Saturday, February 28, 2009
Word for the day: downstart. ran across it in a bio of G B Shaw.
Google and I seem unsure if it's a real word.
Google and I seem unsure if it's a real word.
Guest list for the webcomics convention.
I should be able to find something here to read. I'm bored/avoiding work.
I should be able to find something here to read. I'm bored/avoiding work.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
And then two friends mentioned separately mentioned that Ludwig Wittgenstein’s brother Paul was a one-handed piano player and everything started to fall into place.
I urge everyone to accept a Hugo in Yokohama at least once in their lifetime
I urge everyone to accept a Hugo in Yokohama at least once in their lifetime
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Welcome slashdot hordes.
Court Reinstates Proof-of-Age Requirement For Nude Ads
Posted by timothy on Saturday February 21, @04:36PM
from the barely-legal dept.
The Courts The Internet
arbitraryaardvark writes "An Ohio swinger's magazine objects to keeping proof on file that its advertisers are over 18. I reported here in 2007 that the 6th circuit struck down U.S.C. Title 18, Section 2257 as a First Amendment violation. The full 6th circuit has now overturned that ruling. The case might continue to the Supreme Court. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports."
Court Reinstates Proof-of-Age Requirement For Nude Ads
Posted by timothy on Saturday February 21, @04:36PM
from the barely-legal dept.
The Courts The Internet
arbitraryaardvark writes "An Ohio swinger's magazine objects to keeping proof on file that its advertisers are over 18. I reported here in 2007 that the 6th circuit struck down U.S.C. Title 18, Section 2257 as a First Amendment violation. The full 6th circuit has now overturned that ruling. The case might continue to the Supreme Court. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports."
He was a bachelor when I first met him, living in an apartment that was said to resemble a bachelor's nightmare. I never saw it. Few did. When he got serious about Marlene and realized he would sooner or later have to take her there, he asked his sister to clean it up "just enough so I can have a cleaning person come in." I gather it wasn't filled with rotting Kentucky Fried Chicken or anything. It was simply filled with everything he had ever brought home and put down, still there wherever it landed, and had never been dusted. He and Johnny Morris made a bet once with a TV set as the wager. When Johnny lost, he got a giant old console set and had it delivered to Gene's apartment. The delivery guys dumped it inside the door. It was never moved, and from then on the door never opened all the way.
That's how I decorate too.
That's how I decorate too.
Friday, February 20, 2009
If I had planned better, I could be at a relaxacon in St Louis right now.
One of my citycouncilpeople became a libertarian the other day,
and the coverage is turning up some local libertarian or political blogs I didnt know about.
http://timothyjmaguire.com/
http://kolehardfacts.blogspot.com/
http://www.chris-spangle.com
http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com <- oh that's a guy i've been meaning to get in touch with over his jail lawsuit.
http://www.ruthholladay.com/
http://frugalhoosiers.com/
http://www.indianabarrister.com/
and the coverage is turning up some local libertarian or political blogs I didnt know about.
http://timothyjmaguire.com/
http://kolehardfacts.blogspot.com/
http://www.chris-spangle.com
http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com <- oh that's a guy i've been meaning to get in touch with over his jail lawsuit.
http://www.ruthholladay.com/
http://frugalhoosiers.com/
http://www.indianabarrister.com/
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
word for the day: schmeutrality.
We "go meta" whenever there is any significant dispute, and describe
the dispute. Now, if you don't want to call what we ask "neutrality" or
"nonbias," then call it "schmeutrality" or whatever you like.
We "go meta" whenever there is any significant dispute, and describe
the dispute. Now, if you don't want to call what we ask "neutrality" or
"nonbias," then call it "schmeutrality" or whatever you like.
stuff to look at later:
http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/
http://tastespotting.com/
http://steamykitchen.com/
http://blog.ruhlman.com/
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/
http://tastespotting.com/
http://steamykitchen.com/
http://blog.ruhlman.com/
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
Sunday, February 15, 2009
questionable content plugs http://www.kiva.org/, an online third world microfinance agency. Haven't read the fine print yet.
Nah, never mind, 0% return on investment, no recourse in event of default - it's better than some other ways to throw your liberal money away, but it's not a legit microfinance arrangment; it's lose/win or maybe break-even/win, but not win/win.
Lenders might get some small pr benefit.
related, havetn checked to see how affordable this stuff is: http://www.veganstore.com/
Nah, never mind, 0% return on investment, no recourse in event of default - it's better than some other ways to throw your liberal money away, but it's not a legit microfinance arrangment; it's lose/win or maybe break-even/win, but not win/win.
Lenders might get some small pr benefit.
related, havetn checked to see how affordable this stuff is: http://www.veganstore.com/
The only reason a great many American families don't own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments. ~Mad Magazine
word for the day: resile. to recoil, spring back.
If fanatics who believe Muslim women should be imprisoned in their homes and gay people should be killed are insulted by my arguments, I don't resile from it. Nothing worth saying is inoffensive to everyone.
If fanatics who believe Muslim women should be imprisoned in their homes and gay people should be killed are insulted by my arguments, I don't resile from it. Nothing worth saying is inoffensive to everyone.
Friday, February 13, 2009
shirt reminds me of ghastly.
in today's science lesson, i learned that otter pops and flav-r-ice are the same product from the same company but otter pops cost twice as much and have cuter packaging. wonder which sells better. stuff is disgusting due to sodium benzoate, otherwise would be fun product. I also learned the science behind the mentos-coke thingy.
and here's some ghastly working in charcoal.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Today's sunday song lyric at volokh is Paradise, the John Prine/John Denver song about cola mining. I mean coal mining, not koala mining. Last year when I drove through there I found out Paradise had been an actual town. It's underwater now thanks to the TVA. Paradise makes me think of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi. Big Yellow Taxis make me think of Checker Cab co. I was in Kalamazoo Michigan last week and it turns out Checker Cabs were made in Kalamazoo and they have one in the museum there.
But when Joni sang big yellow taxi she meant a Toronto paddy wagon.
And the tree museum she sang about was the Foster botanical garden. They charge $5 now.
_-_Honolulu,_HI.JPG)
_-_Honolulu,_HI.JPG)
Friday, February 06, 2009
Howard Bashman reports that the Giant Rat has won a unanimous free speech victory in the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
what i'm reading
0 memoirs, Douglas McArthur (started this in 08 so it doesn't count.)
O Inveighing we will go - Wm F Buckley. I think this was on last years list too, I still haven't finished it, dated but still readable.
1 The Sirian Experiments, Doris Lessing
2 The heart is a lonely hunter, Carson McCullers
3 The Shape of Things, Theodore Seuss (first use of the word "blogg")
(google tells me the title is "the shape of me and other stuff")
4 Long Long Ago, Alexander Wollcott
I first of heard of Lessing as an SF writer when I was in college circa 1982 from a roommate (at the place I lived across the street from the poet who just died, Snodgrass.) I was skeptical, because she wasn't on the shelf of science fiction books at the Wilmington library that I read during junior high, and I'm just now getting around to her. I think she won a Nobel last year. It's genuine science fiction, in an erudite style a little like Olaf Stapledon. Not great, not bad.
I was at my favorite bookstore in Wheeling recently. When the guy who runs it saw the books I'd picked - I don't go there often but when I do I buy a big box, he showed me a stash of good stuff under the counter from which I picked out the McCullers and a Burroughs. She was 23, it was her first novel, it's a bleak look at Southern poverty during WWII. Almost everybody dies tragically, not in the war.
It's good.
Shape of Things - read it in a doctors office in Kalamazoo. I passed the first two rounds of the screening, but flunked the hearing test, so three wasted trips to Kalamazoo in winter,and haven't made any money yet this year.
Long Long Ago. 1943, postumous Woolcott, a series of short peices, probably published in the New Yorker or other magazines.
The first one hooked me - it's a story about Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. telling president Lincoln to "Get Down You Fool!" while they are being shot at by Confederate raiders, as told to Wolcott by Harold Laski, who taught the Kennedy boys at the London School of Economics, and confirmed by Felix Frankfurter.
On page 33, where Orson Wells is telling Woolcott that GB Shaw cheats on his vegetarian diet by taking liver pills, I realized I've read this book before, or heard that story somewhere else. But I'll reread it with pleasure. In another story it's Wells again but he's 19 and Wollcott gets him a job based on a reference from Edward Albee. The are dinner with an old lady, with whom Wollcott has as a mutual friend the illegitimate son of Disraeli. The rest of the book will be similar - name dropping of the New York theater and Algonquin round table crowd.
I have, in the box, some books by or about Nixon and J Edgar that I might get around to over the next couple months,and a book by Cornelia Otis Skinner about Sarah Bernhart. So generally I'm keeping my brain alive while the body continues to atrophy - too cold to ride a bike,and a I'm not a big fan of shoveling snow.
0 memoirs, Douglas McArthur (started this in 08 so it doesn't count.)
O Inveighing we will go - Wm F Buckley. I think this was on last years list too, I still haven't finished it, dated but still readable.
1 The Sirian Experiments, Doris Lessing
2 The heart is a lonely hunter, Carson McCullers
3 The Shape of Things, Theodore Seuss (first use of the word "blogg")
(google tells me the title is "the shape of me and other stuff")
4 Long Long Ago, Alexander Wollcott
I first of heard of Lessing as an SF writer when I was in college circa 1982 from a roommate (at the place I lived across the street from the poet who just died, Snodgrass.) I was skeptical, because she wasn't on the shelf of science fiction books at the Wilmington library that I read during junior high, and I'm just now getting around to her. I think she won a Nobel last year. It's genuine science fiction, in an erudite style a little like Olaf Stapledon. Not great, not bad.
I was at my favorite bookstore in Wheeling recently. When the guy who runs it saw the books I'd picked - I don't go there often but when I do I buy a big box, he showed me a stash of good stuff under the counter from which I picked out the McCullers and a Burroughs. She was 23, it was her first novel, it's a bleak look at Southern poverty during WWII. Almost everybody dies tragically, not in the war.
It's good.
Shape of Things - read it in a doctors office in Kalamazoo. I passed the first two rounds of the screening, but flunked the hearing test, so three wasted trips to Kalamazoo in winter,and haven't made any money yet this year.
Long Long Ago. 1943, postumous Woolcott, a series of short peices, probably published in the New Yorker or other magazines.
The first one hooked me - it's a story about Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. telling president Lincoln to "Get Down You Fool!" while they are being shot at by Confederate raiders, as told to Wolcott by Harold Laski, who taught the Kennedy boys at the London School of Economics, and confirmed by Felix Frankfurter.
On page 33, where Orson Wells is telling Woolcott that GB Shaw cheats on his vegetarian diet by taking liver pills, I realized I've read this book before, or heard that story somewhere else. But I'll reread it with pleasure. In another story it's Wells again but he's 19 and Wollcott gets him a job based on a reference from Edward Albee. The are dinner with an old lady, with whom Wollcott has as a mutual friend the illegitimate son of Disraeli. The rest of the book will be similar - name dropping of the New York theater and Algonquin round table crowd.
I have, in the box, some books by or about Nixon and J Edgar that I might get around to over the next couple months,and a book by Cornelia Otis Skinner about Sarah Bernhart. So generally I'm keeping my brain alive while the body continues to atrophy - too cold to ride a bike,and a I'm not a big fan of shoveling snow.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
I made a rather obscure joke over at volokh.
Q. Today is Mendelssohn's 200th birthday (Feb. 3, 1809) — which completes the trifecta of geniuses born within a 10 day period between Feb 3 and Feb 12, 1809 (with Darwin and Lincoln, of course, on Feb 12). [If any of you know of a comparable 10-day period, I'd love to hear what it was and who was born within it]
A. (me) April 13, 1743 -April 22, 1743.
They got it.
UPDATE: Thanks to R&R who points out in the comments that I'm taking some unfair swipes at Mozart....
And I love arbitraryaardvark's suggestion that April 13-23, 1743 was another remarkable 10-day period for geniuses. :) DGP
Q. Today is Mendelssohn's 200th birthday (Feb. 3, 1809) — which completes the trifecta of geniuses born within a 10 day period between Feb 3 and Feb 12, 1809 (with Darwin and Lincoln, of course, on Feb 12). [If any of you know of a comparable 10-day period, I'd love to hear what it was and who was born within it]
A. (me) April 13, 1743 -April 22, 1743.
They got it.
UPDATE: Thanks to R&R who points out in the comments that I'm taking some unfair swipes at Mozart....
And I love arbitraryaardvark's suggestion that April 13-23, 1743 was another remarkable 10-day period for geniuses. :) DGP
