October 14, 2009 – 11:08 pm
We certainly have plenty of things to worry about already, I think most of you would would agree. To name just a few, we have an ancient clash of civilizations, with hot wars on two fronts and fanatical terrorists scheming in every shadowy corner of the globe; paranoid despots, who hate us, armed with nuclear […]
October 13, 2009 – 4:20 pm
A friend at work just sent this awkward logo my way…
October 9, 2009 – 10:35 am
Continuing his ascent toward globe-girdling Godhead, Barack Obama has now been given the Nobel Peace Prize. The Peace Prize is already little more than a political and cultural absurdity, a rubber-stamp of leftist adulation — but this award, in which the Nobel Committee shows all the dignity and sober judgment of a bunch of teenage […]
October 2, 2009 – 1:46 pm
I see that Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics has been rejected. Lord knows why President Obama thought it was appropriate to the dignity of his august office to go, hat in hand, to Copenhagen to petition the IOC on behalf of his hometown; his failure to carry the day is now an embarrassment he, […]
October 1, 2009 – 1:00 am
In the paper the other day there was an item about Pope Benedict’s recent remarks to the people of the Czech Republic. The Pope, speaking to one of the most secular societies on Earth, sought earnestly to persuade them of the dangers of a society without God. On a superficial level this is easy enough […]
September 27, 2009 – 11:32 pm
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about how stupendously ignorant most Americans are about science: one in five Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth, for example, and almost half of us believe the Earth itself is less than 10,000 years old. But utter benightedness about basic science isn’t nearly enough, as it turns […]
September 27, 2009 – 9:40 pm
I was startled a few hours ago to hear that the grand-daddy of political “pundits”, William Safire, whose outstandingly informative columns on politics and the use of language educated, persuaded and entertained so many of us for so long, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 79. I didn’t even know he was […]
September 20, 2009 – 11:08 pm
The enormously influential conservative thinker Irving Kristol (who defined a neoconservative as “a liberal who has been mugged by reality”) has died at the age of 88. His New York Times obituary is here, and an informative Wikipedia article, with many quotes, is here.
September 20, 2009 – 9:28 pm
In case you didn’t know, there’s another mystery-creature story making the rounds. This time it isn’t a pulsating blob in the sewer, but a large, glabrous shmoo-like critter (perhaps some sort of defective sloth?) allegedly stoned and beaten to death by some Panamanian teens. (The whole thing may be a hoax, of course.) Being dead […]
September 16, 2009 – 12:19 am
An item in the news today about a D.C. Metro worker who was struck and killed by a train — the third fatality in that system in recent months — was a madeleine that brought back a flood of memories of my own fifteen months as a railroad worker, back around 1975. It’s a mighty […]
September 13, 2009 – 9:39 pm
Tuesday is Primary Day here in Gotham, and as a subscriber to our fair city’s newspaper of record, I have before me the New York Times 2009 Primary Election Voter Guide. It’s very helpful. Among the positions up for grabs is that of Mayor, which has been filled for the past two terms by New […]
September 8, 2009 – 10:41 pm
Well, we’re back. Being too weary from the packing, driving, and unpacking to do much here tonight (though if I had more energy I’d write something about the silly kerfuffle over Mr. Obama’s speech to the schoolchildren), here’s a tidbit from reader JK: a website that calculates your chances of dying sometime soon.
September 7, 2009 – 10:22 pm
All things must pass, and lazy summer vacations are no exception. A last perfect sunset over Duck Harbor having brought the curtain down on this year’s Wellfleet idyll, it’s back to Gotham, and back to work, for the lovely Nina and me. We’ll be getting back to normal operations here as well in the next […]
August 30, 2009 – 10:33 pm
I must say there has hardly been a time in the last ten years or more that I have disconnected myself more thoroughly from the welter and bustle of the world. I have hardly glanced at a newspaper for weeks now, and aside from switching the radio on every so often to check the weather, […]
August 23, 2009 – 1:55 pm
Though I am languishing on vacation and producing next to nothing (aside from an efflorescence of unshaven whiskers that a friend referred to yesterday as “beach fuzz”), our friend H. Jeffery Hodges, the Gypsy Scholar, has been doing exactly the opposite, offering some excellent posts on a variety of consequential topics. Here, here, here, and […]
August 18, 2009 – 12:19 am
Here’s a heartwarming item: it appears that 95% of the dollar bills circulating in Washington, D.C. carry traces of cocaine.
August 17, 2009 – 11:56 pm
Now and then a blip appears on the screen that just might be something awfully big headed our way; on reading about this just now, I’m wondering if the name “Tim Palmer” mightn’t be a lot more familiar ere long.
August 16, 2009 – 11:07 pm
We’ve relocated to the narrow land of the Outer Cape for the next three weeks or so, and unfortunately we have such a full schedule that these pages may be updated only sporadically. There is simply too much else that needs doing: oysters must be gathered, beaches lazed upon, drinks prepared, friends entertained, photons absorbed, […]
August 13, 2009 – 11:58 pm
We mark with sadness the death of the venerated guitarist and technical innovator Les Paul, who has shuffled off the mortal coil (was that dual or single?) at the age of 94. I owe more to him than most, as he was the inventor of multitrack recording, an arcane craft by which I earned a […]
Here’s a strange relic, from a century ago, that was mentioned in the Times recently: The Anglo-American Telegraphic Code. Back when communication-by-wire was new and edgy technology, its users devised, as a way to keep messages small, a mapping of thousands of words — some of them ordinary English words, others made-to-order — onto various […]
August 7, 2009 – 11:48 pm
A very short distance from my house, just inside Prospect Park up at the end of the block, is the 9th Street Bandshell. Every summer it is home to the Celebrate Brooklyn concert series, and it seems that each year the lineup gets better and better. Tonight the lovely Nina and I strolled up there […]
YouTube has just launched what looks like an wonderful resource for the insatiable autodidact: an educational site where users can find free online videos from colleges and universities. Read all about it. Meanwhile, for you videophiles whose preferences lean more toward matters military (or if you just like to watch stuff blow up), reader JK […]
In the news lately has been a New Zealand climatologist who has been looking askance at received opinions regarding anthropogenic global warming. His name is Chris de Freitas, and he is a member of the faculty of the University of Auckland. I recently ran across an article of his, in which I read the following: […]
Here’s an Indian tribe that, for some odd reason, I have the feeling I ought to do a post about. Can’t really say why, though.
I don’t buy a lot of gadgets, but featured in today’s Personal Tech newsletter from the Times is a review of one that I might just have to spring for. It’s an alarm clock — a watch, actually — that monitors your movements to determine where you are in your sleep cycle. You give it […]
If there are a thousand shocks that flesh is heir to, I must be nearing my quota. After working at the office until 1 a.m. yesterday, I arose this morning with a large project before me, involving the movement of many of our largest pieces of furniture and the assembly and installation of an enormous […]
Readers will, perhaps, recall that I detest hot weather. I am not designed for it: I have a large stocky frame built on a Scottish genome, and in the ordinary course of my routine metabolic business I generate far more heat of my own than I can easily discard. In the winter, when everyone is […]
I have always, since the earliest days of boyhood, been a nocturnal sort. If I were free to set my own schedule (which I hope, inshallah, someday to be), I would retire sometime between two and three in the morning, and rise at about eleven — or, if it’s been a busy day, perhaps noon. […]
As I had hoped, things have finally settled down, and the lovely Nina and I have withdrawn to the Outer Cape for a brief but restorative interval of dietary indiscretion (on my own part at least), healthful physical activity, and diminished reponsibility. As always, there is much of interest going on in the world beyond […]
It is morning again, and I am back at my desk (technically speaking, it was also morning when I left). Although it has been heavy slogging these past six weeks or so, with many long nights of darkness both inner and outer, today there grows within me a slender reed of hope, a delicate wisp […]
I’ve been letting things go to hell around here the past few weeks — there’s been little more than the odd news item or random piece of Internet flotsam — and I do hope things will be getting back to normal soon. Unfortunately, not being a man of independent means, I depend for my solvency […]
Apologies to all who have commented or emailed over the past few days: I am still spending nearly every waking hour either at work or aboard one of Gotham’s luxurious subway cars, and probably will be doing so through the first half of this week at least. There are a great many important and interesting […]
Religious fanatics have been spreading the love again. First we had Sunday’s murder of Dr. George Tiller by a paranoid Christian extremist — in the sanctuary of a Christian church, no less — and then, Monday morning, a lethal assault on an Army recruiting station by a Muslim zealot. The latter item, in particular, bears […]
In a brief item posted today, Bill Vallicella wonders: Does it matter whether life has an ultimate meaning or not? Someone might be satisfied if he has a good chance of attaining middle-sized happiness: peaceful days, restful nights, an adequate supply of health and wealth, satisfying employment, a loving spouse, friends, progeny, long life, and […]
I’ve just got back from class, it’s almost eleven, and I haven’t the time or energy tonight to write the longish post I really want to be working on. So for this evening I’ll just leave you with a bit of froth from our friend and commenter “the one eyed man”: Old Jews Telling Jokes. […]
Some years ago, anthropologist Donald Brown compiled a list of “Human Universals”: cultural traits that seem to be instantiated by all human societies. The list is broad, and contains almost all the things you’d expect to see: the collection includes belief in supernatural/religion, for example, as well as sucking wounds and language employed to misinform […]
We’re on vacation through Monday, and will likely not be writing much (though you never know). Please feel free to browse our extensive archives, or try the “View a Random Post” link at right.
Our friend G. Orcalimbo Jones, during the course of his radio show last Friday, tipped off his listeners to a marvelous Internet resource: a compendious archive of live recordings from the glory days of the old Fillmore and the King Biscuit Flower Hour. It’s called Wolfgang’s Vault, and you can find it here.
CNN is reporting a troubling story from Laos, where a 20-year-old British woman is facing possible execution by firing squad. She is charged with drug trafficking, and is alleged to have been caught in possession of heroin at Wattay airport: Samantha Orobator “is facing death by firing squad for drug trafficking,” said Clare Algar, executive […]
Today’s news carries a story about the motion picture industry’s seemingly intractable difficulties with illegal file-sharing. This is the same affliction that brought down the record business (and forced your humble correspondent to abdicate his career as a big-shot recording engineer and get a real job), although for the movie industry it is perhaps even […]
April 30, 2009 – 11:48 pm
It seems the pork industry is not at all pleased with the term “swine flu”. I agree it is hardly a mellifluous name, but their objection is more practical than aesthetic; apparently they are concerned that it is depressing their market, even though you won’t catch the disease from eating pork. Given how poorly informed […]
April 29, 2009 – 11:39 am
An item in the news today inquires as to the secret of a happy marriage. Well, I’ve been happily married since 1982, and have some thoughts on the subject. A married couple are like two moving parts that must operate together, in constant contact, as a working machine. Unlike manufactured parts, however, they are somewhat […]
April 27, 2009 – 10:36 pm
For those of us “of a certain age”, this swine flu outbreak (which is all over the news just now: see here, here, and here) is something of a madeleine, awakening memories that carry us all the way back to 1976, and the brief and forgettable presidency of Gerald R. Ford. It was a strange […]
April 26, 2009 – 11:12 pm
For those of you who have never clicked on the “why waka waka?” link on our sidebar, this site takes its name not from Pac-Man or Fozzie Bear, but from the lyrics to the song Coffin For Head Of State, by the great Nigerian musician and political activist Fela Kuti. Here’s a clip of the […]
CNN is abuzz with interesting items today. Here’s one: former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell is convinced that the US government is covering up the truth about extraterrestrial aliens, and claims that “there really is no doubt we are being visited”. To have a bona-fide NASA astronaut making such assertions certainly lends a little gravitas to […]
April 13, 2009 – 10:43 pm
We note with sadness the untimely death, at 56, of adult-film star Marilyn Chambers — who rose, as readers of a certain age will remember, to national celebrity back in 1972 when it was revealed that the star of the movie Behind the Green Door was also the familiar face on the front of the […]
It’ll be Father’s Day before you know it. Problem is, the old man already has all the neckties he needs — and one “World’s Greatest Dad” coffee-mug is probably enough. But don’t despair: find the perfect gift here.
I have for many years held the opinion, shared by many, that Winston Churchill was the greatest prose stylist in the modern history of the English language. That opinion was reinforced the other day when, in search of a historical reference, I took down from my bookshelf The Gathering Storm, the first part of Churchill’s […]
There has been yet another sickening homicidal rampage today, this time in an immigration-services center in the decaying city of Binghamton, New York. It seems that horrors of this sort are happening more and more often in recent years. Incidents like this throw fuel on the gun-control debate, with restrictionists arguing that the problem is […]
I’m puzzled by something. About three years ago I wrote a brief post that linked to an online essay by computer scientist Jaron Lanier about the shortcomings of collaborative projects like Wikipedia. For some reason, since last November the post has attracted a steady stream of visitors (several an hour), from scattered locations. There are […]