Thought guinea pigs could never survive in the wild? Think again.
14 years ago
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
everyone loves beer
Dispatch from across the country re: the Beer Summit.
Seems like pretty boilerplate stuff, not surprising considering that the press was kept 50 feet away. Anyways, to save you from clicking through to get the interesting stuff, here's the beers they were drinking and their LARGER SOCIAL MEANING.
Obama: Bud Light
Populist, drinkable, boring. It's a shame that our President was drinking water at the beer summit, but somewhat edifying to know that he has more in common with Ilya than anyone thought. I wish he had gone with something more unique, but this seems to be the way the Obama presidency is going--incredible promise and excitement (the concept of a Beer Summit) followed by the harsh realities of Washingtonian realpolitik (Bud Light?!). Let's hope his choice of beer isn't representative of his ability to govern.
Biden: Bucklers
A pretty much nonalcoholic beer produced by Heinekin. Given Biden's penchant for saying crazy shit, it might have been a tactical decision on the part of the White House staff to keep the most loose-tongued member of the Summit as sober as possible. For some reason I picture Biden pouring whisky into his beer before the Summit, but there's no good reason for this other than that I associate Biden with Walter Matthau in the Bad News Bears.
Gates: Sam Adams Light
Harvard man drinking a Boston beer, so I guess this should come as no surprise. Gates is getting a little long in the tooth, so the nod to healthfulness (the "Light" bit) is a given, and at least he's drinking something close to a craft beer.
Crowley: Blue Moon
Aaaaaaaaand the cop manages to put all of them to shame by putting away a real beer. Although it is produced by Coors, and corporate America dressing itself up as Mom-and-Pop operations is so shameful and embarassing and should be stopped (KEEP CORPORATIONS EVIL), this is still close to a good beer. Shame on you, Obama, "Boilermaker" Biden, and Gates for getting punk'd by the dude that Obama said acted stupidly. Joke's on you, Mr. President.
Seems like pretty boilerplate stuff, not surprising considering that the press was kept 50 feet away. Anyways, to save you from clicking through to get the interesting stuff, here's the beers they were drinking and their LARGER SOCIAL MEANING.
Obama: Bud Light
Populist, drinkable, boring. It's a shame that our President was drinking water at the beer summit, but somewhat edifying to know that he has more in common with Ilya than anyone thought. I wish he had gone with something more unique, but this seems to be the way the Obama presidency is going--incredible promise and excitement (the concept of a Beer Summit) followed by the harsh realities of Washingtonian realpolitik (Bud Light?!). Let's hope his choice of beer isn't representative of his ability to govern.
Biden: Bucklers
A pretty much nonalcoholic beer produced by Heinekin. Given Biden's penchant for saying crazy shit, it might have been a tactical decision on the part of the White House staff to keep the most loose-tongued member of the Summit as sober as possible. For some reason I picture Biden pouring whisky into his beer before the Summit, but there's no good reason for this other than that I associate Biden with Walter Matthau in the Bad News Bears.
Gates: Sam Adams Light
Harvard man drinking a Boston beer, so I guess this should come as no surprise. Gates is getting a little long in the tooth, so the nod to healthfulness (the "Light" bit) is a given, and at least he's drinking something close to a craft beer.
Crowley: Blue Moon
Aaaaaaaaand the cop manages to put all of them to shame by putting away a real beer. Although it is produced by Coors, and corporate America dressing itself up as Mom-and-Pop operations is so shameful and embarassing and should be stopped (KEEP CORPORATIONS EVIL), this is still close to a good beer. Shame on you, Obama, "Boilermaker" Biden, and Gates for getting punk'd by the dude that Obama said acted stupidly. Joke's on you, Mr. President.
this seems blindingly obvious
A blend of two things that should have been linked in everyone's mind from day one, but was overlooked for reasons of prior existence: Facebook and ridesharing.
This could lead to some Kerouacky adventures.
This could lead to some Kerouacky adventures.
don't mess with the mouse
My initial reaction is: this is the coolest thing ever. My considered reaction is: still the coolest thing ever. Mecha-Goofy!
time magazine is just a little behind on this one
Have you ever heard of these things called hipsters before? Me, neither.
Thanks for jocking my steez, Time.
Thanks for jocking my steez, Time.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
pynchomania!
As a way of commemorating my fight through the most difficult (and challenging, rewarding, and sometimes fun) book I have ever encountered, Sally Forth had a weird synergistic moment with me that forces a re-examination of everything I thought I knew about comics.
real, live arms dealing
For an entertaining mental adventure (maybe useful in getting them creative juices flowing), check out this 8-page comic detailing the adventures of a researches figuring out just how easy it is to get rifles and ammunition into Somalia. (via)
My favorite part is when he figures out that he just ordered enough bullets to kill everyone in Cyprus--and AmPro responds anyways.
My favorite part is when he figures out that he just ordered enough bullets to kill everyone in Cyprus--and AmPro responds anyways.
change we can believe in
You know what I've always wished I could see Obama doing? Frolicking naked with unicorns! (via)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
file under: we already knew this
As every living, breathing college student knows, life's better when you only work four days a week.
Skipping time and place and everything, this seems like compelling scientific endorsement of the bons temps that Isla Vista engages in every Thursday night, and provides empirical proof that we, in fact, should be scheduling most of our classes on the TTh block. This could jibe nicely with what has been proposed by some: the demonetization of creative professions. People are much more likely to take on personal creative projects when given an extra 24 hours to do them. Let's be honest: who wants to sit down and paint a picture after a 9 hour workday and hour commute when the option of turning the television on and the brain off is immediate and appealing?
Alternatively, given a free day to do whatever, people will probably volunteer more, paint more, spend more time with the kids, you name it. It's hard to see how this ISN'T beneficial, especially given the procilivity of human beings to get into a kind of "work zone" where they bang out one task after another after another, and the day seems to fly away. Combined with the reduced emissions of greenhouse gasses and you have an all-win proposal, and perhaps a move by the US to recapture status as a true progressive nation. Leave it to Utah to lead the charge into the 21st century.
Regular three-day weekends, without a decrease in the actual hours worked per week, could not only save money, but also ease pressures on the environment and public health, advocates say. In fact, several states, cities and companies across the country are considering, or have already implemented on a trial basis, the condensed schedule for their employees.
Skipping time and place and everything, this seems like compelling scientific endorsement of the bons temps that Isla Vista engages in every Thursday night, and provides empirical proof that we, in fact, should be scheduling most of our classes on the TTh block. This could jibe nicely with what has been proposed by some: the demonetization of creative professions. People are much more likely to take on personal creative projects when given an extra 24 hours to do them. Let's be honest: who wants to sit down and paint a picture after a 9 hour workday and hour commute when the option of turning the television on and the brain off is immediate and appealing?
Alternatively, given a free day to do whatever, people will probably volunteer more, paint more, spend more time with the kids, you name it. It's hard to see how this ISN'T beneficial, especially given the procilivity of human beings to get into a kind of "work zone" where they bang out one task after another after another, and the day seems to fly away. Combined with the reduced emissions of greenhouse gasses and you have an all-win proposal, and perhaps a move by the US to recapture status as a true progressive nation. Leave it to Utah to lead the charge into the 21st century.
7 habits of highly creative people
Well, it looks like there's really only one habit: increasing psychological distance. (via kottke)
This actually makes bushels of sense. Assuming you know a really creative person (i.e. artist, writer, musician, whatever) you've probably noticed that they seem slightly, well, you know. Also great news for space cadets everywhere, who can point to their dreaminess as evidence of creative neurons making connections that the more mentally present might not.According to CLT, psychological distance affects the way we mentally represent things, so that distant things are represented in a relatively abstract way while psychologically near things seem more concrete.
nicholson baker on the kindle
Nicholson Baker, who authored this fantastic book,* explores the pros and cons of the Kindle2.
Check out this hidden lede, about 1/3 of the way through the story:
As someone that reads books semi-regularly and as a result carries them around with him 95% of the time (Stephen King once wrote that you never know when you're going to get a spare 10 minutes, and that's true), it's cool to be able to look--physically, simply look over at some other person sitting at a park bench and see: "Oh they're reading the new Dan Brown novel, avoid this person as though they were plagued."
Kindle eliminates that, eliminates the tiny, infintesimal sliver of connectedness that physical books offer. I know, reading is a solitary activity and you don't see people getting together for reading sessions (although I once spent a magical afternoon with three other people reading the books that I had thrown around my car, which is important to do because You Never Know) and blah blah blah, but do we really need to replace this sense of intellectual self-branding and -advertisement with a formless tablet. I suppose that the Kindle itself is a conversation piece ("Oh, you have $300 to spend on something that looks like "a wet newspaper" too!"), but only will be as long as it's novel (i.e. in the same way that iPods once were**.)
Yes, it is possible and even likely that the Kindle or things like it could revitalize a flagging publishing industry and is probably damn good for the rainforest. Think of the elimination in environment, social, and financial costs of having to process trees into paper, and then think about the ease of buying a book--downloading it in 60 seconds versus spending 100 times that in a bookstore--and you have a relatively simple math. The Kindle WILL be good for people that want to publish books (not necessarily the publishing industry) and especially self-publishers. Hell, it might even eliminate the pesky problem of editors and publishers entirely.
But the thing is that I kind of LIKE going to the bookstore (and I might be in the minority on this and now that I'm thinking about it there will always be somewhere that I can go to be surrounded by stacks of printed word on processed pulp), and the Kindle is just one in a string of ever-increasing reasons never to leave my house. You don't even have to wait the annoying three days until Amazon drops the book off at your house, you don't have to deal with the hassle of the magical old-book smell, you don't have to have all that disgusting human history involved with the acquisition of old and therefore cheap books.
Kindle creates an experience that is unique to you (no trading or swapping), and homogenized and sanitized for your benefit. It will doubtless keep improving, providing sharper contrast, more titles, better solutions to the problems of displaying in-text graphics, and probably eventually replace books as a better reading solution. But that sucks, and I'm going to go back to reading the copy of "The Prince" that I bought for a dollar.
*Not available on the Kindle.
**I once handwrote a semi-long, serious essay about the social aspects of iPod ownership, but I've lost that, and I was 14 or 15 at the time.
Check out this hidden lede, about 1/3 of the way through the story:
The success of the ebook is being fueled by the romance and erotic romance market,” Peter Smith, of ITworld, reports. Smith cites the actress and Kindle enthusiast Felicia Day, of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” who has been bingeing on paranormals like “Dark Needs at Night’s Edge.” “I’ve read like, 6 books this week and ordered about 10 more,” Day blogged. “It’s stuff I never would have checked out at the Barnes and Noble, because the gleaming and oily man chests would have made me blush too much.”
As someone that reads books semi-regularly and as a result carries them around with him 95% of the time (Stephen King once wrote that you never know when you're going to get a spare 10 minutes, and that's true), it's cool to be able to look--physically, simply look over at some other person sitting at a park bench and see: "Oh they're reading the new Dan Brown novel, avoid this person as though they were plagued."
Kindle eliminates that, eliminates the tiny, infintesimal sliver of connectedness that physical books offer. I know, reading is a solitary activity and you don't see people getting together for reading sessions (although I once spent a magical afternoon with three other people reading the books that I had thrown around my car, which is important to do because You Never Know) and blah blah blah, but do we really need to replace this sense of intellectual self-branding and -advertisement with a formless tablet. I suppose that the Kindle itself is a conversation piece ("Oh, you have $300 to spend on something that looks like "a wet newspaper" too!"), but only will be as long as it's novel (i.e. in the same way that iPods once were**.)
Yes, it is possible and even likely that the Kindle or things like it could revitalize a flagging publishing industry and is probably damn good for the rainforest. Think of the elimination in environment, social, and financial costs of having to process trees into paper, and then think about the ease of buying a book--downloading it in 60 seconds versus spending 100 times that in a bookstore--and you have a relatively simple math. The Kindle WILL be good for people that want to publish books (not necessarily the publishing industry) and especially self-publishers. Hell, it might even eliminate the pesky problem of editors and publishers entirely.
But the thing is that I kind of LIKE going to the bookstore (and I might be in the minority on this and now that I'm thinking about it there will always be somewhere that I can go to be surrounded by stacks of printed word on processed pulp), and the Kindle is just one in a string of ever-increasing reasons never to leave my house. You don't even have to wait the annoying three days until Amazon drops the book off at your house, you don't have to deal with the hassle of the magical old-book smell, you don't have to have all that disgusting human history involved with the acquisition of old and therefore cheap books.
Kindle creates an experience that is unique to you (no trading or swapping), and homogenized and sanitized for your benefit. It will doubtless keep improving, providing sharper contrast, more titles, better solutions to the problems of displaying in-text graphics, and probably eventually replace books as a better reading solution. But that sucks, and I'm going to go back to reading the copy of "The Prince" that I bought for a dollar.
*Not available on the Kindle.
**I once handwrote a semi-long, serious essay about the social aspects of iPod ownership, but I've lost that, and I was 14 or 15 at the time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
