January 2010
33 posts
I wrote this song about the Phoenix lander, but I...
3 tags
“What’s more, the typical three chord song in the key of A is made up of A,...”
– http://goldennumber.net/
Perspective, from Anil Dash.
What leaves me at a loss, though, is how many otherwise sane and sensible people give their time and energy freely to help support a company like Apple that, despite its elegant designs and generally excellent products (I use many of them), certainly doesn’t need free PR from some of the most talented people on the web.
Though Apple is a reasonably progressive company, they explicitly...
2 tags
Library Book Returned 99 Years Late. →
People outside the tabloid industry don’t recognize stories like these as the hardy perennials they are.
There are hundreds of overdue books hidden behind bookcases and under beds, slowly turning into invaluable historical relics.
What did John Bonham do during the first half of... →
perpetua:
Sean T. Collins has the answers. My favorite is: “Shift his molecular vibration over to an alternate universe where the band was already up to the drum part of “Stairway,” perform it there, and then come back just in time.”
Naturally.
2 tags
Governor-General Michaelle Jean sings for Haiti. →
Sometimes, Canada has cooler politicians than the U.S. Sometimes.
[via]
2 tags
The Terrifying Tombstone THUNDERBIRD! →
If historical accounts of large flying creatures are your thing, you may also be intrigued by the ropens of Papua New Guinea, which has been sighted more often and more recently than the thunderbird.
yaldabaoth:
doctornecessiter:
From PrairieGhosts.com:
The story of the Thunderbird was relegated to the ranks of creatures like the “jackalope” until 1963, when the story was revived. In the...
1 tag
National Enquirer Submits for Pulitzer Prize... →
Once traditional media has died, all bets are off.
3 tags
“Pale, dusky skin, covering nothing but bones and tendons of appalling strength;...”
– M.R. James, “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book,” free for the reading over here.
2 tags
Parents making things.
Excerpted from Adam Ford’s latest “Why poetry?” entry, from Klare Lanson:
Before the birth of my child I used to daydream for hours, wax lyrical to my friends, read prolifically, surf the net every day, research, potter with sound, contemplate and muck about no end until I found the creative headspace to make my performance works based on poetry.
I’ve always thought poetry was...
3 tags
Remembering 50,000 dead.
So, this thing in Haiti (which is relatively close, culturally, to where I live, in South Florida - as in, there are people in my workplace who have left to go find their relatives) is reminding me of the 2008 quake in Sichuan (which is close for other reasons).
Back then, I had trouble picturing how many people had died. Anything over a couple hundred simply becomes “too many” to me....
“Mr Neely was 22 when he worked at the camp and left after six months to serve in...”
– Story of the strange reunion is on the BBC.
5 tags
“As for the so-called table manners, I feel sure that the child gets his first...”
– Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living. 1937. (Again)
This, by the way, is the second Chinese author I’ve read referring to people eating each other’s livers.
4 tags
“Norway Time Hole “Leak” Plunges Northern Hemisphere Into Chaos
Jan 8, 2010
...”
– From Pakistan Daily.
As a Floridian, this explanation makes perfect sense.
3 tags
4 tags
A map correction.
Just so you know, officials in Webster, Mass., recently admitted they’d been misspelling the name of Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg for decades. They changed the 20th letter from “u” to “o” and the 38th letter from “n” to “h” in their documents.
The strange thing is that, based on a neighbor teaching me to pronounce the...
3 tags
“The human mind delights in finding pattern—so much so that we often mistake...”
– Stephen Jay Gould (via butdoesitfloat) (via jeremyturner) (via merlin)
2 tags
5 tags
Growing Up Heroes →
merlin:
evrt:
This is a great new tumblog, featuring old photos of kids dressed up in wacky super hero costumes.
Given how I wound up, I suppose it’s odd that I have no pictures of myself to donate… unless Planet of the Apes would somehow be made to count.
4 tags
Not exactly "full of beauty."
from the Online Etymology Dictionary, emphasis mine:
handsome c.1400, handsom “easy to handle, ready at hand,” from hand (n.) + -some. Sense extended to “fair size, considerable” (1577), then “having fine form, good-looking” (1590). Meaning “generous” (in handsome reward, etc.) first recorded 1690.
I feel… objectified.
“To me personally, the only function of philosophy is to teach us to take life...”
– Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living. 1937. (Published the same year the Japanese landed in Nanjing.)