January 2010
47 posts
WatchRandy George - Clair de Lune
Phantom Leap - iPad →
There are basically three reactions to the iPad:
So what?
This is the reaction of media companies, because they were expecting Apple to perform a miracle and somehow make them relevant. It’s also the reaction of those who concentrate on “features” rather than implementation.
This changes everything.
This is the reaction of Daring Fireball, where it’s called “automatic transmission” for...
“Aonuma: I remember you saying that, but I didn’t really know what you meant. I’d...”
– Iwata Asks - Spirit Tracks
“As Heidegger saw, the point of technological things is not to satisfy our...”
– Hubert Dreyfus’s comment is particularly apropos in this, the week of the iPad
“Just as Anatole France remarked that the law impartially forbade both the rich...”
– History Unfolding - Towards the Gilded Age
WatchHonolulu Advertiser - Hawaii thrillseekers a YouTube hit
Dangerously hypnotic; hypnotically dangerous.
Galanis also reported that of the 89 patients entered into The Queen’s Medical Center Trauma Registry from 2003 to 2008, at least 20 were injured while riding downhill. Also, from 1999 to 2008, there were 12 deaths from skateboard-related injuries; all were males between the ages of...
WatchKORG DS-10 PLUS
Man, I wish I had that game. Also, the time, talent, and patience required to use it.
“In fact, Chris Matthews didn’t forget Barack Obama was black. Chris...”
– Ta-Nehisi Coates
WatchSam & Dave - Hold On, I’m Comin’
These dudes can dance! And check out their white guitarists.
via Ta-Nehisi Coates
Slate - Steve Jobs delivers the annual... →
I can totally hear this being said in Steve’s voice:
Thank you for coming. And thank you to President Obama for asking me to deliver this year’s speech. We’re going to make some history today.
You know, it was just a year ago that we announced our economic plan for 2009. We said we were going to turn around the recession. We said we’d create jobs. And we said we’d...
WatchTrailer for Raina Telgemeier’s Smile
“In the aftermath of Google’s announcement, some members of Congress are reviving...”
– Bruce Schneier - U.S. enables Chinese hacking of Google (via llimllib)
WatchZee Avi - Kantoi
Via Language Log - Indie-pop Manglish
WatchSantogold - L.E.S. Artistes
Great dancers!
“A simulation will have bugs like any other large [program]. A non-programmer...”
– jerf - Why using simulations to do science is problematic
WatchCharles Bronson is awesome.
(The coolest part of this commercial? That he just goes home alone, sprays himself with cologne, and thinks, “All the world loves a lover,” for no reason.)
earthboundkid: I got Smash Bros. 64 on the Virtual... →
“[T]he Beats may have considered themselves rebels who were questioning American...”
– The New Modernism - American Poets and the Popular Perception of Japanese Poetry via the ever wondrous No Sword
WatchOn the Starship Enterprise
(The original series was really weird.)
Donald Hall - The Things →
If you like this poem enough to print it out, it can become its own subject matter.
I’m getting close to the end of Spirit Tracks →
but I gotta say, my vote for the most “on-rails” Zelda remains (ugh) Minish Cap.
Balún - Muchas Muchas Veces, via tinycartridge
“Beneath a ten-foot-tall apparition of Frosty the Snowman
with his corncob pipe...”
– Campbell McGrath - Shopping for Pomegranates at Wal-Mart on New Year’s Day
“My question is the following. Has it been a terrible, and by now all but...”
– William Pfaff - An Unthinkable Proposal
Cute story:
tinahhh:
It all started the day before with a simple question, “Do you want to go around the island via the bus?”
That’s the kind of thing I would think sounds like a good idea.
“I tell people that if it’s in the news, don’t worry about it. The very...”
– Bruce Schneier (This is a big part of my thinking about the importance of philosophy—uncovering ways of thinking more invisible than a car crash.)
WatchMiho Hatori - A song for kids
(Old song, new video.)
Matt W. Miller - Tuggin’ →
An interesting poem that makes one wonder, why is rapping manly but poetry not? Just adding a beat makes it tough to think about meters and rhymes? I think though that in Greek days poetry was for tough dudes to rhyme about their mad barbarian killing skillz. I wonder when poetry turned pop and got soft…
If you think about it, “Jaws” holds up really well as a story. It’s totally character driven. Plus the shark represents man’s fear of shark.
The Economist - Mobile-phone culture: The... →
Sub-head: How you use your mobile phone has long reflected where you live. But the spirit of the machines may be wiping away cultural differences
This is a fun article about the differences in mobile phone cultures between nations and the interaction between technology and culture. I think though it would be interesting to have an article about the differences within the US. In Hawaii, everyone...
I leave for two weeks, and all of a sudden we keep *lettuce* in the vegetable crisper? Not cool, yo. How is my Coke supposed to stay crisp?…
Why I read Anne Applebaum
→
An eminently sensible column on the absurdity of airport security.
Jaron Lanier - Why Gordian Software Has Convinced... →
Slate recently published an attack on Jaron Lanier’s new book You Are Not a Gadget. And indeed, criticizing Lanier is pretty easy. But it made me go back and re-read his piece in Edge about some philosophical questions around computer science, and I think it holds up pretty well:
Back in the 1980s I used to get quite concerned with mind-body debates. One of the things that really bothered me...
Rory Stewart - Afghanistan: What Could Work →
One of the most interesting articles I’ve read about our strategy in Afghanistan.
Cool poker-players, we are tempted to believe, only raise or fold: they only increase their bet or leave the game. Calling, making the minimum bet to stay, suggests that you can’t calculate the odds or face losing the pot, and that the other players are intimidating you. Calling is for children. Real men...
