September 2011
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“The [Pitilessly Resentful Sophomore] would turn her blinding light on the canon...”
– -Sars, “Beautiful Fools”
Dying. laughing. Because: oh college.
Also good, “…this sort of dispositional sourness posing as feminism”. !
(via dotsara)
“When Santa came to our house last year, how did he know our address?”...”
– My dear friend @katyh shared her son Ben’s latest bit of brilliance. I think Ben- or James-quotes dominate my Favorites list on Twitter.
As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around... →
Abstract: ”Protesters around the world have something in common: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.”
Mr. Levi, born on Degania, Israel’s first kibbutz, said the protests were not acts of anger but of reclamation, of a society hijacked by a class known in Hebrew as “hon veshilton,” meaning a nexus of money...
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“Young Americans don’t go to college to avoid work. They work hard in college so...”
– Views: The Myth of College as a Fairy Tale - Inside Higher Ed (via infoneer-pulse)
Colleague Christian's dream
@mintchaos: I dreamt that at the first post-Steve Apple announcement the audience wore big letters that spelled things so they could "participate".
@mintchaos: And the big product announcement was MacBooks that could repel bats via a special clunky attachment on the bottom.
@mintchaos: So apparently my subconscious and I have differing opinions of Tim Cook.
@mintchaos: ...
@mintchaos: It should be noted that you could donate to Apple's preferred bat preservation society to adopt the bats used in the demo.
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Watchascendingcoherence:
Is it fair to say that 12-year-old Kurt Cobain was watching Saturday Night Live the night that David Bowie performed “The Man Who Sold the World” and later performed in a dress?
Yes. (The man in red does a hell of a robot.)
While You Were Sleeping: Hitler didn't snub Jesse... →
whileyouweresleeping:
Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals for the U.S. at 1936 Olympics in Berlin, tells the story:
“When I passed the Chancellor, he arose, waved his hand at me and I waved back at him. Hitler didn’t snub me. It was Franklin Delanoe Roosevelt who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a…
“As a constitutional matter, Scalia’s assertion is not wrong. The court has never...”
– Why It’s Constitutional to Execute an Innocent Man - The Daily Beast (via felixsalmon)
What Motivates STEM Students? Depends on Their... →
Via GeekFeminism:
The survey found that 68 percent of STEM majors say one of their major motivating factors is financial. That makes sense—STEM graduates havehigher starting salaries than their peers. The same number say they are attracted to science and math fields because they are “intellectually stimulating and challenging.” But salary is the top factor for male students and...
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“It’s that whole flowery sundress, nerdy horn-rims, bicycle basket,...”
– Hank Stuever explains what he finds so awful about Zooey Deschanel in his look at the horridness of female characters in television’s fall lineup - The Washington Post. (via washingtonpoststyle)
Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou, Hank Stuever. “Put-a-bird-on-it tweeness.” Perfect.
READ THIS
...
How To Make A Dowager Countess Hat | The Awl →
The premiere of the second season of “Downton Abbey” airs on Saturday night—for British television viewers. Unfortunately, those of us on the other side of the pond have to wait for broadcast. In the meantime, here’s a little project you might want to work on in anticipation, so that you will be properly attired when you do finally get to see it.
Via @katyh on Reader.
Watchtheatlanticvideo:
Remix: ‘All the President’s Men’ vs. the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’
“I can’t stand it, I know you planned it, I’m gonna set it straight, this Watergate,” begins the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.” All the President’s Boys is one of those perfect remixes that works so well, you can’t believe you didn’t think of it first. Editor Jeff Yorkes “cinemashup” of footage from All the...
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Note that a huge collection of Esssential Mixes...
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A look back at David Foster Wallace's classic take... →
Which includes the piece, too. Worth a re-read if you have time.
Via @BrianOberkirch.
Sept. 11 and the Cycle of Revenge - NYTimes.com →
Simon Critchley, philospher at New School for Social Research:
In a scarily fascinating 2004 video, called “The Towers of Lebanon,” in which Bin Laden claimed direct responsibility for 9/11 for the first time, he says that the Sept. 11 attacks were justified as an act of revenge. If the United States violates the security of the Muslim world — especially by using his homeland of Saudi Arabia as...
"Just Asking" - David Foster Wallance in The... →
DFW’s 9/11 piece.
Via Willie/@ambiguitweets, where he calls it “one of the few worthwhile calls to action re: 9/11”. Which I agree with.
Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea* one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs,...
Dead Island shitstorm: even if it was a “private... →
It has come to our attention that one of Dead Island’s leftover debug files contains a highly inappropriate internal script name of one of the character skills. This has been inexcusably overlooked and released with the game. The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturaly [sic] has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was...
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Yo. N+1 Personals. Step off.
laphamsquarterly:
Or, you know, find your soulmate. We don’t care.
npluspersonals:
YES! THE GUY THAT HATES LAPHAM’S.
Are you an informal New Critic who yet prefers the singularity of Cavell to the diffusion of Empson? Are you filled with a sense of dread when staring at a cover of Lapham’s? Have you refused to ever buy a single copy? Contact me to share the best reading recs....
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Me Talk Pretty One Day? →
futurejournalismproject:
Time reports a fascinating study conducted to determine the talking speed of various languages, and how much information is packed in per syllable.
Conclusion: While languages are spoken at different speeds, they contain the same amount of information over a given time:
For all of the other languages, the researchers discovered, the more data-dense the average...
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“Some in America are still addicted to the quick fix and the fast buck. They...”
– Leadership Is About Taking The Long View | Fast Company (via infoneer-pulse)
Sept. 11 and the Cycle of Revenge - NYTimes.com →
The Opinionator. Which auto-spawns new NYT tabs, I swear.
NCSU News :: NC State News and Information » In... →
…men who had lots of specialized work experience were often recruited into a new job through their social contacts without having to look for a job. In fact, men with this kind of experience were 12 percent more likely to find a new job through informal recruitment than they were through a formal job search… Women, however, did not see this benefit.
Via GeekFeminism, of course.
The cost of Southwest’s near-disaster: Not much… |... →
On April 1, Southwest Airlines (LUV) Flight 812 suffered a 5-foot rupture in its fuselage, causing the cabin to depressurize rapidly and forcing the pilot into an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from Phoenix. Southwest canceled 624 flights over three days, found (and fixed) flaws in five other aircraft and the FAA ordered additional inspections for other airlines as well. The flying...
Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP... →
Undermining Americans’ belief in their own institutions of self-government remains a prime GOP electoral strategy. But if this technique falls short of producing Karl Rove’s dream of 30 years of unchallengeable one-party rule …, there are other even less savory techniques upon which to fall back. Ever since Republicans captured the majority in a number of state legislatures...