"If a nuclear weapon was used in, say, New York City, and three, four or five hundred thousand people were killed, the American people would put overwhelming pressure on their government to make sure this couldn't happen again. As a result, we would risk losing all our civil liberties. The Bill of Rights, the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech — all of that would probably quickly disappear as people insisted on a police-state kind of security." READ MORE

"I think our generation is obsessed with the moon. When we were children, we were told that in the year 2000 we’d be in spaceships and living on the moon. Nothing like that happened. We felt betrayed. Now people stay home in front of the screen. But when we were kids we were supposed to be out of our home, out in space. So I feel like when I make records, I keep the dream alive." READ MORE

Bunnies. Bunnies. BUNNIES.

"Upon completing [David Lodge's] A Man of Parts and Girl Land, the new offering from Caitlin Flanagan, I know that our young girls are in extreme peril: if they are not succored by their families, they will wind up in nude animal ecstasy with H.G. Wells." READ MORE

Nello Ferrara, creator of the Atomic FireBall and the Lemonhead, has died. Atomic FireBalls were the consensus favorite candy at the New England summer camp I went to as a boy, and being able to eat one without panting was a badge of honor. So it's a little disturbing to learn this: "Mr. Ferrara came up with the idea of spicy-hot Atomic FireBalls in 1954, after serving in Occupied Japan in the post-atom bomb era, according to his son, company CEO Salvatore Ferrara II." Ferrara was 93.

Here you will find a picture of a knife that thinks it's a gun. [Via]

"The dollar per drink you might tip for some “well” alcohol on the rocks is not adequate these days for that Cucumber Basil Crush. Mixologists are becoming chefs, and take special care in how their drinks are assembled and served. And for that reason, I’d tip $2.50 to $3 on a $14 cocktail — even if the bartender isn’t a great conversationalist." READ MORE

Is this blurry image, which almost certainly shows a bear loping through a river while carrying a fish, proof that the woolly mammoth still exists? Sure, why the hell not.

"The Occupy movement was smart in not formulating an explicit program, as I’ve said in other interviews. Once you issue a list of demands in the dominant media-political discourse you then get pigeonholed as an interest group. Then it becomes a question of 'what do the Occupy people want?' And 'will they be satisfied by x?' You saw that even in the media headlines of the Obama birther movement — which was insane — but after the White House released Obama’s long form birth certificate, which in evidentiary ways should close all arguments, the media came back and said, 'Will this satisfy the birthers?' That’s not the question. Who the fuck cares? These people are crazy. But that is how everything is kept boxed in, in the way our media culture describes our politics."

"Any artist with a surplus of material would be advised to save it for the deluxe reissue or website giveaways. But, though it began as a quirk of formatting and became an often cynical marketing ploy, for more than 40 years the B-side could also be a way of thinking about music: a parallel universe of creativity." (The Pet Shop Boys B-side included in this article is totally new to me, and actually really good, make sure to give it a listen.)