August 9, 2016
how many have you read?
60 Essential Science Fiction & Fantasy Reads. Though you might want to quibble with the "essential" as it's somewhat biased to more recent books but a valuable introduction to the genres nonetheless, the occasional tokenism not withstanding.
its hour come round at last
If you've been feeling like 2016 might be some harbinger of a coming Apocalypse with all the bad things happening this year, here's another symbol for you to add to your growing list: America's pungent corpse flowers are all mysteriously blooming at once [more inside]
The Flying University of Poland
RT is not an endorsement
Are internet populists ruining democracy for the rest of us? by Vyacheslav W. Polonski, Network scientist, University of Oxford
Why Teach Business to Artists?
"On the physical and emotional shocks of truly inhabiting our bodies."
Break My Body: "What I’m trying to unravel is the difference between merely existing in a body and truly inhabiting it—to untangle passivity from receptivity. My woman-body has never been as easy for me to love, with its big breasts and disorienting cycles, as the girl-body that hurled me so beautifully through the air. To be sure, the woman-body has been good for sex, for attracting my husband’s touch, but sex is just one aspect of the whole—one that for me has never felt like a primary purpose. And as I find myself choosing not to use the body to create a child, it now seems that the one act its whole design evolved toward will be one it never performs. I’m looking for a new working definition." -- an essay by Marin Sardy [CW: suicide, mental illness]
The best drum solo you've seen today
Just a kid playing makeshift drums in the subway. Oh, and he's bloody amazing.
“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
Of Thee I Read: The United States in Literature [The New York Times] Reporters and editors on the National Desk of The New York Times were asked to suggest books that a visitor ought to read to truly understand the American cities and regions where they live, work and travel. There were no restrictions — novels, memoirs, histories and children’s books were fair game. Here are some selections. Recommend a book that captures something special about where you live in the comments, or on Twitter with the hashtag #natbooks. [more inside]
"Thank you so much!"
Speed Enforced by Aircraft. A tale of tragedy, triumph, death, and new life. [SLYT]
just look at it, it's obvious
O Sister, Where Art Thou?
This past May on Metafilter, we looked at “Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls”, a wildly popular variety show that was broadcast every Wednesday night in the 1930's and 1940's from the state prison in Huntsville, TX. It featured performances by male and female prisoners. No recordings of the show have ever been found. In the early forties, eight inmates of the Goree State Farm prison unit formed one of the first all-female country and western acts in the country and their performances were broadcast on Thirty Minutes. The Goree All Girl String Band captured the hearts of millions of radio listeners but never cut a record or went on tour and have thus been ignored by music historians. When they were paroled, they nearly all vanished forever. [more inside]
You're going to need a bigger bylaw.
Martha's Vineyard is well known as an idyllic summer vacation spot, but all is not well on the island. Affordable housing is hard to find. Housing for seasonal workers is hard to find. 57% of the dwellings on island are seasonal... [more inside]
As religious missions go, it was a pretty sweet deal
Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname is one of history’s greatest travelogues - Edward White, The Paris Review. [via]
"There's a lot about privilege in Singapore, that's not said."
What is your privilege? (Singapore edition) On the occasion of Singapore's 51st Independence this month, UNSAID -- a youth-led arts collective -- staged their country's own version of checking their privilege [original Buzzfeed video] [more inside]
My feminism will be capitalist, appropriative and bullshit merchandise
"Five years ago I wrote something that became kind of popular.... It was bizarre to see my name in pink fonts, being sold as a commodity when the entirety of my work has been against the commodification of feminist ideas and the misuse, appropriation and subsequent lack of credit of feminism of color." (SL Medium, by Flavia Dzodan)
“Maps codify the miracle of existence.”
Free, Printable USGS Quads National Geographic (the one now owned by Fox?!) has put together a website where you can download USGS (previously) maps that have been processed to print on standard letter paper.
Minimally Conscious State
"Untold thousands of patients misdiagnosed as vegetative are actually aware. Theirs is the civil rights fight of our times." By Joseph J. Fins, a professor of medical ethics and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.
Previously.
Po co ci kapusta
Yes, it's true. This collab has no DiC.
90's dub by moonlight, Bartkira trailer by daylight, 300+ animators (you heard right), a new collab of Sailor Moon! (Japanese with English subtitles. Previously, Akireviously.)
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