Felt, handwritten cards, stamped and mailed from your iPad. Smart.

“Aside from the practical challenges — a criminal record can impede big things like finding housing and employment, and smaller things like getting a hunting license — people who have been exonerated say they feel unfairly marked, branded with a scarlet letter from a justice system that should not have locked them up in the first place.
“It was destroying my life,” said Sabrina Butler, who was sentenced to die in Mississippi for the 1989 death of her infant son, then exonerated in 1995. “It’s always there.”
Clearing a criminal record can take years and cost thousands of dollars in legal fees, and differs widely state to state. Many require that defendants return to court to prove their innocence, a higher hurdle than showing that charges were dismissed or a conviction was overturned. In some states, a governor’s pardon is needed. It can be a complex process, which advocates say is made even more difficult by a lack of support services for the exonerated.
Ms. Butler said she realized her arrest was still on the books after she failed a criminal-background check while trying to buy a shotgun. She said she applied for jobs at restaurants and retailers, and was turned down every time. After she petitioned the state, her record was expunged last July — 17 years after she was released.”

- Wrongfully Convicted Find Their Record Haunts Them - NYTimes.com

what

At Ron's in Hyde Park.

Original Source

Knits For The Chill 51.

Toshirô Mifune , 1961.

Former Phoenix staffers Liz Pelly and Faye Orlove last week launched the Media, which they hope can alt up the Hub again, initially online, maybe some day in print. Even though they're online, they'll be following a print-like publishing schedule:

[S]oon you'll find photo essays and video footage documenting creative communities around Boston; zine reviews from librarians at the Papercut Zine Library; a forward-thinking "Know Your Rights" column covering everything from dealing with bad landlords to throwing house shows. We'll have horoscopes, comics, and mixtapes.

Pelly adds:

We're trying to do this through donations, microgrants, and fundraisers because we believe there's a way to be sustainable and community-funded without guilt tripping our friends into giving us money via Kickstarter. This might work, it might not. For now it doesn't matter because regardless of whether anyone ever makes a cent off of this website, we wouldn't be able to sleep at night if we weren't trying to do it. Not like we’re sleeping much now that we have a paper to get online every week...

Also, a lemonade stand.

Only days after the first issue, she's already annoyed Jeff Lawrence, publisher of Boston's only remaining print alt weekly.

Nueva Germania, founded in 1887 by German anti-Semites, now has many residents with German surnames who are indiscernible from other Paraguayans.

monstereatsdesign:

Sushi tuna model teaches kids how to dissect maguro

avocadosalad:

oooh girl

(Sruli Recht Store — A Lasting Impression is SR341, via A C-F)

She hasn’t done it for a long time. She’s… She’s out of practice.

Knits For The Chill 52.

Toshirô Mifune , 1961.

After nearly a year of selling ebooks free of DRM copy protection, Macmillan subsidiary Tor Books UK said that it has seen no increase in piracy on any of its properties. The company's editorial director elaborated in an extensive reflection on the decision earlier this week, writing, "The move has been a hugely positive one for us, [...] we’re still pleased that we took this step." The science fiction and fantasy publisher officially made the change last July alongside its American sister company, noting that their audiences were too technically savvy to be forced to deal with the limitations of DRM.

Though Tor Books UK's editorial director noted that the decision was met with significant support by its authors and customers, it hasn't seen the same positive response from its competitors. Ars Technica points to a Publishers Weekly article on an industry rival that reportedly tried to have Tor reverse its decision. A subsidiary of Hachette Book Group allegedly suggested that some Tor Books authors should pressure the company to once again use DRM — the reasoning being that it could hurt sales in other regions where different companies owned the book rights. Tor Books seemingly has no intention of backing down, but it doesn't look like its position on DRM is catching on with the rest of the industry.

• Via Ars Technica
• Source Tor
• Related Items tor forge ebooks tor books drm drm-free

When two different Black Flag iterations each announced their intention to tour this year—one as Black Flag, one as FLAG—smart punks knew to expect some sort of friction between them. And that anticipation has paid off, as the bands have finally started firing verbal shots at each other.

Yesterday, Black Flag (Greg Ginn, Ron Reyes, and Gregory Moore) released a new single, “Down In The Dirt,” the first from a new LP due out sometime this summer on SST. In the press release, Black Flag calls out FLAG (Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson, and Stephen Egerton), deeming it a “fake” band “covering the songs of Black Flag in an embarrassingly weak ‘mailing it in’ fashion.” (Black Flag Burn!) And meanwhile, Henry Rollins remains at home, waiting for the red phone of justice to ring and looking at his tattoos.

Provided this doesn't escalate further, both versions ...

Read more

David Craig sent in this photograph and asked "What does it really say and why doesn't it?":

The Chinese says xiánzhūshǒu 咸猪手 ("groper"), which is a noun derived from xiánzhū 咸猪 ("salted pork") + shǒu 手 ("hand") — adjective + adjective + noun. Thus, the literal meaning of xiánzhūshǒu 咸猪手 is "salted pig's knuckle / trotter" (cf. German Schweinshaxe; Stelze in Austria).

"Groper" is a derived meaning of the term xiánzhūshǒu 咸猪手 ("salted pig's knuckle / trotter"). As to how "salted pig's knuckle / trotter" acquired the extended meaning of "groper", there is considerable difference of opinion. I will give first the explanation that is most straightforward and is accepted by the majority of people, and then will go into some of the more arcane, recherché theories.

Before that, however, I'd like to mention that xiánzhūshǒu is the Mandarin pronunciation of what is really a Cantonese expression: haam4 zyu1 sau2 鹹猪手 ("salted pig's knuckle / trotter"). Note that xián 咸, which is the simplified version of xián 鹹 ("salty"), also stands for a completely different morpheme signifiying "all; whole; universal; general", which was the original meaning of the character before it was borrowed to stand for xián 鹹 ("salty") as well.

The connection between lechery and piggish behavior is not too hard to see, since there are a number of terms in Cantonese that attest to it (e.g., zyu1 gung1 猪公 ["lecher"]), and the association exists in many other societies as well:

In the sixteenth century the emblem books introduced a host of new symbolic animals into the company of the virtues. Thus Chastity riding an elephant fights with Lechery on the familiar pig in an engraving cited by Tervarent. (Helen F. North, "Temperance (Sōphrosynē) and the Canon of the Cardinal Virtues," Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Vol. 4, 1973, ed. by Philip P. Wiener)

Of course, the pig is most often linked to Gluttony, but Gluttony and Lechery (usually connected with the goat) are often related (e.g., Chaucer, "Parson's Tale", 836-8: "After Glotonye thanne comth Lecherie, for thise two synnes been so ny cosyns that ofte tyme they wol nat departe.") Claudine Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast states: "The pig is a creature divided. It incarnates the sins of lechery and gluttony…."

We have accounted for the connection between "pig" and "lechery", now what about the "salty" part? Many Cantonese have told me that it has to do with the term haam4 sap1 鹹濕 ("salty-moist", i.e., "lecherous"). I'm sure that will ring a lot of alarm bells here at Language Log, since there have been several recent posts on this forum about word aversion with regard to "moist"; perhaps the same feelings carry over into a completely different language.

An example of a directly relevant Cantonese term based on haam4 sap1 鹹濕 is haam4 sap1 lou2 鹹濕佬 ("lecher", lit., "salty-moist guy") — there are lots of other words in Cantonese for such fellows, many of them beginning with haam4 sap1 鹹濕 ("salty-moist").

As to why haam4 sap1 鹹濕 ("salty-moist") comes to mean "lecherous", aside from the suggestions that I've already given, there are many other conjectures:

1. In the Qing dynasty, brothels were usually located near the sea, and the air was damp (湿) and smelled salty (咸).

2. The laborers and apprentices who went looking for fun in the brothels were sweaty (湿) and their sweat was salty (咸).

3. The lower-class prostitutes were called "haam4 seoi2 mui6 咸水妹” ("salt water maid") because they lived on the boats and the closeness in pronunciation of "haam4 seoi2 mui6″ to "handsome maid" could attract foreigners.

4. "咸" comes from haam4 gwaa3 / Mand. xián guà 咸卦 (Xian trigram) in the Classic of Changes / I ching, where it means "probe".

All of these speculations, especially the latter two, seem far-fetched to me, the last one exceedingly so, since the Xian hexagram (no. 31) actually signifies "influence (wooing)" (Wilhelm / Baynes), not "probing"; furthermore, this ancient usage of xián 咸 ("all; whole; universal; general") has nothing to do with xián 鹹 ("salty").

There is yet another, even more fantastic, idea about why haam4 sap1 鹹濕 ("salty-moist") indicates lechery. According to this article, it was originally a transcription of "hamshop". I suppose that "hamshop" means a shop that sells hams (though I have no idea when that would have been attested in Hong Kong English), but what that has to do with lechery is beyond me — unless it's supposed to evoke the piggishness discussed above.

All right, enough about haam4 sap1 鹹濕 ("salty-moist") in the sense of "lechery". No matter its actual etymology, everybody agrees that it does convey that meaning.

Now, how about "grilled"? I don't see how it can come from any of the three characters, 咸/鹹猪手, that constitute the expression we have been investigating. Rather, I suspect that it was added by the translator to indicate the actual method by means of which pork is commonly cooked in Cantonese speaking areas, namely, "grilling", as in haau1 zyu1 juk6 / Mand. kǎo zhūròu 烤豬肉

For those who wish a more detailed history of the term xiánzhūshǒu 咸猪手 this article.

To wrap all of this up, it seems that the Chinglish translation compress two meanings — the one figurative and the other literal — to become "Grilled Sexual Harrassment" (this sounds so insane…).

While I'm at it, I might as well also mention that there is another word for sexual harassment that involves a well-known item of food, namely, chī dòufu 吃豆腐 (literally, "eat beancurd"), which is a verb plus noun construction (it is applied thus: "eat [so-and-so's] tofu"). A less colorful verb plus noun construction is zhàn piányi 占便宜 ("take advantage [of so-and-so]").

I hope that I've done justice to David's short but pithy bipartite question with which this blog began.

[Thanks to Bob Bauer, Ranting Jiang, Fangyi Cheng, and Mandy Chan]

Camera mounted on the falcon!

Jewish Museum Berlin designed by Daniel Libeskind - photo by geniessen

“The H.P. Lovecraft Bronze Bust Project will erect a life size tribute to the iconic author in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island.”

-

The H.P. Lovecraft Bronze Bust Project by Bryan Moore — Kickstarter

my new Kickstarter will raise funds to have all life-sized tribute busts of avowed racist misogynists removed from Providence, Rhode Island

but seriously, when do we get this exciting Lovecraft poem added as a stretch goal

cumberbuddy:

Benedict imitates a lightsaber // x

Is this what press junkets do to you?!

JELSA, Croatia (AP) — Does Croatia's Prosek jeopardize Italy's Prosecco?

Musicals are booming

“YOU can’t make a living, but you can make a killing,” goes the Broadway adage. Musicals have odds like venture capital: only one in ten makes money, and two out of ten lose it all. The hits, however, are huge. “Cats” probably made a 3,500% return for its initial investors. Since it debuted in London 27 years ago “The Phantom of the Opera”, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, has grossed $5.6 billion worldwide, more than any film or television show. Musicals had their first big boom in the 1940s, when Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote “South Pacific” and “Oklahoma!”. In the 1980s Mr Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh, another Brit, invented the “mega musical”, with big-budget shows such as “Phantom” and Mr Mackintosh’s “Les Misérables”. Now the business is belting out high notes again, with new shows, new markets and new interest in old hits. Hollywood studios have always licensed rights to their films; now they are trying to produce them on stage. Disney led the way. Universal Pictures struck accidental gold with “Wicked” (the studio had bought the rights to turn the book, about the Wicked Witch of the West, into a film, but was later approached to make it into a musical, which has grossed $3 billion).

This graphic is an adaptation from the print edition of May 4th 2013. A contact sheet of all this week's infographics is also available to download.

Last year artist Miya Ando traveled to Puerto Rico where she released 1,000 non-toxic resin leaves coated with phosphorescence into a small pond. During the day the leaves would “recharge” and at night would give off a ghostly, ethereal glow much like the light of a firefly. Titled Obon, the installation was inspired by a Japanese Buddhist festival of the same name that honors the spirits of one’s ancestors. The leaves were also meant to simulate Puerto Rico’s bioluminescent bays, a natural phenomenon caused by dinoflagellates, photosynthetic underwater organisms that emit light when agitated.

You can learn more about Ando’s artwork over at Spoon and Tamago who stopped by for a studio visit not to long ago. You can also follow her on Tumblr and if you’re in the NYC area next month she’ll have a solo exhibition at Sundaram Tagore Gallery starting June 20th.

“When a man steps onto the road, his journey begins. When a woman steps onto that same road, hers ends.”

[Full Story]

This family obviously didn’t take proper precautions!

Airline lipstick ban: Turkey's national airline banned red lipstick and nail polish for its flight attendants. The ban is prompting a backlash among some secular Turks.

Ricardo Portillo, who was in a coma after being punched by a teenage player, died late Saturday night, the police said.

A beverage with a name like Wild Shot doesn’t exactly wear subtlety on its sleeve, and this unaged mezcal — complete with, or rather extremely proud of, the worm at the bottom of the bottle — doesn’t really hold back. Country musician Toby Keith is the man behind this celebrezcal, and you can click the official link below if you’d like to see the man with a gusano between his teeth.

Made from 100% green agave, Wild Shot pours clean and offers a rich and straightforward smokiness on the nose, far more savory than sweet. On the body it’s more of the same — mesquite fire smoke, with a sweeter finish that offers some caramel and just a hint of citrus fruit. Very simple and straightforward, it’s a fine mezcal that novices will undoubtedly enjoy, but which lacks the depth that true mezcal fans will want.

But hey, at least you get to eat the worm.

86.8 proof.

B / $43 / wildshot.com

Long Hidden, Vatican Painting Linked To Native Americans

by Sylvia Poggioli

May 05, 2013 5:25 AM

This recently restored painting in the Vatican, created in 1494 by the Renaissance master Pinturicchio, has a small depiction of naked men with feathered headdresses. This may be the first European depiction of Native Americans. The scene, just above the tomb of Jesus, is too small to be seen in this view of the entire painting but is shown in the photo below.

Courtesy of Vatican Museums

Centuries of grime was removed during the recent restoration, revealing the men with the headdresses.

Courtesy of Vatican Museums

For close to 400 years, the painting was closed off to the world. For the past 124 years, millions of visitors walked by without noticing an intriguing scene covered with centuries of grime.

Only now, the Vatican says a detail in a newly cleaned 15th century fresco shows what may be one of the first European depictions of Native Americans.

The fresco, The Resurrection, was painted by the Renaissance master Pinturicchio in 1494 — just two years after Christopher Columbus first set foot in what came to be called the New World.

Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, told the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano that after the soot and grime were removed, in the background, just above the open coffin from where Christ has risen, "we see nude men, decorated with feathered headdresses who appear to be dancing." One of them seems to sport a Mohican cut.

The image dovetails with Columbus' description of having been greeted by dancing nude men painted black or red.

Commissioned By The Pope

The painting was commissioned by Pope Alexander VI. Anyone who has followed the TV series The Borgias knows he was the infamous Rodrigo Borgia, a Spaniard who fathered several children and became a symbol of church corruption.

Alexander VI became pope in 1492, only a few months before Columbus made landfall.

Art historian Paolucci is convinced the entire Pinturicchio fresco cycle for the Borgia Apartments inside the Vatican had been completed by the end of 1494.

"The Borgia pope was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe," Paolucci told L'Osservatore Romano.

Columbus' four trips to the New World were financed by the Spanish royals Ferdinand and Isabella.

On his return to Spain in March 1493 from his first journey, Columbus handed over his travel journal to the sovereigns who, according to Paolucci, had every interest in keeping it secret.

A Secret That Spread Quickly

But word of Columbus' sensational discovery soon spread throughout Europe.

"It is hard to believe," Paolucci said, "that the Borgia papal court would be unaware of what Columbus saw when he reached the ends of the earth."

Hence, the art historian believes, the dancing figures in Pinturicchio's Resurrection could be "the first depiction of Native Americans."

The Borgia pope's links to the New World do not end there.

Alexander VI played a key role in determining how history would play out in what would become The Americas and who would reap the benefits: While Pinturicchio was painting his cycle, Alexander was busy drafting the Tordesillas treaty of June 1494 that divided up the newly discovered territories between the two major naval powers of the time, Spain and Portugal.

One can't help but imagine Alexander pondering the implications of Columbus' discovery while Pinturicchio was concentrating on his brush strokes on the fresh plaster of the Vatican walls.

Pope Alexander has a prominent position in the painting — he's the large figure in ornate robes kneeling on the left, his hands clasped in prayer.

But it's not clear whether he's more transfixed by the image of the risen Christ or by the potential spoils of the New World, represented by the nude dancing figures.

Until now, it was believed that the first known European depictions of Native Americans were those of the British artist John White, who was governor of the colony at Roanoke Island.

But he wasn't even born until nearly half a century after the discovery of the New World.

Pinturicchio's nude figures remained forgotten because the Borgia Apartments were sealed off after Pope Alexander's death in 1503. His successor, Julius II, said he would never live in the rooms of the pope who had so tainted the church's reputation. And Julius ordered that all paintings made for the Borgias be covered in black crepe.

It was not until 1889 that the Borgia Apartments were reopened and dedicated to the display of religious art.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.