Linkliste unbehandelter Themen

Politics:

The US ambassador to Libya and three members of his staff were killed two days ago by what the NY Times describes as Islamist militants. 

Here's Mitt Romney's reaction to the attack and an analysis by The Atlantic.

Here are some disorganized thoughts on the Austrian governing coalition's decision to go forward with a popular referendum on national service: the outcome depends entirely on mobilisation, since public opinion is split evenly (and that in itself is a testament to how irrational this whole thing is, allowing an unpredictable vote to happen so shortly before the parliamentary election), there will be an effort to scare seniors about the loss of alternative civilian service, there will be no preparation whatsoever in case the referendum ends with a decision to abolish national service because the chaos resulting from the lack of preparation will be attributed to the SPÖ, the FPÖ is going to quietly sit on the sidelines, happy about the distraction, but eventually, this will provide welcome common ground between ÖVP and FPÖ after the fall election. 

Pop Culture: 

A Foreign Policy slide show about Skateboarding in Kabul. 

Pitchfork is streaming the Corin Tucker Band's follow-up to 2010's 1,000 Years, titled Kill My Blues, in its entirety here. I really liked their first record as well, but it's probably fair to say that the new one is a return to the much-missed incredible things that Corin Tucker can do with her voice. 

Here's the full performance of The xx (their second record, Coexist, was released this week - my favourite song is Chained, I think) at KEXP. 

The A.V. Club interviewed Romola Garai of The Hour, which will hopefully soon start its second season. Until then, I can really not recommend The Bletchley Circle enough (it's an ironic rec because apparently, the second season of The Hour will deal with the emergence of ITV as the first challenger of BBC's monopoly). 

This is the first of three interviews Wired conducted with William Gibson. 

This The Rumpus review of Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers (here's a clip) which played at TIFF this week, a movie I knew nothing about except that it stars both James Franco and Ashley Benson of Pretty Little Liars, made me really excited to see it whenever it eventually does come out (I think the official release date is spring next year).

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