April 2008
37 posts
All Warm and Fuzzy Inside →
Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her career. Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman was already her school’s career leader in them. But when a twist of fate and a torn knee ligament brought them face to face with each other and face to face with the end of their playing days, they combined on a home run trot that celebrated the collective human spirit far...
Mixing apples and kumquats →
Are people such as Mayhill Fowler, the Barack Obama supporter who broke the news of rural white voters being described as “bitter” “citizen journalists” or “witnesses”? Michael Tomasky and Jeff Jarvis debate the matter.
Reading things for The Writing
Between matrons he works behind the counter, settling into the day’s course of revisions. Inflection, the skin, is almost always stripped away before the animals reach him. The epidermal layers — and accompanying feathers and fur — being at once unnecessary and defining, are sent to other venues: the creaking tanneries across the Hudson, the taxidermist upstate, the furrier in Queens. But without...
'Buildings should look like what they are' →
Amusing planning application for a farm-shed, well worth reading the full document (linked at the bottom of the article): For the ‘context’: The economic context is farming in the United Kingdom in 2008 (which is not very economic), the opportunities are to store equipment inside rather than outside, the constraint is the planning system And ‘Access’: The access is from a...
“Remember that bit in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the big, baldy German guy is...”
– The Daily Mash with “Banks Fucked”.
Made me smile →
Given some recent postings, I don’t think this is unfair.
Buzzfeed →
Buzzfeed has a new look and feel today and looks rather nice. Seems a lot more responsive as well, but I’m sure there used to be a section for “rising Buzz” that seems to have gone. Contains such gems as: Mansinthe TypeRacer (horribly addictive, be warned) Lab Meat
Iceland's Deep Freeze →
Insofar as Americans think about Iceland at all, it’s as a land whose remoteness belies a vibrant cultural scene featuring hipster titans, like Björk and Sigur Rós, and exceptional social conditions—it’s the top-rated country in the U.N.’s most recent human-development index. But in the financial world Iceland is now a hot topic of discussion for a different reason: many people suggest that it...
Coudal →
Coudal Partners’ “Fresh Signals” feed is responsible for a large chunk of the time I spend reading things and looking at things online. This post on the 37Signals blog today gives a bit more information on them as a company, and how they transitioned from being a client-focussed design agency to a product-based business:When they had trouble finding great CD packaging, they...
Desire to Learn? →
Why are the unintelligent or uninformed so arrogantly confident while the intelligent and well informed so often unsure and apprehensive? There is something very human to thinking you know more than you really do about a subject or issue.(via)
Fig Roll Shortage? →
I have to say, I haven’t tried to buy any recently but there’s apparently a lack of Fig biscuits in British supermarkets due to “wasp problems in Turkey”. Glad to hear they should be back on shelves in a month or so.
Most Published Author? →
It’s not easy to write a book. First you have to pick a title. And then there is the table of contents. If you want the book to be categorized, either by a bookseller or a library, it has to be assigned a unique numerical code, like an ISBN, for International Standard Book Number. There have to be proper margins. Finally, there’s the back cover.Oh, and there is all that stuff in the middle, too....
Prediction Markets →
Article from the New York Times on how some large companies are using the collective wisdom of their employees to help improve forecasting and idea-generation.
I'm loving aliens instead →
Jon Ronson and Robbie Williams go looking for evidence of UFOs. A slightly surreal look at the pop-star’s latest obsession.
Wanderlust →
Fabulous video for Bjork’s latest single. There’s a 3D version out on Monday, might have to see if I can find/make some 3D glasses this weekend…
Me know. Me have problem.
Me was thinking and me just don’t get it. Why is me a monster? No one else called monster on Sesame Street. Well, no one who isn’t really monster. Two-Headed Monster have two heads, so he real monster.[…]How can they be so callous? Me know there something wrong with me, but who in Sesame Street doesn’t suffer from mental disease or psychological disorder? They don’t...
2:42 in Heaven →
Here’s the problem: “More Than a Feeling” is four minutes and 47 fucking seconds long. I don’t have time for that kind of nonsense. That’s, like, one-seventh of my recreation right there.Don’t get me wrong, slugger. I love “More Than a Feeling.” Those who don’t are your basic a-holes. But it’s like: We get it. The riff, the handclaps, the 10,000 multi-tracked guitars—nice. But then there’s another...
Signs of the times →
New York (like many other American cities) also seeks to provide its inhabitants with a comprehensive instruction manual on how to use and interact with the city: a sort of Big Apple for dummies. And, judging by the lack of confidence in the average citizen’s intelligence reflected in some of these signs, “dummies” is an apt description.For instance, on one toilet door hangs the...
Centrifugal Bumble Puppy →
This, and more fictional-sports-that-should-be-real:The planet is obviously screaming out for new sports. So I combed the annals of fiction for an admittedly incomplete but still fascinating list of the games that might just make the grade when the tired old Brit-invented warhorses of football, baseball, basketball and cricket finally get boiled down for glue.The suggestion in the comments to...
http://twitter.com/commentisfree →
Incidentally, the Guardian’s “comment is free…” is on Twitter.
“I wouldn’t trust Boris to operate a mop, let alone a £10bn Crossrail...”
– Charlie Brooker on the mayoral candidates.
Blank is like Blank →
Waterboarding is like freebasing:They both sound like they should be summer-camp activities. This and more “Analogies to live by” contained within. (via)
Zone 22 →
Interesting, if a little worrying, article in today’s Guardian taken from the book of a guy who spent two years in a Russian ‘gulag’
I saw this last week, “Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone”, which has attracted a bit of attention. There’s been a follow-up article from the author: “More From America’s Worst Mom”My vision of the world, especially childrearing, turns out to be starkly at odds with the mainstream one, which believes that the world (especially New York) is...
http://buzzfeed.com/buzz/Anti-Emo_Violence →
Buzzfeed’s collection of links on a rise in anti-emo riots and violence in Mexico. “Weird and disturbing” pretty much nails it.
Interviews with a Hedge Fund manager
A while ago Kottke posted a link to an interview with a hedgefund manager, in which he talks in general terms about the business now, what the future might hold and the kind of characteristics that make good candidates for the job as well as touching on the subprime issues at the end. It’s not exactly light reading, but is definitely interesting and rather amusing in places. Anyway, in...
You Have to Burn the Rope →
Fun little flash game, and not going to waste too much time. Until you get to the catchy-as-fuck song at the end. If you get stuck, there’s a manual. (via, again)
Ten Thousand Cents
thousands of individuals working in isolation from one another painted a tiny part of the bill without knowledge of the overall task. Workers were paid one cent each via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk distributed labor tool. Watching it being drawn is quite incredible, and some of the “Selected Gallery” entries are pretty funny. http://www.tenthousandcents.com (via)
Online Restaurant Bookings causing confusion? →
Kottke describing David Chang’s Momofuko Ko restaurant in New York, that only allows bookings via its website, which seems to be confusing some people. There was a profile of Chang in the New Yorker recently, but it’s not online which is a shame as it was interesting - he was portrayed as a very stressed guy, but someone who’d endure a lot to ensure perfection. Summed up quite...
The Huffington Post
Since reading about The Huffington Post in the Observer’s top-50 blogs list I’ve been visiting it pretty regularly and it’s a pretty interesting site. I’m quite surprised I hadn’t even heard of it before, but the focus is very american, so maybe not so surprising. It’s worth a look, anyway. I’m not so sure about the yellow flashes that let you know the...
I came across an interview/conversation (via) between Heston Blumenthal and Grant Achatz, an american chef also known for his molecular gastronomy. Both guys have books out later this year (October) and they’re discussing various aspects of the process that goes into them. Both have managed to retain a lot of control over the content and style of their books (Grant is self-publishing, and...