... you can settle in for a long night of conversati...
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
"The door that I pushed open, on the advice of an elevator boy, was marked 'The Swastika Holding Company,' and at first there didn’t seem to be any one inside."
What? Why is there a Swastika Holding Company in "The Great Gatsby" — which takes place in 1922 and was published in 1925? It's simply bizarre. What did a swastika mean then? Why did F. Scott Fitzgerald put that name on a door that was pushed open on the advice of an elevator boy only to reveal the seeming absence of anyone?That's our "Gatsby" sentence today in the "Gatsby" project where each day we look at one sentence in isolation. Here, we are left to wonder. Or check Wikipedia. Swastikas go way back:The earliest swastika known has been found from Mezine, Ukraine. It is carved on late paleolithic...
Arms transplanted.
To an Iraq War veteran who lost both arms and both legs.Brendan Marrocco is the first Iraq War veteran to survive losing all four limbs in a bombingHis chief surgeon, Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, said Marrocco’s operation was “the most expensive and complicated arm transplant surgery ever performe...
Hillary: "I do want to see more women compete for the highest positions in their countries."
"... and I will do what I can, whether or not it is up to me to make a decision on my own future. I right now am not inclined to do that, but I will do everything I can to make sure that women compete at the highest levels not only in the United States but around the world."Assess the degree of bullshit.0%1-40% 41-75%76-95%96-99%100% pollcode.com free polls&nb...
"Soon after the fall of Ava, a new dynasty rose in Shwebo to challenge the authority of Hanthawaddy."
"Over the next 70 years, the highly militaristic Konbaung dynasty went on to create the largest Burmese empire, second only to the empire of Bayinnaung."Empires and dynasties galore in the history of Burma, our "History of" country tod...
"Me at CNN was not an easy fit."
"The first month was tumultuous with several tumultuous times throughout. I liked to think of myself as job security for the public relations department. About the only thing the far right and far left could agree on was that I did not belong at CNN."Erick Erickson, no longer the right-wing guy at CNN. Assuming CNN needs a right-wing guy "for public relations," what kind of right-wing guy should it be... and why did CNN think Erick Erickson was the guy in the first place? I suspect a bias about the right caused the choice, but that he was never really the right choice. Nothing against Erickson,...
"More birds and mammals die at the mouths of cats... than from automobile strikes, pesticides and poisons..."
"... collisions with skyscrapers and windmills and other so-called anthropogenic causes." Domestic cats — pet and feral — "kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals a year" in the United States — "most of them native mammals like shrews, chipmunks and voles rather than introduced pests like the Norway ra...
Purchase of the (yester)day.
Panasonic ER-GN30-K Vortex Wet/dry Nose and Facial Hair Trimmer, Black (Amazon Associates earnings to this blog: $1.00). Portal, vortex, orifice – wherever you enter, good grooming is never out-of-season at the Althouse bl...
I subscribed to the redesigned New Republic website, but I can't get it to work... [UPDATED].
... on my digital devices and I can't find subscriber help on the website. When I go to the website in my browser from my desktop computer, I can see that I'm signed in. I am certain I know my sign-in information and my password. I've downloaded the iPad app, but when it asks me to sign-in, it doesn't recognize my information. When I go back to my desktop computer and search the website through my browser, I can't find any relevant place to go for help with my subscription.I subscribed because I wanted to have the app experience on iPad. I thought Chris Hughes, having succeeded in co-founding...
"Obama Will Include Same-Sex Couples In Immigration Plan."
That's your cue, Republicans, to say something stupid. He's roping you in. Come on. You can't resi...
The ethnic studies requirement.
We've had if for years at the University of Wisconsin. Here's an upcoming event:The roundtable will include a presentation on the history of the requirement, an open-mic portion where attendees will be asked to share experiences with classes and make suggestions, and smaller discussions led by ASM Diversity Committee members. Attendees will also be provided note cards on which they can leave comments about their class experiences.The committee is considering whether the requirement should be able to be satisfied with classes that "incorporate facets of personal identity beyond race and ethnicity,...
"It is with the greatest confidence that I will pass on the throne on April 30 to my son, Prince of Orange."
Says the Queen of Purple. I mean Queen Beatr...
Take the exam in Althouse's on-line class in media bias.
First, read this post about Dana Milbank's description of the way Senator Marco Rubio looked as he waited his turn to speak about the bipartisan immigration plan. Note the literary techniques he employs. He seems to be describing what he sees, but I implied that his descriptions revealed bias, and, indeed, that Milbank would like to destroy Marco Rubio. Now, here's a video clip showing Marco Rubio giving his presentation. Feel free to listen to what he says, but I want you to concentrate on Senator Chuck Schumer, who can be seen at the left of the screen. Observe any gestures or expressions, because...
"Republicans shouldn’t worry that President Obama is trying to destroy the GOP."
"Why would he bother?"Subtext: It should be destroyed. It's already destroyed. Please think that. They're hopeless. All hope lies within the Democratic Party. No hope outside the Party....
Dana Milbank says "Marco Rubio was a bundle of nervous energy" who "poked his tongue into his cheek, he clenched his jaw, and he licked his lips."
"[A]s he waited his turn to speak about the bipartisan immigration plan he had helped to draft... He fiddled with his suit-jacket button once, then again, then a third time. He rubbed his fingers together, then interlocked them."And I'm a bundle of nervous energy, poking my tongue this way and that, clenching my jaw, licking my lips, fiddling with buttons, rubbing and interlocking my fingers, as I watch to see how the media goes about accomplishing its plan to destroy Marco Rubio....
"A woman was swept out to sea by a large wave and drowned on a Northern California beach Sunday in the third such tragedy in the region this winter..."
"The 32-year-old woman was walking on a beach near Shelter Cove in Humboldt County with her boyfriend and dog when the wave pulled her out to sea....""Winter is an especially dangerous time (on beaches in Northern California), and sneaker waves can catch beach goers by surprise, washing them into the sea," the Coast Guard said in a statement. "People walking along the beach should not turn their back to the ocea...
Blood donor dogs and cats.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital:To do that, the hospital has its own Animal Blood Bank with a dedicated core [sic] of 12 dogs and 11 cats who serve as regular donors, many of them the animal companions of students or staff members at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. “We actually have a waiting list of pets to become new donors,” notes Bach.The typical canine blood donor is a healthy, larger dog — more than 50 pounds — that has been screened for blood borne parasites and diseases that affect the qualities of...
"One hopes Mr. Obama wouldn't be so eager to come to Mr. Putin's rescue."
"If the rumors are a Kremlin hoax, the U.S. should publicly shoot them down as quickly as possible. To allow them to spread would be a display of weakness — the kind that a bully like Mr. Putin is always eager to exploit. Back in 1961, the perceived weakness of young President John F. Kennedy at his Vienna summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev led indirectly to the Cuban missile crisis. Only when Kennedy showed resolve did the Soviets later back down."Writes Garry Kasparov in the WSJ....
Tax.
You might want to buy Turbo Tax and minimize the pain. I know some people think the pain should be felt and the outrage kept ever raw. I used to do my taxes without even using a calculator. No more.ADDED: I downloaded Turbo Tax and got part way into the process, which includes chatty notes "celebrating" the discovery of exemptions and photos of specific human beings —"Juan M." — smiling as if they are smiling at me and helping me....
"Sarah Palin: A political obituary."
The Washington Post teases its readers like this:The headline at the link is different: "What Sarah Palin meant." She is gone. The living human shell that once contained Sarah Palin still walks the earth, but Sarah Palin, the repository of political meaning, is dead. WaPo readers feel a chill of relief and ease down into another Chris Cillizza column. It's his column on the occasion of Palin's parting ways with Fox News, and he's got nothing new to say about her, other than that now, she's gone. Really dead. Ding do...
"It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner..."
"... declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found to be the real deal."Does an object retain the spirit of the de...
"A month after a gunman killed 26 people at an elementary school, some Newtown parents say the building should be demolished..."
"... while others believe the school should be renovated and the areas where the killings occurred remove...
Racist, sexist graffiti in the new World Trade Center bathrooms.
Port Authority police are now investigating. Who wrote these things? The construction workers?“Such slurs are offensive and have no place at the World Trade Center site or elsewhere,” PA spokeswoman Lisa MacSpadden said. “The Port Authority has zero tolerance for those who demonstrate intolerance.” The construction company said it has an anti-vandalism policy which it would "reiterate" to its crews.Hardhats who toil on the site said the foul writing on the walls is a fact of life at all job sites — and there’s not much anyone can do about it.Black construction workers, victims of some of the most...
Monday, 28 January 2013
"Thus, the racial laws are the worst fault of Mussolini, who, in so many other aspects, did good."
"It is difficult now to put oneself in the shoes of who was making decisions back then.... Certainly the (Italian) government then, fearing that German power would turn into a general victory, preferred to be allied with Hitler's Germany rather than oppose it."Berlusconi on Mussolini.Later he said he "regretted" not conditioning his remarks on the "condemnation of dictatorship...
Lorrie Moore is leaving the University of Wisconsin.
A sad day for us!She came here in 1984 — the same year I did — back when "Self-Help" was still a manuscript....
Purchase of the (yester)day.
"Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend" [Kindle Edition] by Timothy M. Gay. (Amazon Associates earnings to the blog: $0.93). Thank you, all who shop through the Althouse Amazon portal and, by doing so, tacitly speaking to the blogger: Hey, keep up the rough-and-tumble good work!...
The downside of the treadmill desk.
Typos.... "up to 11% deterioration in fine motor skills like mouse clicking, and dragging and dropping, as well in as cognitive functions like math-problem solving."It's silly to walk on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike while trying to work, but I highly recommend using a desk like this with a push-button motor that lets you move back and forth between sitting and standing. Here I am demonstrating it 2 years ago. We liked it so much we bought a second one. Bought a second 27-inch iMac too....
"Even when the East excited me most..."
"... even when I was most keenly aware of its superiority to the bored, sprawling, swollen towns beyond the Ohio, with their interminable inquisitions which spared only the children and the very old — even then it had always for me a quality of distortion."This is today's sentence in the "Gatsby" project, where we look at one sentence from "The Great Gatsby," in isolation. We don't worry about what else is going on in the great F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. It's a sentence unto itself. Whatever feeling or meaning that is generated within the bounds of the sentence — that is our concern here....
"The Boy Scouts of America may soon give sponsors of troops the authority to decide whether to accept gays as scouts and leaders..."
"... a potentially dramatic retreat from an exclusionary nationwide policy that has provoked relentless protest...
"iVegetarian: The High Fructose Diet of Steve Jobs."
"Flirting with fruitarianism and other eating disorders of Steve Jobs."None of us, of course, knows what caused the pancreatic cancer that led to Steve Jobs's death, or what, if anything could have saved him....For awhile at college, Jobs lived on Roman Meal cereal. He would buy a box, which would last a week, then flats of dates, almonds and a lot of carrots. He made carrot juice with a Champion juicer, and at one point turned "a sunset-like orange hue."...Too much fear of death, too much of a fantasy of getting control... hubris....
"From medieval times until the end of the 19th century, the region of Burkina Faso was ruled by the empire-building Mossi people..."
"... who are believed to have come up to their present location from northern Ghana, where the ethnically-related Dagomba people still live. For several centuries, Mossi peasants were both farmers and soldiers; as the Mossi Kingdoms successfully defended their territory, indigenous religious beliefs, and social structure against forcible attempts to conquer or convert them to Islam by Muslim peoples from the northwest."Burkina Faso is today's "History of" country.More recently, children of the 1983-1987 revolution: ...
The bipartisan group of 8 senators presents an immigration reform proposal containing a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million who've illegally immigrated.
Here's the document. Summarized here:It would allow undocumented immigrants with otherwise clean criminal records to quickly achieve probationary legal residency after paying a fine and back taxes.But they could pursue full citizenship — giving them the right to vote and access to government benefits — only after new measures are in place to prevent a future influx of illegal immigrants....[And they] would be required to go to the end of the waiting list to get a green card that would allow permanent residency and eventual citizenship, behind those who had already legally applied at the time of...
"Google Now does a much better job, moment to moment, in anticipating the information that a user needs than Siri."
"So what can Siri do better? Have an emotional relationship with a user...."Google Now does not attempt personality, merely efficiency, and given that company’s strengths, I think this is a good design decision. But if Apple cannot compete on sheer efficiency, can it make up for it with charm?This is in fact one of the main uses for “personality” in humans—to make up for deficits....Here's an illustration of how that works:Once you know the programming is designed to smooth over the shortcomings of the product, will it still work? Maybe so. Another question is whether Apple will give us some alternative...
"The journalism in these pages will strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias..."
"... although it will showcase passionate writing and will continue to wrestle with the primary questions about our society."Our purpose is not simply to tell interesting stories, but to always ask why these stories matter and tie their reporting back to our readers. We hope to discern the hidden patterns, to connect the disparate facts, and to find the deeper meaning, a layer of understanding beyond the daily headlines.So writes Chris Hughes about the redesign of The New Republic, which I was cranky about yesterday, because it kicked off with a kissy interview with Barack Obama. I must say, I'd...
It's not just Phil Mickelson — plenty of high-income athletes want out of California taxes.
Mickelson was just the one who was PR-deaf enough to let us know how he feels.Why do you think Tiger Woods lives in Florida?In November, voters in California approved a ballot measure raising the top rate on income over $1 million to 13.3% (the increase applies retroactively to last year). ... Mr. Woods grossed $56.4 million in 2012. As a Floridian, he will keep about $7.5 million that he otherwise would have owed to the state of California. His net tax savings over his 16-year career come to about $100 million. Mr. Mickelson last year earned $60.7 million. Paying the 13.3% California rate, he...
Krugman sees a "major rhetorical shift" from Romney's campaign to Bobby Jindal's recent speech.
Krugman's column is titled "Makers, Taker, Fakers." Here's one thing that seemed off to me:Mr. Jindal posed the problem in a way that would, I believe, have been unthinkable for a leading Republican even a year ago. “We must not,” he declared, “be the party that simply protects the well off so they can keep their toys. We have to be the party that shows all Americans how they can thrive.” After a campaign in which Mitt Romney denounced any attempt to talk about class divisions as an “attack on success,” this represents a major rhetorical shift.There are 2 propositions: A. Those who are successful...
Quantum smell.
"It challenges the notion that our sense of smell depends only on the shapes of molecules we sniff in the ai...
Iran sends a monkey into space.
And — it says — "returning its shipment intact." In 2010, Iran successfully sent a rat, turtle and worms into space. But an attempt to send a monkey up in a rocket failed in 2011.Did this new monkey return alive and in good shape? Can't tell from "shipment intact" (which may be a translation).Quite aside from concerns about the monkey, Iran's space program may be part of developing a delivery system for a nuclear bo...
Sunday, 27 January 2013
"They knew that presently dinner would be over and a little later the evening, too, would be over and casually put away."
How do you feel about dinner? How do you feel about the remains of the day?That sentence is from "The Great Gatsby," and it is our "Gatsby" sentence today.I know that presently today's iteration of the "Gatsby" project will be over, and that signals to me that a little later, this day, the only January 27, 2013 that there will ever be, will be gone, consigned to the place jocosely, morbidly, existentially known as the dustbin of history. ...
Another risk of fatness: health-care professional who too readily attribute any health problem to fatness.
UCLA sociology professor Abigail Saguy explains :Scores of studies have shown that medical providers typically regard fat patients as lazy, self-indulgent and noncompliant. As a result, heavy patients don’t always receive the health care they deserve....Many heavy women told me that doctors routinely blamed any ailment, from a fall to a sore throat, on their weight....So there may be mistakes in treating fat people. That's plainly wrong and easy to condemn. It's harder to know how to react to criticisms like this:One woman I talked to visited a new gynecologist, who, during her annual exam, began...
"Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people..."
"... as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead."“The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward... At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread.”...Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island...
"[T]he best pro-choice rebuttal to the young idealists at the March for Life or the professional women who lead today’s anti-abortion groups isn’t that they’re too reactionary..."
"... it’s that they’re too utopian, too radical, too naïve," says the NYT's conservative columnist Ross Douthat.This means that the abortion rights movement, once utopian in its own fashion, is now at its most effective when it speaks the language of necessary evils, warning Americans that while it might be pretty to think so, the equality they take for granted simply can’t be separated from a practice they find troubling.For its part, if the pro-life movement wants not only to endure but to triumph, then it needs an answer to this argument. That means something more than just a defense of a universal...
"Under Boris I, Bulgarians became Christians..."
"... and the Ecumenical Patriarch agreed to allow an autonomous Bulgarian Archbishop at Pliska. Missionaries from Constantinople, Cyril and Methodius...""... devised the Glagolitic alphabet, which was adopted in the Bulgarian Empire around 886.... In the early 9th century, a new alphabet — Cyrillic — was developed at the Preslav Literary School, adapted from the Glagolitic alphabet invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius...."In Bulgaria, today's "History of" country. In the following centuries Bulgaria established itself as a powerful empire, dominating the Balkans through its aggressive military...
The "noble behavior" of Germany and Europe on climate change is "inviting freeloaders."
German government adviser Kai Konrad says: "It's a mistake to believe our noble behavior will so greatly impress others in these talks that it will move them to make concessions in return."At an international level, we can expect that our one-sided measures to avoid emitting climate-damaging CO2 actually serve to suppress reductions other countries might otherwise make. On balance, our well-intentioned behavior is expensive for us and does nothing to protect the climate.... Everything we know suggests that Central Europe will suffer comparatively little from global warming. Berlin will simply...
Gabby Giffords, ever smiling, struggles through an interview with Diane Sawyer.
Giffords can only get a few words out — "so slowly" — and Diane Sawyer has no compunction about supplying words all around Giffords's words, most notably at the end of the interview — you have to watch the video — when she turns Giffords into a puppet who voices the last word to a long sentence yammered out by Sawyer. Sawyer repeatedly assures us that Giffords understands everything and is able to think well, that her only intellectual deficit is in speaking. We're told how effective Giffords will be in pressuring Congress to enact gun control. She will be taken around to the members of Congress...
"Can you tell us a little bit about how you've gone about intellectually preparing for your second term as president?"
The New Republic promotes its "redesign" in email that says I "signed up to get an early look at." (I did?) I'm sent to this interview with Obama, which takes so absurdly long to load that I go off and write other posts before rediscovering the open tab. I see Obama's smiling eyes peeking out over the top of the headline "Barack Obama is Not Pleased." I pause and contemplate 2 things: 1. Do the redesigners not understand the rules of capitalization? and, 2. Did they intend to allude to the famous Queen Victoria quote "We are not amused" — that is, did they intend to imply that Obama uses the royal...
"Swartz didn't face prison until feds took over case..."
"The late Internet activist was facing a stern warning from local prosecutors. But then the U.S. Attorney's office, run by Carmen Ortiz, chose to make an example of Aaron Swartz, a new report says."The report is likely to fuel an online campaign against Ortiz... An online petition asking President Obama to remove from office Ortiz — a politically ambitious prosecutor who was talked about as Massachusetts' next governor as recently as last month.There's a hot campaign to destroy Ortiz. Note that there's also this other case where she's accused of "bullying" a motel owner, in what she calls "strictly...
"And the Xhosa for 'tort' is ulwaphulomthetho (oo lwa poo loom twe to)."
Questions, asked at Althouse, get answe...
"The European cap-and-trade system has slid into near meaninglessness as Germany bickers on the sidelines."
"Hopes that the election in Lower Saxony might resolve the high-level bickering were misguided. Now Europe's carbon market has hit a new low."Energy-heavy industries and coal-dependent countries like Poland argue against market intervention in the [European Emissions Trading System (ETS)] while noting that higher carbon prices leads to higher energy costs that result in a burden on businesses while European economies remain weak. The arguments against intervention may be working, as Germany -- which also harbors deep concerns about the burden cap-and-trade could have on industry -- continues to...
After the 4 Mt. Rushmore presidents, who should be the 5th president for the Nats racing presidents?
It's like the Milwaukee Brewers racing sausages, who've been around.... how long?The origin of the races is sketchy. Laurel Prieb, a former Brewers vice president who is now Major League Baseball’s vice president for Western operations, said the races existed when he arrived in 1991, but only as a cartoon shown on the scoreboard at County Stadium. Three animated wieners — a bratwurst and Polish and Italian sausages — scampered past Milwaukee landmarks and finished at the stadium.“At some point, somebody — and I don’t know who came up with the idea — said, ‘Why don’t we rent some costumes and do...
An expansive, shapely hairdo.
Source: flickr.com via Barneys on PinterestThat's Richard Avedon photograph, at the Barneys New York Pinterest site, which pictures some things you can buy at Barneys and some thing that (presumably) expand your mind into a shape within which you might decide to buy some things at Barne...
Saturday, 26 January 2013
Police beg for help catching 10,000 escaped crocodiles.
In South Africa, where a flood enabled the animals' escape from a farm (where they are raised for their meat and their glamorous skin...
Water and ice — on spring-fed Lake Wingra.
This afternoon, dogless, Meade and I took a walk down to one of the other lakes....
"When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us..."
"... and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air."To diagram that sentence — today's sentence from "The Great Gatsby" — begin with: brace | came. The subject of the sentence is brace, and the predicate is came. You've got a long clause beginning the sentence which has 3 parts to it — one with a we | pulled subject and verb, one with snow as a subject and the verb began tied to stretch and twinkle, and one with lights and moved. There is also a pair of "into" phrases — "into the winter night" and "into the...
Joseph Brodsky "used to appall his students by requiring them to memorize something like a thousand lines each semester."
"He felt he was preparing them for the future; they might need such verses later in life. His own biography provided a stirring example of the virtues of mental husbandry. He’d been grateful for every scrap of poetry he had in his head during his enforced exile in the Arctic, banished there by a Soviet government that did not know what to do with his genius and that, in a symbolic embrace of a national policy of brain drain, expelled him from the country in 1972."From "Why We Should Memorize," by Brad Leithauser. (In 1972, Brodsky became the poet in residence at the University of Michigan. I was...
"According to... Brunei's national epic poem, the present-day sultanate originated when Dewa Emas Kayangan descended to earth from heaven in an egg."
"He had children with a number of aboriginal maidens, and one of these children converted to Islam and became the first sultan. However, the state continued to be multicultural. The second sultan was either Chinese or married a Chinese woman. The third sultan was said to be part Arab, who are seen in South and Southeast Asia as the descendents of Muhammad.... The sultanate was a thalassocracy, a realm based on controlling trade rather than land. Situated in a strategic location between China and the trading networks of southeast Asia, the state served as an entrepôt and collected tolls...
"In some cases, [Nate] Silver tends to attribute successful reasoning to the use of Bayesian methods..."
"... without any evidence that those particular analyses were actually performed in Bayesian fashion."For instance, he writes about Bob Voulgaris, a basketball gambler,Bob’s money is on Bayes too. He does not literally apply Bayes’ theorem every time he makes a prediction. But his practice of testing statistical data in the context of hypotheses and beliefs derived from his basketball knowledge is very Bayesian, as is his comfort with accepting probabilistic answers to his questions.But, judging from the description in the previous thirty pages, Voulgaris follows instinct, not fancy Bayesian math....
"They would be explaining what your benefits were, then all of a sudden this embarrassed look would flash across their face like, 'Oh, sorry. I guess this doesn’t apply to you.'"
For the new gay members of Congress, "their freshman orientation sessions were a reminder of just how unequally the law treats them, since the entity that cuts their paychecks and provides benefits — the United States government — is barred from recognizing their relationships."I wish members of Congress would have more opportunities to experience the embarrassment of having to live with the people their laws oppress. And I don't mean just things having to do with whether their colleagues are getting paid enough....
Petra Haden sings movie themes — a cappella, multitracked.
NPR is featuring this. Generally, ideas like this appeal to me. Ideas. In execution, I find her voice annoying. Admittedly, the main one I listened to was the "Psycho" title-sequence theme, which is intended to get on your nerves. The fact that it can be done isn't enough. You have to do it well. Check out the Swingle Singers to hear what this replacing-all-the-instruments-with-voice thing can be like at its best. Something about the sound of it makes me feel like these people are too pleased with their ability to do it at all. I know: this may be a special delusion of mine. I simultaneously admire...
"The problem, apparently, is that the Jabba the Hut Lego palace looks like a mosque."
"And not just any mosque, but Istanbul’s great Hagia Sophia, and another mosque in Beirut, Jami al-Kabir."Dr. Melissa Günes, General Secretary of the Turkish Cultural Community, confirmed that Lego had been contacted with an official complaint and that an Austrian toy store had removed the offending Lego sets, according to the Austrian Tim...
"Buy yourself a shotgun"... maybe not a real shotgun, maybe something metaphorical.
So, yeah, there's Jimi Hendrix, on TV in 1965. Can you even hear him? I want to concentrate on Buddy & Stacy. I'm surprised they got away with dancing like that on television: Those were different tim...
"Muslim professor Mustafa Umar explained... that there is 'nothing intrinsically wrong with wearing nail polish'..."
"... the real issue is that this substance forms an impermeable barrier over the nails preventing water from getting underneath."For years, women have been required to either remove and reapply polish for prayers every day, or wait to wear it during the week they have their period - when they're not allowed to pray.Solution: "Breathable" nail polish....
"With Aaron's death, we can wait no longer."
"This time there will be change or there will be chao...
Lip reader figures out what John Boehner said that made Michelle Obama roll her eyes.
In the conversation, with Obama and Boehner leaning back to converse behind Michelle's head: "Boehner asked President Obama — a longtime smoker who claims to have kicked the habit — if he’d had a chance to have a cigarette before the luncheon. The speaker, a chain smoker, then quipped, 'Somebody [Michelle] won’t let you do it.'"Judge Michelle's famous eye-roll now.Totally justified and good for her. She should have appreciated the ribbing and laughed graciously.She should have been wary of the cameras and maintained a dignified demeanor. pollcode.com free polls&nb...
Diet tip: "Wait 20 minutes for seconds."
Reason this should work: "Food must move 22 feet through your intestines from your stomach to peptide YY cells — the switch that says you are sated."That's very helpful. Not that I want to think about the location — somewhere in the long, twisted path through my intestines — of what was so recently in my mouth, but I've noticed the tendency to eat and then eat again. It seems to be easier to avoid eating all afternoon than to resist getting one more thing after dinner. The dessert impulse. Even after breakfast or lunch, there's this feeling of needing to eat again. So the idea is: Just wait 20...
"A working group of senators from both parties is nearing agreement on broad principles for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws..."
3 Democrats and 3 Republicans — Durbin, Schumer, Menendez, Graham, McCain, and Rubio — "have been meeting quietly" and are about to announce their proposal, the WaPo frontpages:The new effort was spurred in large part by the growing influence of Latino voters who strongly backed President Obama and other Democrats in November.Interesting how that energizes both parties to act. A fascinating political game, which includes not only the reform itself but also — whether the reform occurs or not — the way various political actors look as they relate to the proposal for reform. It's sure to be a garish...
"By naming the tragedy 12/14, we honor the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting, their families and their town. 12/14."
"Think it. Say it. Help Newtown heal."I'm sorry, but no. If we take that approach, history will turn into numerical code and erstwhile ordinary days on the calendar will pop up each year as doomsdays, depressing some people and luring the crazies into copycatism.Big events are normally named by the place where they happen, unless they are storms that we see coming and we name them like babies, when they are still cute like babies and haven't, like teenagers, shown their horrible tendencies.9/11 was the exception to the rule, and this past year we got another 9/11 attack, in Benghazi. What do you...
Friday, 25 January 2013
Purchase of the (yester)day.
"Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science" (Fully Revised and Updated) [Paperback] Charles Wheelan (Author), Burton G. Malkiel (Foreword) (Amazon Associates earnings to the blog: $0.91). Thank you, each of the 58 anonymous naked persons, who used the Althouse Amazon portal, adding exactly $0.00 to your own purchase price while once again sending the clear unmistakable message that you enjoy, relish, adore, and treasure the blogger's bloggy blogging as only she can bl...
I was so tired when I wrote last night's "Gatsby" post.
It was a real struggle with that sentence:There was dancing now on the canvas in the garden; old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously, fashionably, and keeping in the corners — and a great number of single girls dancing individualistically or relieving the orchestra for a moment of the burden of the banjo or the traps. You might say I wrestled with that sentence. The commenters — whom I read this morning, after I conked out and slept for 10 hours — helped me make the connection to wrestling. Terry said: "The key phrase, I...
Brazil had its own monarchy for 90 years.
This is Maria I, AKA Maria the Pious and Maria the Mad:There's much more to know about the history of Brazil, which is our "History of" country today....
"Stop being the stupid party."
Says Bobby Jindal."It’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults.... We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. I’m here to say we’ve had enough of that."He's absolutely right. And it's not enough merely to avoid stupidity — "legitimate rape" type stuff. They need to become the smart party, as well-grounded as possible in science and economics. The Democrats aren't that smart, but somehow they're able to pull off the appearance of being smart. Outsmart them. The other side will always try to portray anything the GOP stands for as...
"High heels were seen as foolish and effeminate."
"By 1740 men had stopped wearing them altogethe...
"Weird things happen when you take price out of the equation for consumers. For one thing, they stop looking for the best price."
Yes. Obvious. I know. But this is NPR talking, which is what struck me.(The topic is the breast pumps that must be paid for by health insurance companies under Obamacare.)...
"Your safety. It's no longer a spectator sport. I need you in the game. But are you ready?"
"With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. You could beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back. But are you prepared? Consider taking a certified safety course in handling a firearm so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family. We're partners now. Can I depend on you?"Says Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. in a new radio ad (which you can play here).Predictable pushback. From the office of Tom Barrett (the Mayor of Milwaukee who challenged...
The new Gender Inclusive Living Experience at the University of Michigan.
Gender-neutral rooms for transgender and gender non-conforming students.The University wasn't prepared to go as far as some advocates of gender neutrality wanted, which would be to allow "men and women of any sexual orientation to chose roommates of the opposite gender." "We weren't prepared to go that far, yet," said [Peter Logan, communications director for housing], explaining that the GILE program "felt like a comfortable step in that right direction of at least making some accommodation" for students with non-traditional gender identity.But if you're a traditional gender identity person and...
"As she struggled to reclaim her memory, Shawnda discovered she had been a life-long keeper of journals."
"She found them stashed in a box in the spare bedroom... She had taken meticulous notes on her entire life."Shawnda learned of her troubles with her husband and read in detail about all the pain and depression she had lived through the past several months, and then forgotten. She read of people in her life who were now like characters in a novel she was starting from the midd...
"We know what happened in Benghazi now... but what we don't know is why we were misled."
Ron Johnson, questioning John Kerry. I'm breaking out what I think is the main quote. Look how differently this exchange is presented at TPM.This was the same disconnect that Hillary Clinton tried to pull off when Ron Johnson questioned her the other day and she had her "What difference does it make?" outburst. She wanted us to focus on the point in time when the attackers decided to attack. "Was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night who decide to kill some Americans, what difference at this point does it make?"It. She has the wrong it. Johnson's question to her and...
"Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law..."
"... according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation."The Affordable Care Act... allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.For a 55-year-old smoker, the penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year. A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.Younger smokers could be charged lower penalties under rules proposed last fall by the Obama administration. But older smokers could face a heavy hit on their household budgets at...
"President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill vacancies on a labor relations panel..."
"... a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday."The unanimous decision is an embarrassing setback for the president, who made the appointments after Senate Republicans spent months blocking his choices for an agency they contended was biased in favor of unions....Obama claims he acted properly in the case of the NLRB appointments because the Senate was away for the holidays on a 20-day recess. But the three-judge panel ruled that the Senate technically stayed in session when it was gaveled in and out every few days for so-called “pro forma” sessions.GOP lawmakers used the tactic — as Democrats...
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