May 9, 2006
Guns linked to testosterone
Study shows that just handling a gun increases testosterone levels in men.
Who's Gonna Love You When Your Looks Are Gone?
Brian Eno is the godfather of electronica, the inventor of ambient music, and producer of the best work by bands like the Talking Heads and U2. Tchad Blake has helmed the mixing board for Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Soul Coughing and the Bad Plus, to name just a few. Paul Simon is one of the most recognized names in pop music both for his work with Art Garfunkel and for his fusion of American pop music with African and South American music. Surprise is the the album they collaborated on, the new Paul Simon record featuring Eno's signature sonic landscapes all over it, and the entire lovely thing, complete with liner notes, is available to listen to on Simon's website.
Political Science & Promiscuity
"The mind-set that invites a couple to use contraception is an anti-child mind-set," she told me. "So when a baby is conceived accidentally, the couple already have this negative attitude toward the child. Therefore seeking an abortion is a natural outcome. We
oppose all forms of contraception." Don't even mention the mind-set behind a vaccine for HPV.
"Of course, many of you will be eaten before you become adults."
Two Kinds of People
Is Stephen Merritt a racist? Sasha Frere-Jones, the New Yorker's Pop Critic and maybe the finest music critic writing today, has long been an activist against rockism. Stephen Merritt, the gay, white auteur behind such postmodern pop experiments as 69 Love Songs, and sometime target of S/FJ's ire, recently got into hot water with Jessica Hopper, among others, for allegedly racist comments made at the EMP Pop Music Conference, which is Christmas and Halloween all rolled into one for music crits and their fellow nerds. Slate's John Cook defends Merritt, claiming that disliking rap doesn't necessarily make one a racist, and S/FJ responds with some further thoughts. But was Frere-Jones accusing Merritt of racism, specifically, or simply of wack unexamined biases? And is that a fair criticism? Slate's readers don't seem to think so.
Live MP3s. Free. Good quality, too.
For sometime now I have been thinking
Yesterday, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wrote a letter to the President of the United States of America, George W. Bush. Here it is. (Courtesy Le Monde, 8 page PDF, English.) The letter has been "dismissed by its recipients as a rambling philosophical treatise." (Times) Further coverage at NYT and Le Monde (French). The letter ends 27 years of diplomatic silence.
Paging Jeremy Piven
A meth bust turned deeply odd in East Palo Alto, California when an underground hospital clinic was discovered in a drug raid on a house owned by a Stanford Hospital employee. The world of underground medicine has been memorably fictionalized in film, but it can be argued that [nytfilter: metabooty/bootytastic] the real thing is plenty bizarre (link possibly NSFW) on its own merits.
On the other hand, what constitutes underground medicine? You can go with the literal definition, or you can consider this recent near-miss with one of the most persistent urban legends. However, as is often the case, the most entertainingly impassioned defenses of "underground medicine" are those promulgated by "alternative health" practitioners (mustache possibly NSFW).
On the other hand, what constitutes underground medicine? You can go with the literal definition, or you can consider this recent near-miss with one of the most persistent urban legends. However, as is often the case, the most entertainingly impassioned defenses of "underground medicine" are those promulgated by "alternative health" practitioners (mustache possibly NSFW).
Stop the presses!
"DEAR SIR, MAY I CRAVE YOUR INDULGENCE TO OPEN THIS BUSINESS DISCUSSION BY A FORMAL LETTER OF THIS SORT. MY NAME IS MARIAM ABACHA..."
[419Filter] The Perfect Mark: After losing thousands and being sentenced to prison, John Worley is still convinced the Nigerian governmental officials and their fortune exist.
The day the grass was mowed.
What’s a protest without a little counter-protest? Not that army of one Nita Shinn hasn’t done a bang up job before, but asking people to come out and protest with their toilet bowl brushes, their brooms, their lawn mowers, their pots and pans? - man, that’s just brilliant. Because it’s not un-American to fight to keep America, or to turn in an illegal alien. And, uh, what was the issue again? Flags? Or the national anthem in Spanish or something?
Flower Power!
Worried that the nearby field is going to become cookie-cutter houses? No need to do anything rash, instead do a little planting.
Mmmm, steaming hot slab...
A huge, steaming hot slab of rock has been growing out of Mount St Helens by over one meter a day since last November. Here's a time-lapse movie of the slab growing.
Nueva Orleans
Nueva Orleans Before Katrina, Hispanics accounted for 3 percent of New Orleans’ population, with just 1,900 Mexicans showing up in the 2004 Census. No one knows for certain how many new ones have arrived, but estimates put the number between 10,000 and 50,000.
"Deaf Enough"
Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. is a liberal arts college and graduate school for the deaf (there's also a high school and primary school). In 1988, Gallaudet students protested when a hearing person was chosen as university president, and until today, I. King Jordan has served. Recently, a new president was chosen--Dr. Jane K. Fernandes, the school's Provost, who was born deaf but grew up speaking thanks to new therapies and technologies. A varied, vibrant student body never afraid to make their "voices" heard has spoken (with photos). Last night, so did a majority of the faculty, but Dr. Fernandes says she will stay.
A Delicate Situation
"What has our world come to if we cannot join nature by climbing one of nature's most beautiful features?" asks Dean Potter after he free-climbs Utah's Delicate Arch and pisses off the Park Service. Again.
Everytime you toss a kitten, God pisses on a parade.
Kattenstoet, a triennial cat parade is this weekend in Ypres, Belguim. The festival culminates with Kattenworp, the hurling of kittens from the Cloth Hall Belfry, a continuation of Europe's long ambiguous history of fascination with the feline. [more inside]
Throw off your chains of shaving oppression.
The shaving conspiracy.
The author suggests that shaving cream is a conspiracy. If you're not ready to throw away the shaving cream, then you can always opt for the traditional badger brush and safety razor. via Joey deVilla
The author suggests that shaving cream is a conspiracy. If you're not ready to throw away the shaving cream, then you can always opt for the traditional badger brush and safety razor. via Joey deVilla
So... what's eating you today?
UN reports "vast" levels of hunger for Iraq's children. The World Food Programme is reporting that a "dismal shortage of cash" is jeopardizing the health of over 3 million Iraqis, over half of them children. The organization cites "a growing negative impact on the most vulnerable". Last year, a survey indicated that over 27 percent of all Iraqi children under the age of five were chronically malnourished. This was before reports came out, indicating that food rations have been cut off, and reports of food prices escalating sharply. Some Iraqis have resorted to selling their blood for money to make ends meet.
Approximately 400,000 Iraqi children now suffer from "wasting," a condition characterized by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein. Iraq now has the third highest infant mortality rate in the world, just ahead of Afghanistan.
Micropayments: just my, er, one cent.
IndieKarma micropayments: automatically tip the weblogs you favour 1¢ each time you visit. (Via Kottke, perhaps unsurprisingly.)
Charity, cross country.
Running nearly a marathon every single day (24 miles) might seem a little crazy. Keep perspective, though: it's all in preparation for running 40 miles a day for three months straight, across the country. What's more, the guy is 6'5", and will go through roughly 8000 calories a day -- as many in the jaunt as most people eat in an entire year. And then you realize that the whole thing is being done for charity. Now that takes balls (of your feet).
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