August 2010
43 posts
1 tag
Annual Let's Charge Cricketers with Treason and...
Since surveying corruption I’m seeing it everywhere. Today, Mexico fired 3,200 corrupt police officers and Brazil announced the Clean Slate law that will ban 5,000 people from contesting October’s elections due to corruption allegations.
Think that’s bad? Pakistani cricketers accused of corruption relating to a betting scandal angered the cricket-mad country so much that...
“I had expected great physical comedy in Daddyland—fathers covered with diaper...”
– Snack bags and a regular paycheck: The happy life of a Swedish dad - Slate
“Service is on the decline because consumers have been conditioned to demand low...”
– The crisis in customer service : The New Yorker
“You have to be over the age of 21 to purchase Fried Beer”
– Fun Fried Beverages - Creators of Fried Beer™
“It’s the most unusual dog movie ever made. The final scene, where the humans are...”
– A cause for pause: The book ‘My Dog Tulip’ was bad enough, and now they’ve made it into a movie - Boston Globe
“The doors to corporate America were locked, and I could not get in. I am the...”
– I Was Briefly the Face of an Unemployed Generation - The Awl
“Connors took a swing at a photographer, clenched his fists and his teeth, and...”
– TENNIS.com - Blogs - Concrete Elbow by Steve Tignor by Steve Tignor - Concrete Elbow by Steve Tignor: It Happened at the Open
“To overhear an ordinary character thinking deeply, in complex sentences, about...”
– Lorin Stein - “Against Beach Reading”
“A few years back, I did an April Fool’s post about signing on the feature...”
– Hope springs eternal
1 tag
The Ambassador of Death missile is just the Angel...
Surprises and inevitabilities in this weekend’s headlines. Can you separate them? Pop-quiz:
Which country recently launched a rocket that their President named the “Ambassador of Death?”
Which country did the New York Times find to be “More Deadly Than Iraq?”
Which country had a top-secret manual smuggled beyond their borders that explained the art of constructing...
“Government officials declared a 31-square-mile area around him off-limits to...”
– The most isolated man on the planet - Slate
“The entire time that Tony (the first faraday suit performer) was in the spark,...”
– Building The World’s First Lightning-Proof MIDI Guitar
“[Sudanese] officials concede that a lot of money is needed…to transform...”
– The Associated Press: Animal shaped cities? South Sudan unveils big plan
“There are many blankets in the world. But there is only one blankie. The best...”
– Why Do We Care About Luxury Brands? | Wired Science | Wired.com
1 tag
In Search of Distorted Time: A Neuroscientist...
Time distortion is not something that only happens when it looks like the hero is falling to a grim demise. Radiolab report for NPR that neuroscientist David Eagleman is beginning to understand why near death experiences trigger a “slow-mo effect”:
Normally, our memories are like sieves…But if a car suddenly swerves and heads straight for you, your memory shifts gears. Now...
1 tag
Four Walls and Adobe Slats for my Gazan Girls
Hamas is stifling the construction of solar powered ovens, electric cars, and clay houses in Gaza, supposedly because keeping Gaza undeveloped and in a terrible state will ensure the world does something. Fouad El-Harazin, founder of Gaza’s National Research Center, explained to the Global Post:
The policy of Hamas is to show we are not developing…We depend on Israel with...
“They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while...”
– Beloit College Mindset List - Class of 2014
“Now, I think we should have adopted. We should have stayed in the city. We...”
– New Voices | Online Only | Granta Magazine
“There’s no bargaining with alcohol and drugs once you have to have them. You...”
– Lives - Sharing Demons With Hank Williams - NYTimes.com
“Ted Stevens, ever the Silver Surfer, had his own ideas about entitlement and...”
– The Mudflats | Voices from the Flats – Uncle Ted is Dead
“Becoming a priest, first of all, seemed to solve the problem of not wanting...”
– LRB · Colm Tóibín · Among the Flutterers
1 tag
Syndromes and a Superpower: Compulsory...
Calisthenics and quasi-authoritarian states often march hand-in-hand. In this morning’s Headlines we linked to the news that China has reinstated mandatory radio-led exercise for Beijing’s workers.
Frightening, or the inevitable next step in tackling childhood obesity? Frightening is the answer. It brings to mind George Orwell’s 1984 and Thai film Syndromes and a Century, both featuring exercise...
“Patrick Bateman was in a lot of ways, me. And I only feel comfortable saying...”
– Bret Easton Ellis in Australia: “It Was Really About Me” - The Awl
“he’s good enough friends with a few high-ranking gangster bosses that he...”
– Yakuza 3 reviewed by Yakuza - Boing Boing
1 tag
Tony Judt: A Very Brave Man with the Liveliest...
Tony Judt died on Friday aged 62. Until then, I knew only that he was a historian who had big ideas about reimagining social democracy and that he suffered from a degenerative disease.
Rather than learning about his life through a 400 word obituary that I’d just as quickly read as forget, I decided to do the man a little more justice by reading him in his own words, and sharing the best...
“You may say metal pant, but I say serious cock block. Here comes the MANtra:...”
– The Man Repeller: Ode to Fall Leggings
“If a gay judge can rule on same-sex marriage, we should let cases about...”
– How to Ruin Same-Sex Marriages | August 05, 2010 - Savion Glover | ColbertNation.com
“Red Sox fan Mark Wahlberg relishes in having shot Yankee Captain Derek Jeter in...”
– Last Night on Late Night: Mickey Rourke Tells Jay Leno About the Time He Shook Down a ‘Humpback Dwarf’ — Vulture
“The laws of war judge the methods used in fighting the war but not the goals...”
– Michelle Sieff: Don’t Take Hamas’s Goals Out of the Equation – Forward.com
“In the U.S., a couple who barely know each other can marry in a publicly...”
– You Call This Marriage? - Alexander Chee
“When I talk about Duran Duran with other guys…we end up debating whether the...”
– Growing up New Wave, Texas in Wartime [Recent Reads] - Austinist
“I , Basil Marceaux argue why does a marine go to Leavenworth when they breaks...”
– Basil Marceaux for Governor
“Mr. Stoudemire is a quick read on foreign languages, and he speculates the skill...”
– An NBA Star in the Holy Land - Wall Street Journal
“There were men who minded and let me know they minded. There were men who did...”
– “A Few Words About Breasts,” Nora Ephron, 1975
“It was perhaps the first formal political petition for religious freedom in the...”
– Mayor Bloomberg stands up for mosque - New York Daily News
“When people are done with Manga they put it out with the burnable trash; it’s a...”
– An Interview with Jacob Ritari – InDigest Magazine
“I specifically ordered persian rugs with cherub imagery!!! What do I have to do...”
– #kanyenewyorkertweets - TwitPic
“Most of the rich are the “working rich,” who derive most of their...”
– The fantasy of a vast upper middle class - Salon
“Given two directions to go, 65 percent of flying mosquitoes who smelled a beer...”
– Scocca : Mosquitoes Prefer People With Beer in Them
“Dear Lindsay Lohan… Anyone could shoot a deer, but now people visiting you...”
– Dear Lindsay Lohan
“It is, by any standards, an extraordinary choice. Under Hitler, Soviet prisoners...”
– Mongolian neo-Nazis: Anti-Chinese sentiment fuels rise of ultra-nationalism | World news | The Guardian
“Why just remove the ground beneath a parked helicopter when you could put that...”
– Photoshop of Horrors: Wired readers show BP how it’s done - Wired
“And let who among us that is unintrigued by Machete cast the first stone.”
– The Anticipation List - The Awl 