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Stephen Hawking: Aliens Gonna Get You
04.26.2010
05:03 pm
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Physicist Stephen Hawking has suggested (in his new documentary series) that aliens almost certainly exist in the universe (by dint of the sheer numbers and probabilities involved)—but that we’d probably be better off not looking for them, since they might eat our poor asses.

THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.

The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space.

Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”

(Image above is taken from a Bad Astronomer post on a New York Times depiction of aliens from Venus and Mars from 1912.) (He also counters Stephen Hawking here.)

(Times Online: Don’t Talk to Aliens)

(Stephen Hawking: A Briefer History of Time)

Posted by Jason Louv
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04.26.2010
05:03 pm
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Final Placement Redux
04.26.2010
12:26 pm
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I happened to notice that the mad genius behind Final Placement‘s anti-hit song Shine, one Clint Golden, has been doing his solid best to disappear his young protege’s masterpiece from the innerwebs, but to no avail. A quick search leads to his professional photography site which features loving portraits of bunnies and Newt Gingrich. Yet the tributes keep coming. I particularly enjoyed the following two clips, the first of which being a useful tutorial by a nice-seeming young gent named er, Coffin Fuck who gives us a comprehensive overview of all things Final Placement. Thanks Mr. Fuck !
 

 
The second clip is an adorable (note puppy t-shirt, awww) cuddle-core cover version by a nameless lad. What an incredible inspiration this song has been !
 

Posted by Brad Laner
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04.26.2010
12:26 pm
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LSD Blotter Art Gallery by Erowid
04.26.2010
12:03 pm
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Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.26.2010
12:03 pm
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What does bathroom etiquette have to do with God?
04.25.2010
09:12 pm
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Pastor Steven L Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church (and Teabagger) preaches that men must urinate while standing up.  This is what being a man is all about. And it’s emblematic of everything that’s wrong in the world. Apparently. And did you know that President Obama probably pees sitting down. too? That’s what the good reverend thinks! How he knows this, I can’t say.
 

 
This has to be one of the most bizarre (and meaningless!) sermons ever delivered in a Christian church. And he’s got more of ‘em! Check out his diatribe against women wearing pants below. It’s almost as good. What were the parishoners thinking when this guy went off like this? And YES, this is the same guy who was tazed at the border last year and the same idiot how prayed for Obama’s death. I suspect this won’t be the last we hear from him, what do you think?

I think he’s a bell end!
 

 
Pastor Steven L. Anderson on George Bush and homosexuals
 
Steven Anderson prays for President Obama to die
 
Via Christian Nightmares

Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.25.2010
09:12 pm
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The return of Roky Erickson: True Love Cast Out All Evil
04.25.2010
02:00 pm
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After a 15-year absence from recording (although many would say he checked out longer ago than that) Texas psychedelic legend Roky Erickson has returned with a new collection of odd ballads. If you’re already a fan, True Love Cast Out All Evil is a fascinating glimpse into Erickson’s mental state and the progress he’s made this decade, with the care his younger brother, a classical musician living in Pittsburgh, has given him (plus better meds have certainly helped). Erickson, of course, is often compared to Syd Barrett and the comparison remains valid here, too, as this collection has the same vaguely shambolic feel as Barrett and The Madcap Laughs. At times it feels like you are listening to something a bit too private, although therein lies an undeniably important part of the emotional power of the Erickson’s music in 2010.

Characteristic Ericksonian imagery can still be found, as in this line, which comes from the lead-off track Devotional Number One, a paean to Christ: “Jesus is not a hallucinogenic mushroom.” (A reference to John Allegro’s controversial thesis in The Sacred Cross and the Mushroom?).

Video below: A vintage 13th Floor Elevators performance featuring a young Roky Erickson on vocals. Here they do You’re Gonna Miss Me on a show called Where The Action Is:
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.25.2010
02:00 pm
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‘Gay’ Service Dog Refused Entry in Australian Restaurant
04.25.2010
12:14 pm
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Seriously? Seriously? From the Herald Sun:

A restaurant in a northwest suburb of Adelaide that refused a blind man entry because it thought his guide dog was “gay” was ordered by the Equal Opportunity Tribunal to pay him $1500.

Ian Jolly, 57, was barred from dining at the Thai Spice restaurant in May 2009 after a staff member mistook his guide dog Nudge for a “gay dog,” a tribunal heard this week.

A statement given by restaurant owners Hong Hoa Thi To and Anh Hoang Le said one of the restaurant’s waiters said that Mr Jolly’s partner Ms Chris Lawrence stated “she wanted to bring a gay dog into the restaurant.”

Mr Jolly and Ms Lawrence were refused entry to the restaurant - which displays a “guide dogs welcome” sign - even after providing staff with a guide dogs fact card.

“The staff genuinely believed that Nudge was an ordinary pet dog which had been desexed to become a gay dog,” a statement from the hearing said.

Gay dogs not welcome, diner in South Australia told
 
(via Arbroath)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.25.2010
12:14 pm
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Jordan Explains the Chavs
04.24.2010
04:28 pm
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YouTuber “Jordan” gives a thrilling keynote presentation about the lifestyles of the Chavs for the benefit of confused Americans—how to spot and avoid. And he does it without a powerpoint prompter, even. This should bring anybody up to speed who was confused by yesterday’s post on Chavs:

Chavtowns on Dangerous Minds

Posted by Jason Louv
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04.24.2010
04:28 pm
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Four Lions Trailer Out!
04.24.2010
03:29 pm
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The trailer for Chris Morris’s Jihadi comedy “Four Lions” went up today (the film has already shown at Sundance). Guardian review also attached below.

Chris Morris is still the most incendiary figure working in the British entertainment industry. Even if you have not read reports of Four Lions’ premiere at Sundance, it should come as no surprise that Morris – the man behind surreal short film My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117, and the TV series Nathan Barley, has taken on arguably the most bad-taste subject imaginable: a cell of homegrown jihadi bombers, feverishly plotting martyrdom from terrace houses in Doncaster.

The title is offered up with sledgehammer irony: our crew of wannabe killers are as fervent as football fans, and at one point — in a parody of the 7/7 tube bombers’ group hug caught on a station surveillance camera — cuddle up and chant motivational phrases.

But of course it’s as contrary an idea as everything else Morris sets up: these are anti-patriots of the most unmistakable kind. Added to which, there are actually five of them. Omar (Riz Ahmed) is the intense, coiled-spring leader, Fessel (Adeel Akhtar) his clueless, dozy lieutenant; Waj (Kayvan Novak), an easily confused bruiser; harmless-looking Hassan (Arsher Ali), a late sub when one of the others enters heaven a little earlier than planned; and Barry (Nigel Lindsay), — the most bizarre of all the “lions” — a Caucasian convert to Islam with a streak of ferocious invective and penchant for little hats.

(Via Ectoplasmosis)

(Guardian review)

(Chris Morris: Blue Jam)

Posted by Jason Louv
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04.24.2010
03:29 pm
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No Wave on film: 135 Grand Street, New York 1979
04.23.2010
10:55 pm
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The always excellent Soul Jazz Records have released a new DVD, 135 Grand Street New York 1979, a rough-hewn documentation of the No Wave scene, by Ericka Beckman. Featured groups in the film are Theoretical Girls, UT, A Band, Rhys Chatham, Chinese Puzzle, The Static, Morales, Youth in Asia, Morales, Steven Piccolo and Jill Kroesen.  (In the mid-80s, I worked with Jill Kroesen, briefly, at a video post production facility in New York called Caesar Video Graphics. She was a really good designer as I recall).

Recently screened at the Museum of Modern Art and currently showing as part of Sonic Youth’s ‘Sensational Fix’ touring art exhibition around the world, the film has also screened before Glenn Branca’s most recent live shows in New York City.

In this documentary film, punk rock and non-musicianship fight it out with art world attitude. Garage band line-ups in varying degrees of musical destruction sit alongside post-everything poetry and cultural terrorism. Ericka Beckman’s film matches the rawness, minimalism and radicalism of the music - a fitting document and visual statement of new forms created out of New York’s anti-everything musical nihilism, circa 1979.

This film includes the only known footage of many No Wave bands of the period. It is a film about bands filled with painters, filmmakers, actors - and occasionally musicians - thriving and thrashing in the pulsating, vibrant post-punk world of New York where high art met low culture; where Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Wharton Tiers, Taro Suzuki and the others featured here made the connections between John Cage and Joey Ramone, between the questioning of art and ? and the Mysterians.

 

 
Thank you Steven Daly!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.23.2010
10:55 pm
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More On Penis Pants Innovator Eldridge Cleaver
04.23.2010
09:46 pm
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Text and photos culled from the Jet magazine (starts at page #22) where Cleaver discusses the philosophy behind his pants, which, to quote the former Black Panther Party leader, “are just the tip of the iceberg.”

It’s a fascinating read.  Cleaver goes on to describe his then-plan to open a finishing school for boys where they’ll learn, among other things, manners, how to dress, and how not to rape.  And here’s the text that accompanies B. Laner’s prior post:

Life is just a chain of daisies when you slip into (careful, now) these revolutionary hot pants – with their ever-so-daring accent provacateur – just unveiled by famous radical designer Edridge Cleaver of Paris.  They’re bad, they’re mad, they’re up front (but never out of sight)... and, of course, they’re for men only… REAL men… the three-fisted variety. ‘There’s no mistaking they are men’s pants,’ says M. Cleaver (seen here modeling a high-waisted two-tone pair of ‘Cleavers’ with side zipper and matching ‘appurtenance.’  ‘The pants that men wear now will be seen as girls’ pants after my models are sold.  And don’t forget…heavy on the starch!”

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Eldridge Cleaver in Jet Magazine, 09.21.78

 

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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04.23.2010
09:46 pm
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