July 2009
112 posts
June 2009
96 posts
WatchMake sure to stick around until the halfway point at least.
They explain why bodies weren’t cremated and spread on the Ganges but not why the girl didn’t find it unusual for there to be Indian zombies.
WatchRegina Spektor - Dance Anthem of the 80s
WatchBloggingheads.tv - Percontations: Who Owns the Words?
In this video, two guys talk for an hour about an upcoming book called Reality Hunger. One of their basic ideas is that it’s better to publish a book that quotes from a bunch of stuff without using footnotes than it is using them. I find this kind of crazy.
This summer I’ve been working on a project to translate a book written...
Watchtinycartridge presents a tribute to MJ. Say what you will, Thriller was great.
WatchChromatics “In the City” via buzzandersen
Dig that sound.
Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears -... →
This is a pretty cool story about geothermal power. Apparently, digging for geothermal power in Switzerland caused an earthquake. They can tell it was the digging, because the style of artificial earthquakes is different from natural ones. Now, some power company wants to dig a geothermal dealie outside of San Francisco, but locals are understandably jittery about the project.
Anyhow, I just...
WatchApparently, the Rolling Stones did a commercial for Rice Krispies in the ’60s. Man, this makes it seem like “Snap, Crackle, Pop” is the sound of drugs cooking. (Which is anachronistic, I suppose.)
Fast bikes, slow food, and the workplace wars -... →
Continuing the discussion of Shop Class as Soulcraft, the New Yorker criticizes the book for being some what sexist and xenophobic, having too narrowly physical a definition of tools and work, and ultimately presenting no real alternative to the current capitalist paradigm—megacorporations would love to have workers as skilled as craftsmen, so long as they don’t have to pay them any...
“I don’t know where this uprising is leading. I do know some police units are...”
– Roger Cohen - A Supreme Leader Loses His Aura as Iranians Flock to the Streets
Teaching Philosophy 101 at the Lunenburg... →
This story about teaching philosophy in a prison is strangely less interesting than it should be. Part of the problem is that the writer spends most of his word limit describing how he got the job and what the prison looked like, and almost none describing what he taught and how the prisoners felt about it.
Thinking about the reading list one would compile for that is a fun thought experiment....
WatchVia GameLife, finally a video that combines the two core interests of this blog: Wearing a t-shirt and appearing on YouTube.
Also, it has a theremin and Super Mario Bros.
Architecture in Ghostbusters 1 and 2
johncantwell blogs about the use of symbolic architecture to represent misgivings about the ’80s in Ghostbusters:
Early in Ghostbusters, Peter, Ray and Egon learn that Columbia University’s Board of Regents has terminated their grant because, according to the WASPY Dean Yeager, the Ghostbusters’ “theories are the worst kind of popular tripe, [their] methods are sloppy and [their]...
Cato Unbound - The Game Is the Stake →
Cato Unbound is hosting a discussion of Robert Wright (host of Bloggingheads.tv)’s new book The Evolution of God, in which Wright argues that the relationship between “Muslims” and “the West” is non-zero-sum. In this great response piece by Jonathan Sheehan, Wright’s assumption that any game can be neutrally described as zero-sum or non-zero-sum is torn to...
Louis Menand - Show or Tell: Should creative... →
A good New Yorker piece. You should read it all, but here’s an excerpt:
[Writers of ‘ethnic’ fiction] have a special relation to the “outside contained on the inside” feature of academic creative-writing programs, and many of the most celebrated have been accused of inauthenticity. McGurl tells the story of the attack on Momaday’s “House Made of Dawn” by Karl Kroeber. Kroeber...
Fathers, Sons and Motorcycles - Stanley Fish →
Fish compares Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, Big Sid’s Vincati: The Story of a Father, a Son, and the Motorcycle of a Lifetime, and Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work.
I wonder what it says about our culture today that we see so many books that are against the atomizing tendency of our culture today and promote a (supposedly)...
