and practical. [Via.]
Double Shotgun Mounted Bed
How many times as this happened to you? (warning: video/audio). It's late at night, you're in bed & you need to kill someone with a shotgun, only to find out the gun is ALL THE WAY across the room. Well, friend, your prayers are answered.
IM IN UR WASTELANDS, RUINING UR LITERATURES
IM IN UR WASTELAND BURYING UR DEAD
april hates u, makes lilacs, u no can has.
april in ur memoriez, making ur desire.
spring rain in ur dull rootzes.
april hates u, makes lilacs, u no can has.
april in ur memoriez, making ur desire.
spring rain in ur dull rootzes.
another beautiful french guitarist
To me, he embodies The classical guitarist with all the clichés attached. But he can also make any material his own, or use forms with humor. He's got good compositions too.
War in Iraq continuing to go to plan.... well, everyone else's plan but the Administration's
Turkish MPs back attacks in Iraq. [BBC] The vote was taken in defiance of pressure from the US and Iraq, which have called on Turkey for restraint. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the motion does not mean a military operation is imminent. But he said Turkey needed to be able to respond to a recent rise in bomb attacks blamed on PKK rebels from Iraq [Previously].
Also, [SeaTimes] Flourishing Kurdistan raises specter of war. Needless to say, this is giving the Bush Administration a four alarm Turkish headache on two fronts.
Voodoo Funk - 11 African funk mp3 mixes
Voodoo Funk - 11 African funk mixes from a vinyl archaeologist in Guinea
Like a Boot to the Head
That which cures all (mental) ills. Andy Kadir-Buxton claims to have found a simple cure-all for mental illness, namely boxing someone in the ears. He also claims to have a cure for infertility in women and a solution to the energy crisis/global warming.
These shoes rule. These shoes suck.
How you'll wear shoes in the future... "You start with a 'bone': the made-to-measure core of the shoe that cradles your foot. You cover the bone with one of many 'skins,' the shell and sole of the shoe that creates the look everyone else sees."
MRSA... the global medical communities dirty little secret.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus.
In 2005, invasive MRSA infections were estimated to have killed 18,650
in the United States alone. This may be a conservative estimate. It is going global. It is
changing politics.
It may become pandemic. [more inside]
Poker is a game of chance. But some chances are better than others.
Poker is pretty popular, and it seems like almost everyone is making money at it. At the tables, on Wall Street, and online.
The World Poker Tour helped create the current boom and, with the World Series of Poker, helped make poker players into rock stars. [more inside]
I saw the light, I saw the light
John Lennon’s lighthouse. He said, ‘Well, actually, I invited you because I wanted to know if you can build the lighthouse in my garden,’ and I said: ‘Oh, dear, no, no. It’s just a conceptual idea. I don’t know how to build anything.’
Yoko makes a dream of John's come true in Iceland. It’s geothermal. Amy Goodman's take on the subject. And, of course, video.
The Blues, Left Blue
The Uncensored History of the Blues is a fantastic podcast exploring some rougher aspects of blues history. From the Delta Blues Museum.
Smart Man With Foot, Head in Wrong Places
Something of a wild man - James Watson, the Nobel-Prize-winning DNA researcher, has made some (more) provocative remarks. Dr Watson told The Sunday Times that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really". He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true". [more inside]
Amazing Union Square Strangers
Anatomy of an Authentic Skateboarder
1. Upturned sun visor.
2. scruffy, gnashing teeth, beedy-eyed mug that only Aphex Twin could love.
3. Lots and lots of chest hair.
Meet the Amazing Strangers of Union Square, photographed and commented on by Normal Bob Smith. [previously]
1. Upturned sun visor.
2. scruffy, gnashing teeth, beedy-eyed mug that only Aphex Twin could love.
3. Lots and lots of chest hair.
Meet the Amazing Strangers of Union Square, photographed and commented on by Normal Bob Smith. [previously]
Has Skynet come online?
RepRap is a self-replicating rapid prototype machine (3D printer) using fused deposition modelling. You can build one, although I'm not sure why you'd need to....
“Please do the necessary things to stop production of the book.”
"“If the book were to be published as it is in its present edited form, I may never write another story, that’s how closely, God Forbid, some of those stories are to my sense of regaining my health and mental well-being.”
The New York Times reported today that Raymond Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, is pushing to republish the stories in Carver's acclaimed 1981 breakout collection, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," in their original, unedited form. [more inside]
Reverse Graffiti
Reverse Graffiti. Alexandre Orion makes it for a cause and sometimes gets caught [YouTube]. "Moose" of Symbollix makes it for fun and profit. [more inside]
Can I play too
Future Patron Saint of Abu Ghraib
On October 28, the Pope will beatify (certify as Blessed) several martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, among them Gabino Olaso Zabala. Only thing is, Zabala is known to have participated in the torture of a fellow priest. Disturbingly, some Catholics are rallying behind a man who never publicly regretted his abusive past.
Get the skinny on your zip
Zipskinny Enter your zip code and get US census info-plus compare with other zip codes.
Stringbean. And his banjo. And those pants.
For lovers of old-time, mountain banjo styles and songs, Roscoe Holcomb and Dock Boggs are revered figures. To many, however, plucker and singer David Akeman remains uncelebrated or unknown, even by his stage name of Stringbean. Is it because he was for a time actually famous as a country music showbiz staple, and therefore lacks folk cred? Or maybe the purists just can't get with those low-hanging pants the man was known for, his original hillbilly homeboy styling? Or was it cause on any given tune his left hand would likely be off the neck of the banjo more than on it? Whatever the reason, it's time folks took a new look at Stringbean. After all, the lines between folk and commercial styles have always been blurry in American music. Let's hear it for Stringbeeeeeeeaaan! [more inside]
Stephen Colbert is running for president... in South Carolina.
31 hours, 4 minutes
31 hours, 4 minutes. Blowing the doors off the previous record of 32 hours, 7 minutes, Alex Roy of Team Polizei and co-pilot Dave Maher set a new transcontinental driving record in a modified BMW M5. Of course, to pull off such a feat today required a modest collection of equipment: thermal night-vision camera, binoculars, radar detector, radar jammer, CB and police scanners, oh, and a spotter airplane. As you might expect, not everyone is celebrating. Some photos.
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