Search Results for: JK

Oops!

September 4, 2008 – 10:36 am

Reader JK, in a comment to our previous post, has pointed out something so amusing that it needs a post of its own, I think. When the presumptive GOP vice-presidential nominee was first presented to the public last Friday, she made an introductory speech in which she mentioned “nucular” weapons. I was horrified, of course, […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (2)

Incoming!

July 20, 2008 – 2:18 pm

Our reader JK continues to deliver: in this case a highly unsettling article about the possibility of a devastating collision with an asteroid or comet. Because such objects often strike the ocean, or detonate in the air, leaving no crater at all (as in Tunguska 1908), our estimates of their frequency may be far too […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Science | Comments (2)

Reeling Shadows

July 11, 2008 – 10:30 pm

Our reader JK, a Navy man who is a steady source of all sorts of information, has provided us this link to an item about gathering tensions with Iran. The source is the blog Information Dissemination, whose focus is naval matters. We read: Following an attack on Iran by Israel, Iran is not going to […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics, Foreign Affairs | Comments (9)

Big Bang Theory

June 29, 2008 – 8:02 pm

Tomorrow, June 30th, marks the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event, an immense cataclysm that occurred, mercifully, in a remote and mostly uninhabited region of central Siberia. Its cause is still debated, but it is generally agreed to have been an “air burst”, equivalent to 10 or 15 megatons of TNT, that occurred at an […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Science | Comments (27)

Trouble in Paradise

June 17, 2008 – 10:48 pm

From reader JK comes a link to an article about a growing tension in the Persian Gulf. No, it isn’t between the Sunnis and the Shi’a, or between US diplomats and the Iraqi parliament, but between Islamic fundamentalists and those in the region who, having attracted enormous foreign investment, and having used it to build […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs, Religion, Jihad | Comments (11)

This and That

June 2, 2008 – 11:14 pm

Well, we’re back. Our latest “Service Notice” post generated a reasonable question from reader Charles L., namely: why do I bother announcing that I won’t be posting? After all, it’s not as if the trains won’t be running, or the beer will stop flowing, and I realize it must seem a bit presumptuous to imagine […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (4)

Full Circle

April 18, 2008 – 10:48 pm

As suddenly and astoundingly as ever, it is Spring again in New York. The weather these past few days has been simple perfection, and the trees and flowers, having awakened in a celebratory mood, are getting about their morning’s work with extravagant exuberance. But not all is renewed, and even as the living world stirs […]

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (5)

Duty and Democracy

April 6, 2008 – 2:05 pm

I’m sorry to have been off the air yesterday; I spent a long day with the promising young band Bulletproof Soul at Avatar Studios, mixing some of the material we recorded a few weeks ago. I am also working at the office all day today, so can’t write at length now either — but it […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Foreign Affairs | Comments (6)

Bacon And EEGs

February 5, 2008 – 11:30 pm

Following on yesterday’s post, here’s a story about another gruesome malady: it turns out that meat-processing workers in Minnesota are developing a strange neurological illness as a result of being splattered with atomized hog brains.

By Malcolm | Posted in Science | Comments (3)

Dutch Treat

January 26, 2008 – 11:41 pm

For you chess enthusiasts, here is a video analysis, by GM Nick de Firmian, of an outstanding game between World Champion Vishy Anand and the rising young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, from the elite Wijk an Zee tournament.

By Malcolm | Posted in Chess | Comments (0)

Wild Weekend

October 7, 2007 – 12:30 am

I’m sorry to have been off the air yesterday; it’s been a busy couple of days.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (5)

OK, Human

July 28, 2007 – 1:20 pm

A recent post on the cold-blooded murder of a Korean hostage by the Taliban drew a great deal of commentary. We’re on the road today, but having a free moment and online access, I thought I’d re-examine the original post in the light of some of the criticism it has received.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (16)

Ain’t Superstitious

July 14, 2007 – 11:13 pm

It is a poorly kept secret that I am deeply skeptical of religious beliefs and institutions. The empirical question of whether their net effect is a boon or a blight upon our wretched species is, one could conceivably argue, still an open one, and I do acknowledge that religion provides a harmless existential anodyne for […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Religion | Comments (6)

Comic Relief

July 1, 2007 – 11:52 pm

We’re spending a few days at our seaside retreat in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on the outer extremity of Cape Cod, and today found the memsahib and me poking around at a local flea market. I’m always on the lookout for odd books, and after I had already, with reluctance, been talked by my better half out […]

By Malcolm | Posted in Books | Comments (5)

Some Killer Weed

June 1, 2006 – 11:29 pm

I don’t spend a lot of time in the recording studio these days; one of the reasons that I took up software development after twenty-odd years of making records for a living was that the long and irregular hours were beginning to get to me. It was not a big deal, really, to do multiple consecutive sixteen-hour sessions when I was in my twenties; I’d just collapse for a day after the project ended, and I’d be fine. But as I got older it got harder to bounce back, and I’d spend days in a fog after those marathons. Now I’m 50 (50!), and I have to say that after putting in 32 hours in two days on Tuesday and Wednesday over at Right Track I feel about as focused and articulate as Ozzy Osborne on a fistful of ‘ludes. So instead of the usual piercing analysis and trenchant commentary on the passing scene, I’ll just have to leave you today with something else to worry about: Giant Hogweed. It’s big, it’s phototoxic, it looks like a cow parsnip on steroids, and it’s coming your way. Learn more here, and here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Music and Recording, Shameless Filler | Comments (5)