April 2008
24 posts
This is Politics in America: "The Shape of Things... →
Some days you find yourself wishing that whole armageddon thing would just hurry up an come so you don’t have to read tripe like this.
“Mazda insists that armed guards patrol the site to deter pilferage. One guard...”
– Keeping armed guards watching over your precious catalytic converters — an eminently wise policy which I heartily endorse. From A Crushing Issue: How to Destroy Brand-New Cars - WSJ.com — which is a followup to Wired.com’s excellent article on how “high tech cowboys of the...
Portland Prom Prank Probed →
If I remember correctly, my mom graduated from Lincoln High. Smart folks, those Lincoln grads.
“Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from...”
– John le Carre in my igoogle quote-of-the-day widget.
The Official Village Voice Election-Season Guide... →
One wonders if reading/researching these blogs drove Roy insane just after he finished typing up the article, or whether the experience will gradually decay his brain so that, sometime in the next decade, he will flip out entirely and run away to join some kind of end-times cult.
Report: TV Helps Build Valuable Looking Skills →
It’s time we linked to this classic. Even the title still cracks me up.
“Yesterday we were riding down the street and Melissa was like “Look at all...”
– dAndy (aka Andy Delcambre) on IRC, discussing the hell that is allergies.
dotrob on Technorati →
Claimant replies: here I am. Technorati Profile
defective yeti: Research Day: The LOST Script... →
“Subtitles for the nuance-impaired” sounds like one of those crucial skills for writing email. Perhaps this whole style is an artifact of the txtmsg/email/web/l33t/lolcatz era.
“This feeling about style, perhaps more than anything else, has always been...”
– From Time: An American Storyteller, an article on the eve of Hemingway’s winning the Nobel Prize. There’s something about him that always caught my imagination, even though now his writing seems more like a source of mockery and ironic exaggeration for literary snobs. But part of me...
MacBook, Pro to get major redesigns? →
I can’t quite explain my mild but increasing sense of dread at the continual march of new designs from Apple. I think it has something to do with the feeling I had while I was typing on an old Dell keyboard earlier today. I could type bloody fast and I paused to consider that I could never type that fast, even on the previous clear tray style “pro” or USB keyboard, especially on...
What is a "thrisis"?
Self-appointed experts disagree. Is it a mid-life crisis in your thirties, unique to the faster and faster paced lives we live in the information age? Is it just a clever new buzzword? Is it catchy because it’s true, because everybody feels it, and because it’s funny, too? Is it another example of how generation x and y never outgrew their childhoods? It’s probably some of all...
Some Lexicography Links
Languagehat on Lynch on Dictionaries:
One might think lexicographers are a meek and retiring lot, but history shows that they can be surprisingly truculent.
And fascinating.
That entry links to a previous entry on copyright traps known as Mountweazels:
So when word leaked out that the recently published second edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary contains a made-up word that...
"Bushs Georgien-Ukraine-Fiasko: Nato-Notrettung... →
“Bush’s Georgia-Ukraine fiasco: NATO bailout for the summit losers.” The picture’s caption reads, “US President Bush: Like a defiant child with his head against the wall.” He does display a ridiculous level of petulance for someone who leads the free world. Somebody needs to spank the brat, and good.
On teh Curiousest Habit of Saying We-ords Wronguh... →
“Internets.” “[Saying it that way is] also meant to be slightly ironic and a bit self-deprecating. You can make fun of yourself by saying it that way.” Sometimes I think I drive Julie nuts doing this. Via Kottke.
The New UK Coin Designs Revealed →
Coins as art? I think it beats the 50 states theme.
Where do babies come from? →
By way of explanation, IIS is Microsoft’s web server software that runs on Windows, and has for a long time been considered far inferior to the free/open-source alternatives, of which Apache is the leading web server software.
“If I am elected, the concrete barriers around the WHITE HOUSE will be replaced...”
– Zippy of the Day, courtesy of the CAT’s own infoobot. Zippy for president!