Oh say can you see
that the twighlight all day
our flag was still there
through the twighlight
what so proudly we
oh the shadowous night
oh so proudly we saw
that our flag was still there
I thought about telling him that "Purple mountain's majesty" was in there somewhere, but figured that anthropology requires distance.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Monday, May 09, 2011
Never let the flag distract you from shooting
I'm a total liberal, but I think this is exactly the kind of stupid you should get to be on your own land. Plus, four-wheelers are fun as hell.
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Dinner with a show
Amy and I finally went out to Di Carlo tonight, the wood-fired pizza place next to the weird cash-for-cars joint.
When we got there, we realized they didn't serve booze, and for a couple of our sophistication, sobriety was not an option. So while Amy rode back to the house to pick up a bottle of Trader Joe's Barbera d'Alba, I was supposed to order a pizza and a salad and wait.
That was thwarted by the drama from the table before us.
I started eavesdropping shamelessly (as is my wont) when I hear the waitress say, "You should have told me!" to the table, then the guy in the corner starts saying, "I don't usually tell everyone I'm diabetic when I order."
He comes up to the counter, and starts telling some man (I assume the owner or manager) that he loves, loves, lurves this restaurant, but that he ordered 25 minutes ago, and got told it was only going to be five more minutes 12 minutes ago. And that the waitress didn't seem to care at all, and he'd already taken his medicine after the last time she told him five more minutes. He said, "I'm diabetic, this is serious."
Now, granted, he had a whiny, entitled voice. And the waitress usually has around zero control over when things come out of the oven, especially a wood-fired one. The manager jumped to and got the parties their pizzas, which were pretty much right there anyway.
But on the way out, the dude came up again. He reached across the counter and took the man's (owner? manager?)) hand in his and started talking about how he loved the place, but was so incredibly angry that something, something something whispered, because he suddenly realized that everyone in the restaurant could hear him.
The waitress had come over to the counter and started arguing with him, sotto voce. As the customer left, she flipped off a "Fuck you, bitch" with a delightful Latin accent (her dyed blonde hair and fake tan made her ethnicity unplaceable) and went out after the customer to continue swearing at him, at the same time her boss was still trying to glad hand him.
It was weird — the waitress was totally cool to Amy and me, but totally over the line to this other guy who seemed to kind of be in the right. I was stuck trying to explain it with stereotypes, like, that whole party (including the diabetic) were trim, well-dressed guys with the Valley Girl accent, and the waitress had an indeterminate accent that just marked her as "not American" (it might have been easier to guess if she wasn't a bottled golden blonde). So my guess was homophobia, which might be racist, but who knows?
Anyway, it was a lot more interesting than the goofy conversation the guys next to us were having about the relative loot factors of a bunch of games. "Borderline, I love it, I'm a total loot master. I love a level nine sniper rifle with a six shot clip." That guy was talking about the temple he worked at and how cool it was that his boss had an open mind and "liked all that new age shit."
Luckily, the pizza was really pretty damn tasty.
When we got there, we realized they didn't serve booze, and for a couple of our sophistication, sobriety was not an option. So while Amy rode back to the house to pick up a bottle of Trader Joe's Barbera d'Alba, I was supposed to order a pizza and a salad and wait.
That was thwarted by the drama from the table before us.
I started eavesdropping shamelessly (as is my wont) when I hear the waitress say, "You should have told me!" to the table, then the guy in the corner starts saying, "I don't usually tell everyone I'm diabetic when I order."
He comes up to the counter, and starts telling some man (I assume the owner or manager) that he loves, loves, lurves this restaurant, but that he ordered 25 minutes ago, and got told it was only going to be five more minutes 12 minutes ago. And that the waitress didn't seem to care at all, and he'd already taken his medicine after the last time she told him five more minutes. He said, "I'm diabetic, this is serious."
Now, granted, he had a whiny, entitled voice. And the waitress usually has around zero control over when things come out of the oven, especially a wood-fired one. The manager jumped to and got the parties their pizzas, which were pretty much right there anyway.
But on the way out, the dude came up again. He reached across the counter and took the man's (owner? manager?)) hand in his and started talking about how he loved the place, but was so incredibly angry that something, something something whispered, because he suddenly realized that everyone in the restaurant could hear him.
The waitress had come over to the counter and started arguing with him, sotto voce. As the customer left, she flipped off a "Fuck you, bitch" with a delightful Latin accent (her dyed blonde hair and fake tan made her ethnicity unplaceable) and went out after the customer to continue swearing at him, at the same time her boss was still trying to glad hand him.
It was weird — the waitress was totally cool to Amy and me, but totally over the line to this other guy who seemed to kind of be in the right. I was stuck trying to explain it with stereotypes, like, that whole party (including the diabetic) were trim, well-dressed guys with the Valley Girl accent, and the waitress had an indeterminate accent that just marked her as "not American" (it might have been easier to guess if she wasn't a bottled golden blonde). So my guess was homophobia, which might be racist, but who knows?
Anyway, it was a lot more interesting than the goofy conversation the guys next to us were having about the relative loot factors of a bunch of games. "Borderline, I love it, I'm a total loot master. I love a level nine sniper rifle with a six shot clip." That guy was talking about the temple he worked at and how cool it was that his boss had an open mind and "liked all that new age shit."
Luckily, the pizza was really pretty damn tasty.
Monday, May 02, 2011
Issue 2 of the MeFi Mag!
MeFi Mag Issue 2: Issue 2, May 2011
Second issue of the MeFi Mag, featuring stories by Cortex, Msalt, It's Raining Florence Henderson and more. New media the old media way!
I edited it again. Woo!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tea party? Racist? Where'd you get that idea?
I mean, aside from the constant mantra of racism throughout. I do appreciate that he separates "blacks" from "nigras" though. Would a racist do that?
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Link dump: Impartiality, the N word, batting averages
Truth-out nails Wisconsin supreme court justice Prosser and his partisan dealings.
People who said "nigger" today. They all look pretty much like you'd guess.
Offense is down across baseball. New pitcher's era?
People who said "nigger" today. They all look pretty much like you'd guess.
Offense is down across baseball. New pitcher's era?
Sunday, April 24, 2011
It's Operated by a Crank!
I don't usually like steampunk (well, not since I used to play Deadlands with @Sekari), but I'm loving nerd heroes 2-D Goggles, the goofy nerd-history-hero webcomic.
Fans of Hark A Vagrant! will appreciate it.
Fans of Hark A Vagrant! will appreciate it.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Child of Lesbians Snatched by Baptist Extremists
My retitling is a little sensationalist, but what do you do when a story like this happens?
In it, a kid (had to two moms in Vermont) get kidnapped by one of her mothers — the one who renounced homosexuality under the thrall of some hardline Southern Baptists — who was aided by a pastor and an employee of Liberty University in traveling through Canada and Mexico to Nicaragua, where the poor kid's no doubt been raised under a lunatic pre-modern Christianity.
Your right to believe a crazy-ass religion does not give you the right to steal a child, nor the right to keep the kid from their non-crazy parent.
In it, a kid (had to two moms in Vermont) get kidnapped by one of her mothers — the one who renounced homosexuality under the thrall of some hardline Southern Baptists — who was aided by a pastor and an employee of Liberty University in traveling through Canada and Mexico to Nicaragua, where the poor kid's no doubt been raised under a lunatic pre-modern Christianity.
Your right to believe a crazy-ass religion does not give you the right to steal a child, nor the right to keep the kid from their non-crazy parent.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Maybe you can save us, One True Scotsman!
I would love to see a comic book hero who used his ability to exemplify positive traits in order to fight his arch nemesis Straw Man.
Doing so, he could save Christians, Objectivists and Nazis (maybe in that order).
"Thank God you got here, One True Scotsman! All the straw men were making us look like bigots!"
"Don't worry, boys! We know that all true Christians believe in charity, chastity and cannibalism!"
"What about us?"
"All true Objectivists become moral through the magic of self-interest!"
"Awesome!"
He could wear a plaid cape and carry a claymore and be cheap.
Doing so, he could save Christians, Objectivists and Nazis (maybe in that order).
"Thank God you got here, One True Scotsman! All the straw men were making us look like bigots!"
"Don't worry, boys! We know that all true Christians believe in charity, chastity and cannibalism!"
"What about us?"
"All true Objectivists become moral through the magic of self-interest!"
"Awesome!"
He could wear a plaid cape and carry a claymore and be cheap.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
On Armenian food in LA
LA Weekly's Squid Ink writes about Armenian food and mentions me, though I'm a little unclear on where they found my comment (it's pretty much true, though).
Too bad they spelled my name wrong.
Too bad they spelled my name wrong.
Dick Durbin puts the smackdown on Chase's CEO
Interchange fees are a bit of banking jargon, but Durbin does a great job dismantling Jamie Dimon's specious anti-regulation screed with this sharply-worded letter.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Charles Murray has always been racist
It's important to remember any time this Bell Curve bullshitter starts getting positive, or even neutral, press, that he was a cross-burner, but provides the fig leaf for other racists by averring that he had no racial animus when he did it.
Zombies bring out the stereotypes
Angry Asian Man examines post-apocalyptic racial politics.
Bonus: What about the Black Skins?, an essay on racism and retconning.
Bonus: What about the Black Skins?, an essay on racism and retconning.
Uprock you don't stop
Like the tango (more), Uprock is a dance style born of the streets and rife with violence. But where Tango has emphasized the sexuality (long mythologized as brothel music) and transformed into a ballroom style with romantic passion bowdlerizing the overt sexuality, uprocking has been shunted off as the less popular battle dance cousin of b-boying.
Uprock is mostly upright (toprock), with feigned punches, kicks, gunfire and arrow shots, with the basic repertoire drawn primarily from locking.
While most of KMEL's competition is floorwork b-boy stuff, in the clip above he gets into the grittiest uprock video I've found on youtube, a flurry of punches, kicks, burns and jerks.
And, of course, the Rock Steady Crew with their "hit" Uprock:
You can compare Uprock most directly to Krump and Hyphie, with the wild and aggressive arm sweeps:
E-40's "Tell me When to Go" (embedding disabled).
Which, in turn, came out of clowning and turfing, but that's another goddamned post.
Anybody got some great regional dance styles they've been sitting on?
Uprock is mostly upright (toprock), with feigned punches, kicks, gunfire and arrow shots, with the basic repertoire drawn primarily from locking.
While most of KMEL's competition is floorwork b-boy stuff, in the clip above he gets into the grittiest uprock video I've found on youtube, a flurry of punches, kicks, burns and jerks.
And, of course, the Rock Steady Crew with their "hit" Uprock:
You can compare Uprock most directly to Krump and Hyphie, with the wild and aggressive arm sweeps:
E-40's "Tell me When to Go" (embedding disabled).
Which, in turn, came out of clowning and turfing, but that's another goddamned post.
Anybody got some great regional dance styles they've been sitting on?
More CicLaVia stories
Collected here, including Lance Armstrong riding the route.
One thing that bugged me about a lot of the comments there was that it seems like a lot of pedestrians, and parents in general, are raising ruckus over the perceived "unfriendliness" of all the bikes. They're suggesting more choke points, more mandatory dismount zones and other nonsense in order to "save CicLaVia," calling it "toxic" now.
And frankly, that's a bunch of bullshit.
Part of the problem is that it was much more crowded this time — it was such a blast last time, that the attendance seemed to be at least double (going by the estimates provided by organizers). With more people comes more congestion, especially with a lot of inexperienced riders, and more congestion means that everyone has to be more responsible for their own safety and space.
It also means that the rules of traffic become more important — namely, that slower traffic keeps to the right, and folks pass on the left. Fewer folks getting to the middle of the street and then stopping unannounced will make everyone happier.
But arguing that it's necessary to cripple the bike experience in order to include more pedestrians is nonsense, and that's what more choke points and more dismount zones would do. Instead of streamlining the experience, and recognizing that any time you have, essentially, a self-directed parade of 200,000 people that there's going to be some chaos, a few vocal pedestrians are retreating to the Harrison Bergeron mode of conflict resolution.
One of their common comments was that CicLaVia isn't just for bikes, or that it's not a "bike event." Honestly, it really is primarily for bikes, though everyone is invited to come. It's organized by the Bicycle Coalition, it's named after "ciclovia," or "bike path," in Spanish. It's a bike event that is generally inclusive of other modes of transport. If the Pedestrian Union would like to organize a similar event without a focus on bikes, they're welcome to it.
Another part of the problem is, and I know I've ranted about this before, that people in LA are shitty walkers. Go to any crowded event — a farmers' market is the Platonic ideal of this — and you'll see a great raft of flitting, stalling, meandering and veering idiots with no conception of their personal space or flow of people around them. If you walk out into a mass of bikes riding at you and suddenly stop — like I saw pedestrians do at CicLaVia — you are creating the danger, not the bike. The kind of idiocy that's only annoying from pedestrians generally becomes dangerous when in the midst of vehicles, and bikes are vehicles. A bike accident can really fuck you up.
Further, there's a common misconception of the maneuverability of bicyclists among pedestrians, where, I'd guess because of a tendency to normalize for our own behavior, pedestrians assume that bikers are just as agile as people walking, and that they can stop or swerve as quickly as a walker can. But they can't. So pedestrians meander out into traffic and then blame the "aggressive" cyclists for yelling at them to get out of the way.
Because the relationships between cars and pedestrians or cars and bikes are pretty well understood and codified by law, there's a default assumption that likewise, bike and pedestrian etiquette is a likewise settled matter when most pedestrians (and bicyclists) simply don't have any experience with a bike-dominant traffic paradigm, and so they default to the idea of pedestrian rules instead of recognizing that bikes are a third beast — not as fast or massive as cars, not as nimble or slow as pedestrians. That is exacerbated by things like grade, which are readily apparent to bikers but not so much to cars or pedestrians — the calls for more choke points in particular ignores the role that momentum plays in enjoyable biking.
Finally, I'll cop to my own bias here: one of the recurrent complaints was about the inability to take small children throughout the route and the demand was to have that need catered to. While I was glad that there were a bunch of kids out there (who all seemed to be doing fine), the way that kids learn the rules of the road is through respectful interaction with the mass, not shifting the mass to cater to the needs of the kids. The event was already family friendly. If it wasn't family friendly enough for you, the problem is your family and not the event. While no doubt little Caleb or Amethyst or Dribbles is precious and special, teaching them to interact with the greater world on its own terms will serve them much better than complaining that CicLaVia wasn't nerfed enough for your kid's proto-neurotic riskphobic enjoyment.
One thing that bugged me about a lot of the comments there was that it seems like a lot of pedestrians, and parents in general, are raising ruckus over the perceived "unfriendliness" of all the bikes. They're suggesting more choke points, more mandatory dismount zones and other nonsense in order to "save CicLaVia," calling it "toxic" now.
And frankly, that's a bunch of bullshit.
Part of the problem is that it was much more crowded this time — it was such a blast last time, that the attendance seemed to be at least double (going by the estimates provided by organizers). With more people comes more congestion, especially with a lot of inexperienced riders, and more congestion means that everyone has to be more responsible for their own safety and space.
It also means that the rules of traffic become more important — namely, that slower traffic keeps to the right, and folks pass on the left. Fewer folks getting to the middle of the street and then stopping unannounced will make everyone happier.
But arguing that it's necessary to cripple the bike experience in order to include more pedestrians is nonsense, and that's what more choke points and more dismount zones would do. Instead of streamlining the experience, and recognizing that any time you have, essentially, a self-directed parade of 200,000 people that there's going to be some chaos, a few vocal pedestrians are retreating to the Harrison Bergeron mode of conflict resolution.
One of their common comments was that CicLaVia isn't just for bikes, or that it's not a "bike event." Honestly, it really is primarily for bikes, though everyone is invited to come. It's organized by the Bicycle Coalition, it's named after "ciclovia," or "bike path," in Spanish. It's a bike event that is generally inclusive of other modes of transport. If the Pedestrian Union would like to organize a similar event without a focus on bikes, they're welcome to it.
Another part of the problem is, and I know I've ranted about this before, that people in LA are shitty walkers. Go to any crowded event — a farmers' market is the Platonic ideal of this — and you'll see a great raft of flitting, stalling, meandering and veering idiots with no conception of their personal space or flow of people around them. If you walk out into a mass of bikes riding at you and suddenly stop — like I saw pedestrians do at CicLaVia — you are creating the danger, not the bike. The kind of idiocy that's only annoying from pedestrians generally becomes dangerous when in the midst of vehicles, and bikes are vehicles. A bike accident can really fuck you up.
Further, there's a common misconception of the maneuverability of bicyclists among pedestrians, where, I'd guess because of a tendency to normalize for our own behavior, pedestrians assume that bikers are just as agile as people walking, and that they can stop or swerve as quickly as a walker can. But they can't. So pedestrians meander out into traffic and then blame the "aggressive" cyclists for yelling at them to get out of the way.
Because the relationships between cars and pedestrians or cars and bikes are pretty well understood and codified by law, there's a default assumption that likewise, bike and pedestrian etiquette is a likewise settled matter when most pedestrians (and bicyclists) simply don't have any experience with a bike-dominant traffic paradigm, and so they default to the idea of pedestrian rules instead of recognizing that bikes are a third beast — not as fast or massive as cars, not as nimble or slow as pedestrians. That is exacerbated by things like grade, which are readily apparent to bikers but not so much to cars or pedestrians — the calls for more choke points in particular ignores the role that momentum plays in enjoyable biking.
Finally, I'll cop to my own bias here: one of the recurrent complaints was about the inability to take small children throughout the route and the demand was to have that need catered to. While I was glad that there were a bunch of kids out there (who all seemed to be doing fine), the way that kids learn the rules of the road is through respectful interaction with the mass, not shifting the mass to cater to the needs of the kids. The event was already family friendly. If it wasn't family friendly enough for you, the problem is your family and not the event. While no doubt little Caleb or Amethyst or Dribbles is precious and special, teaching them to interact with the greater world on its own terms will serve them much better than complaining that CicLaVia wasn't nerfed enough for your kid's proto-neurotic riskphobic enjoyment.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
CicLAvia II: Electric Boogaloo
Amanda's twitpic of Foursquare.
Amy and I rode down the route to MacArthur Park and played foursquare for about two hours with a huge mix of folks. Alex took pictures, so we'll probably see them up soon.
We headed through downtown, which is always the best part for me — it feels like we had a revolution and we won.
We made it all the way to the 4th St. bridge over the river, then headed back. Lots of fun.
On the way, we managed to lose Amy (she got ahead of us, but we thought we'd left her behind, so waited :( ), and Carson stopped off at home.
After all that euphoria, it was probably too much to ask that there weren't any morons — like the Parking Enforcement guy trying to tell me that I needed to read the vehicle code when I took the lane have read it, and more.
I also got a bit of vindication from the AT&T driver that rode up on us and flipped off Amanda and me last Friday.
So, I was riding back up my street, and I see his truck pulled over. The dude's got this biker 'stache and I could tell it was him, so I got him to roll down his window and said, "Hey, last Friday, you were honking at me and flipping me off. What was that about?"
He started out by denying it, saying that all the trucks looked the same, and I told him that I knew, because I wrote down the truck number. He kept denying it was him, so I started taking pictures with my cell and he put his hands on me to get me to stop him from taking the picture. Because I'm an obnoxious photographer, I know the law about that too (I can take pictures of whatever I want as long as I'm in public, pretty much). So then it turned into, "Why do you wanna get me fired, man? I bike too! In Ensenada!"
Well, I'm pissed because you lied to me and I had to keep interrogating you. Once he put his hands on me, I knew that I could call the cops and report an assault charge if I really wanted to be a dick (it's unlikely that it would stand up, but it would really fuck up his day).
It ended with him apologizing to me, and to Amanda (by proxy), though he wouldn't let me video it. He also gave me his card with his boss's number on it.
I'm trying to decide what I want out of it — on the one hand, he seemed genuinely apologetic. On the other hand, he lied to me right off the bat, so it makes it hard to trust the apology. And even after talking to him, he was still off on this idea that bikes had to ride as far as possible to the right, and never side-by-side.
What I really want is for AT&T drivers, as well as LA Parking Enforcement (if you really want to enforce traffic laws, you shoulda become a cop, not a meter maid), to learn that bikes can take lanes and have a right to LA streets. I'm not really sure what the best way to do this is, but I'd prefer that to anyone getting fired or anything.
Friday, April 08, 2011
It's a mix party!
Mixparty.org.
You gotta keep this kinda quiet so it doesn't get shut down, but Mixparty is a pretty sweet social mp3 streamer. Upload stuff with a group of friends and listen to it while you clean the house or edit a magazine or whatever it is you're doing with your day.
You gotta keep this kinda quiet so it doesn't get shut down, but Mixparty is a pretty sweet social mp3 streamer. Upload stuff with a group of friends and listen to it while you clean the house or edit a magazine or whatever it is you're doing with your day.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
It was a lemon party with Amanda
Amanda and I peeled some 20 or so lemons for our "artisinally-foraged limoncello," and I ended up with a lot of lemon juice (probably around a liter).
The lemons we used were from our friends' Chris and Cammie's yard, where they have a Meyer lemon tree, and also a shishi yuzu (the nobly version of what gets called yuja in Korea).
I'm thinking that I'm going to make a big ol' punch that we can drink with dinner tomorrow — the Meyer lemons being as sweet as they are kind of throws the ol' rhyme off (you know, "One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak"), so I think I'm going to cut back on the simple syrup I'd normally add and make a fairly sour rum punch.
This is our test run for the limoncello, so we made just over a gallon of it. If it works, we can scale it up and sell shares.
The lemons we used were from our friends' Chris and Cammie's yard, where they have a Meyer lemon tree, and also a shishi yuzu (the nobly version of what gets called yuja in Korea).
I'm thinking that I'm going to make a big ol' punch that we can drink with dinner tomorrow — the Meyer lemons being as sweet as they are kind of throws the ol' rhyme off (you know, "One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak"), so I think I'm going to cut back on the simple syrup I'd normally add and make a fairly sour rum punch.
This is our test run for the limoncello, so we made just over a gallon of it. If it works, we can scale it up and sell shares.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Why I like the Blue over the Green
On the Blue, we talk about socialist superheroes.
On the Green, the people look for $20,000 watches.
Let's lynch the landlord.
On the Green, the people look for $20,000 watches.
Let's lynch the landlord.
It's looking like the 13th is the next deadline
For MeFi Mag stuff, so if you're reading this and you've got more to contribute, get it in. Anything from 300 to 4000 words.
Bound by the inductile chains of logic
Don't believe in evolution because of what the Bible says? You shouldn't believe in the water cycle either.
Monday, April 04, 2011
MeFi Mag #1 is finished!
MeFi Mag Issue 1:
By Josh Steichmann in Entertainment
Featuring Scody's story about meeting Roger Ailes, Ambrosia Voyeur's critical look at the '70s Scifi flick Zardoz, a short poem by Unicorn on the Cob, story by Devil's Rancher, reprinting a long comment by EmpressCallipygos, Meatbomb's remembrance of airport in Central Asia from the '60s and Flapjax at Midnight's description of the March 2011 earthquake in Japan
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Carmenian
So, I met my neighbor Tibor, it's his car. I ask if I can take a picture and he says yes.
"It is the most popular old Mercedes model in Armenia," he says.
"Great, man. I've just got this buddy that studies Armenia."
"This is for the protests, on April 26. Tell your friend that I will have flags on it for the parade. I'm not going to just leave it like this."
"OK."
The twenty-sixth is the genocide protests.
"But America has not recognized the genocide because Turkey corrupts —"
"Yeah, and the NATO thing."
So I told him I'd take more pictures nearer to the protests, when he has the flags. I introduced myself, then scuttled back upstairs when I realized that I was, like, a good twelve years or so older than the kids and thus had nothing to talk about with them. ("I hear you like the G-6, like the G-6.")
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Amy and Josh get drunk and rank the states
In order:
1) California
2) New York
3) Wisconsin
4) Vermont
5) Washington
6) Michigan
7) Pennsylvania
8) Oregon
9) Illinois
10) Ohio
11) Minnesota
12) Iowa
13) New Hampshire
14) Maryland
15) Hawaii
16) Arizona
17) New Mexico
18) West Virginia
19) North Carolina
20) Georgia
21) Colorado
22) Tennessee
23) Kentucky
24) Florida
25) Maine
26) New Jersey
27) Arkansas
28) Nebraska
29) Kansas
30) South Dakota
31) North Dakota
32) Virginia
33) South Carolina
34) Nevada
35) Wyoming
36) Rhode Island
37) Connecticut
38) Missouri
39) Massachusetts
40) Delaware
41) Louisiana
42) Idaho
43) Montana
44) Indiana
45) Utah
46) Oklahoma
47) Texas
48) Alaska
49) Mississippi
50) Alabama
1) California
2) New York
3) Wisconsin
4) Vermont
5) Washington
6) Michigan
7) Pennsylvania
8) Oregon
9) Illinois
10) Ohio
11) Minnesota
12) Iowa
13) New Hampshire
14) Maryland
15) Hawaii
16) Arizona
17) New Mexico
18) West Virginia
19) North Carolina
20) Georgia
21) Colorado
22) Tennessee
23) Kentucky
24) Florida
25) Maine
26) New Jersey
27) Arkansas
28) Nebraska
29) Kansas
30) South Dakota
31) North Dakota
32) Virginia
33) South Carolina
34) Nevada
35) Wyoming
36) Rhode Island
37) Connecticut
38) Missouri
39) Massachusetts
40) Delaware
41) Louisiana
42) Idaho
43) Montana
44) Indiana
45) Utah
46) Oklahoma
47) Texas
48) Alaska
49) Mississippi
50) Alabama
Friday, April 01, 2011
Talking Tigers Baseball
Obviously, we lost the season opener because I didn't post anything about it and also was probably eating the wrong kind of chips and not enough oranges or some other superstition I've failed to honor.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Wisconsin GOP doesn't want you to see this.
Now, it's kind of mediocre as a gotcha — some former Real World/Road Rules dufus is now a congressman, and he wants you to do more with less while simultaneously complaining about how bad he has it at $174,000 a year.
But it's more interesting that the Wisconsin GOP has been sending a passel of cease-and-desist letters around because they don't want the public seeing Sean Duffy cluelessly defending his money.
(Though, to be fair, the audience member who thinks that 435 times $174,000 is equal to the $14.21 trillion we owe in public debt is probably just as silly, if not more.)
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The thinnest line
The US is right to intervene in Libya, and even better, it's been intervening in the right way: Responding to a request from a regional council to support a democratic uprising, then handing off authority to a coalition under international authority.
However, there are a million things that could go wrong. In large part, we can be certain that Gaddafi is a tyrant, but we can't be certain that he won't be replaced by another. One big way to increase the risk of this being less a revolution than a coup is to arm a faction.
President Sarkozy has pushed hard for it, but if the US is going to provide the bulk of the arms (and, inevitably, troops to supply those arms), the US needs to lead the coalition, but the US leading the coalition will only undermine the international support and the credibility of the rebels as a legitimate authority.
The US walks an incredibly thin line here between letting a people breathe free and clumsily stumbling into another middle-eastern quagmire.
Amber Rissman, somebody looking for you!
Unless it's you. But I've had fifteen referrals to this blog in the last week for people looking for Amber Rissman. (Maybe it's you, Amber? Googling yourself?)
Social Security policy homework
The next time you feel tempted to describe Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme," feel free to read through the resources linked here. It's a fantastic round-up and I'm only, what, 50 pages deep?
Moments of major league play!
Top five worst baseball slogans, 2011. Unsurprisingly, the Royals oversell their talent.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Last night, in LA
The best part about driving through town is how it removes the context from every instance of weirdness you see — you never have any time to ask follow-up questions.
Two weird moments from the drive from Culver City to Los Feliz last night:
At the big, floodlit Shell station on Venice at Overland, some trying to sell gas from a red jerry can to people who had stopped. He was a black guy in a brown sport jacket, and kept making the pouring gesture and rubbing the fingers of his other hand together.
On Pico west of Crenshaw, a boy was holding open the door to a storefront church that hadn't started services. He was wearing a suit, had a bunch of balloons in his hand, and was dancing side to side while people inside were finishing setting up chairs.
Two weird moments from the drive from Culver City to Los Feliz last night:
At the big, floodlit Shell station on Venice at Overland, some trying to sell gas from a red jerry can to people who had stopped. He was a black guy in a brown sport jacket, and kept making the pouring gesture and rubbing the fingers of his other hand together.
On Pico west of Crenshaw, a boy was holding open the door to a storefront church that hadn't started services. He was wearing a suit, had a bunch of balloons in his hand, and was dancing side to side while people inside were finishing setting up chairs.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Veggies cause gas
Vegetarian Times article about vegetable storage, including which veggies release ethylene and which don't.
Most useful Veggie Times article ever.
Most useful Veggie Times article ever.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Twosquare league results
Last weekend, Amanda and Josh played the inaugural league matches of the new season, with Josh taking both sets 2 to 1.
The first set, played with the green ball, scored: A 21, J 16; J 21, A 19; J 21, A 18. The second set, played with the larger red ball, scored: J 21, A 18; A 26, J 24; J 22, A 20.
In the second set, Amanda's 26 point victory tied the previous record, set by Carson. In both cases, Josh was the loser.
Josh and Amanda also played one game on Monday, with Amanda triumphing with the green ball: A 21, J 19.
The first set, played with the green ball, scored: A 21, J 16; J 21, A 19; J 21, A 18. The second set, played with the larger red ball, scored: J 21, A 18; A 26, J 24; J 22, A 20.
In the second set, Amanda's 26 point victory tied the previous record, set by Carson. In both cases, Josh was the loser.
Josh and Amanda also played one game on Monday, with Amanda triumphing with the green ball: A 21, J 19.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Americans waking up to class politics
Will they hit snooze and go back to sleep?
OpEd from my old ArborUpdate buddy Ari Paul in today's Al Jazeera.
OpEd from my old ArborUpdate buddy Ari Paul in today's Al Jazeera.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Fox News trolls their readers
How unions make your life better, published on Fox News. Fair and balanced?
Sunday, March 13, 2011
New developments in the world of Twosquare
As most of you don't realize, the inaugural season of two-square just wrapped up, ending just before the blue ball to which we have all become so accustomed broke.
Unfortunately, the end of the season corresponded with the arrival of Steichmann's parents, and in the subsequent cleaning, it is believed that the final scores of the last six games of the season were lost. It is known that Carson and Josh split the day, with three wins apiece, and for record keeping purposes, they have been assigned scores of 21 to 19 in three game chunks. We can only hope that scholars of the future somehow uncover the records of these early two-square games.
It is also remembered that Carson made some pretty impressive plays off the wall in the set, despite being totally sore from racquetball.
The season lasted 49 games, plus four exhibition matches, and involved three competitors: Amy, Carson and Josh. With Amy ultimately deciding that her playing days were over in the world of competitive twosquare, she has moved on from the sport, but tells us she'll be back often to play in exhibition matches, as well as acting as a line judge and coach. All the best, Amy!
We at the league would like to congratulate Carson on receiving the "Rookie of the Year" award, as well as acknowledge his current high score of 26, which we're sure will stand for many years to come. His off-the-wall antics mask an impressive dedication to backspin discipline.
So, what's new?
New balls!
Now twosquare involves a choice of balls! The smaller, green official "foursquare" size, and the larger, red "playground" size.
"After last season's constant jokes about 'blue balls,' we knew we had to do something to keep that going. Both will be acceptable for league play, but the choice will be noted in the records," said commissioner Steichmann.
Visitors will be given preference in deciding which balls to use, with a minimum of smirking.
New players!
Amanda "Soft Hands" Colligan played her first six games last week, and she's already making a name for herself with her polite and gentle play. Can she be goaded into more aggression? She's a twosquare competitor worth observing at some point in the indefinite future, as Howard Cosell would say! Match details to follow!
New chalk!
From the RiteAid. It's OK for chalk, I guess.
An ongoing quixotic quest to make a twosquare home game!
Perhaps a tabletop RPG based on GURPS? Or just a boardgame with maybe some dice and stuff? Would anyone actually play it? What if they were really drunk?
Unfortunately, the end of the season corresponded with the arrival of Steichmann's parents, and in the subsequent cleaning, it is believed that the final scores of the last six games of the season were lost. It is known that Carson and Josh split the day, with three wins apiece, and for record keeping purposes, they have been assigned scores of 21 to 19 in three game chunks. We can only hope that scholars of the future somehow uncover the records of these early two-square games.
It is also remembered that Carson made some pretty impressive plays off the wall in the set, despite being totally sore from racquetball.
The season lasted 49 games, plus four exhibition matches, and involved three competitors: Amy, Carson and Josh. With Amy ultimately deciding that her playing days were over in the world of competitive twosquare, she has moved on from the sport, but tells us she'll be back often to play in exhibition matches, as well as acting as a line judge and coach. All the best, Amy!
We at the league would like to congratulate Carson on receiving the "Rookie of the Year" award, as well as acknowledge his current high score of 26, which we're sure will stand for many years to come. His off-the-wall antics mask an impressive dedication to backspin discipline.
So, what's new?
New balls!
Now twosquare involves a choice of balls! The smaller, green official "foursquare" size, and the larger, red "playground" size.
"After last season's constant jokes about 'blue balls,' we knew we had to do something to keep that going. Both will be acceptable for league play, but the choice will be noted in the records," said commissioner Steichmann.
Visitors will be given preference in deciding which balls to use, with a minimum of smirking.
New players!
Amanda "Soft Hands" Colligan played her first six games last week, and she's already making a name for herself with her polite and gentle play. Can she be goaded into more aggression? She's a twosquare competitor worth observing at some point in the indefinite future, as Howard Cosell would say! Match details to follow!
New chalk!
From the RiteAid. It's OK for chalk, I guess.
An ongoing quixotic quest to make a twosquare home game!
Perhaps a tabletop RPG based on GURPS? Or just a boardgame with maybe some dice and stuff? Would anyone actually play it? What if they were really drunk?
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The kids, united!
It's kind of a shame that punk rock appropriations of labor anthems seem really dated, but frankly, current political rock pretty much blows. Feel free to prove me wrong.
These Americans, our Americans
God, Walker Evans just kills me. I should read more about him, instead of just smashing my face up against his pictures, but goddamn.
Also, These Americans is pretty killer. Just archival shots of your fellow citizens.
Friday, March 11, 2011
What Wisconsin is really about
Kevin Drum runs through a brief modern history of labor and the left, why the working class is alienated, and what that means.
Katrina X-Codes
© Cynthia Scott, Faubourg Marigny, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2005.
Katrina+5 is a Southern Spaces exhibit on the search and rescue X-codes used in the aftermath of the Katrina hurricane.
These cryptic, sprayed marks were ubiquitous when I was there, but no one around knew what they meant at the time, aside from the fact that they'd been sprayed by National Guard units.
The exhibition has an excellent explanation as well as great examples of X-codes in use.
These instances of artificial meaning imposed after destruction are just fascinating for me. They're both poignant and abstract, secret and public.
Stand up for Wisconsin!
Stand up for Wisconsin!, a map and list of solidarity events around the country.
Do your part. Stand up for union rights, stand up for labor, stand up for working men and women, working Americans, against the robber barons that are working to enslave you.
Do your part. Stand up for union rights, stand up for labor, stand up for working men and women, working Americans, against the robber barons that are working to enslave you.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
A broader sponsorship
Congratulations, High Life, on reminding me that what we share in common is a love of irony and self-abuse.
Limbaugh, Beck, Coulter, etc. UNION MEMBERS
That's right, AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, an AFL-CIO affiliate union.
So, they're calling for a gutting of benefits and negotiating strength that they — and everyone who works on their shows — benefit from.
This is my surprised face.
So, they're calling for a gutting of benefits and negotiating strength that they — and everyone who works on their shows — benefit from.
This is my surprised face.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Welcome to Hell
Inspired by this question on AskMe about Hell in art, I started perusing google and google scholar, looking to see if there was an art theory term for the iconography of Hell. Infernography?
I haven't found anything conclusive yet, no secret codeword to unlock the libraries of the internet, but I have found a bunch of neat art (too much for an easy reply).
The Harrowing of Hell refers to Christ's descent into Hell, an apocryphal bit of the Apostles' Creed that's inferred from Christ's resurrection, also known as the Anastasis. I stumbled onto the phrase by finding this PDF about the Harrowing of Hell relief at Bristol Cathedral.
The Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography (PDF) gives a decent bit of info on the genre, though with fewer images than I'd prefer.
I knew the term for the mythic descent into the underworld, Katabasis, and so searching for that and for famous katabasi (a cod-Greek word I just made up), yielded both Lazurus and Castor and Pollux. (As a side note, I'd like to explore Nekyia a bit in my work).
More as I find 'em.
Monday, March 07, 2011
I drank soup from a boot, no hobo
Hobo Cult Box Set #1 was released for free by Montreal-based Hobo Cult Records.
It's all hazy, ambient techno, reminiscent of The Orb and FSOL.
It's all hazy, ambient techno, reminiscent of The Orb and FSOL.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Monday Morning Link Dump!
MoJo does inequality.
Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, home of Earl Sweatshirt.
Porn machete murders.
Top Six LULZ from Koch punking.
Full text of A History of Jury Trials by Forsythe.
When did kids get stupid, exactly? 1985. Which seems about right to me. I was educated stupid.
Despite somebody lecturing me about how "Beyond the pale" was racist (or at least anti-semetic), it's not.
Ted Serios, charlatan psychic but pretty good photographer.
Another zombie playlist, mostly worth it for reminding me of "Knuck if you Buck."
Bikeroots article in the LA Weekly did Alex no favors but I'm probably voting for Box anyway. I voted for Nader in 2000 too, so I might be too dumb to vote.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
At home he feels like a tourist
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| From Mar 4, 2011 |
Over the last two weeks, two parental visits have led Amy and I through more local culture than we usually see in six months. We even managed to watch the Oscars on TV, out of some reflexive LA suckle.
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| From Mar 4, 2011 |
Amy's parents got in two Sundays ago, late in the afternoon, so our first day out was on Monday. We headed out to Altadena for the Eaton Canyon Nature Area hike, taking us up into the Eaton Falls along the Mount Wilson Toll Road.
The park was packed for President's day, and the recent rains had swelled the arroyo from mostly-dry ditch to a respectable stream, and in getting to the falls there were roughly 15 crossings that had to be made, leaping from rock to rock, which meant usually a wait from five to fifteen minutes as the unprepared tourists squealed and shimmied across wet rocks. Luckily, the hiking boots Amy bought me prior to Yosemite still had plenty of grip, though she ended up taking a splash or two toward the end.
Thanks to Target, LACMA was free too — that and their latest tete a tete with Gaga has me reconsidering my generalized boycott, though their shitty service still sticks in my craw — so got to see the newly-opened Art of the Ancient Americas. I'm not usually that big a fan of ancient artwork; the accumulation of artifacts doesn't interest me much and the vast distance between modern cultures and ancient ones makes pulling meaning out of the work highly suspect, but I will say that the craft was amazing and that I had really under-rated the painting skill of the Maya, even if I still find the whole human sacrifice thing deeply fucked.
We also took another tour through the Lucknow exhibit, and I have to write up something on it for the time-travel blog. Sooner or later, but that's the trouble with time travel, right?
After that, we buffaloed Amy's parents into eating at Loteria, where I had some fantastic mole negro chilaquiles, and Amy had decent potato enchiladas with mole verde — the tortillas and fluffy potatoes felt soggy drenched in the green sauce, but the sauce itself was really tasty. Being stupid tourists, we didn't have a reservation and Amy's folks were moderately surprised at the wait, but it ended up being a blessing — we got seated at the bar, and the 'tender was noticeably quicker than the waitstaff, though it did mean suffering through a douche of brahs maximizing their social media leverage or some shit, one of whom tried to draw me into a conversation about whatever the lime-tequila-beer drink is and how it was the best thing ever, and after I was shruggo (dude, I'm eating here), made some crack about how I looked like I'd drank a lot of beers. Gave him a fuck-you-cheers with my bottle of Chupacabras, which was better than it had any right to be.
 |
| From Mar 4, 2011 |
On Tuesday, we ate breakfast at Home, who shouldn't be judged on their slow, cluttered flash website. I went with the chilaquiles again, this time with red sauce and soyrizo, because I'm a firm believer in the idea of chilaquiles for every meal. We watched Keith Morris eat oatmeal, and luckily, I avoided having to explain who the Circle Jerks were.
After breakfast, we went to Descanso Gardens, a country estate that was planted full of camellias (over 34,000) in order to sell cut flowers; it's now a park and preserve and absolutely gorgeous. We managed to hit the camellias in full bloom, which seems to be the way to go, though neither roses nor lilacs (which they also have) are in yet.
Then we swung down to see Santee Alley, which bills itself as LA's "premier outdoor shopping experience," which is one way of saying, "Full of designer knock-offs, bongs and bootlegs." We managed to pick up a pretty lovely rug for $150 that's already fraying around the edges. You pays your money, you takes your chances, I guess.
For dinner, we hit up Cheech's Pizza, which was decent, and the two-for-one they've got is nice. Solid, average pizza, which Amy's folks appreciated after being threatened with Indian or vegan food, and huge salads. The first time we had Cheech's, about six months ago, it was fantastic, but it's been hit and miss for us ever since. Just glad it came out well while the folks were here.
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| From Mar 4, 2011 |
Amy left on Wednesday to go to a conference, leaving me all on my lonesome with Pete and Candy. We went on a leisurely stroll up to Griffith Park Observatory, took in a show at the planetarium (which was a delightful mix of campy, cheesy, science-y goodness), and saw the awesome power of Tesla:
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| From Mar 4, 2011 |
I talked Amy's folks into trying Thai food for the first time, and took them to Tub Tim, meeting up with our pal Amanda. I picked Tub Tim mostly because the Yelp reviews emphasized that their mild dishes were still tasty — Amy's parents don't like spices in general, so I didn't want them to have a full-on Thai pepper freak out. I went with Panang, Amanda got prik king; neither were anything to write home about, but were solid and tasty. I got the mango sticky rice dessert, and it was OK. In general, their sticky rice (which I also got with Panang) was a bit dry. Outside of that, pretty unremarkable.
I then spent Thursday in an insomniac haze…
The next weekend, my folks came in. Which I'll write about next.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Do you have the next million dollar idea?
"Yeah, it's a phone. A phone that punches you in the face."
"No, in the face. It punches you in the face."
"Because it punches you in the face."
"No, not like a TV. Who sits that close to the TV? A TV couldn't punch you in the face."
"Yeah, you could move it away from your face, sure. But then you couldn't hear the call."
"No, in the face. It punches you in the face."
"Because it punches you in the face."
"No, not like a TV. Who sits that close to the TV? A TV couldn't punch you in the face."
"Yeah, you could move it away from your face, sure. But then you couldn't hear the call."
ACLU stands up for Christian students
For the next time some conservative you know pitches a bitch about the ACLU being anti-Christian or never defending Christian expression: ACLU supports Ten Commandments on student lockers.
Sure, the ACLU is organized state by state, so they don't necessarily all agree, but I like to keep things like this in my back pocket so that when someone gets off on, say, the ACLU fighting against crosses on public land, I can remind them that the ACLU backs principles pretty much across the board, regardless of consequence.
Sure, the ACLU is organized state by state, so they don't necessarily all agree, but I like to keep things like this in my back pocket so that when someone gets off on, say, the ACLU fighting against crosses on public land, I can remind them that the ACLU backs principles pretty much across the board, regardless of consequence.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
$20, same as in town
This has to be an allegory for something, but I'm not sure what. German unification? The origin myths of the Prussian people? A parody of Laibach?
The moon, Alice
Selene, a sci-fi hip-hop e-p based on the movie, "The Moon," is brief, fun and strings-heavy. Is it ironic to sound like Atmosphere on an album about the moon?
Boys' club blues
This Recording has a pretty snazzy article on being a woman in a Boys' Club; no word on how to be a woman in a Beuys club, which presumably involves explaining fat and felt to a fictionalized biography.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
The definition of over-exposure
That's right, Diddy is the first result for a search of "Nematobibothrioides histoidii." As well he should be.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Galaxy Tab: first 30 days
Galaxy Tab: first 30 days
My girlfriend has a blog; her format makes me think about blogs as social note-taking utilities. I think that's reasonable.
My girlfriend has a blog; her format makes me think about blogs as social note-taking utilities. I think that's reasonable.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Twosquare league results
Carson and Josh played seven league games and two exhibition games, an epic afternoon for twosquare aficionados.
Josh took the best-of-seven, with four games to three: C 24, J 22; C 21, J 18; J 21, C 16; J 21, C 18; J 21, C 19; C 21, J 16; J 23, C 21.
This league game featured both the first off-the-wall shot played fair, but also the first off-the-wall shot to score a point. Carson later said, "I feel like I'm in the Negro Leagues."
The exhibition matches were played with a small green dollar-store ball, with Carson taking the first game, Josh the second: C 21, J 14; J 24, C 22.
Josh's landlord Henry watched several of the games, and expressed interest in betting on them.
Josh took the best-of-seven, with four games to three: C 24, J 22; C 21, J 18; J 21, C 16; J 21, C 18; J 21, C 19; C 21, J 16; J 23, C 21.
This league game featured both the first off-the-wall shot played fair, but also the first off-the-wall shot to score a point. Carson later said, "I feel like I'm in the Negro Leagues."
The exhibition matches were played with a small green dollar-store ball, with Carson taking the first game, Josh the second: C 21, J 14; J 24, C 22.
Josh's landlord Henry watched several of the games, and expressed interest in betting on them.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
What I am reading now
Music for Chameleons, Truman Capote.
I loved In Cold Blood, once I got over the poetic license it contains. It's solidly written, sympathetic and chilling, and gives a prosaic, almost banal view to a sensational crime. Music for Chameleons is shorter pieces, almost always non-fiction, that read more like anecdotes than stories. But Capote was a master of anecdotes, and since I don't like his speaking voice very much, this is a fair place to find them. Reminds me of Patricia Highsmith.
The Gangs of Chicago, Herbert Asbury
This book, originally published as Gem of the Prairie, is a notional sequel to Asbury's previous Gangs of New York, now a major motion picture (the cover advises). As such, it's more an informal history of crime and chaos in Chicago, right down to the first permanent resident (bootlegger) and the first prisoner (a white loafer purchased by a black man). It's full of glittering detail, with hilarious asides rendered in the arch manner of early 20th century journalism. It's somehow comforting to know that where the Wrigley and Tribune buildings now stand was The Sands, America's biggest ever, and one of the worst, red light district.
From Afar to Zulu: A Dictionary of African Cultures, Jim Haskins and Joann Biondi
Like most Americans, I'm woefully ignorant about the cultures of Africa, and Africa's so damn huge that it's easy to get lost. So I'm reading a book aimed at smart middle schoolers or dull high schoolers, which gives basic descriptions (along with maps and pictures) of about 30 different ethnic groups within Africa. It's fun reading, light and it's helpfully contemporary — a lot of African history gets bogged down in the fact that there's 10,000 years of it, but seeing people as they live now is nice.
I loved In Cold Blood, once I got over the poetic license it contains. It's solidly written, sympathetic and chilling, and gives a prosaic, almost banal view to a sensational crime. Music for Chameleons is shorter pieces, almost always non-fiction, that read more like anecdotes than stories. But Capote was a master of anecdotes, and since I don't like his speaking voice very much, this is a fair place to find them. Reminds me of Patricia Highsmith.
The Gangs of Chicago, Herbert Asbury
This book, originally published as Gem of the Prairie, is a notional sequel to Asbury's previous Gangs of New York, now a major motion picture (the cover advises). As such, it's more an informal history of crime and chaos in Chicago, right down to the first permanent resident (bootlegger) and the first prisoner (a white loafer purchased by a black man). It's full of glittering detail, with hilarious asides rendered in the arch manner of early 20th century journalism. It's somehow comforting to know that where the Wrigley and Tribune buildings now stand was The Sands, America's biggest ever, and one of the worst, red light district.
From Afar to Zulu: A Dictionary of African Cultures, Jim Haskins and Joann Biondi
Like most Americans, I'm woefully ignorant about the cultures of Africa, and Africa's so damn huge that it's easy to get lost. So I'm reading a book aimed at smart middle schoolers or dull high schoolers, which gives basic descriptions (along with maps and pictures) of about 30 different ethnic groups within Africa. It's fun reading, light and it's helpfully contemporary — a lot of African history gets bogged down in the fact that there's 10,000 years of it, but seeing people as they live now is nice.
It's just so!
In responding to Are Social Sciences Biased Against Conservatives,, MetaFilter commenter Kyradeamon gives this great quote:
Conservatives themselves offer the reasons why there are so few conservatives in the sciences. They will tell you (often, and at length) that they tend to be far more "family oriented" than liberals. Obviously, the numerical difference can therefore be explained by conservatives dropping out of their universities and careers to raise their children. It would be a mistake to see this as a problem -- conservatives are simply naturally more *interested* in children than they are in careers.
It's probably particularly evident in the sciences, because, meaning no disrepect to them, conservatives are simply not as good at math. The Laffer curve? Trickle-down economics? These are not theories that are developed by people with lots of math skills. This isn't to say that conservatives aren't perfectly good at other things, however; someone has to raise all those families, right?
Now, of course it's not known exactly why conservatives have neither the inclination nor the ability to do science. But some recent studies seem to indicate that there are differences in brain structure between conservatives and members of other political parties. Here's a quote from a 2007 study: "The brain neurons of liberals and conservatives fire differently when confronted with tough ... Conservatives tend to crave order and structure in their lives ... Liberals, by contrast, show a higher tolerance for ambiguity and complexity".
So, clearly, brain structures of those dear dear conservatives are simply not suited for scientific tasks, which are often ambiguous and complex.
The mistake here is presenting this as a problem that needs to be solved. We are blessed with a variety of different political groups that are ideally suited to different tasks --liberals serving as scientists, and conservatives cooking food for them and their children. Vive la difference, I say! It's just the natural order of things, and all trying to mess with it is going to do is make a lot of those poor, order-craving conservatives very upset if they try to perform a task they're simply not naturally suited for.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
ركلة ذلك! (Kick it!)
Enough Gaddafi's Khalas Mixtape Vol. 1 is explicitly political, anti-Mubarak rap. Shame I don't speak Arabic, right? But still pretty tight.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
(Not) Everybody's Gonna Make It This Time: A Zombie Playlist
IMG from NickshermanEveryone needs something to listen to when you're huddled up in your boarded-over tenement hoping to wait out the end of the world. Or tearing into the living dead with chainsaws. Whatever.
This is mine.
New Year—The Breeders
I Wanna Destroy You—The Soft Boys
Don't Send Me No Flowers—The Breakers
Death Walks Behind You—Atomic Rooster
Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll—Blue Öyster Cult
When The Kingdom Comes—Primal Scream
Girl (You Chew My Mind Up)—The Presets
Reinforcements—Sparks
Heads Will Roll—Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Heartbeat—Annie
Army Of Me—Björk
Search And Destroy—Iggy & The Stooges
[03] Jet Boy Jet Girl—Elton Motello
Safety in Numbers—The Adverts
Everybody Is Going To Make It This Time—Funkadelic
Germ Free Adolescents—X-Ray Spex
God Walks Among Us Now - Jesus Song No. 6—The Flaming Lips
The Silencers—Patti Seymour
The World's a Mess; It's In My Kiss—X
Death Is Not The End—Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Never Going Home—The Stabs
Save Yourself—Make-Up
Neat Neat Neat—The Damned
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead—Warren Zevon
This Town—The Go-Go's
Baptised In Fire And Ice—Bathory
Chase The Devil—Lee "Scratch" Perry
Seconds—Human League
death to everyone—bonnie 'prince' billy
Fuck Off And Die—FUA
James Brown Is Still Alive—Holy Noise
Seek And Destroy—Metallica
slippin' into darkness—war
It's best to be prepared.
Advanced walking
ABLE = Always Be Looking Everywhere
LAA = Locate Assess Avoid
WAIT = Walking Always Isn't Texting
LAA = Locate Assess Avoid
WAIT = Walking Always Isn't Texting
Friday, February 04, 2011
And now, for a competing view
Egypt Upheaval. Tunisia and Yemen Too? from The John Birch Society on Vimeo.
Oh, John Birch Society, don't ever change. You crazy, but don't ever change.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Oh, EDD and the language of permissive bureaucracy
So, I mailed my unemployment claim late and got a weird threatening letter. I had to have a telephone interview today between noon and five (which happened just now, about twenty to five) in order to clear it up.
I know that I mailed it late, in part because I thought that I was going to get a job. After that, it just got lost in the shuffle. But as to the exact date? I have no idea, honestly. Couple weeks ago. Who knows?
The woman on the phone for EDD started out by giving me parameters, saying that if it was mailed before the 22nd, everything was fine. If not, she was going to have to ask me some questions that may result in my losing my unemployment benefits.
I don't like to commit myself to things like this, where there's a verifiable record and legal penalties for lying — blame it on growing up in a co-op. So, I tell her that I just don't remember.
But she has to get a date from me, that's her job.
So she does what good bureaucrats do: She used her tone to make sure that I knew that she didn't really care what the truth was, but that she had to follow through with her duties. She emphasized a couple of times that if I told her that I mailed it before the 22nd, nothing would happen and I'd get paid like normal. Es ging einen licht auf, I told her that in looking at the camera, I was pretty certain that it'd been it'd been mailed before the 22nd (and who knows, maybe it had. It certainly seems likely, given what I know). But she needed me to tell her the date.
"Uh… How about the 19th?"
"Exactly when I thought it was mailed, sir."
The system works!
I know that I mailed it late, in part because I thought that I was going to get a job. After that, it just got lost in the shuffle. But as to the exact date? I have no idea, honestly. Couple weeks ago. Who knows?
The woman on the phone for EDD started out by giving me parameters, saying that if it was mailed before the 22nd, everything was fine. If not, she was going to have to ask me some questions that may result in my losing my unemployment benefits.
I don't like to commit myself to things like this, where there's a verifiable record and legal penalties for lying — blame it on growing up in a co-op. So, I tell her that I just don't remember.
But she has to get a date from me, that's her job.
So she does what good bureaucrats do: She used her tone to make sure that I knew that she didn't really care what the truth was, but that she had to follow through with her duties. She emphasized a couple of times that if I told her that I mailed it before the 22nd, nothing would happen and I'd get paid like normal. Es ging einen licht auf, I told her that in looking at the camera, I was pretty certain that it'd been it'd been mailed before the 22nd (and who knows, maybe it had. It certainly seems likely, given what I know). But she needed me to tell her the date.
"Uh… How about the 19th?"
"Exactly when I thought it was mailed, sir."
The system works!
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Twosquare league results
Today Josh and Carson played six games, with Josh taking four to Carson's two. J 21, C 13; J 21, C 18; J 21, C 16. C 22, J 20; J 21, C 19; C 21, J 17.
Ball is notably oblong, as befits the idiosyncratic sport.
Ball is notably oblong, as befits the idiosyncratic sport.
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