June 2011
“The man was celebrated for his ingeniously simple designs that were both...”
– ‘The Triple Agent’: The final days of the suicide bomber who attacked the CIA
The idea of someone being celebrated for their good work in making suicide bomber vests makes me want to live on the moon
An unusual form of the Babinski reflex →
Babinski [1857–1932] stayed with Henry Head in London. He spoke no English but on retiring wanted to use a bidet and summoned the butler who spoke no French; he therefore used sign language to indicate what he wanted and the butler construed the gestures as Babinski propositioning him and resigned from the household.
The Road to Gay Marriage in New York →
Nice piece in the NYT on the political wrangling behind the gay marriage vote.
[B]ehind the scenes, it was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition.
“I’ve been an uninterrupted subscriber to Rolling Stone since 1983. I read Taibbi...”
– G.R. Anderson, who has done plenty of reporting on Michele Bachmann, went to Rolling Stone to see if they’d be interested in him writing about Bachmann. They went with Taibbi’s yammering theatrics instead. (via tooseriousman)
Notes for a Young Gentleman →
A gentleman – English – should reassure foreigners of his bona fides by appearing to be nothing more than a parody of an English gentleman; this is particularly important with the French.
A gentleman should greet physical agony much as if he were greeting his old Latin master.
A gentleman should smoke, if not for pleasure then to set his companions at their ease.
A gentleman...
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High School Students Fingered in Alleged Sex Crime →
The high school made headlines last week when a photograph depicting a 17-year-old male student with his hands inside the clothing of a 15-year-old female student at a school dance was published in the yearbook.
Officials warned that those who did not return their yearbooks could face charges of possession of child pornography.
Sounds like one hell of a school dance.
“The reality is that 90 percent of the world does not have or cannot afford a...”
– Nokia’s CEO
BeautifulPeople Director "Very Sorry" for Giving... →
It was meant to be a dating website exclusively for the use of “beautiful men and women”, where members ruthlessly selected and excluded those who did not match their definitions of good looks.
But last month when BeautifulPeople.com was attacked by a computer virus, some claim standards slipped and around 30,000 new members gained admittance. Now, in a move which has made...
How Summer Went Digital →
David Denby on the “digital spectacle” of films like Super 8 and Green Lantern:
Movies based on that kind of imagery may be sensational as design, but they aren’t likely to fill us with the empathy, dread, and joy inspired by fictions about people making their way through a world where walls are solid, gravity is unrelenting, and matter is indissoluble. Storytelling thrives on...
How the iPhone Unlocked the... →
Brian X. Chen currently writes for Wired.com, where his regular column on Apple is followed by millions of readers.
Uh huh.
Pixar Killed Uniracers →
Uniracers featured impressive-looking CG unicycles that animated smoothly and convincingly. They would lean forward intensely when in the lead and look at the user with boredom when nothing exciting was happening. But they also looked a little too much like the unicycle from the animated short film Red’s Dream. At least, that’s what Pixar thought. Developer DMA Design ultimately...
The Unsung Heroes of Biscuit Embossing →
Interestingly, when the Oreo was first introduced by Nabisco in 1912, it used a much more organic wreath for its emboss, later augmented with two pairs of turtledoves in a 1924 redesign. The contemporary Oreo stamp was introduced in 1952, and it has remained unchanged, and, in the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger, “the stuff of legend,” ever since.
...
Special offers are getting weird. Two I saw today:
“If we don’t give you a receipt and you tell us right away, your meal is free!”
The first special offer designed exclusively for petty assholes. I didn’t even want the receipt! I had to fucking apologise for taking advantage of this.
“Dads eat for free on Father’s day!”
That seems like a nice idea,...
“You also shouldn’t just send a penis picture without knowing a girl, period....”
– The Do’s and Don’ts of Sending Penis Photos: Men’s Lives by Julieanne Smolinski. (via penllawen)
Limbaugh, Palin And "The Left" →
Andrew Sullivan on Rush Limbaugh’s reaction to Maggie Thatcher’s disinclination to meet Sarah Palin:
What he doesn’t understand is that Palin’s nutsiness is not a partisan matter in Britain, or anywhere else in the world. It is an obvious truth marveled at by all. Palin’s emergence as a serious figure in American politics has made the country a laughing stock...
Neil Peart On 'Moving Pictures' →
Here’s Neil Peart talking about “Moving Pictures” for a full 15 minutes.
You’re welcome.
Apple Reverses Course On In-App Subscriptions →
This is good news. The previous guidelines seemed remarkably draconian, even for Apple.
John Bercow dismisses Daily Mail as a 'bigoted... →
The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has risked his political neutrality by describing the Daily Mail as a “sexist, racist, bigoted, comic cartoon strip”.
He also apologised for breaking the trade descriptions act by describing the Mail as a “newspaper”.
I like this guy.
Margaret Thatcher to Sarah Palin: don't bother... →
Her allies believe that Palin is a frivolous figure who is unworthy of an audience with the Iron Lady. This is what one ally tells me:
Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.
Beautiful.
“I know of no better rebuttal to the “bad words are bad writing” equation than...”
– Kathryn Schulz, Ode to a Four-Letter Word
Anthony Weiner Admits to Sending Racy Photos:... →
Megan McArdle for The Atlantic (via Indefensible):
I don’t think that cheating on your wife, or lesser betrayals like sexting, are minor marital pecadillos, of no more public interest than whether you remembered to pay the gas bill or unload the dishwasher. I don’t think it’s the government’s job to punish infidelity, but that doesn’t imply that society has no...
Actually, "STFU" is an Initialism, Not an Acronym. →
Posts tagged "tumblr personality test" →
I think we should all take a moment to thank Inky for making this.
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Bin Laden (and cats!) deliver record month for... →
Slate tallied 101 million pageviews in May. Their biggest story was Osama bin Laden. Just kidding, it was this slideshow of lolcats, obviously, bringing in 3.7 million pageviews.
