July 9
July 8
According to Ilechukwu, an epidemic of penis theft swept Nigeria between 1975 and 1977. Then there seemed to be a lull until 1990, when the stealing resurged. “Men could be seen in the streets of Lagos holding on to their genitalia either openly or discreetly with their hand in their pockets,” Ilechukwu wrote. “Women were also seen holding on to their breasts directly or discreetly, by crossing the hands across the chest. . . . Vigilance and anticipatory aggression were thought to be good prophylaxes. This led to further breakdown of law and order.” In a typical incident, someone would suddenly yell: Thief! My genitals are gone! Then a culprit would be identified, apprehended, and, often, killed.
posted by chunking express at 3:46 PM -
62 comments
Tod Browning's 1932 cinematic masterpiece
Freaks tells the story of a close-knit group of circus sideshow workers who are wronged and take revenge. The film's use of
real-life freaks so disturbed audiences that some ran screaming from theaters, distributors refused to handle the film, and it was banned in Britain for over 30 years.
[more inside]
posted by flug at 2:30 PM -
20 comments
Melting Greenland glacier water forms a "slow wave" that stays in the Atlantic for at least 50 years before reaching the Pacific, according to a new study. The water piles up in the Atlantic. "It is often assumed that sea levels will rise instantaneously, but that is unlikely, given what we know about ocean dynamics." Fifty years after the meltwater is released from Greenland, sea-level rise could be 30 times greater around Greenland and down the eastern side of North America, including the Gulf of Mexico, than in the Pacific Ocean. Sea-level rises in Europe are around six times that of the Pacific, but only a fifth as great as on the opposite shore of the Atlantic.
posted by stbalbach at 10:28 AM -
40 comments
"What we've invented is a way to induce charges on the wall using a power supply located on the robot....The robot carries with it positive and negative charges, and when the walls sees these charges it automatically generates the opposite charge. The robot can then clamp onto those charges." Scientists have
robots climbing the walls.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 4:43 AM -
29 comments
July 7
"...aside from the Devil, you have no enemy more venomous, more desperate, more bitter, than a true Jew... What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming.... First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians.... Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.... Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.... Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb." -- From
On the Jews and Their Lies, authored by the man
voted by his countrymen the second greatest German of all time, the theologian whose break with Rome began the Protestant Reformation,
Martin Luther.
[more inside]
posted by orthogonality at 9:54 PM -
83 comments
Hans Reiser leads police to the body of his wife. Software engineer Hans Reiser, who was convicted in the murder of his wife, Nina, long denied he killed her. His defense was based on the theory that she was hiding out in her native Russia and her body could not be found. Today, in a possible exchange for a shorter sentence he led police to the shallow grave of Nina Reiser, just a moment's drive from the house he lived in with his mother and two children.
Previously,
previously.
posted by parmanparman at 9:19 PM -
123 comments
"Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was in Denver, CO, today for a town hall meeting. The event, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, was billed as '
open to the public.' Yet Carole Kreck, a 61-year-old librarian carrying a 'McCain=Bush' sign,
was taken away by police [on orders from McCain's security detail] for trespassing. A police officer told Kreck:
'You have two choices. You can keep your sign here and receive a ticket for trespassing, or you can remove the sign and stay in line and attend this town hall meeting.'
Kreck received a ticket for trespassing and her court date is July 23."
*.
Video of Kreck's encounter with the police.
[more inside]
posted by ericb at 5:24 PM -
161 comments
"Nobody in the antipoverty community and nobody in city leadership was going to welcome the news that the noble experiment that they’d been engaged in for the past decade had been bringing the city down, in ways they’d never expected. But the connection was too obvious to ignore, and Betts and Janikowski figured that the same thing must be happening all around the country."
American Murder Mystery.
Page 2.
Page 3.
Page 4.
posted by wittgenstein at 1:37 PM -
55 comments
Free Government is a directly-controlled, open-source, entirely transparent political "meta-party" in the United States that intends to field candidates guided exclusively by online polling and user-drafted bills.
Recruiting of candidates has already begun.
posted by setanor at 1:24 PM -
23 comments
In a 2001 University of Houston study of 153 survivors of nearly lethal attempts between the ages of 13 and 34, only 13 percent reported having contemplated their act for eight hours or longer. To the contrary, 70 percent set the interval between deciding to kill themselves and acting at less than an hour, including an astonishing 24 percent who pegged the interval at less than five minutes.
A surprising
article about the nature, methods, and deterrence of suicide.
posted by Who_Am_I at 11:41 AM -
64 comments
Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam ...
The year is 1897. For five long years Europe has been ravaged by Baron Battenberg's Steam powered war machines. Led by Great Britain, a handful of defiant countries remain free of the Baron's tyrannical rule. But time is running out for them as his forces grow stronger every day. As dawn breaks high above the Atlantic, a tiny airship arrives at its secret destination. Onboard, Britain's greatest explorer, spy, and master of esoteric fighting arts readies to strike at the heart of the Baron's empire!
posted by Dave Faris at 10:39 AM -
53 comments
I first encountered the concept of
forest gardening in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's
Herland (1915)
[relevant part pages 79-80]; the fictional race of women in her book have completely remade the forests to contain only beneficial and food-bearing plants, which live harmoniously together and replenish the soil naturally. This is
actually being done, less than a hundred years later.
More;
similar,
similar.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:32 AM -
25 comments
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