April 22, 2012
"...I want to make a kind of music that had the Long Now and the Big Here..."
Imaginary Landscapes (1989): a visually hypnotic and impressionistic portrait of musician Brian Eno, directed by Duncan Ward and Gabriella Cardazzo. (40 mins.)
"Those obnoxious intrusive ads that pay $42 a day are the only way a site like ours stays afloat."
A Transparent Attempt to Explain the Economics Behind Running a Pop-Culture Website and the Need to Run Intrusive Advertising The thing about display ads is that you are paid for about what they are worth, which is to say: $.30 per 1,000 impressions. Most people barely even notice them, so advertisers are not willing to pay you very much to run them...Instead, we have to use intrusive ads which are paid on a much larger scale, approximately $7.00 per 1,000 impressions. So, if a site like ours generates 100,000 impressions, that should be $700 a day. Awesome. We should be rich, right? Not so much. Pajiba previously. [via Slashfilm]
Aretha Franklin's "Amazing Grace"
On January 13 and 14, 1972, Aretha Franklin sang during services at the Reverend James Cleveland's New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The audio recordings released as Amazing Grace remain the largest-selling gospel album in history. However, of the 20 hours of 16mm film footage by Sydney Pollack - intended as a concert movie for tandem release - only a few snippets have ever been seen. (previously: 1, 2)
Woman quotes more Lenin.
Sorry
You must've heard of a few
Digital Aeronautical Charts
How to blow up a dead animal
Obliterating Animal Carcasses With Explosives -- An official publication of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Mega Load of Something
Three months after file sharing site Megaupload was shut down (previously), and charged with criminal copyright violations by the DOJ, the judge has expressed doubt that the case will go to trial because the company has not been served with criminal papers. US-based lawyer for Megaupload Ira Rothken: "We don't believe Megaupload can be served in a criminal matter because it is not located within the jurisdiction of the United States." [more inside]
WHEN DID HE EAT MACARONI?
Jordan Speer's 3D modeling work is colorful and strange. Examples: CHUNDERMUSCLE, Abduction of the Arcade Fiend, Sob Museum, Kontrascope, Deep Hell Discovery Probe, and The Bullshit Dragon of Fake-ass Mountain.
Can you buy plausible deniability anywhere online now that Etsy's run completely out of it?
On April 20th, Etsy, which as many of you know is an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods and craft materials only, featured seller Ecologica Malibu and posted an interview they’d conducted with its owner Mariana Schechter, who talked about the salvaged wood furniture she designs and builds, and about how she "always felt that there was magic in the trees and a mysterious energy in the ocean" and that "there is something personal and unique that occurs when you craft something with your hands". Oddly for a featured seller interview, there was no detail given about the process of how Schechter makes her furniture and no photos of her in her workshop making them. On April 21st, April Winchell posted to Regretsy about Schechter. She’d delved a little more deeply into the matter, and though she didn’t come up with any photos of Schechter making furniture in her workshop either, she had found Schechter’s "work" on Overstock.com and bills of lading for furniture shipped from factories in Bali to her office building in Malibu. [more inside]
I'm at my best in the flesh - in person
In the silence of connection, people are comforted by being in touch with a lot of people — carefully kept at bay. We can’t get enough of one another if we can use technology to keep one another at distances we can control: not too close, not too far, just right. The flight from conversation.
Red Snappers Are Red Rated
As of today, Whole Foods will no longer sell red rated fish, and will sell only sustainable species. Some fishermen are fuming.
“It’s totally maddening,” Mr. Sanfilippo said. “They’re just doing it to make all the green people happy.”
Sakamichi no Apollon from the Cowboy Bebop team
Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe and composer Yoko Kanno have reunited for an anime adaptation of Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope), a Shogakukan Manga Award-winning manga by Yuki Kodama. Fuji TV started broadcasting the series on April 12, 2012 (trailer). The series is currently being streamed on Crunchyroll, and will later be streamed on Hulu and The Anime Network. [more inside]
"The imagination is not our escape. On the contrary, the imagination is the place we are all trying to get to."
Last month, select portions of New York society observed the passing of Alan Z. Feuer, for some four decades a fixture at numerous benefits and balls, an integral member of the Quadrille Committee and the Germanistic Society of America, and, as friends and admirers remembered him, "a classic gentleman" and "the role model extraordinaire to the true gentlemen and ladies of New York". At his memorial service, they recounted "stories of Alan as the life and soul of the party, Alan the ex-service man, Alan as a very dear family friend – who became part of that family" and of his "ability to make you feel like the most important person in the room".
Few even suspected, and none knew, of his secret double life... until the other Alan Feuer investigated.
Few even suspected, and none knew, of his secret double life... until the other Alan Feuer investigated.
The K-E Diet
Crystal cMoy Freeform Headphone Amp
He fell asleep, 31 years later.
History of USSR for Children. (SLYT)
Who Killed Nancy?
Who Killed Nancy is a documentary examining the lives and deaths of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. It features interviews with many of the people on the Punk scenes in both London and New York, including people who were in Sid and Nancy's Chelsea Hotel room on the night Nancy died.
Tourette's Hero
Jessica Thom's "Tourette's Hero" is a place to celebrate the humour & creativity of Tourette's. It’s not about mocking or commiserating — it’s about reclaiming the most frequently misunderstood syndrome on the planet and changing the world one tic at a time. [NSFW]
No real American cinnamon?
"Fake Cinnamon Joins Artificial Vanilla and Wins" So you think you know the difference between natural and artificial?
"Look horrified as the thread just keeps coming..."
10 Amazing Practical Jokes: a quick collection of funny and mostly good-natured pranks. [SLYT] [more inside]
Birth to 12 years in 2:45
Frans Hofmeester filmed his daughter every week from birth to age 12 and made a time lapse [SLVimeo]
Of course, really, EVERYONE loves Alec Guinness
Chuck Colson has died at age 80.
Chuck Colson has died at age 80. The former "hatchet man" for President Nixon, Colson once remarked that he would "walk over his grandmother to get the president elected to a second term." After serving eight months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, Colson announced that he'd become a born again Christian. In 1976, he founded Prison Fellowship International to aid and evangelize prisoners and their families. He was quickly embraced by the Evangelical world, and eventually eventually became an influential figure in conservative Christian politics.
How to name your startup (and how not to)
Before naming your startup, read this. "This guide is divided into three, independent sections: Why Bad Names Hurt You, Coming Up With Names, and Examples of Strong and Weak Names." [more inside]
domestic violence in China
Li Yang, founder of the most popular English-language school in China, Crazy English, (previously on MeFi) is now found to have beaten his American wife multiple times. Domestic violence is found in some 25% of Chinese marriages (!) but the actions of Li's wife Kim Lee to publicize the abuse has raised the profile of spousal abuse in a country where this was not often publicly discussed previously.
Read all about it
The Long Good Read presents two articles daily from The Guardian website selected from those featured on Guardian Zeitgeist that users spent the most time reading.
Widespread corruption and bribery by Wal-Mart in Mexico
"Wal-Mart dispatched investigators to Mexico City, and within days they unearthed evidence of widespread bribery. They found a paper trail of hundreds of suspect payments totaling more than $24 million. They also found documents showing that Wal-Mart de Mexico’s top executives not only knew about the payments, but had taken steps to conceal them from Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. [...] The lead investigator recommended that Wal-Mart expand the investigation. Instead, an examination by The New York Times found, Wal-Mart’s leaders shut it down."
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