The Post-Apocalyptic Techno Poem

Caryn Rivadeneira over at ThinkChristian talks about things that Christians can appreciate about the Slutwalk trend. She suggests that violence against women can occur no matter what a woman wears (and not as a result of it) and that ending said violence is a moral imperative that all Christians should advocate for. That's my kind of believer.

At the same time, John McWhorter over at The Root thinks people should stop using the Bible to justify homophobia. After all, he notes, it used to be used to justify racism, and we've managed to move on from that. (For the most part, in my opinion. At the very least, it's harder to get away with using the Bible in such a way in public. Privately, I think a lot of that kind of nonsense still goes on.)

After fifteen-plus years in production, Pixar is finally putting out a film with a female as the main protagonist. And about darn time, too. (Note: don't bother throwing Elastigirl, or Jessie, or Dory at me. I said "main" protagonist.)

The Art Newspaper explores the question of whether or not the release of Ai Weiwei means that the Chinese government is easing up on its policy against dissent. And the answer is no.

Wanna learn the history of English in ten minutes? It's a lot of fun. (Watch out for that guy with the axe!)

Linda Holmes breaks down the recent furor over the Oxford University PR department's decision to do away with the Oxford comma. Holmes does a really good job of explaining why the Oxford comma makes sentences so much cleaner and clearer by its presence, and also of embodying the silly attachment that all of us language nerds have to peculiar pieces of grammar while pointing out just how not silly attachment to Oxford commas is. I'm an Oxford comma girl, myself, you know. In fact, they can have my Oxford commas when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers. 'Nuff said.

Ezra Klein on Amazon's bad sales tax behavior. I imagine a lot of the fuss could be solved if states just got around to passing laws that imposed sales tax for products being purchases by people in their state. Let's see Amazon decide never to sell anything to California because they don't want to pay sales tax.

Evolutionary biologist Mark Chengizi thinks that the wrinkles that develop on wet hands are our body's natural attempt to increase grip capabilities in inclement weather.

Only in Japan will you see a tv commercial wherein businessman sing about the woes of summertime itchy-crotch syndrome.

US farmers and food processors are not required by law to test for deadly strains of the E.Coli bacteria. I don't know about you, but that makes me seriously concerned. People who think federal regulation is a bad thing are morons.

If nothing else could make you believe that we need to raise the debt limit, Sarah Palin's belief that we don't need to do that ought to do it. Failure to raise the debt ceiling limit will result in a default that has the potential to send our country into Third World status. And these people are holding it hostage so they can fire teachers, defund public health programs, and keep taxes on rich people and corporations low. I can think of a lot of things we could do with these people, and let me tell you--election ain't one of them.

The Venice Biennale is setting up a Pirate camp for select artists to stay in and produce installation art for the opening of the show. The collective piece is intended to be a commentary on the nomadic lifestyle of the contemporary artist.

Japanese woodblock prints from the collection of the University of Pittsburgh.

The Anthony Weiner situation is kind of funny. But it's also an interesting case study into the dangers (either foreign or domestic) of too much social media networking.

Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul is a sexist jerk. Not that that really matters, I suppose, in the grand scheme of art. Lots of artists are, or have been, sexist jerks. Still, his comments are yet another piece of the puzzle that reveals something really sad about our society.

But fear not, there's still Septuagenarian porn to keep the madness of the globalized society at bay. Only in Japan, yo.

First up, The Museum of Modern Tweets is an intriguing little art project by illustrator Odessa Begay. Using peculiar tweets from famous people as the basis of her works, she posts them to a blog site with the original tweet so that viewers can draw their own conclusions about the absurdity. And she accepts suggestions.

If only Formerly C. Walken would restart his tweeting...

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And here's something from everyone's favorite "Only in Japan" segment.

In Japan, the batsu game (punishment game) is a popular spectator sport. At its most basic, the batsu game involves participants squaring off against one another in a battle to avoid having some terrible consequence befall them. In the following clip, of a Japanese man attempting to count in English, the participants of the game are under strict instructions not to laugh. And if they do...



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Only In Japan.



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...it's good enough for your family.



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After this report, about the increasing inability of Japanese men to pee standing up, popped up in my Google Reader recently, I suddenly couldn't get this clip (from the fantastic 90s television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) out of my head.

All hail YouTube...




(Yes, I know. There's something terribly, sadly wrong with me.
What else is new? ;>)

Little kids in Japan discover a door with mysterious properties...



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Every summer I make an effort to try the summertime Pepsi flavor. My first year here, I had the Pepsi Cucumber; my second year, it was the Blue Hawaii (pineapple flavored) Pepsi. This year, the flavor on offer was Pepsi Shiso, and I had to have it.

A type of perilla, shiso is more commonly known by the name "beefsteak plant" in North America. It has properties similar to mint (although it is much, much lighter), and is eaten in a variety of ways. Since I just had tempura shiso for dinner the other night (which was really good, btw), I was well positioned to know whether or not this Pepsi cola happened to taste anything like real shiso. It does, and it is very weird and very delicious.

Wonder what next summer will bring...
...whatever it is, you can be sure that I'll try it.

（＾＿－）


PS: Only in Japan, yo.

A wacky video that purports to show actual footage of a the discovery of a new amphibious species. It's clearly a hoax, but it's a darn funny hoax.

New bizarre animal discovered in Japan.
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Continuing the "Only in Japan, yo" theme. Episodes can be viewed on marvel.com (because Marvel = teh awesome).



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