While delving into the current doings in the Powerboat Superleague, we came across this tidbit from the Peoria Journal Star. Apparently the league won’t let you race unless you undergo “capsule training” every two years. This process entails being sealed up in a boat cockpit which is then flipped upside down in a pool. If […]
Tags:chimpanzees·Ham the Chimp·NASA·powerboating·primates·space·sports
The preferred tipple of DJ Screw and Big Moe is making serious inroads in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, the paramilitary force responsible for enforcing the nation’s drug laws is suspected of carrying out the extrajudicial murders of university students—killings that the government euphemistically refers to as “encounters.”
Tags:Bangladesh·Dhaka·drugs·Houston·phensidyl·Rapid Action Battalion
We honestly wonder what Sandi Saraya‘s four kids think when they encounter video evidence of mom’s eponymous ’80s band. Our best guess is that they feel an almost indescribable mix of embarrassment and pride. Microkhan, on the other hand, can only chuckle at Saraya’s oversized hair, rote guitar licks, and tragically trite lyrics (“Take my […]
Tags:1980s·music·New Jersey·Saraya
We’ve always been puzzled by the fact that the two main holdouts against international whaling laws are Japan and Norway—nations from opposite ends of the globe, with no apparent shared culture or history. How did these two countries form such a strong alliance in favor of the continued slaughter of aquatic mammals? The stock explanation […]
The peaceful resolution of a Mexican kidnapping saga brings to mind a strange bit of American religious history: The Mormons’ 19th-century trek south of the border to establish a series of colonies. Those colonies were far more numerous before Pancho Villa came on the scene, but some hardy souls stuck out the conflict (PDF). Among […]
Tags:crime·kidnapping·Mexico·Mitt Romney·Mormons·Pancho Villa
We’re taking the rest of the day to hit the creative reset button—that is, catch up on a zillion-and-one e-mails, and start collating all of the project ideas that piled up while we were banging out the Now the Hell Will Start screenplay. So we’ll outro with this gem from the great African Music Machine, […]
Tags:African Music Machine·Louisiana·music·Now the Hell Will Start
Given our admitted lack of expertise in contemporary Iranian affairs, we’ll henceforth do our best to leave the running protest commentary to far more qualified folks. But since we’re obviously somewhat transfixed by the Iranian opposition’s humble request for electoral fairplay, we couldn’t help but spend much of the morning delving into the nation’s history. […]
The most gargantuan machines on Earth usually operate far outside the public eye, in remote corners of the globe where the substances that make modern life possible are extracted from the ground. We’ve previously posted about one such device, an abandoned component of a German coal-mining operation. Today we’d like to focus on another plus-sized […]
Despite the obvious depravity of this South Carolina couple’s operation, we can’t help but admire their efficiency: A Greenville man and woman are facing drug charges after police said they stopped a vehicle with an active methamphetamine lab inside it at North Pleasantburg Drive and Wade Hampton Boulevard. The arrests occurred after the two were […]
Granted, this was a pretty heavy day here at Microkhan—a bummer vibe perhaps not helped by our rare stab at outright earnestness. So let us make it up to you by ratcheting up the zany for our Bloomsday outro: Senor Coconut’s acid-merengue remix of Kraftwerk’s “Tour de France.” The source material is here, if you […]
Tags:Kraftwerk·music·Senor Coconut
Our ongoing First Contact series continues with a look at the initial encounter between the Aztecs and the Spanish. Rather than rehashing the conquistadors’ standard accounts of Tenochtitlan‘s grandeur and the horrors of human sacrifice, we thought we’d focus on the Aztecs’ point of view—specifically their mistaken belief that Hernando Cortes and his soldiers were […]
Tags:Aztecs·First Contact·Hernando Cortes·Mexico·religion·Spain
A major East Coast port finally wakes up to the environmental benefits of cold ironing. Granted, running an idle ship off shore-side electricity is pretty energy intensive. But it pails in comparison to letting the ship’s diesel engines keep on humming: Broward County Commissioner Kristin D. Jacobs said that by shutting down the engines and […]
Tags:energy·environment·Florida·maritime
We tend to blog best when we’re focused on relative esoterica like competitive eating, bootleg cigarettes, and the films of Klaus Kinski. But as noted in Microkhan’s mission statement, we—okay, I—reserve the right to tackle more mainstream topics when the situation warrants. And the ongoing tumult in Iran is just such an occasion. I can’t […]
Tags:Iran
Apologies for the slow start today, but we’re completely absorbed in the ever-changing situation in Iran—a situation that appears to be growing more violent by the hour. Packing up and heading to our mobile headquarters (i.e. the Columbia University library) in a matter of minutes. More soon.
Tags:housekeeping·Iran
Shutting it down early to prep for tonight’s reading at The Half King down in Chelsea. For those with easy access to New York’s wondrous subway system, please swing by if the spirit moves you. The address is 505 W. 23rd Street (just west of 10th Avenue), and the festivities kick off at 7 p.m. […]
It’s so hard to fathom why some talented folks decide to chuck it all in favor of more humdrum lives. Such is the case with the great Betty Harris, who recorded a bunch of outstanding soul sides in the 1960s, then mysteriously disappeared. The cut above was her last, and it’s a Microkhan favorite—an odd-yet-catching […]
Tags:Betty Harris·Connecticut·music
We’ll admit, we were deeply skeptical of plans to rid Alaska’s Rat Island of its marauding rodents. But the airdropped brodifacoum actually seems to have done the trick. Execs at Club Med are surely licking their chops.
Look, we’ve occasionally been as tempted as the next Mongolian monarch to pull up stakes and move to Arkansas. But every time the urge hits, we remember that Al Green’s birthplace boasts the toughest liquor laws in the nation—even tougher than those in Utah, where we once had a devil of a time finding an […]
Given that the Iran hostage crisis is one of our formative memories, we’ve taken a keen interest in the recent tumult on the streets of Tehran. Of particular note has been the regime’s effective use of technology to foil grassroots communications. First the mullahs shut off text messaging and The Tubes, then they actually managed […]
Tags:Iran·satellites·technology
For this week’s Bad Movie Friday, we’re gonna hit the proverbial layup and call out 1997’s Double Team. (Tagline: “He’s a one-man arsenal…with enough voltage to rock the world!”) The film is notable primarily for oddball hoopster Dennis Rodman’s scenery-chewing co-lead performance, opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme on the verge of sliding into his cocaine phase. […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·Dennis Rodman·Double Team·Jean-Claude Van Damme·Mickey Rourke·movies
After last night’s Now the Hell Will Start reading out in Bed-Stuy, we spent an exceedingly pleasant few hours knocking back pints of Carlsberg with our comrade Ryan Nerz. The NBA Finals were playing on the bar’s TV, and so much of our conversation focused on hoops. And given Ryan’s origins in the Hoosier State, […]
Tags:basketball·Gene Hackman·Hoosiers·Indiana·sepak takraw·sports
There are already so many reasons to love our Canadian brothers: poutine, Rush, Alex Trebek. But let’s add another to the lengthy list: The nation to our north makes PET scans possible, by producing the bulk of the world’s supply of medical isotopes. Chief among these isotopes is Technetium-99, which is key to safe pediatric […]
Tags:Canada·cyclotrons·medical science·nuclear power·Technetium-99
The response to yesterday’s post on smoking ballerinas got us thinking about other examples of folks who make their livings with their bodies, yet continue to puff away. And that train of thought inevitably led us to Phillies great Dick Allen, whose between-innings habit would never fly today. Then again, it’s unclear to us whether […]
We’re checking out a bit early today, as we’ve got to prepare ourselves for a long-awaited Now the Hell Will Start reading at Bed-Stuy’s primo Browntsone Books. Event details here; please come support The Cause if the spirit moves you.
We’re in the midst of reading our pal Ulrich Boser’s book The Gardner Theft, which has taught us a heckuva lot about the art-crime world. One of the tome’s essential lessons is that 99.99 percent of art thieves are not experts, a la Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment. They instead tend to be lunkhead robbers who […]
Tags:animals·art theft·cave bears·crime·paleontology·Sarajevo
As things get ever-weirder in the Hermit Kingdom, it’s worth remembering the gobsmacking tale of Shin Sang-ok, a Japanese filmmaker kidnapped by Kim Jong-il. Even if you’re already familiar with Shin’s ordeal, it’s worth revisiting this harrowing account from 2003. We could scarcely imagine a more savage indictment of Dear Leader’s crippling megalomania. Forced to […]
Tags:Kim Jong-il·monsters·movies·North Korea·Pulgasari·Shin Sang-ok
Because they have unsually high discount rates (PDF)—which is econo-speak for, “Don’t give a sufficient damn about their future wage prospects.” Of course, if they knew what was good for them, these ballerinas would be studying actuarial science instead of practicing their arabesque positions. (Image via George Simhoni)
Tags:ballet·cigarettes·dance·economics
We know we’re still a few days away from the week’s finale, and thus from the joys of Bad Movie Friday, but we couldn’t resist posting the trailer above. We’re in the midst of watching Werner Herzog’s My Best Fiend, a documentary about his rather insane working relationship with Klaus Kinski. From what we’ve gathered […]
Tags:Android·Klaus Kinski·My Best Fiend·robots·space·Werner Herzog
Jonah Lehrer, one of our most brilliant Wired colleagues, just posted about the infectious nature of bad dancing. Checking out his hilarious video evidence, we couldn’t help but think of this fictional antecedent. Who knew you could learn so much ’bout neuroscience by watching terrible ’80s sex romps?
Tags:1980s·Can't Buy Me Love·movies·neuroscience·Patrick Dempsey·Wired
Despite mankind’s best efforts, the ultra-aggressive quagga mussel continues to spread unabated across our great land. Gorgeous Lake Tahoe is the latest victim, while the shellfish invasion’s in full swing over near Cleveland. And could the mussels even dim the Sin City lights someday? Nothing, it seems, can stop the quagga mussel, given the species […]
Tags:animals·Cleveland·gadgets·Lake Tahoe·Las Vegas·maritime·quagga·quagga mussels·techonology
