Dear Clusterflock: Fusterclock
Should we have a fusterclock counting down the days to clusterflockstock?
what i talk about when i talk about ruBBing
FOR THE RECORD:
In some editions of Sunday’s Section A, an article about Sarah Palin’s speech to the National Tea Party Convention quoted her as saying, “How’s that hopey, changing stuff working out for you?” She said, “How’s that hopey, changey stuff working out for you?”
quote out of context
It is dark outside … we can only assume the sun has been destroyed.
nicknamed Inuk
Recent advances in sequencing technologies have allowed scientists to sequence the DNA of a Greenlander who died 4,000 years ago.
The DNA gives strong hints about the man, nicknamed Inuk. “Brown eyes, brown skin, he had shovel-form front teeth,” Eske Willerslev, who oversaw the study, told a telephone briefing. Such teeth are characteristic of East Asian and Native American populations.
He had the genes for early hair loss, too. “Because we found quite a lot of hair from this guy, we presume he actually died quite young,” Willerslev said.
from the spam
I am sure many of you speak some Spanish, so I want to figure out what the freak this site is trying to say.
Dear Clusterflock
Today I quit on an online survey concerning a “buying experience”; the only reason I was doing it was because it kept popping up in my mail and taking it seemed the quickest way to make it go away. But I came to a question that pissed me off and made me delete the whole thing. It asked me to indicate my “position” in my household: was I the Head of household? The spouse of the Head of household? A dependent of the Head of household? and so on. Do you find yourself thinking as I do that the whole notion of there necessarily being A head of household is archaic? In my view, the whole thing smacks of that Southern Baptist insistence that women “submit” to the will of their husbands, which I find to be one of many reprehensible notions they espouse. Can’t we get past the whole Command Structure thing? Is this just me going off, or do you have feeling about this?
Cheese is on a different level than pussy
iPhone typist 56 words per minute
Rilo Kiley – A Better Son/Daughter
quote out of context
How bad is it? It’s so bad that I miss Newt Gingrich.
Assuming
my second attempt to fly from Chicago to Dallas this week is successful, I am outfitting myself properly. Today I bought this pair of High Dexterity Gloves in the event I’m offered an opportunity to touch Deron’s sausage finger.
Ora Ito, Ayrton Bed
It’s tough to get to this bed, because of the crapflashular user interface, and once you do there’s virtually no information about it — thank you unspoken rules for beautiful furniture design web sites — and it probably costs more than your mom, but I love it.
Florence Knoll Credenza
I’ve been looking for a good Florence Knoll interview, but have yet to find anything other than a few stuffy YouTube videos from Knoll Design. In the interim, I’ll leave you with this credenza from an artnet auction.
werewolf evolution
A short interview with Rick Baker, the makeup artist behind An American Werewolf in London and Thriller, about the transformation of his art in the digital era.
Wired: Have you worried that your work can’t keep up with evolving technology?
Baker: I had that concern. I wondered whether today’s kids, who grew up on CG, would accept a guy covered in yak hair. But I actually embrace digital stuff now — I do it for fun. I was heavily involved in the digital work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I like any trick that helps me achieve what I can’t with rubber. I try to make the right choice for the circumstances of the movie.
Robin Hood Tax
Richard Curtis has launched a campaign for the Tobin tax in the UK. It’s pretty good.
Amongst the responses from leading economists is the opinion that this will probably not fly unless it is also broadly accepted by the large European countries (i.e. France and Germany) and the US. And the US, they say, will never accept it.
UPDATE: Well, it’s looking at the very least like this idea is being taken seriously for the G20 summit. Watch them closely.
found on flickr
Title: bridge over the river kwhy?
Tags: sky, wind, hair, sexpest
sausage fingers
In Korea, sales of a snack sausage increase by almost 40%* in the winter as iPhone users utilize the sausage as a stylus in order to avoid removing their gloves.
*I was unable to locate a link to an English language website confirming the story but it appears to be real (I think this is a Korean news site).
via Byron at Bike Hugger
It’s raining outside but brightly
this picture makes me unspeakably angry
Irrational, I know. I think it might be preemptive irritation.
Proportions and entitlement
For the last six months or so, I’ve had this guilty pleasure. It’s a blog called, Why There Are No Girls in San Francisco.* Here’s an example of the content:
SF females (a scattering of honeys from Serbia and Turkey aside) don’t aim for sexy in their dress or carriage. They aim for anti-Florida. They are reserved, borderline haughty in demeanor and fashion themselves in one of three looks: the always vogue “I run Iron-Mans” guy-girl look, the cluttered Hipster, or the famous and very popular “SF black”, where you cover up every square inch of your body but are still fabulous because the fabric is black and black is daring and sexy, right? Not right. Boobs are sexy. Legs are sexy. Black is just a color. Black is what Batman wears so he can be stealthy.
Today I read a story in the New York Times about the shortage of men on college campuses, and how it’s affecting more than just the admissions offices:
“Women do not want to get left out in the cold, so they are competing for men on men’s terms. This results in more casual hook-up encounters that do not end up leading to more serious romantic relationships. Since college women say they generally want ‘something more’ than just a casual hook-up, women end up losing out.”
W. Keith Campbell, a psychology professor at the University of Georgia, which is 57 percent female, put it this way: “When men have the social power, they create a man’s ideal of relationships,” he said. Translation: more partners, more sex.
The pseudonymous author of WTANGISF probably attended one of these disproportionately female universities and now struggles with the reality of living in a disproportionately male city, but I wonder if both situations are just a symptom of Love in the Time of Darwinism:
Women can take a Chinese-menu approach to gender roles. They can be all “Let me pay for the movie tickets” on Friday night and “A single rose? That’s it?” on Valentine’s Day. This isn’t equality, say the male-contents; it’s a ratification of female privilege and, worse, caprice. “Women seemingly have decided that they want it all (and deserve it, too),” Kevin from Ann Arbor writes. “They want to compete equally, and have the privileges of their mother’s generation. They want the executive position, AND the ability to stay home with children and come back into the workplace at or beyond the position at which they left. They want the bad boy and the metrosexual.”
What’s your take? How do you navigate the modern labyrinth of gender roles better known as sex, dating, and marriage?
* I should mention that I am a girl. And I live in San Francisco.
Equipment
To clean an old locomotive you need some of these tools.
90%
Almost all of my spam emails are a variation of a deal on VIAGRA®. Where are my offers for Russian love? When I meet the AARP member of my dreams, I will be stocked and ready.
The McItaly
Italy’s agricultural minister has endorsed — and faces criticism for endorsing — a McItaly burger made with Italian beef, Asiago cheese and artichoke spread.
On the McItaly’s promotional material is a seal saying “Under the patronage of” the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry — a highly coveted government endorsement that is more often seen on museum exhibits and cultural initiatives than fast-food containers.
SixthSense technology
If you haven’t seen this yet, then you must.
