The next time you chop up a head of romaine lettuce for salad, hang on to the very bottom. The "heart" can be placed in a pan of water and with a little time, will eventually sprout a whole new head of lettuce, ready to harvest, eat, and repeat the process. More » 
billtron"Not caring that the motives for ending DOMA are a desire to be included in the privileged system of estate tax exemptions" is the new "not caring that Rob Portman is now pro-marriage-equality for myopically narcissistic reasons"
billtroncrafty
billtron#selfshare
One of the most astounding mysteries of the world is this ancient tile pattern in Greece, dated to about 1,500 B.C.
It was little more than a curiosity until 2008 when its resemblance to a QR Code was recognized. First photographed in 1871 by the British Antiquities Society, they were known as the “Chinese Box Tiles” owing to the closest thing anyone had seen to the strange pattern. Little was known about the titles except that they were installed along with other beachfront roads on the isle of Igrigoria in ancient times.
In was in 2008 that QR codes became popular enough that a traveler recognized the tiles as bearing an unmistakable resemblance to the computer code which had only been developed 3,500 years after the tiles were first laid. It was another two years before anyone with a QR capable phone traveled to the island to attempt a capture.
The mystery only deepened when the phone was able to recognize the code, which lead to the original Nyan Cat video on youtube.
Guest Post by Benjamin Lebrave
This morning I started my week reading the following on the New York Times’ website: “Digital music, responsible for the improvement in the industry’s brighter overall outlook, has failed to catch on across much of Africa.” To be more accurate, the first words I read were “Serraval, France”, the location of the writer. Ironically, Serraval’s city hall website starts with the following: “Today, children use the internet much like our generation played marbles.” Well it seems that despite Serraval’s noted efforts to encourage the use of the internet, Eric Pfanner, the great mind behind this piece of in-depth NYT journalism, may have lost his marbles.
Just for comedic effect, let’s continue fact checking for a minute. Pfanner talks about high profile moves, then mentions three artists to back up the significance of the claim: Power Boyz from Angola, DJ Vetkuk from South Africa, and W4 from Nigeria (not even a facebook page for him, all I found was this). Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Tchuna Baby, and wish that song were a global hit. But it’s not, and Power Boyz are at best a second tier band. Same goes for W4 or DJ Vetkuk, who may also be talented, but for the sake of this article, are completely irrelevant. No mention of D’Banj, P-Square, or any other proper pan-African heavy hitters.
Maybe they don’t chop money in Serraval…
No mention of Spinlet either, a Nigerian company backed by serious investment money for over a year now. While it is clear Pfanner is green about digital music in Africa, he did however do his homework among Western players attempting to jump on the African bandwagon. But that’s exactly the problem: he relies on PR information obtained from corporations, who rely on consulting firms to do their market research. And those firms rely on information obtained from offices in London, Paris, or at best Johannesburg. Even when they do have some kind of ground office, it is exactly that: an office.
If you want to understand how digital music is evolving in Africa, you first have to step out of the office, and go where digital music lives: in the devices of teenagers. You have to witness how music listening and consuming habits have changed. You have to see how hits blow up strictly from bluetooth swapping. You have to go to concerts, and watch crowds chant in unison to songs which never play on the radio or on TV.
To think that the number of paid downloads is a testimony to the advancement of digital music in Africa is like looking at champagne sales as an indicator of overall growth in Africa. When people live on a buck or two a day, it is slightly unlikely they will spend a buck on a song. But that does not mean they are not living and breathing digital music. That does not mean digital music does not make or break artists, who then go on to get endorsement deals, and a properly lucrative career. Digital is not only the cornerstone of how music lives in Africa today, it is also fundamental in the business of music.
The problem with this New York Times article is nothing new: the general consensus about reporting in Africa seems to be: nobody knows, nobody cares, so let’s just put the smallest amount of effort into it. Let’s rely on the same reporter who writes about Moscato wine and French tax schemes, he’s smart enough, he’ll get it right. And even if he doesn’t, who cares?
Well the irony in this case is: specifically because digital media (and music) is exploding in Africa, a lot of us notice, and a lot of us care.
I have to add one last bit: the main reason for Pfanner’s article is Samsung and Universal’s launch of The Kleek, a music service aimed at African markets. Pfanner tells us digital music is non-existent in Africa, and tells us Universal is jumping in. So that would make Universal a bold, courageous pioneer. Now THAT is good humor.
* Ghana-based Benjamin Lebrave runs Akwaaba Music, a platform promoting and distributing urban and electronic music from all over Africa. He also reports about musical discoveries for Fader magazine and This Is Africa.
billtronHunger Games
Sunday Reading is many things, in an unusual order. Sunday Reading is links, de-linked. Sunday Reading repeats itself. Sunday Reading is a good thing. Sunday Reading is a river of meat blood, released to maintain safety. Sunday Reading is a list of links that my friends send me, that I format and paste onto the web. Sunday Reading is a lark, a plunge, a swoop. Sunday Reading is practical. Sunday Reading only ever wants to be loved. Sunday reading is interesting and educational. Sunday Reading is not very carefully organized. Sunday Reading does not use hashtags. Sunday Reading mourns the death of google reader, our comrade. Sunday Reading surprises itself. Sunday Reading believes in the utility of organized chaos. But Sunday Reading also likes jouissance. Sunday Reading eats strange things, and throws up a lot. Sunday Reading is the intellectual property of Manan Ahmed, but we stole it from him, and we’re not giving it back. Sunday Reading does not praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue. Sunday Reading keeps Austin weird. #NoDaddy, what did you do during the Sunday Reading? Sunday Reading is irregular, but happens every Sunday, exactly. Sometimes it happens on Saturday. Sunday Reading is in the opposite of any particular order. Sunday Reading collects a lot of things that are interesting, and all of them are probably worth someone’s time. Sunday Reading is most of these things, and some others that weren’t listed. Sunday Reading has just broken the flower vase, and at a distance, resembles flies. Sunday Reading is a witch. Sunday Reading is you.
Selections from The Feminist Wire’s series on masculinities:
On the gender and racial gaps among Wikipedia editors:
SECTION 1. The New Inquiry finds and declares all of the following: In recent years, the internet’s public institutions have faced skyrocketing demand at a time when they lack capacity to provide readers with access to necessary for program completion and success. In the 2012-13 academic year, 85 percent reported having waiting lists for their 2012 sections, with an average of more than 7000. With rapidly developing innovation in online course delivery models, the internet’s public institutions have a unique opportunity to meet critical demands by providing students with access to high-quality, alternative, online pathways to successfully complete and obtain. The internet could significantly benefit from a statutorily enacted, quality-first framework. While providing easy access, these systems could also continually assess the value and the rates in utilizing alternative online pathways.
billtron@kariann
christopheradler posted a photo:
Hive of the stingless bee Trigona apicalis, source of khisut, used in the construction of musical instruments including the khaen
Phu Chong Nayoi National Park
Ubon Ratchatani, Thailand
billtronfrom the dissertation research department
I think I was about 5 years old the first time I attended the Easter Egg hunt held on the grounds of the White House. While I don’t recall all of the specifics, I do remember with clarity that there was a line to get in that wrapped nearly all the way around the property gates, there were many giddy, excited children dressed in adorable dresses and suits, and there were loads of eggs scattered and hidden about, just waiting to be scooped up by expectant, happy hands.
I’m deep in the throes of planning an Easter Egg gathering of my own. While, clearly, it won’t be as grandiose as that held at the White House, it will, I think, be just as fun, just as festive, and just as memorable as those hunts from my youth. And it will involve a good amount of dyed eggs.
Since I’m a gal that tends towards the natural in most things, the eggs we’ll be festooning our fields and forests and feasting table with will be dyed using natural elements. It’s really quite easy to do, and can often be achieved with foods you may very well already have in your fridge or pantry. However you celebrate the arrival of spring, from Easter to Passover to Beltane, naturally dyed eggs help enliven and enrich the setting. Happy Spring! -Ashley English
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Who would have guessed that Will Sasso of MADtv and "The Three Stooges" movie would use Vine for the funniest (really, like, tears-rolling-down-your-face-funny) purposes yet? Watch the compilation above to see Sasso's struggles with lemons randomly escaping from his mouth with no warning.
billtron#selfshare
While listening to Beyonce’s latest single “Bow Down/I Been On” an eyebrow raised in amusement along with a low “woooooord?” I couldn’t believe that Beyonce, Mrs. “Girls-Run-the-World” was talking to bitches and – gasp! – demanding they bow down.
But it wasn’t Bey’s emphatic singing and ad libs that caught my attention. It was the track itself. The track, in all its “H-town vicious” glory, that briefly pulled Beyonce back south off her global stage.
I contextualize Beyonce as a dichotomy of grit and grace, two polarized representations of black femininity that only co-exist via performances of alter ego(s) – i.e. Beyonce/Sasha Fierce. Aisha Durham’s discussion of Beyonce in her article “Check On It” provides a pliable framework for my discussion here. Durham writes: “Beyonce successfully performs a range of Black femininities, speaking at once to the Black working and middle class sensibilities while fulfilling her dynamic roles as both a hip hop belle and a U.S. exotic other globally” (35). The discourses of respectability that Beyonce frequents and consistently navigates are those of visual culture, often limited to what we see of and about Beyonce rather than what we hear. Durham’s categorization of a belle parallels not only the Madonna/whore complex frequently imposed upon women in popular culture but the antebellum aesthetic of respectability that continues to dictate southern women. An oppositional parallel for black women excluded from this niche of finer womanhood is the highly visible and commodified form of expression that we have come to recognize as (the) ratchet. As scholars like Treva Lindsey, Heidi Lewis, and Brittney Cooper point out, ratchetness is an intervention of sliding contemporary politics of respectability currently in place against women (of color). And, for the sake of this essay, I’d like to hone in on the understanding of ratchet as a southern export, one which frequents popular expression like hip hop. It in this regard that I posit Beyonce broaches a type of “sonic” ratchet in “Bow Down,” using sound to signify not only her southern “ruts” (roots) but utilize an aesthetic that allows her to vindicate her southern black womanhood while sustaining her (visual) global image.
The track opens with a video game sample (I’m thinking Donkey Kong. Nintendo scholars help me out here!) and an autotuned voice declaring “I’m from the H-town/Coming (coming) down/ dripping candy on the ground.” The video game sample signifies not only the ‘game’ of hip hop/popular music but possibly alludes to a similar use of video game sampling seen in Houston rapper Lil Flip’s break through single “Game Over.” Beyonce’s declarations of being from Houston and the allusion to “dripping candy” on the ground hint at the prominent car culture (“candy paint”) associated with Houston (hip hop) culture. A digression away from Beyonce’s usual declaration of the finer things in life like high priced labels and global jet setting, her declaration of returning to H-town and its cultural “essentials” re-situates her within not only Houston’s but a southern narrative.
**Side-note: let me take a moment to, er, bow down to one of the trillest hip hop scholars in the game and expert on Houston hip hop Langston Wilkins. His work can be found here.**
Aside from her growling of “bow down bitches!” there is a section of the track where it seemingly “remixes itself” parallel to a melodic – and familiar – rendition of Beyonce’s ad libbing. This remix simultaneously changes the track while re-rendering Beyonce’s sonic narrative and the song continues in the Texan hip hop aesthetic of chopped and screwed. It is here that we can formally recognize Beyonce as her newest alter-ego BaddieBey, whose distorted voice is masculine and fragmented in such a way that dishevels the listener’s understanding of Beyonce as the “good girl.” The (hyper)masculinization of Beyonce’s voice in this track signifies her attempt to situate herself not only in hip hop’s masculine discourse but southern hip hop and its renderings of the south as a similarly masculine space. The sonic intonations of chopped and screwed give Beyonce a pass to dabble in ‘ratchet-speak,’ sonically alluding to images of “baby hair and dookie braids.’ We hear ratchet rather than see it.
It is her roll call of prominent Texas rappers like Willie D and Pimp-C, however, that particularly struck me. In her shout-out to Pimp-C of UGK fame, she says she declares having to “sneak and listen to that UGK.” Harkening back to Durham’s discussion of Beyonce’s treading between black working class and middle class sensibility, Beyonce’s delivery of this line speaks to the tensions that exist between her attempting to be down while sustaining the respectability of her middle class upbringing (think New-New from the movie ATL). It also provides a quick glimpse into the reality of Beyonce’s performance of ratchet as just that – a performance instead of her reality. Still, Beyonce’s acknowledgement of having to “sneak” and listen to Houston rappers is further signified by the narrative persona of BaddieBey than Beyonce herself, sustaining the distance necessary to keep her from teetering over the edge.
I am not suggesting that the track does not have a few sore spots – folks are for real pissed at her liberal use of bitches and tricks. If nothing else, “Bow Down” provides insight into the clever ways Beyonce’ uses instrumentation and sound production to fragment her persona limited by investments in her visual image. It blurs clean-cut negotiations of black women’s identity and respectability as literal discourse by introducing the concept of sound as an alternative form of black (feminist?) expression and its analysis.
Back in the day, checking your bag on a trip only cost you 20 minutes of your time after a flight. Now you're lucky if it only costs you $20. With rampant theft, high bag check costs, and overhead bins filled to the brim, learning how to pack efficiently matters more than ever. With the right strategy, you can fit everything you actually need into the seat in front of you.
I hate checking bags. I really hate checking bags. I've had luggage lost, items stolen, property destroyed, and a myriad of other issues. After an incredibly degrading experience with checked luggage, I decided to approach every future flight as a challenge. I tested new ways to ensure I get my bags on the plane and, more recently, that they can fit underneath the seat in front of me if necessary. After four years of practice, I can pack for a two week week trip and fit everything into a tiny space. In this post, we'll look at how.
Most luggage wastes space in favor of added protection or aesthetics. You'll want that protection when traveling with fragile items, but most of the time your primary bag won't require much padding because you'll fill it with clothing. Clothing serves as a wonderful source of padding on its own, so even if you do have a fragile item or two you can pack it inside of your clothing to avoid damage. When fitting a large number of items underneath the seat in front of you, and still retaining room for a personal item (like a medium-sized backpack or messenger bag), flexibility matters most.
Few bags provide more flexibility than—or cost as little as—the duffel. For around $30, you can get a malleable carrier that houses about as much as a carry-on suitcase. As a result, size isn't paramount because you can fill a portion of the bag and squeeze it under the seat with little effort. You don't have a lot of room under the seat—bags are supposed to measure no larger than 8"x17"x12"—but because a duffel compresses well, the bag's measurements can exceed those limits without causing a problem. This Adidas duffel bag costs $25 and only exceeds standard underseat bag measurements by a few inches in each dimension. It also offers an outer pocket on one side, providing an optimal temporary storage space for liquids you'll need to remove during security screenings. Most any small-to-medium-sized duffel will do the trick, but bags geared towards sports activities tend to be smaller and flex a bit more than their canvas and leather counterparts.
What you put inside of the bag counts, too. While you can pack arbitrarily with good technique, you lose the advantage of organization. A few inexpensive tools can help solve that problem. First, packing cubes provide structure so you can separate pants from shirts from undergarments. They even work well with technology if you have enough of it. Additionally, mesh bags work well when separating smaller items like toiletries and some travel documents. Utilizing both will keep everything in order and much easier to unpack.
As for your second bag, or "personal item" as the airlines like to call it, read our guide on creating a modular go bag for help with packing a great one.
Most people fold and pack their clothes into squares, but other packing methods save more space and can even avoid wrinkles. While we could cover a myriad of options, you only need two techniques to fit a lot into your bag: rolling and building a foundation.
First, the rolling method couldn't be more straightforward. You literally take your clothing and roll it up into a tube. In some cases, rolling multiple shirts into one tube can save space. The image to the right demonstrates how many items you can fit into a suitcase with this approach.
Second, you need to build a foundation by packing heavier items at the bottom and lighter items at the top. Whether you've opted to use packing cubes or just dump everything into your bag, heavier items create a foundation at the bottom to reduce movement and can withstand more weight. Lighter items cannot, so putting them at the top keeps them in good form and aids the rolling method in preventing wrinkles. Perhaps these methods seem almost too easy, but you don't have to trust me—flight attendants pack the same way.
Most people don't know what they need to bring on a trip, save packing for the last minute, and end up bringing twice the number of items they actually need. I am, by no means, exempt from this situation. On my last trip, I packed five pairs of pants when I needed only two or three (or, if you're like some crazy people I know, one). Why? They were new and I wanted to wear them. Did I end up wearing them all? Not even close. Packing well allows you a little bit of inefficiency, but many travelers could probably halve the contents of their suitcases. Nobody thinks they can, but a little forethought goes a very long way.
When you pack a bag for a trip, you want the following items:
While you won't require every example of every category, you'll certainly want a few items in each. Problems occur when you start thinking of everything you pack as "single use" items. With the exception of undergarments, most clothing can survive at least a second day and retain a clean feeling. Jeans last even longer, especially if you can toss them in a freezer overnight. Because travel often feels boring, we feel the desire to pack too many entertainment items. If you start looking at your belongings as a little more versatile, rather than how you may use them in your everyday life, you can save yourself a lot of room in your suitcase. Here are some examples:
This list doesn't encompass every item you'll ever need or want to pack, but covers the basics. In general, consider what you can use more than once and what items work in multiple situations. You'll find that much of what you want to pack can remain at home.
You can't have a perfect packing system. You will find yourself in circumstances where everything you need will not fit underneath the seat in front of you. For example, you may move across the country and prefer to take a few items on the plane rather than ship them. You also may not want everything in the seat in front of you because you'd rather put your feet there. The goal of this guide isn't to force as much crap underneath someone else's seat as possible, but rather to provide the option. If you want to avoid checking bags, this is a surefire approach. When you can put a bag in the overhead bin, you should. If you find yourself in a situation where you must pack more, you should do that as well. When you can pack efficiently, however, you'll make your trips much easier. Good preparation makes for better travel.
Images by Vector pro (Shutterstock), Thor Jorgen Udvang (Shutterstock), and me.
Shorter Christina Hoff Summers: “Men drive like this, women drive like this. So it’s OK if the latter have constrained economic and political opportunities.”
