October 7, 2013
Alright, get a little closer to the mic, here we go...
First, you might want to listen to the Beach Boys song Sloop John B, just to refresh your memory. Then a look and listen to the video Behind The Sounds: Sloop John B will give you some nice insight into the recording and arranging process and open a window onto the keen production expertise of a young Brian Wilson, directing a roomful of seasoned session pros (none other than the Wrecking Crew). It's how they used to make records, kids!
Andrew Wylie on publishing
"Not very many people read. Most of them drag their knuckles around and quarrel and make money. We’re selling books. It’s a tiny little business. It doesn’t have to be Walmartized." Superagent Andrew Wylie, who represents Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Elmore Leonard, and Philip Roth, among others, talks about the future of publishing, his on-again-off-again relationship with Amazon, and "effete, educated snobs who read," with the New Republic.
The Impossible Geometry of Fanette G.
Bad Librarian! Bad!
Good librarians gone bad. (SLTumblr)
Do Iraqi-Jewish Treasures belong in Iraq or Elsewhere?
On Oct. 11, provided the government shutdown doesn’t interfere, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C., will open an exhibit titled “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage.” On display will be some of the rarest of the materials that were salvaged from the flooded basement of the Mukhabarat, Saddam Hussein’s dreaded intelligence service. All told, the collection contains an estimated 2,700 books and tens of thousands of documents that once belonged to the Jews of Baghdad, who, until they began to flee for Israel in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, constituted one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, dating back more than 2,500 years. - In the chaos of the 2003 war, remnants of a once-thriving Jewish past were saved (or stolen?) by America. Where do they belong? [more inside]
The Senate Chaplain
"You talkin' to me?" has to be the thought in the minds of every one of the members of the Senate.
Let's just get "I love lamp!" out of the way right here.
Elite Fixtures dot com wonders what popular films and comics would be like in a world where people truly appreciated the humble lamp.
We call them BATs - Big Ass Tablets
A look behind the scenes of Fox News' new news room, featuring new giant touch screen interfaces for the news investigators and an interesting image display wall.
Maybe No Longer Forever 20 Years Away?
National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieves fusion break-even "...The latest achievement has been described as the single most meaningful step for fusion in recent years, and demonstrates NIF is well on its way towards the coveted target of ignition and self-sustaining fusion."
"Good evening, I'm Conan O'Brien, President"
Conan Furloughs Non-Essential Staffers [video, 7 min]
The Colossal Vitality of His Illusion
Baz has graciously agreed to let us release this 'before and afters' reel to show our peer group the VFX work completed on his film The Great Gatsby
McCutcheon v. FEC
Supreme Court to consider lifting campaign contribution limits. Reversing McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission would allow unlimited individual campaign contributions.
The New Canon
Media Studies professor Anne Helen Petersen writes about the dominant role of Netflix in her students’ film and television consumption, and its effect on the lasting influence of works that are — or are not — available there:
Through this reliance on Netflix, I’ve seen a new television pantheon begin to take form: there’s what’s streaming on Netflix, and then there’s everything else…[more inside]
Why?
The world's most extensive study of the drug trade has just been published in the medical journal BMJ Open, providing the first "global snapshot" of four decades of the war on drugs. To sum up their most important findings, the average purity of heroin and cocaine have increased, respectively, 60 percent and 11 percent between 1990 and 2007. Cannabis purity is up a whopping 161 percent over that same time. Not only are drugs way purer than ever, they're also way, way cheaper. Coke is on an 80 percent discount from 1990, heroin 81 percent, cannabis 86 percent. After a trillion dollars spent on the drug war, now is the greatest time in history to get high.
Posters to the People
Excellent collection of free, downloadable posters that you can print at home.
Are you looking for low-budget and stylish decor?
These vintage posters can be downloaded in a high-res ZIP format and printed. Most of them are advertising from years gone by.
Are you looking for low-budget and stylish decor?
These vintage posters can be downloaded in a high-res ZIP format and printed. Most of them are advertising from years gone by.
The Schadenfreude section of the Internet
Pike County, OH: As Black As We Wish To Be
In this episode, Al Letson and guest producer Lu Olkowski visit a tiny town in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio where, for a century, residents have shared the common bond of identifying as African-American despite the fact that they look white. The middle segment of the episode, in which a daughter has split from her mother and sister and chosen to identify as white, has been re-edited and aired as a Radiolab short: Ally's Choice
M-Bots: modular cube-shaped robots
Researchers at MIT have created M-Bots, small cubes with internal flywheels that use angular momentum to move and magnets to help them stay aligned, as demonstrated in a video. At this point, the robots are not strictly autonomous; rather they are controlled by commands sent by radio.
Famous paintings re-created in old toys and other common items
Jane Perkins re-creates famous paintings and images using bits of old toys and other commonplace items. Artist's website. Related to button art. Reminiscent of the works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
Trick or Tweet.
Bird. Here to remind you that Halloween is on its way.
Fake Real Stamps and Real Fake Stamps
The U.S. Postal Service prints more than 20 billion stamps a year, the vast majority of which are perfect. However, tiny errors can make even humble 1-cent stamps worth many times more to collectors (or philatelists, if you're feeling formal). The most famous of these is perhaps the Inverted Jenny, which features a biplane flying upside down. Only 100 of the misprinted 24-cent airmail stamps issued in 1918 were found, and one can fetch nearly a million dollars at auction, or even appear in a Florida ballot box (that one was fake). [more inside]
The 100 top things you honestly don't need to do before you die
Coal Camps USA.
Coalfields of the Appalachian Mountains. An encyclopedia of coal towns.
The 10 Most Dangerous Places in New York City
Enemy Cat-batants?
Preservation or facilitation?
Not a decrepit defunct ghost town
No, THIS is Detroit is an Imgur photo album by a Detroit resident fed off with seeing their city objectified as "exploitative ruin porn".
Let's Hike!
Tom Fassbender hiked the John Muir Trail solo and he's written about it on his blog, fordsbasement.
via
This Australian Life
Each week we choose a theme and bring you a variety of stories on that theme... well, not quite. But the Australian radio station ABC Radio National has had a program, Now Hear This, running for almost three years now. It showcases storytelling efforts from amateurs and pros, each given five minutes to tell a story on a particular theme. The results are funny, sad, and beautiful, sometimes all at once. You don't need to be Australian to appreciate them. Official site. SoundCloud. [more inside]
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