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The feet of a four year old should not be so rough

elgilito — Sat, 25 May 2013 10:04:47 GMT

Pictures from South Sudan by a UNHCR aid worker (MeFi's Own™ tarvuz)

Get well soon, Dr. Frank-N-Furter

Ursula Hitler — Sat, 25 May 2013 06:05:06 GMT

Whether you love him for his role as the Sweet Transvestite in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Lord of Darkness in Ridley Scott's Legend, Pennywise the clown in the TV adaptation of Stephen King's It, Wadsworth the butler in Clue, Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, his voice work for scads of cartoons, his countless theater performances, his many unforgettable, wonderfully strange guest spots on various TV shows, his absolutely amazing voice, or for (quite possibly) all of these things at once, the fact is, you love Tim Curry. Spare a thought tonight for this acclaimed, ubiquitous character actor, singer, dancer, and odd-looking, sexy little man. Tim Curry, 67, has had a major stroke at his home in Los Angeles. Early reports said that he was left unable to speak, but his agent now tells the Daily Mail that he's "doing great (...) He absolutely can speak and is recovering at this time and in great humor."

"His son looks kind of like King Joffrey, too."

raihan_ — Sat, 25 May 2013 04:57:57 GMT

SLYT: "Earlier this evening [...], Will Smith and Alfonso Ribeiro (AKA Carlton) reunited on-air and took us on a stroll down memory lane. With DJ Jazzy Jeff behind the deck, watch as Smith raps The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song before he and Ribeiro dance along to 'It's Not Unusual' and 'Jump On It'."

(via CoS)

Rebel Towns

the man of twists and turns — Sat, 25 May 2013 03:46:54 GMT

Call it municipal disobedience: communities like Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, are defying laws they deem illegitimate.

The memorial that no one wanted built except the veterans

joseph conrad is fully awesome — Sat, 25 May 2013 03:18:01 GMT

Although ranked tenth in "America's Favorite Architecture," compiled by the American Institute of Architects, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - sometimes referred to as simply 'The Wall' - was the at the center of political and artistic controversy and opposition from the time of its announcement in 1981. The Wall, situated in Constitution Gardens adjacent to the National Mall, is "...often referred to as the veterans 3rd battle. The 1st being survival in Vietnam. The 2nd, was dealing with the rejection experienced upon returning home from war. And, the 3rd, building the Wall."

The Memorial consists of two walls sunken into the landscape and arranged in a chevron shape: the East wall (facing the Washington Monument) and the West wall (facing the Lincoln Memorial). Each wall is a giant black slab measuring 246 feet 9 inches (75.21 meters) long, the total length measuring 493 feet 6 inches (150.42 meters). The polished, highly reflective stone is black granite sourced from Bangalore, India -- at the time, one of only three known places in the world where it was possible to source pieces of granite this large. Inscribed by machine are the names of service members who were either confirmed to be KIA (Killed in Action) or remained classified as MIA (Missing in Action) when the walls were constructed in 1982. The font used was Optima, and symbols next to names are used to describe the status of each individual. (Further information about the technical specifications of The Wall.). The names are arranged chronologically, not alphabetically, as was specified in the original proposal.

The Wall was designed by Maya Lin, who was a 21 year old Yale senior architecture student at the time. As she tells in the documentary, "Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision" (brief trailer), she was creating a course on funerary architecture, and one day a student came in with a flyer about the competition to design a Vietnam memorial in Washington D.C. She thought, "what a great idea!"

More generally, Maya Lin has explained, "My sculptures deal with naturally occurring phenomenon." In the same PBS video clip, she can be seen working in her studio and on site, discussing her approach to creating a piece, and the seeming conflict between her roles as monument architect and artist.

Among the many controversies surrounding the proposed design and construction of The Wall, Tom Carhart's impassioned plea stands out. On October 13, 1981, at The Commission of Fine Arts meeting (where Lin can be seen in the footage sitting in the audience), Carhart speaks of being spat on in an airport when returning from service in Vietnam, explains why he objects to the design, and calls Lin's proposal for the Memorial "a black scar." Carhart wanted the VVMF committee to re-open the selection process for the design contest and have a panel consisting of exclusively of Vietnam veterans to determine the winning proposal (The entire statement to the U.S. Fine Arts commission in PDF format).

Many at the time objected to the memorial's stark, minimalist nature, favoring a more traditional memorial that was perceived as more dignified and appropriate. James Webb commented on the design: "I never in my wildest dreams imagined such a nihilistic slab of stone." Ross Perot, an early supporter of the memorial and major financial contributor, withdrew his support after seeing the proposed memorial, and James Watt, Secretary of the Interior, refused to issue a building permit.

Maya Lin herself received harassment regarding her ethnicity and believes that if the competition had not been "blind", with designs submitted by number instead of name, she "never would have won". From the documentary already linked, and included in this dissertation's footnote: "it took me months to realize that obviously a lot of people were going to be offended that the creator of the American Vietnam Veterans is not only not a veteran, but she is a she, she is an Asian..." (footnote 309, pg. 200, "Remembering Through the Corpus: The Intersection of (Moving) Bodies with Architecture at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial).

In the end, so radical was Lin's design for a memorial that a more traditional component was agreed upon as part of a compromise. This piece, a bronze sculpture in the Iron Mike tradition by Frederick Hart (titled The Three Soldiers) is situated across from (and appears to be looking at) The Wall. Lin was not happy about this addition to her original vision.

Elizabeth Wolfson summarizes the difficulties that memorial architecture presents:

"As memorials are objects of public commemoration, we demand a lot of them. They serve as testaments to lives lost, as repositories of grief, and to facilitate processes of mourning. We expect them to do the work of history writing, to draw single comprehensible narratives out of a Gorgon's nest of individual, often contradictory, experiences. These meanings serve as unifying forces, reinforcing the idea of a shared national identity and healing rifts in the communal experience of nationhood.

By endowing memorials with the ability to accomplish these tasks, we bestow them with an extraordinary amount of power and authority. Thus, it is unsurprising that the first skirmish of the culture wars of the 1980s can be traced back to the public debate that broke out in reaction to Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C." (The "Black Gash of Shame": Revisiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Controversy)

The Wall was funded by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) and the money raised through private donations. The principal founder, Jan Scruggs, is a Vietnam veteran who was inspired to create the fund partially by the 1978 film The Deer Hunter.

The other principal founder of the VVMF was Jack Wheeler, who was chairman of the non-profit organization from 1979 to 1989. He supported Maya Lin's then-controversial design, which was opposed by Ross Perot and Jim Webb, who tried to oust him as chairman of the memorial. Wheeler, in a compromise, agreed to the addition of The Three Soldiers, mentioned above, and an American flag.

To this day the U.S. National Parks Service collects items left at The Wall. Visitors commonly leave hand-written notes and sentiments, rubbings from the names, Prisoner of War/Missing in Action commemorative bracelets, uniforms and bits of uniforms, including boots, and according to a top ten list.

In November 2012, all 58, 283 of the names were read out loud at the Wall - the fifth time this has been done (previous years: 1982, 1992, 2002 and 2007). The timing was coordinated to complete the reading just prior to Veteran's Day. Some of the readers' profiles at Military.com.

In 2009, the Memorial had 4,437,771 visitors, and " is still far and away the greatest memorial of modern times — the most beautiful, the most heart-wrenching, the most subtle, and the most powerful."

Jan Scruggs has stated more recently about the Memorial:

"The idea of having all these names permanently displayed in Washington a few blocks from the White House, a block from the State Department, down the street from the US Congress — to me, this was poetic justice. These were the people everyone wanted to forget. They wanted this whole thing to go away, and I didn't want it to go away."

Donation page for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) | Information on The Wall That Heals | Further reading | Alternative Reading List | Documentary: Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision

Cat Beards (and some dog beards)

filthy light thief — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:43:24 GMT

Catbeards is a Tumblr of beards made from cats, not cats with beards. It's new, and it's convenient, but it doesn't capture the best of catbeards. Cat-Beard.com is similar: good but not great. Mashable collected some of the best, and Buzzfeed is in on the trend, and of course, there are also dog beards. Know Your Meme covers its history.

Car Review: 2013 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead

lalochezia — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:09:57 GMT

This Roller is a chariot for the glittering Eloi, and if we're not exactly Morlocks yet, that does seem to be the way things are going.

TTAC previously on MeFi.

Daily Star Wars

hippybear — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:01:24 GMT

Welcome to Daily Star Wars
"2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars daily strip that was published in newspapers by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. In honor of that I've decided to start this blog where I'll be posting a new strip everyday to recreate the series original run. These strips were some of the only Star Wars stories going on at the time and generally had a more serious tone than their Marvel cousin. They're also officially recognized as part of the EU and fill in the gaps between films."

This being a blog, everything you find on the main page is in reverse order. This links the first page, and you can click the "newer post" link below the comment box to progress through the series in order. Of course, every page's comic can be clicked to view a larger version.

The blog appears to have not been updated since Feb 20, 2013.

Richard Simmons Found in a Freeway in Pound Cake and Fudge

Ghostride The Whip — Sat, 25 May 2013 01:18:59 GMT

Where have you been? We've been waiting for you! He helped you sweat to the oldies, sweat and shout, and boogie down the pounds, even if you, too, were an oldie. And we know he isn't dead. But where is he?

"He's here," the manager of the fitness studio said.

A glow had been spotted. An aura had been detected.

I turned and saw Richard Simmons standing in the doorway. His eyes were closed and his right arm caressed the doorjamb in the style of a '40s movie starlet. The rhinestones on Simmons's tank top formed the shape of a giraffe — an odd animal for aerobics, but never mind. His pants were orange and yellow, and he wore white New Balance sneakers.

Bryan Curtis catches up with Richard Simmons.

My problem has been that better bikes kept coming...

MoonOrb — Sat, 25 May 2013 00:15:24 GMT

James McDonald of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, collects bikes--at least one from every era of bikemaking. "If there were 200 bicycles here," he explains, "they would have been culled down out of probably two to three thousand bicycles that I've brought home over the last two years, and those two thousand would have been culled down from maybe tens of thousands of bicycles that I've gone to look at and left behind." Check out this 3 minute video for more!

High Altitude Horror

Renoroc — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:52:52 GMT

In 1942 a British forest guard in Roopkund, India made an alarming discovery. Some 16,000 feet above sea level, at the bottom of a small valley, was a frozen lake absolutely full of skeletons.

Finally, a good "Modern Love" column

barnoley — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:39:29 GMT

Augusten Burroughs got married.

"He had his life. And he did not yield."

zarq — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:08:25 GMT

The Final Days of 'Macho Man' Randy Savage

Savage, previously on Mefi
* His obituary thread
* Wrestlemania III
* 25 Greatest Matches in Wrestlemania History
* Rap into a Slim Jim!

This looks legit

leibniz — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:51:22 GMT

Eric Weinstein has a PhD in mathematical physics from Harvard, but has spent most of the last 10 years outside academia working as an economic consultant for a New York hedge fund. Now he apparently has a new theory of everything that claims to be able to explain quantum gravity, dark matter and dark energy. Actual details have not yet been provided and some physicists are dismissive. But his work has received enthusiastic endorsement from Oxford's Simonyi Professor of Public Understanding Marcus du Sautoy, with whom he has been discussing the theory over the last two years.

Weinstein contributed an answer to the 2012 Edge.org question that seems rather suggestive given this current revelation (he also has other material on the site via his Edge profile). Even Garret Lisi (famous for proposing his own theory of everything a couple of years ago) has said that he is glad that Weinstein is coming forward with this now (scroll down the page).

just benchin 50x my weight nbd

Potomac Avenue — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:18:34 GMT

Giant Ants is a wall-to-wall Facebook graffiti made by two giant ants as they plan for summer, have NSFW encounters, and even answer some fan inquiries !

Giant ant origin story.

Cross View Color Chronicle

Chinese Jet Pilot — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:29:22 GMT

Only a lucky few MeFites have the ability to view vaudevillian, commercial actor, inventor, and photographer George Mann's gorgeous vintage Kodachrome survey of Los Angeles coffee shops in 3-D as he intended.

Like everything else, cocktail menus have grown decadent...

The Whelk — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:13:14 GMT

Make way for the $21 Long Island Ice Tea: The trshy summer cocktail goes upscale (The Awl)

Dog Years : Human Years exchange rate downgraded slightly

2bucksplus — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:18:57 GMT

Where did the formula that a dog ages 7 years for every 1 human year come from? No one knows for sure, but the BBC, using data from the UK Kennel Club and US Veterinary Medical Database, have come up with a more accurate online dog years calculator. The truth about how dogs age is more fascinating, and less straightforward, than we thought.

While the calculator only works for pure breeds, cross breeds can expect to live an average of 1.22 years longer. Somewhat relatedly, researchers at the University of Georgia found that spayed and neutered pets live 1.5 years longer than unaltered pets (something which may also be true for humans).

Crankies

Miko — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:06:43 GMT

"We did our first show in a bar...all of a sudden, the whole room was quiet. And then we got everyone to sit on the floor cross-legged to watch our crankies."

Storytelling and song with hand-cranked panoramas were once common entertainments - early motion pictures. Some can still be seen: Pilgrim's Progress at the Saco Museum in Maine, or Whaling Voyage 'Round the World at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. They're being rediscovered for their strangely compelling magic by today's artists and musicians. More crankies can be found at these links, along with some information about making them.

Lella Todd
Lord Bateman
Pickett's Charge
Seattle's First Crankie Festival
Frog Went a-Courting
Desperate Battle of the Birds
Courage
Oran Na Maighdinn Mhara (The Mermaid Song)

How to Make a Crankie
Much more crankie-philia at The Crankie Factory

Love train

perhapsolutely — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:57:46 GMT

Daft Train That Friday happy place where Daft Punk overlaps the Soul Train cakewalk. SLYT.

Adorable children rap about school uniforms

catch as catch can — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:49:47 GMT

Khaki Dance by The NSJ Crew. SLYT

"I'm the princess right now."

quin — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:23:10 GMT

Actual conversations with my 2 year old daughter, as re-enacted by me and another full grown man - Episode 1.

You've got a billion dollars worth of art sitting over there.

R. Mutt — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:13:06 GMT

Detroit Institute of Arts collection could face sell-off to satisfy Detroit's creditors Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is considering whether the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts should be considered city assets that potentially could be sold to cover about $15 billion in debt.

Do we have wormsign?

Artw — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:12:05 GMT

In 1997, Last Unicorn gave Zug the chance at recreating Frank Herbert's 'Dune' through a new trading card series. He was originally told to base his work off of David Lynch's film, but after complications with licensing, "they told me to avoid similarity to Lynch's visuals" says Mark Zug. Mark Zug's Dune trading cards.

Loaded like a fright train

josher71 — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:06:31 GMT

Nowadays, fortified wines are the butt of jokes. (previously) However, there was a time when they were considered mainstream and there were even a few commercials made. Of course, we can't leave out the best commercial for fortified wine ever made.