January 2011
“On Saturday, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked a guest on his show how al...”
– This has little to do with Islamists, or with Washington - The National
MHLAMF in Davos | Paul Krugman | NYTimes.com →
From the FT:
Governments around the world must stop banker-bashing and create the right environment for lenders to support economic growth, some of the world’s most powerful bankers will tell finance ministers on Saturday.
So “Ma! He’s looking at me funny!” is now at the core of the financial sector’s complaints. And the world’s top bankers feel that after bringing on a gigantic crisis that...
“Subtending all these more or less local provocations is the sense, pervasive...”
– n+1: On Egypt
“The Administration is caught in a bind, but it’s more strategic than just...”
– Egypt: Mubarak’s Defiance Makes Life Harder for Obama - TIME
“Despite the Mubarak regime’s efforts to invoke the spectre of the Muslim...”
– ‘Mubarak, your plane is waiting’ « LRB blog
“Wandering wombs, an anatomically conferred destiny of penis envy and masochism,...”
– DELUSIONS OF GENDER by Cordelia Fine reviewed by Carol Tavris - TLS
The Maddow Blog - Where is the American center? →
Don’t know about you, but I found last night’s string of quotes from President Eisenhower just amazing. By now, very many of us have come of age in an America where that Republican icon would be to the left of any Democrat on the national scene today. But in post-World War II America, President Eisenhower represented the Republican Party and the American center:
“Workers have a right to...
“Usually I find the State of the Union address boring. President (of either...”
– The Usual State of the Union Address With a Twist | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy
Nabokov Theory on Polyommatus Blue Butterflies Is... →
That’s right, the novelist Nabokov, author of Lolita, was the curator of lepidoptera at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University as a hobby. In addition to writing great literature, he dabbled in theorizing about the evolution of butterflies. And was just proven right. This is another good reason for instilling in our kids a love for nature. You never know what they might...
Apologies Fail to Live Up to Our Expectations:... →
A new study finds we tend to overestimate the healing power of an apology
“The President’s new emphasis on the importance of investing in education,...”
– Robert Reich (via azspot)
Getting older, yearly status update to self
Birthday last week. Got my yearly checkup. Feeling good about getting older (and wiser, but that doesn’t show up on a blood test).
Biological age: 36
Physiological age (in the words of my doc): not a day over 25
Soul age: Old (I’ve been told)
BP: 120/80
HDL: 82 (that’s really good to be that high)
HDL ratios to total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides:...
“Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook fan page seems to have been hacked, with the hacker...”
– Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Fan Page Hacked
FCC conditions on Comcast/NBCU →
Here’s a quick briefing on the FCC’s order [warning: large PDF] approving the Comcast/NBCU merger.
Now that Comcast is deeply invested in content as well as distribution, there’s a substantial risk that it will wield its power to favor its own programming. It has a built-in conflict of interest.
Because Comcast doesn’t face real competition for bundled services (very-high-speed wired Internet...
Users will not be able to opt out of having their... →
The ubiquitous “like” is currency for brands, and Facebook is giving them a new way to collect: an ad unit that shows up on the right-hand side of the screen it calls “sponsored stories.”
The settings that exist for users to control whose feeds they see and who sees their feed also apply to the sponsored stories. Users, however, will not be able to opt out of having their action turned into an...
“But isn’t it at least somewhat useful to think of our nation as if it were...”
– The Competition Myth - NYTimes.com
“I read the Brooks essay and I am eagerly awaiting the release of the book. This...”
– Mailbag: David Brooks’ Genetic Theory of Wealth; Jay Cutler, Quitter; and More | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy
Two churches located across the street from each...
ultraball:
paranoidrobot:
…Do the Presbyterians think Rocks are animals?
ALL ROCKS GO TO HEAVEN
“It’s going to take some planning, as well as some participation from...”
– Help Wanted: A New Supreme Court | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy
“Faced with both a public health crisis and a public relations disaster,...”
– Drug experiment - The Boston Globe
It may be too soon for an “I told you so,” but this is mostly encouraging. Our ridiculous drug policy is one of the many things we’ve got to correct.
“The ultimate show of power on the part of the ruling ideology is to allow what...”
– LRB · Slavoj Žižek · Good Manners in the Age of WikiLeaks
2 tags
"If," by Rumi
If you can disentangle
yourself from your selfish self
all heavenly spirits
will stand ready to serve you
if you can finally hunt down
your own beastly self
you have the right
to claim Solomon’s kingdom
you are that blessed soul who
belongs to the garden of paradise
is it fair to let yourself
fall apart in a shattered house
you are the bird of happiness
in the magic of existence...
The Mathematics Of Beauty « OkTrends →
This is such an interesting blog by a bunch of math nerds who get their data from their online dating site. Every time they post something I find it fascinating, and hilarious (read down to the “sweatpants” comment).
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“The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate...”
– Noam Chomsky (via mohandasgandhi)
“Technology does make you self-aware because you’re always being ranked and...”
– Interview: Gary Shteyngart | Full-Stop.net
“How would you characterize the present political climate? Do you believe it’s...”
– Interview: Gary Shteyngart | Full-Stop.net
“That’s something that I want to stress: this is a right-wing country. When we...”
– Interview: Gary Shteyngart | Full-Stop.net
“Immigrants today, Shteyngart tells me, “move back and forth all the time and...”
– Interview: Gary Shteyngart | Full-Stop.net
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Dionysus, a bard of the joy of life and existence. Yet he had a secret: Life might be a disease.
Dionysus, god of death and of life.
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“YOU are invulnerable. Have they not granted you,
those powers that preordain...”
– To Whoever is Reading Me, Jorge Luis Borges (via curioushair)
“What annoys me about the recommendation “engines” that drive e-commerce nowadays...”
– When Amazon and Netflix Tell You What to Buy - NYTimes.com
“It’s important to be clear here about the nature of our sickness. It’s not a...”
– Climate of Hate - NYTimes.com
1 tag
the art of not reading...
elina-astra:
The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. – A precondition for reading good...
1 tag
“I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have...”
– Edgar Allan Poe (via melaniemandala)
“Tears shed by women contain chemical signals that decrease sexual arousal and...”
– Women’s tears contain chemical cues : Nature News
“Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected...”
– Candidate Obama (via azspot)
WatchAsshole for Hire: James Van Der Beek is sorry he was such a good guy when he was Dawson Leery on Dawson’s Creek, but now he’s making up for it
(via )
4 tags
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“In politics, we face the choice between warmongering, nation-state loving, big...”
– Nassim Taleb (via azspot)
“The world of face-to-face interaction is growing rusty, slipping into the past...”
– On the Internet - Justin Erik Halldór Smith
“If then there is a certain respect in which it makes sense to say that the...”
– On the Internet - Justin Erik Halldór Smith
“Nothing in the theory of homeopathy is worth consideration, but in its practice,...”
– Why I Can’t Even Get My Mother to Agree with Me on Homeopathy