vanitas

Jon Stewart on the Charleston shooting:

I didn’t do my job today. I’ve got nothing for you in terms of jokes and sounds because of what happened in South Carolina. And maybe if I wasn’t nearing the end of the run or this wasn’t such a common occurrence, maybe I could have pulled out of the spiral. But I didn’t.

I honestly have nothing other than just sadness once again that we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other and the nexus of a just gaping racial wound that will not heal yet we pretend doesn’t exist. I’m confident though, that by acknowledging it – by staring into that and seeing it for what it is…We still won’t do jack shit. Yeah, that’s us. And that’s the part that blows my mind.

I don’t want to get into the political argument of guns and things. What blows my mind is the disparity of response between when we think people that are foreign are going to kill us and us killing ourselves…

If this had been what we thought was Islamic terrorism, it would fit into our [narrative]. We invaded two countries and spent trillions of dollars and [lost] thousands of American lives and now fly unmanned death machines over like five or six different counties, all to keep Americans safe. We’ve got to do whatever we can – we’ll torture people. We’ve got to do whatever we can to keep Americans safe. But nine people shot in a church, what about that? “Hey, what are you going go to do? Crazy is as crazy is, right?”

That’s the part that I cannot, for the life of me, wrap my head around. And you know it’s gonna go down the same path. “This is a terrible tragedy.” They are already using the nuanced language of lack of effort for this.

This is a terrorist attack. This is a violent attack on the Emanuel Church in South Carolina which is a symbol for the black community. It has stood in that part of Charleston for a hundred and some years and has been attacked viciously many times – as many black churches have. And to pretend that – I heard someone on the news say – “tragedy has visited this church”. This wasn’t a tornado. This was a racist. This was a guy with a Rhodesia badge on his sweater. So the idea that – I hate to even use this pun – but this one is black and white. There’s no nuance here. And we’re gonna keep pretending like, “I don’t get it, what happened. This one guy lost his mind.”

But we are steeped in that culture in this country and we refuse to recognize it. And I cannot believe how hard people are working to discount it. In South Carolina, the roads that people drive on are named for Confederate generals who fought to keep black people from being able to drive freely on that road. That’s insanity. That’s racial wallpaper. You can’t allow that.

Nine people were shot in a black church by a white guy who hated them – who wanted to start some kind of civil war. The Confederate flag flies over South Carolina and the roads are named for Confederate generals. And the white guy is the one who feels his country’s being taken away from him. We’re bringing it on ourselves.

"Arms full of dog"

Aries : BOO

Taurus : I’m not miserable, it’s just me face

Gemini : there are only two superstars: Beyoncé and Miles Kane.

Cancer : Writing isn’t the same as speaking, I struggle with conversation

Leo : what can I say, I’m fearless

Virgo : I lost me fucking comb there. Rocked me comb out me pocket.

Libra : Are we all here? Oh… me heart is poundin’…

Scorpio : invoice me for the microphone if you need to

Sagittarius : don’t forget about the hips

Capricorn : ladieeeeeees

Aquarius : it’s not my cup of tea, that ( Lady Gaga)

Dutch Lab create series of elaborate coffee makers

Design firm Dutch Lab (surprisingly based in Korea; the name actually a reference to a form of coffee brewing) have transformed the traditional coffee maker with their range of luxury products that include gothic, steampunk, architectural and movie-based creations. Each design is like an elaborate chemistry set and crafted to an exceptional level of quality. So yeah, they don’t come cheap! 

Some of their designs scale over a metre in height, their most popular products including Sauron’s tower from The Lord of the Rings, the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, as well as the Empire State Building complete with its own King Kong. They even have ships from Star Trek and Star Wars. Though I think my favourite example has to be the classic steampunk design. 

Breakfast tacos and then we’re headed back toward the USA. A nearly busted front drive shaft and a badly leaking rear brake slave cylinder is calling us home sooner than planned. Just wasn’t worth risking heading through Baja.

James Surowiecki on the rise of fast-casual restaurants: 

It might seem that the success of fast-casual was simply a matter of producing the right product at the right time. But restaurants like Chipotle and Five Guys didn’t just respond to customer demand; they also shaped it. … The archetype of this model is Starbucks. In 1990, the idea of spending two dollars for a cup of coffee seemed absurd to most Americans. But Starbucks changed people’s idea of what coffee tasted like and how much enjoyment could be got from it.