December 15, 2015
Eep. Hop, hop, hop. Roll.
"I thought it was normal."
[tw: descriptions of abuse] NHL player Patrick O'Sullivan writes about surviving his abusive childhood, how he came to be a professional hockey player, and what adults should and can do when they see a child who needs their help. [more inside]
There's room for more
This is what happens when you photoshop all the men out of politics, media, music. (SLYT)
And the nominees are:
TPM's Ninth Annual Golden Dukes. The awards are named in honor of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who epitomizes the iconic modern scandal. Each year we single out those practitioners of scandal who through their own unmatched bumbling, shameless behavior, criminality or mere derp have set new standards for public corruption, betrayal of the public trust and general ridiculousness.
Reader....
The Traveling Old-Fashioned Glasses (SL Metropolitan Diary)
Probably not Disney sponsored
When you're all out of whisky (previously), and you're still looking to boost your hygge (previously) while also preparing for a cinematic event that's currently in progress, may I suggest settling in with a few hours worth of the Darth Vader Yule Log? [more inside]
On grief and the pain it brings
"And then he utters the words. The words that are responsible for nothing less than emotional, spiritual and psychological violence:
Everything happens for a reason. That this was something that had to happen in order for her to grow.
That's the kind of bullshit that destroys lives. And it is categorically untrue. "
The Narco-Terror Trap
Lou Milione, a senior official at [the DEA], told me, “One of the things the DEA is kind of in the business of is almost all of our investigations are proactive.” But Russell Hanks, a former senior American diplomat, who got a firsthand look at some of the DEA’s narco-terrorism targets during the time he served in West Africa, told me, “The DEA provided everything these men needed to commit a crime, then said, ‘Wow, look what they did.’” He added, “This wasn’t terrorism — this was the manipulation of weak-minded people, in weak countries, in order to pad arrest records." [more inside]
The history of lesbian slang--or the absence thereof
Last week, the BBC radio programme Woman’s Hour ran an item on the American documentary film "Do I Sound Gay?" The film explores what’s popularly known as ‘the gay voice’, a way of speaking that identifies a man as gay (though not all gay men have it, and some men who do sound gay are actually straight). The Woman’s Hour feature ranged more widely over the subject of gay language, including a lengthy discussion of Polari (previously: 1, 2). But it was all about the boys–-until, towards the end of the item, the presenter broached the inevitable question: do lesbians also have a language of their own? Nothing comparable to Polari--but we do have some
historical evidence of in-group lesbian slang.
"I need my community to understand your message directly impacts them"
Killer Mike interviews Senator Bernie Sanders at The SWAG Shop for about an hour, in six parts:
- Economic Freedom
- Social Justice
- Rigged
- Free Health Care: It Ain’t A Big Deal
- This Country Was Started AS An Act Of Political Protest
- Democrats Win When People Vote
... who served together, died together, and were buried together.
Thoughts on Honor, Service, and Memory by Michael B. Klein.
"The City of Flint has experienced a Manmade disaster"
The city of Flint, Michigan, disconnected its municipal water supply from the Detroit system in April 2014 while a new pipeline to Lake Huron was being installed. The interim supply came from the local Flint River, and almost immediately, people complained that the new water was cloudy and smelled bad. Over the next eighteen months, though, the news got worse, and the state came up with $12 million to switch the water supply back. This week, the newly elected Mayor of Flint declared an emergency due to skyrocketing lead levels in the blood of Flint's children, asking the Genesee County Board of Commissioners to address the situation.
The epic quest of a fisherman to save his daughter from the Hades
Locomalito (previously, 2, 3, 4) has released his latest free retro game for Windows, the Castlevania/Ninja Gaiden/Rygar influenced Curse of Issyos. View the trailer here.
Da Art of Storytellin' (A Prequel)
I already knew OutKast; I loved their first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, in part because of the clever way they interpolated funk and soul into rap. ATLiens, however, sounded unlike anything I’d ever heard or imagined. The vocal tones were familiar, but the rhyme patterns, the composition, the production were equal parts red clay, thick buttery grits, and Mars. Nothing sounded like ATLiens. The album instantly changed not just my expectations of music, but my expectations of myself as a young black Southern artist.
Don't get caught tippling in the stable
Legal Curiosities: Fact or Fable? Among its other responsibilities, Britain's Law Commission works to repeal antiquated or irrelevant laws (NYT article) such as a 1536 law extending a London graveyard or the India Steam Ship Company Act 1838. The commission's "Legal Curiosities" note provides guidance as to which notorious "silly laws" are actually in force (actual example in force: it is illegal to be drunk in charge of a horse, and it is illegal to be drunk on licensed premises, both due to the Licensing Act 1872; not a real law in force: it is illegal for a lady to eat chocolate on a public conveyance.)
Goodbye, Gutenberg
The Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster have both picked their words of the year for 2015. Neither one is a word. Of course, the 2015 Scrabble "Dictionary" was a little ahead of these two in redefining the word "word."
Apparently a movie about magical Customs and Quarantine.
The teaser trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, whose screenplay is written by J. K. Rowling based on the in-canon textbook and IRL spinoff of the Harry Potter series, is now out.
"Well ya know, for me, the action is the juice."
A guy told me one time, "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."Michael Mann's Heat was released 20 years ago today. [more inside]
Ask Abigail, She knows
Hamilton is all the rage right now, putting Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington on the stage and smack-dab in the middle of the pop cultural zeitgeist ... but what about Button Gwinnett? The little-known signer of the Declaration of Independence has never gotten the glory the other founding fathers got.
Until now. Stephen Colbert and Lin-Manuel Miranda bring you "Button!" a hip-hop musical in one song.
not with 95% confidence
It's a little impressive
Itty bitty bandaids. Teeny tiny toothpaste. Pipsqueak pills. Eenie meenie EOS. Dime sized diary. Teensy weensy teabags.
Animation vs. Minecraft
Passphrases That You Can Memorize — But That Even the NSA Can’t Guess
Passphrases That You Can Memorize — But That Even the NSA Can’t Guess. It turns out, coming up with a good passphrase by just thinking of one is incredibly hard, and if your adversary really is capable of one trillion guesses per second, you’ll probably do a bad job of it. If you use an entirely random sequence of characters it might be very secure, but it’s also agonizing to memorize (and honestly, a waste of brain power). ... But luckily this usability/security trade-off doesn’t have to exist. ... [more inside]
Moe desu
This stressful, ongoing debate fuels the seeming paradox of an “endearing” military force. In Japan, where indirect communication is highly valued, cute illustrations have long played the role of tension-breakers and mediators in situations of conflict. Thus kawaii mascots, whether miniskirted girls or bunny-rabbit decoy launchers, are both a reflection of pop-cultural trends and a way to defuse the very touchy issues surrounding the military’s undeniable presence.
Madonna, Christ and Mughal Paintings
The paintings commissioned by Akbar and Jahangir were a blend of Western iconography with Indian and Islamic elements. [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »