Internet (Evidence)

The Williamsburg: He thoughtfully hangs shutter shades in the...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:56:31 -0500

The Williamsburg: He thoughtfully hangs shutter shades in the deep-V of his white tee, and he’s often seen walking his fixed-gear bike around town while texting with his iPhone. (via The Evolution of the Hipster 2000-2009 :: Culture :: Features :: Paste

)

"We’re here to devour each other alive"

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:32:53 -0500

“We’re here to devour each other alive”

- Hobbes (via fetherston)

What a charmer!

On 'Conspicuous Compassion.'

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:38:40 -0500

merlin:

indefensible:

Conspicuous Compassion
[…]
I have bought this book and given it to people who work in the charitable sector more times than I can remember.

Here’s a sample first chapter [PDF] from Conspicuous Compassion. Looks backordered on AMZN right now, but I will absolutely be buying and reading this very soon.

I quote the sample at length because, as I walked down the street yesterday, reading this on my phone, I literally yelled, “YES!” at least three times.

Quote:

Read More

Although I agree there is a difference between meaningful participation and token volunteerism, the book - randian at its core (what a surprise, tumblr!) - is quite silly and boorish. (the best help we can offer is letting the weak die alone and afraid, everything else is self-serving! blah)

I say “book” generously, because after all, its a 79-page propaganda pamphlet published by the English equivalent of Focus on the Family.

That the digerati find themselves enamored with yet another libertarian apologist comes as no surprise.

"Here, then, is Obama’s vision of the ancient notion of America as a city upon a hill—the phrase from..."

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:44:14 -0500

“Here, then, is Obama’s vision of the ancient notion of America as a city upon a hill—the phrase from Jesus evoked by John Winthrop and given new life by Ronald Reagan. We are an exceptional nation, the president was saying, but our is an exceptionalism that imposes as many (if not more) burdens as it does blessings. It is an exceptionalism of obligation—to whom much is given, much is expected.”

- Meacham, on Obama’s Afghan address (via newsweek)

It might be a good idea for us all to read Pericles’ Funeral Oration tonight.

(via tragos)

Or as spider man’s uncle said: with great power, comes great responsibility.

"Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realise that..."

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:30:25 -0500

“Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realise that reciting red indian proverbs makes you sound like a fucking muppet.”

- Banksy (via feastingonroadkill) (via seanbest)

"t’s a wan reminder that all reigns are temporary, that the court of self-appointed media royalty was..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:20:06 -0500

“t’s a wan reminder that all reigns are temporary, that the court of self-appointed media royalty was serving at the pleasure of an advertising economy that itself was built on inefficiency and excess. Google fixed that.”

- The Media Equation - For Media, a Sunset Is Followed Quickly by a Sunrise - NYTimes.com

This would be more ironic if it were published on someone’s blog, rather than nytimes.

"So far, I haven’t seen anything from the Obama administration that comes anywhere close to my most..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:53:44 -0500

“So far, I haven’t seen anything from the Obama administration that comes anywhere close to my most modest, conservative expectations for policy change.”

- Marco

Marco, out of curiosity, what “modest, conservative expectations for policy change” are you looking for? While there hasn’t been a lot of sweeping, dramatic policy change, it’s hard to think of an area where there hasn’t been some significant progress.

The far left isn’t satisfied. That’s sort of its job. And it’s also its job to insist that nothing has changed until it gets everything it wants. But that doesn’t mean you should believe it. Can you name a single large area where there haven’t been significant policy changes in the last ten months? I’m certainly not going to claim that everything I would like has happened—but let’s not pretend that there’s nothing to be excited about. It’s hardly fair to blame Obama for our inattentiveness.

(via squashed)

Obama is not a messiah, and democracy requires participation. Get involved. The internet is an echo chamber for the sentiments of the lazy and aloof - don’t let it distract.

"Mrs Stewart, it takes two to make a fight.” They had no idea. The truth is my mother did..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:03:27 -0500

““Mrs Stewart, it takes two to make a fight.” They had no idea. The truth is my mother did nothing to deserve the violence she endured. She did not provoke my father, and even if she had, violence is an unacceptable way of dealing with conflict. Violence is a choice a man makes and he alone is responsible for it.”

- Patrick Stewart: the legacy of domestic violence | Society | The Guardian

"I am sick of all this shit, you bunch of fucking children. This is what I have to deal with at..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:08:28 -0500

“I am sick of all this shit, you bunch of fucking children. This is what I have to deal with at 6AM?!?!? I wouldnt tolerate this from my 13 year old, and Im sure as shit not going to tolerate it from any of you assholes.”

- best boss ever?

aimeedoiron: I’m in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:47:15 -0500

aimeedoiron:

I’m in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Ontario, so of course there is nothing around me but a Tim Hortons. Typical.

whereabouts in nowhere? I’m right need the big goose.

"Jake [Gyllenhaal] is the kind of guy who can do a spot-on impression of someone you work with that..."

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:50:15 -0500

“Jake [Gyllenhaal] is the kind of guy who can do a spot-on impression of someone you work with that will make you giggle. He knows home remedies for distressed hair. He can build a cabinet from scratch. He plays guitar and has a great voice. Kids and dogs love him. He loves his mom and sister and girlfriend. He’s perfect. Too bad he’s ugly.”

- Natalie Portman [Boston Globe] (via peterwknox)

igather: thought i lost my cigarettes, searched all over, was just about 5% from being sure that...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:43:37 -0500

igather:

thought i lost my cigarettes, searched all over, was just about 5% from being sure that someone here had pocketed them, started to serve up the side eye, found them under a pile of papers. feel relief and good will towards all mankind now.

quit for me!

langer: I’m really looking forward to a Lou Dobbs...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:29:42 -0500

langer:

I’m really looking forward to a Lou Dobbs candidacy.

When the left and right have nothing meaningful to say, it’s amazing who fills the empty space. I can’t wait for his war-on-immigrants.

"Newcomers to Canada tend to see lower wages and higher rates of involuntary part-time work,..."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:17:31 -0500

“Newcomers to Canada tend to see lower wages and higher rates of involuntary part-time work, temporary jobs and over-qualification, a new study suggests.”

- Immigrants overqualified, earn less - The Globe and Mail

"I mean, the liberal democrats aren’t going to tell the average American, “Yeah, you’re being shafted..."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:40:21 -0500

“I mean, the liberal democrats aren’t going to tell the average American, “Yeah, you’re being shafted because of the policies that we’ve established over the years that we’re maintaining now.” That’s not going to be an answer. And they’re not getting answers from the left. So, there’s an internal coherence and logic to what they get from Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the rest of these guys. And they sound very convincing, they’re very self-confident, and they have an answer to everything—a crazy answer, but it’s an answer. And it’s our fault if that goes on. So one thing to be done is don’t ridicule these people, join them, and talk about their real grievances and give them a sensible answer, like, “Take over your factories.””

- Noam Chomsky Interviewed on Worker Occupations and the Future of Radical Labor | Mostly Water (via clingtomymouth) (via jhnbrssndn)

I will always read Noam Chomsky.

Nerd Fight

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:10:31 -0500

thebronzemedal:

Malcolm Gladwell: It is always a pleasure to be reviewed by someone as accomplished as Steven Pinker, even if he is unhappy with my spelling (rightly!) and with the fact that I have not joined him on the lonely ice floe of I.Q. fundamentalism.
Steven Pinker: What Malcolm Gladwell calls a “lonely ice floe” is what psychologists call “the mainstream.”

***********************
There’s nothing that brightens my lunch break quite like nerds fighting it out in the letters section of the NYT Book Review.

Wait they both have equally crazy hair. Who will win?!?!

Quebec French profanity

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:04:07 -0500

lilyna:

frenchelon:

laroche:

These sacres are commonly given in a phonetic spelling to indicate the differences in pronunciation from the original word, several of which, notably the deletion of final consonants and change of [ɛ] to [a] before /r/ are typical of highly informal Quebec French.

baptême - “baptism”

câlice (calice) - “chalice”

calvaire - “Calvary”

ciarge (cierge) - “votive or Paschal candle”

ciboire - “ciborium” or “pyx”, the receptacle in which the host is stored

crisse (Christ) - “Christ”

maudit - “damn”

mozusse (Moïse)- “Moses”

ostie (hostie) - “host”

sacrament (sacrement) - “Sacrament”

tabarnak (tabernacle) - “tabernacle”

viarge (vierge) - “the Virgin Mary”

(via)

câlice is my go-to curse word about 100 per cent of the time.

me too! Well and I like “Ostie de Criss” too…and if I stub my toe, you better believe a big “Ta-Bar-Nak” is coming…

I remember trying to look-up câlice and spelling it cawleece. Working class Quebec, hein? Another gem: pantut instead of pas-du-tout.

bmichael: Google just gets me. Please help me with my...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:57:42 -0500

bmichael:

Google just gets me. Please help me with my goals.

Intelligence in Beta? That’s deep.

"The legitimation of praxis invests itself in the culture of the public sphere."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:57:09 -0500

“The legitimation of praxis invests itself in the culture of the public sphere.”

- Make Your Own Academic Sentence

I’m sure I’ve written something similar before.

Sextortion at Eisenhower High

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:44:00 -0500

Sextortion at Eisenhower High:

givemesomethingtoread:

Last year, an awkward high school senior in Wisconsin went online, passed himself off as a flirtatious female student, and conned dozens of his male classmates into e-mailing him sexually explicit images of themselves. What he did next will likely send him to jail for a very long time

Whoa GQ. Are we disgusted with the blackmail or with the fact that it was gay sex? My fav part:

Everyone wondered, How could these boys let this happen?

At the courthouse, a middle-aged secretary in the clerk’s office said, “When I was in high school, boys like Tony Stancl got the crap beaten out of them. Why didn’t they beat the crap out of him?”

By “boys like Tony Stancl”, does she mean gays or extortionists? I inferred gays, which made me cringe. Guess what middle-aged secretary, its not so incomprehensible to imagine a teenage boy had and liked gay sex.