March 2011
14 posts
“Young men: If you attend this crap with friends who admire it, tactfully inform...”
– Roger Ebert - Battle: Los Angeles (half star)
Microsoft Kinect Blowing Away Competition So Far →
theatlantic:
Here’s two things that Microsoft’s promotional department would like you to know about its motion-sensing Kinect controller. 1) It’s sold 10 million devices in just over four months, an average of 133,333 units per day. 2) It just officially made the Guinness Book of World Records for fastest selling electronics device, beating out Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
Read on at The...
Powerpoint is the devil
If you’ve never read this 2001 New Yorker story on Powerpoint, you really should. This is the lede:
Before there were presentations, there were conversations, which were a little like presentations but used fewer bullet points, and no one had to dim the lights. A woman we can call Sarah Wyndham, a defense-industry consultant living in Alexandria, Virginia, recently began to feel that...
niemanlab:
Lab Flashback: In 1995 Arthur Sulzberger wasn’t a fan of reporters wasting time on email http://nie.mn/f6ORG9
Shower-curtain effect →
bestofwikipedia:
In physics, the shower-curtain effect is the phenomenon in which a shower curtain gets blown inward with a running shower. The problem of the cause of this effect has been featured in Scientific American magazine, with several theories given to explain the phenomenon but no definite conclusion. (via casanovaandtheradio)
I find it very disturbing people haven’t solved...
““When you see a bunch of guys in red, what do you know?” Kharoba asked.
“They...”
– How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam, Washington Monthly, by Meg Stalcup and Joshua Craze
Stories like this one should be far more damaging... →
Remember those essays you wrote for standardized tests back in HS? Did you ever wonder how they were graded? Like legislation and sausage, the process is pretty ugly. Except the results are kinda like the sausage produced by the factories in The Jungle or the legislation produced by … some legislative body that’s generally less effective than congress. (I realize that’s a really...
“In fact viewership of al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s...”
– Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (via davewiner)
Related: Al Jazeera actually covers foreign news, whereas Fox News/CNN/MSNBC cover news that impacts Americans that happens in foreign countries. There’s a difference. I wrote about this at my other blog for class a few years ago, after Robert...
“How many more American citizens are going to have to die? … Juarez is reported...”
– Texas Governor Rick Perry, criticizing the Obama administration’s record on border enforcement. After an aide informed him of his mistake, Perry clarified that Juarez is actually in Mexico, and not in his state. (via officialssay)
February 2011
10 posts
"Life's too short for the wrong job"
utnereader:
“I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try...”
– Charlie Sheen explains himself to ABC’s Andrea Canning. (via abcworldnews)
Yep. Happy Monday.
(via fastcompany)
5 tags
St. Petersburg's former police chief is named... →
Oh, and Michael Kruse is pretty decent at the whole writing thing.
Confirmed: Union-Bashing Right-Wing Media Stars... →
bostonphoenix:
Oops.
C’mon, people: It’s from an anonymous source in the union. Not saying I don’t believe it. Also, the hypocrisy charge is a little weak: O’Reilly, in particular, is criticizing public sector unions, and I’m sympathetic to the argument that there are big differences between public and private here.
“Egypt’s military, calculating that it was no longer worth defending an...”
– When Armies Decide, New York Times, by David Sanger
Yay alliances!
“The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone.”
– Martin Amis
(via)
December 2010
0 posts
“He asks the Situation what he’s looking to do in this business.
...”
– I could quote this entire story.
Alex Pappademas, Dancing Near The Stars, GQ
niemanlab:
Report an Error Alliance wants to create “a de facto online standard for encouraging and displaying corrections” http://nie.mn/hJHHlK
Seriously, fellow journos, we get shit wrong all the time.
November 2010
8 posts
“Don’t worry about it. You should see what we say about you.”
– An unidentified foreign official, speaking with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she tried to do damage control over the release of secret diplomatic cables that described many foreign officials in blunt terms. (via officialssay)
Things I Wikipedia: History of the Atlanta Falcons... →
thingsiwikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Atlanta_Falcons#1965.E2.80.931969
The name Falcons was suggested by Julia Elliott (1909–1990) a high school teacher from Griffin, Georgia who won a contest in 1965. Though 40 other contestants had also suggested the name, Elliott wrote in…
This excites me for a variety of reasons
The American stadiums are ready. Bill Clinton will be in Zurich glad-handing. Anyone unsure of what Vice President Joe Biden does should see all the work he’s done for 2022. The U.S. looks the logical choice. However, other bidders probably have more friends inside Fifa.
“One in five renters and one in seven homeowners in the Washington area spend...”
– Washington housing costs stretching residents too thin, The Washington Post
Story of my life.
Dialogue from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's...
inothernews:
THE ROCK: That person they killed was my brother. WOMAN: I hope you kill them all!!! MAN: Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? THE ROCK: No. WOMAN 2: Why haven’t you killed them yet??? MAN 2: You have to kill them all!!! THE ROCK: I will. Kill them all. WOMAN 3: You must! You must kill them all!!! MAN 3: Why haven’t you killed them yet??? WOMAN 4: ...
July 2010
9 posts
Mark Twain, "Concerning the interview" →
“The surprise: I didn’t get many calls. Some people asked for interviews:...”
– Dave Weigel, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Sarah Palin, Esquire
A Sober Look at Ted Kennedy →
From 1990. By Michael Kelly, in GQ.
“The memo by Mr. Gates, a former C.I.A. director, also demanded greater adherence...”
– Yeah, journalism owns. From the New York Times.
This is the worst piece of journalism I've seen in... →
June 2010
68 posts
“Perhaps the most telling tidbit in LaHood’s life is that he has resided in...”
– The Washington Post, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is charging ahead in his political career, by Ashley Halsey III
This is freakishly true. My first two years of college, when I probably still considered Wilmington ‘my home,’ I got my hair cut whenever I went back to...
Newsweek - Hulu Unveils Paid Service, Challenging... →
I wrote this.
Shifting ambition, Part 1 - a new blog post →
1 tag
This FRONTLINE documentary on for-profit higher... →
The New York Times Declares War on Cell Phones
Maureen Dowd:
Just as parents now tell their kids that, believe it or not, there was a time when nobody knew that cigarettes and tanning were bad for you, those kids may grow up to tell their kids that, believe it or not, there was a time when nobody knew how dangerous it was to hold your phone right next to your head and chat away for hours.
Nick Kristof:
“Blood diamonds” have faded away,...
“With his party having won 6 of the City Council’s 15 seats, Mr. Gnarr needed a...”
– From the New York Times profile of Jon Gnarr — the newly-elected mayor of Reykjavik, Iceland.
[nyt.]
(via thedailywhat) (via mikehudack)