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Images of Hackers according to stock photos
12.16.2011
12:27 pm
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The Sad and Useless blog has a hilarious collection of ridiculously cliched images of (obviously EVIL) computer hackers in stock photos. I’m pretty certain this is how my mom imagines what hackers look like, too.
 
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(via Submitterator )

Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.16.2011
12:27 pm
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Pogo’s ‘Mighty Boosh’ mashup is a thing of warped beauty
12.16.2011
04:07 am
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Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh bookend some weirdo who wandered into a Boing Boing photo shoot.
 
As a hardcore Mighty Boosh fan, I am ashamed to say that I only just discovered this wonderful Pogo mashup of bits and pieces from the late great BBC comedy show, which may have been the funniest and most surreal thing to ever appear on the airwaves.

The title of the piece is “Zoo Zoo” and features Pogo’s trademark tight edits/cuts in which shards of dialog and soundtrack are transformed into seamless musical collages filled with quirky charm.

I am patiently awaiting a Mighty Boosh feature length film. Pleeeeeease.

Let the good vibes begin…
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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12.16.2011
04:07 am
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Always a Hitch: R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens
12.16.2011
12:36 am
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It’s impossible to know where to begin when paying tribute to an intellectual giant and truly Dangerous Mind like author and journalist Christopher Hitchens, who died today of metastized esophogeal cancer.

Far more elegant remembrances will pour in from far more skilled writers than I could ever hope to be. Here’s three hours of the guy speaking for himself on CSPAN’s Book TV show.
 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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12.16.2011
12:36 am
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Hip-hop film nostalgia: video for Lupe Fiasco’s ‘Double Burger With Cheese’
12.15.2011
11:40 pm
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”...and he said nobody cared…”: Ice Cube as Doughboy in Boyz N The Hood
 
What’s the best way to capture in video the spirit of a song like Lupe Fiasco’s late-20th-century-black-street-reality-cinema-surveying “Double Burger With Cheese” from his Friend of the People mixtape [download]?

Somebody figured it out over at beat cartel Dolobeats (and if it was proprietor/prolific beatmaker Dolo himself, I’m pretty fucking impressed): synch the song up to every goddamn movie clip that Lu casually references in the song.

This thing juxtaposes clips from such iconic films as Juice, Menace II Society, Boyz N The Hood, New Jersey Drive, Poetic Justice, Dead Presidents, South Central, Sugar Hill, New Jack City, Paid In Full and Colors.

“These are just a illustration / Of a few scenes that helped raise a generation…”
 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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12.15.2011
11:40 pm
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Pre-punk Nina Hagen in East Germany, 1974
12.15.2011
10:11 pm
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Although she’s celebrated as “the mother of punk,” the musical fruits of Nina Hagen’s early career sounded much closer to the tuba-led Bavarian oompah music of Heino than the scratchy, three chord thrash of The Slits. Which is not to say that the young Nina Hagen wasn’t the very embodiment of punk rock rebellion in Communist East Germany before anyone had ever heard of the Sex Pistols, because that is exactly what she was…

Raised by her mother, well-known film and TV actress Eva-Maria Hagen and her stepfather, dissident singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann (who was a big influence on her political views and a big nuisance to the GDR), Hagen began singing professionally at a young age. Backed by her group, Automobil, her 1974 single, “Du Hast den Farbfilm Vergessen” (“You forgot the color film”) became a huge hit in the GDR and made Hagen a big star. The seemingly innocent-sounding lyrics (a girlfriend berating her boyfriend for not bringing color film on their vacation) were a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state. The fluffy-sounding ditty became one the most popular songs of 1974 and the double meaning of the comical lyrics was apparently well-understood by both the general population and the Politbüro elites.

In 1976, Wolf Biermann was stripped of his citizenship and refused re-admittance into the GDR after he’d played a TV concert in Cologne. When her mother left to join her husband, Nina claimed to be Biermann’s biological daughter. However, the thing that probably got her visa stamped stat was her threat to the authorities that she would become “the next Wolf Biermann.”

Four days later she was living in the West. I wonder how many people were thrown OUT of East Germany? That’s punk!

Below, 18-year-old Nina Hagen (and Automobil) singing “Du Hast den Farbfilm Vergessen” (“You forgot the color film”). There is a version with subtitles here.
 

 
After the jump, more early Nina Hagen videos…

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.15.2011
10:11 pm
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Home to Beats and literary rebels: Legendary Paris bookstore owner George Whitman R.I.P.
12.15.2011
06:38 pm
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A gathering place for adventurous writers like Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, William Burroughs and Lawrence Durrell among many others, Shakespeare and Company was far more than just a business, it was a breeding ground and spiritual center for literary pioneers who were drawn to the shop by its enigmatic American owner George Whitman who opened the English-language bookstore in 1951,

Whitman passed away last Wednesday at the age of 98.

He welcomed visitors with large-print messages on the walls. “Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise,” was one, quoting Yeats. Next to a wishing well at the center of the store, a sign said: “Give what you can, take what you need. George.” By his own estimate, he lodged some 40,000 people.

Whitman was generous but he also had a quick temper. He was loved but his fiery disposition could be off-putting and his methods of running his business somewhat dictatorial. He was a firm believer that anyone seeking shelter in his bookstore should expect to pay their way by doing some work in the bookstore and he evidently could be a tough taskmaster, like a Zen teacher wielding a bamboo stick. This didn’t dissuade thousands of writers from making the pilgrimage to his literary Mecca. There was no bookstore quite like it.

Whitman and his extraordinary bookstore were a seminal force in the lives and careers of some of the 20th century’s greatest authors. In this documentary, Portrait Of A Bookstore As An Old Man, we are introduced to Whitman and a life touched by the marvelous.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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12.15.2011
06:38 pm
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Reichwing Sheriff Joe Arpaio charged with long list of civil rights violations by Justice Dept.

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Hero of anti-immigrant, racist Republicans everywhere, AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio was charged by the Justice Department with a rather long and utterly appalling list of civil rights violations.

Arpaio’s comically egotistical thirst for self-promotion (he briefly starred in a reality TV series) and flagrant disregard for civil rights have been well-known for a long time—it’s why the likes of Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Perry all wanted to fellate this crotchety old bastard for his endorsement—but now the media notoriety he’s sought after might prove to be Arpaio’s undoing. Associated Press writes:

The civil rights report said Latinos are four to nine times more likely to be stopped in traffic stops in Maricopa County than non-Latinos and that the agency’s immigration policies treat Latinos as if they are all in the country illegally. Deputies on the immigrant-smuggling squad stop and arrest Latino drivers without good cause, the investigation found.

A review done as part of the investigation found that 20 percent of traffic reports handled by Arpaio’s immigrant-smuggling squad from March 2006 to March 2009 were stops - almost all involving Latino drivers - that were done without reasonable suspicion. The squad’s stops rarely led to smuggling arrests.

Deputies are encouraged to make high-volume traffic stops in targeted locations. There were Latinos who were in the U.S. legally who were arrested or detained without cause during the sweeps, according to the report.

During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city - in some cases, heavily Latino areas - over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by his office since January 2008, according to figures provided by Arpaio’s office.

Police supervisors, including at least one smuggling-squad supervisor, often used county accounts to send emails that demeaned Latinos to fellow sheriff’s managers, deputies and volunteers in the sheriff’s posse. One such email had a photo of a mock driver’s license for a fictional state called “Mexifornia.”

The report said that the sheriff’s office launched an immigration operation two weeks after the sheriff received a letter in August 2009 letter about a person’s dismay over employees of a McDonald’s in the Phoenix suburb of Sun City who didn’t speak English. The tip laid out no criminal allegations. The sheriff wrote back to thank the writer “for the info,” said he would look into it and forwarded it to a top aide with a note of “for our operation.”
 
Federal investigators focused heavily on the language barriers in Arpaio’s jails. Latino inmates with limited English skills were punished for failing to understand commands in English by being put in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day or keeping prisoners locked down in their jail pods for as long as 72 hours without a trip to the canteen area or making nonlegal phone calls.

The report said some jail officers used racial slurs for Latinos when talking among themselves and speaking to inmates.

Detention officers refused to accept forms requesting basic daily services and reporting mistreatment when the documents were completed in Spanish and pressured Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms that implicate their legal rights without language assistance.

The agency pressures Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms by yelling at them and keeping them in uncomfortably cold cells for long periods of time.

As Miranda Blue, writing on the People for the American Way blog, adds:

These allegations are disturbing enough in themselves. But what’s even more troubling is that the person behind them has been not only held up as a hero by the Right, but has served as an inspiration for immigration legislation around the country. In a report last year, we examined the ways the anti-immigrant Right has worked to dehumanize immigrants in order “to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment and build political opposition to comprehensive immigration reform.” It should come as no surprise that Sheriff Joe is the movement’s figurehead.

Nope, none at all!

At the Justice Department press conference today, Arpaio was accused of violating the Constitution and Federal laws.

Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division said the Arpaio investigation represents the most egregious case of racial profiling in the nation’s history, worse than anything he’s seen himself or reviewed in professional literature. Investigators interviewed more than 400 people, reviewed thousands of pages of documentation and toured Maricopa County jails as part of the probe.
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.15.2011
04:30 pm
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The Stranglers, Blondie and Sex Pistols: Awesome live footage from 1977
12.15.2011
04:01 pm
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This Dutch TV documentary from 1977 captures some brilliant performances by The Stranglers, Blondie and The Sex Pistols. The bands are firing on all cylinders as they perform in Amsterdam.

In 1977, this is what was moving my world. I had just arrived in New York City and I felt like a sail in a hurricane. Slept all day and hit the clubs at night to see a rock revolution in the making.

The Stranglers at the Second Avenue Theater were particularly awe-inspiring. Unsung heroes of rock and roll, which is probably as it should be - no more heroes. Though, I have my share.

The Stranglers - No More Heroes, Something Better Change

Blondie - Detroit 442, Love at the Pier

Sex Pistols - E.M.I., Pretty Vacant, Anarchy in the UK

The video quality is pretty rough, which seems appropriate - like an underground transmission from the distant past. It’s also in Dutch without English substitles, but it hardly matters. The music speaks for itself.
 

 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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12.15.2011
04:01 pm
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Banksy: New statue attacks ‘the lies, the corruption, the abuse’ of Catholic Church
12.15.2011
03:27 pm
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A new work by Banksy was unveiled today at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Called Cardinal Sin, the work is a bust of a priest with its face sheared-off, and replaced with a square of blank kitchen tiles, creating a pixelated effect. The statue is a response to the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. In a statement, Banksy said:

“The statue? I guess you could call it a Christmas present. At this time of year it’s easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse.

“I’m never sure who deserves to be put on a pedestal or crushed under one.”

Cardinal Sin is a replica of an 18th century bust and is displayed on a pedestal in a room filled with religious artworks from the same century, and has been loaned to the gallery indefinitely.
 
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Via the Juxtapoz
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.15.2011
03:27 pm
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Patti Smith performing at Max’s Kansas City in 1974
12.15.2011
02:25 pm
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I’ve never seen this video shot by Bob Gruen before and I’m pretty much a Patti Smith fanatic. I didn’t even know it existed.

This is a very young Smith performing at Max’s in 1974 with Lenny Kaye and Richard Sohl.

More Rimbaud than Keith Richards.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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12.15.2011
02:25 pm
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