February 2012
“I hate the [Twilight] franchise. I think it is bad for America and little girls....”
– Baratunde Thurston Explains ‘How To Be Black’ - NPR Books
I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’.
— Bob Newhart via HC
Gingrich Privately Regretting Not Doing 'More Jew... →
Quail Murderer Encourages Feeding Human Fetuses to...
“You buried the lead” in last week’s post about Sen. Ralph Shortey, a reader pointed out to me, and he was right. Given that Shortey’s proposed ban on the use of “aborted human fetuses” in food or food research is specifically limited to products “intended for human consumption,” it would appear that the senator does not have a problem with turning...
January 2012
“Money in American politics was already an elephant in the room. Now the supreme...”
– Gary Younge on the US elections, The Guardian
US elections: no matter who you vote for, money...
(…) It is difficult to think of anywhere else in the western world where these debates would have any credibility outside of a fringe party (even if the fringes in Europe are now spreading). Far from indicating America’s exceptionalism, it looks more like an awful parody of the stereotypes most outsiders already believed about American politics at its most bizarre. “Those who...
Bill Would Ban Using Human Fetuses in Food, Just...
Oklahoma state senator Ralph Shortey is concerned about the possibility that some nefarious person or entity is using aborted human fetuses in food, and has introduced legislation to put a stop to this. Or, to keep it from starting, because he isn’t exactly sure that anybody’s really doing this, or how or where they’d be doing it if they were. Still, can’t be too...
Joe Paterno Dies In Hospital; Doctors Promise To... →
Sign The Petition To Ban The Stupid 'Check Engine'... →
What Rick Santorum Doesn't Know About Sex | Sex at...
by Christopher Ryan
Rick Santorum doesn’t know what sex is for. In a recent appearance in New Hampshire, he summarized his thoughts on the subject, saying, “God made man and woman, and men and women come together to have a union to produce children, which keeps civilization going and provides the best environment for children to be raised.” While this may seem a common-sense...
Important New Emoticons | McSweeney's
by Mira Ptacin and Seth Fried
+: ) Ash Wednesday {: I Frida Kahlo : i Cold sore
[More @ McSweeney’s]
Taking down slumlords with social network analysis...
A group of buildings whose tenants continually complained about living conditions changed hands so frequently that city officials could do nothing about it….until a group representing the tenants used social network analysis to reveal the connections between all of the seemingly separate owners.
[Keep reading @ kottke.org]
“When I was young, I believed in three things: Marxism, the redemptive power of...”
– Sergio Leone (via nevver)
December 2011
20 of the Best Windows 7 Articles of 2011 - How-To... →
“You spend billions of dollars on the airports and force the terrorists to spend...”
– Bruce Schneier, in Charles C. Mann’s “Smoke Screens” for Vanity Fair
Watchvia BoingBoing
Guitarist Randy Bachman Demystifies the Opening...
by Mike Springer
You could call it the magical mystery chord. The opening clang of the Beatles’ 1964 hit, “A Hard Day’s Night,” is one of the most famous and distinctive sounds in rock and roll history, and yet for a long time no one could quite figure out what it was.
[Keep reading @ Open Culture]
“Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader who realized his family’s dream of...”
– CHOE SANG-HUN and DAVID E. SANGER in The New York Times