April 3, 2015
India's Experiment in Basic Income Grants
12 minute video on India’s Experiment in Basic Income Grants "cash transfers given to all citizens to ensure that they have a minimal income". [more inside]
Vote #1 Red-Tailed Hawk
A group of 4th graders in New Hampshire, learning about how Government works and following a long-held tradition of schools across the US, drafted and presented a bill proposing that the red-tailed hawk be named the official state raptor of New Hampshire. Their bill was solidly defeated by the Legislature, drawing ire for its mean-spirited mocking as well as a highly dubious abortion metaphor. While some have defended the Legislature's decision, others have come to the aid of the 4th graders, mostly thanks to John Oliver's declaration of the red-tailed hawk as the official mascot of Last Week Tonight. There are plans to potentially resurrect the bill.
Metástasis
After he is diagnosed with cancer, Walter Blanco teams up with José Miguel Rosas to sell crystal meth. Metastasis: Breaking Bad, Colombia. [more inside]
The perfect tingler is about a dad hanging out and nothing bad happens.
According to his Twitter profile, Dr. Chuck Tingle is an erotic author and Tae Kwon Do grandmaster. He has a PhD from DeVry University in holistic massage. [more inside]
It Couldn't Happen Here
The Quietus examines the wobbly Pet Shop Boys' 1988 collaboration with Jack Bond, It Couldn't Happen Here [Vimeo], a film project created because PSB didn't want to tour, released as an accompaniment to their second album Actually. To date, the film has only been available on VHS (now discontinued) and Laserdisc (also now discontinued). PSB has mentioned a new release in the past, but that hasn't manifested so far. Check it out while you can, whether you're a fan or not. Edgy art film at its divisive finest.
Houston, turn that bass up
Under new French law, Anorexia is now unfashionably thin
France divides the fashion world by banning skinny models France has sent shock waves through the global fashion industry by passing a surprise law making it a criminal offence to employ dangerously skinny women on the catwalk. [more inside]
MeFites gain 1 h.p. per level after the 14th.
Up for a game of thigh-fencing?
10 Theories About How Lesbians Have Sex From Straight People In History (Carolyn Yates, AutoStraddle)
"Cattywampus, onomatopoeia, and antidisestablishmentarianism"
But seriously, have you ever seen the magical powers of a stenographer? Nigel Hayes and his Wisconsin Badger teammates were quite taken by the skills of the stenographer at a recent post-game press-conference.
(Financial) Literacy by the people, for the people
Literacy education is not a de facto instrument of personal and economic liberation. The dark side of literacy is social control. Reading can only promote genuine inclusion when people are allowed to engage freely with text on their own terms, and that is not a given. The goodness of literacy ... “depends in part on whether it is used as an instrument of conformity or of creativity.”Martha Poon and Helaine Olen use the history of traditional literacy to look critically at the notion of financial literacy [PDF, 13 pages], and how hard it is to “teach our way out of population-wide financial failure.” [more inside]
The Worst Place on Earth
A visit to Baotou Lake where rare earth minerals, used in "green" products and electronics, are processed. [more inside]
Recycling our bodies
The Urban Death Project is a Seattle-based nonprofit that will help turn you into compost when you die. "We aren’t just creating a new system that turns bodies into soil – we are striving for an entirely new paradigm of death care."
The “nonbelievers” were killed on the spot.
Somali Militants Kill 147 at Kenyan University [New York Times]
Somali militants burst into a university in eastern Kenya on Thursday and killed nearly 150 students in the worst terrorist attack since the 1998 bombing of the United States Embassy here, laying bare the nation’s continuing vulnerability after years of battling Islamist extremism. A small group of militants, most likely between four and 10, roved from dorm to dorm, separating Christian from Muslim students and killing the Christians, the authorities said. Students described being awakened before dawn by the sound of gunfire and fleeing for their lives as masked attackers closed in.[more inside]
3D on the rocks
How About the Rest of North America?
Submitted for your approval
"Mad Men" and Its Love Affair With 60s Pop Culture “Nothing ended up in the show that wasn’t related to story.”
Wile E. Coyote vs. ACME Company
Paragraph One of the Report of Attending Physician (Exhibit B), prepared by Dr. Ernest Grosscup, M.D., D.O., details the multiple fractures, contusions, and tissue damage suffered by Mr. Coyote as a result of this collision. Repair of the injuries required a full bandage around the head (excluding the ears), a neck brace, and full or partial casts on all four legs.Wile E. Coyote, Plaintiff -v.- Acme Company, Defendant: Opening statement of Mr. Harold Schoff, attorney for Mr. Coyote:
Performance Lederhosen
Patented bi-button codpiece? Snug, ball-tight fit? Check and check. After the five-year break-in period, your performance lederhosen will be good to go. [more inside]
Reducing Yemen's Houthis to 'Iranian proxies' is a mistake.
In coverage of the Yemeni civil war the word "Houthi" is hardly ever mentioned without being preceded by the words "Iran-backed" and "Shiite." And this is true. "The Shiite Houthi rebels are backed by Iran" is a true statement. But the prevalence of this cheap bit of short-hand about a conflict decades in the making does far more to obscure and confuse than it does to enlighten. The Houthi movement are not remotely Iranian cat's paws – no more-so than President Abdu Mansour Hadi, currently residing in Riyadh, is a Saudi one.The Christian Science Monitor sets the record straight on Iran's influence in Yemen with some background information from Col. (ret) Pat Lang and other scholars.
Laughing On Line
Laughapalooza is a facebook group just for laugh's!! Share it wiht your friend's and family :) :)
The rabbit holes have higher rents
The Ghost Of Grindr "On Wednesday Michael Musto has an item in his column that reads “We’ve all met someone online with attractive photos who then shows up at your door looking like something from Night of the Living Dead, but rumors are growing amongst app-happy gays of a real life ‘ghost trick’ who shows up at your apartment via Grindr, then vanishes into thin air (shady!). I don’t know what to think of this urban legend-y tale, but shaken witnesses are sticking by their stories, and police have been involved in a few incidents, so be careful out there, boys (and ghouls).”
They Were Our Sisters
The Overdose - Harm in a Wired Hospital
The nurses and doctors summoned to the hospital room of 16-year-old Pablo Garcia early on the morning of July 27, 2013, knew something was terribly wrong. Just past midnight, Pablo had complained of numbness and tingling all over his body. Two hours later, the tingling had grown worse.
A five part series from Backchannel at Medium.
Part One - How Medical Tech Gave a Patient a Massive Overdose
[more inside]
spoilers!
Art in your browser tabs
A new Chrome extension retrieves a work of art whenever you open a new tab. The artwork can refreshed every day or in every tab.
Pepsi Robin's Egg Blue
Peter and the Magic Egg was a Pennsylvania Dutch-themed 80s animated holiday special created to advertise Paas egg dye and perhaps to tell a strange, pastel-colored version of the life of Jesus. Storytelling egg Uncle Amos was voiced by Ray Bolger (better known as the Scarecrow in the far less surreal and nightmarish film The Wizard of Oz).
Fake Holidays
When wishes are out of reach, simulation is taking over our leisure time and our holidays. Imaginary worlds are created, often under massive technological exertion, in order to offer us experience as reproducible merchandise. Although the quality of these adventures on demand sometimes proves to be rather dubious, the boom does shed light on one thing: the yearnings and dreams underlying people’s daily lives. [more inside]
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