January 2009
Awwww - Weird Cute Reptile Loooove News →
I can’t resist the occasional cuteness of not inherently cute animals - like Henry the Tuatara, who at 111 years old, had his crotchety grumpy old man reptile heart melted by one Mildred, and became a daddy.
File under major Internet crushes: Karina Stenquist
2009 Will Be a Year of Panic →
As 2009 opens, our financial institutions are deep in massive, irrational panic. That’s bad, but it gets worse: Many other respected institutions have rational underpinnings at least as frail as derivatives or bundled real-estate loans. Like finance, these institutions are social constructions. They are games of confidence, underpinned by people’s solemn willingness to believe, to...
Pedaling across the ocean blue →
The latest New Scientist has a piece on Ted Ciamillo, the machinist who invented the hydrospeeder (think: Bondian underwater motorcycle) and the Lunocet (a tail for divers modeled on dolphins). Ciamillo’s latest project is a human-powered mini-sub he plans to use to pedal across the Atlantic.
Locust swarms 'high' on serotonin →
“Serotonin profoundly influences how we humans behave and interact,” said co-author Dr Swidbert Ott, from Cambridge University.
“So to find that the same chemical is what causes a normally shy, antisocial insect to gang up in huge groups is amazing.”
“Years ago, reporters for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer are reporting this week,...”
– Thom Hartmann (via azspot)
“God is not threatened by differences. It’s we who are.”
– Richard Rohr (via azspot)
But then what is more different than God? Or from another end of a spectrum, what is more intimate? It’s exciting to think that the most personal within is exactly simultaneously the most alien without.
how brain scans show the trauma of war →
Global Warming Is Irreversible, Study Says →
Phone Is Tapped (And I Don’t Care) by Lake...
Children of the Left, Unite! →
magicmolly:
“Marxist principles have been dripping steadily into the minds of American youth for more than a century. This isn’t altogether surprising. After all, most parents want their children to be far left in their early years — to share toys, to eschew the torture of siblings, to leave a clean environment behind them, to refrain from causing the extinction of the dog, to rise above coveting...
“The First Rule of Critical Reading, digital or otherwise, should be “don’t...”
– Whimsley (via azspot)
This applies to all sorts of relationships
magicmolly:
“Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.” -Emerson
“Only when we realize that Socrates declares happiness a natural human longing at...”
– Darrin M. McMahon, Happiness: A History (NY: Atlantic Monthly P, 2006), p. 25 (Google books link). (via nbr)
how miserable can you be saving lives, sleeping...
Dr. House: I'm on antidepressants because a doctor friend of mine thinks I'm miserable. I don't like them; they make me hazy. I eat meat, like drugs, and I'm not always faithful to the women I date.
Honey: You don't seem depressed.
Dr. House: You do realise you just skipped over several deep character flaws that most women would run screaming from?
Honey: You told the truth.
Dr. House: Yeah... I don't always do that either.
Honey: Well, how miserable can you be saving lives, sleeping around and doing drugs?
WatchThe Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar - National Film Board of Canada Production
National Film Board of Canada - All their flicks... →
What a treasure trove. Thanks Boing Boing for the tip.
“When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is just, yet refuse...”
– Mumia Abu-Jamal (via leftworks)
“Access is so superior to ownership, or possession, that it will drive the...”
– Kevin Kelly (via azspot)
The Simple Mans Wandering Sandals from Plastic... →
This how-to is inspired by a real-world application:
Stephen R. Donaldson Ate My Dictionary →
Meeting the Big, Scary Words of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Dating medieval manuscripts - by DNA testing!! →
1000 novels everyone must read →
Looking for something good to read? I’m just begining Stephen Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. I bet I’ll have plenty to read for a while.
U.S. military report warns 'sudden collapse' of... →
“In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse:
Could Mexico collapse?Do you think it is possible that the Mexican government could collapse in 2009?
Yes, the drug lords are taking over. No, the government is still strong and will control the violence. I’m not sure, it...
“Now, obviously these are very difficult economic times. When people analyze the...”
– FORMER President George W. Bush in his remarkable final news conference (“the ultimate exit interview,” he called it). See Tom Engelhardt’s excellent analysis.
Village Voice - Complete Ballot Count for Top CDs... →
Lists 1692 albums in vote order - Too much music!
