October 2009
53 posts
Illinois teacher suspended after suggesting a read... →
*sigh*
It never ends.
— Via The Questionable Authority, on a Seed Magazine story, from Bogotá.
Outrospection: Empathy as an Extreme Sport →
Roman Krznaric starts a new blog on empathy as a new, “avant-garde” way of traveling:
You can take a lead from the English writer George Orwell, who turned empathising into an extreme sport. In the late 1920s, after five years as a colonial police officer in Burma, Orwell decided to live as a tramp on the streets of East London, a period of his life described in his book Down and Out...
The Internet Is 40 Today →
Happy birthday, you great thing.
— From Bogotá.
The Obama's Taste in Art
kryz:
It must be nice to be the president. In addition to having helicopters, jumbo jets, and motorcades, you get to rifle through the cellars of the National Gallery and the Hirschhorn for artistic masterpieces to adorn your home for the next four to eight years. As with all of our recent presidents, the artistic choices made by Barack Obama and his wife (since first ladies traditionally play a...
Bat BJ →
“… female bat will often bend down to lick the shaft of her mate’s penis during sex itself. This behaviour happened on 70% of the videos, making it the only known example of regular fellatio in a non-human animal. It also prolonged the sexual encounter - males never withdrew their penises when they were being licked and, on average, the behaviour bought the couple an extra 100...
Teach both evolution and creationism say 54% of... →
NO. NO NO NO NO NO.
— From Bogotá, returning to, erm… “Civilization.”
Pecados De Mi Padre
Nicolás Entel is a movie director from Argentina (he also happens to be the big brother of one of my baby sister’s friends, which is how I heard of him).
Nicolás was interviewed two days ago by Christiane Amanpour because he is promoting his new documentary, called Sins of My Father, in which he follows the son of Pablo Escobar as he meets the sons of the men killed by his father in the...
Implacable Logic
Eric: He manages more than 2 trillion dollars.
Me: TRILLION.
Eric: A man's gotta eat.
WatchThe Daily Mail is Britain’s second best-selling newspaper. Its editorial line, defined as “traditionally conservative” (I love the understatement), attracts a readership of more than 2 million. They hate all things non-U.K., non-white, non-monarchy and, in 1993, they suggested they could see a glimmer of hope in the idea of abortion (which they otherwise condemn) after the...
WatchMoonchild, King Crimson.
I was a student when Buffalo 66 came out. Like most kids my age, I’d never heard of King Crimson before. Like most kids my age, I fell in love and never looked back.
— Inspired by Nevver, From London.
Acrimonious Writing for your Reading Pleasure.
My friend Paul has been roaring with laughter for the past couple of days. He blames Roger Lewis. Lewis, a seasoned journalist and a proud mysanthrope (much like Paul, although he prefers the term “picky”), is “short and fat, full of bile” (much UNlike Paul, despite what he would have you think). He lives near Worscester, where Paul is from, and wrote a book called Seasonal...
A Color and a Story a Day, for 100 Days. →
Every day for one hundred days (from October 30, 2008 to February 6, 2009) I picked a paint chip out of a bag and responded to it with a short writing. I have selected my favorite forty, titling each writing with the number of the day it was written (out of 100) and the name of the color from that day’s paint chip.
Rachel Berger, in The Design Observer.
My favorite:
56 Magic Moment Freshman...
Dear Food Places Around Work
Tomato soup is NOT just bolognese in a bowl (this goes for you, Spianata), the same way gazpacho is NOT cold pasta sauce in a plastic container (I’m looking at you, Pret).
Thanks for yet another ruined lunch.
— From London.
Safe Season in French Fashion
Fashionistas deplore the eye-watering dullness on Parisian catwalks this season. For cool, fun, creative stuff, do yourself a favor and step outside. You know what? They’re right. Just don’t touch our scarves.
“Much has been written about the Frenchwoman and her clever scarf-tying techniques. But hardly anybody ever bothers to note how dull the result is, how boring and...
Not Health, But Mythologies, Says Roger Cohen. →
Post-heroic European societies, having paid in blood for violent political movements born of inequality and class struggle, see greater risk in unfettered individualism than in social solidarity. Americans, born in revolt against Europe and so ever defining themselves against the old Continent’s models, mythologize their rugged (always rugged) individualism as the bulwark against...
Excessive Happiness Is a Condition.
It’s called hyperthymia. Also, Richard Powers’s latest novel about the discovery of the “Happy Girl Gene” sounds like a remarkable read. Despite its cover.
— From London.
Bookies Predict Virgin to Visit Donegal
This is a press release received last Friday, from Paddy Power in Ireland:
Following another alleged sighting of the Virgin Mary in rural Donegal this week Paddy Power have installed the remote village of Kerrytown as their 10/1 second-favourite to be the next Irish location to have a confirmed sighting of the Blessed Virgin.
Paddy Power originally offered odds on the location of the next...
@ →
A poem by Paul Muldoon, in The Design Observer.
— From London.
Allow me to just copy and paste the intro to this video in MoreIntelligentLife.com.
Stop whatever you are doing to sit and watch this Economist interview with James Ellroy (below), author most recently of “Blood’s a Rover”. You’ll find this exchange, among other things:
THE ECONOMIST: Do you think of these characters as hateful? Redeemable? Do you love them in a certain measure? Are you...
