July 2009
48 posts
“Honestly, Apple faithful, I feel like Jesus coming down from Mount Zion with...”
– Fake Steve Jobs
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Apple Tablet
The web is buzzing with rumors of a tablet PC to be produced by Apple, so here’s a bit of a roundup of articles on the subject.
-a Financial Times article on the subject, confirming a September release for the rumored Tablet
-a Wired article called “How an Apple Tablet could pit iTunes against Amazon”
-Article from Slate (I’ve really been enjoying Slate these days)
This...
Mad Men-ify Yourself →
Well, I for one, have watched a good deal of Mad Men as of late- new season is gearing up soon, and that means it’s time to have an ashtray and a spare liver handy. Be sure to have your misogynistic jokes at the ready. (Your wife and your lawyer are drowning. You have a choice- you go to lunch, or you take in a movie.)
All that to say, the AMC has a very fun Mad Men site up where you can...
Study: Abstinence-Only Lunch Programs Ineffective... →
From The Onion: ”Despite the popularity of abstinence-only meal programs in schools across the country, the study found that children who were provided with no food at lunch and cautioned against eating at an early age were no less likely to become overweight than those who were provided with a well-rounded nutritional education.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that instructing...
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How to be a Regular in a Restaurant →
I have always wanted to be a regular at a restaurant. I thought this article was pretty interesting- filled with some advice of things I would/should do (Thanking your server by name, etc.) and things I for whatever reason, will definitely not do (like bringing a congratulatory bottle of scotch to the chef on the restaurant’s opening. I’m fairly certain that they don’t sell...
Wes Anderson's perfect mixtape →
In this article, Wes Anderson discusses his musical tastes, and how specific music finds its way into his movies.
Very cool to hear such a brilliant guy talk about what he’d have on his mixtape. I feel like it’s about time for me to watch Bottle Rocket again….
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“People bought (and continue to buy) real paper newspapers and magazines because...”
– Gruber on predictions that news organizations are soon going to begin charging for access to their content. (via)
“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he...”
– Socrates
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is...”
– Abraham Maslow (via)
Zoning out is good for you! →
I knew it! Turns out that when we “zone out,” the brain is still very hard at work solving problems:
“By most measures, we spend about a third of our time daydreaming, yet our brain is unusually active during these seemingly idle moments. Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated with complex problem solving, which researchers had previously assumed...
Swearing Makes Pain More Tolerable →
It turns out, that according to a very science-y scientific study, done no doubt with test tubes and dry ice, that swearing actually makes pain more tolerable. (Makes damn pain more tolerable?)
“The researchers think that the increase in pain tolerance occurs because swearing triggers the body’s natural“fight-or-flight” response. Stephens and his colleagues suggest that...
The Neuroscience of Exercise →
I found this to be pretty interesting. No real surprise that studies keep finding more and more benefits of exercising regularly (benefits of sedentary lifestyles are not as apparent. Yay America!), but I found the ties between learning/brain activity and exercise to be interesting. A few finds from the article, showing that exercise:
-improves learning and intelligence scores -increases the...
Twitter + Outlook = Happiness in cubicles... →
Well, someone, somewhere closed their eyes, and prayed a prayer to the Twitter gods, and damn it all if the Twitter gods didn’t listen.
Twinbox, a Microsoft Outlook add-on, available as a free download lets you update, reply, search and archive tweets right from your Outlook inbox. The ability to filter and search by keyword straight from your inbox is pretty handy. I think I speak for...
“Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress....”
– Thomas Edison
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Cameras in iPods? →
Wired asks: “If Apple puts a camera in every iPod (the dying Classic and the tiny Shuffle excepted), will it kill the compact camera industry? The answer might actually be yes.”
The article goes on to ask: “The point is that Apple can put an easy to use — no, fun to use — camera in the pocket of everyone under 40, a camera that is effectively free and will automatically sync all...
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A documentary film.... about documentary films →
Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary is a documentary film about documentary films.
Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and over 30 of today’s top documentary filmmakers provide an in-depth look at non-fiction filmmaking and the steps to making a documentary. These masters of the craft reflect upon the nature of documentary as a form of storytelling and offer insight into their approach to...
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Guest Blogger: Freddy the Raccoon
Guest blogging is all the rage these days, and who am I to go against the trend? For this guest blog post, I’ve brought in a fellow blogger, Freddy the Raccoon. On his blog, the fantastically named, Freddy to Roll, he describes himself this way: “i am mostly your average raccoon. i can go to college. i have a selfphone.” In this first installment, I’ll let Freddy introduce...
“A writer is someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second...”
– Orhan Pamuk, in his Nobel lecture as Literature Laureate (2006)
Top 40 "Real Men of Genius" Commercials →
Hey look- yet another Best Of/Top Whatever Number List of some type. See, I’m an addict.
I’m going to be honest, I’ve never had a Budweiser (I kid you not, I once asked my mom what was something I should have learned from college and her exact words were: “Never drink domestic beer), but I’ve always been a fan of their ads. I always get a kick out of their...
50 Greatest Movie Trailers →
I love lists. If someone created a list called “Top 23 Useless Internet Things That No One Would Ever Care About… EVER… That Means You,” I’d be ALL OVER IT.
I’m a fan of trailers. And apparently these are the 50 greatest? Well, I was intrigued. Take a look at the list and judge for yourself.
(Via)
WatchTrailer for The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais, release date is Sept. 25th. Looks pretty funny.
Area Mother Can Only Imagine What Son Is Eating... →
“Local mother Anna Sampson, whose 22-year-old son Michael recently graduated from college and is now living on his own for the first time, was kept awake Tuesday night by the thought of what kind of food Michael was likely eating.”
“I just hope that it’s not grilled-cheese sandwiches and tomato soup every single night,” Sampson said. “And Michael had better...
The Women of McSweeney's →
Elissa Bassist responds to an article whose main premise is that women on the whole, or on an individual basis are not funny. Bassist writes:
“‘Why are men, taken on average and as a whole, funnier than women?’ inquired Christopher Hitchens in “Why Women Aren’t Funny,” Vanity Fair, January 2007. That’s a good question. And by that I mean, fuck you.”
In the same post,...
Drag You To Hell →
Uhm, what can’t you find on the intertubes these days? Just last week I was lamenting that I had to find a goat carcass every time I wanted curse someone’s being. THEN, I discovered Drag You To Hell, where you can curse someone online!
So rarely is a site a great time saver, as well as making you and other people feel happy. Go forth and virtually send others to hell. Except not me....
“David.
You are ridiculous.
I want to squish you,
squeeze your head off,
and...”
– Paula Abdul, judging David Archuleta’s season 7 performance of ”Imagine” (via)
13 year old kid reviews a 30 year old Sony Walkman →
I know this has made the rounds online, but I loved it. BBC Magazine gave 13 year old Scott Campbell a Walkman in place of his iPod, and he recorded some impressions:
“Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn’t is “shuffle”, where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to...