Ghost Street: Video by Ai Weiwei

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NY Times: Ai Weiwei's Dioramas Reconstruct in Minute Detail His Illegal Detention in China

Signe Wilkinson: Republican Twisters

 

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Take Two: Budget Dispute Deepens a Rift Within G.O.P. by Jonathan Weisman (NY Times)

"Senate Republicans are locked in a widening internal dispute over future budget negotiations, splitting along generational and ideological lines on the party’s approach to the central issue that drove the conservative surge in the Obama era: how to deal with the federal debt."

 

Gif.

A Boy And His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie

Matthew Winkler: Who invented writing?

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller

North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns

 

 

 Note: Click Title Link for Full-Scale Dialect Map & Legend Key

 

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Related: Linguists identify 15,000-year-old ‘ultraconserved words’

Pop Star

23 Stooges and Iggy Pop Covers

Alejandro Escovedo: "I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Billy Corgan: "Johanna (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
The Black Angels: "I Wanna be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Bad Livers: "Lust for Life (Iggy Pop cover)" [mp3]
Calling All Astronauts: "I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Happy New Year: "The Endless Sea (Iggy Pop cover)" [mp3]
Local H: "Success (Iggy Pop cover)" [mp3]
Meat Puppets: "I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "1970 (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "Dirt (with Sharon Van Etten) (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "Down on the Street (with Thurston Moore) (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "Fun House (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "L.A. Blues (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "Little Doll (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "Loose (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "No Fun (with Kurt Vile) (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "Not Right (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "Real Cool Time (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Mike Watt: "T.V. Eye (with John Petkovic) (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Ryan Adams: "I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Smashing Pumpkins: "Johanna (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Spoon: "Loose (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]
Vic ChesnuttVic Chesnutt: "The Passenger (with Elf Power) (The Stooges cover)" [mp3]

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11 Big Star Covers

Dolly Varden: "Thirteen (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
The Drams: "The Ballad of El Goodo (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
The Drams: "I Am the Cosmos (Big Star)" [mp3]
Elliott Smith: "Thirteen (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
Green Like July: "September Gurls (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
The New Amsterdams: "The Ballad of El Goodo (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
Patterson Hood: "I'm in Love with a Girl (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
Patterson Hood: "September Gurls (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
Sharon Van Etten: "Dream Lover (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
Sharon Van Etten: "You Can't Have Me (Big Star cover)" [mp3]
Tea Leaf Green: "The Ballad of El Goodo (Big Star cover)" [mp3]

Outmane Amahou: Minimalistic Posters Of Major Art Movements

Beautiful Decay: Street Story

"Street artist Mobstr produced this piece, The Story. Each painted-over line of the story allows the next to proceed. Much of Mobstr’s street art works on assumption that his work will soon be painted over – it relies on its inevitable destruction. Like his story states, his distinct approach to street art makes use of this 'strange harmony'." -- Danny Olda

Two Trailers: Color Me Obsessed - A Film About The Replacements

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More: The Replacements - Live Archive Project (Bootlegs)

Slice of Pi: How to Remember the First 15 Digits

By way of sci-fi author and mathenaut Rudy Rucker’s Facebook wall comes this:

One way to remember the first few digits of pi is to count the letters in the words of this phrase:

“How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.”


Text by Gareth Branwyn

[Image via FreakingNews]

Lost in Translation?

New Yorker Article by Roland Kelts

"Translation is a matter of linguistic technique… which naturally ages as the particulars of a language change. While there are no undying works, on principle there can be no undying translations. It is therefore imperative that new versions appear periodically in the same way that computer programs are updated. At the very least this provides a broader spectrum of choices, which can only benefit readers."  -- Haruki Murakami

Wikipedia: List of British Words Not Widely Used In The United States

Via Boing Boing

The Joy of Books

Out of Print - Author Unknown

The Savage Wit and Wisdom of Mark E. Smith

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Bonus Humor Video: Fall Fans' Round Table (German with Subtitles)

Blondie - Heart Of Glass (Stretched 7" Version)

BuzzFeed: 38 Maps (+1) You Never Knew You Needed