http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050530ta_
talk_toobin There’s a spot of disagreement over who owns
the rights to the Guerrilla Girls name. 23:34
Archives
This month: 20 entries.
http://slate.com/id/2119328/ The business of insuring movies: the insurer of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider—The Cradle of Life “was so strict that it did not even allow director Jan de Bont to be at the Luna Temple set during shooting because he had a prior leg injury. To avoid the possibility that he might slip on the set’s wet floors, the loss-control rep had him direct the entire seven-day sequence via closed circuit TV from a remote location.” Also: Nicole Kidman is getting expensive to insure after her knee caused delays to Moulin Rouge and Panic Room; in order to secure insurance for Cold Mountain she had to put some of her salary aside in an escrow account and body doubles had to be substituted for any activity that might damage her knee, including bending down. 05:39
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4550069.stm Not a situation puzzle: mystery man (found a month ago clad in a soaking wet suit and tie) can’t/won’t speak, but plays the piano wonderfully well. (Also noteworthy: his social worker has neither attempted to figure out what the music is that he plays, nor found the time to follow up his one “definite lead”…) 08:46
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/05/15/magazine/
20050515_MOSCOW_AUDIOSS.html “In the early years of the Soviet Union, many
believed that
architecture could function as a tool of social transformation. It
was
a time when architecture—and the ideas it expressed—still felt
dangerous.” (Audio slideshow associated with Russian
Icons.) 06:35
http://slate.com/id/2118443/ “She finds no ‘implied’ biting in the text, and calls mere dunking ‘out of the question.’ She concurs that the crumby madeleine material is already in the spoon as it approaches Marcel’s mouth.” (Reconstructing Proust’s madeleine.) 00:02
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/opinion/10kristof.html “Unless the Vatican reconnects with ordinary people here in the Catholic heartland … the Vatican’s obstinacy may yet kindle a Re-Reformation.” Huh? So, to keep up numbers, Catholic bigwigs should promulgate ideas popular with the populace rather than those that are (so they believe) right or the truth? Isn’t this like saying that accepting Jesus as the Messiah would be a good move for Jews? I suspect that whether the Catholic church endures as a viable institution is much less of a concern to the Pope than (and here’s my caveat again: what he sees as) doing God’s will. 10:25
http://www.unrealid.com/what.html The number one argument against national ID cards is that it will lead to more cops and judges being killed, and the number five is that it will lead to more dirty illegal immigrants driving unsafely on the roads? Gee, I don’t want to minimise the deaths of police officers and all but—is that the best you can do? Forgive me for thinking that there might be far-reaching (and specific) civil liberties implications of a national ID card. 04:37
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/bos/70819601.html “So next time you decide to get a case of road rage, think twice about who you might be screaming and swearing at through the window.” 05:01
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/business/03food.html Does fungus-derived meat-substitute Quorn need a warning saying that it may provoke a severe allergic reaction? 03:35
http://slate.com/id/2118242/ Can the police commandeer your car? (In a lot of places yes, though if you refuse you only have to pay a fine.) 19:57
http://www.snopes.com/music/media/guitar.asp Stories of guitar greats who learn, after mastering a difficult riff, that it has actually been recorded on two guitars. 20:52
http://www.livejournal.com/users/shmivejournal/105755.html “I don’t know how it’s gross negligence really. I mean, it’s gross and sure, finding a finger in your food is traumatic, but you’ll get over it. You get over most things. Nobody intentionally chopped their finger off and put it in your food. The real person that needs to be hiring an attorney is the person who LOST THE FUCKING FINGER, you litigious motherfucker.” 07:38
http://www.defense.gov/transformation/articles/2005-04/ta042905a.html I thought these were already available commerciall but whatever: HooAH! bars will soon be available to the public. “The military operational requirement for ration storage is a minimum of three years at 80 degrees F or six months at 100 degrees F, which presents a challenge not faced by other nutrition bars.” 07:15
http://slate.com/id/2117942/ Paul Boutin on Wikipedia. I think this article is pretty much right-on: Wikipedia is wonderful, but it’s not perfect, and it should be cited with caution (if at all). Perhaps a variation of Groucho Marx’s “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member” applies: when it turns out that I can make some sort of improvement to practically every article I read (and 90% of my edits do in fact correct mistakes of some kind that I would be horrified to find in a paid-for reference), I’m not inclined to think too highly of the source in question. Also, even if the Wikipedia ends up killing the Britannica (and it + Google probably will), this doesn’t make it better than the Britannica: it merely makes it more evolutionarily successful than the Britannica, which is quite another thing. 07:51
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/toilet.html Doing more with less: toilet flush research. 00:06