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Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet you can’t win.

—Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

This just made me remember the reddi-whip in our own fridge. BRB

(via seeherwrite)

theeconomist: Seven seconds that changed music. The “Amen break”, a four bar drum solo from a funk instrumental, lay hidden for two decades. Re-popularised in the 1990s by the producers of what was coming to be known as “jungle”, it has since been used on hundreds, possibly thousands of records—and probably some you own. It’s hilarious (yet freakin’ awesome) to see the Economist posting something I’ve only seen on special interest sites before.

theeconomist:

Seven seconds that changed music. The “Amen break”, a four bar drum solo from a funk instrumental, lay hidden for two decades. Re-popularised in the 1990s by the producers of what was coming to be known as “jungle”, it has since been used on hundreds, possibly thousands of records—and probably some you own.

It’s hilarious (yet freakin’ awesome) to see the Economist posting something I’ve only seen on special interest sites before.

Interesting article over at the Atlantic about Finnish school success.  Though really, the bottom line is .. well, the bottom line:

Decades ago, when the Finnish school system was badly in need of reform, the goal of the program that Finland instituted, resulting in so much success today, was never excellence. It was equity.

Why this continues to surprise anyone is beyond me.

latimes: In Alabama, a church sees its Latino brethren vanish: Since the state passed its tough immigration law, many are moving elsewhere. At one Southern Baptist church, white members struggle to reconcile their support for the measure with compassion for their fellow Christians. In an hour, the sanctuary would fill with the church’s white members, nearly all of them conservatives and most supporters of Republican Gov. Robert J. Bentley, the Southern Baptist deacon who championed the law as the nation’s toughest after signing it in September. For more than a decade, however, the white Southern Baptists in this small country church have opened their doors, wallets and hearts to a group of Latino strangers who appeared among them suddenly one Sunday, desperate for a place to pray. They hired a bilingual pastor, launched a countywide “Hispanic mission,” and let their children play side by side with the newcomers’ kids on field trips and in summer camps. They knew or suspected that many of them were here illegally. This is fascinating. Photo: Pastor Randy Billingsley sits with children for a short story as part of the English service at Riverside Heights Baptist Church in Tallassee, Ala. Latino families attend a Spanish-language service in another room. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times Fascinating is not quite the word I’d use. These are people’s lives, not some abstract migratory phenomenon.

latimes:

In Alabama, a church sees its Latino brethren vanish: Since the state passed its tough immigration law, many are moving elsewhere. At one Southern Baptist church, white members struggle to reconcile their support for the measure with compassion for their fellow Christians.

In an hour, the sanctuary would fill with the church’s white members, nearly all of them conservatives and most supporters of Republican Gov. Robert J. Bentley, the Southern Baptist deacon who championed the law as the nation’s toughest after signing it in September.

For more than a decade, however, the white Southern Baptists in this small country church have opened their doors, wallets and hearts to a group of Latino strangers who appeared among them suddenly one Sunday, desperate for a place to pray.

They hired a bilingual pastor, launched a countywide “Hispanic mission,” and let their children play side by side with the newcomers’ kids on field trips and in summer camps. They knew or suspected that many of them were here illegally.

This is fascinating.

Photo: Pastor Randy Billingsley sits with children for a short story as part of the English service at Riverside Heights Baptist Church in Tallassee, Ala. Latino families attend a Spanish-language service in another room. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Fascinating is not quite the word I’d use. These are people’s lives, not some abstract migratory phenomenon.

(Source: Los Angeles Times, via npr)

I’ll tell you why movie revenue is dropping…

”[..] theaters are losing their charm”

From Roger Ebert’s usually excellent1 column.  Anecdotally, this is spot-on.  My mother, whose usual modus operandi is to see at least a movie every month, whether or not my father wants to, no matter what is actually playing, has been opining more of late about how much she doesn’t like going out to the theater anymore.  When you’ve lost that kind of regular attendee, you’re in trouble.

1Ebert is usually spot-on, or at least makes a very cogent point or two, but I still have a bitter taste left from his dismissal of video games as art. Man just needs to play himself some Skyrim.

How did a nation that, aside from its mussels and chips, renowned chocolate and reviled Eurocrats (the European Parliament is on the site of an old brewery), has made little impact on the world, come to dominate in beer?

—

Belgium, a small, unremarkable country, brews world-reknowned beer. The country also makes a bigger range than any other—1,131 at the last count. Its hybrid history and culture are part of the reason why. (via theeconomist)

(via theeconomist)

GoDaddy’s support of SOPA should surprise no one

Nerds are funny in their isolated worldview.  I’ve often wondered how so many of my peers could justify buying up $1 domains from GoDaddy on one hand, then in nearly the same breath bash the working poor who can’t afford to buy groceries anywhere but WalMart for having the audacity to shop there.

What makes it doubly amusing now is the increasing furor over GoDaddy’s support for SOPA, which is gaining traction in the usual places. Why this should surprise anyone is beyond me. It’s long been clear from the patriarchal attitude of the founder, and the completely pathetic sexist attitudes of their ads, that their business is run with ethics that would make a Ken Lay blush.