MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive RANDOM LINKS FOR 7/31/13

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RANDOM LINKS FOR 7/31/13

July 31st, 2013 by Clark Humphrey

There’s now aÂ soccer federation for “Cascadia” (i.e., B.C./Wash./Ore.). And it’s gotten provisional recognition from a global confederation of soccer interests representing other not-really-nations (Basque country, Kurdistan, etc.).
Cracked.com tells you some reasonsÂ “why you can’t believe anything you read online.” One reason: A lot of click-whoring sites, including click-whoring “news” sites, try to make you feel angry and outraged at something, then to share your outrage via social-media links. (Maybe that’s why this site hasn’t taken off like Drudge or Kos. I’m not ordering you to go ballistic X times a day.)
A week or two back, we remarked how Saks department stores had become, for a time, owned by an Alabama firm. No more. Saks will now be part of the Hudson’s Bay Co. (aka “The Bay”), the Canadian retail giant whose fur-trading heritage helped shape the initial settlement of this part of the world.
Al-Jazeera America, the cable news channel replacing the low-rated Current TV, will have a Seattle news bureau. Allen Schauffler, who just quit KING after more than two decades, will run the outpost.
Today’s local history lesson, brought to you by the Seattle Star: The time when the feds tried to arrest local Black Panthers because of a supposedly stolen typewriter.
Dumb Criminal Report #1: When you’re wanted by the cops, it’s unwise to shoplift beef jerky.
Dumb Criminal Report #2: Don’t set fire to the Aurora Sears. We love that store. It’s possibly the only truly beautiful suburban big-box store ever built around here.
Are ebook sales peaking?
Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon claims Amazon personifies “everything wrong with our new economy.” Apple, Walmart, Nike: You can rest easy now; you’re no longer the company everyone most dearly loves to hate.
Yes, “existential depression in gifted children” is a real thing. Trust me on this.
“Naked Juice” no longer claims to be “all natural,” and also is owned by Pepsi.
Fox tries to create a clone of Adult Swim, only even cruder and dumber. The results are now here, and they’re immensely dreadful.
The vinyl music comeback may be here to stay. Yeah, but does anybody actually, you know, play any of those records?
David Byrne, meanwhile, details six modern business models for the modern musical artist.
Unfortunately, there are still too many awful big-budget action movies. And, unfortunately, there are still economic incentives for the studios to make more.