News journalists and software developers are two branches of the same tree: information technology.
The lightbulb above your head might be a strobe.
How much creative thinking is simply misremembering? I was groping for Rudyard Kipling and came up with Rumpelstiltskin. In this case, the substitution wasn’t very poetic. But perhaps this kind of swapping happens all the time and is mistaken for “fresh” thinking.
When it comes to snare rushes, today’s banda might be yesterday’s IDM.
Is Ando Bien Pedo by Banda Los Recoditos (2009) faster than Beep Street by Squarepusher (1997)?
Character as a virtue.
Randall Grahm on being somewhere. And wine. A wonderful lecture with photos.
$29,062,272.22
That’s how much the Six Million Dollar Man would cost today.
(Thank you Ana for asking, Wikipedia for defining, and the Measuring Worth aggregator for answering.)
Domestic news from an international perspective: Spain comes to Austin.
The Spanish newspaper El País is taking it pretty seriously:
Un activista anti gobierno se estrella contra un edificio federal en Tejas
Un ingeniero de sistemas informáticos manifestó este martes su furia contra el Estado suicidándose con una avioneta lanzada contra un edificio de la agencia tributaria en Austin (Tejas), donde trabajaban 200 empleados federales.
Translation: “An anti-government activist crashes into a federal building in Texas: an IT engineer demonstrated his rage against the government by killing himself with a small plane launched into the IRS building in Austin (Texas) where 200 federal employees worked.”
The Spanish have a long history of dealing with domestic terrorism. But I’m not sure that history is what prompted this language.
Two songs that wait and then pounce.
Cindy Lauper’s Time After Time and Miguel Bosé’s Nena.
Over time, who will we blame? Whoever got away with it.
A colleague asked me if our company was still throwing a conference I will refer to as “The Fun Meeting,” to which employees from around the country are invited.
The answer was: “No, because of the economy.”
But instead I replied: “No, Goldman Sachs took it away.”
And then it hit me: guilt is coalescing around Goldman. First it was the Taibbi piece, then the Morgenson pieces and now the links to Greece.
Long overdue: my favorite new music.
So often, musical groups try to steal and end up copying. Them Crooked Vultures have pulled off at least a half-dozen perfect heists on this debut record. Legendary.
In the face of conventional wisdom that asserts rock has nothing left to give and can only be plundered for remixes here is proof that technical mastery can unlock new rooms of possibility and unknowable feeling.
If you believe that musical culture is a dialectical conversation, Them Crooked Vultures are the rare synthesis of several styles (techniques, tastes) where the sum is greater than its parts. A phase transition.
As a response to computer-aided music, Them Crooked Vultures leap past the last decade’s trend towards sloppiness, rejecting the claim that only naif and primitive players can be sincere. Instead, the trio delights in pulling off magic tricks – by definition, acts you don’t notice but for their impossible by-products; the white rabbit, the lovely lady cut in two. These are the moments that sound too good to be true. The turns of phrase that turn heads and inspire hope by remaining mysterious, fleeting.
Then there are the many moments that sound good because they are so true, so familiar. The genuine expression of a harmonic “faith” once preached by The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Layered into a chorus (with a computer, natch), lead singer Josh Homme becomes a fab four of one, as charismatic and erotic as Robert Plant or Mick Jagger ever were on their best nights.
How we’ll get there: the future of cars and cities.
Wonderful, exciting review of future cars and cities.
The drug war: another health care externality.
America has a horrendous mental health problem and instead of addressing it we imprison the hundreds of thousands if not millions who try to cure themselves without access to professional treatment.
floor lamps made out of a tube of metal
mr. light by Tomás Alonso
more than a tube of metal but I like them so here they are.
Amazing things, of late.
Brilliant idea: Balance the U.S Budget by Auctioning off 10 Million U.S Passports.
A monologue that could make a great dialogue: you’re angry because you’re getting screwed.
The problem is that we like screwing ourselves over – and over again.
Breathtaking and heartbreaking: Days of Heaven.
Another peek at the future of interactions: an augmented reality game of rock paper scissors with t-shirts as the distribution platform.
On Quentin Crisp, the movie character.
For the minority of my friends who will read this, are familiar with “technologies of the self” and fans of The Naked Civil Servant: an excellent essay on Quentin Crisp by Mark Simpson, via MetaFilter.
Bush v Cheney
Evert Cilliers on Cheney and other cowards:
There’s a stunning contrast between Cheney and Bush, who said about Obama:”I’m not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in the arena. He deserves my silence.” And: “I love my country a lot more than I love politics. I think it is essential that he be helped in office.”