Bridget

Marshawn Lynch doesn't answer journalists' questions unless he feels like it.

In a much-discussed mandatory press conference at this week's Super Bowl Media Day, the Seattle Seahawks running back, who has a famously contentious relationship with the press, responded to questions with "I'm here so I won't get fined" a staggering 29 times.

Then, in a Thursday statement, he lectured reporters, saying, "[I]t don't matter what y'all think, what y'all say about me; cause when I go home at night, the same people that I look in the face, my family, that I love, that's all that really matters to me."

Lynch is not simply trolling the media or his employer, the NFL (which has said it will fine him if he doesn't speak to the press). He's arguably redefining the traditional confines of a black player's role. As Peter Odell Campbell, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on public arguments about race and sexuality in the media, put it, this athlete's selective silence has put him in control of his labor and freed him from the "racist double bind" that is black NFL players' relationship with the press.

The sacrifices the NFL demands of black athletes

According to Campbell, the NFL is an organization that, even in comparison to other major male professional sporting leagues, "thrives on the exploitation of the labor of its players, who are increasingly black." (The Unofficial 2014 NFL 2014 Player Census reports that 67.8 percent of NFL players are African American.)

Consider the agreements that favor ownership and the traditions that encourage athletes to play through pain and injury, and it's easy to understand why.

And especially for African-American athletes, when it comes to the required sacrifice of one's well being to the league, a press conference can be as dangerous as any violent play.

"When NFL players talk to the media, they're expected to talk but to behave in a certain way, and it's not for their benefit, but for the benefit of the media or NFL,"  said Campbell. And black athletes, he said, have the most to lose when they acquiesce to this arrangement: "You speak, but if you don't speak correctly, you're an example of ‘bad blackness.'"

Consider Lynch's teammate, Richard Sherman, who dared to get excitable in his live interview after last year's NFC Championship win.  Viewers were quick to condemn the Stanford graduate and star athlete as a "thug," fueling weeks of public debate about whether he'd embarrassed himself or disgraced African Americans as a group. And recall the experience of the athletes such as Florida State's Jameis Winston who've been mocked for being unintelligent when they answer reporters' questions earnestly but have an accent or don't use Standard English.

"If black players depart from the script, they get vilified and subjected to stereotypes about black male aggression," Campbell said.  And even when they aren't explicitly slammed by the press, research suggests the media shows subtle bias in how it covers players of different races.

"White athletes are smart, hardworking, team players. Black athletes are freaks and beasts who get by on their natural gifts as opposed to their work ethic, which perpetuates the broader stereotype of black people as lazy," John Carvalho, Auburn University associate professor of journalism wrote in an October 2014 piece summarizing the research for Vice.

Lynch highlighted how disconcerting this scrutiny can be when at he told reporters Thursday, "So now for the next three minutes, I'll just be looking at y'all the way you're looking at me."

Lynch's selective speaking strategically shakes things up

"The only way NFL players can succeed is to resist the NFL's tendency to do whatever benefits the league, and its tendency to chew them up and spit them out," Campbell said.

Lynch's silence, in his view, is a statement that the athlete is taking ownership of his own labor (and yes, speaking to the press counts as labor) so that he gets to reap the benefits of what he's worked for.

And given the racial dynamics of the league, this ability to direct attention to himself —"as black worker who's being very productive and whose significance is far greater than someone who speaks at employer's beck and call," as Campbell put it — hasn't gone unnoticed.

NFL star Marshawn Lynch refuses to talk to media. He's not a slave or a trained pet! Run or talk, Pick One!... http://t.co/kk7fZtEd6x

— Joe Madison (@MadisonSiriusXM) January 30, 2015

For every black person in corporate America who refuses to stepin fetchit to get to the boardroom, Marshawn Lynch is a national hero.

— Terrell J. Starr (@Russian_Starr) January 28, 2015

More than just a statement, this commando media management is a strategic move. It means that when Lynch does speak, it's about what's meaningful to him, not what's flattering to the league or fascinating to reporters. For example, on Thursday, some of his rare remarks included references to his First Foundation, which was formed to offer educational and enrichment services to kids in his hometown of Oakland, California.

Because of the media interest his previous silence had created, the short "shout-out" — which likely would have been treated as a throwaway statement under normal circumstances - got coverage.

"You can read that as an example of a black athlete taking back power," Campbell said.

It's a power move by a black athlete, regardless of whether he explains it that way

"His refusal to perform according to the boundaries and rules placed upon him by an organization with a racist history, his open rebuking of corporate overlords whose wealth is gained through consumption of his body and his blackness, are political acts," said Sarah Jackson, assistant professor of communication studies at Northeastern University and author of Black Celebrity, Racial Politics, and the Press: Framing Dissent.

You almost certainly won't hear Lynch describing his conduct in these academic terms — or explaining his motivation in much detail at all.

But among those who see his antics as a racial power move, that doesn't matter.

"It's irrelevant what Lynch's actual intentions are or whether he ever explains them ... whether Lynch can (or does) articulate a political critique and logic to his refusal is immaterial to me," Jackson said. "He's trumping one of the main rules meant to make people like him 'safe' for consumption in only specific contexts. It's nothing if not fascinating."

Andre Gee of the blog Black Culture took a similar view, writing, "You may not have any of this on your mind ... but knowingly or not, your unwillingness to talk is a small protest against the God complex of Roger Goodell and the NFL. It's a middle finger to a sensationalist sports media that has been guilty of subliminal racism for years. "

In Campbell's view, what Lynch is doing is important regardless of whether he talks about it beyond his recent, "when I go home at night, the same people that I look in the face, my family, that I love, that's all that really matters to me" statement to the press.

"He's not just Marshawn Lynch. He is a figure — a visibly black person — who is simultaneously working extremely effectively and performing resistance against primarily white owners that are trying to force him into working for them," he said.

Will Lynch ever weigh in on what that resistance means to him? Only if he wants to.

WATCH: "Meet the enormous boats that carry your stuff"

This is the weekend when all your friends are talking about the superb owl.

No one can deny that the superb owl is a national obsession. It's trending on Twitter and lighting up Facebook — some Las Vegas bookies are even taking superb owl bets. So we've put together these superb owl facts to explain the majestic bird of prey everyone is talking about.

1) Teddy Roosevelt kept a superb owl as a pet

Theodore Roosevelt had a long history with owls, both as pets and trophies.

You can still see Roosevelt's mounted snowy owl at the American Museum of Natural History (Roosevelt found the owl in Oyster Bay on Long Island). His interest wasn't limited to taxidermied birds, either — when he moved into the White House, Roosevelt brought a vast menagerie that included a one-legged rooster, a pony, a pig, and, yes, a barn owl named Moses. The owl traveled around the world with Roosevelt and his children.

Roosevelt wasn't the only famous person who kept an owl as a pet. Pablo Picasso once took in an injured owl, bandaged its claw, and gave it a home in his kitchen. Picasso liked to stick his fingers inside the owl's cage and get love nips from his friend. The artist felt a deeper connection to owls, as well, and said that his owl-like appearance was due to owls being his ancestors.

For the record, it's probably a bad idea to keep an owl as a pet. They don't like being tied up and are difficult to take care of. During the Harry Potter craze, hundreds of people bought pet owls — only to abandon them later.

2) Superb owls can be trained to hunt

As you might expect, falconry usually involves falcons. But some owls, including barn owls, eagle owls, and great horned owls, can also be trained to hunt. While falcons and other birds of prey are active during the day and prized for their sight, nocturnal owls are valued for their sense of hearing. People might use them to hunt rodents, small birds, or very small game.

Norfolk Falconry focuses on owls, using the birds of prey to give curious people an introduction to falconry. However, owls are generally considered more difficult to train and impractical due to their nocturnal behavior.

3) Owls were probably the first "tail" on a coin

An Athenian owl coin. (CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

It's difficult to imagine coins without a head and tail. And the very first tail was probably an owl.

The Athenian owl coin featured Athena's head on the front and an owl — a symbol of Athens and wisdom — on the back. The silver coin was very valuable and was used internationally for large transactions. Starting in 512 BC, the coin had more than 400 years of active circulation, and that consistent use helped it come to represent coins in general. Undoubtedly, its long tenure helped cement the idea of what the front and back of a coin should look like.

Fittingly, owl fan Theodore Roosevelt kept one of the coins in his pocket, and it's believed to have inspired coinage design in the early 20th century.

4) Owl pellets are surprisingly educational

Barn owl pellets. (Pellets, Inc)

Owl pellets are regurgitated waste that owls cannot digest, and they often contain the bones of animals — making them great for study in the classroom. Barn owls mostly eat mice or voles, though occasionally their pellets will contain even weirder things, like crawfish.

Educational pellets have even become a thriving business. Since 1983, Bret Gaussoin of Pellets Inc. has been collecting and selling owl pellets for dissection in schools. "When I was in college, one of my professors actually created this lab dissecting barn owl pellets in the classroom," he told me. "I found some owl pellets and gave him a bread bag full, and he wrote me a check. Within a couple of years, I was his biggest collector."

As for where he gets the owl waste? "We have pellets from almost every state west of the Mississippi," he said. "What makes barn owl pelleting work is that these birds like to sit in exactly the same spot to roost every day. So these pellets literally can accumulate in a pile underneath them."

Back in the 1980s, barns were a popular collection spot. "But now these old barns are disintegrating or falling apart," he says. "People have learned how to find birds in wild settings — certain types of trees, cliffs, that sort of thing."

5) There are superb owl halftime shows

Rice University is lucky enough to have the Marching Owl Band perform its halftime show during football games. Originally, an ad hoc band would storm the field at halftime and do "the snake dance." From there, it grew into the MOB familiar to Rice students and alums today. In the early 1970s, the MOB became a more blatantly satirical "scatter band," with fun music and informal style.

Today, the MOB is distinguished by its unique and funny style, its sartorial quirks (members wear tuxedo-style outfits rather than martial gear), and general strangeness. However, as unique as the MOB is, the very traditional rivalry with the Texas A&M Aggies still animates its performances.

6) The world's most powerful leaders (supposedly) congregate under a 40-foot concrete owl

The giant owl at Bohemian Grove. (Wikimedia Commons)

Owls aren't just a symbol of wisdom — according to conspiracy theorists, one owl is at the center of the Illuminati.

Every year in July, some of society's most powerful men reportedly meet at a Monte Rio, California, enclave to network, kick back, and possibly plan the fate of the world. Past attendees have included Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and the Manhattan Project was conceived there in 1942. And, as it happens, the enclave features a giant 40-foot concrete owl known as the "Great Owl of Bohemia."

The owl, sculpted by Haig Patigian in the 1920s, is one of the focal points of the retreat, and it stands over the opening ceremony, which is called "the Cremation of Care" (in which an effigy of a child called "Dull Care" is sacrificed and burned on the lake. None of that is a typo).

Because the retreat remains a closely guarded secret, it's tough to know how influential it is today. You can decide whether you want to wade into the conspiracy theories, but whatever goes down there, an owl will be watching over it.

7) In New York, fake owls were once used to scare pigeons

Birds of prey, like owls, can be frightening to other birds. Therefore, fake owl decoys are used to try to scare away pigeons. In 1986, there were more than 30 owls scattered around White Plains, New York, for this purpose. The strategy was popular in Manhattan, as well.

Unfortunately, the pigeons wised up to the fake owls, which were too stationary. Today, a company called Robop tries to solve that problem with modern robotic falcons that move their heads and produce simulated birdcalls.

8) The barn owl can come surprisingly close to echolocation

A barn owl in flight. (UniversalImagesGroup/Contributor)

Bats are known for using echolocation, which is the use of biological sonar to "see" in the dark. As it turns out, owls do something surprisingly similar, using their asymmetric ears to aid in the "acoustic location of prey." That's the important reason one of the owl's ears is higher than the other.

A barn owl's unique ears allow it to pinpoint sound within one degree both horizontally and vertically. Because the sounds arrive at each ear at a different time, the owl can tell where the prey is. Its unique facial ruff helps filter sound, as well.

9) This is how you weigh an owl. It would be the highlight of any superb owl party.

An owl ready to be weighed. (UNM)

Owls are very light, and baby owls are even lighter. For example, the Northern saw-whet owl weighs just 65 to 100 grams — or the weight of about 13 quarters. The heaviest North American owl, on average, is the snowy owl, which tops out at around 6.5 pounds.

To weigh the animals, they need to be wrapped so they won't fly away (a struggle with all animals).

Los Angeles' skyline has none of the soaring spires that grace the Burj Khalifa or the Chrysler Building. Instead, it's uniformly flat, like someone took an axe to downtown and left only stumps of buildings. And it's all because of a piece of misguided regulation.

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It's strange to remember just how easily influenced I was. Embarrassing to admit just how obsessively I was able to actually love one. single. video game.

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Everyone with a driver's license knows that you can donate your blood and internal organs, but a nonprofit in Boston has found a goldmine of a transplant opportunity in your lower intestine: poop.

According to the Washington Post, medical nonprofit OpenBiome has been marketing in fecal transplant material since 2013, shipping loads of, um, loads across the country. Those samples are transplanted into people suffering from an infection of the toxin-producing organism known as Clostridium difficile, which eats away at an infected person's intestinal lining and can leave them unable to leave their homes. This donated fecal matter can make a huge difference in the quality of life for people suffering from the infection. And it earns donors $40 per sample, plus a $50 cash bonus for five donations in one week. That's $250 for a week of donations, or a potential $13,000 a year.

Holy crap.

It's a miracle of science. Read More

"You Float My Boat" Beautiful new prints out now by #beautifulbizarre Issue 002 featured artist, the BRILLIANT Caia Koopman

New research suggests that people who binge-watch tons of TV shows are probably lonely. Get a life, you sad hermit.

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We all know the Circus of Values clown. We've all bought ammo, EVE hypos and health kits "from him" dozens of times. But did you know that he originally sold melons?

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Iceland is rising at the rate of as much as 1.4 inches per year. That's right — the land itself is moving upward.

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You'd think that the infamous NFL player nicknamed Beast Mode would be okay with the gory finishing moves of Mortal Kombat. He's not. At all. Marshawn Lynch isn't down with seeing people's intestines.

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The "1%" label has become synonymous for wealth inequality and economic injustice, warning of the rise of a new global elite. But at what point do you actually become a member of the economic aristocracy?

According to a report released Monday by the Economic Policy Institute, it depends on what state you live in.  

The paper, which examines income inequality in every U.S. state, shows that disparity between 99% of earners and the top 1% varies wildly from state to state. 

Source: Economic Policy Institute Connecticut tops the EPI's report as the state with the highest 1% threshold. Residents have to earn at least $678,000 to be considered a member of the Nutmeg State's economic elite. Read More

Suge Knight's defense is in full swing: his lawyer says that his client, who was arrested on murder charges this morning, had no clue that he had hit two people and killed his own friend yesterday in Compton. [ more › ]

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Plants and Animals

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is a common refrain. But usually it is not followed by the words “because your neighbours may kill you”. However, this is precisely the scenario faced by some female Brazilian fig wasps – and a recent report of their “mortal combat” provides an intriguing, if chilling, example of how natural selection shapes animal behaviour.

NetherRealm Studios unveiled the latest returning fighter for Mortal Kombat X today, psychokinetic combatant Ermac.

During a livestream for Mortal Kombat X, NetherRealm's Tyler Lansdown, Derek Kirtzic and Paulo Garcia showed off Ermac in battle for the first time. Many of his trademark moves, like his telekinetic grab and teleportation-based attacks, will return. Like other Mortal Kombat X characters, he'll have three fighting variations that will mix up his move set.

In the Master of Souls variation, Ermac is surrounded by three glowing green orbs. He can shoot those orbs like your typical fighting game projectile, but there's a twist. If Ermac fires that projectile while all three orbs are active, the first will momentarily stun his...

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The social media campaign known as GamerGate has been in the mainstream eye nearly since its inception, with coverage from outlets ranging from The New York Times to CNN. Now the harassment that springs from GamerGate will be showcased in an unexpected new place: NBC crime drama Law & Order: SVU.

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TMZ is reporting that Suge Knight ran over a man and killed him after a fight on a film set in California.

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Google has begun manufacturing human skin for research at its Life Sciences facility, and it actually has nothing to do with designing disguises for the cyborgs that walk among us. That technology’s already perfected, thank you.

According to Business Insider, Google Life Sciences is manufacturing skin as part of their push to design magnetic nanoparticles that can comb the body for diseases and ultimately help patients develop a proactive attitude towards health. Head of Life Sciences Andrew Conrad explains, “the central thesis of what we’re trying to do [...] is change medicine from being episodic and reactive (like, I go to the doctor when my arm hurts), to proactive and preventative.”

That’s a lofty goal, but Google the All-Seeing Eye certainly has the resources to make it happen (including skin. Lots and lots of sweet, sweet skin). Over the past three years, the company has built a state-of-the-art research facility and hired over 100 doctors and scientists dedicated to designing a pill filled with thousands of nanoparticles that, when swallowed, will detect specific cells, proteins, and other molecules. Should the nanoparticles attach themselves to the skin of a tumor cell or detect other signs of trouble within the body, the particles will then “light up,” triggering a wristband that can help the patient identify the problem.

Business Insider says that the pills and accompanying wristband are a long way from becoming reality, but that understanding how light passes through different kinds of skin will be essential to perfecting the technology. According to Conrad, “We’re making good progress. But the journey is long and hard. So I think we will get there and I hope it’s years, not decades.”

To learn more about Google’s health initiatives, you can check out the rest of Conrad’s interview and some handy-dandy graphs over on Business Insider. Or, you know, just talk to your local Google-Certified Cyborg—as long as you’re willing to provide samples, that is.

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John Carpenter delighted fans at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles last year when he revealed that he was working on an entire album of new music that would be released in the near future. Shortly after that reveal, a release date and first single titled “Vortex” was announced. It’s hard to believe that Carpenter, best known as the director of Halloween, The Thing and Escape from New York, has never released an album. His scores have been loved by fans for decades and his theme from Halloween has become an iconic piece of music in the company of John Williams theme for Jaws and Bernard Herrmann’s work in Psycho.

Nerdist had the opportunity to talk with Carpenter about how his album John Carpenter’s Lost Themes came to be, how music has always been an important part of his life, and if he’ll be returning to direct horror anytime soon.

How is it that after a career spanning all forms of media like film, television, music, and video games, that this album finally came about? Carpenter reveals, “It’s a little bit of a story but here it goes. Two or three years ago my son Cody and I would play video games for an hour or so and would go downstairs to my Logic Pro music setup and improvise music for an hour or so and then go back to the video games then go back to the music. This went on for quite a while until I had about an hour’s worth of music between us. Then my music attorney aske, ‘Do you have anything new?’ And I really didn’t expect for this stuff that Cody and I had done so I sent it to her and a couple of months later I had a record deal! That’s how it worked.”

When one listens to Lost Themes, it’s hard to not hear similarities to the anxiety-inducing music of Carpenter’s previous cinematic work. Even though these songs were created independently of films, I couldn’t help wondering if “The Horror Master”  had images of Kurt Russell running around in his head while composing his eerie new tracks. Carpenter chuckled and told me, “Well, it doesn’t exactly go like that but I’ve always had images in my head since I was a little kid. Some people might say that’s insanity, but I don’t; I say it’s because I fell in love with movies and I saw the way movies were made and on and on. My approach to making movies is always the story. That’s what counts first. I try not to sketch in the characters because the actors bring all that. But the storytelling, that I can imagine in my head.”

When I remark that it’s a bit of a surprise that Carpenter has a career in film and music that spans decades and yet, somehow in 2015 we’re getting his debut album, the director laughs and says, “Well, you know my scores have been released on records and continue to be but this is the first original music and this is the first music done without an image. This was all done just as an improvisation. That’s what was so much fun to do. And it’s a throwback because I’m an old guy! That’s why. I’m a throwback kind of guy.”

John Carpenter’s Lost Themes is available on February 3, 2015 via Sacred Bones Records.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our conversation with John Carpenter, which goes live tomorrow! 

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Woman Tattoos Her Own Face To Cover Scars, Starts Business To Help Other Burn Victims

This woman rose above the challenges of her own experience to help others in similar situations.

See more of Hameed’s incredible paramedical tattoo work here. 

Witnesses claim that Suge Knight hit and killed a man with his car, then drove away. [ more › ]

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LOVE US, RED-HAIRED MOTHER

After breaking a 13-year silence under his Aphex Twin alias with last year's release of Syro, electronic music godhead Richard D. James appears eager to catch up on lost time with the listening public. Soon after Syro, he released a sprawling collection of modular synth exercises, followed that with Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP a mere two days ago, and now seems to be unloading a bonanza of unreleased demos and alternate takes on the helpfully-titled user48736353001's Soundcloud page.

As could be reasonably expected with tracks uploaded at this clip (two to four per hour seems to be the average), the quality varies wildly, with many pieces coming in around a minute long and consisting of simple rhythmic experimentations or acid bass workouts. There are some more fleshed-out pieces that demand attention from gear-heads and 'Phex fanatics, however, showing differently-angled approaches to some of James' most critically-lauded works (Hangable Auto Bulb, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, etc). Below are a few early highlights:

Beatific synth pads, aerobic acid lines and cheesy early 90's breakbeats: this was the AFX pupa that became the Aphex butterfly.

A funky, twinkly little slice tribal trip hop, with those ricocheting Eastern-flavored chord progressions our man's so fond of.

Munchkin melodies, soaring synth strings and percussion that toes the line between crunching metal and low-level flatulence. In other words, quintessential early Aphex.

For people of a certain disposition, this is the music equivalent of discovering an unreleased Kubrick film or Kafka story. As of today the Soundcloud page shows no sign of slowing down.

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We don’t need another dog

Premiering just as Alex Gibney's new documentary film based on Going Clear receives accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, Disconnection rides in on a small wave of recent arts and entertainment media examinations of the Church and its activities. Thanks in large part to a very strong cast, Disconnection merits a look as well. It's certainly not what anyone would have ever expected to see at the Beverly Hills Playhouse back in Katselas's heyday. [ more › ]

Vidiots members, whose ranks range from locals to cult film fanatics to filmmakers and actors including David O. Russell, Oliver Stone, Viggo Mortensen, and Julia Roberts, could soon be without a seemingly endless library of movies that served the community for decades. [ more › ]