Ugly stuff. Be sure to explore the links Ta-Nehisi Coates provides — in fact I’ll enumerate them here: Derbyshire’s original article, in all its ugly glory; an interview with Derbyshire from 2003 in which he proclaims himself to be “very mild, tolerant racist”; and, bonus, a follow-up to that interview in which he attempts to explain what sort of racism is “very mild and tolerant”.
A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.
GoldenEye Spectrum Emulation Unlocked
GoldenEye Spectrum Emulation Unlocked
New ROM hack of GoldenEye 007 for the N64!
Little benownst to the world all this time, GoldenEye (N64) has a fully-functional ZX Spectrum 48x emulator built into it. By feeding it a proper Spectrum monitor program and calling menu 25 to load a snapshot, any Spectrum 48x program can be run.
Waiiiiiiiiiiiit a minute.
What.
No. Just no. (Is that Colin Mochrie on stage left? What?)
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
During their absence from Dr Who, the Daleks released a series of new-age relaxation tapes.
(From Peter [Serafinowicz]’s last radio show on BBC 6Music – Saturday 31st March 2012)
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
Excuse me?
I mean, I knew the Augusta golf club, home of the Masters tournament and which famously excludes women from its membership, was run by a bunch of backwards, privileged assholes. But I didn’t think the New York Times was too. From the AP’s story:
“If it were left to me, which it seldom is in the power structure of writer versus editor, I’d probably not come cover this event again until there is a woman member,” [NYTimes golf writer] Karen Crouse told GOLF.com. “More and more, the lack of a woman member is just a blue elephant in the room.”
Contacted by The Associated Press, Times sports editor Joe Sexton said the comments were, “completely inappropriate and she has been spoken to.”
Christ on a crutch. Click through above for some more background and analysis from Digby.
China ship insurer deals new blow to Iran oil exports
China ship insurer deals new blow to Iran oil exports
Randy Fabi, Reuters:
A major Chinese ship insurer will halt indemnity cover for tankers carrying Iranian oil from July, dealing a blow that narrows the insurance options for Tehran’s main export already constricted by payment barriers caused by Western sanctions.
With Western sanctions on Tehran increasing, sources at the China P&I Club told Reuters on Thursday it did not want to stand alone in the market, especially after insurers in Japan and Europe plan to either limit or ban their own coverage for tankers operating in Iran.
This is the first sign that refiners in China, Iran’s top crude buyer, may struggle to obtain the shipping and insurance to keep importing from the Middle Eastern country. Iran’s other top customers — India, Japan and South Korea — are running into similar problems, raising questions on how Tehran will be able to continue to export the bulk of its oil.
Paul Ryan apologizes for military criticism
Paul Ryan apologizes for military criticism
The AP:
Representative Paul Ryan said Sunday that he has apologized in a telephone call to the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman for accusing the military of not giving its “true advice” on President Obama’s budget plan.
Military generals are required under oath to provide lawmakers their personal views on security matters, even if those views conflict with the White House.
In this case, General Martin Dempsey had testified that he thought Obama’s $614 billion plan for defense spending next year was adequate.
Does anyone actually like this guy?
Incidentally, do you just wake up in the morning and think to yourself, “I am going to accuse the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of lying under oath”? How exactly does that work?
Yayoi Kusama: “The Obliteration Room”
Yayoi Kusama: “The Obliteration Room”
This December, in a surprisingly simple yet ridiculously amazing installation for the Queensland Gallery of Modern Ar, artist Yayoi Kusama constructed a large domestic environment, painting every wall, chair, table, piano, and household decoration a brilliant white, effectively serving as a giant white canvas. Over the course of two weeks, the museum’s smallest visitors were given thousands upon thousands of colored dot stickers and were invited to collaborate in the transformation of the space, turning the house into a vibrantly mottled explosion of color.
This is pretty fantastic. Check the pictures of it at Colossal.
The Little White Box That Can Hack Your Network
The Little White Box That Can Hack Your Network
Robert McMillan, reporting for Wired:
When Jayson E. Street broke into the branch office of a national bank in May of last year, the branch manager could not have been more helpful. Dressed like a technician, Street walked in and said he was there to measure “power fluctuations on the power circuit.” To do this, he’d need to plug a small white device that looked like a power adapter onto the wall.
The power fluctuation story was total bullshit, of course. Street had been hired by the bank to test out security at 10 of its West Coast branch offices. He was conducting what’s called a penetration test. This is where security experts pretend to be bad guys in order to spot problems.
Security is really cool but also really scary.