UPDATED with playlist and download at bottom of post

At least one Santa had a skewed version of the Christmas spirit when he pulled out a gun to rob a Rhode Island yacht club last week.

Guess he felt it better to receive than to give.

• Illustration Ryn Gargulinski
• Happy holiday javelina

That story and more are up this week on Rynski’s Shattered Reality radio show, hosted by Ryn Gargulinski, on Party934.com and FM 94.9 in Hudson Valley, N.Y.

Next show is Wednesday, Dec. 22 (today!) and every Wednesday online at Party934.com. Showtime is 1 p.m. in Arizona, 3 p.m. EST.

Party 934 is a radio alternative for listeners sick of stations that play one song followed by 500 commercials.

Songs that mention NUMBERS are again this week’s theme as we have numerous requests left from last week that are counting on being played.

Thanks! to all who keep the song requests coming.

What: Rynski’s Shattered Reality Internet radio show
When: Every Wednesday for one hour
Time: 1 p.m. in Arizona, 3 p.m. EST
Where: www.party934.com and FM 94.9 in Hudson Valley

For those who might miss the show, please check back after the fact for the playlist and recorded download.

CALL FOR SONGS — Songs that mention WEATHER. Snowy, rainy, bright and sunshiny, you name it, we’ll try to find it and play it. Please leave suggestions in the comment section below or e-mail [email protected]

__

Ryn Gargulinski, aka Rynski, is a writer, artist, performer and poet. Her radio show airs every Wednesday and her column appears every Friday. See more writing and art from RYNdustries at ryngargulinski.com and rynski.etsy.com.

According to a New York Times story here, humming isn't just entertaining, but it could be good for you:

In a study in The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers examined this by comparing airflow in people when they hummed and when they quietly exhaled. Specifically, they looked to see if humming led to greater levels of exhaled nitric oxide, a gas produced in the sinuses. Ultimately, nitric oxides during humming rose 15-fold.

Another study a year later in The European Respiratory Journal found a similar effect: humming resulted in a large increase in nasal nitric oxide, “caused by a rapid gas exchange in the paranasal sinuses.” Since reduced airflow plays a major role in sinus infections, the researchers suggested that daily periods of humming might help people lower their risk of chronic problems. But further study is needed, they said.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Studies show that humming helps increase airflow between the sinus and nasal cavities, which could potentially help protect against sinus infections.

But why wait for another study?

The holiday season on cable TV has been nice to put me in the mood for (and prepare me for) future apocalyptic holiday seasons with screenings of The Road and Book of Eli. The only shows missing, besides a good marathon of Planet of the Apes, is the 1973 science fiction classic Soylent Green also starring that great gun-loving American Charlton Heston.

If that happened, then I'd really be ready for a stroll through Winterhaven, just wondering how it would all look when we finally run out of water and realize sustainable community now means we need to eat our neighbors. Before you think that's bad, read the latest on cannibalism in Slate Magazine. In "An evolutionary case for cannibalism," you'll learn that such thoughts when watching apocalyptic cinema, that someday eating people is going to be a necessary act of survival and not evil, are well, normal.

Read the full story here:

So with all of these scenes swimming in my head, and pragmatist that I am, I'm left wondering why, exactly, it is that the consumption of already dead human bodies is such a taboo, especially for societies in which the soul is commonly seen as flitting off at death like an invisible helium balloon. If you subscribe to such dualistic notions, after all, the body is only some empty shell that the now-liberated spirit no longer needs. All those poor starving children of the world, surrounded by—as some epicures swear—the most succulent meat on the planet. Even resurrectionists should gleefully feed the impoverished with their own flesh, lest they, God forbid, allow such a bounty of edible meat to go to rot. All those wasted commercial goods, burned down to sticky dust in crematories, squirreled away behind ornate vaults, fed extravagantly to bloated subterranean organisms! If you'd rather not eat meat from aged or possibly diseased dead people, and if you're worried about the dignity of the individual, it would be easy enough to breed and then factory-farm brain-dead or free-ranging anencephalic human beings*, treating them humanely, of course, but enforcing food safety standards to control for outbreaks.

ARTCRANK 2010 Poster Show Minneapolis from red23films on Vimeo.

Making its way through the art files from Nathan Saxton of Borealis Arts, ARTCRANK, a show of bicycle-inspired poster artwork that introduces local artists, is coming to Tucson in late March.

The show exhibits one bike-themed piece each from 30 local artists. Here are some basic submission instructions to think about (more info to come on show and submission specifics):

Theme & Design:
Bicycles, bike riders and bike culture
Limit: One poster design per artist

Format & Media:
The show is dedicated exclusively to poster art, i.e., a flat piece of printed artwork
Folding pieces, multi-page booklets and other types of work will not be accepted
Artists are responsible for printing their own posters
Printing options include screen printing, letterpress and archival inkjet printing

Poster Size:
19 in. x 25 in. maximum (Posters can be smaller than this, but not larger)

Poster Quantities:
1 Display Copy (Becomes property of ARTCRANK) — signed and numbered
30 Sale Copies — signed and numbered

The BEST way to keep informed as events develop is to sign up to this email list. Be sure to choose the ARTCRANK list when signing up.

Let's make Tucson the best stop on the ARTCRANK tour yet!

It's a gingerbread house, minus the gingerbread, but adding a lot of meat, mashed potatoes, and processed cheese.

Save the Internet.com Coalition has a live feed on the Federal Communications Commission deliberations on Net Neutrality rules. There's also a Cover It Live blog feed. Go here.

Will the FCC Protect the Open Internet?
After more than a year of deliberations, the Federal Communications Commission is voting on Net Neutrality rules. Millions of Americans have called on Washington to create the strongest open Internet protections possible. Meanwhile, phone and cable company lobbyists have pressured the agency to gut Net Neutrality and leave the future of the Internet in their hands, without basic protections for free speech and consumer choice.

Here's what you missed last night, synced up with a Debussy piece that makes the event seem a little more important than it probably was. Classical music classes us any online video, I suppose.

From the Washington Post blog, The Fix:

The westward movement of the U.S. population means eight districts in states that went for Obama will shift to states that went for McCain — a small but significant shift that could help a GOP presidential candidate in 2012, provided they can hold those states for the party.

Most of the other new seats will be in swing states that went for Obama, which could also be won by Republicans in 2012.

Texas, as expected, gained the most seats, moving from 32 to 36 seats thanks to big gains in population — primarily in the Hispanic community.

Florida was the only other state to gain multiple seats, adding two and bringing it to 27 seats.

Six other states gained a single seat: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.

The biggest losers were New York and Ohio, which each lost two seats. Eight other states lost a single seat: Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Five of the eight states that are gaining seats were won by McCain in the 2008 presidential race. Eight of the 10 that are losing seats went to Obama.

Republicans, whose 2010 gains make them dominant in the upcoming round of drawing new district lines, will control the redistricting process in eight of the states mentioned above, while Democrats control it in just two. That's important, because states that lose or gain seats generally see the biggest changes.

Few people do "angry about everything" quite like Deadspin's Drew Magary, so when he takes on the more painful aspects of the Christmas season, just enjoy the ride:

9. Ribbons On Gifts
Say, this is a nice gift I've wrapped for my Dad. You know what would make it even nicer? If I cinched it up with surprisingly sturdy ribbon that cost a buck at CVS and makes the present 572 percent harder to open. Watch with joy as your loved ones try to slide the ribbon off the gift only to have it jussst fail to reach the corner of the gift! Then watch them mangle the corner of the gift as they try and push the shithead ribbon off for good before yelling out FUCK and going for the scissors! Look, everyone hates wrapping gifts. But that's a fact of life. But ribbons are a completely unnecessary hindrance. We don't need them. Furthermore, I have never once in life properly calibrated the amount of ribbon needed to go around the gift twice before coming back and making a pretty bow. This is why Barnes & Noble puts a sticker on your shit when they gift wrap it. Speaking of which…

10. Surcharges For Gift Wrapping
FUCK. YOU. You're lucky I even went shopping this year, retailers of America. WRAP IT UP.

While some former members of the military seem willing to destroy whatever credibility they once had over DADT, it's nice to know that based on this email sent out today, General Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff for the Air Force, is planning to respond to this news the same way they would to any news: getting on with business with professionalism and respect.

[HT: Reddit]