Links

Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.

That’s a big basement, and a lot of dust

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The Browning pistol that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked the crisis leading to World War I has been discovered gathering dust in a Jesuit community house in Austria.

Interesting enough in itself, but what really caught my eye was the headline that FARK used when they linked to this story. It’s apparently been edited to add some much needed clarification, but the version that showed up in my news aggregator this morning was as follows:

Pistol responsible for deaths of 8.5 million people found gathering dust in Jesuit community house in Austria

I actually had to read this three times before I could parse the sentence the way it was actually intended. I kept reading it and picturing a house with a basement big enough to hold the 8.5 million dusty corpses that had just been discovered.

iTunes: “Lessons In Love” by Lords of Acid from the album Lust (1991, 4:21).

Voices of the Beat: Burroughs, Ginsberg, and more…

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The Naropa Institute has just released a large number of recordings of lectures and classes to the Internet Archive. Included are recordings of William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and many, many more beat-era poets, writers, and personalities. Incredibly cool. Right now, I’m downloading a 1980 William S. Burroughs lecture on public discourse.

A lecture by William S. Burroughs on public discourse, with an introduction by Allen Ginsberg. Topics included are nuclear weapons, disarmament, the Equal Rights Amendment, aliens, dreams, function of the artist, mind-altering drugs, reincarnation, space travel, television, and economics. Keywords: beat generation, literature and the state, technology and literature, literature and society, protest literature

(via MeFi)

iTunes: “Empire Strikes Back (Medley)” by Meco from the album Best of Meco, The (1980, 4:05).

Seattle Storm Lauren Jackson in the buff

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See what I get for not paying attention to sports? I almost entirely missed hearing about the latest overblown controversy involving an adult choosing to pose naked for a magazine being sold to adults (though not an “adult magazine”, i.e., porn).

From her statements in this Seattle Times article, I think that Seattle Storm team member Lauren Jackson has exactly the right attitude about her photo shoot.

Storm star Lauren Jackson, after being asked in 2000 and again in 2002, finally agreed to bare all for an artistic Australian photo magazine called Black+White. Jackson appears on the cover, with the title “The Athens Dream,” in tribute to the upcoming Summer Games in Greece. Wisps of Jackson’s bleached-blond hair dangle over her creamy skin. Inside the magazine, Jackson, 23, reveals everything except her, ahem, down under.

[…]

“Do you really think it’s that big a deal?” she pondered when asked about the nude pics after practice yesterday.

[…]

Feeling too young at 18 to participate in 2000 and too busy with her Storm season during the 2002 shoot, Jackson mulled over the idea for this year’s magazine with her family in the offseason.

She wasn’t paid to pose, but she was flown to Sydney to work with award-winning photographer Steve Lowe and a makeup artist in a private session that took about seven hours. Jackson handpicked her pictures, getting complete control over the process.

After the Olympics, all the photos used in the magazine will be auctioned to benefit charities.

“I feel really comfortable with my body and shape I’m in, and I know I’m not going to be like this forever,” Jackson said. “I was really nervous at first, but it was conquering one of my fears. I felt very much empowered at the end.

“It’s me all over and I’m really happy with the photos. As athletes you work so hard to get in shape for competition. This celebrates the athletic body and how much work you put in. We do it the right way; we don’t starve ourselves.”

Jackson said she doesn’t view the shots as objectifying women, either. Especially because the magazine, which will sell for $40, is equal parts men and women.

[…]

“I really did it with the Australians in mind,” Jackson said. “It’s a prestigious thing in Australia. Believe it or not, but my mom and dad (Maree and Gary) loved it. My dad saw it the other day, called me and said he was so proud of me.”

Jackson’s teammates share the sentiment. Bird loved Jackson’s hair, and fellow Australian Tully Bevilaqua adored the cover shot.

“She looks sensational,” Bevilaqua said. “The human body is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Damn skippy.

I just may have to do some shopping before work tomorrow.

Purely for research purposes, of course.

More on Moon’s coronation

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Kirsten pointed me to a Salon article following up on the bizarre coronation of Rev. Moon. I’m so flabbergasted by this event.

On March 23, the Dirksen Senate Office Building was the scene of a coronation ceremony for Rev. Sun Myung Moon, owner of the conservative Washington Times newspaper and UPI wire service, who was given a bejeweled crown by Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill. Afterward, Moon told his bipartisan audience of Washington power players he would save everyone on Earth as he had saved the souls of Hitler and Stalin — the murderous dictators had been born again through him, he said. In a vision, Moon said the reformed Hitler and Stalin vouched for him, calling him “none other than humanity’s Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent.”

To many observers, this bizarre scene would have looked like the apocalypse as depicted in “Left Behind” novels. Moon, 84, the benefactor of conservative foundations like the American Family Coalition — who served time in the 1980s for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice — has views somewhere to the right of the Taliban’s Mullah Omar. Moon preaches that gays are “dung-eating dogs,” Jews brought on the Holocaust by betraying Jesus, and the U.S. Constitution should be scrapped in favor of a system he calls “Godism” — with him in charge. The man crowned “King of Peace” by congressmen once said, according to sermons reprinted in his church’s Unification News: “Suppose I were to hit you with the baseball bat to stop you, bloodying your ear and breaking a bone or two, yet still you insisted on doing more work for Father.”

The more I read about this, the more bizarre it gets.

iTunes: “Good Person Inside” by Sobule, Jill from the album Sobule, Jill (1994, 3:12).

Must’ve been a slow news day

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From the BBC:

Up to one in five toddlers can open medicine bottles and chemical containers, even if they have child-resistant tops, safety experts warn.

The Child Accident Prevention Trust stressed parents should store potentially dangerous products safely.

From what I’ve seen, children are often the only ones who can open those damn bottles without the Jaws of Life.

iTunes: “White Love (Psychic Masturbation)” by One Dove from the album Platinum on Black, Vol. 1 (1993, 6:52).

On keeping promises

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Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m impressed.

According to Google I am the # 7 most important Matt in the world. When I reach the top of that list I’m going to take my website down.

And would you look at that — he actually did it.

iTunes: “Zoo Station” by U2 from the album Achtung Baby (1991, 4:36).

Why Garfield sucks

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Not having been a fan of Garfield since my age hit the double-digits, I can’t really say that I was terribly surprised by this look at Jim Davis’ marketing-centric approach to producing the Garfield comic strip.

The model for Garfield was Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, but not the funny Peanuts of that strip’s early years. Rather, Davis wanted to mimic the sunny, humorless monotony of Peanuts‘ twilight years.

[…]

Garfield‘s origins were so mercantile that it’s fair to say he never sold out—he never had any integrity to put on the auction block to begin with. But today Davis spends even less time on the strip than he used to—between three days and a week each month. During that time, he collaborates with another cartoonist to generate ideas and rough sketches, then hands them over to Paws employees to be illustrated.

I’d heard rumors before that Davis didn’t even bother drawing the strip anymore, but this is the first time I’d actually seen a printed reference about that.

(via the Something Positive LiveJournal)

iTunes: “God’s Little Joke” by Soho from the album Goddess (1990, 2:22).

Racism is alive and well

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Owners of a New Jersey swim club are paying one million dollars to settle a lawsuit against them for denying access to “black” and “brown skinned” people.

The ACLU of New Jersey also represented Philip and Annmarie Giordano of Bloomfield, who scheduled their daughter’s June 2002 birthday party at Le Terrace Swim Club, where Annmarie Giordano and her daughter were members. Patrick Nardone demanded a list of guests and asked whether the guest list included any “brown-skinned” or “black” children. When told that her child did have Asian and African-American friends who were guests, Nardone informed her that those children were not welcome at the club. He thereafter rescinded the Giordanos’ membership.

It amazes and saddens me that things like this still go on.

(via Mike)

iTunes: “Will I Get Out of Jail?” by Lo-Fidelity Allstars from the album How to Operate With A Blown Mind (1998, 6:18).