Russian Sledges

Inside Printemps Department Store, Paris:1920 via Retronaut

The dairy lobby is trying to pollute our milk! According to an ad campaign now appearing on city buses in Washington, D.C., milk producers would like to make the pure mammary secretions of industrial cattle into “an artificially sweetened junk food.”

“

I came to this film thinking of Steven as ‘an Asian fetishist’ and of Sandy as ‘an opportunist.’ Having spent a little while getting to know them through Lum’s lens, I saw their nuances. Parts of their relationship — their fights, their daily interactions, their worries — became incredibly human, completely relatable to an outsider.

Except I feel like there should be a ‘but.’

This narrative still doesn’t sit well with me. The way Steven thought about Asian women — stripping them of their individuality, layering on pre-conceived ideals, replacing people with types — was challenged when he met Sandy, a real person with layers of her own. They might make the relationship work, yes, and I might even want them to. But in that case, their road to happiness feels marred with potholes that still need to be examined and considered.

”

- Kat Chow, “’Seeking Asian Female’ Takes A Close Look at a Fetish,” NPR Code Switch. (via kgoldschmitt)

Since Steubenville, the hacktivist collective has found an ethically dicey new role: seeking justice for rape victims.

In a follow-up to their map of racist tweets towards Barack Obama, the folks at Floating Sheep took a more rigorous route to get around the challenges of sentiment analysis. Over 150,000 geotagged tweets against races, sexuality, and disabled were manually classified and mapped.

All together, the students determined over 150,000 geotagged tweets with a hateful slur to be negative. Hateful tweets were aggregated to the county level and then normalized by the total number of tweets in each county. This then shows a comparison of places with disproportionately high amounts of a particular hate word relative to all tweeting activity. For example, Orange County, California has the highest absolute number of tweets mentioning many of the slurs, but because of its significant overall Twitter activity, such hateful tweets are less prominent and therefore do not appear as prominently on our map. So when viewing the map at a broad scale, it’s best not to be covered with the blue smog of hate, as even the lower end of the scale includes the presence of hateful tweeting activity.

Hard to believe this stuff is still around. It looks like I might want to stay clear of some parts of Virginia. (The aggregation at the national level seems a bit aggressive. When you zoom in on the map, the polarity between the east and west doesn't seem so strong.)

Update: Be sure to read the FAQ before making snap judgements.

"The bloodwood tree (Pterocarpus angolensis) is a deciduous, spreading and slightly flat-crowned tree with a high canopy. It reaches about 15 metres in height and has dark bark. The bloodwood grows in warm areas in the northeast of Africa, extending into Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia. The red sap is used traditionally as a dye and in some areas mixed with animal fat to make a cosmetic for faces and bodies."

Source, via The Soul is Bone.

(Reposted from 2013 for Arbor Day 2015) 

““For the last three decades many Americans have puzzled over a system that gives an R to a movie in which a women is carved up by a chainsaw and an NC-17 to one that shows a woman sexually pleasured. From such ratings one might conclude that sexual violence against women is OK for American teenagers to see, but that they must be 18 to see consensual sex. What message does this send to the kids the MPAA presumably means to protect?””

-

Carrie Rickey

(via fireworkselectricbright)

“You have to question a cinematic culture which preaches artistic expression, and yet would support a decision that is clearly a product of a patriarchy-dominant society, which tries to control how women are depicted on screen. The MPAA is okay supporting scenes that portray women in scenarios of sexual torture and violence for entertainment purposes, but they are trying to force us to look away from a scene that shows a woman in a sexual scenario which is both complicit and complex. It’s misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman’s sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than this film.”

-Ryan Gosling on the controversy around the rating of his film ‘Blue Valentine’

(via misandry-mermaid)

Documents in case against Internet activist Swartz to be released:

BOSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday ordered the release of previously sealed documents in the criminal hacking case against deceased Internet activist Aaron Swartz.

Swartz committed suicide in January before going to trial for allegedly stealing millions of academic articles from a private database using a computer network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Swartz’s estate asked for the documents to be released to shed light on what they have termed an overzealous prosecution of the 26-year-old.

The documents, which include information about Swartz’s purported hacking into the JSTOR database using MIT’s computer network, must be stripped of the names of witnesses and law enforcement personnel, District Judge Nathaniel Gorton ordered. Information about weaknesses in the two institution’s computer networks must also be redacted, Gorton said.

Since Swartz’s death, “MIT and JSTOR were subjected to a variety of threats and harassing incidents by individuals purportedly retaliating in the name of Mr. Swartz,” Gorton wrote to explain why the names should not be released. The incidents included a hoax report in February that a gunman was on the loose on MIT’s campus.

In The Atlantic, Jordan Weissmann does a very good job of summing up the New America Foundation's important new report, Undermining Pell: How Colleges Compete for Wealthy Students and Leave the Low-Income Behind [PDF], by Stephen Burd. The report documents how private universities in America have raised the cost of tuition to incredible heights, and reserve their "merit scholarships" (paid for with government grants) for wealthy students whose parents can pay the rest in cash, while poor students have to take out punishing loans, effectively subsidizing the rich students' education and career opportunities.

Sometimes, colleges (and states) really are just competing to outbid each other on star students. But there are also economic incentives at play, particularly for small, endowment-poor institutions. "After all," Burd writes, "it's more profitable for schools to provide four scholarships of $5,000 each to induce affluent students who will be able to pay the balance than it is to provide a single $20,000 grant to one low-income student." The study notes that, according to the Department of Education's most recent study, 19 percent of undergrads at four-year colleges received merit aid despite scoring under 700 on the SAT. Their only merit, in some cases, might well have been mom and dad's bank account.

There's nothing inherently wrong with handing out tuition breaks to the middle class, or even the rich. The problem is that it seems to be happening at the expense of the poor. At 89 percent of the 479 private colleges Burd examined, students from families earning less than $30,000 a year were charged an average "net price" of more than $10,000 annually -- "net price" being the full annual cost of attendance minus all institutional and government aid. Less technically, it's what students can actually expect to pay. At 60 percent of private colleges, that net price was more than $15,000.

In other words, low-income families are routinely being asked to fork over more than half of their annual income for the privilege of sending their child off to campus for a year.

How Colleges Are Selling Out the Poor to Court the Rich

Map of the City of Los Angeles Showing Railway Systems


Detail: Downtown Los Angeles


Legend showing strange overprinting of route lines through text areas

Historical Map: The City of Los Angeles Showing Railway Systems, 1906

Another amazing old map from the awesome Big Map Blog, showing the already-booming rail transit network that was found in Los Angeles in the early days of the 20th Century. Electric trolleys first ran in LA in 1877, but  the “Red Cars” of the Pacific Electric and the “Yellow Cars” of the narrow-gauge Los Angeles Railway had only appeared a mere five years before this map was produced. Their lines are represented on the map in appropriate colours, along with those of other, less-remembered, railway companies.

Technically, the map is beautifully drawn, although there’s some strange issues with route lines extending past the visible area of the map and spilling over the lists of street names, the map’s legend and even completely bleeding off the edge of the page (see the detail view of the legend above for an example). It could be intentionally done, but it certainly looks a little messy.

From a production viewpoint, it seems as though the map was printed with five different inks: black for the street name legend and Los Angeles Pacific RR routes, yellow for the Los Angeles RR, red for the Pacific Electric, green for the Los Angeles Inter-Urban RR, and a dark blue for the Los Angeles & Redondo RR and the underlying linework of the map itself. Understandably, given the fairly primitive printing technology of the day, the registration of these colours is a little bit off in places.

Our rating: A beautiful look at the early days of mass transit in LA. Four stars!  

(Source: the Big Map Blog)

See also these maps of the Pacific Electric network from c. 1920 and 1925.

Poor people don’t have what it takes

THX, OBAMA

City Hall workers had complained about finding needles on the rest room floors, drug use and other problems.

So this is what it feels like to be able to control the rain. The Rain Room, an art installation by rAndom International, is a large room where it rains indoor. The trick is that cameras detect the visitors' positions to turn off the individual rain strems directly overhead. The result is quite magical: you can walk through pouring rain without getting wet, no umbrellas required.

The art installation, which made its splash at the Barbican in London, is now coming to the MoMA in New York. If you can't make it, check out the video clip below:

kitten-bug:

Maybe advertising iRobot at the same time as a Doctor Who episode about cybermen isn’t the best strategy

seapeny:

Wow just so you’re all aware, Hot Topic currently has Troughton and Pertwee shirts right now (they have Tom Baker too but dude you never see Two and Three merch)

Alternate-history authors explore putting the 'lone' back in the Lone Star State.

pizzaforpresident:

smartaleckette:

February 13, 2013 - the day Canada’s Parliament debated the zombie apocalypse. (x)

this is very important

The crew from Sant'Agata has lost its collective mind. There's no other explanation for the Lamborghini Egoista concept.

Hávamál is a group of poems from the book 'Snorra Edda'. They are at least 1000 years old, and have probably begun much earlier, as a part of an oral tradition. The name Hávamál means the words of the high one, the Norse god Óðinn (Othin).

timeywimeyness:

The man who abhors violence. Never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons.

10164 in Burgundy Shell on the Hiro last


Burgundy Naturcalf Wholecut on the Ama last


Light tan Naturcalf Double monks on the New Rey last

meerminshoes:

Some new Meermin MTOs in the final stages before being shipped to their owners!

Find us now also on Instagram!

@meerminmallorca  #meermin

Hávamál The Words of Odin the High One from the Elder or Poetic Edda (Sæmund's Edda) translated by Olive Bray and edited by D. L. Ashliman

The Cocktail Chart of Film & Literature (larger)

Kirsten Dunst Vogue 06, Dazzle camouflage dress - a 100 years later.

House committee passes bill allowing Louisiana residents to put 'I'm a Cajun' on ID cards | NOLA.com:

Legislation allowing Louisiana residents to declare their Cajun lineage on their driver’s licenses was approved by the House Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works Monday. 

For a $5 fee, Senate Bill 201, sponsored by Sen. Fred Mills, R-Breaux Bridge, would put “I’m a Cajun” below a person’s driver’s license photograph if they are of Cajun ancestry.

Stephanie served her goat caramel sauce with some New York strip steak and sauteed cucumbers. We think it would go well with just about any meat or maybe some pan-fried tofu. It would also be a interesting dipping sauce for potstickers or egg rolls.

The Boston Shaker is an independently owned and operated cocktail supply shop located in Davis Square, Somerville. We are currently looking for an energetic, outgoing, engaging, self-starter to join our sales crew.

How much is the soul of a Yelper worth? According to one Craigslist posting, $25. Someone is hiring New York Yelpers with 50 reviews or more to write five star reviews of restaurants. Don't worry, though: these are restaurants with "mostly positive 4's and 5's but a couple unfiltered 1's dragging them down, either from competitors or disgruntled ex-staff." Sure, if you say so.

Anyway, there's an extra $25 in it for you if you "cut and paste that same review onto a couple other social media websites." So what are you waiting for? Fame and a tiny fortune await.

In the past, emails revealed restaurants can pay around $495 for services like this, although it's unclear exactly how many reviews that buys. The restaurants offered that deal were merely promised an upgrade in their star rating. Yelp is supposedly cracking down on businesses like this, which may explain why the review requires over 50 reviews.

The thing is, though, people who have written 50 reviews of places probably take Yelp pretty seriously. For those Yelp Elite who no longer get a thrill out of degenerate feeding frenzies and extorting business owners for free food, perhaps the time has come to turn pro.

Yelp review $25 / $50 We are looking for established Yelp accounts with over 50 reviews (please link Yelp account) to write well-written reviews for a restaurant. Many of these restaurants have a bi-polar review history (mostly positive 4's and 5's but a couple unfiltered 1's dragging them down, either from competitors or disgruntled ex-staff) and need a few 5's to rebuild their rating back. If this is something you'd be interested in, let us know.

The price is a Paypal transfer of $25 for the review, and another $25 to cut and paste that same review onto a couple other social media websites.

Expect Craigslist to pull the ad soon.

· Yelp review $25 / $50 [Craigslist via Regina Schrambling]
· All Craigslist Coverage on Eater [-E-]
· All Yelp Coverage on Eater [-E-]