http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=18581@cs.utexas.edu “The smiley is an attack on writers and readers alike. If it is funny, it doesn’t need a smiley. If is not funny, a smiley won’t help it. The smiley teaches writers that anything they write will pass as humor as long as it is punctuated properly. It teaches readers that they must ignore their better judgment, and look only at punctuation to determine intent.” 15:31
Archives
This month: 13 entries.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/referenceandlanguages/
story/0,6000,1097818,00.html Lynne Truss has written a book called Eats, Shoots
& Leaves: “She writes for those who winced at the
posters advertising the film Two Weeks Notice and who felt real
pain when they saw in print the name of the pop group Hear’Say.” 15:23
http://slate.msn.com/id/2092800/ Dick Cheney uses the verboten “empire” in his Christmas card. 02:11
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2448756945 “Honda CB500T rolling chassis - horrible.” 16:53
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/15/international/middleeast/
15VIDE.html On releasing the news of Hussein’s capture:
“Iraqis were to have a role in announcing the news and that
the images of the quarry were to be broadcast worldwide as quickly
as possible, to leave little time for conspiracy theories to
course through Iraqi towns and villages.”
(I’m travelling at the moment, and found out about it via spam: a message with the subject “News Flash - Saddam Hussein Captured! Get the Cards Before They Sell Out!”) 15:22
http://slate.msn.com/id/2092376/ “The only presidential candidate with a truly coherent position on President Bush’s Iraq policy is President Bush. He supported it before the war started, he supports it now, and he thinks or pretends to think it’s working well. … Like mice frustrated in a maze, the [Democratic] candidates seek escape routes out of this logical trap. Sometimes they say that the current mess is not the result of the decision to go to war. It is the result of Bush’s inept leadership during the war and/or the postwar occupation. … But the resolution these gentlemen supported gave war-making authority to George W. Bush, not to some idealized, all-knowing president such as themselves. … If Bush bungled this authority, entrusting him with it was a big mistake.” 00:37
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/international/europe/11CND-
FRAN.html “French Panel Recommends Banning Head Scarves
in Schools.” (Typically good, broad coverage.) 12:43
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/mag.jhtml FindArticles has been redesigned, and now lets you browser magazines issue by issue. (This is the page for Harper’s.) 09:01
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1005220.htm Leader of the Democrats (Australia’s third party) assaults a Liberal Senator, apologises, stands aside, then declares: “If anything good can come of this incident, it’s to reinforce the fact that behaviour such as this is unacceptable.” 09:56
http://www.danwei.org/2003/12/these_images_ar.html Graphical comparison: is Beijing looking more and more like city depicted in Blade Runner? (The National Stadium, particularly in this rendering, does have the same look.) 10:58
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031119-
1.html President Bush at Whitehall Palace: “We
must shake off decades of failed policy in the Middle East. Your
nation and mine, in the past, have been willing to make a bargain,
to tolerate oppression for the sake of stability. Longstanding
ties often led us to overlook the faults of local elites. Yet this
bargain did not bring stability or make us safe. It merely bought
time, while problems festered and ideologies of violence took
hold.” There’s other interesting bits in here too;
it’s basically a summary of why the US went to war with
Iraq. (Does Bush present a logically consistent case, or are
other factors (e.g. oil) involved?) 00:26
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/wdc/20158760.html “At one point my roommate called me while we were at the concert and asks me how my date was going. I turn to my date and say, ‘how’s the date going’ and she says, ‘I’d say its going pretty well.’” It gets worse. 23:35