July 16, 2013—Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, honorary curator of the culinary collection at Radcliffe's Schlesinger Library, led a week-long seminar, “Reading Historic Cookbooks: A Structured Approach,” at the Schlesinger from June 2 through 7. Sixteen participants from as far away as Australia and Germany attended the seminar, which used Schlesinger’s robust collection of cookbooks to analyze ingredients, preparation, utensils and even language.

Historians had known about the boycott, which was called a “nonimportation agreement.” Records exist of a town meeting at Faneuil Hall on Oct. 28, 1767, which preceded the signatures. But until now, scholars had no idea how many colonists had pledged to participate or who they were. “It’s an exciting discovery,” said John Overholt, Houghton’s curator of early modern books and manuscripts. “It’s going to be the subject of scholarly attention.”

People are offended because the terrorist looks like a rock star, and Rolling Stone had the guts to show us that.

They show us our fear -- not of him -- that would be irrational because he can't harm anyone. Rather they show us our fear of ourselves. The realization that we equate youthful and sexy appearance with benevolence. Our value system fails. The input does not equal the output. Does not compute.

On one side of the equation is the dream, the sexy rock star idol, and on the other side is the cold-blooded murderer of innocents. Instead of looking at it, and learning what it can teach us about ourselves, that our cherished images are lies, many want to suppress it. Shame. Here's an opportunity to bust some myths.

Rolling Stone, perhaps inadvertently, has admitted that they are a lie. Next time they put a rock star on the cover, you'll have to wonder what evil lurks behind the pretty face. Maybe this is what you all don't want to look at.

How it was:



What Netflix did:

Wrong in Mexico, Brazil, USA and Scandinavia.

Earlier this month YouTube user questpact sent his DJI Phantom quad-copter and GoPro Hero 3 over the top of Niagara Falls to capture this pretty spectacular footage. Although the falls are not particularly high, they have the the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world with a peak flow of nearly six million cubic feet per minute. The video was shot as an entry to the DJI Phantom Video Contest, the results of which will be announced at the end of this month. Read more over on PetaPixel.

In HateSong, we ask our favorite musicians, writers, comedians, actors, and so forth to expound on the one song they hate most in the world. 

The hater: Music is the through-line in David Lynch’s career. While his films can vary wildly in tone, pop songs and each film’s score have roundly been front and center, or lurk around every other frame. With the upcoming release of his second solo studio album, The Big Dream, Lynch burrows deeper into music and seemingly further away from film. A huge proponent of transcendental meditation (or TM), the cerebral Lynch has a very personal relationship with music, so much so that The A.V. Club was requested to refrain from actually saying the title “It’s A Small World” throughout the entire interview. A code word for the song, “Flappy,” was predetermined before the interview.

The hated: The Sherman Brothers’ “It’s ...

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Frenchman René Lacoste was a superstar tennis player. In 1926 and 1927, he was ranked number one in the world, and during his tennis career, he won seven Grand Slam championship tournaments. But he found the attire associated with the sport restrictive. Tennis whites, as they were called, consisted of a white, long-sleeved button-down shirt, long pants and a tie. It was a lot of clothing to wear when racing to the net to make an overhead shot.

Lacoste was seeking a shirt that was more accommodating to movement. In a 1979 article from People magazine, he elaborated:

“One day I noticed my friend the Marquis of Cholmondeley wearing his polo shirt on the court,” remembers René. ” ‘A practical idea,’ I thought to myself.” It was so practical, in fact, that René commissioned an English tailor to whip up a few shirts in both cotton and wool. “Soon everyone was wearing them,” he smiles.

One school of thought attributes the shirt’s invention to meeting the needs of British polo players in India in the 19th century. The style was emulated in the U.S. by John Brooks, grandson of the founder of Brooks Brothers, after he saw polo players wearing the shirts in England in the late 1800s–hence, the reason we still call it a polo shirt today. It was also referred to as a tennis shirt—piqué knit cotton, short-sleeved, unstarched collar, a placket opening with buttons at the neck, and a “tennis tail” to help keep the shirt tucked in. (That tail even made an impression on artist-poet Joe Brainard, who, in his book-length poem I Remember includes the line: “I remember when those short-sleeved knitted shirts with long tails (to wear ‘out’) with little embroidered alligators on the pockets were popular.”) In 1926, Lacoste first sported the shirt when he played in the U.S. Open in New York City.

Around that same time, Lacoste was dubbed “The Crocodile” by his fans and the media for reasons that are still speculative today: his athletic boldness, his pointy schnoz, and a bet. As GQ explains:

The American press dubbed him the Alligator in ’27, after he wagered for an alligator-skin suitcase with the captain of the French Davis Cup team. When he returned to France, “alligator” became “crocodile,” and Lacoste was known forever after as the Crocodile.

Not only did he embrace the nickname, but he went all out and had a logo of the reptile embroidered onto his blazer. It became his personal brand before there was such a thing.

Once he retired from tennis in the early 1930s, he started the company La Chemise Lacoste with his pal André Gillier, president of the largest French knitwear company at the time, to produce and sell crocodile-emblazoned shirts. The Lacoste tennis shirt made its way to the United States in 1952 and was carefully branded as “the status symbol of the competent sportsman,” an attempt to establish Lacoste in the upper echelons of society.

But, you’re confused, right? Isn’t the crocodile logo associated with Izod? That’s where things get complicated. Lacoste wound up in the United States because it had licensed its brand to Izod (then called Izod of London), which had been seeking out an upscale product.

Izod Lacoste, as the brand became known, initially looked like a flop; there weren’t many customers in the early ’50s for a pricey polo shirt (about $8 then) with a small crocodile sewn onto the chest. But Vincent De Paul Draddy, who originally licensed the Lacoste name for Izod, had a brilliant idea. He provided Izod Lacoste swag to some of his famous buddies, including JFK, President Eisenhower and Bing Crosby, and from there, the shirts caught on, and became easy to find in department stores. People were happy to wear them, especially if the rich and famous were already fans.

In the 1970s and ’80s, sporting an Izod, as the shirts became known, spanned across generations. Teenagers, and particularly those who wanted to assume a preppy look, embraced the style, even popping the collar to assume the full Biff and Muffy look. (See the 1980 book The Official Preppy Handbook by Lisa Birnbach, for more on how the Izod shirt was a key ingredient to achieving that look, or listen to Three 6 Mafia’s Poppin’ My Collar from 2006 for a more contemporary interpretation.)

By the early 1990s, the trend was fading. Lacoste and Izod parted ways in 1993 (Lacoste went further upscale; Izod became more moderately priced and abandoned the crocodile.)

Over the years, the shirt and its iconic logo spawned many imitators and admirers. Designers and brands from diverse price points have taken to embroidering animals onto polo shirts: ponies (Ralph Lauren), marlins (Tommy Bahama), eagles (American Eagle), and even the crocodile itself!  The Chinese-based company, Crocodile Garments, was locked in a legal battle with Lacoste over the rights to the crocodile for over a decade until, in 2003, Crocodile Garments conceded to changing its logo. According to CNN, the settlement stated that Crocodile Garments would “have a croc with a tail which rises more or less vertically and it has skin which is much more scaly. It also has bigger eyes.”

Not only was Lacoste, who passed away in 1996, around to see multiple animal-emblazoned polo shirt imitators, but he also was privy to the fashion evolution that took place on the courts–from the whitest of full-coverage tennis whites to the shortest of itty-bitty tennis shorts (thanks, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors).

To celebrate the fact that 2013 is the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, we are taking a look back at all of the episodes of the show which featured David Tennant as the Doctor. At the end of our look back we'll be asking you, the fans, to vote for what you think is the ultimate David Tennant episode of Doctor Who....
We continue with the next David Tennant episode.... Voyage Of The Damned
Read our previous Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Countdown posts here.

29. Voyage Of The Damned
First Broadcast on 25th December  2007. Running Time: 71 Minutes. Viewing Figures: 13.31 million.
Written By Russell T Davies.
Directed By James Strong.
Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner.
David-Tennant.com Rating: 8/10.



Synopsis:
When disaster hits the Titanic, the Doctor uncovers a threat to the entire human race. Battling alongside aliens, saboteurs and robot angels, can he stop the Christmas inferno?

Extras: Promotional Photos | On Set Photos |  Videos | Articles | Screen Caps



Production Notes:
Bannakaffalatta:
Bannakaffalatta was a diminutive Zocci travelling on the Titanic and who liked to flirt with the ship's waitress Astrid. He was one of the guests who joined the Doctor and Astrid on their breif trip to Earth. Bannakaffalatta was a cyborg due to injuries and he used his electromagnetic power source to destroy some of the Heavenly Hosts, sacrificing his own life in the process.


Quotes:

Astrid: You're looking good for 903.
The Doctor: You should see me in the mornings.
Astrid: Ok.

The Doctor: Allons-y Alonzo!

Mr Copper: Of all the people to survive, he's not the one you would have chosen, is he? But if you could choose, Doctor, if you could decide who lives and who dies, then that would make you a monster.


Facts:

• David Tennant - The Doctor
• Kylie Minogue - Astrid Peth
• George Costigan - Max Capricon
• Clive Swift - Mr Copper
• Gray O'Brien - Rickston Slade
• Russell Tovey - Midshipman Alonzo Frame
• Debbie Chazen - Foon Van Hoff
• Clive Rowe - Morvin Van Hoff
• Jimmy Vee - Bannakaffalatta
• Geoffrey Palmer - Captain Hardaker
• Bernard Cribbins - Wilfred Mott

LONDON -- Britain on Wednesday legalized gay marriage after Queen Elizabeth II gave her royal stamp of approval, clearing the way for the first same-sex weddings next summer.

Spell ‘electrodialysis’ wrong in a text, and Apple will correct you. Miss ‘abortion’ by one letter? You’re on your own. Here's what's on Apple's "kill list."

and it’s hot too

welcome to Boston

(via Sea monsters on medieval maps - Brainiac)

Fuck your art that blocks your window.

A Limited Edition Blu-ray Gift set has appeared over-night on Amazon.com as a pre-order. It features Series 1-7 released on Blu-ray alongside a universal Sonic Screwdriver Remote Control and totals at $314.98. It contained this release description:

For the first time ever, BBC Home Entertainment is collecting the complete new Doctor Who together on Blu-ray plus an amazing assortment of additional items including the totally unique Doctor Who Universal Remote Control Sonic Screwdriver and more! The collection includes Series 1-4, featuring Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston and Tenth Doctor David Tennant, making their Blu-ray debut in newly remastered versions at full 1080p resolution, plus Series 5-7 featuring Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, also on 1080p high definition Blu-ray. Catch up with the complete new Doctor Who in high definition just in time for the historic 50th Anniversary Special this fall.

  Given the last sentence, it is clearly expected that the release date to be during or before September.

This release has already worked up people's interest on the internet. Questions such as "Will this be available in the UK as well or just the USA?" and "What about separate releases of each series set?" are the clear obvious ones that none of us have any idea about.

Among the more technical issues for this release is the picture quality for the episodes shot in Standard Definition (Rose to The Next Doctor). While there is no doubt that the picture quality will be better (what with professional upscaling and far improved codecs), the case boils down to how much better will it be than the DVDs? Will it be worth it for the majority?
 The Standard Definition content was shot on digital and not film therefore, it is not possible to produce note-worthy transformations to HD. (If it was, Classic would have tons more HD releases rather than just Spearhead from Space.) Because of this, people have criticised the presence of "newly remastered versions at full 1080p resolution" in the description as this can easily confuse people.

On the positive side, this would give the BBC a chance to reauthor the discs and add content that was not previous there and to fix things that were there (i.e. the correct Born Again) and, as unlikely as it may be, having the complete Doctor Who Confidentials added.

Finally,  We are not completely sure of this as, while the box cover looks rather good (and plausible), there are no other sources to confirm anything about this release.

Pedestrians around Transmitter Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, have reported being attacked by aggressive mockingbirds.

North Korea missile: Panamanian officials say they found parts to a weapons system, including what appears to be a missile or rocket, on a North Korean-flagged cargo ship off Panama's Caribbean coast.

Ms. Cheney, the older daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, announced an intent to run, setting up a Republican primary clash next year that party officials had hoped to avoid.

Afrika Bambaataa donated his vinyl to Cornell University Library's Hip Hop Collection. (Professor Bambaataa is a Visiting Scholar there.) But before the wax goes on its way, you can watch it being sorted, organized, and, yes, spun, at Gavin Brown's enterprise gallery in NYC's West Village. There are "Lunch Breaks" shows this week with Crazy Legs, Joe Conzo, Grandwizzard Theodore, and Break Beat Lou, and the collection will remain on view until August 10. Unfortunately, no digging!

"Spend Your Lunch Break with Afrika Bambaataa's Legendary Record Collection" (Paper)

More details on the exhibition at Gavin Brown's enterprise.

Thai art students decided to create a mural with some epic superheroes... plus Adolf Hitler. Officials at Chulalongkorn University have apologized, but said the students didn't realize including Hitler would offend anybody. But what I really want to know is, what is that cool duckling saying?

Read more...

As I wrote earlier today, the corporate brass at McDonald's seem to believe that in order to survive on what they pay their restaurant workers, you need a second job. And hey, credit where it's due: they're probably right. Fast food wages are terrible. If you're relying on a minimum- or near-minimum-wage check each month, it means you're living life on the financial precipice. 

Since this out, however, I've gotten a few angry responses from readers, the gist of which was captured pretty well in this tweet by Vincent from Chicago (I assure you, I'm the one getting yelled at):

@JHWeissmann @binarybits You're an idiot. McDonald's IS NOT a career!

-- Vincent (@VCON29) July 16, 2013

Tone aside, Vincent is actually hinting at a fairly sophisticated set of arguments you tend to hear from people who don't worry too much about minimum-wage workers, in particular. In brief: There aren't that many them; the jobs are mostly occupied by "suburban teenagers, not single parents," as the Heritage Foundation puts it; and people don't earn minimum wage for very long.

Or again, nobody makes a career as a cashier at McDonalds. 

And there's something to all that. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 1.68 million workers earning the federal minimum wage in 2011, accounting for about 2.3 percent of the workforce. About half were below the age of 24, and as the Heritage Foundation notes, the vast majority of those minimum wagers were enrolled in school. Moreover, one study by the Employment Policies Institute estimated that, between 1977 and 1998, more than 65 percent of minimum wage workers managed to land a raise within a year of starting their job. 

So with all of that in mind, here's my quick case for why you should still be worried about what companies like McDonald's pay their employees. 

The Working Poor Are Real, And Some Earn More Than Minimum Wage
According to the Census bureau, 7.2 percent of American workers live below the poverty line. In other words, they far outnumber the ranks of minimum wage earners. Remember, even McDonald's cashiers earn closer to $7.72 an hour on average, according to Glassdoor. 

Fast Food Workers Are Not All Suburban Teenagers
No, not every low-pay worker is a kid assembling Big Macs between classes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median fast food worker (technically referred to as a combined food preparation and serving worker) is about 29. A full 40 percent of minimum wage-earners, meanwhile, are in their prime working years of 25 to 54. Sure, some are married moms working part-time so they can see more of their kids. But plenty aren't.

Promotions Don't Mean Much If You're Still Poor
Yes, low-pay workers might get raises, but they're not necessarily big. The Employment Policies Institute found that the median annual pay hike for minimum-wage earners was 10 percent. About a third didn't get any kind of raise at all. And this was during the 90s. In today's slow economy, the situation is presumably worse.

McJobs Are Probably the Future
During the recession, the economy shed millions of middle-income jobs in fields like construction and manufacturing. During the recovery, they've mostly been replaced with low-wage service work, exacerbating a trend that dates back to the turn of the century. As shown on the graph below, the the food services industry now accounts for 7.6 percent of all jobs, up from about 7 percent pre-recession, and about 6.2 percent around 2000.

And, in all likelihood, they'll account for even more in the future. The BLS projects that food services will be among the fastest growing source of jobs for Americans with no more than a high school degree -- right behind retail and home health aides. So maybe working at McDonalds doesn't usually amount to a career today. But it might tomorrow. 

I like Catherine Rosselle's embroidered bugs. See more at CRAFT.

Apparently, repeatedly lifting over four hundred pounds isn’t exactly good for you.

Xzavier Brandon went from a 16-year-old honor student to a felony suspect in a matter of minutes during a walk to school last month.

“A gun was pointed at me and handcuffs were put on me, and that’s everything that’s done to a criminal,” Brandon said in an interview last week.

Exempt from final exams because of good test scores at New Albany High School, Brandon was walking his usual route to preseason football practice on May 28 when a resident of Hilltop Trail Drive thought he looked suspicious. A house in the Northeast Side neighborhood had been broken into between 8:30 a.m. and 12:40 p.m., when the homeowner returned and discovered the crime.

About the same time, Mike Eberts, who lives in the neighborhood, saw Brandon walking by and called 911.

“There’s someone walking down the street who might have something to do with this,” he told the Columbus police dispatcher. “It may just be a coincidence that he’s just walking by, but it sure looks suspicious to me.” He told the dispatcher he would follow the youth in his car.

Brandon remembered that he had said hello to a man he didn’t know as he passed, but he kept walking toward Thompson Road. He had headphones on while listening to his iPod, he said, and it wasn’t until he heard a loud shout, turned around and saw a gun in his face that he realized something was wrong. Officer Leonard Milner told the teen to drop to the ground and then handcuffed him and asked if he had any jewelry in his backpack. Brandon said he didn’t.

As he was on the ground at the side of busy Thompson Road, he tried to turn his face so he wouldn’t be recognized, he said. Brandon, who will be a junior at New Albany in the fall, said he’s active in football, school and volunteering.

“I was a little insulted that anyone in New Albany would think I was a threat,” he said.

He was held until another officer showed up about 15 minutes later and vouched for him. That officer, Sgt. Tyrone Hollis, knew Brandon from his son’s football team and gave him a ride to the high school after he was released.

Because there was no arrest, no report was filed, and that makes both Brandon and his mother, Jo Brandon-Jones, angry.

“Something serious just happened,” he said. “And in my opinion, it was just blown off.”

Brandon-Jones filed an internal-affairs complaint with the Police Division, alleging that Milner used excessive force when he encountered her son. That review likely will take months to complete.

Sgt. Elrico Alli, a police spokesman, said the officer was approaching someone who might have just committed a burglary, a serious crime.

“Whenever we encounter anything that involves a felony, or serious physical harm ... we display our firearms,” Alli said.

Eberts, the neighbor who called police, said this week, “I wasn’t accusing anyone of anything. I simply was encouraging the police to talk with someone in the area.” He wouldn’t elaborate on what he thought was suspicious about Brandon.

Brandon, who is black, wonders whether Eberts suspected him of the crime because of his race.

“What other reason would he have to call police on me?” he asked.

The encounter might not have ended safely if he had reached in his pocket to turn off his iPod or hadn’t heard the officer’s commands, he pointed out. “I could have been shot. I could have been killed that day.”

Both mom and son would like an apology from the police officer, an acknowledgement that what Brandon went through was wrong.

“You can’t undo it,” Brandon-Jones said. “But you can make it better.”

Original Source

This image hasn't been photoshopped or digitally altered in any way. So why is the shadow so out of sync with the frisbee thrower's action?

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It’s time for our monthly dose of vintage yumminess courtesy of Lauren at Dear Golden! We loved the last two posts so much, we decided to give them an official title with a rare use of a sewing pun, “Behind the Seams.”

Today we are looking at a 1920′s beaded shift made from dreamy peach colored silk georgette and lined in silk crepe de chine.

Don’t you just wish you could stroll through an English garden on a breezy summer evening in this dress? Well, I sure do. Let’s look more closely at some of those handsewn details!

 

If you’d like to own a lovely frock like this, checkout what Lauren has in the DearGolden shop on Etsy.

 photos by Lauren Naimola of DearGolden