Tag Archives: Culture

Jeffrey Tucker: Why We Love “The Nutcracker”

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“How could they have known? Nothing like this had ever happened. And so this late-nineteenth-century generation was innocent and delightfully so. To this generation, the injustices they intended to purge from the world were slavery, remnants of the bondage of women, the perpetuation of feuds and duels, the despotism of the monarchical class, debtors prisons, and the like. What they could not imagine was the much vaster injustice that was just around the historical corner: mass use of poison gas, universal enslavement of the wartime draft, famine as a war tactic, the gulag, the Holocaust, mass incineration at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/why-we-love-the-nutcracker

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FTC to music teachers: Better not try to raise the price of your lessons.

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“Teddy Roosevelt busted Standard Oil. The Obama administration? It’s making the world safe from rapacious piano teachers.  Every month, it seems, brings a new story of this presidency leveling the intimidating powers of the federal government against some law-abiding citizen. Now comes a terrifying tale of how the Federal Trade Commission, a governmental Goliath, crushes an average David—because it can.  In March of this year, a small nonprofit in Cincinnati—the Music Teachers National Association—received a letter from the FTC. The agency was investigating whether the association was engaged in, uh, anticompetitive practices.  The MTNA has existed since 1876.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303562904579224251626379422

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The Insanity Of Bitcoin, Explained

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“There are some incredibly thorough write-ups about Bitcoin on the web, but if you want to learn about the world’s first all-digital currency, there are few ways more enjoyable than this beautifully animated three-minute short. It makes learning about Bitcoin as fun as dropping a tab and hitting the planetarium for a Pink Floyd laser show. Created by Duncan Elms, recipient of an Honorable Mention at the 2013 Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards, the film’s design pedigree is top-notch, with a cyberpunk visual style that looks like Neuromancer come to life. That’s a wholly appropriate aesthetic, as the idea behind Bitcoin itself is something that seems like it came out of a William Gibson novel.”

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3022540/the-insanity-of-bitcoin-explained

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Bitcoin In Context, A Brief Cultural History Of Money – Lui Smyth

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“Bitcoin Focus – Bitcoin In Context, A Brief Cultural History Of Money – Lui Smyth @yablochko  Recorded By IamSatoshi, November 2013, London.”

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Lunlun Zou Guzheng Studio: First Hong Kong Business to Accept Bitcoin

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“On November 25, Lunlun Zou Guzheng Studio sent out a press release to announce their acceptance of Bitcoin. Lunlun Zou Guzheng Studio is the first business in Hong Kong to accept Bitcoin and hopefully will serve as a catalyst for many surrounding businesses to begin accepting Bitcoin. Guzheng is a 2,000 year old musical instrument from China with 21 strings and serves as the predecessor to the Japanese koto, Korean kayagum and Vietnamese dan tranh. Lead teacher, Lulun Zou, has performed around the world and through her new decision to accept Bitcoin will certainly have a positive impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem. Classes range from beginner to advanced.”

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/8419/lunlun-zou-guzheng-studio-first-hong-kong-business-to-accept-bitcoin/

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Napster Documentarian’s Next Project: The Untold Story of Bitcoin

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“The way director Alex Winter sees it, Napster, WikiLeaks and Bitcoin are just threads in the same yarn – a story of a deep divide growing between the internet that everyone can see and a more mysterious web where peer-to-peer pioneers rule. ‘With Downloaded I was less interested in the implications of music or file-sharing… and more concerned with what peer-to-peer architecture meant in terms of creating global community, which could be used for good or ill,’ Winter told WIRED. ‘What’s going on with [Bitcoin] is just the evolution of peer-to-peer architecture – this is just an outgrowth of the story I started to tell with Napster.'”

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/11/bitcoin-documentary/

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Psychedelic Science: Magic Mushrooms

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“Serious study of magic mushrooms essentially ended when the compounds psilocybin and psylocin were listed as Schedule I drugs in 1971. However, people around the world have used magic mushrooms with the goals of expanding consciousness and achieving spiritual growth ever since it was popularized by the hippies in the the 1960s. Despite its illegal status, researchers have once again started studying the effects of psilocybin on humans. ReasonTV caught up with Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University and Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London at the Psychedelic Science 2013 conference to learn what’s happening at the cutting edge of psilocybin research.”

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36 Colorized Historical Photos Make the Past Seem Incredibly Real

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“A new artistic trend has broken out around the world which changes our perception of history dramatically. Colorizing historic photographs from the late 1800′s and early 1900′s changes their appearance from something historic and different, into a scene from today. The colorful image of Albert Einstein sitting beside the water gives us an entire new perspective on the genius. He goes from a brilliant historic relic, into a living brilliance of our era. The colorized photograph of Audrey Hepburn transforms our thoughts of beauty. Her photo goes from an intriguing historic photo to one of a sexy starlet of today.”

http://indulgd.com/realistically-colorized-historical-photos/

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China ‘Singles Day’ has shoppers ready to spend big

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“Chinese consumers will spend on average 1,800 yuan ($295) per person during Double Eleven Shopping Festival, according to AdMaster, an independent third-party digital marketing data analysis and management solution provider.  The Nov 11 online shopping spree in the name of ‘Singles Day’, a celebration for single people, has become China’s most popular annual commercial event and created an e-commerce miracle. Singles Day became 24 hours of crazy online shopping when Alibaba Group, operator of e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, launched its first sales campaign on Nov 11, 2009.”

http://www.chinadailyasia.com/news/2013-11/11/content_15097719.html

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Czech artist gives president 33-foot-high one-finger salute

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“A Prague artist has given Czech President Milos Zeman the finger — a huge purple one floating on the river — to protest against his soft spot for old-school Communists just days before a snap election.  ‘It’s a middle-fingered salute at the fucking Communist shits in (Prague) Castle,’ outspoken artist David Cerny told local media on Tuesday.  Cerny is known for his hatred of the Communists, who ruled the former Czechoslovakia in 1948-1989 and are poised to regain some of their power in the two-day election ending on Saturday.  While the Social Democrats (CSSD) are likely to win, they will almost certainly have to rely on Communists — some with Stalinist sympathies — to govern.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/22/czech-artist-gives-president-massive-one-finger-salute/

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