Category Archives: ‘Culture’

'Culture', Civil Liberties, Politics, Science and Edumacation

Friday Linkorama

  • Keep trying, gun controllers. It’s just so funny when you keep trying.
  • Am I single now? Is my daughter a bastard?
  • The idea that this decade has seen global cooling continues to fade.
  • I have so far avoided the new wave vampires. I think I’m going to keep doing that.
  • An startling graphic that show the surge in unemployment on a country level. See if you can notice which city on the eastern seaboard is immune from the recession.
    • 'Culture', Politics, The Nanny State

    Weekend Linkorama

  • Ouch.
  • More adventures from Maricopa County.
  • Friersdorf has a great open letter. The problem with the GOP is not the RINOs. It’s the corrupt lying “real conservatives”.
  • A heartbreaking story.
  • I think it’s great that the federal government is protecting us from … brass?
  • All across the world, they comin’ to America. Hey, if they want to work and obey the law, welcome aboard.
  • You stay classy, WBC.
    • 'Culture'

    Vapor Awards

    Maybe I was too harsh on the Nobel Committee. It seems everyone is giving out award for things that haven’t happened yet. Popular Mechanics gave an award for outstanding product to the Crunchpad Tablet, which, technically speaking, has not been made available to the public. And Princeton’s new hospital building was named one of the 20 most beautiful hospitals even thought, technically speaking, it’s a steel skeleton at this point.

    I now think I need to submit my novel for the Pulitzer Prize. Because if I ever finish it, it’s going to be fucking awesome.

    'Culture'

    Sign of the Times

    I just noticed that the “Paw Points” I get for buying kitty litter dramatically decreased in value. A few years ago, I cashed in some points for some merchandise. It cost me 600 points, the equivalent of a dozen buckets of kitty litter. Those two prizes now cost 1700 points or 34 buckets of litter. My wife has also noticed this in gift card earnings and the size of containers in grocery stores (1/3 Gallon containers became 1/4 gallon containers at the same price).

    I guess it’s better than laying people off.

    'Culture', Politics, Sports

    Friday Linkorama

  • For once, a heart-warming non-political story.
  • Something else non-political that will make you grin. Mike Blowers calls his shot — before the game. Blowers has been one of my favorite players since I traded for him in a computer simulation only to watch him have a better season than he ever had in real life.
  • What is this? Three non-political things in a row? Read this about the importance of feeling stupid. I’ve observed that the principal difference between people who drop out of science and people who stay is that the stayers don’t take it personally when they feel stupid. (This is not to be confused with leaving and staying in academia, where the stayers just are stupid. Oh. Wait.)
  • Is the Keynsian multiplier 1? It’s just one paper, but the idea that massive spending (or, to be honest, massive tax cuts) stimulate the economy seems on shakier ground than supporters want to admit.
  • OK, back to politics. In response to Barack Obama, the Republican Party has clearly decided to go insane.
  • I find the videos of kids singing Obama’s praises a bit creepifying — not because it’s Obama but because I find the entire Cult of the Presidency thing creepifying. But the Right Wing’s hysteria has a very short memory. Check out this video of kids praying for (or to) Bush. Now that’s disturbing.
  • Democrats have restored abstinence education funding. Why?
    • 'Culture'

    Time

    1 Comment

    I loooove time-lapse videos. When my little girl was young, we used to take pictures of her once a week in the same position to watch her grow. It stopped when we moved and she became mobile, but maybe we’ll resume one day. I think it would be incredible to get a bunch of babies and photographic them every day. Just think not only of the cool video you’d have in 30 years, but how much we’d learn about human development.

    I’ve often wanted to set up my own time-lapse cameras. I just resealed the driveway last week and wanted desperately to set up a camera to photograph it every day and watch the seal wear away and cracks appear. Do they sell time-lapse cameras? Can you buy them somewhere?

    'Culture'

    Harry Patch

    The last British survivor of WW1 is gone. I find myself fascinated by these handful of survivors who probably could never have imagined they’d live so long.

    Read the whole thing. It’s a great article. Particularly this:

    His most vivid memory of the war was of encountering a comrade whose torso had been ripped open by shrapnel. “Shoot me,” Mr. Patch recalled the soldier pleading.

    The man died before Patch could draw his revolver.

    “I was with him for the last 60 seconds of his life. He gasped one word – ‘Mother.’ That one word has run through my brain for 88 years. I will never forget it.”

    And he didn’t. For 90+ years.