Your mind will be blown
Three “perfect” self-contained sentences a day…
Tussel bore left on the wye West–North, West-northish. Nosing his old de Ville into wind-chill rushing across glacial tundra and down, from a thousand miles ahead. Forty-five miles an hour, nine miles a gallon, Tussel gripped the wheel, leaned into the accelerator, pressing the head-wind.
I already screwed up. They’re not “self-contained.”
this post is about football statistics
The first thing Romer did was analyze every fourth down during the first quarter of every NFL game between 1998 and 2000. (He had help from a computer program.) Then, he figured out the fluctuating value of a first down at each point on the football field. After all, a first down was more valuable for a team if it occurred on an opponents two yard line than on their own twenty yard line. The next thing Romer calculated was the statistical likelihood of going for it on fourth down under various circumstances and actually getting a first down. He also calculated the probability of kicking a successful field goal from various spots on the field.
from the comments
I’m not a sweets person either. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Turkey at Thanksgiving. Rolls. That’ll work. The secret with the sledgehammer is to let it do the work for you. You hold yourself still and let the hammer go. You guide it, like what do they say about how to hold a bird? Then, once a crack begins to open up, you guide the chisel to the hairline and open it. It splits as effortlessly as butter. Move to a new location. Repeat.
That Inspired Extra Seventh
Scholars at the Hebrew University have spent the last 53 years studying variations on the ancient text in order to publish an authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible. Along the way, they made some interesting discoveries about the evolution of the holy book:
The Book of Jeremiah is now one-seventh longer than the one that appears in some of the 2,000-year-old manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some verses, including ones containing a prophecy about the seizure and return of Temple implements by Babylonian soldiers, appear to have been added after the events happened.
Interesting to see that the predictions of biblical scholars are now being verified – though, I imagine for many, these sorts of things won’t matter. Fun fact: the last member of the original team of scholars, who started with the project in 1958, died last year at age 90.
Did you see what he had on?
This guy is really good at standing on a speeding motorcycle and firing his gun.
from the moderated comments
Dallas needs to stop being so lily-livered about the event that defines it. Okay, we’re the City of Hate. Yes! That’s us. We love to Hate. I love how our Roller Derby league calls itself Assassination City. It’s perfect.
You know something, the people this offends are all old and stopping buying anything a long time ago. We need to bring in people with money who are interested in that very colorful phase of our history and cater to it, DAMMIT!
I’ve written articles on this for D Magazine. go to my website and read them
from the comments
Someone needs to teach these people how to masturbate.
spam name
Beatriz Woodson.
spam name
Dong Honerkamp.
headline of the day
Icelandic town hopes angry elves have been soothed by songs
from the comments
Well, I can’t imagine being out in the desert. Or in the Arctic. Or the Great Lakes in winter like that film Shelia posted about. Those places scare me. In the desert you have not just the climate but bad people who would rather kill you than look at you. You can die in the freezing cold in no time at all. The bugs will seem to be eating you alive in the swamp, but eventually you toughen up and don’t feel them anymore. You have to watch for snakes and and maybe gators depending on location, but they don’t want to see you either. You can hide easily. People get so weirded out by the swamp you don’t generally encounter too many there. If you do, you can stand stock still and stare a hole through them and they’ll think you’re a haint and flee. Trust me on this one.
Morning Wood
I’m rebuilding our deck. I thought it was going to be a simple re-surface job, then saw that the base needs to be redone as well. Yesterday two tons of wood and concrete mix were delivered. I had to bring it all into the back yard from the alley. I haven’t started yet this morning and it is already hot.
The McGurk Effect
The dude only says ba, but when you see footage of him saying fa . . . fuck it, just watch it.
Favorite YouTube comment:
i liked the part where he said ba
Here is more on the McGurk effect.
(thanks, Patrick)
Amy said
You know, Deron, a big part of story is character. It’s not just who it happens to, it’s who happens it.
Bonus Amy said Update: Daryl can use that for his class if he wants to.
Amanda, on the lot
A Twitter shapshot:
MJ: @amae “please tell me you are getting around on that bike with the seat in the front. PLEASE tell me that you are on the phone and yelling.”
AM: @maryjeys “SHANNA, PEDAL FASTER!”
The T-Mobile Royal Wedding
Obviously a dress rehearsal.
I’ve had to leave the damn country to escape this, but, in reality, there is no escape.
Fleece Johnson
false flags
As an aside, I’ve been involved in GOP politics here in Indiana for 18 years, and I think that the situation in WI presents a good opportunity for what’s called a “false flag” operation. If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the public unions. Currently the media is painting the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC and umbrella union organizations in the protest. Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions.
“Don’t donate money to Japan”
The punchline:
That said, it’s entirely possible that organizations like the Red Cross or Save the Children will find themselves with important and useful roles to play in Japan. It’s also certain that they have important and useful roles to play elsewhere. So do give money to them — and give generously! And give money to other NGOs, too, like Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which don’t jump on natural disasters and use them as opportunistic marketing devices. Just make sure it’s unrestricted.
Thanks to Walt for pointing me to this.
quote out of context
The epitome of something that is both defensive and offensive is a bayonet. You can fashion one out of kitchen utensils and a broom handle, or a Swiffer handle if you’re fancy. You could also simply use your grandfather’s old bayonet, which he used to ward off snooping neighborhood children. If you’re feeling extra offensive, you could attach kitchen utensils to the actual bayonet so it’s a hybrid Swiss Army bayonet. Ironic, as the Swiss are neither offensive nor defensive.
from the comments
I’m using Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma in one of my classes, and one of the parts I have enjoyed most concerns Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm. He calls himself a “grass farmer” and explains in lovely detail the way he nurtures the grass to make it sustainably healthy. He has also introduced many innovations, such as his “eggmobile.” It’s a kind of rolling chicken coop (he moves several of them about) with an open bottom that lets the droppings fall to the ground below. Since they are moved, just the right amount is given to the grass. Also, in the morning the chickens troop down the plank from the coop doors and set about eating bugs and dispersing the cow dung with their scratching. He has many processes that he says lets the animals do most of the work–and the animals are doing what they want to do. Pigs rooting in the compost to turn it–because Salatin has sprinkled a few kernels of corn under wood chips there. The corn ferments and apparently pigs are so avid for the stuff they will turn everything over to find it. Anyway–it’s a fine book and I recommend it.
moving to fiction
From an interview in the Paris Review with Amy Hempel:
Moving to fiction was a straight transition—journalism was great training, as it turned out, because you have to grab readers instantly and keep them. I knew how to do that, and it happened to work very well in fiction. I hadn’t been a good reporter because I didn’t care about getting the story before the general public had it. I didn’t care about being the first one on the scene, the first one at the accident. I also started to feel the limitations. Obviously, in journalism, you’re confined to what happens. And the tendency to embellish, to mythologize, it’s in us. It makes things more interesting, a closer call. But journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to get rid of anything nonessential. You go in, you start writing your article, assuming a person’s going to stop reading the minute you give them a reason. So the trick is: don’t give them one. Frontload and cut out everything extraneous. That’s why I like short stories. You’re always trying to keep the person interested. In fiction, you don’t need to have the facts up front, but you have to have something that will grab the reader right away. It can be your voice. Some writers feel that when they write, there are people out there who just can’t wait to hear everything they have to say. But I go in with the opposite attitude, the expectation that they’re just dying to get away from me.
Kasoundi
Select your mix of chillies and slice them up. Separate the seeds from the flesh if you want a milder outcome. Kasoundi is not a macho hot-sauce contest. Avoid the temptation to construct an edible inferno, because all those subtle flavours will be lost. Look, you should just throw out the seeds.
in praise of the passive voice
I very much enjoyed the update on Geoffrey Pullum’s article skewering admonition against the passive voice.
Update: “R.L.G.” at The Economist’s “Johnson” blog (I think it might be Robert Lane Greene, but they’re terribly pseudonymous over at The Economist) says “GEOFF PULLUM really doesn’t like people who abjure the passive voice.” Where do people get these ideas about who I do or don’t like? I bet John Allen is a lovely man who is kind to his wife and children and three cats, cherished by his colleagues at work, worshipped by the grandchildren who gather at his knee. I’d probably love the man. Love the sinner, hate the sin. I’m only saying I wish people who don’t even know what a passive is would stop delivering themselves of edicts about how if you would just stop using the passive your writing would get better. My thesis is that abjuring the passive is neither necessary nor sufficient to achieve any improvement in your writing. Your writing may be dire; changing all its passives into actives would probably make things worse. Or it may be brilliant; and that brilliance will still shine despite whatever percentage of passives you decided to use. One of R.L.G.’s motives is probably to defend the rectitude of The Economist’s style guide, which he cites. On syntax, it is very, very bad, and it does indeed deprecate the passive. Stay away from it. I will put aside some time for a proper fisking of it later on. I hate it. But hate the well-meaning doofuses who put it together? There’s no need to assume that.
