Miroslav one upped me with a modern day gallery from monsterindia.com
(Yes, at one point the first and foremost monster mascot was Trumpasaurus, aka "Trumpy", and it was a reference to the businessman. Who even then was a joke, but a different kind of joke than he is now.)
PC Mag - September 2007
Reinvent Your PC
a diagram is an explanation up until the explanation has diagrams
must be autumn, Dean shunned his office throne all summer but now he's back.
The primary fault line for me was one of empathy. The flavor of Christianity I had been given (and, in part, then would prepare for myself) was that of a belief system that was uniquely and universally True, and therefore pointed to the delusion or outright falsehood of other religions. But the contingency of it all -- when I reflected on how as the literal Sweet Talking Son of a Preacher Man I was striving to be a good Christian, but wouldn't an alternate me in the role of Sweet Talking Son of an Imam be trying just as hard to be a good Muslim? - led me to think that it was just terribly unlikely my people got it right and everyone else got it wrong, and this very powerful and loving God let that happen. Empathy (in combination with this deeply instilled idea that Religious Truth must be all encompassing and potentially universal) drove me from my precocious childhood sense of faith.
I'm reading Meghan O'Gieblyn's "God Human Animal Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning". She also had a strong Christian background she turned from, and writes
When I was in high school, the pastor of my family's church read the news through the lens of the minor prophets and frequently voiced his opinion, from the pulpit, that Christ would return within his lifetime (he was in his late sixties). For most of my life I had believed that I would live to see the coming of this new age; that my body would be transformed, made immortal, and I would ascend into the clouds to spend eternity with God.That kind of thinking sounded very familiar to me. But now I'm thinking... hasn't at least one flavor of Christians been saying over and over and over for centuries? It feels like a certain gullibility there - akin to believing a tenant saying "oh, THIS month I'll get you the rent, I swear" or that any week now you'll win the lottery.
So that, too, lacks a certain kind of empathy. It's like the modern day believer, putting aside that Matthew 24:36 talk ("But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.") says - "C'mon... just look at the state of the world, the return of Israel, all that jazz. It's GOTTA be SOON!" and to the extent they acknowledge that line of thinking goes way, way back, it's like they're saying "What a bunch of rubes!" to those earlier generations of believers.
And I do resent that apocalyptic kind of thinking, which scared the bejeebers out of me as a kid, and has distorted our political and economic policy for centuries. It's tough to work to be really good long term planners when you think the end is nigh - ties in with our cult of individualism to make a country of "got mine, forget you" whether the "you" is others now, or in the future.
I do understand that this doesn't have to be the basis of Christian faith - here's a Baptist News piece from 2009 about surveys saying 40-60% of Americans say differing religions can lead to eternal life. (Heh, not even going to get into the eternal life bit.)
So not even every Christian was raised with this sense of uniqueness, and I'd say the many-path approach has a lot more wisdom, which is why I'm affiliated with liberal Unitarian Universalists.
It's funny, I always distrust any faith based on trusting an un-interrogatable "special revelation", but I also realize that I have no mechanism for absolutely saying that ISN'T how the Universal Truth might work. For all I know, one sect has it exactly right, and God is secretly blessing that one group, and the devil to all the rest. It just doesn't seem particularly likely to me.
CHORUS:
On the dummy line
On the dummy line
Rain or Shine I'll Pay My Fine
Rain or Shine I'll Pay My Fine
Ridin Ridin Ridin on the dummy line
There was a boy coming home from school
Saw a half dollar at the foot of a mule
scooped it up as slick as a mouse
next day there was a funeral at the little boy's house
[CHORUS]
There was a girl she used to squeal
had a face like a lemon peel
had a wart at the end of her chin
she thought it was a dimple but a dimple sticks in
[CHORUS]
There was a boy lived down on a farm
tried to milk a cow and he meant no harm
the cow kicked him right off of the bench
because he tried to milk her with a monkey wrench
[CHORUS]
I thought the whole joke was to insert names of people in attendance, but I guess "a boy" and "a girl" work as well.
Thomas wrote that [same-sex couples' constitutional right to wed] does not actually exist--and that, in recognizing it, the court implied that "those with sincerely held religious objections to same-sex marriage ... espoused a bigoted worldview."How on God's Green Earth is freedom of religion NOT the right to be free of someone ELSE's religion?
Though historians seldom allude to it, the American Dream is largely a European creation transported to American soil and frozen in time. [...] The American Dream emphasizes economic growth, personal wealth, and independence. The new European Dream focuses more on sustainable development, quality of life, and interdependence. The American Dream pays homage to the work ethic. The European Dream is more attuned to leisure and "deep play." The American Dream is inseparable from the country's religious heritage and deep spiritual faith. The European Dream is secular to the core. The American Dream depends on assimilation: We associate success with shedding our former ethnic ties and becoming free agents in the great American melting pot. The European Dream, by contrast, is based on preserving one's cultural identity and living in a multicultural world. The American Dream is wedded to love of country and patriotism. The European Dream is more cosmopolitan and less territorial.At the time I wrote
That "frozen in time" aspect has really started to bother me lately, especially when I hear arguments based on the "intentions of the founding fathers". The world has changed over 200 years, and while the durability of the union (along with the fact that the constitution does have an appropriately stodgy amendment mechanism) indicates that change shouldn't be taken lightly, it seems amazing that people putting forth that argument want us to use a time before the end of slavery and the start of woman's suffrage as an ultimate reference point. I also dig that "secular to the core" aspect, along with "live to work vs work to live" USA/Euro split.I'm trying to think through the downsides of the European Dream model. Both dreams are challenged by insular groups: fear of ethnic groups that decline to assimilate in the American model, or that won't recognize the supremacy of the secular in the public square in the European model.
The author doesn't claim that Europe is perfect, but its constitution and outlook, less unbridledly optimistic than the American and with a strong sense of interdependence, might be more attuned to the modern world where barriers to long distance communication and trade have dropped in so many ways. Also the author seems to be asserting a new bipolar USA vs. Europe outlook without consider how, say, China is doing, not to mention the rest of the world.
I think there's also unease that a looser group will be at a disadvantage against larger, more ethnically or doctrinally cohesive rivals: China, Russia, or some kind of Islamic coalition if it ever got through (one way or, hopefully not, another) its internal splits. The American and European dreams have made room for a lot of technology-driven prosperity which has given those place hard to surmount leads, but to the extent the tech can be copied without the doctrine, the contests can become that much tighter.
But then there's another theory which says that words that represent things that are spatially nearer to the speaker usually have higher vowels (me versus you, here versus there, this versus that). This sounds pretty dumb until you learn that it actually holds water across different languages. For example, in French, "me" is je, "you" is tu, "this" is ce, and "that" is ca. In German ich/du, hier/da, dies/das.I think "how near is it?" and "what order are things happening?" are pretty central to my way of modeling the world - like I have trouble remembering what key is which on the keyring unless I map it left-to-right, entering the house order (car key, outer door, inner door).
I remember helping Ksenia build up her English, coming from Russian with fewer articles - "a spoon" (as in, any spoon) vs "the spoon" (a particular spoon) was pretty easy but "this spoon" (a particular spoon) vs "that spoon" (a particular spoon a little further away) was tougher.
And don't get me started with "adjective order", how we all somehow know it's the "giant angry red dragon" and not the "red giant angry dragon". I long to know if there's an underlying logic that established the order, or if it's just arbitrary.
Did you have a good world when you died? Enough to base a Wikipedia article on?
Makin' way for Justice Boof. Awesome we're going to have a known perjurer on the bench, for life.
So, Al Franken got knocked out of the senate, and this lying - perjuring, actually - shit bag is bound for the SCOTUS?
Also concerning for me is conservative women in general closing ranks and willing to take a "boys will be boys", lets all just move on stance for this shit, partially out of political expediency. Is there a gender version of the concept of "an Uncle Tom"?
And this FBI investigation was such a sham fig leaf. What a farce.
I can't believe it took me this long to realize that robots don't use contractions because programmers don't like escaping single quotes.
In retrospect, I should have realized the 1956 film The Red Balloon represented a small scout force, and the malicious treatment of the title character may have sealed humanity's fate.
At any rate, in this Apple commercial -- THEY'RE BACK
PS - oh, yikes, in 2001 I scoffed at a Fox News headline "BALLOONS: Why are they so DEADLY" but they were right... THEY WERE RIGHT
--drimble on http://b3ta.com/
--Late because of technical difficulties (I think because for September 6, the rafting trip, I added in footage from my waterproof Canon - a friend suggested "MPEG Streamclip" and that seemed to work great.). A nice Alewife deer on the 2nd, Arlington Town Day Fireworks on the 12th (first time I managed to remember to go see them, rather than look at them over the houses and say 'oh yeah I should go see those') and a sneeze on the 24th.
The typewriter repair store that is LITERALLY next door is having a typewriterfest at noon. Hit me up if you're curious!
october blender of love
Hanging with the typewriter fans at the Cambridge Typewriter Co's Type-Out... my beauty circa 1936 holds up really well, it has a nice feel. (Not as crazy about its typeface, but still.)
A T poster for Zipcar boasts of over 1,000 cars across Boston. I've know of 4 or 5 spots, have probably seen dozens more-- they're like GTA "hidden packages" for real life!
Once in a while, look down from your mindless staring at the outside world and appreciate the tiny escapist majesty of your smartphone.
Girls are cute and perky. I am a caffeinated ball of rage with ovaries.
http://52tiger.net/how-to-create-custom-iphone-vibration-patterns/ You can make your own vibration patterns on the iPhone! Shave-And-A-Haircut, here I come!
Skipped this the first time, but the story of the design of the modern airline baggage tag is great, if the result is functional and unbeautiful
The Dangerous Myth of Eternity
"But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me."
--Richard Feynman
There's an old chestnut of a story, where there's a powerful King (some say Solomon) |
He is searching for an artifact-or may just a bit of wisdom- that would make a sad man happy and a happy man sad. |
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One of his servants brings back a ring inscribed with "This too shall pass." |
The Universe won't last forever. |
|
Nothing is forever, except for the fact that... nothing is forever. |
Does this scare you? It shouldn't. By the definition of the universe, the nature of being, nothing can be more natural, more fundamental to everything. |
|
But of course it scares us. |
As creatures who live only a few levels beyond our instincts, we like things to be consistent. |
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Stasis might be boring, but predictablity is safer than chaos. |
And we want to extend that desire for predictability for as long as we can imagine, which is forever. |
|
It's not just our instincts that tell us to hope for eternity: our culture and religion do as well. |
I blame my years of faith for leading me to expect things-- anything-- to be able to last forever and ever, world without end, Amen. |
|
Without that mythology, I might be more able to accept the universe that science- |
(thoughtful, peer-reviewed, testable-hypothesis science, our very best way of knowing things about the world-) tells us that it probably is. |
The gods refuse to answer. They refuse because they do not know.A striking quote, but I'm wondering if the orignal question was "What typeface shall I use"...
What's the best counter to being "Privilege Denying Dude"? Privilege acknowledging seems obnoxious. Do you have to become a campaigner?
Ugh, Steve Jobless.
feeling so sophisticated and european carrying a spare tampon for v at the school's day at the amusment park |
endlessly jamming on the blues scale on the bandroom piano with mike |
wrestling v's terribly overstuffed suitcase before she went back to germany |
mesmerized by the weight on a spring on a string pendulum in physics class |
romancing ms., watching for shooting stars on the shore of the lake until her dad came with a flashlight |
the camaraderie of the dressing room for my high school's guys and dolls production, singalongs of "you've lost that loving feeling" and "pretty woman" |
my big jule getting hit in the big jules by a clumsy sky masterson during dress rehearsal, the gratitude for being able to just lie there for a while |
kissing and snuggling in the back of mike's car, the soundtrack to blues brothers and good morning vietnam |
watching mike getting his nose broken by a bully |
in portugal, running to catch a crazily crowded train after visiting its even more crowded dining car to get beers |
that same trip, realizing i was drunk for the first time, regarding myself in the cafe's bathroom's mirror |
tipsy at the deserted train station, telling baptista about v and the dear john letter; him telling me about his hopless crush on his french tutor |
once college started, finding out baptista had died; "let it be" coming on, and making me weep in my dorm room |
buying my mom a clown music box; one of the first gifts i remember feeling generous about |
those summers working as a counselor at a daycamp for mentally handicapped kids had a lot of moments of their own |
ms's cramps halfway up the statue of liberty, helpless as she rolled on the floor in agony |
noticing how piglike my reflection was in my tuba |
pepper flashing her breasts us in mike's frat's basement |
visiting mom at her - our - new york apartment, and its view of sunset over the hudson |
in that same apartment, clambering over the 19th story roof with an australian visitor -- 'photography isn't about photos. photos never come out right. it's about the *adventure*" |
l. standing in thought and her underwear in my dorm room, an inadvertant venus de waldorf |
improvising fanfares with the band director john on trumpet as a stalling tactic during commencement |
reconnecting with v. in new york city, the ball drop at times square |
buying my aunt a great big vase from martha's vineyard to apoogize for making out with a girl in her living room |
mom erasing 3,000 i owed her from college as a graduation gift, and the card she made to tell me |
a roadtrip to cleveland with r after graduation, going to those gardens with her and mike, lazing in the sun |
A Jonamac apple followed by an atomic fireball tastes like oatmeal and cinnamon. Diggin' it.
That is one amazing sight. Interesting to hear how they had to teach the dog the value of moving.
Oh, cool, Miller assembled the Twitter he, Kate, and I made during 24 Hour Comics Day: http://cobie.livejournal.com/526111.html. Kate always twitters in haiku form.
I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.
Kate's work: http://www.masukomi.org/24hcd2009/ - she used a neat little iPhone app that let her use words as lines in her sketches.
http://www.cracked.com/article/147_7-secrets-only-two-living-people-know-for-some-reason/ - oddly compelling piece on old secrets...
http://www.itp30show.org/permalink/aglpdHAzMHNob3dyDgsSCEJsb2dQb3N0GGAM - getting a computer script to use google to play Apples to Apples
Koko has been involved in a number of sexual harassment lawsuits. At least three female former employees have claimed that they were pressured into showing their breasts to Koko. They alleged that Patterson encouraged the behavior, often interpreted Koko's signs as requests for nipple display, and let them know that their job would be in danger if they "did not indulge Koko's nipple fetish." Koko has been known to playfully grab both male and female nipples without warning or provocation. Patterson claims that Koko uses the word "nipple" to refer to humans.Assuming this is more aobut Koko than Patterson, I wonder what it says about human's obsession with that area...
All claims of harassment have been permanently dropped as of November 21, 2005 after the foundation and the parties involved reached a settlement.
Jody Weiner, Koko's lawyer, writes about Koko and sexual harassment in the book Kinship With Animals.
Quote of the Moment
All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn't are not easy to specify.
Man, Clifford the Big Red Dog could eat Marmaduke for lunch and have Howard Huge for dessert.
Totally leveling up my parallel parking ability. Realized the trick is to treat the streetside rear corner as a pivot. Scion squeezes in!
Quote of the Moment
These days, if you can actually see a bit, it's probably safe to say that the bit is taking up entirely too much space!Talking about the progression from punch card and paper tape for computer storage.
Logic of the Moment
Petzold also quotes this Lewis Carroll logic exercise:
"all philosophers are logical;Petzold points out that the conclusion isn't obvious. It's "Some obstinate persons are not philosophers". I'm not sure if that's the only one you can get, trying to make a Venn diagram from it, I thought I saw some other implications that would lead up to it.
an illogical man is always obstinate."
Game of the Moment
This Slate article on how people Google on candidates, what search terms are most used in association with their names when searching on Google, is kind of fun. Actually, use of Google suggest can almost be a solo parlor game: think of a name, try and guess what the most popular terms are, see if you're right... kind of a guessing game of you vs. the Internet, the only thing is that Google doesn't sort the results by popularity, which is unfortunate.
So the song starts off a little weird:
You and I in a little toy shopYou'd think they'd need to be helium filled balloons. The "money we've got" line makes it sound like they don't have much, and they don't mention anything about purchasing a helium tank... perhaps it's a super windy day or something? Maybe the balloons were prefilled with helium? (Though would 99 of them fit in a bag?) Or maybe it's something much, much more sinister...
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got.
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone.
Take a look at the ending:
It's all over and I'm standing pretty.What I want to know is... just how tough is that damn balloon? I mean, the nuclear exchange pulverized the town, and this balloon survived? Maybe the air force was right to scramble and attack these well-nigh-invulnerable super-balloons that don't need helium to fly, and seem to have deliberatly provoked a nuclear conflagration... we played right into their hands!
In this dust that was a city.
If I could find a souvenir.
Just to prove the world was here.
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go.
It's been a while since I've seen that film, but maybe Le Ballon rouge was just a scout... in fact, possibly that young boy should be tried as a collaborator!
I, for one, welcome our new floating latex overlords.
What if all snowmen could walk and talk, like Frosty?
They'd be gone as soon as we made them. You think snowmen would sit around here just to entertain kids, waiting until the first warm spell melted them? No way. Responding to some primitive instinct for survival, they'd hoof it for Antarctica, or climb Kilimanjaro. The only time anyone would ever see a snowman is by climbing a mountain. We'd expect them to be gurus, and ask them about the meaning of life. But they would just say things like, "Me want toy." Snowmen are idiots.
Though historians seldom allude to it, the American Dream is largely a European creation transported to American soil and frozen in time. [...] The American Dream emphasizes economic growth, personal wealth, and independence. The new European Dream focuses more on sustainable development, quality of life, and interdependence. The American Dream pays homage to the work ethic. The European Dream is more attuned to leisure and "deep play." The American Dream is inseparable from the country's religious heritage and deep spiritual faith. The European Dream is secular to the core. The American Dream depends on assimilation: We associate success with shedding our former ethnic ties and becoming free agents in the great American melting pot. The European Dream, by contrast, is based on preserving one's cultural identity and living in a multicultural world. The American Dream is wedded to love of country and patriotism. The European Dream is more cosmopolitan and less territorial.(The printer-friendly version is probably easier to read even on-screen.)
That "frozen in time" aspect has really started to bother me lately, especially when I hear arguments based on the "intentions of the founding fathers". The world has changed over 200 years, and while the durability of the union (along with the fact that the constitution does have an appropriately stodgy amendment mechanism) indicates that change shouldn't be taken lightly, it seems amazing that people putting forth that argument want us to use a time before the end of slavery and the start of woman's suffrage as an ultimate reference point. I also dig that "secular to the core" aspect, along with "live to work vs work to live" USA/Euro split.
The author doesn't claim that Europe is perfect, but its constitution and outlook, less unbridledly optimistic than the American and with a strong sense of interdependence, might be more attuned to the modern world where barriers to long distance communication and trade have dropped in so many ways. Also the author seems to be asserting a new bipolar USA vs. Europe outlook without consider how, say, China is doing, not to mention the rest of the world.
Link via MetaFilter, which had some conversation about it. I'd love to hear what some of the readers here think of it. (I suspect LAN3 might disagree with many of the claims and assumptions in the essay...)
Campaigning of the Moment
Now THIS might be chutzpah of jaw-dropping proportions. Bush wants to give an anti-Kerry speech....but it's not clear if it's going to be nationally televised or not. If so, this would be Bully-Pulpit-Bull of the most disgraceful kind. Admittedly, some liberals are getting very uptight about this but it might be a big bowl of nothing.
The new Loveblender Digest is done. This month has a really good Artist Feature, 8 Works by Jason Pettus. Worth checking out.
Game Link of the Moment
I'm just a sucker for Top 10, Top 25 gaming lists: Here's GameSpy's 25 Most Underrated Games of All Time. On a slightly related note, if I ever compile a list of the best computer and video game names of all time, "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" is right up there.
Link of the Moment
Getting some attention recently is a 'blog created by a Kevin, a homeless man--I think he's using publically available computers at the Nashville library. Seeing thoughtful descriptions of homeless life really bridges a gap that many people see between "us" and "them".
Joke of the Moment
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?"
The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."
There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"
--The world's funniest joke according to LaughLab. A lot funnier than many of the other jokes they had on that site.
Moment of the Moment
--Thanks Ranjit. This may signal the start of more intraday updates.
"The guy's nuttier than squirrel turds"
--Officer in Me, Myself, & Irene
Link of the Moment
Nutty liberal conspiracy theory or did Gore win an outright victory in Florida? (Even more likely to be unmentioned in these times of crisis. I'm glad that President Jr. and Co. haven't just rushed in there, but I think Gore would have avoid loose talk of a "Crusade" and all the cowboy chatter.)
Image of the Moment
I just wanted to say that this tree that I pass weekdays on my way to work, although partially obscured by a telephone pole, looks a lot like a rooster. That is all.
First let's talk smells.
Today people worry about their rights and freedoms. Some want more. Some want less. I'm more concerned that they're taking away our individual smells.
It's terrible.
There's a spritz or a spray for everything. Under the arms. In the nose. In the crotch. You have no idea who you're talking to anymore. You don't know the difference between men and women. Everybody smells like a strawberry. You walk past a fruit stand and get hot. What the hell is that?
That's no way to live.
--The 2000 Year Old Man
---
But in between, there is plenty to celebrate. We have poetry, music, dance, and now bagel shops on every corner. Like I once said to Gertrude Stein, "A rose is a rose, and you can't do better than a dozen of them to Alice on Valentine's Day."
My advice is to slow down, relax, and smell the lox and onions.
The reason we're all here is no mystery. Scientists can stop looking.
Life is about one thing, and one thing only.
Love.
That's what I'm talking about. Love.
L-O-V-E.
It's not just a many-splendored thing. It's *the* splendored thing.
--The 2000 Year Old Man
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You're claiming to be German- yet you don't drink beer. Yet you're in*England* claiming to be *German*- so you must be something really bad. Bosnian or Welch. Probably Welch.
--Uwa explaining his brother's experience in England
00-10-5
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Standing at Porter, waiting for my coffee to cool, listening to a great ethnic accordian player.
What an underrated instrument! Unlike the tuba, which pretty doesn't do that much beyond it's reputation, this instrument is capable of real expression, the melody of a piano combined with the moods of a wind.
99-10-5
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