August 12, 2008
Executed Today
Executed Today offers "each day the story of an historical execution that took place on this date, and the story behind it."
"I don't kill them because they're bad people. I kill them because I hate them."
The Punisher MAX #60 hits comics stores this week, marking the end of Garth Ennis's run on the series. His earlier Punisher work on the series put the character back on track after some disastrous wrong turns, but it was the Marvel MAX series that striped the Vietnam vet turned vigilante's war on crime of all extraneous elements and turned it into something dark and brutal. The evocative covers of Tim Bradstreet (also leaving the series) matched the interior darkness, with Ennis toning down his humor to let the Frank Castle become a monomaniacal psychopath in a corrupt world. Adversaries included the resourceful and violent Barracuda, a kind of anti-Punisher based on the song Stagger Lee. It's not over for the Punisher - screenwriter Gregg Hurwitz and artist Laurence Campbell are taking over the series, and Ennis will be returning to the character with a miniseries in the lighter tone of his Marvel Knights work or The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe.
I think you'll find this is the real deal
A group of three men claim they have found the body of a bigfoot somewhere in the state of Georgia. A press conference is set for this Friday in Palo Alto, CA. Enthusiasts are skeptical but not completely dismissive. Get your Friday flash fun with video overlaid overtop of an advancing slideshow and two separate sources of annoying music at their website which has the press conference announcement. [more inside]
lsof
Weeks before physical bombs started falling on Georgia, security researcher Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks in Lexington, Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace: a stream of data directed at Georgian government sites containing the message: win+love+in+Rusia.
a bookshelf full o' sorrows
Starting with Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" and Dave Pelzer's "A Child Called 'It'" "misery lit" has blossomed into a peculiar genre all its own, one especially popular with the British.
Giant Inflatable Dog Turd Wreaks Havoc
You know it's a good day to be a reporter when you can use the phrases "giant inflatable dog turd" and "wreaks havoc" in the same story.
Omer Fast
...and that little boy's smile... with that slow southern style
With black velvet paintings of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Jack Abramoff, Phil Spector, Jon Benet Ramsey, Jesus and a Big Rig, Erik Estrada, Charles Nelson Reilly, Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, and everyone's favorite physicist, Stephen Hawking, velvet paintings aren't just of Elvis, Unicorns, and Aztec Indians anymore.
You Still Can't Write About Muhammad
Asra Q. Nomani writes in The Wall Street Journal on Sherry Jones's new historical novel, "The Jewel of Medina" about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Random House has pulled the book for fears of a political and extremist nature.
In a statement, Random House said: "We stand firmly by our responsibility to support our authors and the free discussion of ideas, even those that may be construed as offensive by some. However, a publisher must weigh that responsibility against others that it also bears, and in this instance we decided, after much deliberation, to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House Inc, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the book."
Over at the Guardian, you can read more about the controversy.
The Assassination of John Glenn
"Operation Northwoods [pdf], which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war." [YouTube] [more inside]
Hell hath no fury like Clive Barker scorned
Clive Barker's new film The Midnight Meat Train has become a famous casualty of the recent regime change at Lionsgate, which relegated the feature to limited release (and to hit DVD shortly after). Fans (and Barker himself) tried to force Lionsgate to reconsider, whick ultimately backfired. Despite plenty of non-terrible reviews, the company's "limited release" eschewed major cities, shoving MMT into out-of-the-way $1 cheapie cinemas. Horror fans are furious-- but they've found a way to get their point across.
Elizabeth Turnbull's Tiny House
Elizabeth Turnbull, an incoming graduate student at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, is bringing her own housing.
I can’t believe that posting corrections to comments takes that much time away from real work.
The Image Mill
Canadian writer, actor, and director Robert Lepage, whose work has included Jésus de Montréal and Le Confessional, has recently turned his attention to - of all places - the Bunge Grain complex in Quebec City. In celebration of Quebec's 400th anniversary, Lepage turned the complex into a vast movie screen 30 meters tall and 600 meters wide. This project is known as the Image Mill. If you happen to be in Quebec City, you can watch it at the Port of Québec, every night at 10 PM, until August 24.
Dopamine
A New State of Mind. "New research is linking dopamine to complex social phenomena and changing neuroscience in the process."
Take a look at the Nigerian film industry
Pieter Hugo photographs the Nigerian film industry, where a digital camera, 2 lights, nine days and $20k translates into a feature film. NSFW. [more inside]
Mother Seacole
When Jamaican-born Mary Seacole, an experienced nurse, volunteered her services to the British Army during the Crimean War, she was rejected. Undaunted, she travelled to Crimea at her own expense and built a "mess-table and comfortable quarters," which she called the "British Hotel," and began taking care of soldiers. Her work was snubbed by Florence Nightingale, who called Seacole "a woman of bad character" and insinuated that the convalescent hotel was little more than a bordello, but Mary was beloved by the men in her care who called her "Mother Seacole." Her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands [link goes to full text and illustrations], was published a year after the war ended. Mary, who was feted by high-ranking military men and high-born civilians, went on to other nursing-related pursuits, including a stint as personal masseuse to Alexandra, Princess of Wales. Her work in Crimea was but one highlight in a very interesting life. [more inside]
God is In the Details.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? Or is it simply a near fetishy love for a supercar? I guess if you're going to drive something like this, you're going to want to take good care of it. I picked this link because of the amazing amount of detailing he went into... um... detailing. The pictures themselves are worth it.
I think this guy ended up with a car that's cleaner than when it first left the factory. [more inside]
How renters work the system to live for free in one of America's most expensive cities
"In fact, [Getzow] was one of the most successful 'serial evictees' in San Francisco, a select group of tenants who take advantage of the city's lenient courts and tenant-support nonprofits to tie up landlords in court for months while they live practically rent-free in one of the most expensive cities in the country."
The cars of tomorrow
Our Phony Economy.
The Bedlam Cometh
A film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Hugo Award winning novella, Coraline will be out (in 3D) in early 2009. [Previously] [more inside]
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