April 8, 2010
Always End with Poopy-Head
On August 8, 1997, the audience of Late Night with Conan O'Brien was made up entirely of eight-year-old children. The episode in five parts: one, two, three, four and five. Andy Richter remembers on This American Life (starting at 50 minutes). [more inside]
The Queen of Kumbwada
No man dares sit on this Nigerian throne: In Kumbwada, a curse has assured that only women will reign, locals say. And so far, the current queen pronounces, it has worked out better this way. Welcome to "the genteel court of Queen Hajiya Haidzatu Ahmed," where "an ancient curse keeps males off the throne." (via) [more inside]
$20, less than in town
Back to norml.
Philadelphia is going to decriminalize Marijuana. Or maybe they aren't. Well, the police aren't going to stop arresting people.
“We’re not going to stop locking people up,” said Lt. Frank Vanore. “We’re going to stop people for it. . . . Our officers are trained to do that,” Vanore said. “Whether or not they make it through the charging process, that’s up to the D.A. [more inside]
With a Boom and a Bang and a Oops
To the barricades!
What you need to know about the iPad
iPad, one week later. Ars Technica gave it a very through review. ifixit tore it apart and Will It Blend? threw it in a Blendtec. Adam C. Engst said in a column at TidBITS: "The hardware is so understated [...] the fact that you’re using an iPad falls away. You’re using the app, whatever it may be, and while you’re doing so, the iPad is that app." An Apple event today announced an iPhone OS update that brings a lot of what was missing so far (multitasking!) while also screwing over a Adobe by changing the developer license agreement. 300,000 sold. [more inside]
A Devo, Inc. Initiative
"Look! At all the data! That you and I are a part of!" Devo would like you to participate in a quick market study. Previously.
A new branch of animal life is discovered
Meet three new species of Loricifera, the first multicellular forms of life found that can live entirely without oxygen (figures and full article, PDF). [more inside]
Young Indiana Jones Discovers Missing Link (maybe....)
"So I called my dad over and about five metres away he started swearing, and I was like 'what did I do wrong?' and he's like, 'nothing, nothing - you found a hominid'."The remarkable remains of two ancient human-like creatures (hominids) have been found in South Africa. Some researchers dispute that the fossils are of an unknown human species, but others say they may help fill a key gap in the fossil record of human evolution. [more inside]
James O'Keefe's ACORN hoax in California
With newly released video, Rachel Maddow shows that the Fox News/Breitbart/James O'Keefe takedown of ACORN in California was fraudulent. For example, coverage depicted ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera as eager to participate in a pedophile prostitution ring suggested by O'Keefe's character. In fact Vera had reported O'Keefe to police. Nevertheless, Vera was fired, and months later ACORN was dissolved. (Previously: 1, 2, 3)
That surreal serial television show you like is going to come back into style.
Still Wrapped In Plastic: 'Twin Peaks' Turns 20 Back in the summer of 1989, I was invited to a sneak preview of a TV pilot. I didn't know anything about it, but the moment I heard its opening theme music, I got shivers that didn't go away. This was TV the way I dreamed it could be — funny, menacing, mysterious. In fact, it was so weird and wonderful that, as I walked from the theater, I remember saying, "Too bad no network will ever put it on the air." [more inside]
Elle est partie!
“But I decided on the Mona Lisa, which was the smallest painting and the easiest to transport.”
“So there was no chance,” asked the court, “that you decided on it because it was the most valuable painting?” - From Vanity Fair, the twisting, engaging story of how the Mona Lisa was stolen in broad daylight in 1911. (via)
"Eish. This is Africa."
Bongi is a South African surgeon working, as he puts it, "in the notorious province of Mpumalanga." He blogs regularly about the devastating effect of recent political changes on the skill level of the local medical system, as well as the struggles of trying to practice medicine under a system so badly decaying that its infrastructure is collapsing. Sometimes his posts ring with a dark humor, sometimes with wise and intelligent advice. But it's his bleakly frank portrayals of the terrible state of daily South African life that are the most haunting for me.
Haik U Glenn Beck!
One-apartment thriller
Out of Tandem
Shut Up and Ride. A short video about breaking up.
your future our clutter
Stop-motion graffiti
Stop-motion graffiti, (Vimeo link) from Tant and Unga of Israeli crew Broken Fingaz (possibly NSFW). [more inside]
RIP Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren, one of pop's sharpest, most fantastic minds has died at his home in New York, aged 64.
Excelsior
The recently announced 2010 Hugo awards nominations include a semi-regular mefite appearance, a fanzine nomination for a podcast (previously) and, under Best Graphic Story, a nomination for Captain Britain And MI13 by occasional Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell - a title which, um, Marvel have already canceled. Oops. Still, you can read the first two issues of the nominated story online for free.
Adding lightness.
SF Car Gallery
San Francisco Vehicles Cropped to a Square. A cool, quirky gallery of over 100 vehicles parked in San Francisco, arranged by color (be sure to page through them all and notice the color transitions). Includes a few cool shots and a few WTF cars.
The Return of Christian Terrorism
Threats of right wing violence have doubled in the past year. What is behind the latest upsurge in the movement to create a Christian theocratic state? [more inside]
Cheetah Woods Returns to Golf
Tiger Woods will return to competitive golf today, teeing off at the Masters at 1:42 EDT today. ESPN will carry the tee shot live, then begin full coverage at 3 PM. Last time Tiger returned from a long break due to surgery, Nike's ad was lighthearted. This time, things are very different, and the new ad released yesterday definitely has a different tone, invoking the words of Tiger's late father, Earl Woods. Of course, some in the media are going to keep teeing off on Tiger's scandalous affairs, including this new revelation of a tryst with a neighbor's 21-year-old daughter.
"We might as well have gone to the Philippines to make Apocalypse Now"
NYU's Snuff Film. The Village Voice reports on the accidental death of NYU film student John Hunt Lamensdorf, on a shoot in Georgia.
Besides the inevitable litigation and hush-up, the death has also resulted in a scramble at NYU to change the rules and safety procedures for student productions.
Space invaders
Pixels (SLYT)
Awesome Robot Friends
My Robot Friend has just released a lovely video for the acoustic version of 'Waiting' a song he made with Alison Moyet for his new album Soft-Core. The video was created by Liam Stevens. It was made using only paper, pen, and ink and took several months to complete. A true labour of love, and very good too.
Steampunk Takeaway
The Best Sandwich Ever How to make your own Edwardian belly-buster
From Here to Then
SepiaTown lets you view and share thousands of mapped historical images from around the globe. [more inside]
UK Election Statisitics Brain-Candy
Hurtling as we are towards an election that will be the most closely contested for a generation, where can we in the UK get a hit of statistical brain-candy? Well, no-one's going to do it quite as well as FiveThirtyEight did it for our transatlantic chums (though they will be posting on the UK), but try Electoral Calculus or UK Polling Report. For information about voting, try About My Vote.
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