March 2010
43 posts
“Since businesses are obliged by zoning restrictions to locate far away from...”
– Public Discourse - Why Conservatives Should Care About Transit (via marco)
February 2010
45 posts
llimllib:
How do you praise the Moon
Without a God?
I know there’s a flag
And footsteps
Planted in my name
But when the Moon
Shines through the clouds
I believe it’s for me
And me only
There are lights
And cars
Brighter in the City
But the dogs
And the melancholy
Know when the Moon
Shines through the clouds
It’s for me
And me only
“In my classroom there are nine windows full of mountains, but eight of the...”
– Lesley Wheeler - “Oral Culture”
No Grapes, No Nuts, No Market Share →
Mixed with yeast (one cup per 2,000 pounds) and water, the flour turns to dough, gets chopped into 10-pound loaves and sent into a huge oven — 1,610 loaves at a time. “Now it gets interesting,” Mr. Vargas said at his workstation, watching the loaves emerge from the oven and catapult into the darkness. An instant later, they hit the fan — a whirling high-speed shredder that rips them to...
“Despite a longstanding dismal job market in academic science, however,...”
– Scientific American - Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
“We know that Barack Obama, in his heart of hearts, truly wants Real Change. We...”
– Fafblog! - Mule Variations
Oliver Sacks - Greetings From the Island of... →
Not exactly a breaking news story, but I really like the conclusion of the editorial:
One can never tell in advance what the practical use or scientific implications of anything new might be. Who would have thought that germanium — an obscure “semi-metal” discovered in the 1880’s — would turn out to be crucial to the development of transistors? Or that elements like neodymium...
“[W]ere there such machines exactly resembling organs and outward form an ape or...”
– René Descartes - Discourse on the Method Part 5 (This holds up better than one might have expected.)
“Lured by the substantial prize money, several groups of strong grandmasters...”
– Garry Kasparov - The Chess Master and the Computer
WatchFrom tinycartridge, it’s the DG-10 Trio performing exclusively on Korg DSi-10s.
WatchTous les garcons et les filles - Francoise Hardy
Via Matthew O’Leary
Penny Arcade - A Funny Dad Story →
A cute story; read it all. But I want to focus on the conclusion for second:
I looked at my son and realized that in his five year old mind there is no gradient to evil. For him, the act of destroying Alderaan and littering are equal. The sort of person who could to one might easily do the other. I smiled at him “Of course [the Emperor] litters, son. He litters all the time.”
I think...
WatchSomething is ___ in Denmark
Via Language Log classic
Some Thoughts on Economic Rationality
Corey Garriott,
Rationalism in politics is the notion that man’s psyche, or his selfhood if you wish, can be understood by its division into two separable parts, a rational mind and a nonrational component called body. Rationalism merits its name because it places the seat of the will solely in the rational mind. One can draw a pictoral model for the idea. Imagine a line of causation...
“I remember he was bent down
Like a whirlpool
I was yelling at him
He looked...”
– Dorothea Lasky
- Tornado (The end of this poem is better than the beginning…)
WatchCouples Enjoy a Valentine’s Candlelight Dinner at Waffle House
Via Shige
Man, in retrospect, I shoulda proposed at the WaHo.
BEHOLD MY SWARTHY FACE - Name-Dropping: The Art... →
Ever wondered why the Japanese have such a penchant for name-dropping? From Mori Ōgai to Murakami Haruki, Japanese writers love sliding in a famous name or two whenever they get a chance.
This short post raises more questions than it answers, but they’re good questions to raise.
WatchNylon Magazine TV - Sean Lennon + Charlotte Kemp
WatchWes Anderson Presents “The Amazing Spider-Man”
Stephen Totilo - Why A Man Plays Mario →
Via Infinite Lives
Grown men play Super Mario games, so I feel that it is time for me, a grown man, to figure out why and whether this is a habit I ought to quit.
I think Totilo’s real problem is that the game he was playing was Mario & Luigi RPG 3, which wasn’t that much fun. Yeah, it expanded on the last games without any serious missteps, so if you rate things based on technicalities...
Leonardo Boiko - Patriarchy and men →
I think this same comment could be extended to discussions of the importance of anti-racism.
Aaron Swartz - When Is Transparency Useful? →
Right now, technologists insist that they’re building neutral platforms for anyone to find data on any issue. Journalists insist that they’re objective observers of the facts. And political types assume they already know the answers and don’t need to investigate further questions. They’re each in their own silo, unable to see the bigger picture.
I certainly was. I care passionately about...
WatchVia Buffalo Daughter, it’s finches playing guitar.
Is there anyone who could doubt that BD would voluntarily let birds take all their gigs if the birds promised to play Li303ve at the end? Birds + 303 = Buffalo Daughter
Washington Post - What if senators represented... →
But what if the 100-member Senate were designed to mirror the overall U.S. population — and were based on statistics rather than state lines?
This article is basically just a variation on the old “100 people in the world” chain email, only limited to the US, but actually, I think it would be a good idea to rejigger the Senate along the lines of social blocks. Specifically, I think we...
WatchThe Evolution of Remix Culture
“But here’s the paradox: It’s not a terrorist’s time bomb...”
– Dahlia Lithwick - Terrorism Derangement Syndrome: The GOP’s scare tactics work so well because the public is already so afraid.
The Obama administration has adopted the Bush... →
I can’t think of any potential abuses for this concentration of absolute power in the hands of a single, non-accountable individual.
WatchChairlift - Evident Utensil
Do not adjust your web browser! (This How-To video explains how it was done.)
I’m surprised we haven’t seen this technique used more, actually. I’ve always been a fan of glitching. Way back in 1998, I experimented with making some glitched JPEGs by changing line endings from /n to /n/r. It had surprisingly good results.