Socialist Utopia Setback: Seattle’s $13 Minimum Wage Led To Drop Of $1,500 In Income For Low-Wage Earners
Posted: June 26, 2017 Filed under: Economics, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Adam Smith Institute, Affordable housing, Artist, Chamber of Commerce, Employment, Katy Tang, Kshama Sawan, Living wage, Minimum wage, San Francisco, Seattle Leave a comment
Ben Shapiro writes: Remember that time Seattle’s socialist city council member Kshama Sawant pressed for the city to increase its minimum wage to $15 per hour? I actually debated Sawant on the issue; I asked her if she would be in favor of raising the wage to $1,000 per hour. She misdirected from the issue.
Seattle actually ended up embracing $13 per hour, raising the minimum wage from $9.47 in 2014 to $11 in 2015 to $13 in 2016 under the theory that an increase wouldn’t throw people out of work, wouldn’t encourage part-time hiring, and would inflate salaries enough to allow more affordability in the Seattle housing market.
From the dustbin of history: The socialist zombies of Seattle
A new study demonstrates that, as usual, central planning of the economy leads to precisely the reverse of the results the planners seek to achieve.
According to a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research:
Using a variety of methods to analyze employment in all sectors paying below a specified real hourly rate, we conclude that the second wage increase to $13 reduced hours worked in low-wage jobs by around 9 percent, while hourly wages in such jobs increased by around 3 percent. Consequently, total payroll fell for such jobs, implying that the minimum wage ordinance lowered low-wage employees’ earnings by an average of $125 per month in 2016. Evidence attributes more modest effects to the first wage increase. We estimate an effect of zero when analyzing employment in the restaurant industry at all wage levels, comparable to many prior studies.
In other words, restaurants didn’t fire anybody, they just put them on part-time shifts and cut back their hours. That shouldn’t be a surprise, since that’s precisely what happens every time the government places an extra burden on employers. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] ‘Space Capsule’ in Desert Stops Traffic
Posted: February 7, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Humor, Mediasphere, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Arizona, Artist, Desert, Jack Millard, media, news, Space Capsule, The Arizona Republic, University of Arizona, video Leave a comment
Brainchild of artist and actor Jack Millard causes stir along highway in Arizona
Department of Delicious Deception: Cookies that Look Like Crystalline Geodes
Posted: December 9, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Food & Drink | Tags: Archie McPhee's, Artist, Baking, Big Rock Candy Mountain, Candy, Cooking, crystalline geodes, Department of Delicious Deception, video Leave a comment
The Department of Delicious Deception invites you to snack on these awesome cookies that look like beautiful crystalline geodes. Redditor LaFeltinelli made them from scratch. They’re concave orange-vanilla cookies filled with orange popsicle icing, and homemade rock candy crystals.
Watch this tutorial video by Kara Shall of Hen & Chick Cakes to learn how to make your own Geode Cookies:
[via /r/food]
[VIDEO] Beetle Cubes: Unboxed Beetle Box
Posted: October 2, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Archie McPhee, Artist, Audi, German language, Plea, Sculpture, Twitter, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Beetle, Volkswagen emissions scandal 1 Comment
Let’s go for a joyride in one of these impossibly spherical or cubic Volkswagens created by Indonesian sculptor Ichwan Noor. These awesome sculptures are made from actual vintage VW components.
“Noor carves a spherical polyurethane replica of the vehicle’s body which he then casts in aluminum. A separate spherical interior is then produced to fit the cast exterior. The final result is enhanced with the original car parts provided by the manufacturer.”
Watch this video to get a closer look at one of Noor’s VW Beetle cubes:
Andy Warhol’s Hamptons Estate Sells for a Record $50 Million
Posted: December 15, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Economics, Mediasphere | Tags: Ai Weiwei, Andy Warhol, Art exhibition, Artist, Atlanta, Beijing, London, Marilyn Monroe, New York City, The Andy Warhol Museum 2 Comments
Candace Taylor reports: The former Andy Warhol estate in Montauk—a collection of white-shingled cottages overlooking the ocean—has sold for $50 million, believed to be a record for the former fishing village.
Andy Warhol bought the estate in the 1970s.Photo: Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
The buyer of the roughly 5.7-acre oceanfront compound, called “Eothen,” was Adam Lindemann, founder of the gallery Venus Over Manhattan. The property had been listed together with a 24-acre horse farm for $85 million, but Mr. Lindemann wasn’t interested in the horse farm, and it is still available, said Paul Brennan of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who listed the property with Sotheby’s International Realty. The seller was J.Crew CEO Millard “Mickey” Drexler, who bought the property for $27.5 million in 2007, according to public records.
The deal closed Monday, according to Mr. Brennan, who said the property is the most expensive home ever to sell in Montauk.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Lindemann put another oceanfront Montauk home he owns on the market for $29.5 million, according to Rylan Jacka of Sotheby’s, who is listing the property with Compass. Read the rest of this entry »
First Issue of MAD Magazine, 1952
Posted: October 27, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment, Humor | Tags: Anthony Bourdain, Art Baltazar, Artist, Harvey Award, Harvey Kurtzman, Horror, Illustration, Lettering, Mad Magazine, New York City, Parody, satire Leave a comment
First Issue of “Mad Magazine”, 10/1952
Happy birthday, Harvey Kurtzman and Mad Magazine! In October 1952, the very first issue of a new comic called “Mad” was issued, written almost entirely by Kurtzman. It soon came under Senate investigation (thus entering the records of the National Archives), which led to the comic book being transformed into the magazine still going strong today.
One of these early issues of Mad is on display in the Archives’ permanent exhibit, The Public Vaults, in Washington, DC.
(via National Archives Foundation on Facebook)
Al Avison Cover: ‘The Man Who Wouldn’t Quit’, Harvey Comics, 1952
Posted: September 14, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Mediasphere | Tags: 1950s, Al Avison, Artist, Battle of Bands, Character (arts), EC Comics, Harvey Comics, Harvey Kurtzman, Illustration, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Lucky Jordan, Mort Meskin, vintage, Voting Leave a comment
Original and final cover art by Al Avison for The Man Who Wouldn’t Quit, a give-away comic to encourage people to vote, published by Harvey Comics, 1952.
Apple Exploring Original Programming Move, Could Compete with Netflix
Posted: August 31, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Apple Inc, Apple TV, Artist, Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine, Movies, Netflix, Scott Borchetta, streaming, Streaming media, Taylor Swift, Television, Tim Cook, Twitter, Variety Leave a comment
Sources indicate the Cupertino, Calif. colossus has held preliminary conversations in recent weeks with executives in Hollywood to suss out their interest in spearheading efforts to produce entertainment content. The unit putting out the feelers reports into Eddy Cue, who is Apple’s point man on all content-related matters, from its negotiations with programmers for Apple TV to its recent faceoff with Taylor Swift.
An Apple spokesperson declined comment. Read the rest of this entry »
Snowflake: Naked Art Student Accidentally Hangs Herself From Tree, Wins Award
Posted: July 16, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: Artist, Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition, China, Hilde Krohn Hus, London, naked, Nordic, Norway, Nude, Performance art, Special Snowflake, Tree, Twitter 1 Comment
Nordic Girl Strings Herself from Tree for Nearly Four Hours
Ryan Steadman reports: London-based artist Hilde Krohn Huse hung helplessly from a tree for 3.5 harrowing hours at the hands of… herself.
The artist, who is originally from Norway but has lived in London since she was young, decided to suspend herself from a tree with rope in a forest near Aukra, Norway as part of a video piece for an art class.
“I felt sick when I saw the video for the first time, I experienced everything anew. But I slept on it and realized that the video is quite decent.”
Award-winning artist Hilde Krohn Huse
Clearly, something went awry, and the 26-year-old Ms. Huse found herself strung out in the buff, unable to free herself.
[See the full video Hilde Krohn Huse’s website]
“The video ends when the camera shuts off, but I was there calling for help for another 30 minutes,” Ms. Huse told Norway’s VG newspaper about the incident. “I felt sick when I saw the video for the first time, I experienced everything anew. But I slept on it and realized that the video is quite decent.”
As luck would have it, Ms. Huse’s video was chosen for the prestigious Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition, where the work of 37 promising fine arts graduates in the U.K. is showcased…(read more)
Bonus: Enjoy this long, depressing, confessional, navel-gazing, “actuality of truthfulness’ video by the artist, from Nov 26, 2014
And for our multilingual readers, enjoy this original story from Norway’s vg.no
Hilde Krohn Huse (26) hang naken i et tre i en halv time før noen fant henne, men det ble litt av en video ut av det hele.
Videoen har vunnet Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2015, en konkurranse for engelske sisteårsstudenter. Premien er å få videoen utstilt i et storstilt galleri som åpnes opp i november – der vil verkene vises i ett år.
Hilde Krohn Huse er en av 37 andre som vil få sitt verk utstilt i galleriet som ligger på veien opp mot Buckingham Palace, men det var ikke planlagt at 26-åringen skulle lage vinnerfilm.
I utgangspunktet skulle Huse ut å filme en scene til en videoserie hun holdt på med. Hun gikk ut i skogen ved hjemstedet Aukra i Møre og Romsdal, rigget kameraet klart og begynte å henge i repet– så hektet foten seg fast.
– Der videoen slutter slo kameraet seg av, men jeg hang der og ropte på hjelp i 30 minutter, sier Huse til VG på telefon fra London.
En venn hørte til slutt ropene og kom til unnsetning. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Pint-sized String Quartet Joyous String Does an Awesome ‘Smooth Criminal’
Posted: April 7, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Asia, Japan | Tags: American Broadcasting Company, Ariana Grande, Artist, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, New York City, Pharrell Williams, Taylor Swift Leave a commentEvie lund
at RocketNews24 discovered this gem: Meet Joyous String, a four-kid string quartet with musical aptitude way beyond their years. Joyous String belong to the Joyous Music School of New York. They’ve been playing together since they were just four years old, and have progressed to the point where they can produce a flawless rendition of the Michael Jackson classic “Smooth Criminal” without even breaking a sweat….Here’s their version of “Smooth Criminal”!
Here’s their rendition of Katy Perry’s mega-hit “Firework”
Eight-year-old cellist and quartet member Justin Yu has even appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show! After a short (and pretty hilarious) interview, he performs a solo on the cello….(read more)
Found on Reddit: Cool Time-Lapse Video of 49-Foot Mural Being Painted in Vancouver
Posted: March 13, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Artist, Ilya Viryachev, media, Mural, news, Vancouver Leave a comment[VIDEO] Weapons of Mass Instruction
Posted: March 12, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Mediasphere, Reading Room | Tags: 7-Up, Argentina, Armored Tank, Art car, Artist, Books, Concept Art, Ford Falcon, Helicopter, La Rioja, Literature, Paris, Raul Lemesoff, Weapons of Mass Instruction, World Book Day 1 CommentIn celebration of World Book Day (today!) 7UP commissioned Argentinian artist Raul Lemesoff to construct one of his famous book tanks.
Argentinian artist Raul Lemesoff Converts 1979 Ford Falcon into an Armored Tank Weaponized with 900 Free Books
In this case he began with a stripped down 1979 Ford Falcon which he used to build a new roving library on wheels with an exterior framework capable of carrying 900 free books.
Lemesoff refers to his militaristic bibliothecas as Weapons of Mass Instruction, and he drives them around the streets of Argentina giving free books to anyone who wants one, as long as they promise to read it.
Watch the video above to see it all come together. (via Designboom)
The Sublime Whimsy of Artist Victor Nunes
Posted: March 11, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: Archie McPhee, Artist, design, Illustration, Illustrator, Portugal, Victor Nunes Leave a comment
It’s been over a year since we first discovered the whimsical work of Portuguese artist Victor Nunes, who delights in revealing faces, objects and characters that he sees inanimate objects of all sorts, ranging from items found in desk drawers and bathroom cupboards to all sorts of food, and even plant roots and leftover latte foam. After spending time looking at Nunes’ illustrations we can’t help but see faces everywhere too. Read the rest of this entry »
Claude Monet Born Today in 1840
Posted: November 22, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, History | Tags: Alexandria, Artist, Brush, Claude Monet, Giverny, John Wronn, Painting, Photography, Water Lilies, Water Lilies (1919) 1 Comment
Claude Monet, born today in 1840, painted Water Lilies in the last decade of his life.
Claude Monet. Water Lilies. 1914-26. Photograph by John Wronn
The Collection | Claude Monet. Water Lilies. 1914-26
Artist & Model
Posted: October 16, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Mediasphere | Tags: Artist, Beauty, design, Figurative, Illustration, Model, Nude Figure, Painting, Photography, Studio 1 Comment
OUT: 3D-Printed Guns. IN: 3D-Printed…
Posted: July 15, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Robotics, Science & Technology | Tags: 3-D printers, Artist, asoko, Japan, Japanese art, manko, Robotics, Rokudenashiko, Vagina 3 Comments
My nomination for headline of the week, from Reason.com (read more)
pundit from another planet 