January 2012
15 posts
“This does nothing to alleviate the main emerging problem: Revolution does not...”
– The New Decembrists
The Evil Economics Of Judging Teachers | The Awl →
I really, really like Maria Bustillos’s writing.
The Rise of the New Groupthink →
Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.
But there’s a problem with this view. Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to...
Heroine Chic
lareviewofbooks:
EVIE NAGY on Miss Fury, the first female superhero. Art by Tarpé Mills
Tarpé Mills Tarpé Mills & Miss Fury: Sensational Sundays 1944–1949 IDW Publishing, July 2011. 240 pp. DC Direct, the merchandizing arm of publisher DC Comics, produces a line of collectible busts called “Heroes of the DC Universe.” Apparently, the category of “Heroes” includes not only classic...
“This is not the first occasion Balotelli has drawn attention for controversial...”
– Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli visits local college to use toilet | Football | guardian.co.uk
This man is reaching Onion levels of ridiculousness.
December 2011
11 posts
The Curse of Cow Clicker →
It’s a Facebook game called Cow Clicker, and it’s unlike anything Bogost ever made before, a borderline-evil piece of work that was intended to embody the worst aspects of the modern gaming industry. He meant Cow Clicker to be a satire with a short shelf life. Instead, it enslaved him and many of its players for much of the past 18 months. Even Bogost can’t decide whether it represents his...
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“13. A classic is a work which relegates the noise of the present to a background...”
– Italo Calvino, Why read the classics?
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Your own weapons against you
I’m not pretending that this subject is of any import, but this one stung, this first defeat in FIFA12 to a human opponent. (This post might just be a ruse to link to a bunch of Jonathan Wilson and Michael Cox analysis.)
The winning tactic was one of my own design, or, I should say, I was the one who transcribed it from a hybrid of Bielsa/Guardiola real-life strategy to something that...
Slavoj Žižek reviews ‘Václav Havel’ by John Keane... →
The Leader in fact is like the Lady in courtly love poetry – cold, distanced, inhuman. Both the Leninist and the Stalinist Leader are thoroughly alienated, but in opposite ways: the Leninist Leader displays radical self-instrumentalisation on behalf of the Revolution, while in the case of the Stalinist Leader, the ‘real person’ is treated as an appendix to the fetishised and celebrated public...
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Things I wish I had been told growing up:
Never over-tighten a compression fitting
Finish pasta in the sauce
Get a tailor
Own long underwear; wool is best, silk almost as good
Wrinkle-free fabrics look terrible and still need to be ironed
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OH LOOK, THE MEDIA OVERHYPED SOMETHING. →
November 2011
7 posts
“It may seem like a good idea to avoid the “perception of bias” by...”
– Stop Forcing Journalists to Conceal Their Views From the Public - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic
Judge a report based on the merits of the report, not on what you think about the reporter or his/her biases. Duh. Why are people (journalists, especially) not comfortable with this idea?
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Fading the Vig: A... →
Zugzwang is a term used in chess to refer to a position where every move you have is a bad one. Once you’re in zugzwang, things like having more pieces than your opponent doesn’t matter anymore. If you can’t use them to attack you may as well not have them at all. Often players who find themselves in zugzwang simply resign.
A growing number of people in America know what it feels like to be in...
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“Within limits, one should try to allay unnecessary social dissonance. If you’re...”
– http://t.co/aZniovez
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Saul Bass title sequence - Grand Prix (1966) →
I had no idea that Saul Bass did this title sequence until just now. It’s one of my favorites.
Making the Grade: Why the Cheapest Maple Syrup... →
The market for maple syrup offers an odd inversion. The thin, pale fluid labeled Fancy or Grade A Light Amber commands the highest prices. It is the white bread of condiments, an inoffensive accompaniment to more flavorful fare. The robust, thick syrup marked Grade B fairly bursts with maple flavor, but sells at a significant discount. So why does the nominally inferior grade offer decidedly...
Guts, No Glory →
American journalist discovers 1) the holding midfielder is important, a known fact since forever, and 2) that Scott Parker is quite good (he was only the FWA Footballer of the Year last season).
This is the equivalent of someone going to a Bulls game in the 90’s and saying, “Hey, this chap with the funny hair, Rodman, he’s critical, no?”
October 2011
4 posts
“My first choice is a strong consumer agency,” [Warren] said. “My second choice...”
– The Woman Who Knew Too Much | Politics | Vanity Fair
Where, on television, are the men who both like... →
September 2011
5 posts
Downtown is For People →
longformorg:
On the then new phenomenon of dead downtowns:
It is not only for amenity but for economics that choice is so vital. Without a mixture on the streets, our downtowns would be superficially standardized, and functionally standardized as well. New construction is necessary, but it is not an unmixed blessing: its inexorable economy is fatal to hundreds of enterprises able to make out...
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August 2011
1 post
July 2011
15 posts
What Were They Thinking? →
Someday people will look back and wonder, What were they thinking? Why, in the midst of a stalled recovery, with the economy fragile and job creation slowing to a trickle, did the nation’s leaders decide that the thing to do—in order to raise the debt limit, normally a routine matter—was to spend less money, making job creation all the more difficult? Many experts on the economy believe that...
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Beck - Profanity Prayers
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