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In 1856, a young girl in South Africa went to fetch water from the river. When she returned, she convinced her uncle that she had spoken with spirits and that the spirits had said that, in return for the sacrifice of all their cattle and their crops, the spirits would sweep the European settlers into the sea, that the cattle and grain would be replaced by better cattle and full granaries. Her uncle told the Chief, the chief listened, and a society was reduced to a hungry shadow of its former self. The Xhosa cattle-killing.
comment posted at 12:35 PM on Jan-20-07
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Things My Boyfriend Says. Not my boyfriend, mind you. I'm just posting it.
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"Georgia Russell is a Scottish artist who uses a scalpel instead of a brush or a pen. She works with obsessive perserverance to create constructions that transform found ephemera, such as books, music scores, maps, newspapers, currency and photographs." Samples here. {via design dna}
comment posted at 1:03 AM on Jan-17-07

"Bloggers are nihilists because they are 'good for nothing'. They post into Nirvana and have turned their futility into a productive force." "Blogging, the nihilist impulse," based on a lecture by Geert Lovink.
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"My Shtick? Being Black." You probably know Jordan Carlos from his role on The Colbert Report. Like me, you may not have known he didn't actually work there: "'Saturday Night Live' has no black writers. 'The Daily Show' also doesn't have any, and neither does 'The Colbert Report,' a show on which I've played Stephen Colbert's black friend 'Alan,' a member of the staff. That's right. 'The Colbert Report' had to hire an actor to play a black person who works on the show." (via Oliver Willis)
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"[T]he heart of the Christian religion, all that is good and compassionate within it, has been tossed aside, ruthlessly gouged out and thrown into a heap with all the other inner organs. Only the shell, the form, remains. Christianity is of no use to Parsley, Blackwell and the others. In its name they kill it." From Michelle Goldberg's searing Salon interview with Chris Hedges, whose War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning I admired the hell out of.
comment posted at 10:58 PM on Jan-7-07

Ouch. You know that kid who just won't accept responsibility for his actions? Keeps making excuses, or denying the plain facts, or insists he never said such a thing... Mom, you are soooo unfair!... Some of the Press haven't grown out of it. Glenn Greenwald gives them a spanking.
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The LA Times tagged the Gates Foundation today for harmful investment practices. The Gates Foundation generally gets only positive PR for their great work on global health. But today the LA Times presented startling evidence that the foundation's own investments are actually causing much of the harm in the communities where the foundation is working. As the poster child of the free market capitalist system, is it time for Gates to ask whether globalization is a primary cause of the third world poverty his foundation is trying to fix?
comment posted at 9:44 PM on Jan-6-07

Little Mosque on the Prairie is a new Canadian sitcom that premiers January 9th at 8:30 PM EST on the CBC. To promote the series, 135 kilograms of shawarma was served up (embedded Flash video) Thursday on a downtown Toronto street, with a flock of camels on hand to spread the halal-arity. Considerable buzz is being generated, with American talking heads discussing the effect this show may have, and why it would never have been created in the US. Says series creator Zarqa Nawaz: "North America should be the first place where a comedy like this would come about, where Muslims can be comfortable in their own skin."
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One of the worst and best hockey plays you will ever see - all within fourteen seconds. Former first overall pick, Patrik Stefan of the NHL's Dallas Stars, gets an open shot at an empty net with fourteen seconds left in the game...and misses. The Edmonton Oilers regain control of the puck, make a long pass down the length of the ice and score to tie the game with two seconds left!
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Valo. Lovely abstract flash game with a simple ambient score generated by the gameplay itself. Draw over the blue squares, avoid the red. via Good Experience Games.
comment posted at 4:31 PM on Jan-5-07
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My coworker from Buffalo NY brought in a bunch of sponge candy from back home and I was just about the only one who liked it. You can also make the stuff at home. Well someone can. Apparently it can only be made in winter, on account of the temperature needing to be just right for the crunchy center to set. Don't let the hot wings steal your glory, sponge candy! Which are also available, rendered in chocolate from the same site.
comment posted at 3:31 PM on Jan-5-07

Virginia woman could get 2 years in prison for throwing McDonald's bag - a jury in Stafford County, Virginia has recommended a two-year prison sentence for Jessica Julia Hall, a 25-year-old mother of three, for throwing a bag with a soft drink inside into the car next to her. She was convicted of a felony offense after getting into an altercation with another driver on I-95 between Fredericksburg, VA and Washington, DC - widely considered to be one of the most congested stretches of road on the East Coast. Anyone who drives in the DC area can tell you how overcrowded the highways are. It gets worse in the summer when the tempratures rise and tempers flare. This could be an example of excessive justice, or perhaps juries in this area have had enough.
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Parents of a severely mentally and physically disabled child have stunted her growth to keep their little "pillow angel" a manageable and more portable size.
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A 7 year-old British boy gets electrocuted while charging his Gameboy in a Thai hotel. The gaming press are up in arms at the way it gets reported.
comment posted at 3:58 AM on Jan-5-07

Joey Jihad is a hot young rapper out of Philadelphia, who is on the verge of being signed by one of the majors. Recently though, Joey was humiliated on the streets when he was set up, punched and robbed. Word on the hip-hop message boards is that his assailant paid the ultimate price
comment posted at 3:16 AM on Jan-5-07

"I'm a Gemini, and my favorite food is pizza." Michael Cera (of Arrested Development) submits his resume, Aleksey Vayner-style [previously]. A short film by Nicholas Jasenovec from McSweeney's Presents: The World, Explained.
comment posted at 6:08 AM on Jan-5-07

Cancer Cure Patented A group of researchers claim that they are patenting a possible cure for cancer involving nothing more than sugar and short-chain fatty acid combination.
comment posted at 11:57 PM on Jan-4-07

What if they released a movie and nobody came? The film Zyzzyx Road (sic) -- starring Tom Sizemore, Katherine Heigl and Leo Grillo -- reportedly cost $2 million to make but grossed only $30 domestic in a six-day, one-theater release. The trailer for the film that virtually no one saw is here.
comment posted at 12:04 AM on Jan-5-07

The 118th Rose Parade launched today, with a bit of a twist -- George Lucas, Dark Lord of the Sith, as Grand Marshall. Is anyone else creeped out a little by this photo? Maybe I just don't know the history of the fully operational Rose Parade? Let's just get to the game, OK?
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What are you optimistic about? Why? The Edge Annual Question — 2007. "The nearly 160 responses to this year's Edge Question span topics such as string theory, intelligence, population growth, cancer, climate and much much more. Contributing their optimistic visions are a who's who of interesting and important world-class thinkers."
comment posted at 4:30 PM on Jan-1-07

The Decline of the PS3 Grey Market: Purchases by eBay arbitrageurs were one of the primary drivers of the Playstation 3 release date frenzy. Predictably, the bubble has now burst.
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