Russian Sledges

A hacked America OnLine is firing off zombie spam, according to CNN.

Actually, there isn't much zombie-ness in the story, which is about a basic email spoofing blitz.  But CNN zombies it up as best they can, with a header ("Long discarded AOL email accounts come back from the dead -- to spam you") and hilarious graphic:

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Leonardo da Vinci died this Day - May 2, 1519.

Occasionally you'll find yourself tuning out the conversation. Your legs will start to twitch. For whatever reason, you need to get up, walk out of the perfectly pleasant bar you're in, and go to some other bar. Should this strike you when you're drinking at Doyle's in Jamaica Plain, as one does when one is in Boston (we named Doyle's one of our Best Bars back in 2006, an opinion we continue to hold), there is fortunately a safe haven at hand. Exit Doyle's, as painful as that might be, make a left on Washington, and walk one block to Drinking Fountain. Besides a hall-of-fame dive-bar name, this classic New England corner tap boasts a raffish, mixed—by any definition of the term—and very gregarious crowd (so perhaps not a place to drag your more delicate friends); strong-ass, cheap-ass drinks; and a jukebox, pool tables, and an aquarium. When you're feeling antsy, head back to Doyle's.

[Photograph: Paige Green]

Give me a bowl of creamy grits and I'm a happy woman. Give me that same bowl of grits topped with slow-cooked greens and I'll swoon. So I didn't hesitate to try out Bryant Terry's recipe for savory grits with long-cooked collards in his new cookbook, Afro-Vegan. He based the collard greens component on gomen wat, Ethiopian stewed collards redolent of ginger, garlic, and chiles. These greens are a fine match to his creamy grits, enriched with nutty cashew cream and fragrant vegetable stock. Topped with a drizzle of spicy hot-pepper vinegar, this is a soulful meal that's hard to resist.

Why I picked this recipe: Grits plus Ethiopian gomen wat sounded like a perfect match.

What worked: Despite the minor pain of using two pots to cook the collards, I loved the way the twice-cooked greens took on a supple, silky texture by the end of cooking. The rich cashew cream was a great way to enrich grits sans butter. I'll be adding that trick to my repertoire, even when I'm not cooking a vegan meal.

What didn't: I needed to add extra stock (you can also use water, I presume) to the greens as they simmered. Most of the cup of stock managed to escape from the pot over the course of 45 minutes and I wanted to keep the greens brothy.

Suggested tweaks: You can use any hearty green here in place of (or in conjunction with) the collards. A mix of kale and mustard greens would work great. If you don't want to bother with the cashew cream, you could leave it out of the grits for slightly less creamy final result. Consider whisking in some olive oil at the end of cooking to make up for the lost richness.

As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Afro-Vegan to give away this week.

Recipes!

• Savory Grits With Slow-Cooked Collard Greens From 'Afro-Vegan'
• Creamed Cashews From 'Afro-Vegan'
• Vegetable Stock From 'Afro-Vegan'

Nuit 

1. Sophie’s plaid Moneta, 2. Mary N’s Lindy Hop dress, 3. Mary D’s floral dress, 4. Tanya’s purple ponte, 5. Jenny’s nautical dress

6. Jenny’s maxi pattern hack, 7. T’s glorious daisies, 8. Tanya’s pink dots, 9. Sophie-lee’s grey jersey

10. Laurence’s broderie anglaise, 11. T’s spring flowers, 12. Sophie-lee’s black basic, 13. Mary D’s polka dots

14. Sophie-Lee’s grey pencil, 15. Laurence’s geometric mini, 16. Mary N’s dazzling pink skirt, 17. Jenny’s textured black pencil skirt

I just wanted to take a moment to share all the gorgeous makes that came out of the Curvy Colette tour. Aren’t these ladies gorgeous? I was blown away by their creations.

Photos were shamelessly stolen (with permission) from Jenny at Cashmerette. Thanks Jenny!

(The following is a guest post by Wendi A. Maloney, writer-editor in the United States Copyright Office.)

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This annual recognition of Asian Pacific Americans’ contributions to the American story started with a 1977 congressional resolution calling for a weeklong observance. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush extended it to the entire month of May.

At the Library of Congress, Asian American Pacific Islander resources include books, oral histories, personal papers, community newspapers and many other materials housed throughout Library divisions. Ansel Adams’s World War II photographs of Japanese-American internment in Manzanar, Calif., are a notable inclusion. They bear witness to a sad chapter in our nation’s history – but an important one to document.

Renowned for his images of western landscapes, Adams donated this rare and stunning set of photographs to the Library between 1965 and 1968, placing no copyright restrictions on their use. The complete collection is available through the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.

Several months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced from their homes on the West Coast and sent to “relocation centers” by the United States government, which had declared war on Japan.

Documents accompanying the Adams online photo collection say the evacuation “struck a personal chord” with Adams after an ailing family employee was taken from his home to a faraway hospital. When Ralph Merritt, director of the Manzanar War Relocation Center, invited Adams to document camp life, he welcomed the opportunity. He shot more than 200 photos, mostly portraits, but also scenes from daily camp life with the majestic Sierra Nevada mountains often visible in the background.

One striking portrait features Toyo Miyatake, a fellow photographer and internee whose story of resolve under hardship is noteworthy. Miyatake operated a successful photography studio in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo neighborhood before the war. He smuggled a lens into Manzanar and constructed a makeshift camera – internees were not permitted to have cameras in the camp. When Miyatake was discovered, he was allowed to continue and took about 1,500 photographs over more than three years.

Miyatake’s son Archie has said that his father felt a duty to document camp life “so this kind of thing will never happen again.” Toyo Miyatake and Adams became friends, and Adams used Miyatake’s camp darkroom.

Like Adams, Miyatake shot photos of daily life. Some reviewers have noted an edgier tone to Miyatake’s pictures, however. The mountains around the camp often appear menacing in contrast to Adams’s more pristine views. And one well-known Miyatake photograph shows three boys standing behind barbed wire, even though camp rules prohibited photos of barbed wire or guard towers.

Miyatake returned to Los Angeles with his family in 1945, reopening his Little Tokyo studio and achieving acclaim as a chronicler of the Japanese-American community. He died in 1979. In 2011, a street in Little Tokyo was named after him.

As for Ansel Adams, he told an interviewer in 1974 that “from a social point of view,” his Manzanar photos were the “most important thing I’ve done or can do, as far as I know.”

For more resources on Asian Pacific American cultural and historical heritage, visit www.asianpacificheritage.gov.   

This pattern features the following: A pocket under the flap for quick access for cell phones, ipods, and the like. An interior pocket to stow away goodies--add a zipper to keep it shut or throw that zipper to the curb and live on the edge. A large back pocket with a magnetic snap is ideal for holding magazines, files, or daily planners. The adjustable strap allows you to carry it hands free or adjust it to be a shoulder bag. The finished bag will measure appx. 11"w x 11.5"h x 2.5"d. However, once you have the basics down, you can manipulate the pattern to be any size you'd like with any combination of features you want.

The moment an enormous sinkhole opened up in a residential neighbourhood of north-east Baltimore in the US has been caught on camera.

This incredible photo is of seawater magnified 25 times and features a variety of tiny creatures like crab larva and marine worms. The photo was taken by David Liittschwager off the island of Hawaii and published by National Geographic in 2007.

A dipperful of seawater can reveal a hodgepodge of tiny free-swimmers and nebulous drifters that fog the water column. Many are microscopic. Others would be visible except they’re virtually transparent. Gelatinous shape-shifters lazily ride the currents. Familiar forms in miniature—wide-eyed fish larvae, baby squid and octopuses—dart freely. Their lives are precarious. Some wear shells or exude toxins against predators; others are active only after dark. But untold numbers succumb to hungry mouths—each other’s or those of bigger foe.

photo by David Liittschwager

via Dive Shield, Lost At E Minor

Starting Thursday May 1, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is hosting a retrospective of some of the best Studio Ghibli films. There's a good chance you've seen Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away or My Neighbor Totoro, but these imaginative animated films are even more beautiful when viewed on a big screen. Most of the movies will be shown with English subtitles, which is great because listening to Kirsten Dunst voice act a young Japanese witch can be very distracting. The Studio Ghibli program runs through June 1, with a dubbed English language version screening every Sunday, if you go in for that sort of thing.

In the world of agriculture, bees are big business. California beekeepers often rent their hives out in mid-winter to farmers who need the insects to pollinate almonds and other crops. And that's why bee rustling has become such a problem.

Read more...

There are more than 300 of them in New York — violent crews of dozens of 12- to 20-year-olds with names such as Very Crispy Gangsters, True Money Gang and Cash Bama Bullies. And they're doing a lot of shooting.

The Old Testament is full of examples of chiasmus, which is a figure of speech used in ancient times to emphasize balance. It lists a bunch of ideas or things and then repeats each of them in reverse order. It’s often not an identical repetition. It frequently uses the opposite of what came before or something similar to it.

Here’s a simple chiasmus I came up with to show you what it looks like:

A. The cat was heavy

 B. She ate too much food

  C. Something had to change

 B. I gave her less food to eat

A. Now she’s less heavy

The first and last lines are similar, the second and fourth lines are opposite but related, and the third line is the turning point that links the ideas contained in the chiasmus.

Why am I giving a grammar lesson? Because I’ve noticed this same pattern used in films – a Cinematic Chiasmus, if you will. That shouldn’t be too surprising. Good storytelling involves setting up ideas and then paying them off over the course of the story. But some films have second halves that so closely mirror their first halves that it makes them truly breathtaking to behold once you notice their chiasmus at work.

RoboCop (1987) is the first film I reviewed on this website, so it’s fitting that it should be the first that I talk about here. Get ready to see how RoboCop is an almost perfectly symmetrical film.

The Chiasmus

First of all, I’ll write out the chiasmus in the film’s sequence of events:

A. Main title

 B. Media Break 1

  C. Main character identifies himself as Murphy

   D. OCP Junior Executive Kenny is killed after holding a gun in a meeting

    E. Bob Morton goes over Dick Jones’ head to initiate the RoboCop Program

     F. Clarence Boddicker makes his debut

      G. Car chase with Boddicker and his cohorts

       H. Partners Alex Murphy and Anne Lewis separate to take on Boddicker’s gang

        I. RoboCop is born and he tests his abilities at a shooting range

         J. RoboCop causes property damage in the name of law and order

          K. Media Break 2

           L. Lewis reminds RoboCop who he really is

            M. RoboCop visits the home where he lived

             N. RoboCop hunts for Boddicker

              O. Boddicker reveals he’s working for Jones

               P. RoboCop gets shot at by a lot of drug dealers in a warehouse

                Q. RoboCop arrests Boddicker

                Q. RoboCop attempts to arrest Jones

               P. RoboCop gets shot at by a lot of cops in a parking garage

              O. Boddicker gets another assignment from Jones

             N. Boddicker gets a tracking device to hunt RoboCop down

            M. RoboCop hides at the steel mill where he died

           L. RoboCop sees his own face for the first time

          K. Media Break 3 (Note: This is the only thing that’s out of order. It actually takes place where O is)

         J. The bad guys cause property damage in the name of chaos

        I. RoboCop fixes his targeting system

       H. RoboCop and Lewis split up to take on Boddicker’s gang once again

      G. Car chase with Boddicker

     F. Boddicker is killed

    E. RoboCop plays a recording of Jones saying, “I had to kill Bob Morton because he made a mistake”

   D. Jones is killed after holding the same gun Kenny held in a meeting

  C. Main character again identifies himself as Murphy

 B. Media Break 4 (Note: Deleted scene)

A. Main title

Now let’s go through each of these points to see their similarities in greater depth.

A. Main Title

This is pretty straightforward. The movie is bookended by its title. “RoboCop” is the first thing we see. No “A film by Paul Verhoeven” or “Orion Presents” preceding it. And “ROBOCOP” is the last thing we see before the end credits roll.

B. Media Break

In the first Media Break, we learn that a police officer is in critical condition after a gun battle with Clarence Boddicker. Plus, OCP Senior President Dick Jones says of the cops who are threatening to strike, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” In the final Media Break, which was deleted from the final cut of the film, Officer Anne Lewis is shown to be recovering after a gun battle with Boddicker. She repeats Jones’ line from her hospital bed.

C. Main Character’s Identity

When Alex Murphy arrives at his new precinct, he tells the Police Chief, “Hi. Murphy, transferring in from Metro South.” At the end of the film, when the Head of OCP asks for his name, he replies, “Murphy.” It’s a subtle thing, but it’s meaningful because it shows how RoboCop has regained his humanity by returning to his level of self-identity from the start of the film.

D. OCP Executive Killed During a Meeting

In the first demonstration of ED-209, a junior executive on the OCP Board points a gun at the giant robot and is promptly shot to pieces, landing on a scale model of the planned Delta City. In the final scene, a desperate Dick Jones uses that same gun to take the president of OCP hostage. However, RoboCop soon shoots Jones many times until he falls outside the building.

E. Bob Morton and Dick Jones

An ambitious junior executive named Bob Morton literally goes around Jones to pitch his idea for RoboCop to the Old Man after Jones’ ED-209 demonstration fails spectacularly. Jones gives Morton a murderous look as Morton walks off. Later, when RoboCop is asked for evidence that Jones is guilty of murder, he simply provides testimony from Jones himself saying, “I had to kill Bob Morton because he made a mistake.” His mistake, of course, was making Jones look bad in front of the Old Man.

F. Clarence Boddicker’s Introduction and Farewell

The first time we see Clarence Boddicker, he’s angry at his cohort for frying the money they stole, and he gets violent. The last time we see him, he’s angry at Lewis for frying his last henchman, and he again gets violent.

G. Car Chase with Boddicker and His Cohorts

Murphy and his new partner Lewis engage in a high-speed pursuit of Boddicker and his henchmen. Boddicker kills a wounded member of his team by throwing him out of his van, bringing the chase to a sudden halt. Later, Lewis pursues Boddicker in another car chase. Boddicker accidentally kills one of his wounded team members, which leads to an unexpected end to the pursuit.

H. Partners Split Up

After finding Boddicker’s abandoned van, Murphy and Lewis go in different directions to try to find his gang members. Lewis is wounded and unable to help Murphy until it’s too late and he’s been killed. Later, Lewis drives a car while RoboCop draws the bad guys’ fire on foot. She gets shot by Boddicker and she’s unable to warn RoboCop in time to prevent him from getting crushed by falling metal beams.

I. RoboCop at the Shooting Range

One of the first things RoboCop does after being created is test his aiming ability at a police firing range. He hits dead center with every shot. After taking heavy damage, his targeting system is off by a few inches. Lewis helps him correct it so he’s perfectly accurate once more.

J. Causing Property Damage

His first night on the job, RoboCop causes a lot of property damage in the name of serving the public trust and protecting the innocent. On the night that the Detroit Police Force goes on strike, the city’s criminals cause a lot of property damage in the name of chaos and self-gratification.

K. More Media Break

The second Media Break focuses primarily on RoboCop and how he is on his way to eliminating crime in Old Detroit. The third Media Break focuses on the Detroit Police Force’s impending strike, which will cause crime to skyrocket in the city.

L. “Murphy, It’s You”

At her first opportunity, Lewis stops RoboCop and says, “Murphy, it’s you.” This reveals his real name, which he had forgotten. Later, RoboCop removes his helmet, revealing his face, which he hadn’t seen since his death. Lewis says, “It’s really good to see you again, Murphy.”

M. RoboCop Goes Back and Tries to Remember His Family

After learning of his own murder, RoboCop visits the old home and finds it abandoned. He has a few flashes of memories of his wife and son, but nothing substantial enough to rekindle his old self. After surviving another attempt on his life, RoboCop hides out at the abandoned factory where Murphy was killed. He laments to Lewis about his family, “I can feel them… but I can’t remember them.”

N. Predators Hunting Their Prey

RoboCop goes to a night club to find a member of Boddicker’s gang who can lead him to the crime lord’s hideout so he can kill Boddicker. Later, Jones gives Boddicker a tracking device to lead him to RoboCop’s hideout so Boddicker can kill him.

O. Boddicker Working with Jones

Boddicker shows up at Morton’s home and tells his girlfriends to leave. Then Boddicker plays a recorded message from Jones, showing that he works for Jones. Later, he goes to Jones’ office and hits on his receptionist, who not so subtly tells him to get lost. Then he gets another assignment from Jones to take out Morton’s creation, RoboCop.

P. RoboCop Survives a Firing Squad

When RoboCop finds Boddicker, he’s greeted by more than a dozen bad guys all firing bullets at him. He’s unharmed by their attack and kills almost all of them. Later, RoboCop is heavily damaged by ED-209’s guns and then he faces more than a dozen cops who mercilessly fire on him. He’s weaponless, so he can’t fire back and he barely survives the ordeal.

Q. RoboCop’s Arrests

The turning point of the movie is when RoboCop arrests Boddicker. Up ‘til then, he’s been indestructible and able to handle anything that comes his way. But after throwing Boddicker through several glass windows, RoboCop is about to crush his throat when he’s reminded that he’s a cop. His programming takes over and denies him the ability to kill Boddicker. He arrests the criminal instead. Then, when RoboCop confronts Jones, he’s prevented from arresting him by his programming. And RoboCop gets knocked through several glass doors/windows by ED-209.

Seeing Double

I have no idea if the makers of RoboCop intended for it to be so symmetrical. The fact that they accomplished this feat while still making a fast-paced action film that never feels like it’s repeating itself is simply amazing. It shows that it’s possible to make a work of art, even when making a movie with a silly title and in a genre that usually doesn’t call for much depth.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

All images are the copyright of their owners.

Filed under: Cinematic Chiasmus

These hand-colored photos depict the Expo Paris 1900, a world’s fair held in the French capital as a celebration of 19th century achievements and peek what the 20th century would have in store. Nearly 50 million people visited the fair, which saw the public debut of technologies like talking films, the escalator and the Grande Roue de Paris — the world’s tallest Ferris Wheel.

via Vintage Everyday, Everlasting Blort

Jonathan Smith of Vice snapped some photos of the Satanic monument being built for the Oklahoma State house. Hurray for the First Amendment! Now I want to erect a giant Dobbshead there.

The statue is a direct response to the state's installation of a Ten Commandments monument outside the Capitol in 2012. State Representative Mike Ritze paid for the controversial statue with his own money, and therefore it was considered a donation and OK to place on government property. Following that line of reasoning, the Satanic Temple submitted a formal application for their monument.

I was offered an early peek at the work in progress by Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves. Greaves told me he has received numerous threats from people who want to attack the sculpture, but that he “wouldn’t expect these outraged and nearly insensible reactionaries to actually know how to assault a bronze monument without severely hurting themselves in the process.” Still, he’s not taking any chances. The Temple is building a mold of the sculpture so they can pop these things out like evil, terribly expensive action figures whenever they need a new one.

Photos of the new Satanic monument being built for Oklahoma's Statehouse

San Francisco's electric car blowback is here, and it's very, very strange

In an unprecedented move, the Department of Education has released a list that includes some Ivy League schools, state and private institutions.

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“He took a selfie then out of now where he just punched the mouth of the teddy bear which is where my face is located,” he said. The attacker also damaged his keytar. Keytar Bear said he performs to lift people's spirits.

Keytar Bear was attacked in two separate incidents on the streets of Boston. Keytar Bear brings joy and happiness to Bostonians on the streets with his cheerful songs and amazing talent. As Bostonians, we are responsible for putting a smile back on his face. I'm hosting this fundraiser, not only to help out Keytar Bear with his bills, but also to show him what he means to the city of Boston.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel informed members of the Congressional Black Caucus that he is ordering the military services to review grooming standards, particularly those for African-American women.

Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said Hagel directed the deputy secretary of defense to work with the service secretaries and the military chiefs to review their respective policies. The admiral made the announcement during a Pentagon news conference today.

Members of the caucus sent Hagel a letter in response to changes to Army Regulation 670-1, Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia. Members of the caucus are concerned the regulation is offensive and biased against women of color.

In a response dated today, Hagel told members of the caucus that he has given the services 30 days to “review the definitions of authorized and prohibited hairstyles contained in each of their respective policies and revise any offensive language.”

The services have 90 days to review their hairstyle policies as they pertain to African-American women “to ensure standards are fair and respectful of our diverse force, while also meeting our military services’ requirements,” Kirby said. “After a thorough review of the service recommendations, he will make whatever appropriate adjustments to DOD policy are necessary.”

(Follow Jim Garamone on Twitter: @GaramoneAFPS)
 

Sure enough, this is not a hoax- there was a lamb named Batlam born in Nærbø, Norway on Easter Sunday whose fur looks like corpse paint. There is no way that could have worked out better! I mean really,satanic lamb born on the day Jesus may or may not have risen from the dead? Doubly so given lamb being the symbol of Christ. This is amazing.

ricktimus:

Neil deGrasse Tyson is not impressed with all your sexism.

http://i.imgur.com/j17oYQF.jpg

Original Source

REUTERS/Fred Prouser

Forty-seven percent of Americans live in counties with unhealthy rates of ozone or particle pollution, according to the annual American Lung Association's State of the Air report, and nearly three-out-of-four Californians are living in polluted cities. 

The report, which uses the most recent EPA data on ozone and particle pollution, finds that the level of particle pollution (which can cause lung cancer) has gone down overall from 2010-2012, but that ozone pollution has spiked. 

National President and CEO of the American Lung Association Harold Wimmer commented that the report should serve as a warning: 

We are happy to report continued reduction of year-round particle pollution across the nation, thanks to cleaner diesel fleets and cleaner power plants. However, this improvement represents only a partial victory. We know that warmer temperatures increase risk for ozone pollution, so climate change sets the stage for tougher challenges to protect human health. We must meet these challenges head on to protect the health of millions of Americans living with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

Even though the report marks an improvement in air quality over previous years, the findings seem objectively dismal. Per the study, 8.9 percent of U.S. citizens live in the most polluted American cities and 22 out of the 25 most ozone-polluted cities had more high ozone days on average than in 2013. In California, the Los Angeles Times reports, 77 percent of state residents live in counties with unhealthy air. 

Not surprisingly, the most polluted areas include the country's densely-populated metropolises. The report ranked the 25 most polluted areas in each of three categories: highest ozone levels, most year-round particle pollution, and most short-term particle pollution. Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago appeared on each list, as did Fresno and Pittsburgh. Los Angeles was the worst city in terms of ozone pollution overall, followed by Visalia, Bakersfield and Fresno, respectively. The top (or lowest) four spots in terms of both year-round and short-term particle pollution were filled by Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield and LA, respectively. 

The rankings work a little differently for the countries cleanest cities, per the State of the Air website: 

The cities on the cleanest cities lists for ozone and for short-term levels of particle pollution had no days with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. These lists are not ranked because all the cities earned the same scores. The cities on the list of the cleanest for year-round particle pollution levels are ranked by their average levels of particles, as calculated by the EPA.

Per these standards, the cleanest cities in terms of year-round particle pollution are Prescott, AZ; Cheyenne, WY; Farmington, NY (tied with Cheyenne); and Casper, WY.  

Currently, the EPA is considering passing stricter smog regulations, which would require lower ozone levels, as part of the smog-standard five-year review. If that doesn't pass, we'll see you in Arizona. 

When you’re a bird living in one of the world’s largest cities, you’re short on natural supplies for building yourself a home. Tokyo’s crows ingeniously solve this problem by pilfering wire coat hangers from open apartments and fashioning them into these curious nests…

(via Amusing Planet, Brian G. Kennedy, Goetz Kluge, PBS, Present Simple)