August 8, 2014
A World of Pure Imagination...
"We're going to do that now?"
"If we’re big enough to fight a war ...
… we should be big enough to look at it." From The Atlantic, The War Photo No One Would Publish
The King of Paper Dolls is dead. Long live the art of Tom Tierney!
On a visit to Smithville, Texas, in 2012, the blogger behind My Big Gay Ears found himself talking with a local artist about paper dolls. The artist turned out to be Tom Tierney, a major force in reviving the tradition of drawing famous people in their skivvies (or swimsuits) and providing them with a 2-D wardrobe. He died last month at his home in Smithville (NYT obituary), leaving behind a memorable and varied body of work. [more inside]
"I'm his carer." "Yeah, my carer. She cares so I don't have to."
While Peter Capaldi has begun his promotional world tour as the Twelfth Doctor—with Youtube streaming upcoming appearances live on its official channel—artist and fan Stephen Byrne has imagined the very much unofficial Twelfth Doctor's Animated Adventures. [more inside]
SketchFactor
BigApps (previously) "is a competition that empowers the sharpest minds in tech, design, and business to solve NYC's toughest challenges." One of the finalists is the recently-launched SketchFactor, which aims to help users avoid "sketchy" neighborhoods by posting notes about crime, racial profiling, harassment, and desolation. Not surprisingly, the creators have faced racism accusations. The developers have responded to the charges on their website.
15 Maps That Don't Explain the Middle East at All
Violent upheaval in the Middle East has recently spawned all manner of maps purporting to explain how the region got this way. Here, instead, are 15 maps that don’t claim as much. Or rather, they do not seek, like many other maps, to capture some fixed set of core facts about the region. Instead, these maps provide a more fluid perspective on the Middle East, often by showing what didn’t happen as opposed to what did. But for all these maps don’t show, they do illustrate one thing: the sobering fact that no one map—or even set of maps—can ever explain the region’s complex history and politics.
Doctor, Doctor
In the early 2000s four people in the UK answered their phones to hear the unmistakable voice of Doctor Who, specifically the Fourth Doctor, asking for their help with an urgent problem. Only one thing linked these four individuals: they were all actors who had played Doctor Who. Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor); Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor); Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor); and gloriously, Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor. [more inside]
"Marceline, is it just you and me in the wreckage of the world?"
Remember You (ukulele cover) (YT) Click Finn and Jake if you want to try the chords yourself. | (• ◡•)| (❍ᴥ❍ʋ)
MetaFolkloreFilter
Ring Around the Rosie: Metafolklore, Rhyme and Reason "After all, the story [of Ring Around the Rosie's plague origins] is itself folklore: a tale that was passed on by word of mouth first, then in writing and online media. And because it is also about folklore, folklorists classify it as 'metafolklore': folklore about folklore."
Feminism & Country Music--A Primer
The internet and Metafilter are abuzz over Maddie & Tae, the teenage country duo whose first single strikes back against the pervasive and much-maligned trend of "bro country" sweeping the country charts. But Maddie & Tae are hardly the first female country singers to bring a decidedly feminist message to the genre. Here are some highlights, in chronological order, for your listening pleasure. [more inside]
This Has Never Ever Worked
Another Buzzword Bites the Dust
FiveThirtyEight's Ben Casselman has crunched the economic numbers and determined: Corporate America Has NOT Been Disrupted. "By a wide range of measures, the advantages of incumbency in corporate America have never been greater." There are fewer startups hiring fewer people and failing more often. Considering that "entrepreneurship is a critical source of jobs in the economy (and) a major driver of productivity growth", a more accurate 'd-word' may be Derangement.
"My philosophy? Keep calm, and get fired up!"
Fresh off his 6 1/2 hour stint as head coach of the Tottenham Hotspurs (previously), Ted Lasso returns to Premier League television as a pundit and to the world of soccer football as coach of the St. Catherine Fighting Owls (WHOO?). Guest starring Tim Howard and Mini Bradley Cooper.
"Whoever heard of anybody being interested in a river?"
Danube Revisited: Starting in 1958, Inge Morath dedicated years of her career to photographing daily life along the Danube River, which flows from Southern Germany to the edge of the Black Sea in Eastern Romania.... In early July, eight female photographers set out to follow Morath’s path along the Danube for five weeks.
Night at the Museum
Photographer Vivienne Gucwa attended the first ever adult sleepover at New York's American Museum of Natural History. (Photo set)
Come for the Hyack - Stay for the Firedman
Economist Robert Solow reviews Angus Burgin's history of laissez-faire thought The Great Persuasion [Amazon], and discusses the differing views and goals of the movement's two saints Hayek and Friedman. [more inside]
"I've gone to therapy for 40 years to try to explain this to myself"
The Brazilian Bus Magnate Who's Buying Up All the World's Vinyl Records. By age 30, he had about 30,000 records. About 10 years later, his bus company expanded, making him rich. Not long after that, he split up with his wife, and the pace of his buying exploded. "Maybe it’s because I was alone," Freitas said. "I don't know." He soon had a collection in the six figures; his best guess at a current total is several million albums.
> implying I can't even
The Last Summer
"An awfully classy hook"
Abortion Crisis in New Brunswick
On July 18, the only Morgentaler Clinic in New Brunswick closed. Its closure has an interesting backstory and has sparked a fight. [more inside]
Jessica Fletcher Eternal
"Deep, deep, deep down I know that dream was never mine"
No Wawa in the Hood
No Wawa in the Hood by Donuts n' Puddin', a new online variety show. A short, catchy song about the superiority of Wawa over corner stores and 7-11.
"I Went to the Zoo With Roy Halladay"
"
After more than four years, 1,800+ bolg posts, and countless silly indulgences surrendered to in the name of "being ZWR" … I’m incredibly proud to say that at approximately 10:00 a.m. this morning I went to the zoo with Roy Halladay!" [more inside]
Six feet, three inches of quality and fun
Welcome the future, where your phone never dies
Catalogs of the Old Republic
Abandoned Republic: Before its current incarnation as the Gap's dressier cousin, Banana Republic sold military surplus and safari-style clothing. [more inside]
Do Not Run With This Post
Some days, you just want to gaze at pictures of scissors, from ancient Korea to a pair that was used on the Moon.
A Fish is Playing Pokemon
"Friday?" "Friday afternoon, yeah." "Ah... that is *usually* clown work"
The Actors School is a (fake) docu-soap about an acting school, featuring an interesting interpretation of a scene from Friends.
An essay on the biology of pregnancy
"The mammal mother works hard to stop her children from taking more than she is willing to give. The children fight back with manipulation, blackmail and violence. Their ferocity is nowhere more evident than in the womb [...] Pregnancy is a lot more like war than we might care to admit."
Rose of Jericho keep on blooming.
Armoring Up: Surviving Sexism As A Female Founder
Editor’s note: We don’t publish many anonymous pieces on Forbes.com, but this compelling first-person account of sexism in the startup world merits an exception. I met the author several months ago and was floored by the stories she had to tell about her dealings with mostly male investors. Like many men (as she writes), I knew women in tech faced a certain degree of chauvinism and harassment, but I’d had no idea it was so barefaced and routine, in an industry that thinks of itself as egalitarian and forward-looking. After much persuading, she agreed to write about her experiences but asked that I omit her name, for several reasons. First (again, as she writes), the startup community is a small one, and founders rely heavily on social capital and goodwill to navigate it. Speaking up carries big risks. But fear of retribution wasn’t her only concern. While putting an individual human face on an issue, it can also be a way for critics to short circuit the discussion by engaging in ad hominem attacks. ”I don’t want it to be about me, but about the issue at hand,” the author says. “When we get into a witch hunt around particular personalities, we lose sight of the problem we should be tackling.”
Read on to learn more about that problem.
Iron Sky
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