There is something to be said for the phlegmatic nature of the British. I imagine that if I were attacked by a lion, even if it was only playing, I’d be screaming my head off. Of course, I’d then probably be dead.
Here, the attacked reporter is actually more excited about getting some stitches, which he is around to get because he was so very calm as the lion bit him, while clawing his back. Why don’t we have any reporters in America as interesting?
[Via Bad Astronomy]
When I was in high school I was a marching band dork. Shocker, I know. But let me tell you something: we were good. Very good. We won a lot of competitions, and we hosted a drum and bugle corps competition at our school that pulled in the best from around the country. To this day, all these decades later, it’s still the loudest thing I have ever heard.
We humans have incredible talents: imagination, cleverness, dexterity, and musical abilities that are truly astonishing. Don’t believe me? Then behold:
Un. Flipping. Believable.
Those guys have major talent. Watch the bit from 4:50 to 5:10 again, and call those guys dorks. Holy mackerel, they rock.
Tip o’ the chapeau to Fark.
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Why I love the Internet. I played drums in the marching band in high school. We won state but never had a drum line like this. The Top Secret Drum Corps are from Basel. Switzerland. According to Wikipedia, they were one of the fist non-military groups to appear at the Edinburgh Military Tatoo in 2003, giving a performance that made them a little famous.
The performance from Bad Astronomy is from the Basel Tatoo, which was started in 2006, is now the second largest tatoo, and whose producer is the leader of the Top Secret Drum Corps.
But, if you want to be amazed, watch their performance from just this last August at the 2009 Edinburgh Military Tatoo. Flaming drum sticks and exploding bass drums!!
If Dr. Seuss Designed Produce…
[Via Cosmic Variance]
…he would have invented the dragon fruit.
Look at it! It’s fantastic! And when you cut it open:
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Dragonfruit is in the Vitamin Water I have been drinking, at least one of the types. I had been a little afraid to check out hat it was but this is really a nice thing to see.
There are plants available. I wonder how well they would do in the Pacific NW?Protect from frost but I wonder if they could really grow.
On Today’s Edition of ‘Onion or CNN’ …:
[Via First Draft]
Horrific 120-Car Pileup A Sad Reminder Of Princess Diana’s Death
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Satire seems more mainstream every day. So few people seem able to tell the difference. This was just too close to what CNN, Fox, etc. do almost every week.
Technorati Tags: General
100 years of Big Content fearing technology—in its own words – Ars Technica
[Via Ars Technica]
It’s almost a truism in the tech world that copyright owners reflexively oppose new inventions that do (or might) disrupt existing business models. But how many techies actually know what rightsholders have said and written for the last hundred years on the subject?
The anxious rhetoric around new technology is really quite shocking in its vehemence, from claims that the player piano will destroy musical taste and the “national throat” to concerns that the VCR is like the “Boston strangler” to claims that only Hollywood’s premier content could make the DTV transition a success. Most of it turned out to be absurd hyperbole, but it’s interesting to see just how consistent the words and the fears remain across more than a century of innovation and a host of very different devices.
So here they are, in their own words—the copyright holders who demanded restrictions on player pianos, photocopiers, VCRs, home taping, DAT, MP3 players, Napster, the DVR, digital radio, and digital TV.
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A great article showing the Big Content always fears technology and always says that it is the end of the world, with Armageddon right around the corner if things change.
Well, it may be a big change for the people who make money off of content but not for the creators of such content. As I showed the other day, it is extremely easy for someone to create great content without the need for any Big Content companies.
As with previous technology changes, the really disruptive change is who makes money and how it is made. At one time, player piano roll companies were charged with copyright infringement. Just recently, MP3 players were viewed an inherent vehicles of infringement, simply for existing.
I think there should be a recognition that the best way to make money is on the things that can not be replicated digitally – the performer. At the moment, a novelist goes on a book tour to promote a book. A more likely scenario would be that the book is free for a PDF, cheap for a bound version but where the author makes money is from a tour where people pay to listen.
The article even makes a hint at this observation:
Content owners aren’t always wrong to say they’re being unfairly harmed (one thinks of writers like Dickens and Tolkien whose works were reprinted in the US without payment, though it did help fuel a lucrative lecture business for Dickens), and lobbyists and trade groups would be derelict if they didn’t conjure up worst-case scenarios and try to keep them from happening. Unfortunately, though, as we look over the statements above, the total result of this resistance to new technology is clear: it limits (or attempts to limit) innovation.
I have an old copy of the Times (from London) published on April 17, 1861. Right smack in the middle of the front page is this news item:
Mr. CHARLES DICKENS To-morrow, for the last time at St. James’s-hall, Piccadilly, will read the STORY of LITTLE DOMBEY and the TRIAL from PICKWICK. Stalls, 4s: balconies and areas, 5s: gallery, 1s : at Messrs. Chapman and Hall’s, 123, Piccadilly; and at Mr. Austin’s, ticket office, St. James’s Hall.
Quite a nice thing. This was right in the middle of his serialization of Great Expectations. His serials were probably driving his speaking engagements. Even if he was paid just a few hundred pounds for the stories, his personal appearances were bringing in the big bucks. You can see what the program would have looked like from a similar reading tour a few years earlier.
Now Dickens worked really hard at giving engaging readings. He developed a whole set of prompt copies to help him. By all accounts he was a real master, altering the presentation on the fly, creating an extemporaneous presentation more like a one man show than a simple reading.
Dickens continued to give quite a few of these at St. James’s Hall, ending in 1868, with his Farewell Readings for which he was paid 8000 shillings. This would be about £238,908.79 today.
And the cost of admission is not too different from today. 5 shillings then would be about £150 today. And the base price would be about £30. Whitney Houston’s 2010 tour of England has tickets ranging from £50 to £100. Not too different.
The St. James’s Hall held a little over 2000 seats. Say the average seat was 2 shillings. A sold out Hall would gross 4000 shillings which would be £200 or £118,954.40 today. For one date, and Dickens contracted for 100!
He had been doing readings since at least 1858 pulling in quite a bit of money. In 1859, he was clearing 500 shillings a week (about £16,829.91 today). I would wager that he was making substantially more from these readings than from the books themselves. And others who managed the tour were making quite a bit also.
Dickens had fought his whole life against people who stole his work outright to publish it. America in particular would print and sell copies of his works without paying him any money at all. He tried to convince us to stop in his first visit in 1842. He did not succeed. He tried again to convince America to abide copyright when he visited again in 1867.
But this time, he got his revenge. He also spoke, netting £17,000 (which would be about £10,111,123.61 today). Not a bad haul. He also was a little more politic, selling exclusive access to early drafts of his works to the highest bidder, often getting publishing houses to pay a lot of money to become his ‘authorized’ publishers.
Giving readings could be a pretty lucrative business. Perhaps it will be again.
The Big-E Bang Theory:
[Via Bad Astronomy]
What happens when you take two of my favorite things in the whole world and put them together?
Why, you get my mancrush Wil Wheaton on The Big Bang Theory! Here’s the promo from CBS.
The episode airs Monday, October 19. Squeee!
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I’ll make sure I DVR it so I can watch it again and again. IN the last few months, Wil already made a great guest appearance on Leverage. Then on The Guild. Now this.
He is mostly a writer now and has a great blog to read. He has written about the experience without any spoilers (Here, here and here). His reaction to the promo is about as honest as any of us would be.
Reading his blog caused me to completely re-evaluate my feelings about Wesley Crusher. Wheaton is a good writer and a fine actor.
Technorati Tags: General
[Via Bad Astronomy]
IIf you don’t know about Mr. Deity, then where have you been? It’s a satirical video series that assumes that God is something of a clueless high-level executive, running into all sorts of issues while constructing the Universe. It’s been around a while, and a new episode just came out called “Mr. Deity and the Science Advisor”. Mind you, it’s only a biological science advisor; Mr. D never talked to an astronomer before constructing the Universe. But the advisor looks like someone I know. I assume that must be coincidence. Or some sort of pareidolia.
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I just love Mr. Deity! And he has been having some great guest stars recently. Adam, Michael Shermer and now PZ. You learn as you laugh, as with all good satire
I’ve followed Mr Deity for some time now. Not only is his character great but so is ‘Jesse’ (Watch Mr. Deity and the Scripts) and Lucy (I have to say ‘More Lucy.’ Her exasperation with Mr. Deity’s cluelessness is just wonderful.)
And poor put-upon Larry just makes it all work. One of the more fun web series. In fact, it seems to me that this is something that could never work on TV, even cable, as it appeals to a pretty small demographic – well educated people with a twisted sense of humor who can understand why something like a banana is funny.
But it does show that we elitists can find humor in just the geekiest things. Please donate to Mr. Deity so they can make more of these.
byJim Linwood
Authoritarianism in American Politics
[Via FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right]
Authoritarianism & Polarization in American Politics, co-written by Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler. (Disclosure: Jon is a longtime friend; we were in grad school together at Univ. of North Carolina.) The book is an examination of how authoritarian tendencies among American citizens inform and explain attitudes toward government, public policies and their fellow citizens. It is impossible to summarize the book properly in a blog post, but I wanted to hit on some of the points that struck me, many of which were unsurprising and yet startling to see demonstrated empirically.
The first point Hetherington and Weiler make is that authoritarianism is really about order–achieving it, maintaining it, and affirming it–and especially when citizens are uncertain or fearful. This, they say, is why authoritarians seek out and elevate, well, authorities–because authorities impose order on an otherwise disordered world. They provide a useful review the existing literature on authoritarian traits, which have been connected to negative racist stereotyping, a belief in biblical inerrancy, a preference for simple rather than complex problem-solving, and low levels of political information.
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An interesting set of numbers. It explains why authoritarian leaders want to keep the electorate uneducated. The citizens with the strongest need for strongest authoritarian leaders come from those with the least amount of education.
The easiest way to stay in power for authoritarians is to make sure that few people get a college degree. In fact, those with a graduate degree respond even less to authoritarian pleas than any other group n the figure.
Keeping people ignorant and misinformed is the best recipe for continuing power for authoritarian leaders. Claiming an educated person is simply an elitist makes it easier to maintain power. Denigrating the efforts of educated people has been a common ploy of the populist authoritarian.
Thus education, particularly public, is one of the best ways to oppose these figures.
Humor: Our motto’s better than your motto:
[Via Crosscut]
I seldom boast about Washington state, but we do have the best motto. Our state motto is “Alki,” from Chinook jargon meaning, roughly, “Hold on,” or “Not so fast.”
“Alki” may also be translated as “by and by.” During the Eisenhower years, a group of legislative prudes, all of whom had served as hall monitors in junior high school, attempted to introduce the odious mistranslation, “hope for the future.” Speakers of Chinook jargon quickly exposed this fraud with the withering comment, “Man kloshe kopa yaka lepush pe klale kopa yaka tumtum,” which is loosely translated as “white man speaks with forked tongue.”
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Alki is pretty cool. I like ‘Not so fast’ better than ‘by and by.’ Other state mottos are pretty funny, though.
Maryland for instance. ‘Manly deeds, Womanly words.’ Okay. How about Michigan. ‘Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you)’ Classic.
And reading about the controversial changes in Oregon’s motto (Alis volat propriis) is quite enlightening. And while the motto of Texas sounds like something a marketing consultant came up with (Friendship) it is actually derived from the Indian word meaning friends or allies which the Spanish pronounced as Tejas. So its motto is also the state’s name. Nice.
Technorati Tags: General, Government
by Tammra McCauley
I am not a big Posada fan but as an ex-catcher (with the bad knee to prove it) I want everyone to know that it was his part in the play last night that was critical and simply amazing.
In last night’s game between the Twins and the Yankees, there was a very important play that had a impact on the game. Everyone talked about Jeter’s heads-up play. Getting to the ball was awesome but after that, it was pretty routine.
Seeing how far the runner had rounded third, he did what everyone is supposed to do – throw the ball to the next base. In this case home. He made a good throw but he is a pro ball player so that is to be expected.
Posada threw a rocket to third to get the runner out on the tag. He put the ball in the one place it HAD to get to in order to get the runner out – low and on the outside of the bag so the runner has to go through the tag to get to the base.
A bit higher or on the inside of the bag and the runner would have been safe. That could have changed the game completely.
Jeter was a heads-up play by a great ball player. but Posada’s throw is what made the out. His precision on the throw made the game.
Catcher’s rule!
Technorati Tags: General
by Howdy, I’m H. Michael Karshis
‘This Country Is Going To The Apes’ … Lovely
[Via Sadly, No!]
Here’s Paul A. Ibbetson, ‘lecturer on the Patriot Act’:
A return to the Planet of the Apes
… Before I begin to share why I believe this country is going to the apes (self-deserved destruction), which I am sure will make the fur fly among many who would falsely infer my assessment is focused somehow on race, instead of policy, and accuse me of crossing into the forbidden zone, let’s look at the overall message that the Planet of the Apes movies tried to convey.
Yes, let’s, Mr. Ibbetson. Lest our ape fur fly at the silly suggestion that your column comparing Barack Obama’s America to the Planet of the Apes might somehow be about race.
Take but a moment to look around you and it won’t take long to see the deadly preparation for chaos that is unfolding from every corner of this country.
It’s like the anarchist boy scout said, ‘Be prepared … for chaos!’
The United States has elected a president in Barack Obama, who when not busy fomenting racial conflict among the people who voted him into the most powerful position in the world, works with every ounce of his strength to destabilize the traditional pillars of this country.
Damn that talking ape Obama for fomenting racial conflict! And even worse, using his ape-like sinews to destabilize the tradition of comparing black people to apes!
This same president invites the apocalypse worthy of the Ape World by emasculating the United States through ill conceived military weakness in foreign assemblies, such as the United Nations.
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Many people have remarked on the “overall message that the Planet of the Apes movies tried to convey”: it was a movie about race relations. The book, Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture, author Eric Greene discusses exactly this. He mentions that Sammy Davis Jr. told the producers that he thought it was best movie on black-white relations he had seen.
The ape insurrection in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was based on the Watts riots, according to the screenwriter. In fact, Conquest discusses race relations in much more overt style than the other movies but the underlying motifs of bigotry and persecution is present in all of them.
For anyone to suggest that the Apes series does not focus on race is to reveal a strong lack of history and context. To try and claim that comparing Obama to the Ape leaders has nothing to do with race is to be supremely blinkered when it comes to any sort of examination.
The purpose of writing such an article should be to see how the movies help inform us about life some 40 years after they were made. But the bomb that was worshipped in Beneath the Planet of the Apes had nothing to do with Iran and everything to do with the Cold War and the continuing militarization. I do not think community aacitivists from ACORN ever appear in the movies.
I hate it when movies are shoehorned into someone’s preconceived notion, one that seems to have so few reflective aspects. Planet of the Apes has so many awesome parts but one of them was the obvious role reversal between Caucasians, who go from the top of society to the bottom. Even the minority audiences recognized this and cheered on the apes in later movies.
If this was a term paper, I’d give it a C. A potentially unique view provided only haphazard factual support with little connection to what was up on the screen. Horrible metaphors – … “caught up in the nets of our own demise” (what does that even mean?) mixed in with Junior High school sophistry – “This same president invites the apocalypse worthy of the Ape World by emasculating the United States through ill conceived military weakness in foreign assemblies, such as the United Nations.” That just does not even make much sense.
Look we get that the thing about these movies that is most upsetting to the author is that the white guys are not in charge (It’s run by those ‘damned, dirty apes’). Yet anyone who sees his writing as being based on any sort of racism is making a false inference? Right!
Well, when you chose a movie series that has subtexts directly dealing with racial relations, where overt actions mimic contemporary evens, such as race riots, and that demonstrates again and again the dehumanizing aspects of bigotry and prejudice, but you refuse to see anything racial about the series, I would have to suggest that the author may not have actually seen the movies. Perhaps Conservapedia is working on its own version of the movie, like it is working on its own version of the Bible.
So instead of saying “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape”, Heston says “Curse you for emasculating my military in foreign assemblies.”
Or maybe this – “You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!” – would become this – “You Maniacs! You elected a President who when not busy fomenting racial conflict among the people who voted him into the most powerful position in the world, works with every ounce of his strength to destabilize the traditional pillars of this country! Ah, darn you! Gosh darn you all to heck!”
I think Charlton might kick somebody’s ass if this were true.
Tidal waves only get really huge when they are close to shore. Many times people on boats feel nothing but return to a shore that is devastated. But this is the first time I have read accounts of surfers that rode towards and over the wave, and survived.
The fact that they have been communicating with family via Facebook just adds to the story.
I’m sitting here watching the Dallas-Denver game and happened to see this Visa ad.
I’d seen it before but for some reason this time I wanted to find out more about the pizza thrower. A few seconds on Google and I found out that he is Juan Hermosillo, who has participated on the US Pizza team.
He has gotten to travel the world doing his acrobatics. And be the best part of a Visa ad. Not too shabby. Why doesn’t he compete on America’s got talent? Much better than most of the participants.
[UPDATE: Here is a nice interview with Juan:]
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