February 8, 2015
The Pink Elephant in the Room
One year later, has Michael Sam been frozen out of the NFL?
When I was a kid, I always outsmarted myself in multiple-choice tests. I'd always get it wrong because I over-thought the question every time. In my adult life I've learned that the most obvious answer is generally the right one. The answer to the question I've posed to so many - Why is Michael Sam not with an NFL team? - is also likely the most obvious one: because he's openly gay. Defensive ends with the same size and the same speed - yet with less production in college and the NFL preseason - are in the NFL and Sam is not because he's gay and he just won't stop being gay.
Conversing with a musician's musician
Ry Cooder shares an hour of vignettes about skipping school in the '50s to teach himself guitar by listenting to hillbilly radio, how he came to work with Flaco Jiminez, being schooled by the old time Cuban musicians in the Buena Vista Social Club recording and more. Music journalist Barry Mazor draws him out about his 50-year career in a delightful and highly entertaining chat - an hour didn't seem nearly long enough.
Dreadful Sorry, Clementine
The Sweptaways, a Swedish group of "20 women singing choir pop songs," offer a unique take on the American folk song "Oh My Darling, Clementine." [more inside]
Dean Smith (1931-2015)
Legendary former University of North Carolina men's basketball coach Dean Smith has died at the age of 83 (NYT obit). [more inside]
Warning: Memetic Hazard
The music of Stubbs the Zombie, indie rock takes on doo-wop
In the witty, gory video game Stubbs the Zombie, the dead roam a "city of the future" circa 1959, forcing the living to do their bidding before feasting on their brains. Meanwhile, on the game's soundtrack (YT playlist), indie rockers both famous and obscure reanimate classic songs from the late '50s and early '60s. Despite the album's high-concept nature, many of these covers aren't nearly as jokey as they could've been, and most of them mix a real love of the original songs with distinctive approaches.A look back at 12 modern covers of vintage pop hits (and one original song), with Ben Kweller taking on The Chordettes and The Drifters remaking The Walkmen, and more. [more inside]
Wagering on the future of sports betting
A Life On The Line: For four decades, other gamblers have tried to be Billy Walters while investigators have tried to bring him down. And for four decades, the world's most successful sports bettor has outrun them all.
For 38-year-old Rubalcada, being at the M is a pleasing trip down memory lane, a visit to his primary workplace throughout 2010 and 2011. Back then, he had nearly $1 million in his account at the M. Dressed in slacks and a sport coat, he would saunter in and bet six figures a week on NFL and college games. He was, M Resort staffers say, one of the sportsbook's "bigger guys" -- a high roller who could afford to bet very, very big.[more inside]
But he wasn't that at all.
In fact, Rubalcada was a faceless grunt in the most successful gambling enterprise of all time.
so that's where the waste management cover went to
Secret stash of Moon artifacts found hidden in Neil Armstrong's closet. The artifacts have been sent to the National Air and Space Museum for research and preservation. The article shows pictures of each one and where it was used in the Lunar Module. Even more detail over at nasa.gov!
Beyond Traffic.
Alleged swatting prankster “Famed God” arrested in Las Vegas
A 19-year-old Las Vegas teen is expected to appear in court Monday, days after being arrested in connection to a July swatting incident in suburban Illinois. Brandon Wilson, who goes by the online handle "Famed God," was arrested Thursday in Nevada and faces an extradition hearing to determine whether he should be sent to face hacking and other charges. [more inside]
Uh...
Um, here’s an, uh, map that shows where Americans use 'um' vs. 'uh.' "Every language has filler words that speakers use in nervous moments or to buy time while thinking. Two of the most common of these in English are 'uh' and 'um.' They might seem interchangeable, but data show that their usage break down across surprising geographic lines. Hmm." And these lines may give evidence of the so-called Midland dialect. [more inside]
I am the Ghost that haunts the Bauhaus
Xanti Schawinsky had a prolific artistic life that spanned paintings to drawings, from experimental photography to stage design, from jazz music and complex theater work to exhibition design, commercial graphic and product design.
From The Faces of War exhibition and a few more. (Thanks Tom B).
From The Faces of War exhibition and a few more. (Thanks Tom B).
Kim Gordon
"The couple everyone believed was golden and normal and eternally intact, who gave younger musicians hope they could outlast a crazy rock’n’roll world, was now just another cliche of relationship failure – a male midlife crisis, another woman, a double life."
Egg Freezing and Dating
That morning, I was single and 37 years old, almost precisely the average age at which women freeze their eggs, although I didn’t know that then. Freezing my eggs did not change my dating life. What it did do was expose me, again and directly, to the ways we treat women when there is a decision to be made about their bodies: We judge, pressure, and publicly debate a woman’s ability to direct her own life. We fret about women’s susceptibility to “false hope,” about their being manipulated by the egg-freezing industrial complex, rather than believing women to be capable of assessing information and understanding risk. We judge women who pay thousands of dollars to freeze their eggs, rather than spending that energy advocating for those who can’t. We criticize women for not being able to control variables that are necessarily out of their control, something that is insulting to everyone involved. [more inside]
Do you cleave to "composed of"?
Is "the ultimate Wikignome" a "hero of our times" or is he a quixotic "grammar vigilante"? History may be on your side.
A debate regarding the correctness of "comprised of".
"The black communities were just too difficult to work in"
“[M]uch of the music he recorded this way, including many blues and work songs, are powerful expressions of overlooked cultures. But his quest for a ‘pure’ black music untouched by white influences was problematic... This much is undeniable: right at the time the Civil Rights movement was trying to bring whites and blacks together in a common cause, Lomax drew a hard line between white music and black music that — with help from the record companies — helped keep us apart.” How Alan Lomax Segregated Music.
Is this better or worse than The Ghost Whisperer?
Do you love to hate TV? Join the podcast The Televoid as they "travel to the deepest depths bad TV has gone." [more inside]
“...I am presently too much a part of the news...”
Brian Williams, Under Scrutiny, Will Take Leave From ‘NBC Nightly News’ [New York Times]
Brian Williams, acknowledging that the scrutiny and criticism he was attracting was becoming a distraction for his network, said on Saturday that he was stepping aside as anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News” for the next several days.[more inside]
Strange Fire Area
Communi-bear Silo State! United States of Lions! Snow Wizards! This is Earth A-D, the world of Kamandi. (Click for glorious large size version.) [more inside]
Fiction influences reality: Quincy M.E.'s role in the Orphan Drug Act
How Quincy M.E. Changed American Law and Saved Lives discusses the serendipitous way that a young man's need for medication for Tourette's syndrome came to the attention of a family member of actor Jack Klugman and resulted in the Orphan Drug Act of 1983.
(main article by MeFi's own Garius) [more inside]
The flamenco of Sevilla
Soleá follows an aspiring flamenco guitarist around the streets of Sevilla. "Ten years playing for dancers, ten years playing for singers, and, afterward, you can begin to become a soloist." A short video from The New Yorker (alt link).
Women of the Islamic State: A Manifesto
Women of the Islamic State: A manifesto on women by the Al-Khanssaa Brigade is a manifesto by women, for women "that aims to clarify the realities of life and the hallowed existence of women in the Islamic State, in Iraq and in al- Sham, and to refute the rumours that detractors advance against it." [more inside]
You are an ecosystem
Some of the real monsters of the mite world live in soil, where one can find predatory mites armed with a medieval arsenal of mouthparts. Some have jaws with sharklike teeth; others bear smooth blades that snap together with tremendous force; still others stab with sharp and deadly sabers. These beasts stalk the tunnels of worms and the tiny holes between grains of sand.Not to mention the hairs of your eye lashes...
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