June 21, 2013
The tidal sweep of our emotional life
Samantha Keely Smith is a New York-based painter whose sweeping abstract landscapes were deemed "too distracting" for HBO's boardroom. [more inside]
Free at last
Thank God almighty... One hundred and one years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and two months before the march on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to 25,000 people in Detroit, and made it clear to America that "the Negro is now determined to be free". This speech in Detroit became the foundation for King's speech in Washington...."I have a dream..."
On June 23rd we celebrate the 50th anniversary of that speech in Detroit.
Hyper Drive Yurikamome
Flying bike
It's just another lame ass green light
Sparky Sweets, PHD drops some of da illest classical literature summary and analysis that yo ass ever heard on The Great Gatsby, Crime and Punishment and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Hey I Just Heard You, So Remember Me Maybe?
Penny Arcade and its Krahulik problem
No stranger to controversy, Mike Krahulik, gabe of Penny Arcade, has found himself embroiled in yet another debacle over a series of transphobic tweets he's made, coming right off the heels of public criticism and outrage over an apparently racist/misogynistic panel that was to be held at the upcoming PAX Aus convention. Citing this and past controversies, The Fullbright Company, the indie developer of "Gone Home", has pulled out of PAX's coveted Indie Megabooth. gabe has issued a pair of apologies for his tweets, swearing off ever talking about topics other than comics or video games again. [Previously]
Monopoly Decoded
MARK IT ZERO!
Supercut: John Goodman Loses His Shit (NSFW, SLVimeo)
Occupy Westminster In Reverse?
Conservative MPs have drawn up an “Alternative Queen’s Speech” with radical policies - "The 42 bills also include legislation to scrap wind farm subsidies, end the ringfence for foreign aid spending and rename the late August Bank Holiday “Margaret Thatcher Day”.
Britain’s relationship with Europe features prominently in the action plan, with draft laws setting out how the UK would leave the European Union and a Bill to prevent Bulgarians and Romanians winning new rights to work, live and claim benefits here from next year.
All of the proposals were laid before the House of Commons last night after the Tory backbenchers hijacked an obscure Parliamentary procedure by camping out in Westminster for four successive nights." [more inside]
Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson: among the NBA's biggest busts?
Whatever you think about Sampson...may say more about you than about him. The Washington Post's Kathy Orton tracks the rise and fade of Basketball Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson. [more inside]
Angelyne the Amazing Deaf Cattle Dog
Angelyne the Amazing Deaf Cattle Dog (YT)
Angelyne performs tricks for young and old, with owner Eric Melvin's positive message emphasizing perseverance, compassion, "oneness" with your fellow man (as he puts it, despite our varying appearances and more profound differences "we are all the same"), and the strengths that underlie what may seem to be our greatest weaknesses. Eric incorporates poetry written by himself and others into his training presentation.
Promo Video (YT)
Angelyne performs tricks for young and old, with owner Eric Melvin's positive message emphasizing perseverance, compassion, "oneness" with your fellow man (as he puts it, despite our varying appearances and more profound differences "we are all the same"), and the strengths that underlie what may seem to be our greatest weaknesses. Eric incorporates poetry written by himself and others into his training presentation.
Promo Video (YT)
Keep Calm And Eat The Rude
One of the many things that sets NBC's Hannibal apart is how it treats the violence it shows. The finale for the first season aired last night, bringing to a close a season of television that most seem to regard as unexpectedly excellent, and a second season is on the way. This interview with the show's creator, Bryan Fuller who previously created Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, touches on the reasoning behind the heightened, stylized murders. A second part that deals more directly with the contents of the finale went up shortly after it had aired.
Jobs
Animated GIFs of Francoise Gamma: elegant, sexy, graceful and tortured
Francoise Gamma makes bizarre, convoluted, abstract GIFs, and is a generally mysterious individual. Gamma provided answers to a visual interview, and you can get a quick overview of Gamma's animation from The Creators Project. Gamma also created works in the physical realm, first as part of a group guerrilla art installation project, then etched into a transparent material by "harnessing the power of rare crystals and secret lasers". [more inside]
Daftside
Nicolas Jaar (previously on MeFi) and Dave Harrington, the musicians constituting the hypnotic and funky group Darkside, have remixed Daft Punk's Random Access Memories (previously on MeFi) in full. You can stream it here.
Alpaca Run: Flash Game Friday
It works, bitches
Thirty-nine year-old Andrew Johnson demonstrates the effect of Deep Brain Stimulation on the motor symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.
Cartozia Tales
CARTOZIA IS A WORLD OF MANY STORIES Each issue of Cartozia Tales will feature stories by nine indy cartoonists. Each of us will be bringing his or her separate ideas, imagination, and drawing style to the world that we're sharing. Every issue will be full of surprises, and no one knows where the stories will wind up. [more inside]
Our Green Marble
NOAA and NASA visualize a green planet. The amazing maps of Earth's vegetation highlight areas where plant life is the densest and barest... (Space.com). They have an interactive map too! [more inside]
Meet Mr Balls
Mr Balls is a happy mascot, and he's spreading the word in Brazil regarding testicular cancer. Outside of Brazil, there are songs, and another by Tom Green. Will Mr Balls be a greater spokesman than even Lance Armstrong? Long Live Senhor Testiculo!!!!!
What concrete things the Romans have ever done for us
"Portland cement is the source of the “glue” that holds most modern concrete together. But making it releases carbon from burning fuel, needed to heat a mix of limestone and clays to 1,450 degrees Celsius (2,642 degrees Fahrenheit) – and from the heated limestone (calcium carbonate) itself. Monteiro’s team found that the Romans, by contrast, used much less lime and made it from limestone baked at 900˚ C (1,652˚ F) or lower, requiring far less fuel than Portland cement." -- How Berkeley Lab scientists discovered the secret of Roman concrete's durability and how it could help make modern concrete more environmentally friendly.
McProvocateur
In 1985, McDonalds sued left-wing activists in the UK for libel over a pamphlet accusing the multinational food giant of environmental destruction, abuses of workers' rights and selling junk food. The ensuing trial became the longest-running civil trial in English history, ending in 1997 in a Pyrrhic victory for McDonalds, who had lost millions of pounds in pursuing the case, and won £40,000 for their trouble. (The judgment was later overturned in the European Court of Human Rights.) Now, it has been revealed that the leaflet in question had been co-written by an undercover police officer assigned to infiltrate Greenpeace. The officer in question, Bob Lambert, had previously spent years infiltrating environmental groups, even fathering children with activists before disappearing. [more inside]
The good news: things are generally getting better...
Measure America offers a terrific tools for visualizations and charts of the Measure of America Project from the Social Science Research Council, which looks at the Human Development Index at a city and state level, with breakdowns by race as well. Among the general findings are that "Red States" rank lower, opportunity is increasing everywhere but Michigan, and Connecticut is the best state, Washington DC the best city..
Surplus surplus surplus, Sir!
Military planners for the U.S. Army have decided not to ship back more than $7 billion of equipment — about 20 percent of what the Army brought into Afghanistan — because the shipping costs are too high and the need for the used equipment too low. Instead, the Army is destroying the equipment in-country: shredding it, crushing it and selling it on the Afghan scrap market for pennies a pound.
880,000
Codefellas, starring John Hodgman.
Soundtrack to your Friday
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