October 2011
1 post
#OccupySomething
Berlin Wall @ Newseum
Music:...
September 2010
6 posts
You Do You Tuesday.
Music: Gifted, N.A.S.A....
“If we strain out the differences, personal and philosophical, they had with one...”
–
Louis Menand in The Metaphysical Club describing the prevailing attitude toward ideas shared by the four post Civil War protagonists in the book - Holmes, James, Peirce, and Dewey.
This understanding seems to dovetail well with Newton’s famous quote, “If I have seen a little further...
The Sanctity of Quranic Text
Sacred or So What?
Interesting take by gospelofmoll via J.E.H. Smith’s blog about why burning the Quran is no different than burning an old newspaper since you’re not burning “the” actual revelations of God per se. They’re just copies of copies, and translations of the actual and more authentic arabic text at that. This provokes an interesting counterfactual:...
Lighting and Maintaining the Fire
We’ve all heard the adage: man who go to sleep with itchy butt wake up with smelly hand practice makes perfect. With massive amounts of “deliberate practice” - say around 10,000 hours give or take - you too can achieve the status of excellence. For those who have read Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, this might sound familiar. He argues that there is no such thing as...
Machination Monday.
Music: Dead Presidents II,...
9 Years Later
NYC
On this 9 year anniversary of 9-11, a few choice commentaries on the state of our nation:
9-11 and the Nine Year War, George Friedman
Should the Dream Ever Sour, George Packard [The New Yorker]
Al Qaeda’s Post 9-11 Surge, Bruce Riedel [The Daily Beast]
Post 9-11 We’re Safer Than We Think, Fareed Zakaria [Wash Post 9/13]
Nine Years Later, is Al Qaeda’s Threat...
May 2010
1 post
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and...”
– David Foster Wallace
November 2009
1 post
July 2009
5 posts
WatchFind an introspective moment, breathe, and turn this up. Features Royksopp, DJ Food, Chemical Bros, 4 Hero, Mos Def, Telepopmusik, Thievery Corp, DJ Shadow, et al.
Art by Yasmeanie.
Compilation by yours truly.
Happy Liberation Day.
Music by Tapis Rough, Le...
The David House
True story. The famous sitar player Daniel refers to is none other than Ravi Shanker who was on tour in America and needed a place to crash for a gig the next night.
From the moment we had to pull a string to ring the door bell I knew we were in for an interesting encounter.
emperorsnewclothes:
I met the most interesting man tonight. He looked like a stoned santa claus - this older portly old...
June 2009
14 posts
Platonic Sunday?
Art by Jason Thielke.
...
Hungover as shit Wednesday.
Art by Toxel.
...
Required White House Reading on Health Care
When President Obama says an article has “affected his thinking dramatically” you ought to read it. The underlying crux of the health care issue and - maybe, just maybe - how best to address it are explained in a very fascinating and well-researched article by Atul Gawande in this month’s New Yorker titled “The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health...
No Consequence Sunday.
Music by Brad Mehldau,...
(Un)Happy Saturday evening.
Art by Steven...
My dinner with antrophagus
The new atkins?!
DESCRIPTION: From a March 6, 2001, transcript of an online chat between Bernd-Jürgen Brandes (cator99) and Armin Meiwes (antrophagus), included in Interview with a Cannibal: The Secret Life of the Cannibal from Rotenburg, by Günter Stampf, published in Germany last fall. Brandes responded to an online advertisement Meiwes posted stating that he was seeking a “well-built man, 18–30, who would like to be eaten by me.” Meiwes videotaped himself slaughtering Brandes a few days later. He confessed to the act and was convicted of manslaughter in 2004. The ruling was overturned in 2006 on the grounds that the sentence of eight and a half years was too lenient. Meiwes was retried, convicted of murder, and resentenced to life imprisonment. Translated from the German by Jina Moore. Via Harper's Magazine.
CATOR99: Hallllooooo????
ANTROPHAGUS: Hi, Cator, what do you do professionally, that you are up so late at night?
CATOR99: I can’t sleep well anymore because of our meeting
ANTROPHAGUS: That’s a sensible reason. Yesterday I was incredibly tired, it was a stressful day
CATOR99: I’m in telecommunications
ANTROPHAGUS: Oh, that sounds interesting
CATOR99: I believe you
ANTROPHAGUS: I’m looking forward to our meeting, it will definitely be really cool
CATOR99: I want it to be! I hope it’ll be really cool. Are you setting an alarm clock?????
ANTROPHAGUS: It’s only a few days until March 9
CATOR99: Still, I would have rather met you yesterday and felt your teeth
ANTROPHAGUS: One can’t have everything. There’s still some time before you really feel my teeth
CATOR99: I hardly know what to expect. Have you slaughtered a man before?
ANTROPHAGUS: Unfortunately, only in my dreams, but in my thoughts I do it every night
CATOR99: So I’m the first? You have eaten human flesh before, or you haven’t?
ANTROPHAGUS: No, you don’t exactly find it in the supermarket, unfortunately
CATOR99: How do you know if it will taste good to you, or that the blood won’t make you sick?
ANTROPHAGUS: I’m readying myself with my dreams. Once I was so excited I grabbed a needle and drew my own blood so I could drink it
CATOR99: And your blood, it tasted good to you?
ANTROPHAGUS: It was quite tasty. Once I was drilling some holes and the drill slipped right into my hand, that was a real treat. Blood is the juice of life. It contains everything a person needs for nutrition
CATOR99: Then I hope you won’t wilt, that you can really see it through without a problem
ANTROPHAGUS: To bite into your penis will certainly not be easy—living flesh is somewhat more resistant than fried—but one thing is certain: our dream will be fulfilled
CATOR99: But there’s not so much in it as there is in muscle
ANTROPHAGUS: Yeah, but the penis is principally a spongy material filled with blood
CATOR99: For both our sakes, I hope that’s true. I hope you have also already thought about what’s to be done with the rest. Fulfilling the dream shouldn’t become a nightmare for you. No one will know where I’ve disappeared to
ANTROPHAGUS: After you’re dead, I’ll take you out and expertly carve you up. Except for a pair of knees and some fleshy trash (skin, cartilage, tendons), there won’t be much of you left
CATOR99: There will be a good bit, like the knees, I hope you have a good hiding place for them
ANTROPHAGUS: I’ll dry out the knees and grind them up soon after
CATOR99: Okay, they’re good as fertilizer, I heard that once. I see you’ve thought about it. Good! Sounds like I’m the first
ANTROPHAGUS: And you won’t be the last, hopefully. I’ve already considered catching a young person from the street, but I would rather kill only those who want to be killed
CATOR99: That also doesn’t sound bad. But yeah, seeing as it’s not so totally legal, this is in my eyes better than yanking somebody directly off the street
ANTROPHAGUS: Exactly, I’d do it, if it were legal
If You Like Good Music...
…you’ll like this.
emperorsnewclothes:
Courtesy Dj Doggy Doo-Doo Morris of Adams Morgan fame.
Deviant Sunday.
Art by Syarul.
Music by...
How to Live a Long Life
I finished a pretty good book by Dan Butner called the Blue Zone. Butner spent five years traveling to pockets of the world to study the lifestyles of populations that live the longest. There’s a lot of good stuff in this book about the ordinary but remarkably fulfilling lives of people like Sardinian sheep herders, Japanese grandmothers and Seventh Day Adventists, some of whose...
I know where I’ll be going more on Friday...
May 2009
30 posts
Happy almost Saturday.
Music by Santogold,...
Why Obama May Not Be Releasing Torture Photos
Because they might also depict rape. Reuters picks up on reports by the British paper, The Daily Telegraph, which the Pentagon denies:
Thursday’s Telegraph quoted retired U.S. Army Major General Antonio Taguba, who conducted a 2004 investigation into abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, as saying the pictures showed “torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.” The...
Showing Love with A Hug
I never really realized that hugging your friends was unusual. Thank you New York Times for pointing it out to me:
But Amy L. Best, a sociologist at George Mason University, said the teenage embrace is more a reflection of the overall evolution of the American greeting, which has become less formal since the 1970s. “Without question, the boundaries of touch have changed in American...
Tired of wishes, Empty of dreams. - Carl Sandburg
emperorsnewclothes:
chasesimplicity:
I couldn’t help but notice how effective the opening sentences of The Working Poor, by David K. Shipler, were:
“The man who washes cars does not own one. The clerk who files cancelled checks at the bank has $202 in her own account. The woman who copy-edits medical textbooks has not been to a dentist in a decade. This is the forgotton America.”
Sonia Sotomayor is the Pick
See the announcement by President Obama here. Scotusblog has got money coverage on her nomination, including her key appeals court decisions and dissents, here. The NYTimes has good stuff on her too.
A truly historic day for women, diabetics, hispanics and all Americans.
For Conservatives, "Empathy" is Code for...
Justice Harry Blackmun
A lot has been said about Obama’s desire to appoint a supreme court justice with “empathy.” In a recent interview with CSPAN Obama described such a figure as:
I said earlier that I thought empathy was an important quality, and I continue to believe that. You have to have not only the intellect to be able to effectively apply the law to cases...
Badass Sunday.
Art by Jillian Tamaki.
Music...
Get Yours Saturday.
Art by Shepard Fairey.
...
Addiction Thursday.
Art by David Foldvari.
...
Who Exactly are the Taliban?
From The Accidental Guerrilla by David Kilcullen, pg. 39:
Ninety percent of the people you call “Taliban” are actually tribals. They’re fighting for loyalty or Pashtun honor, and to profit their tribe. They’re not extremists. But they’re terrorized by the other 10 percent: religious fanatics, terrorists, people allied to [the Taliban leadership shura in]...
Apeish Sunday.
Music by Modest Mouse, Third...
Big Law is Shrinking and So Are My Job Prospects
If you thought this past year was a rough job market in the legal profession, brace yourself. Legal consultant Peter Zeughauser predicts this year will bring another wave of massive layoffs and an unprecedented number of summer associates not being extended offers. You know shits really hitting the fan when equity partners are at risk of losing their cushy jobs.
The whole interview from the...
Out of This World Saturday.
The space shuttle...
The Ethics of Naming Sports Teams After Ethnic...
The Volokh Conspiracy changed my mind on this:
Senior Conspirator Eugene Volokh notes that polls show that a majority of Native Americans do not object to the use of the name Washington Redskins by the DC NFL team. As a general rule, I don’t think that it’s wrong to name sports teams after ethnic groups. Eugene correctly points out that naming a team after a group is usually the...
3 tags
Gallup: More Americans Love Babies than Hate Them
From a new 5/7-5/10 Gallup poll, more Americans are pro-life than they are pro-choice by a margin of 51% - 42%. Gallup has been asking this question annualy since 1995 and this is the first time that a majority of respondants have considered themselves pro-life. Notably, the Gallup results also support recent findings by Pew Research that tracked a similar attitude shift in the population on the...
1 tag
Do What you Wanna Friday.
Music by Ramsey...
3 tags
Even Better than American Idol
The names of the six candidates in final consideration by President Obama to replace Justice Souter on the Supreme Court were obtained/leaked to the AP:
Among those Obama is considering are Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood. California Supreme Court...
5 tags
Confronting the Religious Right to Cover →
The Michigan Supreme Court will be hearing a case this term involving a Muslim woman, Ginnah Muhammad, who has sued a district judge that dismissed her small claims case after Ms. Muhammad refused to remove her niqab for religious reasons. The niqab, not to be confused with the head covering hijab, is worn by a small fraction orthodox Muslims in the United States to cover their entire...
3 tags
WatchThis is surreal. From Spyfilms:
Neill Blomkamp directs a short film about aliens in South Africa. Fictional situation where alien species have populated a South African shanty town, living an even more outcast life than the villagers themselves. A new kind of apartheid develops between locals and aliens.
With robo-slug aliens I could see this happening. But with Alf? Not so sure then.
2 tags
Harper's Finding of the Week
Italian scientists studying the gas that makes rotten eggs and flatulence stink announced that the substance may work as an impotence drug after they injected it into the excised penises of sex-changed patients.
Yiiiikes Wednesday.
Music by The Feeling, Sewn
1 tag
WatchIn case you missed the Simpsons this past Sunday, Maggie uttered her first sentence…while acting out Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead. Hilarious stuff.
You can watch the entire 20 minute episode above or catch the clip, here.