crazychemgirl
the S&S goddess
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creeeeeeeepy
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Laurel
Kitty Mama
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http://www.texasmonthly.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_hero/public/stories/images/0913_FireTruck_680x382.jpg
As noncareer firefighters, the thirty members of the West Volunteer Fire Department expected to have their work schedules upended,their dinners interrupted, and maybe for a little smoke to get in their eyes. What they didn’t expect was to face the greatest disaster their town had ever seen—and to lose some of their own.
As noncareer firefighters, the thirty members of the West Volunteer Fire Department expected to have their work schedules upended,their dinners interrupted, and maybe for a little smoke to get in their eyes. What they didn’t expect was to face the greatest disaster their town had ever seen—and to lose some of their own.
- read the full article The Line of Fire (from Texxas Monthly)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
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Sex Tourism in the Uncanny Valley, eh.
LillyO
Literotica Guru
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- Jul 29, 2003
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https://www.coursera.org/course/humanevolution
This looks Interesting
Introduction to the science of human origins, the fossil and archaeological record, and genetic ancestry of living and ancient human populations. The course emphasizes the ways our evolution touches our lives, including health and diet, and explores how deep history may shape the future of our species.
If anyone is interested in the subject, its a free course by John Hawks of the University of Wisonsin.
This looks Interesting
Introduction to the science of human origins, the fossil and archaeological record, and genetic ancestry of living and ancient human populations. The course emphasizes the ways our evolution touches our lives, including health and diet, and explores how deep history may shape the future of our species.
If anyone is interested in the subject, its a free course by John Hawks of the University of Wisonsin.
Sean
We'll see.
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Laurel
Kitty Mama
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Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
Today i need something silly to cheer me up: i'm in Turin, it's August and the whole place is inert. All the art galleries are closed. Half of the cinema are 'on holiday pause' and even the postman hasn't brought any bill nor urgent (sigh!) parcel for two weeks at least. I'm in need of a distraction so let me tell you about the Poo Printer....
http://we-make-money-not-art.com/wow/0pooprinter3.jpg
Fabrizio Lamoncha entrusted a group of male zebra finches to be the main makers and actors of the Poo Printer, an analog generative typography printer using bird-poo to slowly trace the Latin alphabet characters, poo pixel by poo pixel, over a large paper roll placed under the cage.
The Poo Printer consists of a wooden cage sized 170x120cm and 100cm high with a removable tray in the center. This tray has interchangeable parts looking like tree branches with integrated food dispensers. According to the order of placement of these pieces it creates the shape of each of the characters of the Latin alphabet. The birds will hang out there most of the day, eating, pooing and even eating and pooing simultaneously.
http://we-make-money-not-art.com/wow/0pooprinter3.jpg
Fabrizio Lamoncha entrusted a group of male zebra finches to be the main makers and actors of the Poo Printer, an analog generative typography printer using bird-poo to slowly trace the Latin alphabet characters, poo pixel by poo pixel, over a large paper roll placed under the cage.
The Poo Printer consists of a wooden cage sized 170x120cm and 100cm high with a removable tray in the center. This tray has interchangeable parts looking like tree branches with integrated food dispensers. According to the order of placement of these pieces it creates the shape of each of the characters of the Latin alphabet. The birds will hang out there most of the day, eating, pooing and even eating and pooing simultaneously.
- read the full article The Poo Printer (from We Make Money Not Art)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
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http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/culture_test/miley-banner1.jpg
So here's a fun theory: Was Cyrus's and Thicke's performance actually a thought-out response to "Blurred Lines" criticism? Even before the song hit No. 1, "Blurred Lines" and its oft-parodied video have been accused of treating women like objects and promoting rape culture with its "I know you want it" hook, physical aggression, and subtle messages about alcohol and consent. Cyrus's performance with Thicke played with several of these themes in a way that could be read as commentary--though, at best, failed commentary.
It would be easy to write off her performance as just looking to deliver shock value: Cyrus has openly professed her admiration for the Britney-Madonna-Christina smooching trinity of scandal that opened the awards show a decade ago, so it's possible that Miley was just being Miley to carry the torch of sexually provocative pop stars. That idea is also consistent with the message of "We Can't Stop," which kicks off her hip-hop makeover by warning it's Cyrus's party, and she can do what she wants. But from the way she introduced her performance--by reviving Saturday Night Live's's caricature of her with a doppelganger stand-in--it's clear that Cyrus is more self-aware than she perhaps gets credit for. And if there's anything we learned from Lady Gaga's "Applause" video, it's that pop stars responding to or parodying their own critiques is not out of the question.
At first glance, the performance doesn't appear all that different from the "Blurred Lines" video: Thicke is fully clothed in a Beetlejuice suit and barely moves; Cyrus is clad in a flesh-colored two-piece and struts around him. But from the moment she eagerly ripped off her furry-fantasy get-up, Cyrus not only embraced and amped-up her own sexualization, she threw it back in Thicke's face (and lap). She got right up in Thicke's mug to shout some of the most scrutinized lyrics in "Blurred Lines" ("tried to domesticate ya / but you're an animal"), and she didn't back down after he took over vocals. With a giant foam finger, the night's most famous prop, Cyrus ran her hand over his crotch before grinding and nuzzling against him, trying to objectify Thicke in the way the original video didn't.
So here's a fun theory: Was Cyrus's and Thicke's performance actually a thought-out response to "Blurred Lines" criticism? Even before the song hit No. 1, "Blurred Lines" and its oft-parodied video have been accused of treating women like objects and promoting rape culture with its "I know you want it" hook, physical aggression, and subtle messages about alcohol and consent. Cyrus's performance with Thicke played with several of these themes in a way that could be read as commentary--though, at best, failed commentary.
It would be easy to write off her performance as just looking to deliver shock value: Cyrus has openly professed her admiration for the Britney-Madonna-Christina smooching trinity of scandal that opened the awards show a decade ago, so it's possible that Miley was just being Miley to carry the torch of sexually provocative pop stars. That idea is also consistent with the message of "We Can't Stop," which kicks off her hip-hop makeover by warning it's Cyrus's party, and she can do what she wants. But from the way she introduced her performance--by reviving Saturday Night Live's's caricature of her with a doppelganger stand-in--it's clear that Cyrus is more self-aware than she perhaps gets credit for. And if there's anything we learned from Lady Gaga's "Applause" video, it's that pop stars responding to or parodying their own critiques is not out of the question.
At first glance, the performance doesn't appear all that different from the "Blurred Lines" video: Thicke is fully clothed in a Beetlejuice suit and barely moves; Cyrus is clad in a flesh-colored two-piece and struts around him. But from the moment she eagerly ripped off her furry-fantasy get-up, Cyrus not only embraced and amped-up her own sexualization, she threw it back in Thicke's face (and lap). She got right up in Thicke's mug to shout some of the most scrutinized lyrics in "Blurred Lines" ("tried to domesticate ya / but you're an animal"), and she didn't back down after he took over vocals. With a giant foam finger, the night's most famous prop, Cyrus ran her hand over his crotch before grinding and nuzzling against him, trying to objectify Thicke in the way the original video didn't.
- read the full article Was Miley Cyrus's VMA Performance a Failed 'Blurred Lines' Criticism? (from The Atlantic)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
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http://www.modernluxury.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/story-photo-with-inset-main/story/rent_web.jpg
The Righteous Landlord sits on the deck of his two-story Ashbury Heights stucco, an august perch that a career in San Francisco real estate will afford. The vista of the Mission and Bernal Heights stretching out to the bay is deceptively peaceful, but inside those pastel row houses, a frenzied rental market shifts and pulses and seeks its limit: $2,200 studios and $3,500 one-bedrooms; U-Hauls moving activists and young parents to the Peninsula and the East Bay; tech kids pulling up behind them in Zipvans loaded with Design Within Reach repro Eames loungers and vintage foosball tables. A few miles away, the S.F. Rent Board is inundated with tenant petitions against $2,000-a-month rent hikes, and bike messengers deliver another pile of eviction notices every day. On this sunny summer morning, the Great Recession and the real estate crash that followed it feel like aeons ago. The city is changing: You need only check Craigslist or Zumper to see it being rented out to the highest bidder, unit by unit.
For landlords, all this means opportunity. As big money takes over the city with a voracity and finality that make the dot-com boom seem almost quaint, there’s a rich vein of gold in them thar hills—or at least in the bay-windowed apartment buildings that cover them.
Yet this landlord, 65 years old, gray-haired and a little paunchy in a T-shirt and shorts, insists that he is not like the infamous property owners (the tenant-gouging Sangiacomos, the Lembis and their gun-wielding thugs) that we know and hate. He supports rent control to keep the city diverse, he says. Tears come to his eyes as he waxes on about providing decent housing for ordinary folks: “It’s the right thing to do. Everyone always says, what’s in it for me?” He criticizes owners who rent out their units on Airbnb—taking apartments out of the rental stock and churning through a different set of tenants every week “doesn’t serve the long-term residents of a community,” he says.
In 19 years, the Righteous Landlord has displaced just two people from his 12-unit Richmond property—and then only temporarily, to do renovations. If anything, this landlord seems unusually hands-on and proactive: He seismically retrofitted his entire building 10 years before the Board of Supervisors required it. Yes, he is disliked by a tenant whose bike he has banned from the garage. True, he’s a little OCD about dirt on the hallway carpet. But he has also put through several rounds of renovations totaling more than $500,000, including installation of safety-glass door panels, motion-sensor lights in the laundry room, and 16 surveillance cameras. He sweeps the sidewalks and vacuums top-to-bottom every week. He is, in short, a real-life manifestation of a kind of San Francisco land- lord we have come to believe no longer exists. Most of us would happily endure 11 months of fog to snag one of his units, if any were available and we could swing the deposit. Will he at least allow his name to be used as an example of a good-guy landlord, a type thought to be “as rare as a unicorn who doesn’t poop rainbows,” as one Twitter wag put it?
Absolutely not.
The Righteous Landlord sits on the deck of his two-story Ashbury Heights stucco, an august perch that a career in San Francisco real estate will afford. The vista of the Mission and Bernal Heights stretching out to the bay is deceptively peaceful, but inside those pastel row houses, a frenzied rental market shifts and pulses and seeks its limit: $2,200 studios and $3,500 one-bedrooms; U-Hauls moving activists and young parents to the Peninsula and the East Bay; tech kids pulling up behind them in Zipvans loaded with Design Within Reach repro Eames loungers and vintage foosball tables. A few miles away, the S.F. Rent Board is inundated with tenant petitions against $2,000-a-month rent hikes, and bike messengers deliver another pile of eviction notices every day. On this sunny summer morning, the Great Recession and the real estate crash that followed it feel like aeons ago. The city is changing: You need only check Craigslist or Zumper to see it being rented out to the highest bidder, unit by unit.
For landlords, all this means opportunity. As big money takes over the city with a voracity and finality that make the dot-com boom seem almost quaint, there’s a rich vein of gold in them thar hills—or at least in the bay-windowed apartment buildings that cover them.
Yet this landlord, 65 years old, gray-haired and a little paunchy in a T-shirt and shorts, insists that he is not like the infamous property owners (the tenant-gouging Sangiacomos, the Lembis and their gun-wielding thugs) that we know and hate. He supports rent control to keep the city diverse, he says. Tears come to his eyes as he waxes on about providing decent housing for ordinary folks: “It’s the right thing to do. Everyone always says, what’s in it for me?” He criticizes owners who rent out their units on Airbnb—taking apartments out of the rental stock and churning through a different set of tenants every week “doesn’t serve the long-term residents of a community,” he says.
In 19 years, the Righteous Landlord has displaced just two people from his 12-unit Richmond property—and then only temporarily, to do renovations. If anything, this landlord seems unusually hands-on and proactive: He seismically retrofitted his entire building 10 years before the Board of Supervisors required it. Yes, he is disliked by a tenant whose bike he has banned from the garage. True, he’s a little OCD about dirt on the hallway carpet. But he has also put through several rounds of renovations totaling more than $500,000, including installation of safety-glass door panels, motion-sensor lights in the laundry room, and 16 surveillance cameras. He sweeps the sidewalks and vacuums top-to-bottom every week. He is, in short, a real-life manifestation of a kind of San Francisco land- lord we have come to believe no longer exists. Most of us would happily endure 11 months of fog to snag one of his units, if any were available and we could swing the deposit. Will he at least allow his name to be used as an example of a good-guy landlord, a type thought to be “as rare as a unicorn who doesn’t poop rainbows,” as one Twitter wag put it?
Absolutely not.
- read the full article Sympathy for the Landlord (from San Francsco Magazine)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
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- Aug 27, 1999
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- 20,695
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/08/23/dishwashercooking_slide-d3b51fcac018b845e2bfb2fd7987f2c7cb9258a9-s40-c85.jpg
My mom is a creative cook. And a darn good one at that.
But when she told me and my sister — way back in 1995 — that she had started cooking salmon in the dishwasher, we just rolled our eyes and shook our heads. Here comes a kitchen catastrophe.
An hour later, mom proved her teenage daughters wrong once again. The salmon was tender, moist and super flavorful. In some ways, it was better than her fish cooked in the oven.
Flash-forward 18 years, and dishwasher cuisine seems to be making a comeback.
A handful of YouTube videos and food blogs are showing off the method. And even Oprah a recipe for an entire lunch — noodles, asparagus and salmon — prepared in the dishwasher.
So how does it work?
My mom is a creative cook. And a darn good one at that.
But when she told me and my sister — way back in 1995 — that she had started cooking salmon in the dishwasher, we just rolled our eyes and shook our heads. Here comes a kitchen catastrophe.
An hour later, mom proved her teenage daughters wrong once again. The salmon was tender, moist and super flavorful. In some ways, it was better than her fish cooked in the oven.
Flash-forward 18 years, and dishwasher cuisine seems to be making a comeback.
A handful of YouTube videos and food blogs are showing off the method. And even Oprah a recipe for an entire lunch — noodles, asparagus and salmon — prepared in the dishwasher.
So how does it work?
- read the full article Dishwasher Cooking: Make Your Dinner While Cleaning The Plates (from NPR)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
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- Aug 27, 1999
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- 20,695
Today Oxford University Press announces the latest quarterly update to Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO), its free online dictionary of current English. If buzzworthy vocabulary makes you squee, set aside some me time to explore the latest words which have made their way into common usage.
Picture this. You’ve just uploaded a selfie to your favourite social media website using your phablet when your FIL (that’s your father-in-law) shares a supercut of a srsly mortifying twerking session. You immediately unlike his page because there isn’t an emoji capable of expressing your desire to vom: apols, but it’s time for a digital detox. Research by the Oxford Dictionaries team shows that these terms have been absorbed by popular culture, hence their inclusion in the latest ODO update.
Technology remains a catalyst for emerging words and is reflected in new entries including MOOC (‘massive open online course’: a course of study made available over the Internet without charge to a very large number of people); bitcoin (a digital currency in which transactions can be performed without the need for a central bank), and the compound Internet of things (a development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity). Other technology-related words added in this update include click and collect, BYOD (‘bring your own device’), and hackerspace.
Picture this. You’ve just uploaded a selfie to your favourite social media website using your phablet when your FIL (that’s your father-in-law) shares a supercut of a srsly mortifying twerking session. You immediately unlike his page because there isn’t an emoji capable of expressing your desire to vom: apols, but it’s time for a digital detox. Research by the Oxford Dictionaries team shows that these terms have been absorbed by popular culture, hence their inclusion in the latest ODO update.
Technology remains a catalyst for emerging words and is reflected in new entries including MOOC (‘massive open online course’: a course of study made available over the Internet without charge to a very large number of people); bitcoin (a digital currency in which transactions can be performed without the need for a central bank), and the compound Internet of things (a development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity). Other technology-related words added in this update include click and collect, BYOD (‘bring your own device’), and hackerspace.
- read the full article 28 August 2013: Oxford Dictionaries Online quarterly update: new words added to oxforddictionaries.com today (from Oxford Ditionaries)
Radiohead
You look so tired-unhappy
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- Dec 5, 2005
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- 9,779
This whole thing is against humanity... and I'd say delete, but that word may have been taken over too.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
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- Aug 27, 1999
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- 20,695
http://pvspade.com/Sartre/littlesa.jpg
Sartre, after having just sampled his "tuna cassarole."
We have recently been lucky enough to discover several previously lost diaries of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre stuck in between the cushions of our office sofa. These diaries reveal a young Sartre obsessed not with the void, but with food. Aparently Sartre, before discovering philosophy, had hoped to write "a cookbook that will put to rest all notions of flavor forever.'' The diaries are excerpted here for your perusal.
--
October 3
Spoke with Camus today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually eaten, he gave me much encouragement. I rushed home immediately to begin work. How excited I am! I have begun my formula for a Denver omelet.
October 4
Still working on the omelet. There have been stumbling blocks. I keep creating omelets one after another, like soldiers marching into the sea, but each one seems empty, hollow, like stone. I want to create an omelet that expresses the meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste like cheese. I look at them on the plate, but they do not look back. Tried eating them with the lights off. It did not help. Malraux suggested paprika.
October 6
I have realized that the traditional omelet form (eggs and cheese) is bourgeois. Today I tried making one out of a cigarette, some coffee, and four tiny stones. I fed it to Malraux, who puked. I am encouraged, but my journey is still long.
Sartre, after having just sampled his "tuna cassarole."
We have recently been lucky enough to discover several previously lost diaries of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre stuck in between the cushions of our office sofa. These diaries reveal a young Sartre obsessed not with the void, but with food. Aparently Sartre, before discovering philosophy, had hoped to write "a cookbook that will put to rest all notions of flavor forever.'' The diaries are excerpted here for your perusal.
--
October 3
Spoke with Camus today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually eaten, he gave me much encouragement. I rushed home immediately to begin work. How excited I am! I have begun my formula for a Denver omelet.
October 4
Still working on the omelet. There have been stumbling blocks. I keep creating omelets one after another, like soldiers marching into the sea, but each one seems empty, hollow, like stone. I want to create an omelet that expresses the meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste like cheese. I look at them on the plate, but they do not look back. Tried eating them with the lights off. It did not help. Malraux suggested paprika.
October 6
I have realized that the traditional omelet form (eggs and cheese) is bourgeois. Today I tried making one out of a cigarette, some coffee, and four tiny stones. I fed it to Malraux, who puked. I am encouraged, but my journey is still long.
- read the full article The Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook (from Marty Smith)
RobDownSouth
BoycotDivestSanctio
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- Apr 13, 2002
- Posts
- 78,974
18 Everyday Products You’ve Been Using Wrong
Your life has been a lie.
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr06/2013/8/21/13/enhanced-buzz-1675-1377104787-41.jpg
- read the full article Prepared to be amazed
Your life has been a lie.
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr06/2013/8/21/13/enhanced-buzz-1675-1377104787-41.jpg
- read the full article Prepared to be amazed
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
Woah. Mind blown.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
Hey Roscoe, did you see this:
“UNABOMBER, not unlike VOLLMANN, has pride of authorship and insists his book be published without editing.”
This line is one of the “literary straws” the FBI grasps at in William T. Vollmann’s FBI file, in which the National Book Award–winning author learns that he was suspect S-2047 in the Unabomber investigation of the 1990s.
In the September issue of Harper’s Magazine, the writer shares what he read in his file, which he describes as “two higgledy-piggledy batches of papers, out of order, padded with duplicates, some of which they had forgotten to redact.” Vollmann was given 294 of the file’s 785 pages following a Freedom of Information Act request, an appeal, and a lawsuit. (A request for his NSA file is still pending.)
Some excerpts from the file:
S-2047 William T. Vollman. Predicated on a referral from a citizen Investigation has determined that Vollman, a professional author, is widely travelled, however, existing travel records for him do not eliminate him as a viable suspect.
Vollmann learns that seven suspects, including himself, were listed as “AUTHOR/WRITER.”
http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/VollmannFile-1-630x815.jpg
http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/VollmannFile-2-630x815.jpg
http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/VollmannFile-3-630x815.jpg
This line is one of the “literary straws” the FBI grasps at in William T. Vollmann’s FBI file, in which the National Book Award–winning author learns that he was suspect S-2047 in the Unabomber investigation of the 1990s.
In the September issue of Harper’s Magazine, the writer shares what he read in his file, which he describes as “two higgledy-piggledy batches of papers, out of order, padded with duplicates, some of which they had forgotten to redact.” Vollmann was given 294 of the file’s 785 pages following a Freedom of Information Act request, an appeal, and a lawsuit. (A request for his NSA file is still pending.)
Some excerpts from the file:
S-2047 William T. Vollman. Predicated on a referral from a citizen Investigation has determined that Vollman, a professional author, is widely travelled, however, existing travel records for him do not eliminate him as a viable suspect.
• UNABOMBER’s moniker FC may correlate with title of VOLLMANN’s largest work, novel Fathers and Crows. That novel reportedly best exemplifies VOLLMANN’s anti-progress, anti-industrialist theme/beliefs/value systems and VOLLMANN, himself, has described it as his most difficult work.
• He revels in immersing himself in the seamy underside of life. He reportedly has used drugs (crack cocaine) extensively. He reportedly owns many guns and a flame-thrower.
• VOLLMANN’s meticulous nature, as described above, is consistent with manufacture of and presentation on UNABOM devices. Several witnesses have commented that UNABOM packages appeared “seamless” and “too pretty to open.”
• By all accounts VOLLMANN is exceedingly intelligent and possessed with an enormous ego.
• He revels in immersing himself in the seamy underside of life. He reportedly has used drugs (crack cocaine) extensively. He reportedly owns many guns and a flame-thrower.
• VOLLMANN’s meticulous nature, as described above, is consistent with manufacture of and presentation on UNABOM devices. Several witnesses have commented that UNABOM packages appeared “seamless” and “too pretty to open.”
• By all accounts VOLLMANN is exceedingly intelligent and possessed with an enormous ego.
Vollmann learns that seven suspects, including himself, were listed as “AUTHOR/WRITER.”
http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/VollmannFile-1-630x815.jpg
http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/VollmannFile-2-630x815.jpg
http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/VollmannFile-3-630x815.jpg
- read the full article Willam T. Vollmann Was Suspected of Being the Unabomber (from Harper's Magazine)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/8/25/1377434017277/Peruvian-archaeologist-Lu-009.jpg
In Peru, home to the spectacular Inca city of Machu Picchu and thousands of ancient ruins, archaeologists are turning to drones to speed up sluggish survey work and protect sites from squatters, builders and miners.
Remote-controlled aircraft were developed for military purposes and the US is increasingly using them to attack alleged terrorists, but the technology's falling price means it is increasingly used for civilian and commercial projects around the world.
Small drones have been helping a growing number of researchers produce three-dimensional models of Peruvian sites instead of the usual flat maps – and in days and weeks instead of months and years.
Speed is important to archaeologists here. Peru's economy has grown at an average of 6.5% a year over the past decade, and development pressures have surpassed looting as the main threat to the country's cultural treasures, according to the government.
In Peru, home to the spectacular Inca city of Machu Picchu and thousands of ancient ruins, archaeologists are turning to drones to speed up sluggish survey work and protect sites from squatters, builders and miners.
Remote-controlled aircraft were developed for military purposes and the US is increasingly using them to attack alleged terrorists, but the technology's falling price means it is increasingly used for civilian and commercial projects around the world.
Small drones have been helping a growing number of researchers produce three-dimensional models of Peruvian sites instead of the usual flat maps – and in days and weeks instead of months and years.
Speed is important to archaeologists here. Peru's economy has grown at an average of 6.5% a year over the past decade, and development pressures have surpassed looting as the main threat to the country's cultural treasures, according to the government.
- read the full article Peru's archaeologists turn to drones to help protect and explore ancient ruins (from The Guardian)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
Zurich's new drive-in brothels opened earlier this week and they already raised a few eyebrows.
Across Europe there does seem to be a growing trend for sex drive-ins, however, with a widespread belief that it gets prostitution off the streets and into a safer environment, with similar schemes in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
One of the most unusual aspects of the Zurich brothel — which are being referred to as "sex boxes" in Swiss media — are the signs being used at the facility, which cater both to Switzerland's multilingual society (four official languages) and perhaps an odd sense of humor.
Those looking to find the sex boxes will have to look for a discreet "red umbrella," and follow those signs to a former industrial zone where the nine boxes appear. According to Meritall Mir of GlobalPost, the customers will then "drive up one at a time along a lane reminiscent of fast-food drive-thrus" between the hours of 7pm and 5am.
Other signs pointing the way to the sex boxes show a car with a woman standing next to it. It is not clear if male prostitutes will also be allowed at the site:
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/521cb24769bedde241f8c81c-800-/rtx12v6h(1).jpg
Across Europe there does seem to be a growing trend for sex drive-ins, however, with a widespread belief that it gets prostitution off the streets and into a safer environment, with similar schemes in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
One of the most unusual aspects of the Zurich brothel — which are being referred to as "sex boxes" in Swiss media — are the signs being used at the facility, which cater both to Switzerland's multilingual society (four official languages) and perhaps an odd sense of humor.
Those looking to find the sex boxes will have to look for a discreet "red umbrella," and follow those signs to a former industrial zone where the nine boxes appear. According to Meritall Mir of GlobalPost, the customers will then "drive up one at a time along a lane reminiscent of fast-food drive-thrus" between the hours of 7pm and 5am.
Other signs pointing the way to the sex boxes show a car with a woman standing next to it. It is not clear if male prostitutes will also be allowed at the site:
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/521cb24769bedde241f8c81c-800-/rtx12v6h(1).jpg
- read the full article The Signs Are Hilarious At Switzerland's New 'Drive-In Brothel' (from Business Insider)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
In case you wondered: Miley Cyrus's VMA performance critiqued by professional strippers.
http://titsandsass.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/804112236.jpg
Chanel: When thinking about Miley’s horrible performance at the VMAs, I let out a big sigh. Where do I begin? There was so much wrong with her performance. It wasn’t tasteful or well-choreographed. I wasn’t expecting her to slip back into her role as Hannah Montana and give the VMAs a sweet and boring show, but I sure wasn’t expecting that.
As strippers, we perform on stage for one to three songs per set. Sometimes routines are choreographed well to music and other times it’s short and sweet and then it’s over. When it comes to twerking, it’s about more than just having a big round booty. I’ve seen white women and black women and every color in between shake it well on stage. There’s no huge thought process behind it but it’s hard when you don’t know what you’re doing, just like any other dance move. When (most) strippers shake it, we know it’s for entertainment, so it should be good which can mean extra tips on stage and off stage in terms of lapdance sales. When Miley shakes it, it’s because she’s trying to shock us with her uncoordinated hip wiggles. She’s not like the strippers in her song lyrics. I’ve seen those women, and they are much better than she will ever be.
Chanel: When thinking about Miley’s horrible performance at the VMAs, I let out a big sigh. Where do I begin? There was so much wrong with her performance. It wasn’t tasteful or well-choreographed. I wasn’t expecting her to slip back into her role as Hannah Montana and give the VMAs a sweet and boring show, but I sure wasn’t expecting that.
As strippers, we perform on stage for one to three songs per set. Sometimes routines are choreographed well to music and other times it’s short and sweet and then it’s over. When it comes to twerking, it’s about more than just having a big round booty. I’ve seen white women and black women and every color in between shake it well on stage. There’s no huge thought process behind it but it’s hard when you don’t know what you’re doing, just like any other dance move. When (most) strippers shake it, we know it’s for entertainment, so it should be good which can mean extra tips on stage and off stage in terms of lapdance sales. When Miley shakes it, it’s because she’s trying to shock us with her uncoordinated hip wiggles. She’s not like the strippers in her song lyrics. I’ve seen those women, and they are much better than she will ever be.
- read the full article Pole Dancing Doesn’t Make You A Stripper, Twerking Doesn’t Make You Black (from TitsAndAss.com)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://o.onionstatic.com/images/23/23307/original/700.jpg?0261
DAMASCUS—Syria’s ongoing civil war entered a new and dangerous phase today as tens of thousands of bloodthirsty bears reportedly descended on the strife-torn country, charging from city to city on a murderous rampage.
Terrified witnesses confirmed that scores of semi-conscious residents have been dragged from their homes by their necks, torn limb from limb, and had their innards feasted upon by hordes of vicious bears, which appeared to target individuals regardless of whether they supported President Bashar al-Assad or the insurgent opposition.
“We thought the violence couldn’t possibly get any worse, and then all of a sudden the streets were crawling with ferocious, roaring bears, indiscriminately thrashing everything in sight,” said Syrian rebel commander Salim Idris, wearing an eyepatch from a fresh claw wound he sustained earlier in the day. “I directed my fighters to shoot them on sight, but each bear takes so many bullets to subdue, and when one finally goes down three more fill in to take its place.”
“I don’t know what side the bears are on, but at this point it might not even matter,” he continued. “They’re everywhere and they’re extremely angry.”
DAMASCUS—Syria’s ongoing civil war entered a new and dangerous phase today as tens of thousands of bloodthirsty bears reportedly descended on the strife-torn country, charging from city to city on a murderous rampage.
Terrified witnesses confirmed that scores of semi-conscious residents have been dragged from their homes by their necks, torn limb from limb, and had their innards feasted upon by hordes of vicious bears, which appeared to target individuals regardless of whether they supported President Bashar al-Assad or the insurgent opposition.
“We thought the violence couldn’t possibly get any worse, and then all of a sudden the streets were crawling with ferocious, roaring bears, indiscriminately thrashing everything in sight,” said Syrian rebel commander Salim Idris, wearing an eyepatch from a fresh claw wound he sustained earlier in the day. “I directed my fighters to shoot them on sight, but each bear takes so many bullets to subdue, and when one finally goes down three more fill in to take its place.”
“I don’t know what side the bears are on, but at this point it might not even matter,” he continued. “They’re everywhere and they’re extremely angry.”
- read the full article Syria Conflict Intensifies As Bears Enter War (from The Onion)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://www.spin.com/sites/all/files/styles/style620_413/public/130828-rupaul-henry-rollins-drives-love-black-flag.jpg
Black Flag fans need advice on how to deal with the existence of two separate reunions, neither involving legendary frontman Henry Rollins. Hell, Titus Andronicus leader Patrick Stickles, in his epic review of another recent reunion, wrote that he was "counting the seconds" until he could leave the self-described Black Flag's Brooklyn show earlier this year. Meanwhile, Rollins is soliciting recommendations of a whole other kind, from no less an authority than RuPaul (who runs the world, in case you weren't familiar) — on the subject of lasting love.
As Bust and Accidental Bear report, and the video above demonstrates, the RuPaul's Drag Race star is starting a Web series called RuPaul Drives, and the second episode features — you guessed it — Rollins. And, yes, RuPaul gives the ex-Black Flag barker relationship tips. Rollins says he hasn't had the "maturity, strength of character, and moral courage," to open himself up to another person in a committed way. Suggests RuPaul: "Stay vulnerable. Allow people to see those icky bits ... The universe is calling you out." It's sweet and endearing and well worth watching.
Black Flag fans need advice on how to deal with the existence of two separate reunions, neither involving legendary frontman Henry Rollins. Hell, Titus Andronicus leader Patrick Stickles, in his epic review of another recent reunion, wrote that he was "counting the seconds" until he could leave the self-described Black Flag's Brooklyn show earlier this year. Meanwhile, Rollins is soliciting recommendations of a whole other kind, from no less an authority than RuPaul (who runs the world, in case you weren't familiar) — on the subject of lasting love.
As Bust and Accidental Bear report, and the video above demonstrates, the RuPaul's Drag Race star is starting a Web series called RuPaul Drives, and the second episode features — you guessed it — Rollins. And, yes, RuPaul gives the ex-Black Flag barker relationship tips. Rollins says he hasn't had the "maturity, strength of character, and moral courage," to open himself up to another person in a committed way. Suggests RuPaul: "Stay vulnerable. Allow people to see those icky bits ... The universe is calling you out." It's sweet and endearing and well worth watching.
- read the full article & watch the video RuPaul's Love Advice to Henry Rollins: 'Let Them See Those Icky Bits' (from Spin Magazine)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2961057/scrap_2.png
The Enlightenment sages who wrote the First Amendment into the US Constitution in 1791 created the most secure legal foundation for a real democracy in history thus far. By refusing to grant government the power to shut anyone up, no matter how obnoxious, the authors of the Bill of Rights ensured that even if the worst, most corrupt idiots managed to grab power they wouldn’t be able to silence their political enemies (in stark contrast to “the divine right” of kings, who dealt with the opposition by throwing it into a dungeon.) It’s just 45 words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
What the First Amendment really grants is the power of society to maintain its own standards over those of government. Over centuries, sometimes despite the most furious opposition, individuals have increased their participation and added the force of their lives, their words, and their ideas to the culture. And so the principle of free speech is growing, slowly and unsteadily, into the truth of its logic: each person, each member of the press, each citizen can believe, think, and speak independently and without fear of oppression. The same is true of Amendments Two through Ten: the Bill of Rights is a political structure built to safeguard a democratic state, but its implications in the personal lives of that state’s citizens are immediate and profound.
Because of the ironclad protection of the First Amendment, it has proved very difficult for government to control what we can read, listen to or see. A few curbs have been put up, though, notably by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the regulations of which largely determine what kind of material is bleeped out of radio and television broadcasts.
There’s a temptation to believe that even so mild a form of censorship as broadcast bleeping is a curtailment of that freedom, but the truth is more complicated. Bleeping can also be understood as a vivid illustration of the First Amendment in action.
The bleep of censorship invariably draws attention to the material it was intended to conceal; circles it, if you like, by loudly omitting it. Bleeping also serves as proof that there is a watcher: someone looking out for us in advance. In the bleep lies the evidence that you are being “protected” — but by whom? Why? And from what?
The Enlightenment sages who wrote the First Amendment into the US Constitution in 1791 created the most secure legal foundation for a real democracy in history thus far. By refusing to grant government the power to shut anyone up, no matter how obnoxious, the authors of the Bill of Rights ensured that even if the worst, most corrupt idiots managed to grab power they wouldn’t be able to silence their political enemies (in stark contrast to “the divine right” of kings, who dealt with the opposition by throwing it into a dungeon.) It’s just 45 words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
What the First Amendment really grants is the power of society to maintain its own standards over those of government. Over centuries, sometimes despite the most furious opposition, individuals have increased their participation and added the force of their lives, their words, and their ideas to the culture. And so the principle of free speech is growing, slowly and unsteadily, into the truth of its logic: each person, each member of the press, each citizen can believe, think, and speak independently and without fear of oppression. The same is true of Amendments Two through Ten: the Bill of Rights is a political structure built to safeguard a democratic state, but its implications in the personal lives of that state’s citizens are immediate and profound.
Because of the ironclad protection of the First Amendment, it has proved very difficult for government to control what we can read, listen to or see. A few curbs have been put up, though, notably by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the regulations of which largely determine what kind of material is bleeped out of radio and television broadcasts.
There’s a temptation to believe that even so mild a form of censorship as broadcast bleeping is a curtailment of that freedom, but the truth is more complicated. Bleeping can also be understood as a vivid illustration of the First Amendment in action.
The bleep of censorship invariably draws attention to the material it was intended to conceal; circles it, if you like, by loudly omitting it. Bleeping also serves as proof that there is a watcher: someone looking out for us in advance. In the bleep lies the evidence that you are being “protected” — but by whom? Why? And from what?
- read the full article Curses! The birth of the bleep and modern American censorship: Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits (from The Verge)
lovetoread
hello daddy
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2001
- Posts
- 42,978
Rollins is looking old.
J
JAMESBJOHNSON
Guest
http://my.billofrightsinstitute.org/page.aspx?pid=472
Freedom of speech remains an evolving construct, and does not 'really' exist in this nation. 'Free speech' is always a slave of the popular tide.
http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=31965
TWAiN is a cousin of mine. Our mutual Johnson antecedents came from Louisa County, Virginia. His line went to Missouri, mine to Illinois. I'm blessed to have copies of sermons and letters and memoirs and newspaper columns composed by my line, long before Twain was anything special, and they share the same style and forms of humor that characterize Twain. That is, a cerebral sarcasm with subtle irony tuned to refined sensibilities. We don't tune to oafs who wipe their noses on their sleeves...the McLIT Readers. Theyre best served by setting their hair on fire.
Prolly the greatest tribute paid to cousin Mark was by the middle school principal at Mark Twain Middle School in Virginia who banned Twain's books from the school library. Only in America can liberals pull such stunts with a straight face and general applause.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-20044663.html
I recently discussed their reading with two of my grandchildren, both biracial, and neither had a clue who Twain is or was. They know writers from circa 1960.
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DallasDonna
Kindle lover (Paperwhite)
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2012
- Posts
- 1,905
