How I was keeping my mind clean this week:
- This Economist article is really only crucial because of the North Korean propaganda film Let's Trim Our Beards In Accordance With Socialist Principles.
- Okay, you've heard the Steven Slater story. But have you seen it reenacted in cheap 3D animation and narrated in Chinese?
- For those of you who seem to think coordinating with artists is censorship, look at this Economist article on the Chinese crackdown on "vulgarities," including a dating show that controversially said that wealthy men are attractive.
- Oh God I forgot how much I loved Mike Gravel. Previously seen on the Avant-Garde network.
- The new "Is Our Children Learning?"
How I was keeping my mind fit this week:
- The Varieties of Scientific Experience. If you don't have time for that, Symphony of Science.
Important facts:
- There's plenty of bad things in this recession, but one good thing is that average wages are going up, not down.
- Real racism looks like Lyndon LaRouche.
- EMI takes a dump on a small town over a parody.
- Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, was built from scratch.
- We beat Cathy.
- If you thought staging every word of The Great Gatsby was ambitious, or staging the first book of The Sound and the Fury, then you haven't imagined twelve hours of Dostoyevsky.
Things to watch in the future:
- Russia. They're burning to the ground, they're not selling any more grain, and apparently their subway murals can cause suicides. Take that, Tom Otterness.
- Iran. Ahmadi is in the middle of a power struggle over a university with a million students and $250 billion in net worth (suck that, NYU!)
