March 10, 2008
Romance tourism and the modern woman
Romance tourism, with predominantly middle-aged heterosexual white European and American women looking for younger black men, is flourishing. Short TV documentary on the phenomenon; long documentary taking issue with the hijacking of Rastafarianism by the "Rent-a-dreads"; comedy skit on rent-a-dreads, complete with offensive finale; Grenadian newspaper article blaming HIV spread on sex tourists; discussed by academics; and don't forget the classic film portrayals in How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Vers le Sud/Heading South. [more inside]
Revenge of the Experts
Revenge of the Experts. The individual user has been king on the Internet, but the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward edited information vetted by professionals. "Fueling this is advertising revenue, it is easier to woo advertisers with the promise of controlled content than with hit-and-miss blog blather. 'Nobody wants to advertise next to crap' ".
No more Anonymous AskMe questions?
Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Ban Anonymous Internet Posting. This bill is pretty much a nonstarter, but should online defamation be criminalized? [pdf]
From Abati to Zoppio: historic Italian texts
OPAL Libri Antichi from the University of Turin offers over 3,000 books as free, open PDF files. Most of these date between AD 1500 and 1850 and most are in Italian, with many in French. They tend to be plain books with few illustrations. A few English titles are present, including David Hume's 1800 Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul; several texts by William Wycherley such as Love in a wood: or St. James's-Park (1735); and Richard Lassels 1686 work The voyage of Italy: or, a compleat journey through Italy with the characters of the peaple, and the description of the chief towns ... (volume 2) - an early travel guide. The PDFs are unsearchable plain scans. via this thread in the W4RF forum which contains hundreds of links to free online historical documents
A tribute to the Corsetiere
Corsets - a very comprehensive collection of information about foundation garments. The site is generously illustrated, so it may be NSFW.
OMG what did you do to my brain?
Disturbing on many levels
"It's the first time since Japanese Internment that we've imprisoned children" -- from a post displaying a letter written by a 9 year old Canadian.
Button fly
Remember the old days of the web, where insane collectors cataloged their manias for the world to see? Where terrible design, including "portals" belied neat things kept by amateurs?
I stumbled onto these bank logos via Ffffound and thought they were neat examples of two-color design. But the primary focus of the site is buttons like these.
Also collected: Maritime flyers, Ads for button suppliers, sample cards… All sorts of stuff.
I stumbled onto these bank logos via Ffffound and thought they were neat examples of two-color design. But the primary focus of the site is buttons like these.
Also collected: Maritime flyers, Ads for button suppliers, sample cards… All sorts of stuff.
Can I Get A Napkin Here?
Can I Get a Napkin Here? A food court musical brought to us by the fine folks of Improv Everywhere . For more musicals in public places, check out "Reach! A Lecture Musical!" and "Reading on a Dream: A Library Musical" both from Prangstgrup.
The Wire's over. Sheeeeit.
One Last Long, Boozy Irish Wake for David Simon’s Accidental Masterpiece. New York magazine calls the finale of The Wire "an almost absurdly exhaustive festival of closure," has shot-by-shot commentary on the final montage, and lists ten questions left unanswered [spoilers a go-go] [more inside]
Remember Total Information Awareness?
Two years ago, then NSA-chief Gen. Michael Hayden said its domestic surveillance program was "not a driftnet over Lackawanna or Fremont or Dearborn, grabbing all communications and then sifting them out."
Today, a story in the Wall Street Journal alleges this is precisely what is happening. Total Information Awareness seems to not have died, but to have just been quietly absorbed into the NSA's already extensive surveillance apparatus, all without the hassle of any kind of transparency or oversight.
The takedowns were for free whores.
Bah doo day, oh what a girl
Someone asked "What does it take before a song becomes a pop standard? Four generations? Five?
The Train Kept A Rollin' is a garage rock classic, but the original by Tiny Bradshaw (rec. 25-jul-1951 -- sax solo: Red Prysock) was played in a very different style. So who was Tiny Bradshaw? And what about all those covers? [more inside]
The Train Kept A Rollin' is a garage rock classic, but the original by Tiny Bradshaw (rec. 25-jul-1951 -- sax solo: Red Prysock) was played in a very different style. So who was Tiny Bradshaw? And what about all those covers? [more inside]
Leoncie's Healthy Dynamite Music
I first stumbled across Leoncie in open-mouthed disbelief about two years ago. When her website disappeared I imagined that we'd lost her forever, but last month she returned with her own YouTube channel.
While our unfiltered, unmoderated internet has pushed a lot of "outsider art" into the mainstream, Leoncie has remained firmly stuck in obscurity; maybe these gobsmackingly low-rent videos will change that? Until today, I'd only been able to imagine the full glory of songs like Radio Rapist, or the beguiling Man! Let's Have Fun, or indeed the frankly exhausting Invisible Girl. But Sex Crazy Cop and Killer In The Park, with their carnivalesque spin on the grim world of law enforcement, are probably my favourites. Astonishing.
Frightening new military technology
Presented in a way that is familiar to gimmicky kitchen appliances, this frightening weapon can fire 120,000 rounds per minute without a human operator. It makes no noise or flash, and can be mounted anywhere and is operated remotely. [more inside]
Obama supporter shocked to see herself in Hillary ad
Obama supporter shocked to see herself in Hillary ad. "Especially because she's a fierce supporter of Barack Obama." "But the young girl starring in the ad will actually be voting age next month and says she's no fan of Hillary Clinton." The footage is another example of the risks of using stock film or images to convey an advertising message. The footage comes from Getty Footage Stock. FYI that footage prices out at around $ 2,500 for national advertising usage. {via}
Machine Gun Flashlight
If you're anything like me, at least one out of every three times you've had to use a flashlight, you wished you could machine gun someone to death with it. Well, friend... your prayers answered!
my grandma married an engineer, so did my mom, oh and I'm one too
Islamic terrorists are more likely to be engineers than members of any other profession--and not because engineers possess superior technological skills. That's the conclusion of a controversial Oxford University study that has the engineering community buzzing. (PDF)
The study's disturbing finding blames what it calls a universal engineering mindset, which it describes as one drawn to structure and rules plus clear, single solutions to complex problems. When coupled with the harsh realities of life in many Islamic countries, terrorism can be the result, the study says.
~ Via EETimes [more inside]
What About Bob Ostertag?
w00t is a 50-minute collage piece by Bob Ostertag, using sounds and music from 18 different videogames. It's a lot of fun to listen to, and it's freely available and downloadable, as are a bunch of other albums of his.
Vertigo comics plagiarism scandal!
Plagiarism scandal rocks DC's Vertigo line. A comics blogger has discovered shocking evidence of theft in Fables, Y: The Last Man, Sandman, and other major Vertigo titles. (Via Comics Should Be Good!)
US Presidential Greatness as a Function of Experience
That which we call a fart by any other name would smell as acrid
[NSFW, except in the can] The Barn Owl Fart - A familiarity with owl calls is helpful in identifying this fart. Almost any morning if you get up just before daybreak you can hear one of these birds talking to himself. It's a sort of a crazy laugh, particularly the way it ends. If you hear a fart that has about eight notes in it, ending on a couple of down notes, and it sounds maniacal, you have heard the rare Barn Owl Fart. [more inside]
Etch-a-Sketch Clock!
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