December 2007
99 posts
Komar and Melamid →
Artists born in the 1940s in the Soviet Union, Komar and Melamid rebelled against the stifling imperatives of socialist realism through humor, by parodying the genre in amazingly funny ways. After making their way to the United States, they began to satirize the results of the marketplace as well and eventually developed the “Most Wanted” and “Most Unwanted” paintings of...
What the Apple-Fox iTunes Deal Means →
Finally. One downside: I am going to watch so many damn movies if this spreads to all the studios… This probably has something to do with AAPL breaking $200/share.
Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally →
They’d tried enough; who isn’t out of patience with that whole part of the world? Why shouldn’t one favor total disengagement, whatever the cost?
Man who fled to home of DA released in error →
I can’t believe how pitiful New Orleans’ judicial system is.
1 tag
3 tags
Astronaut’s Mother Is Killed by Train - NYT →
This was an unlikely event. I finished Angle of Repose yesterday, and since much of it concerns pioneer times I was occasionally reminded of how difficult travel once was; there was a time when children weren’t easily able to attend the funerals of their parents.
Simulated Reality →
I tend to dislike these sorts of questions: not only are they not truly falsifiable (at least not in any conventional sense), but they are sci-fi speculation. However, Nick Bostrom is a professor of philosophy at Oxford, and here are his thoughts on simulated reality (from Wikipedia):“i. It is possible that a civilization could create a computer simulation which contains individuals with...
The Godfather of Sprawl →
Why does urban America look like it does? Largely because of Robert Moses. This short Atlantic write-up has links to longer pieces from the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and they’re fascinating.
Errol Morris - Zoom →
Another link to Morris’ awesome (and ludicrously exhaustive) blog on photography, hosted by the NYT. Interestingly, I saw it early this morning, and a short while ago my doppelganger messaged me about it.
Vladimir Putin - Person of the Year 2007 →
I don’t think I’d enjoy having dinner with Putin.
“His agenda includes pulling out of Iraq, doing away with the federal income tax...”
– New York Times. This is how the mainstream media gently slanders Paul: they ignore the fact that his plan is not to enter office and immediately destroy the DoE, but to put America on a path which will allow us to reduce government eventually. He also wants to eliminate the IRS; why not note that?...
2 tags
“The third and most mysterious piece of nonabsoluteness of all lies in the...”
– Bistromathematics. I miss Douglas Adams.
On Periods
Mills: It's not just blood; huge pieces of rotten, decaying uterine lining are sloughed out like Campbell's Chunky Soup dribbling out of a dead bum's mouth.
Syd: That's right. I have a dead bum between my legs.
Will: Are you on birth control? Doesn't that reduce it?
Syd: I was, but I got off of it about six months ago. I wanted my face to regulate itself, its oils.
Mills: Regulate itself? You think your face is Warren G?
Will: [Brilliant falsetto rendition of "Regulate"].
“I don’t think that two big people should marry each other… You have...”
– Overheard at work
Point of No Returns →
A website that was, until today, dedicated to the fact that Tampa Bay, a team which started playing in 1976, had never returned a kickoff for a touchdown. As the site notes, that 1883 returns without a score. But not anymore!
iPhone Ad Parodies →
Totally brilliant. Derek the Frat Guy was so Daltonesque that it was like spending time with Will, who is always sending us photos of his weenis (even Spencer, who as a dentist can’t help him with anything).
4 tags
“Koba, why do you need me to die?”
– Bukharin, in a note to Stalin after the former’s arrest by the NKVD and indictment for treason, in the purges of the late 1930’s (his pitiful plea is here). He was executed two days later, probably in the Lubyanka. Koba was Stalin’s old revolutionary pseudonym; they’d been...
WatchRight. This is totally awesome; it’s from a series called The Professor Brothers, which has some other great episodes I won’t offend my dad or Sydney by posting (such as Bible History #1). “Even though I’m better than you, I am not.”
The Cost of Error: "Whenever I saw a fly in my... →
I agree with Robert McNamara: because we are not omniscient, we ought not violate our deepest ethical principles based on expedient predictions. I agree with Errol Morris: “Error is the central feature of human existence.” And here we are, the USA, doing to the innocent what we claim to invade nations for doing to the innocent. Yes, this was one man. I don’t care, and neither...
Pinchuck’s Law: The New Yorker →
Woody Allen on dentistry. Spencer, you dick…
Party Spencer →
See Spencer’s comment to this transcript: it’s totally hilarious. Party Spencer is often witty and amusing; Old Spencer just wasn’t as magnificent. There’s a lesson here.
Letters to Vick's Judge →
From Vick and various supporters; they are mildly interesting, as it’s hard to imagine pleading for one’s life (and Vick doesn’t seem purely forthright), but the most important thing I learned: my new hero Warrick Dunn’s mother was a police officer in Baton Rouge who was killed in an attempted robbery. He seems like a remarkable guy who’s done a lot for good causes.
“He said something about ass and dog biscuits.”
– Will, quoting Jackson at this bizarre Christmas party; Patrick also said he loved me “like a brother” and that I “walk hard.”
Newseum | Today's Front Pages →
This is truly awesome: a daily map of all newspaper front pages in the world. You have to check it out to believe it; just click on a city to open the front page full size. Romney made the front page of the Jerusalem Post.
DDS != MD
Mills: Are you studying bicuspids?
Spencer: No, I already studied those. I know that stuff.
Mills: How many do I have in my mouth?
Spencer: It's either two or four.
Mills: Either two or four? You don't know?
Spencer: No, it's eight.
Mills: What the fuck? Are you kidding me? Anywhere from two to eight? That's the best you can do?
Spencer: It should be eight.
WatchI think this generally is how people view me. Another good one from the same site.
Three McDonald's →
I’m hard on prose; it’s rare that I’m really pleased by something I find online, and not surprisingly; as Billy Dalto might note, the signal-to-noise ratio is atrocious. But my friend Evan recommended these three stories to me and I was truly impressed, particularly by the second (description of adult stress: “…persistent and militarized for the maximum infliction of...
WatchI hate to keep linking to TED, but my friend Evan tipped me to this absolutely astonishing bit of tech which, it appears, will revolutionize design and photography and indeed the nature of visual data. Visual data is presently not particularly semantic or referential, except in our brains; this seems to change that. Credit MS, although note that (1) this guy was acquired and (2) he notes that he...
The Republican Debate, In Data Form →
Sometimes I want to send the NYT a check for providing so much quality journalism to me, for free, for the past decade or so. Note the video transcript on the same page, too.
Will Dalton's World →
Amazon Ordered to End Free Delivery in France →
A great example of how laws designed to protect consumers and businesses from capitalism often do the opposite. The regulation of markets can just as easily hurt consumers as help them.
Mahmoud the Blogger →
From Billy Dalto: “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a snappy dresser and a blogger.”