“Flume” by Bon Iver-live at Myspace Transmissions

We brought you Bon Iver’s performance of “Skinny Love” a few months ago.  Here’s another beautiful performance from Bon Iver.  Simple arrangement and wonderful harmonies as he performs “Flume” for MySpace Transmissions Studio.

“Skinny Love” by Bon Iver

A performance of “Skinny Love” from the album For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver, the performance name of Justin Vernon. Vernon wrote the album while retreating into the northwestern Wisconsin wilderness following the breakup of his long-time band. Give For Emma, Forever Ago a listen to. It’s a rare album in many ways, but particularly in its cohesiveness. You might find yourself hoping Bon Iver suffers another personal or professional setback so he’ll again produce a beautiful record like this one. You don’t need to feel guilty if that’s the case.

Ck. out more at Bon Iver’s official website or his MySpace page.

“Upward Over the Mountain” by Iron and Wine

Another great artist on Subpop Records.  Sam Beam is a talented singer-songwriter that records and performs under the name Iron and Wine.  The song featured in the video, “Upward Over the Mountain,” appears on Iron and Wine’s album The Creek Drank the Cradle. This is another great song without an artist produced video to accompany it, so enjoy this video produced by Xavier Reivax.  It’s not half-bad.  The second song featured is Grant-Lee Phillip’s “St. Expedite.”

Check out Iron and Wine’s official website or on MySpace for more info.

Obama Vows to Stop America’s Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas

NPR: Apparently, some Food Stamp recipients in Ohio have to cut back on ice cream

NPR ran a story recently on how the state of the Ohio economy is forcing some people to have to cut back on groceries. Check out excerpts below. Thanks to Moonbattery for highlighting this story. Gloria Nunez and her daughter Angelica Hernandez, featured in this story, are pictured below. You can see this pic and read the full story at the NPR link at the top of this column. Socialist media places failed socialist polices on public display.

Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps. Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation.

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps.

The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it’s more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don’t buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.

Stuff White People Like contest winner #4-Comparing People to Hitler

The always funny blog, StuffWhitePeopleLike.com recently sponsored a contest for reader submissions and here’s an excerpt below of winner #4.

Stuff White People Like: Comparing People to Hitler

It’s also critical that you avoid the fatal mistake of getting creative and comparing people you don’t like to other evil dictators, such as Joseph Stalin or Fidel Castro. With few exceptions, white people are actually fond of almost any dictator not named Hitler, and your remark that “this is just like something Mao Zedong would do” will be met with blank stares and possible social alienation. This is because, with the exception of Hitler, oppressive dictators share a passion for many of the things white people love- such as universal health care, conspiracy theories, caring about poor people while being filthy rich, and cool hats. Stick to the script and
compare things you don’t like to Hitler, and Hitler alone.

Exoskeleton to be used to one day help the elderly and parapalegics to freely walk again

I heard an amazing story on NPR today. Please see the excerpt below. While Skynet will one day destroy humanity, it’s refreshing to see that not all technology is out to kill Sarah Connor.

Full story: NPR’s Weekend America: Monty’s Lifesuit: From Science Fiction to Fact
This weekend, San Francisco hosts the 2008 RoboGames. Last year’s event attracted more than 3,000 spectators — they came to see robots and their human inventors compete in races, weightlifting and all-out robo-smackdowns.

But one returning champion from Seattle has a bigger mission in mind. Reporter Jeremy Richards has the story:

Like any good superhero story, Monty Reed’s journey starts with a single terrifying event. In 1983, fresh out of high school, Monty joined the Army, eventually securing a place with the elite Airborne Rangers. He had 38 successful jumps. But something went wrong on his 39th jump.

“We were doing a night jump,” Reed says. “It was battalion-wide, so it was hundreds of parachutes in the air, and somebody’s parachute came too close to me, and that stole the air. So my canopy collapsed, and I hit the ground.”

On impact, Monty broke his back in several places. He spent a year recovering at a hospital in Ford Ord, Calif.

“While I was in the hospital, paralyzed legs, fingers on both hands paralyzed, the doctors told me your condition is permanent and it will get worse. So get used to it.”

Monty didn’t accept this. He took out a pad of paper and wrote across the top: “Monty Shall Walk.” To distract himself from the pain, he found solace in science-fiction novels. That’s when inspiration hit:

Watch the results of his inspiration. More info. available at They Shall Walk.