Franz Ferdinand’s cover of All My Friends:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbTAFqnZkL0[/youtube]
And LCD Soundsystem’s original:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDRLW748j68[/youtube]
Easy call, for me.
This is quite something to see:
I’d love to match it up to a timelapse of a comparable period in ship-based travel in the early 1900s. It’s amazing (and mostly wonderful) how much easier humans have made global travel.
(via Waldo)
As you might imagine, I could go on for quite some time about what I imagine the terms of this contract *should* be. Â But for now, here’s a link to an interesting discussion of what they appear to be to a number of generally smart people in DC.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHjKBjM1ngw[/youtube]
Border fences are monuments to human failure.
This Patton Oswalt article – Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die. – has been making the rounds. And not just amongst the geeks. For me (hey, shut up), this was a great exploration of something we’ve lost at the hands of the Internet:
The problem with the Internet, however, is that it lets anyone become otaku about anything instantly. In the ’80s, you couldn’t get up to speed on an entire genre in a weekend. You had to wait, month to month, for the issues of Watchmen to come out. We couldn’t BitTorrent the latest John Woo film or digitally download an entire decade’s worth of grunge or hip hop. Hell, there were a few weeks during the spring of 1991 when we couldn’t tell whether Nirvana or Tad would be the next band to break big. Imagine the terror!
But then reflect on the advantages. Waiting for the next issue, movie, or album gave you time to reread, rewatch, reabsorb whatever you loved, so you brought your own idiosyncratic love of that thing to your thought-palace. People who were obsessed with Star Trek or the Ender’s Game books were all obsessed with the same object, but its light shone differently on each person. Everyone had to create in their mind unanswered questions or what-ifs. What if Leia, not Luke, had become a Jedi? What happens after Rorschach’s journal is found at the end of Watchmen? What the hell was The Prisoner about?
If you just went “yes!”, then you need to click on over and read the rest of it. Â If you haven’t already seen it and a dozen critiques of it, that is.
Funny, I was holding this in pocket for today, and a friend posted it as her year end video yesterday. Gogol Bordello‘s Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher):
Taken, in ascending order, from my iTunes play counts, limited to tracks I picked up in 2010. Â This means things I picked up early in the year have weight over more recent tracks (the only late addition to really make it in comes from the Roots). Â And the whole thing is a bit tilted toward things I enjoy while running, it seems, and excludes lots of older music that was still in heavy rotation. Â But enough with that, here’s the music:
10. DJ Fox’s Club Can’t Use Somebody (An *excellent* running track.)
here (MP3)
9. Metrics’ Combat Baby (2003 release, but just introduced to me this year)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rMfPvv3BMs[/youtube]
8. The Hood Internet’s Ignition (Which, despite my deep dislike for all things R. Kelly, is another favorite track for running.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG_LM3RSowI[/youtube]
7. DJs from Mars’ California Jump (A Katy Perry/Van Halen mashup.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF8B8aO2A6c[/youtube]
6. Dan Black’s Get into Cloudbusting (Perhaps my second favorite track of the year, subjectively)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDMb00qtChg[/youtube]
5. DJs from Mars’ Teenage Gay (Katy Perry & OMD mashup)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaAdolUvVV4[/youtube]
4. The Pixies’ Where Is My Mind (Bassnectar Remix) (You need real speakers for most music, but especially for this)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXlRhkegkM0[/youtube]
3. The Roots’ How I Got Over (If I can’t convince you to buy the album, at least get this track.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nDKTxjKK9k[/youtube]
2. Â DJs from Mars absolute masterpiece of a mashup – Love the Way You Lie in Paradise City (mixing – not just in audio – Eminem/Rihanna & Guns ‘n Roses)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBIFMwi0bD0[/youtube]
1. DJ Clive$ter’s Heartbreaking Maps (Mashup of Metronomy & the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s (also my subjective top pick of the year). Video not related.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iniNaQYZX-c[/youtube]
The NYT, via Flowing Data, brings this map to our attention:
Makes you wonder about all sorts of overlays, doesn’t it?
The NYT describes its provenance:
The 1860 Census was the last time the federal government took a count of the South’s vast slave population. Several months later, the United States Coast Survey—arguably the most important scientific agency in the nation at the time—issued two maps of slavery that drew on the Census data, the first of Virginia and the second of Southern states as a whole.
And, as always, the map tells you about more than geography:
The map reaffirmed the belief of many in the Union that secession was driven not by a notion of “state rights,†but by the defense of a labor system. A table at the lower edge of the map measured each state’s slave population, and contemporaries would have immediately noticed that this corresponded closely to the order of secession. South Carolina, which led the rebellion, was one of two states which enslaved a majority of its population, a fact starkly represented on the map.
Conversely, the map illustrated the degree to which entire regions—like eastern Tennessee and western Virginia—were virtually devoid of slavery, and thus potential sources of resistance to secession.
Much credit to Susan Schulten, the author of the NYT piece.  She’s a history professor at the University of Denver and the author of “The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950.â€
I’ll give them credit for being ambitious. Check out richmond2015.com for more details.
TechDirt notes that the House is willing to bring back the Judiciary Committee’s IP Subcommittee – which was closed two years ago – Â now that a Hollywood-friendly Representative will be chairing it:
[N]ow that the Republicans have retaken control over the House, and after [Virginia Rep.] Rick Boucher lost his re-election campaign, suddenly, magically, the Judiciary Committee has decided to bring the IP subcommittee back to life.
Why? Â Well, Rick Boucher has been one of the very few voices in Congress representing the public’s interest in reforming our ridiculous copyright laws, and most of Congress couldn’t be bothered to do anything besides nod in agreement while taking checks from the MPAA and RIAA. Â They simply didn’t want to jeopardize such an easy flow of money:
The timing of all this makes the reasoning pretty clear. The IP subcommittee was around for ages, when it was under the control of those who represented the industry. When a reformer is finally in position to be put in charge, the subcommittee is killed and its duties are handed over to the larger committee (controlled by someone who represents the industry). Then, as soon as the reformer is out, the subcommittee comes back? Congress at it’s most shameful: a pretty clear indication that Congressional decisions on intellectual property are driven by the industry. This is how regulatory capture works.
Neither the Republican nor Democratic Party can be trusted to represent the public on IP matters. But coming together in service of Hollywood and the BigPharma? That’s bipartisanship they can believe in.