MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive RANDOM LINKS FOR 10/8/12

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RANDOM LINKS FOR 10/8/12

October 8th, 2012 by Clark Humphrey

kurzweilai.net

Did the U.S. Air Force really think up plans for a supersonic flying saucer in the 1950s? And would it have been practical (i.e., would it fly)?
What does it mean to beÂ “indie rock royalty” these days? It means you can play Radio City Music Hall and still have to share a studio apartment. Speaking of whichâ€¦.
KEXP’s pledge-drive playlist of the most important records of the past 40 years is essentially a canon of “indie” music classics, plus a few “mainstream” mentors.Â Nevermind predictably tops the listener survey. The list is top-heavy with the Pixies, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., New Order, Arcade Fire, etc. etc. The list’s only surprise is its paucity of female artists. The top woman-fronted act, the Pretenders, appears at spot #51.
A HuffPost blogger disparages Vancouver asÂ “No Fun City,” a place where nightlife is essentially nonexistent. I can recall ages ago when I looked up to Van as having the bars and live-music venues Seattle could only dream of having. Since then, Seattle has vastly changed while Van has, if anything, become more moribund.
The Olympic Peninsula’s northwest tip has no teen vampires, but it is an ideal spot to measure climate change with solid empirical data.
Even “underground food market” dining operations (one-night-only food courts) have to have health permits.
Nintendo’s next game machine will be a tablet. It will also stream video content to TVs. It could be big.
Amazon’s paying a cool billion to buy the Paul Allen-owned buildings it occupies in South Lake Union.
Stalking and harassing apartment residents is no way to sell cable TV.
Seattle’s next would-be mega-developers? The Bill Pierre car-selling family.
Can theÂ waterfront tunnel be built without massive city subsidies (that the city really doesn’t want to pay)?
Stranger staffer Kelly O tells a San Francisco website “12 Things You Should Know About Seattle.” These things include (too much) pot, (endangered) graffiti murals, and (yummy) street hot dogs.
White cops shooting at nonwhite civilians with little or no true justification: it’s not just happening here.
I had a boring and/or miserable time in the Boy Scouts. But, as we’re all learning, it could have been worse.Â Much, much worse.
CNN contributor Simon Hooper asks if we can finally get over Beatles (and James Bond) nostalgia now.
A self-described “middle aged punk” gives forth a back-in-my-day-sonny lament, nostalgizing about getting beaten up by jocks.
Don’t look now, butÂ Walmart workers are trying to organize.
Having solved all of the world’s other problems,Â 60 Minutes sics its fangs on theÂ designer-eyeglass-frame monopoly.
Today in right-wing sleaze, two GOP senators are asking defense contractors to fire thousands of people just to make Obama look bad; while Arizona is suppressing the votes of up to 200,000 Latino-descent citizens in the name of “cracking down on illegals.” Also, a Legislative candidate in Arkansas says parents should be allowed to put “rebellious children” to death.
The University of Idaho’s getting the world’s biggest collection of historic opium pipes. Hey, you gotta have something to do out there.
Forbes contributor Steve Cooper believes content-based websites could make more money by directly selling stuff on their sites, instead of running low-profit ads for other companies selling stuff. That biz model might work for sites focused on entertainment or lifestyle topics (music, food, bridal, travel, etc.). For local newspapers’ sites, it’d be a tougher fit.
Don’t look now, but rain (remember that?) might finally appear locally later this week.