February 16, 2016
“First up: two hundred and four hours of chanting.”
Ever since August of 2013, first Laurent Fintoni (“And This One Time…”) and then Miles Bowe (“Pay What You Want”) have traveled to the farthest reaches of Bandcamp to find its best content (at least, by the slightly outré lights of FACT Magazine). While twenty-six of the releases have disappeared, more than one hundred remain. They are linked within, for your sampling pleasure. (Not included: “It made quite a splish” by The Fish Was Delish) [more inside]
Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy
Why Hamilton—Not Jefferson—Is the Father of the American Economy - "How we can better energize America's economy, create more jobs, and provide more fulfilling lives for our citizens?" By Stephen Cohen and Brad DeLong (previously; [unfinished] book preview) [more inside]
Affinity fraud
Why were most of Bernie Madoff's victims Jewish? For instance, he "wiped out Elie Wiesel’s life savings, and stole $15 million from Wiesel’s foundation." Answer: Affinity fraud. "My own incidental exposure would be comical if the stakes weren’t so serious. I happen to live in a majority African American neighborhood in south Chicagoland. . . ."
♫Come and face the music, the music, hallelujah, hallelujah♫
The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuses would very much like to speak to Catholic Archbishop George Pell about child abuse by the Ballarat Catholic Clergy and claims that Pell tried to bribe an abuse victim to keep quiet. Formerly the highest ranked Australian clergyman and now posted to the Vatican, Pell has declined to attend the Commission to give evidence, claiming that he's too unwell to fly. Amidst anger from survivors at Pell's continued delays and pro bono offers from doctors to transport Pell safely, musical comedian and Matilda composer Tim Minchin wades into the mix with an empassioned plea: COME HOME (CARDINAL PELL) [more inside]
Architectures
Architectures is a youtube playlist of 53 short (1/2 hour) architectural videos of buildings around the world, mainly Europe.
The Patronage and Cronyism of the "Hillary Clinton Victory Fund"
Blogger suggests that a win For Hillary Clinton's methods on the way to the White House is a loss for participatory democracy. Alongside the quiet rollback of Obama's ban on contributions from federal lobbyists within the DNC comes what appears to be a novel tactic to maintain control of the nomination process by the Democratic establishment or HRC: the formation of fundraising agreements between HRC and state Democratic parties. The implications for participatory democracy do not seem good given that state parties with their success financially tied to HRC's success must oversee very narrow caucuses and primaries.
I'm just charging $10 because I need to buy paint
"It's a tremendous strain on the animators' wrists."
The Simpsons to air live episode (well, kinda sorta...)
"The final three minutes of the May 15 show will use motion capture technology to animate actor Dan Castellaneta — the voice of Homer whom Jean called 'a great improviser' — in real-time." [more inside]
"The final three minutes of the May 15 show will use motion capture technology to animate actor Dan Castellaneta — the voice of Homer whom Jean called 'a great improviser' — in real-time." [more inside]
Indignant Comments Below
"Last season, this thing was not a thing,” says trend spotter, a freelance expert." 'Trend Piece' by Rosemary Counter.
The More things Change, The More They Stay the Same
Ramon Casiano is a name you won't likely recognize. At a show this weekend, the Drive-by Truckers debuted a song called, Ramon Casiano, which you can listen to here. (it's track 18. I couldn't find a way to link directly to it. It tells the largely forgotten story of Ramon's murder in Texas in 1931 by Harlon B. Carter, who went on to become head of the NRA, and is largely responsible for changing the organization from one that promoted hunting and sportsmanship to one that focuses on combating anything that smacks of "gun control."
Preparing For Your Appointment at the Podiatrist.
Preparing For Your Appointment at the Podiatrist Identify the problem. Recall your shaky theories about the dark spot on your left big toenail that first appeared you-can’t-remember-when: it’s mud, it’s a smear of brown hair dye, it’s a bruise from a 25-pound bag of trash you dropped on your foot while clearing out your childhood home to put it up for sale.
Vegan Butcher Shops: A global trend finally hitting the U.S.
At The Herbivorous Butcher, vegan meats are escaping the uncanny valley of meatless meat flavors. Although not the first vegetarian butcher shop in the world, they appear to be the first in the U.S., part of a global trend. Their grand opening was January 23rd.
Became a recluse and bought a computer. Set it up in the home
"Whatever you think, y’know, 45 percent – nearly half the country – is not interested in computers, doesn’t fucking want access to them, can’t afford them. That’s British. Why does everyone have to be online? That’s not English to me."
An interview with Mark E. Smith of The Fall from Channel 4 News last night. NME coverage.
GOLDEN GLOBE COMBO!
“It rubs the lotion on its skin.”
'Silence of the Lambs' at 25: The Complete Buffalo Bill Story by Kory Grow [Rolling Stone] [more inside]
Little Atoms: A lot of time
Little Atoms is a London based website, podcast and magazine dedicated to ideas and culture with an emphasis on ideas of the Enlightenment. A radio show, that became a podcast, that has made the counter-zeitgeist move of recently creating an actual print edition. A ridiculous amount of brain food that will waste/enhance many a mefi’s (wo)man hours.
Highlights (for me so far)
Podcast: Peter Pomerantsev on Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible.
Article: Blue Monday’s not real, but the happiness industry can still get you down.
Random: David Bowie translated into Old English. [more inside]
Where are the minority professors?
From The Chronicle of Higher Education: An interactive look at the demographics of more than 400,000 professors at 1,500 colleges, showing where those of each rank, gender, race/ethnicity, and tenure status can be found. [more inside]
the first, most vital task of every radical revolutionary
Millennial Revolt with Marshall Harford III: How I Use Radical Self-Love to Express My Hatred of Capitalism [more inside]
Highway to the Vapor Cone
Ensign John Gay of the U.S. Navy had just returned home from several months aboard the U.S.S. Constellation in the South Pacific when his phone rang. A reporter for a photography magazine was on the line, hoping to discuss the 2000 World Press Photo Awards. Gay was perplexed: “Who are you and what do you want?” he said. The reporter explained that Gay’s photo had taken first prize in the Science and Technology category, which was news to Gay: he didn’t even know he’d entered the prestigious contest.
Love, Naturally*
Why Do Black Women In Movies Have To Choose Between A Weave And A Relationship? "Pop culture fronts like black women can’t love both a partner and our hair extensions, but it’s really not that deep." Hannah Giorgis writes for Buzzfeed about the strange movie trope of black women taking out weaves when falling in love
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The NSA’s SKYNET program may be killing thousands of innocent people "In 2014, the former director of both the CIA and NSA proclaimed that "we kill people based on metadata." Now, a new examination of previously published Snowden documents suggests that many of those people may have been innocent."
Espionage Techniques of Seventeenth-Century Women
While Dr. Nadine Akkerman of Leiden University was examining letters sent by Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (Google books preview) during her exile in the Hague, she discovered that some were filled with secret codes.... Akkerman was intrigued as to why the queen would require such covert correspondence. This was her first encounter with the 17th-century female spy.Within England, Dr. Akkerman uncovered a network of more than sixty female spies. [more inside]
hooooooooooooooo...
"On February 26th I lost my life, too."
"Minutes after Kendrick Lamar scored his fifth Grammy of the night for Best Rap Album, he won the stage. Performing a medley that included "Alright" and "The Blacker the Berry," he approached the microphone chained to other black men in a makeshift prison block. What followed was a Biggie-invoking, glow-in-the-dark, Fela!-inspired event fit for Broadway."
"Men are the new carpetbaggers..."
The Testosterone Takeover of Southern Food Writing In which Kathleen Purvis asks why male voices have come to dominate big-market Southern food writing and pokes at the genre's resulting obsessions with "bourbon, barbecue and pork belly." From The Bitter Southerner.
Brush your teeth, do your homework, and speak Finnish.
Learn everything you need to know about Finnish—the secret language of Finland—with Kirikou. Jump wantonly, and learn the magic of verbal derivational suffixes. Kiitos! Anteeksi.
Hazard cone? Where?
To start your Tuesday morning: Pets that are stuck but pretending everything is fine.
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