Reed Young
Reed Young Photographic Works.
(via)
The Beatles — I’ve Just Seen a Face
A tune I had forgotten about until a friend made mention.
Bad Day Baumer
Tonight
I am moving from Room 8 to Room 12. On breaks between hauls I am watching “Pink Flamingos” and getting all soppy-sentimental about my vanished youth.
fixed gear bicycle tricks
thanks Kurt
Omega Institute in Your Pants, 2010 edition
So, my friend Susan (whom Kelsey got to meet on Tuesday) gets the Omega Institute‘s annual catalogue of “educational experiences that awaken the best in the human spirit,” and she’s got this game, you see, in which she adds “in Your Pants” to the name of each course, for extra . . . awakening. Here’s the latest array of enhanced offerings:
The Costs of War, Violence, and Denial in Your Pants
Truth Heals: What You Hide Can Hurt You in Your Pants
The Art of Extreme Self-Care in Your Pants
Spring Ecstatic Chant in Your Pants
Dance of Liberation in Your Pants
Creating Opportunity in Career Transition in Your Pants
Goddess to the Core in Your Pants
Being Fully Present in Your Pants
This Beautiful Wound in Your Pants
Digital Nature Photography in Your Pants
Internet dating, 2
Introduction by a 24-year-old male, [REDACTED], located in a city known for deep tans and enhanced body parts:
You see this profile? This is THE most impressive profile I’ve ever seen — it’s mine. I’ve carefully constructed my profile along psychological principles to weed out women whom most men don’t want, and the result has been that I’ve been meeting some really incredible women who are genuinely attractive, intelligent, confident, and playful. Now, rather than refer to 30 years’ worth of research found in academic journals on social psychology and behavior modification, I’ll just sit here all smug and shit and point out that if you read my profile and don’t message or reply to [REDACTED], it’s because you’re some combination of train wreck, stupid, insecure, and boring. True story.
I wish there was a word for that
A Gaithersburg man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for a drunken-driving crash that injured a former judge, who had spared him jail time years before.
no context needed
She attacked again when he first tried to get up, but he resumed making like a dead bicyclist until he was sure the bears were out of the area. He then got up and rode to his job at the Alaska Native Medical Center.
this just in
The Vatican has endorsed The Blues Brothers as a “Catholic Classic” and recommends its viewing by Catholics everywhere.
But aside from a brief appearance from Kathleen Freeman as a wrist-slapping nun referred to as “The Penguin” and the brothers’ periodic claim that they were on a mission from God, spirituality does not play a significant role in the film.
Now back to whatever you were doing.
Brandy Or Martini? Hotel Xenia, Amnisos, Crete.
Another from my ever expanding series on the decaying yet wonderful Hotel Xenia.
Quote out of context.
I asked him to clarify how this activity fit into his work as a recording engineer, but before he could answer he leapt to his feet and began chasing a small moth around the room. He finally smashed it against a wall, declared that it had “fainted,” picked it up off the ground, named it “Gary,” and slipped it into his jacket pocket.
-Ronya
a catalogue of fear, 8
Which was worse? The size of the kid bearing down on you or the shame from your father’s face when you told him you defended yourself?
Filtering the Annoying Vuvuzela Noise
I haven’t tried it since I watch all the games on a flat screen the café around the corner brought in specifically for the cup, but it’s a brilliant concept and totally doable, given my understanding:
Now we’re one week into the World Cup and two things have really annoyed me:
England’s lack of a reliable goalkeeper (I’m an Englishman living in Texas)
The constant drone of the vuvuzelas (those noisy trumpets that sound like a million angry bees)I’m a terrible goalkeeper and I wasn’t named in the English squad so I can’t help with #1 on my list but I am an engineer and I can do something about #2.
Other websites have covered various attempts at filtering the vuvuzela noise but none have offered much in the way of a solution you can use at home. My solution is an application (written with LabVIEW) that detects the fundamental frequency of the vuvuzelas (around 233Hz) and applies a notch filter to it and as many harmonics as you specify. The end result is a significant reduction in the annoying background noise without too much interruption of the commentary and other audio.
Torture means never having to say you’re sorry
Guess this is going to be news analysis and outrage day. This comes from Dahlia Lithwick’s painful examination of the Supreme Court’s denial–without comment–to hear the Arar torture case:
A torture lawyer cannot be held responsible for authorizing torture, and an innocent victim of torture cannot get restitution. Torture slowly becomes a singular act for which nobody will ever be held to account and nobody will ever be made whole. [emphasis added]
By comparison, the Canadians have reviewed the case, held their intelligence organizations accountable, and paid Arar almost $10 million. The guy was clearly innocent, and rather than allow him to have his day in court, we delivered him to the Syrians. When in recent history has the United States ever cooperated with Syria on anything?
Our policies toward torture and rendition are an embarrassment, one that challenges the very foundations of what Americans believe their country to be. Worse still, our government has colluded in making certain that torture will not be addressed. As Lithwick notes,
Each of the three branches of government has worked together to prevent a national reckoning over torture. That doesn’t mean such a reckoning won’t happen. It will simply happen elsewhere, without U.S. participation or involvement or acceptance of responsibility. In the end, sending a torture victim abroad to get justice is just as cowardly as sending him abroad to be tortured.
something I said recently
Ain’t nothin’ not good about that.
The Ross Sisters — Solid Potato Salad
I’m not quite sure how to set this up, because I understand the social context not a whit, but it manages, for me, to hit a sweet spot of amazing, hilarious, creepy, and boner inducing. I’ll get back to you with a Venn Diagram.
Claims Against Corporations Un-American?
WASHINGTON – A leading House Republican [Joe Barton] accused the White House Thursday of a “$20 billion shakedown” of oil giant BP by requiring the company to establish a huge fund to compensate those hurt by the Gulf Coast oil spill.
How can this be a good strategy for Republicans? Maybe they believe they can now smear anything with the same brush and the paint will stick. And given that anger goes for thought in their base, maybe they can pull it off.
three legged dog update
Douglas is doing much better.
Hey Aaron
Will you post your stereo salesman / FBI agent-esque driver’s license photo?
Dick and Jane’s Deepwater Horizon
Okay, I get that one should tailor a message to the audience, but this hit me as more than a little condescending:
President Obama’s speech on the gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.
Tuesday night’s speech from the Oval Office of the White House was written to a 9.8 grade level, said Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. The Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on culture.
Though the president used slightly less than four sentences per paragraph, his 19.8 words per sentence “added some difficulty for his target audience,” Payack said.
What does Payack mean by “over the heads of many in his audience”? This is the sentence he singled out as problematic:
“That is why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation’s best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge — a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation’s secretary of energy.”
Makes my lips tired just reading that sentence. Ever seen someone bend down and talk loudly to someone in a wheelchair? Kind of seems like that’s what they think Obama should have done to the American people.
from the comments, 6-word memoir edition
Okay here’s the memoir:
I knew it would be beautiful.
And, fictions:
Great, Bob. Too late to de-ice.
I can trick a snake, Mister.
Running for bus. No job now.
Make me. Okay stop — I give.
Unconfirmed sources: Eskimo pussy “mighty cold”.
Never much good at math.
I saw. I conquered. I came.
I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.
from the comments
Because I’ve lately been reading romance novels, lots of truly ridiculous euphemisms come to mind, but I’d be hard pressed to say that any one of them is a favorite. Rather, some make me laugh more hysterically than others. If you enjoy that sort of thing, a fine introduction to the field is “The Purple Prose Eater” by Deb Stover, which includes gems such as
Author Susan Wiggs admits that her editor once omitted her reference to the male sex organ as “the bald avenger.” Wonder why.
And the Encyclopedia of Silly Sex compiled by All About Romance offers a surfeit of examples.
There is also a very fine post on Ellora’s Cave Publishing’s Redlines and Deadlines blog about romance-related dysphemisms: Eewy, Icky Euphemisms.
Ifitwasmyhome.com
Ifitwasmyhome.com uses Google Maps to let you visualize the unfolding oil disaster from any point in the country. Above is an example using my home city of Denver.
Making your guests read only a little
One of Belgrade’s coffee shops has an interesting wall full of books. However, the bookshelf was not deep enough so someone had to find a solution.
