flickering pictures

If Joe Higgs’s “There’s a Reward” doesn’t send shivers up your spine, you don’t have one.
Widely regarded as the father of reggae, Higgs grew up in Kingston’s famous Trenchtown ghetto and was a major influence on a generation of reggae musicians, including some guy named Bob Marley. He died of cancer in December 1999 […]

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From the inspirational self-authored obituary of Lasantha Wickramatunge, editor-in-chief of Sri Lanka’s Sunday Leader newspaper, written shortly before he was shot and killed on his way to work:

It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government’s sanctimonious assurances, there […]

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Born on January 8, 1935, Elvis Presley would have been 74 years old today. Other notable events on this day:

1835: For the only time in U.S. history, the national debt is exactly zero dollars. Today’s debt is just over $10.6 trillion, or about $35,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.

1867: […]

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Now there’s something you don’t read every day.

Ben Weider, the only person ever to be president of both the International Federation of Bodybuilders and the International Napoleonic Society, died yesterday in Montreal.
For his contributions to fitness, philanthropy and the study of history, Weider was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Knight of […]

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If that’s not the strangest thing you’ve read today, I’d like to know what is.
From the Telegraph:

Mak Erot developed a family business empire offering penis extensions and cures for other sexual maladies using the power of Muslim prayer and a cocktail of 141 herbs. One of her 40 grandchildren, Haji Saifuloh, 37, explained that the […]

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Kermit Scott, the inspiration behind Jim Henson’s most beloved muppet character, has died.
The real Kermit taught philosophy at Purdue and Yale before his desire to help others led him to earn a Master’s degree in counseling and launch a new career at the age of 57. He and his wife co-founded the Welfare Rights […]

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I’m really not into fashion. When I can get away with it, I generally wear whatever’s clean and functional, and the sniff test occupies a hallowed place in my fashion decision-making process right between the have-I-worn-this-for-the-last-two-days test and the is-it-stained-anywhere-obvious test.
Still, this man was a legend in his field, and his work has affected […]

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I hadn’t heard of her either, but I wish I had.
In 1958, at the tender age of 18, a pregnant Mildred Jeter travelled to Washington, D.C. to marry Richard Loving. Mildred was black, Richard was white, and interracial marriage was illegal in their home state of Virginia. In spite of their novel attempt […]

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