January 2011
2 posts
“If the baroqueness and oppression of applications is akin to the overly complex...”
– WHAT IS AN APP? by IAN BOGOST
Code 46 - a Movie Review with Mild Spoilers
Code 46 takes place in a strange near-future world in which society is confined to a few cities in which citizens are protected from a world wracked by undescribed forces. However, some fraction of the
population has been abandoned to live outside the protected cities in a hot, dusty wasteland, ignored by the rest of society. Meanwhile, a nominally benevolent big brother watches over the...
October 2010
3 posts
“popular highlights are useful, if initially jarring… But if you can’t...”
– Virginia Heffernan in the New York Times - at least she closes with this sensible advice after complaining about Kindle highlights through her whole post!
Global Warming in the Senate
I just finished reading As The World Burns, an article portraying the efforts of Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham to get climate change legislation through the senate. The portrait Ryan Lizza paints of the three senators is so damning that it sparks a contrarian perspective from me: they can’t really be that bad.
Lizza hits all the cliches of our three senators beginning with each...
September 2010
1 post
Radiohead/Jazz Playlist
I’ve put together a short playlist with a mix of tunes performed by Radiohead as well as covers of Radiohead by jazz groups and tunes harmonically inspired by Radiohead.
Exit Music (For A Film) - Radiohead
Optimistic - Radiohead
Nemesis - Aaron Parks
Airbag - Radiohead
How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead
Exit Music (For A Film) - Brad Mehldau
Everything in Its Right Place - Brad...
August 2010
1 post
“Surely for someone who sets out in an iron steed infused with the sparkling sap...”
– They’re back Mark Liberman at Language Log
February 2010
1 post
“The great immigrant languages of yesteryear such as German, Italian and Japanese...”
– Will Americans Really Learn Chinese? - The article itself is OK, if predictable. I’m fascinated with the use of R.I.P. as a verb, though.
January 2010
1 post
“Alfred Jensch, head designer in the astrology department at Carl Zeiss in Jena...”
– pdf at Zeiss.com
December 2009
3 posts
“The drum set could symbolize the African diaspora as interpreted by Americans.”
– Ethan Iverson
“Spain’s pistol-carrying Civil Guard police force descended on the Sigüenza...”
– The Guardian via Taran Singh
Brain Scans Show...
Every time I read someone proposing that we use a brain scan to learn something about how the mind works, I remember the old Language Log post,
Distracted by Brain.
Even irrelevant neuroscience information in an explanation of a psychological phenomenon may interfere with people’s abilities to critically consider the underlying logic of this explanation.
They found that not just the lay public...
November 2009
3 posts
October 2009
10 posts
“We had a stray cat named Qutals, and he was always begging, since he’d...”
– on the AWAD mailing list issue 382
“No one ever wrote the B minor mass to Socrates”
– Jaraslov Pelikan
Tarragon soda from Arax Market in Watertown
That’s some green soda for you. It’s tasty, though.
“I’m sorry I can’t spin right now. I’ve won the Nobel Prize.”
– Carol W. Greider
“[David Aaron] Carpenter soldiers his way valiantly through it all [cello...”
– Joshua Kosman at SF gate, despite a vigorously applauding Chronicle Man.
September 2009
5 posts
“And God made two great lights [in the sky]. But… the moon started to...”
– Susannah Heschel told this story from the Talmud, Hullin 60b at Rosh Hashanah
“high-school grades are far better predictors of graduation rates [than...”
– Helping Students Finish the 4-Year Run
August 2009
6 posts
“Kind of Blue was very influential, but it remains a one-off. John Coltrane...”
– The Bad Plus blog
“Why are so many good jazz gigs led by drummers these days?”
– Ben Ratliff in the New York Times
“It’s nice to hear Coltrane playing this kind of music, but only in the...”
– Review of John Coltrane, The Bethlehem Years, by David Marchese at Pop Matters
July 2009
5 posts
June 2009
1 post
“working on string theory, both as a still-enigmatic object of study, and as a...”
– John McGreevy
May 2009
3 posts
“the white male punditosaurus”
– Balloon Juice
April 2009
13 posts
“epic paroxysm of poppycock”
– Mark Liberman
“When a comet or asteroid strikes a planet, it creates an enormous explosion that...”
– Scientific American
