tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-107612812012-02-08T01:49:59.131-06:00The REAL Mleha systematic and scientific reaction to society. confusing, right?!PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.comBlogger3921100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-80058503162542867432012-01-26T22:34:00.002-06:002012-01-26T22:34:43.586-06:00Why does SOPA exist?
What with all the furor about SOPA and PIPA and SOPA Jr (okay, that hasn't happened yet), I think people are forgetting to ask...how the hell did we get in a position where enough people are backing an incredibly vague, draconian bill that says any website that links to a foreign site with stolen content can be banned? How did something written by people who obviously have no understanding of PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-30899519598074747382011-12-24T15:09:00.001-06:002011-12-24T15:09:51.338-06:00How to Eat a Pomegranate
So yeah I do have this blog that's aimed at explaining how to eat difficult fruits to people, but the pomegranate is kind of special.
Step one: decapitate it. (Take a knife, chop off the side with the weird fibrous shit coming out of it, although sometimes it's just a round thing. We call this the "top.")
Step two: scoop out its innards. They come in these little segments so you can grab a PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-23003799914422930352011-11-01T23:19:00.001-05:002011-11-01T23:19:54.463-05:00Booklist, November 2010-'11I got a Kindle. HEAR ME READ. :O
x The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer x The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks x The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature x The Imperfectionists x Living Dead in Dallas x The Checklist Manifesto x The Fatal Eggs x Monstrous Regiment x A Dance With Dragons x Howl's Moving Castle x Jingo x Skippy Dies x Packing for Mars: The Curious SciencePDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-28789167885301845232011-06-12T18:48:00.001-05:002011-06-12T18:48:31.879-05:00Vegan and/or Vegetarian Dining in New OrleansOkay, so here's something I want to make clear from the start: despite all that talk about New Orleans being kind of its own thing--what with Cajun influences, a unique local accent, and a very devoted culture--it's still the South. Yes, there's a few more sauces and some crazy shit going on with seafood. Yes, there's a rich local history, including culinary scenes like Antoine's, but--I cannot PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-79558496530284167982011-05-11T17:38:00.000-05:002011-05-13T15:36:52.330-05:00Modern People Are IdiotsBackground: it was 50 degrees with additional uncounted wind chill a few days ago. It's almost 90 and humid right now.
Naturally, this drew my attention to the fact that modern houses are built by people who consider aesthetics and style more than the simple realities of things like...you know, convection currents. Seriously, this house has incredibly bad air flow--the upstairs is probably 5 PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-19848643376756306992011-05-05T18:25:00.000-05:002011-05-05T18:25:07.776-05:00Five Things You Should Know About New OrleansWe picked up a decent amount of information from people who'd been there, but there were a few more points I wish I'd known first.
It's pronounced OR-lins. Not or-LEANS, although I did hear OR-leans on the radio once. (Of course, once you get back to wherever you live, your friends are going to be hella confused.)Things are actually kind of expensive. Especially after Hurricane Katrina, housing PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-50738983008298340092011-03-22T20:17:00.002-05:002011-03-24T23:15:32.597-05:00Systems Neuroscience: can you drive yourself crazy?No, seriously.
One of the first obvious things about systems neuroscience is that everything is interconnected. Of course, journal papers don't work this way. But that's its own topic. So if, say, you've got a few "bad" neurons in your primary sensory cortex, that could affect how you perceive your surroundings and therefore react to them, which in turn could cause altered motor learning, and PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-58798771341986567132011-03-08T18:11:00.000-06:002011-03-08T18:11:42.831-06:00sciencebitch.tumblr.com...because I don't have enough web presences already.
Anyway, as I get ready to (presumably...) go to graduate school I figured I'd go through the experience of it, and above all the frustration of trying to do science in a world where people keep having to explain that "global warming" is real even if--actually, especially if--your winter was extra cold this year, and also where people cannot PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-33910451583193031922011-02-15T22:31:00.000-06:002011-02-15T22:31:44.467-06:00Can Globalization (not "social networks") Foment Successful Rebellions?So I've been reading the New York Times with a lighter eye than usual, which had its own little benefit because as I was skimming I came across some interesting, but very understated lines. The one concrete example I could offer is about the Yemen riots, which, the NYT mentioned, were brought about as a result of the bad economy.
I'm tempted to assume that, in the other places where there have PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-12343678740748088282011-02-11T18:16:00.001-06:002011-02-11T18:17:32.883-06:00How Effective Are Democratic Revolutions, Anyway? (re: Egypt)Alright, so my history's getting a little rusty and, to be honest, there haven't been that many remarkable revolutions towards democracy in the past (the classic one is the Roman Empire...in general, they tend to go from empire to empire, with certain variations in the general size of the empire and also which ethnic group is leading it and then, as the modern era nears, dictators instead of the PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-20801659816705528432011-02-08T10:44:00.002-06:002011-02-08T10:58:17.525-06:00Does Football Serve Any Useful Purpose?Come on, I'm sure you've thought it too.
All those people in the audience? And then all the people watching at home? Think about what else they could accomplish with two-odd hours spent sitting around munching on chips, drinking beer, and yelling generically--not including the downtime spent just making the goddamn snacks and following those players all the way through the whole season, &c. &cPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-87641852639267143372011-01-25T23:46:00.000-06:002011-01-25T23:46:41.160-06:00State of the Union (transcript + comments and sarcasm)For the record, I just copied the transcript from NPR.org. I have no idea how you found this link first. In past years (year, I think) I typed the thing as I heard it, but whatever what a waste of time and my poor wrist tendons. I've added in reactions where I remembered them, too.
I officially name this...retro-blogging. I did post a number of live tweets, but then I got bored.
Mr. Speaker, PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-36263179806978697592011-01-20T20:34:00.000-06:002011-01-20T20:34:14.101-06:00Way to Ruin Television, OprahDear Oprah:
I can appreciate that having loads of money is a valid reason to open a network with your own name plastered on it. I can even appreciate that Discovery Health, the Discovery Channel network dedicated to real-life versions of House, Bones, and a number of random stories about various types of pregnant women, really couldn't be all that profitable. Taking over that channel makes good PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-11435056265825300012011-01-14T22:49:00.000-06:002011-01-14T22:49:09.892-06:00Why Tunisia Isn't Going to Change the Arab WorldGoing from the Wikipedia entry alone, Tunisia's history doesn't align nicely with that of other Arabian countries. (To be clear, 'Arab' refers to a specific nationality. It's not the same as Persian, it's not the same as all the little tribes--most famous, probably the Bedouin--in the Middle East. I assumed they all had a common origin, but it seems they're pretty distinct.)
Anyway, Tunisia PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-48625948176410051372011-01-04T22:15:00.000-06:002011-01-04T22:15:20.655-06:00Historians and Psychology Don't--and Shouldn't--MixSeriously.
So I recently picked up this book ("The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior", in case you want to read) about the Renaissance that claimed to examine the intersection of three lives: Leonardo da Vinci, Cesare Borgia, and Niccolo Machiavelli (five imaginary points if you can figure out which one I was really looking forward to reading about!).
Okay, so this book actually did a PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-6122265909207650042010-12-30T17:39:00.000-06:002010-12-30T17:39:01.649-06:00What Happened to the Curious Scientist?So I've been working in a lab again, and this time we're not as well-budgeted as I was last time (not to mention that, unlike my old lab, there's a much greater emphasis on finding out new information, as opposed to verifying information for clinical purposes).
The upshot of all this is, I've noticed, a much heavier emphasis on results. Not in the sense of 'hey this is interesting what can we doPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-88912473017260363842010-12-19T18:20:00.002-06:002010-12-20T09:02:26.641-06:00Tron: Legacy (or, where's my lightcycle, The Future?!)I should probably mention that I didn't even know the original 'Tron' existed until I played Kingdom Hearts II, and since I couldn't place the world I looked it up and was like, 'huh that is mildly interesting' before going on to be severely disappointed at how goddamn easy the rest of the game was....
Anyway, I pretty much wanted to see this movie for all the scenes in the trailer. Lightcycles!PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-4203703794145437252010-12-17T17:36:00.000-06:002010-12-17T17:36:21.976-06:00Actually, "Happy Holidays" is Still OffensiveOh, you wish I were kidding.
Here's the thing: this time of year is very Western. For starters, Asians follow the lunar calendar so the otherwise respectable pagan holiday of Winter Solstice is out of the equation, too. (While Chinese New Year tends to be in February or so, Indian New Year--Diwali, which can actually be five whole days of insanity and idiots letting off fireworks right by cars--PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-20734638074623664972010-12-15T17:23:00.000-06:002010-12-15T17:23:46.182-06:00Advent of the MicroblogSometimes I think I should post more here, but.... Twitter is awesome! I mean, hello constant news feed with microcommentary. Is there really a need for five paragraphs of thought when everything can be said in 140 characters?
Occasionally, I suppose more is necessary for a proper explanation, but who's demanding it of me?
...Maybe I'll start illustrating everything I post here....PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-67438315014499089102010-12-08T21:15:00.001-06:002010-12-08T21:25:11.010-06:00Wikileaks, Censorship, and Free SpeechHow free should speech be?
How free is too free?
I am generally against censorship--especially the kind practiced on the Internet--and as such get a bunch of mailings from free-speech organizations. Lately, a lot of them have been all, 'support Julian Assange!'
The thing, though, is....
I don't know if this makes me a hypocrite. For some, I'm sure it will; others may be delighted to hear my PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-15637077403907825702010-11-11T15:32:00.000-06:002010-11-11T15:32:08.760-06:00We Really Need to Bring Veterans Day BackI do specifically mean Veterans Day, as Europeans are on top of "Remembrance Day."
Anyway, my sister is an 8th grader in the advanced program, who's definitely studied WWII and even the Korean and Vietnam Wars (a tiny bit, with no mention of atrocities or even all that much about communism...what they actually learned I don't know). Yesterday, I asked her if she knew what the 11th of November PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-81221736136549116742010-11-07T19:13:00.000-06:002010-11-07T19:13:05.162-06:00Megamind, a movie review (not in 3D!)Yeah, if you know me at all you know I'm a ho for graphics, but I've finally broken free of the 'SEE ME IN 3D' nonsense that's spreading like wildfire. (Seriously. All of the movie trailers advertised ended with '...in 3D!' Even the live-action ones that didn't seem like they could possibly make use of 3D effects, which I have still only seen well-applied in 'Coraline.')
And this movie PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-72992346201852814352010-11-06T11:35:00.000-05:002010-11-06T11:35:21.965-05:00Booklist, November 2009-'10As always, reviews on request. You may notice I've expanded to include graphic novels/manga, too, though kids'/YA books still aren't listed (partially because I skim them, mostly because wow do I read way too much of my sister's stuff).
x Uzumaki
x Baudolino
x I Am Legend
x Churchill's Secret War
x Neuromancer
x Paradise Lost
x Poetry of the World Wars
x Going Postal
x Leave it to Psmith
x The PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-16770960563736326192010-11-05T11:49:00.001-05:002010-11-05T11:49:45.897-05:00Dear Democrats: grow a spine already.There are times when I'm really, really embarrassed to call myself any kind of liberal, especially one who generally votes Democrat. From their incompetence in 2000 (the one time the results were contestable...) to the saddest midterm campaign I have ever seen--The Onion sums it up very nicely....
Grow some fucking spines, guys!
Oh, did I say "spineless"? Sorry, I meant completely boneless.
InPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-34004586582060318432010-10-27T10:37:00.000-05:002010-10-27T10:37:05.949-05:00Does the Internet need an information filter?Obviously, I'm against censorship and restricted access to information. But there are times when I think our reliance on completely unfiltered, all-inclusive sources like Wikipedia and, well, Google search is making people stupider. Or, at least, misinforming them horribly.
Case in point: my sister. The girl has to learn word definitions for her Language Arts class (wow, how long has it been PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-46578267009195818052010-10-18T23:58:00.000-05:002010-10-18T23:58:06.072-05:00So what has the Internet really changed, anyway?No, seriously. We have information at our fingertips, a whole new field's opened up, blah blah blah globalization--but what has the Internet changed on the grand scale of things, beyond being a mere blip in the overarching pattern that defines all human endeavor? (Dude, Mandelbrot totally could have proven all this. It's a bummer he's dead...though I didn't know he was alive until I saw his PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-32754312706560968782010-10-13T21:46:00.000-05:002010-10-13T21:46:55.011-05:00Yay, Chilean Miners! Now let's talk mining safety....Alright, so I'm totally thrilled the miners are out safely. Yay miners! I hope the government fêtes them properly, as hello being stuck underground for two months sucks ass.
But, horrible pessimist that I am--is this going to change anything? Are you going to avoid all products that require miners to work in unsafe conditions? Is the Chilean government going to take steps to ensure this doesn't PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-80841197624910435442010-10-07T12:46:00.000-05:002010-10-07T12:46:07.366-05:00Protecting Artist Rights...is not even vaguely the same as protecting the rights of record and publishing companies to make millions off legally distributed product.
I'm surprised--and a little delighted--to note the Chicago Tribune hires at least one non-wanker (it's Greg Kot, the Tribune music critic), mentioning Obama's "copyright czar" and her conviction that we have to get rid of all illegal downloads...some PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-43310074866642256082010-10-05T09:52:00.000-05:002010-10-05T09:52:10.719-05:00I Suddenly Know Why People are Stupid About ScienceTo the non-scientific layperson:
With the recent news about those syphilis experiments in Chile out, I get it. You're afraid of being tricked by the unscrupulousness that sometimes accompanies an insatiable curiosity, and since curiosity pretty much defines science....
Here's the thing, though: that guy was the same guy who ran the Tuskegee study. Clearly there's something wrong with him and PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-78319379975927563272010-09-25T10:16:00.008-05:002010-10-10T23:11:33.888-05:00The Road to Progress
Okay obviously some explanations are due: one, they're actually moving further & further away from the environment as only assholes drive cars that big (okay, seriously, you need to stop bitching about gas prices when you're one person (albeit morbidly obese) in a car so big I can't see the traffic lights in my midsize sedan. Also, if you won't go over the speed limit get out of the left lane. PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-15385988229959105442010-09-11T22:23:00.000-05:002010-09-11T22:23:37.088-05:00I don't think "Patriot Day" is working....Well, I definitely ran into a couple of block parties today...but no one's got their flags out, the library wasn't closed, and in general people regard the bombastic notion of a day when !!everyone's an american, stand proud beneath the stars and stripes, sing 'America the Beautiful' because we can't get the anthem changed even though we don't like it anymore!! ...with apprehension.
And, PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-21104806284919131632010-09-08T13:34:00.000-05:002010-09-08T13:34:10.742-05:00Is anything more fickle than American politics?Or, rather, Americans themselves?
As midterms roll around, disgruntled liberals and conservatives in general gleefully point out Obama's kept none of his 2008 campaign promises. Which is, well, bloody stupid. Were those ever really concrete promises? Suggestions, yes. Aspirations, oh boy fuck yes. But he never guaranteed a better education system or the end to all our healthcare and Social PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-42122395786028780532010-09-03T08:56:00.000-05:002010-09-03T08:56:00.406-05:00This Is What's With TwentysomethingsRe: the wildfire spread of the New York Times and other ripoff articles about 'what's with twentysomethings just dicking around & shit?!',...which I didn't read on the simple principle of ohgodwhy....
It's the economy, stupid.
We were raised during a boom market when every opportunity really was open. This whole belt-tightening and take what you can get, not take what you want...isn't easy to PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-91103696542207575572010-08-28T19:55:00.000-05:002010-08-28T19:55:05.773-05:00Smartcars in AmericaSince I've been driving this past month, I've noticed more smartcars on the road these days. Smartcars are awesome, and if you're driving a smartcar amidst these ridiculously oversized SUVs, trucks, and luxury sedans...you're awesome!
I give the thumbsup to every smartcar driver I see, but kind of secretly because I figure if I were smiling and staring at them they'd think I was laughing at PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-85635194725990963932010-08-23T19:58:00.000-05:002010-08-23T19:58:17.507-05:00Is the Future Inevitably Screwed?Alright, so the history of human nature involves bursts of population growth preceded by doomsayers who insist now we're all really fucked foodwise, which never actually happens because of major technological innovations (domesticated crops, crop rotation, steam/coal power, chemically synthesized fertilizers, genetic engineering, etc...). I'm starting to wonder, though, if this is a trend we can PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-30895835678266148442010-08-13T19:13:00.000-05:002010-08-13T19:13:00.382-05:00The Only Time Disgustingly Romantic is Okaywarning: may make you vomit and feel insanely jealous at the same time.
oh hellyes.
Long story short, my mother thought I'd enjoy this insane stereoscopic puzzle (1,000 pieces, which isn't too bad, but all the puzzle piece shapes are ridiculous!). She was totally right, although now that I've had a look at what the subject matter is I'm laughing and also traumatized.
Anyway, shiny! So PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-85896483225523566322010-08-06T21:19:00.000-05:002010-08-06T21:19:01.526-05:00The Prius 2010 & 2012 plug inI decided to celebrate my newfound freedom of shopping (and having a car!) by going to Whole Foods. Turns out Toyota was there with some 2010 Priuses and an example of the 2012 Prius, which has the plug-in option, all for test drive. Since they gave me a nice gift card to Whole Foods, it's only fair I repay the favor by plugging (ha...no.) them. Hell, that's probably what they were looking for inPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-49056366513837492492010-08-05T19:21:00.000-05:002010-08-05T19:21:51.163-05:00Is Twitter Changing How We Think?Okay...let's make the title a little more accurate: Is Twitter changing how I think?
We already know the Internet is fucking up our attention spans [link], but what about the method by which we process information?
Quite frankly, reduced attention span has nothing to do with "thinking deeply", which sounds like a load of bullshit anyway. What's deep thought, beating a chess Grand Master or PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-16213914856672143582010-07-29T10:26:00.005-05:002010-10-14T00:55:22.586-05:00Don't Burn People, Baby Sun (an educational children's book)Take note, parents, as this is why you should let your children talk on the phone for hours at a time....
At some point between wanting giant amoebas as pets and static on the airwaves, JB and I came up with the notion of BABY SUN. He just wants to go for a walk! Oh, Baby Sun, don't burn people! You're so silly! Clearly it's meant to be a bestselling children's book. (I originally showed this toPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-86188249306748284602010-07-23T11:40:00.000-05:002010-07-23T11:40:04.060-05:00Is Twitter Skynet?It occurs to me I should have just taken a screenshot of this, but I didn't. Here's what twitter told me when I tried to log in a little while ago:
403 Forbidden: The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it.
Um. What.
I believe the URL ended in the word 'serious', too. Maybe this explains all their outages recently...the machines need to reconfigure the hierarchy to excludePDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-28724004897144232202010-07-19T20:18:00.001-05:002010-07-19T20:18:28.893-05:00Guacamole With Mango, a recipeMy mother was terribly envious of the fact that my sister and I finished all of this before she got home, so she bought more avocados! And, since I was having simultaneous envy of Whole Foods' mango guacamole, I decided to make my own.
I used:
one avocado, mashed
a little over 1/4 tomato, diced
~two teaspoons salt
less than half a lime, squeezed
one clove of garlic, minced
about 1/5 mango, PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-3174719246671724942010-07-18T18:39:00.001-05:002010-07-20T18:49:27.440-05:00Inception (a movie review)First of all, I saw this in the IMAX. Which was awesome. Five story screen that's seven stories wide? Hello.
There's a thing about novels where you're not supposed to ever, ever open with a dream sequence. But what if that's a major plot point...?
The visuals are amazing. Seriously. Go spend the money on the IMAX because computer technology will reward you with not just its sheer awesomeness PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-69550724447955410332010-07-15T13:04:00.001-05:002010-07-15T13:05:34.996-05:00Delicious Guacamole RecipeMy mother refused to forage for us at the local Panera, so I was forced to once again commit that awful sin of cooking for myself. This time, though, the best guacamole I have ever made. Seriously.
You'll need:
1/4 red bell pepper (I just cut the bottom half off so I don't have to deal with the seeds and shove half of that in my mouth, because it is delicious.)
1/2 medium tomato (well, within PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-13922916294079471902010-07-12T18:41:00.001-05:002010-07-12T18:42:07.571-05:00Information Wants to be Free (Fuck ACTA)Alright, so this recent load of bullshit (it's been tossed around for a while but seems to finally be coming to a resolution) is allegedly an anti-piracy measure. Because there is no possible solution but monitoring everyone's search queries in order to stamp out illegal downloading.
I'm not going to say anything about my track record, but I am going to say this is how stuff works. You can't PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-74630746954232170562010-07-06T21:06:00.001-05:002010-07-06T21:07:36.613-05:00Abusing "Natural" (calling the bullshit known as Truvia)First of all, have a look-see at Truvia's ingredients page. Note they have three things listed, and one of those is 'Natural Flavors' (which, yes, can include stuff derived from meat). That's not even my main problem, though; my main problem is that they mention the two 'natural' ingredients are, well, not totally there.
Google 'rebiana' and you'll learn it's actually derived from 'stevia', PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-69441978484623215102010-07-04T09:35:00.001-05:002010-07-04T09:35:00.743-05:00I Never Want to See Social Media Again (but Futurama is alright)I hope at least some of you are receiving this via my (public) Twitter or (private) Facebook, just to drive the irony home. :D
Anyway, the phrase has gone far beyond the irritation level of "going green", because while the latter was for an actual purpose the former's just marketing. (For the record, I use Twitter mainly to get news. About three of my friends are on it. Also, I think it's PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-62465814262165870122010-06-21T10:44:00.001-05:002010-06-21T10:44:00.663-05:00Toronto Vs. Chicago: City ShowdownBelieve me, this is a really hard comparison not to make. They're at similar latitudes, both are famous for their tall structures and neighborhoods and shopping...and, seriously, Toronto makes the comparison. Chicago's a little too busy being flabby and machiney to make it back, but someday....
Tall Stuff
The CN Tower is round and has a glass floor. It also allegedly has the highest observation PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-79152245662045546622010-06-10T23:47:00.006-05:002011-05-05T21:08:32.042-05:00A Guide to Exotic FruitAlright, so certain anecdotes have led me to think it might be a good idea if you sad vanilla folk (or picky eaters in general) had some kind of listing discussing not only flavor, but also how to eat, fruits beyond the standard run of apple-orange-banana. Here goes...(and yes, it's alphabetical). Will add fruits when I remember/try them.
Cardamom BananaThese things are totally wild! They're PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-41550517706717684772010-06-08T18:20:00.000-05:002010-06-08T18:20:51.176-05:00Why We'll Never Get Rid of BP (or prevent another oil spill)...Oil dependency. That's it.
Okay, so they're being held accountable--the president actually did take some initiatives to invest in cleaner energy a few years ago--there's no longer that stupid cap on how much they have to pay in damages....
Still. Are you going to switch your household over entirely to non-petroleum energy anytime soon? Aside from the unfeasability of solar power in Chicago (PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-61253971569325688012010-06-07T14:38:00.000-05:002010-06-07T14:38:46.353-05:00Super Mario Galaxy 2, a semi-reviewAnd I say semi-review because I've only played it for, what, an hour and a half-ish so far.
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Anyway, remember how cute the first one was? With the squishy poky Lumas and the dino piranha (I hate having to kill it! It's just a baby!) and Mario's adorable little skeleton when you get him electrocuted....
This one's pretty cute too (nothing could be cuter than Yoshi's barrage PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-88598987579277944222010-06-06T12:49:00.000-05:002010-06-06T12:49:30.238-05:00Organic: the new Getting Back to Nature?I've finally started paying attention to the fact that every generation of Americans has some idealized picture of what it means to Get Back to Nature. It used to be hanging out with your relatives who owned a farm and maybe working there for a summer; then it was fishing/camping/hiking/etc.; and there was a brief point of time where things seemed to stagnate and mostly the National Geographic PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-32197067869347374842010-05-26T18:06:00.011-05:002011-11-01T23:22:16.008-05:00The Exotic Chocolate ReviewOkay, fine, most of these chocolates aren't that exotic and stuff, so this should really be called 'Weird Flavor Combinations on a Budget.' Which, you know...doesn't sound nearly as awesome.
In the meantime, though, I look forward to the day when I can finally afford criollo chocolates. (Forastero and trinitario just don't stack up in comparison...on the other hand, they're considerably more PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-52115764580239925202010-05-24T13:36:00.001-05:002010-05-26T18:09:30.811-05:00Is 'Green' Cool Again? (Post #greenfestival thoughts)Today marks the day I start shoving Twitter hashtags into post titles. Integration of social networks = inevitable. Embrace it now, bitches. (On the other hand, my facebook profile is totally unsearchable.)
Anyway....
Chicago Green Festival, May 22-23 in the Navy Pier! I volunteered as a box office cashier for one day, which was actually interesting because I got a look at the kind of people PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-15999955336213300292010-05-21T17:42:00.002-05:002010-05-21T17:42:56.372-05:00Prince of Persia: Why Video Games Shouldn't be MoviesOkay, whew. My friends have told me I need to stop whining about how Jake Gyllenhaal is playing the Prince of, you know...Persia...so here's one last joke about it. This is perfectly okay because I reference practices of the Ottoman Empire (and bits mentioned in the Thousand and One Nights). Ironically, the skin color's about the one thing I'm not bothered by--fair skin is idealized in the East. PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-88697854829089662612010-05-20T18:28:00.000-05:002010-05-20T18:28:41.684-05:00Before you freak out about scientists creating artificial life....Start with this easy-to-read article on Wired. Pay close attention to how hard it was, and how impossible it'll be to go much further in any direction for years--years which allow for all sorts of insane legislation.
In particular, stop at this line:
It’s an impressive trick, no doubt, but replicating a natural genome with a little panache is also the limit of our present design capabilities.
PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-44582465315082501802010-05-19T17:39:00.000-05:002010-05-19T17:39:00.921-05:00Vegan "Stuffed" Portobello Mushroom Recipe (+ pictures)So I started with this recipe, but of course there's no wine in my house and we're somehow out of garlic (WTF! If you've ever eaten food you know this is a cardinal sin), so I'll just list the mods. This probably won't make any sense unless you're also looking at the recipe, FYI.
Oh! I took pictures: I've been trying for ages to get the hang of food photography. Of course, I really should have PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-29976607259023944922010-05-18T10:22:00.000-05:002010-05-18T10:22:00.944-05:00Why Republicans are Still RelevantYes, I do think that the Republican Party is going to become increasingly marginalized as the future progresses in its increasingly liberalized direction. The last time the U.S. was considered "progressive" was about the, say, '70s or so; if you consider European governments you'll be amazed to hear what they consider "conservative" (in France, that would be a 40-hour workweek; in Greece, it's PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-18407771500625370222010-05-15T10:22:00.000-05:002010-05-15T10:22:00.990-05:00The Myth of Clean Coal (and the American Lifestyle)It occasionally distresses me that the Obama administration, which I obviously otherwise admire, has fallen into the trap of believing that there's such a thing as clean coal.
I'm not going to regurgitate the details of how much waste even the most compact coal generates (if you want some, check out The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth).
Long PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-62247839232172420112010-05-13T21:40:00.001-05:002010-05-13T21:41:09.327-05:00Apple Really Needs Women to OK iPad MarketingSo there's this new iPad (snrk) commerical on TV, and whether it was just because of '30 Rock' (still awesome, still funny after four seasons) or because this commercial really is that ridiculous...I laughed. During this ridiculous commercial.
Anyway, let's see if it was just the commercial. Don't read this if you've just watched '30 Rock' or any other comedy thing!
Without further ado, here's PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-77690032313357466742010-05-12T19:12:00.003-05:002010-05-19T00:20:41.169-05:00Save the Earth, Save Our Water
Save the Earth, Save Water by therealmleh.blogspot.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. You can redistribute and/or modify this image as long as the credits at the bottom remain intact.
the artsy version
(Click to enlarge: the original size is actually 1450ish pixels wide, this is uploaded at only 700pixels wide. But still,PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-18958888286884820592010-05-10T10:49:00.011-05:002010-05-10T10:49:00.222-05:00Why I Use EmoticonsIt occurs to me that I use emoticons a lot when I'm communicating by text--not as much here, because of course I have ample room to type everything I want out...maybe that fucks with your ability to read it but hey whatever!
Anyway, I've wondered occasionally if this sort of thing is obnoxious (no one likes excessive 'lol'ing or other shorthand thingies, after all), so I tried to reevaluate my PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-57034714553805126432010-05-08T08:45:00.003-05:002010-05-10T02:09:56.462-05:00Iron Man 2On behalf of crazy cat (my lova, you know exactly of whom I speak), welcome to another special edition of [Blog Author] actually saw a movie opening weekend!
'Iron Man 2' automatically deserves 5 million points for not adding any 3D shenanigans at the last minute. Just for the record.
So if you like explosions, you'll like this. +, eye candy for dudes, chicks, the bicurious, and well pretty PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-92184638452637036452010-05-05T18:03:00.000-05:002010-05-05T18:03:27.032-05:00Screw Aliens (Sorry, Stephen Hawking)Wait, no, not like that! Do not attempt sex with an alien race. For all you know, sticking something in there might get...something else burned off. Or, y'know, whatever.
Anyway, caring about aliens at all--even looking for alien life forms--is just really stupid.
Assume we find an extrasolar planet with any sign of life on it. Firstly, we won't be able to communicate it. And we won't even be PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-57204164244142944632010-05-04T10:57:00.000-05:002010-05-04T10:57:00.243-05:00Does Capitalism Have to End?Seriously.
Uh, dude, I'm not talking about replacing it with communism; I'm talking about some form of socialism (EU-style, maybe, though perhaps without letting fail countries join...Greece I love you but you are the laziest place I've ever been; actually, that's pretty much why I love you). Truthfully, I have no idea what socialism means, except it's not as ridiculous and totally wrong as PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-91774209131525713552010-05-01T09:47:00.001-05:002010-05-01T09:47:00.394-05:00Why Minorities Hate the Arizona Immigration LawAlright, so most bloggers seem to be white dudes or chicks who, while aware of the fact that the Arizona law can be horribly racist, are getting hung up on the fact that it's not "technically" racist.
Here's the thing: my parents are both immigrants. I'm a first generation child born in California...so while I'll probably be a foreigner someday (although to be fair South Carolina will most PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-54839119043594130382010-04-30T10:04:00.007-05:002010-04-30T10:04:00.723-05:00What Does Arizona Really Change?So there's no questioning that the new immigration law in Arizona has enormous racial overtones and a clear bias--most Caucasians aren't going to "look" potentially illegal to cops, above all...but here's the thing: I'm not sure that this is going to change how the law in Arizona deals with illegals and all sorts of immigrants, for that matter.
Let's be clear: Arizona officially taking this PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-625068648862682122010-04-29T10:04:00.002-05:002010-04-29T22:54:24.848-05:00Economic Advertising (Plus, Iron Man 2)So this has definitely been going on since...hmm, around last Thanksgiving or Christmas, but have you noticed that more and more organizations are teaming up to produce ads? It might be something really obvious like AT&T and Apple (for the iPhone), but there were a few Amazon/Apple (or something) ads in December, and now there's the Burger King slash Iron Man ads.
About time, dudes! Ad space is PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-44822085365038232002010-04-27T23:33:00.001-05:002010-04-28T00:49:12.451-05:00God Hates "Fags"
Yeah, it is a terribly ugly word in U.S. English and I don't like using it, even in this parodic context...but this would be an amazing anti-smoking campaign in the UK. (Half the population doesn't believe in evolution; who knows what else they'll take on faith.)
One thing about cigarettes...they are horribly addictive. I don't understand why, nicotine must be perfectly shaped for the receptorsPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-59330083839527497622010-04-25T00:25:00.000-05:002010-04-25T00:25:50.445-05:00Greece RevisitedGod(s), I can't believe it's almost been a year since I went--of course I'd love to go again. Of course right now; I bet stuff's gotten super cheap there!
Anyway, considering how little I remember of my childhood, and considering the fact that I originally got this to write down the important things (before I stuck it on Facebook and publicized through Twitter, which's effectively shamed me out PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-61248490572164116012010-04-22T14:38:00.000-05:002010-04-22T14:38:17.545-05:00Green HypocrisyFirstly, Happy Earth Day! Growing up in a place like California where enviornmentalism is much bigger, it's a lot of fun.
Now that I've uplifted your mood, let me bring it sharply down by pointing out the huge dislike for the phrase 'going green' in the community of environmentalists. As in, people who practice living Earth-friendly on a larger scale than that offered by consumerism.
It's hard PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-68768972000095006682010-04-20T00:28:00.000-05:002010-04-20T00:28:19.504-05:00TrashA simple observation in countries I've visited:
Greece--lots of small trash cans and a decent amount of large dumpsters in big locations. It's unclear whether the small bins (posted at shoulder height, approximately) have to be differentiated between recycling and non, but it's definitely acceptable to toss organic matter (orange, banana peels, etc.) into dirt, including the publicly landscaped PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-38882478650221976892010-04-18T22:43:00.001-05:002010-04-18T22:47:56.852-05:00Climate Change for Dummies--or, the beast formerly known as global warming, except dipshits around the world were confused by the fact that winters were getting significantly colder/wetter/longer/shittier.
The follow paragraph is quoted from page eighteen (end of Chapter One) of Thomas Kostigen's You Are Here, which I'm currently working my way through. For the idiots among you, I've bolded the last two sentences:
PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-88959531582865126312010-04-16T01:23:00.000-05:002010-04-16T01:23:56.263-05:00Lying OnlineDoing series is addictive...woo....
Anyway, so we don't do privacy anymore. The Internet is where you go to air your dirty laundry, especially if you can't tell your friends/family/therapist about it. Go check out websites like PostSecret.com and FMyLife.com and, god, fucking LiveJournal. All of it.
But at the same time all this honesty's popped up, it's so easy to lie with all the time you PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-32500230559900423902010-04-14T01:20:00.000-05:002010-04-14T01:20:24.805-05:00Living OnlineObviously this is somewhat of a followup to the last one, anyway....
Remember back when it was really hard to remember what you'd been talking about yesterday or three months ago or whenever because you'd have these conversations in the phone or in person and auditory memory, while strong for some people, can't be recalled unless you were recording all your conversations (in which case, creepo)?PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-29316309505328516622010-04-12T18:55:00.000-05:002010-04-12T18:55:14.680-05:00Growing Up OnlineI'm pretty sure that my generation is, if not actually the first, then among the first to basically grow up on the Internet.
Let me explain.
I got my first personal email address (dawwww) when I was 11 years old. This back when AOL was actually just AOL (before becoming Time Warner's bitch and then the bitch formerly known as Time Warner's bitch), and at some point we signed up after the fifty PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-42527624820363987232010-04-09T20:13:00.000-05:002010-04-09T20:13:01.212-05:00About Fucking Time, AmericaOn your 18th birthday, you can...
* own independent assets
* open independent accounts
* be tried as an adult, all the time
* have sex with other adults
* smoke
* watch porn
* place bets
* vote
* enlist in the military
On your 21st birthday, you can...
* drink (or just go to Canada when you're 18, or go to college)
* gamble (or just go to Canada when you're 18)
* rent a car
* go to clubs
* run PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-69493894861502466432010-04-06T23:45:00.000-05:002010-04-06T23:45:10.012-05:00Stop Whining About HealthcareSo anyone who's gone to university or has been on Facebook knows that administrations make decisions that even the majority dislikes. But, soon enough, the majority either changes (with a turnover of four years, don't expect your college to do anything for your unique class type after first year), or they just give up.
I've been thinking, how does this apply to a country? Rather, does it apply PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-6857687700929026782010-03-24T22:57:00.000-05:002010-03-24T22:57:23.345-05:00healthcare yaaaaayFirst of all, how can anyone not be for wanting everyone to be covered at some kind of minimum level, even (perhaps especially) if they're sick?
It's an industrialized thing, yanno?
Granted, some of the provisions are a little too federal stomping on states' rights, and that's why they're in court right now. Not in broken windows and racist slurs or death threats.
I just want to know why the PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-41939178975478111202010-03-18T19:18:00.000-05:002010-03-18T19:18:09.306-05:00How Do We Fix Food?If you live in America...it doesn't have to be this way. Anyone who's been to Europe can attest to the availability of delicious fresh produce in spite of industrialization and the presence of supermarkets.
That said, even if you're fine with the low quality of vegetables that end up in this country despite the large amount of arable land and variety of climates available...it's hard not to PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-35230304346808165172010-03-15T23:39:00.000-05:002010-03-15T23:39:19.590-05:00Meat Isn't Our Only Problem (But It's Still a Big One)Pt3...or is this 4? Anyway, pretty much everything here is from "The End of Food" or from my own common sense and then vindicated by said book.
Okay, so the fact that people tend to stop eating meat at least for a few days after learning about slaughterhouses should be a giant red warning bell (or worse yet, a blue screen). Here's a couple of fun facts that have nothing to do with animal crueltyPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-56749825443737153072010-03-11T20:00:00.000-06:002010-03-11T20:00:56.744-06:00My New Sustainable Life- the sequel to whatever the hell my last post was titled, it was so long ago that I don't remember.
Anyway, it is really really hard to make your life sustainable. I don't just mean eating local, buying smart, recycling--I mean not fucking over the environment every single time you do anything. Because if there's one thing that's intuitive about our lives, it's that everything has a cost. Raw PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-12891807631742835382010-02-27T13:24:00.001-06:002010-05-24T18:30:48.599-05:00Eggless Lime Bars, Another Recipe?!I wasn't going to post this, and then it occurred to me that I made significant modifications to the original recipe, which can be found at JoyofBaking.com.
IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME, SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH: So you're thinking, what the hell is she doing within 50 feet of a kitchen?! Long story short, I really, really love lime and lemon bars. I skipped lunch in Florida for half a slice of real key limePDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-86268091665595445532010-02-27T00:08:00.000-06:002010-02-27T00:08:02.918-06:00Parabens, PVC, EverywhereThe first thing you discover when you start caring about where your goods are coming from--and I mean, really caring, like not just oh man this is bad for the environment or oh man this is going to give me cancer but both at the same time, plus a little touch of how will future generations have to deal with this....
The first thing you discover is that pretty much everything you own should go.
PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-84792133741038296152010-02-19T15:12:00.000-06:002010-02-19T15:12:49.488-06:00Figure Skating = Manly?Okay...so for those of you not obsessively watching segments of the Olympics, basically the dude who got the silver in men's figure skating (Plushenko) says that the dude who got the gold (Lysacek) isn't a "real champion" because he didn't do a quad.
In short, real men twirl around four times on the ice.
If the diva-esque quality of the costumes, the delicacy with which movements have to be PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-49677044895768775672010-02-18T17:38:00.000-06:002010-02-18T17:38:36.907-06:00Art and HistoryNote: this isn't about art history, which is by far the most useless field I've ever seen, on account of its failure to understand either art or history.
Instead, I'd just like to make a quick note about how one can use art to interpret history.
More specifically, how one can use art to interpret how history works. Which really isn't the same thing as the above, now is it?
Anyway, looking at PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-7533979421454925062010-02-15T15:19:00.001-06:002010-02-18T17:33:48.888-06:00Winter Olympics, what.Okay, so I'm not going to deny that any individual sport executed by the top of its competitors is worth watching on account of the sheer level of human feats, but seriously the Winter Olympics are piled with a bunch of silliness.
To be fair, so are the Summer Olympics--but a little less so, on account of not having like 40 different versions of skiing because, let's face it, options are PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-3988036274405963152010-02-13T15:48:00.000-06:002010-02-13T15:48:36.725-06:00The New World OrderI think that three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and near-continuous trends in one direction or another, it's now safe to say that the new world order is a matter of economics against militaristic power and interest.
Of course I'm talking about China!
And by China, I mean the Chinese government. Just like for America I mean the American policymakers.
Have you noticed that PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-17016058593809342942010-02-11T19:21:00.000-06:002010-02-11T19:21:54.131-06:00Don't Buy RosesIf you are one of those unfortunates obligated to make some kind of offering at the altar of Getting Laid/Not Sleeping on the Couch Again for Valentine's Day, but also care about the environment...don't buy roses. At least not ones that don't explicitly say they're grown in the U.S.
I believe it's Libya that has the largest flower farming trade--either way, it's some African country/ies--but, PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-52418068187160962832010-02-10T00:47:00.000-06:002010-02-10T00:47:56.423-06:00Snow StormsSurely you're aware that the Inuit have x amount of words for snow, where x is a ludicrously large number (greater than ten) and 'words for snow' actually means specific varieties.
I'm amazed at the paucity of the English language for these things. So here's a bunch of really clever terms that should totally be part of Urban Dictionary, or if you're a hi-fi scholar type reading this, the OED (PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-69143987044479303332010-02-08T21:37:00.000-06:002010-02-08T21:37:02.118-06:00A cure for mental illness:Go live outside.
Okay, I am starting to be slightly convinced that living in organized structures with strict routines is driving us insane. More interestingly, I read something in the New York Times a little while back citing a study showing that mental illnesses are starting to Americanize--e.g. anorexia in Hong Kong is starting to look like anorexia in America....
The study suggested that PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-87890709580796399642010-02-05T18:10:00.000-06:002010-02-05T18:10:08.101-06:00I Still Want a ToyotaSo does anyone else remember the original recall being voluntary?
It's a little sad that American automakers' chance to shine is the one major blip in Toyota's record. I mean, do you really want to buy a Ford just because there's probably nothing wrong with it this time around, especially when compared to that one model of Toyota that the company itself is warning against? (Yes, I know there'sPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-23064898025983523602010-02-03T15:48:00.000-06:002010-02-03T15:48:26.610-06:00More abortion, plz.So I recently found out about the movements out there to save the earth by, as I have long maintained, killing all humans. Some of them are as radical as promoting homicide, suicide, etc.--others just maintain that we should stop having children.
Aside from creating a whole 'Children of Men' style scenario, should there be a global effort to reduce the amount of kids born?
I'd say...yeah. At PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-3689229775596235782010-01-30T17:34:00.000-06:002010-01-30T17:34:42.919-06:00Sorry Republicans: No Lollipop For YouPresenting the latest chapter in my no-longer-so-moderate adventures! Truth be told, though, if the Democrats were acting this way then my response would be the same to them (and more besides, tinged with fear of an intolerant future and a forever backwards America). But they would never do this, because they're either too naive or world-weary to try it, so there.
I wouldn't be surprised if PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-35497910039168220752010-01-30T00:22:00.000-06:002010-01-30T00:22:55.712-06:00Guacamole Sandwich, a (vegan) recipeA delicious alternative to a) dicing vegetables and b) not having chips.
Okay, so you'll need:
1/2 - small red onion
1/2 - red bell pepper
1 - tomato (preferably ripe)
1/2 - avocado (also damn ripe)
4 - slices of bread
A few leaves of cilantro
Lime juice
Salt
Pepper
It's really simple. (What did you expect? I hate cooking. Worst of all, I had to clean up after myself! Aaargh.)
1. Spread PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-57686236527656305452010-01-28T02:11:00.001-06:002010-01-28T23:35:43.763-06:00State of the Union 2010Okay, so drinking game words for this one: family, responsibility, partisan (any variant), leadership, economy, debt, deficit, committee, small business. Oh, and every time he mentions someone out there, two drinks if they're a small business owner.
Here are my thoughts on it, cleaned up for the sake of not humiliating my love of grammar and spelling. Anything in double quotes is directly fromPDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-19371443556269126712010-01-27T14:36:00.000-06:002010-01-27T14:36:30.105-06:00Apple Doesn't Equal RevolutionOr does it?
Okay, I definitely do not understand why people seem to literally be jizzing themselves over the prospects of an iTablet (I really hope they're going with iSlate, iPad is a little...um, feminine). Back in the day, Apple did invent the PC, but Windows mass marketed it. Remember in the '90s with the old iMac when they nearly went under?
And then there was the iPod, which spelled thePDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-28445945202833101242010-01-26T16:15:00.001-06:002010-01-26T23:39:52.501-06:00To America: What Were You Expecting, Exactly?State of the Union address tomorrow--9 p.m. ET, watch it online at whitehouse.gov (okay how awesome is their use of Web 2.0? Can someone tell me how it looks on a smartphone?)
Anyway, it seems like the general expectation is that Obama's got to apologize for all the campaign promises he failed to complete...but those promises were kind of ridiculous anyway! I mean, yeah, Dems want the free PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-57296806249140160792010-01-20T14:43:00.000-06:002010-01-20T14:43:42.260-06:00Bing! Search OverloadAm I the only one who's mildly disconcerted by the ads for Microsoft's new 'smarter' search engine, Bing? You know, the ones where people have suffered from such a surfeit of information that they need a search engine to parse out what they do and don't need?
Google, perhaps I have misjudged your potential to develop into Skynet.
But, honestly, computers can deal with information way better PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-67032354489347690152010-01-17T23:21:00.000-06:002010-01-17T23:21:56.307-06:00Richard Dawkins: The Greatest Show on Earth (Yes, I Read that Book)Well, most of it at least. And yeah, I'll explain why.
So anyway. I did my best not to be horribly biased about this, considering my already biased view that Richard Dawkins is kind of an egomaniacal jackass (a claim which this book seems to both reinforce and, surpisingly, justify a tiny bit--he's kind of Nietzschean at bits, what with self-references, but he seems to be friends with or havePDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10761281.post-28706369765415743252010-01-16T22:23:00.000-06:002010-01-16T22:23:35.322-06:00The Changing Definition of Free Speech: Google and ChinaSo I really don't care what Google's motives are, or how I can turn the whole situation into yet another cynical reflection on capitalism (unusually enough)....
Anyway, I think it's pretty awesome that Google's dropping the complacency with the Chinese government, even if yeah my email is noticeably slower now. It's about time that this old-style totalitarian regime was made aware of the fact PDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06082411537913891826noreply@blogger.com0