April 2010
“Mach’s dir selbst
Überleg nicht
Mach’s dir selbst
Besser...”
– Mach’s Dir Selbst by Silbermond
It’s the time of year for Silbermond and Bowling for Soup.
There are currently 61 books sitting on my iPad.
I’ve read part or all of around half of them, but would you all mind going away for a couple of weeks so I can get caught up on the others?
Take the world with you, if you would. But leave the bacon.
50,000 Websites Have Already Integrated Facebook’s... →
robot-heart:
I kind of want to leave facebook. And google. And the internet in general. It’s starting to creep me out.
Do it. I just did. With Tumblr to support you, you won’t miss Facebook at all.
“Step one: Build the largest laser in the world, preferably inside a drab-looking...”
– Can world’s largest laser zap Earth’s energy woes? - CNN.com
You know, this plan to create a tiny star sounds kind of famil… DAMMIT. WHO TOLD THE SCIENTISTS THEY WERE ALLOWED TO BUILD A SUPERLASER?
(My other possible response to this, harking back to my time spent on SciFi Hall, was...
Complicated Things, Always Changing →
Harris Lapiroff:
Find that you disagree about feminism with friends from home. Analyze. Where they prize the non-objectification of women, and a different perception of women’s role in culture and society (things you also value, but less), you prize women’s (and everyone else’s) sexual and gender autonomy above all else. Be surprised at how often these two approaches are at odds with each other....
Another reason to love Halo.
SARAH PALIN killed LONE WOLF
SARAH PALIN: Sarah Palin? Wolf? Get it?
LONE WOLF killed SARAH PALIN
LONE WOLF killed SARAH PALIN
LONE WOLF killed SARAH PALIN
LONE WOLF: Yep.
“The telephone was an aberration in human development. It was a 70 year or so...”
– Rick Webb about this (via toldorknown) (via marco)
Nailed it. Conversation is either meant to occur when both people are willingly in the same place (face-to-face talking, instant messaging) or at the leisure of the responder (traditional post, email, texts, the entire...
I'm not the only one →
malumelegans:
Timo Vuorensola, Why I left Facebook:
Quitting FaceBook over the Like-button was not the main reason – if it was, I wouldn’t be using Google’s services, or basically any other social network out there. The thing is, I just don’t like their style. FaceBook is like the hunkiest douchebag in the bar. You know the type, the guy with enormous muscles and fake tan and bleached teeth. He...
Delete your Facebook account →
I didn’t realise this was possible. It takes two weeks of not signing in before your account is fully deleted, and I don’t really believe that they actually flush your data because Facebook is pretty much Big Brother, but fully removing the account is a step in the right direction.
Of the day's annoyances, these…
[Note: the above is a mantra taken from—of all things—the book Star Wars: Tales from Jabba’s Palace. For a brief primer, go here and search for “day’s annoyances”.]
That today I had to deactivate my Facebook account… twice. Because I was still signed in on another computer when I deactivated it the first time, they reactivated the account.
That each time I deactivated my...
I wrote a stranger's love letter →
“Do you love her?” I asked. He nodded.
“You’ve got to give it all you’ve got,” I said. “You have to be honest with her. You need the right words. And I can help.”
I’m no good at math. I have no spatial aptitude. But I’m good with words, and in that moment, I felt like a doctor on a cruise ship volunteering to deliver a baby on the...
On #boobquake:
Thing One: Hooray objectification!
Thing Two: And this is why feminists hate you.
Thing One: Oh well. I like them.
Thing One: I just wish they'd learn to cook better.
“Founder of a nation, trouncer of the English, God-fearing family man: all in...”
– (via biblioklept and the Guardian)
“Books! People never really stop loving books. 51st century. By now you’ve...”
– The Doctor in Silence in the Library
“You are what you deeply desire. As is your desire, so is your resolve. As is...”
– The Upanisads, an ancient yoga treatise
(via theleadershipyoga) (via fuckyeahzenmind)
1 tag
Cute Boys with Cats →
(via inkyeagle)
Mwahaha. I was on Cute Boys with Cats once, and now I’ve seen/heard it mentioned twice in the last week. Weird.
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games →
BBC:
These four new adventures will take the form of free downloadable computer games available for PC and Mac, in which players assume control of the Doctor and Amy as they embark on new adventures which complement the new TV series.
And:
The first episode of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will be available to download for PC and Mac from this very website in June 2010. Its title will be...
5 tags
“Synesthetes also have talents that cannot be faked. The average person has...”
– Reading in the Brain, by Stanislas Dehaene
I never realised that synesthesia was rooted quite so deeply in our perceptive systems; I always assumed it occurred as a sort of post-processing effect rather than as part of our initial perception.
Also, I must again recommend this book very highly.
4 tags
Nifty.
It turns out the Tumblr website is entirely useable with—albeit not terribly well designed for—the iPad. Good deal.
(Posted from my iPad.)
“One in five people in Britain thinks that haggis, the traditional Scottish dish...”
– Britons believe the hills are alive with haggis | Reuters
Well then.
“Most people don’t realize that male homosexuality does not always lean to...”
– From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer, as quoted on Homosexuality in Nazi Germany - Conservapedia
Shirer may be “the preeminent historian of the Nazi era”, as Conservapedia puts it, but he appears to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of...
“It may be premised for the benefit of the masculine reader who has had no...”
– Sunday Magazine » What It Costs A Young Girl To Be Well Dressed
A little shop girl once said to me with a sigh: “I’ve never really envied rich girls, except at one point, and that is their ability to appear always immaculate, always dainty—exquisitely groomed in every...
erinaceous
wordjournal:
adjective • /ˌɛ.rɪˈneɪ.ʃəs/, /ˌɛ.rəˈneɪ.ʃəs/ • of, relating to, or resembling a hedgehog
From Latin erinaceus “hedgehog”
I need to find opportunities to put this word to use. Perhaps I’ll start passing judgment on student hairstyles.
1 tag
Strive never to be bested in a contest of good...
“Typography must often draw attention to itself before it will be read. Yet in...”
– Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style (which is still, I am afraid, on my list of books to read one day)
I think something very similar is true of writing. Good writing is neither too caught up in itself nor too careless, and the writer must always be aware that his writing is...
“A strikingly similar creature called the “rabbit-bird” was described...”
– Wolpertinger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some Wikipedia editors are jerks. Some, like the editor who added this note to the Wolpertinger article, are entertaining jerks.
“Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with...”
– Lemony Snicket (via laurenaliceinwonderland) (via hecalledmekitty)
Reblogged for Lemony Snicket win.
1 tag
“Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was...”
– Gabriel García Márquez (via robot-heart)
Jeez. Just because it never happened to anybody else, everybody thinks I’m a liar. You’d think the ambergris I brought back might have convinced somebody, but nooooooo.
“The Scene: An outdoor balcony or courtyard somewhere in France (no need to get...”
– A Rustic Dinner Party Under The Stars Dream Dinner Party | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn
I’m pretty sure that at some point this ceased being the answer to the question “What is your dream dinner party?” and began being the answer to the question “What do you want heaven to...
“Oh, how different my life would have been had I not grown up in the same house...”
– Curtis Sittenfeld, American Wife (via robot-heart)
My parents deserve this same credit. Thank you, Mom and Dad.
“Now when you look at Microsoft today they do more to secure their software than...”
– Marc Maiffret. “Marc Maiffret—the quick rise of a teen hacker (Q&A)” (via nothingtothetable) (via inkyeagle)
Ahahaha. It’s funny ‘cause Microsoft sucks at security. I mean, releasing security products and features that don’t do what they’re supposed to is one thing;...