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Highways = Windfarms.
Best. Idea. Ever.
Particularly the highway I take to get to Arizona. Bitch is always windy. Always.
Ken Levine plays a trick on his listenership.
1115: Progress? Progress?!
At least it's not the progressive party so constantly redefining the term.
Also: after listening to Sarah Polley this morning on Fresh Air, I've decided I need to move to Canada and get a Candian girl to be my lover. Something about the accent drives me wild.
I sat there, wondering if I'd at least get my wife back after this. Then 20 minutes passed, and nothing. Thirty minutes. Forty. Forty five. I started to get worried and thought all sorts of horrible things that I will not put words to. Mainly, then, I start to think about the abortion debate. About pro-lifers, in particular. I think about all those meddling politicians that would want to interject themselves into everything that just happened to me, interject themselves between me, my wife, and her doctors.
On abortion and a 'health' exception, though personal experience.
via kottke
A wonderful post by Anil Dash which deconstructs the internet phenomenon known as "lolcats," that is, pictures of cats saying "funny" things. Some of the funnier examples drawn, quickly, from flickr: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Dash points out that one can get lolcat-grammar wrong, which means that it's possible to get lolcat-grammar right, a somewhat disturbing development. My favorite lolcat, though, is the one in his post--the one saying "I has idiosyncratic conjugation." Because that cat does, in fact, has idiosyncratic conjugation.
Also: dropline.net/cats
Also (2): A kitten surrounds a boob.
It's something for everyone...
The most tremendously intuitive online photo-viewing interfeace I've seen.
[Warning: as these are pictures of models, sometimes some of them aren't wearing uppers, sometimes.]
72-Hour Timeline of a Denver Shabu (Pure, Japanese Crystal Meth) Party
Ass-kickingly good.
Every last story I read about Obama shows him doing something bone-headed.
I mean, seriously?
Also: he hates Dems and the left. Or, he thinks he can win if he slams them.
If that's the case, then I'm sad for him, for me and for American political discourse and most particularly the state of the Democratic party, because you know what? No one ever says a goddamn good thing about us. And we just want to help. We just want to make things better. We want to see people stop suffering, we want to give people the ability to get out of bad situations, to improve their living conditions, to be able to pay for health care and to not incite even more people to want to kill us and to stop cold those who do.
I am not saying that the right doesn't want these things, I'm sure they do. I don't agree with how they want to go about it, or the specific ideals they use to prosecute these things, but, I mean, my goodness--how is it that day after day after day after day we can keep hearing about how liberals hate America and aren't proud of every amazing thing this nation has accomplished and how liberals want to lose the war... it makes no sense. And every time anyone refrains for saying it doesn't make sense, they are making it worse.
I don't care about how you think you're supposed to be fair or balanced: don't say or let it be said unchallenged that liberals don't love America, don't want to see it be safe and strong, don't want to try and improve the lives of its people, don't want to do what is in its best interest, don't want to see it be the very, very best that it could possibly be and what it has been: the strongest, richest, most-free civilization in the history of man--those people who imply that liberals believe otherwise, and allow that implication to be made, cannot be believed or trusted, no matter their party affiliation.
Driving:
Time onto I-10: 9:45AM Central (Daylight)
Time off of I-10: 1:30PM Central (Daylight)
Time on I-10: 3hrs, 45min
Distance (approx): 300mi
Max speed, highway: 96mph
Min speed, highway: 65mph
# of stops: 2 (Ozona, Junction)
Displayed average speed: 83mph
Calculated average speed: 300mi/3.75hrs = 80mph
Fuel economy: 32.8mpg
Consumed:
(2) Croissant
(1) Coke Zero
(1) 20oz. Dasani Water
Listened:
Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather, track 6 ("This Had Better Be Good")
This American Life - A Little Bit of Knowledge
This American Life - New Beginnings
The Beatles - Revolver (personally re-ordered mix), tracks 1-3 ("She Said," "Tax Man," "Only Sleeping")
This American Life - 20 Acts in 60 Minutes
NPR (San Antonio) - Talk of the Nation, 1:00PM - 1:30PM
Beck - Odelay, tracks 1-3
Episodes:
(9) "How I Met Your Mother"
(1) "Grey's Anatomy" (+ 1 special)
(1) "Lost"
(2) "Friends"
(3) "House"
(3.5) "Sex and the City"
(1) "Little People, Big World"
(1) "What Not to Wear" (+ 1 special)
(1) "30 Rock" (and a second time)
(4) "Around the Horn"
(3) "The Daily Show"
(11) "This American Life"
Hockey games watched: 4
Albums:
Distinct FOW discs listened: 3
Total times FOW discs played in entirety: 7
Times Regina Spektor's Begin To Hope played in entirety: 3
Distinct times part or all of Pipettes album played: 4
Cute girls
met: 4
liked: 1
Wholly depressing statistics realized about my life: 1
Hours of Morrowind played: 0
Apartment complexes
driven to: 18
visited: 12
liked: 5
found acceptable: 2
loved: 1
chosen: 1
Days spend apartment hunting: 2x .75 + 2x .25
Professors
talked to about independent study: 3
not interested: 1
not exactly right: 2
leaving for a week of conferences who were unable to commit and said to email in early May: 1
Posts detailing statistics of trip: 4
Driven:
Time left Kathleen's: 8:02AM, Mountain (Standard)
Time got on I-10: 8:35AM, Mountain (Standard)
Time got off I-10: 6:50PM, Central (Daylight)
Time, total, on I-10 (approx): 7hrs, 45 min
Total Miles (approx): 550
Fuel Economy: 37.3MPG
Max Speed, Highway: 102mph
Min Speed, Highway: 63mph
Avg Speed, Highway + City: 73mph
Avg Speed, Total: 550mi/7.75hrs = 70.96mph
Consumed:
(2) Regular Croissant
(1) Cherry Coke Zero
(1) .5 Litre, Fiji Water
(1) Sonic Cheeseburger
(1) Regular Tots, Sonic
(1) Small Barq's Rootbeer
(12oz) Orange juice
(1) Spinach Mushroom Omlet
(1) Short Stack, Pancakes
Listened:
NPR (Tucson) - Morning Edition, 8:02AM - 9:45AM
This American Life - Godless America
This American Life - With Great Power
Fountains of Wayne - Out of State Plates, Disc 1, all tracks
This American Life - And The Call Was Coming from the Basement!
Weezer - Make Believe, all tracks
This American Life - Americans in Paris
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine, tracks 1-5
Colourlovers.com does a short post about colorblindness. I've always been fascinated by colorblindness (even though I didn't believe some of you when you told me that you were colorblind... repeatedly...), so the helpful visual was... helpful.
How this page looks to a person with reg/green colorblindness. From Colorblind Web Page Filter.
A bit of good-natured ribbing from The Onion:
This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence
Grades of episodes I listened to recently:
24 Hours At The Golden Apple: 10/10
Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time: 7/10
Fiasco: 8/10
Reruns: 9/10
A Better Mousetrap: 7/10 (Though Act 1 is 10/10)
Prom: 10/10
Because you surely know more about this than I do.
Have you ever or do you know anyone that has ever lived at any of the following apartment complexes in Tucson? Did you/they hate/love them?
The Plum Tree (North of Glenn on Columbus)
Briarwood (Ft. Lowell at Mountain)
North Hill Park (Limberlost just west of First)
Sunrise (Campbell and Prince)
Country Club Terrace (Country Club just north of Grant)
Driving:
Time onto I-10: 7:10 AM Mountain (Daylight)
Time off of I-10: 10:00 AM Mountain (Standard)
Time on I-10: 3 hours, 50 minutes
Fuel economy, day 1 and 2 combined: 30.5 MPG
Eaten:
1 Holiday Inn Cinnamon Roll
2 Mini Croissants
Listened:
NPR - Morning Edition, 7:10 - 8:10AM
Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather, tracks 7-14, 1-7
This American Life - Prom
Pipettes - We are the Pipettes, tracks 1-6, 8
King Floyd - Choice Cuts, tracks 1-5
Stats for today:
Driving:
Miles: ~550
AVG MPH, driving: 81
Time onto I-10: 7:30AM Central (Daylight)
Time off of I-10: 2:00PM Mountain (Daylight)
Total time: 7 hours, 30 minutes
MPH, total: 73.3
Fuel economy: 29.2 MPG
Eaten:
6x small croissant
1x Special K Berries and Cream granola bar
1x Regular Order Onion Rings, from Whataburger
1x Whataburger with Cheese, Bacon, Cheese, from Whataburger
5.5oz Cheeze-its (projected)
Drank:
20oz Barq's Rootbeer
2x .5 pint Fiji Water
1x Small Sprite (Whataburger)
Beer I've not been able to find anywhere except for a hole-in-the-wall liquor store in Las Cruces: Red Hook Brewery's Black Hook Porter
How good that beer that I've been waiting years to drink was: Not that good
Possibility I got a bad batch: 50/50
Listened to (in order):
NPR Morning Edition, 7:30AM to 8:45AM
This American Life - "Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time"
This American Life - "Fiaso"
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope, tracks 1-9, 11-14
This American Life - "Reruns"
Fountains of Wayne - Fountains of Wayne, all tracks
This American Life - "A Better Mousetrap"
Wagner - Prelude and beginning of act 1 - Tannhauser
Today, on NPR's Day to Day, in honor of Vonnegut, they played him reading the following passage from Slaughterhouse Five:
Billy Pilgrim padded downstairs on his blue and ivory feet. He went into the kitchen, where the moonlight called his attention to a half bottle of champagne on the kitchen table, all that was left from the reception in the tent. Somebody had stoppered it again. "Drink me," it seemed to say.
So Billy uncorked it with his thumbs. It didn't make a pop. The champagne was dead. So it goes.
Billy looked at the clock on the gas stove. He had an hour to kill before the saucer came. He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell, turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this :
American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.
The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.
And people wonder why I want to study philosophy of history. The film read forwards is jingoistic claptrap (probably) but read backwards, it's moving and solemn and beautiful. This simple transposition changes so much beyond just the order and causality of the events.
I don't dispute that sometimes 1115.org comes off as sounding hysterical in response to the idea of Senator Obama being the Democratic presidential nominee. But no one else has been doing any examination of what an Obama candidacy would mean for Democratic politics, and, indeed, the nation in general. And they're right, he is getting to be Kerry-esque.
Most others just seem to take it as fait accompli that he'll be the Democratic nominee. That, or that there's no one better. Democrats are painting themselves into the same corner they did in 2004 with John Kerry--assuming the senator's the best man for the job, for some reason, despite a good deal of what he says and does--or assuming that there's no one better. Well there is. His name is John Edwards. He's a man whose campaign isn't based on 'hope' like the Obama campaign and has actual, substantive policy initiatives already prepared.
Don't buy my assessment? Compare the health-care issue pages from Senator Obama's website and Senator Edwards'.
Some things to consider about the two of them: Obama's is longer. It's also a laundry list of things he did before. Most of them, it looks like, are bills he introduced, not bills he got passed (where's the consensus building now?). Now take a look at Edwards'. It's shorter but more substantive on what he would actually do to fix the problems Americans face. Oh, and there's a link there to a comprehensive, 8 page pdf expanding on each of those points and explaining why it matters and how to get it done.
How is this even a contest?
Senator Obama has said that the American people shouldn't want someone with a plan as President, because plans fail, but instead should want someone with the skills to build consensus. Two thing about that stick with me: 1) wasn't that the bill of goods we were sold with George "a uniter, not a divider" W. Bush? And 2) it's a false choice. We can pick someone who has both substantive policy ideas and the ability to get compromises implemented, we don't need to pick a candidate who has explicitly said that he won't envision a policy plan at this point.
Senator Obama talks about hope, but that's rhetoric of failure, I mean, lets look at it: he doesn't trust himself to come up with the best--or even an almost-best--possible solution. He doesn't trust that even if he had that solution, he could get others to buy it. Doesn't that sound like giving up before you've even started?
I'd like a leader that will lead. I'd like a leader with a strong will, strong coalition building skills and a strong mind, full of ideas and plans. And anybody who tells you that any one of those things isn't important is either a liar or a chump.
Remember: donations help.
Boing Boing: Korean War Hero on No Fly List for Anti-Bush Speech
X in the City: Some girls's freaky.
("X in the..." may not be the most moral or frequently updated bit of weblogerry, but it's always interesting.)
Ryan Irelan: A Google 411 Video demo
(via Airbag, who I agree with, I can't see how this can stay free forever. But, it's Google, after all.)
The New Gehry Building Inside and out (via Kottke)
(Don't get a lot of opportunity to see the inside of an architectural office-building.)
Kottke: The Overton Window
(The realm of possible policy choices that might actually get implemented.)
Microsoft is Dead, and the follow-up, Microsoft is Dead: the Cliffs Notes (via DF)
Cockeyed: Fire from a coke can and toothpaste.
(Didn't so much work, but it's interesting.)
Wonderful D-Day cover for a new translation of the Illiad. (via Boing Boing)
Airbag: How Airbag got to be an LLC.
Last week's quake lifted the Solomon Islands several feet out of the ocean.
(If you've not seen this, it's awesome.)
TV Squad: Video: Jimmy Kimmel woodsheds Gawker Editor
(Over, well, lying and stalking and such. Oh, and he's filling in for Larry King while doing it. And dressed like him, too.)
Techdirt: High-school principle sues students over fake My Space pages.
(Parody is still an exception, right? And how can this be not-parody?)
Gizmodo: Floating Windmills of Awseomeness
Dethroner: '70s Southwest Airlines Stewardesses
It's 2027 and no babies have been born since 2009. The first day of the film--which takes place entirely in the span of three or four days--is the day that the youngest human on Earth (still called Baby Diego, though he's 18) is killed. And the film rolls from there.
I've got to tell you this: this film is excellent. It's the best movie made last year. I liked "The Departed" and all. And I liked "Babel" more than just about anyone else I know did. But this movie. This is the first movie I've watched in a long time where I had to stop, take a deep breath and remind myself that it wasn't real. An hour after I finished it, I was still coming down and working on breathing normally. The film is utterly amazing. Utterly fluid and utterly captivating. Utterly beautiful.
Matt refused to watch the movie unless I could assure him it was not utterly depressing. Which I couldn't, because the world of the film has gone to shit. But not because of anything but the infertility. Terrorism plays a part in the film, of course, and government mismanagement (and, as it's set in England, overmanagament) plays a part.
But global warming's not to blame, so that's something. One of the things that makes the film interesting is that it's not about the infertility, so much. It's not about fixing it or finding out what caused it--it's never explained. It's an unexplored mystery, which is perfect.
One of the most interesting things about the film is how it portrays people--particularly the activist "Fishes," but the British Gov't troops as well--that they can't get past their own shit to see what is going on. The sequence, which if you've seen the film I hope you know which sequence I'm talking about, is interesting and dense and deserves to be pulled apart at greater length.
Also, Theo (Clive Owen) and Kee (his charge) weaving with their guide through the Islamic Martyr's parade in the middle of the refugee city was one of the most visually arresting images in the film, in a film full of arresting imagery.
I wholeheartedly recommend the movie.
Slate: "Why I sort of hate the hottest ad agency in the country."
The above article takes Crispin Porter and Bogusky to task for making ads aimed at fratty guys and only fratty guys at the risk of excluding others. Read the article itself for which ads they're talking about, specifically. It's an interesting read.
What I found most interesting about it was the fact that I love and hate the company's ads in equal number. While I love "Man Law," (the one with Jewel is pitch perfect) I don't like The King from the Burger King ads. And I hate that damn Sponge Bob No Pants ad they've been running lately. HATE it. Makes me want to shoot my damn TV. But then I loved the ads for "My Fast" from Volkswagon. And don't get me started on those "Making Things Right" ads for Hagar. Those were the single most ... my god. I nearly burst an aneurysm just thinking about the damn things.
How did you react to each of these ads? That's my question to you. The article paints it in an all-or-nothing light, but I find my reaction far more varied. So what do you think about them? Do you like or dislike them all the same? Or do you like the ones your like more than you hate the ones you hate? How do you feel about advertising that splits you down the middle? Do you even watch commercials anymore?
CNN: The Brain and God.
(Always interesting no matter your perspective, though I totally call bullshit on the term 'neurotheology.')
Dethroner: 'Details' hates your back-pocket wallet.
Slate: Our sixty year old bombers work better than ever. So why don't we build more?
The New Yorker: Sasha Frere-Jones gets to see Prince. (via Anil Dash)
Battle of the Bands That Would Have No Career If Radiohead Had Kept Making Accesible Music (via Junkiness)
YouTube: Alanis covers "My Humps" (via Data-What)
(As Matt pointed out, this version is still horrible, and proves what someone said about "My Humps": it is "proof that a song can be so bad as to verge on evil." But the video is pretty funny.)
YouTube: David Lynch, succinctly, on product placement. (via Airbag)
(He swears.)
Today "Traffic and Weather," the pimp new album from Fountains of Wayne was released.
Some observations:
1) It has been a long time since they released an album of new material--"Welcome Interstate Managers" came out in 2003. I didn't realize this until the sticker on the front of the album called it "long awaited." At so it was, the sticker did not lie.
2) When I picked up the disc itself, and flipped it over and saw that track two was titled "'92 Subaru," I began grinning from ear to ear.
3) I had it unwrapped before I got to the car.
4) "'92 Subaru" is just as Fountains of Wayne-sy as the title promises.
5) I had only listened to half of the title track, "Traffic and Weather" when I went into the store. It was already stuck in my head.
6) I really should buy the album of b-sides. Hey, it's only 9.97$ on Amazon. Hurray!
7) Why can't every day be the day when the new Fountains of Wayne album comes out?
via Kottke: Earliest books printed in selected languages.
(Apparently histories of Troy and Trojans were au currant in the mid-15th-century. Who knew?)
Slate: 1$/day and the world's very poor.
(Intersting, but not nearly as interesting as it could have been.)
Tremendous New Yorker article on Gordon Ramsay. He's a crazy, crazy bastard, but he's great. Long, sure, but worth reading all the way through. Even if you haven't spent half as much time watching him on TV as I have, you'll find it fascinating. In fact, I'm cooking Gordon-Ramsay-food tonight.
Darkest (and funniest?) Onion headline I've seen in a while: 7-Year-Old Transfers Friend's Obituary Onto Silly Putty For Posterity