Archive for 2009
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Are We All Just Marks In The Hugest Hustle In History?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 18, 2009 by admin in Politics
Sunday, October 18th, 2009I can’t help noticing that some people are getting richer while the rest of us struggle to get by.
 Tim Geithner Demonstrates Just How Much He Cares About The Average Working Stiff |
I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve been conned in the biggest pigeon drop in history. While it’s nice to see the FBI go after a few greedy billionaires for insider trading, I’m tired of wealthy capitalist guys in suits that cost more than my housing for a year first telling us that we need a socialist banking system, then that they need 23 trillion of our imaginary future tax dollars to save capitalism, then that it’s none of our business where the money goes, even when we sue and win to find out, then that in spite of the fact that they deceived us at the outset that these same rich banker capitalist guys will be happy to loan the government banks money to save them. Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this picture? In a similar era in US history, Franklin D. Roosevelt said “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics“. This idea is highlighted by the points made in the NYT piece Bailout Helps Fuel a New Era of Wall Street Wealth, in which they quote Gary Richardson, a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research as saying (in reference to the banks that have been bailed out): “we have just shown them that they can have the most frightening things happen to them, and we will throw trillions of dollars to protect them. I have big concerns about that.” So do I. How about you? Read the rest of this entry »
Jolly Diwaliween & Other Politically Incorrect October Holiday Ideas
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 17, 2009 by admin in Holidays
Saturday, October 17th, 2009Did Diwali sneak up on you unexpectedly again this year? No worries, we have a solution. And like last year, the scariest thing about Halloween is probably the economy.
  The author of this article is an alien and is not offended by this costume. |
If you missed the fact that Diwali was a little earlier in October this year, we have a helpful tip. With Halloween only two weeks away, just carve your pumpkins early, stick candles in all of them, and celebrate “Diwaliween”. Just so you don’t make the same mistake in the future, here are the dates for Diwali through 2022. Also on the 17th this year, we have that dose of artificial sweetener called “Sweetest Day”, which – although charming on the surface – was actually created by businessmen in Cleveland in 1921 to sell candy. With equally shallow sentiments, we have United Nations Day on the 24th, when – much like the rest of the year – United Nations members aren’t. By the way, Diwali wasn’t the only celebration we almost overlooked; in case you weren’t aware that there’s energy, October is Energy Awareness Month. For those of you who need all your information in the form of an interactive Flash game, EnergyStar has graciously complied. Because you know, simply listing things would be boring. Who knew that turning off the lights saves energy? Personally, I think they could’ve saved a lot of energy by firing the person that created that interactive graphic. Still to come this month, we of course have Halloween. Last year, the scariest thing about Halloween was the fact that Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson were in charge of averting global economic collapse. This year, the scariest thing is that they don’t seem to have fixed much; retail sales appear to be down about 18% for the season. Perhaps if retailers like Target stopped offending middle-income liberal elitists by selling tasteless “illegal alien” themed costumes, sales would improve. We’re not offended, so in the interest of a healthy economy, we’d like to point out that although Target pulled the product, Amazon and others haven’t. Buy one today
Don’t Discount The Five-Finger Method
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 16, 2009 by admin in Technology
Friday, October 16th, 2009A cool touchscreen interface concept by 10GUI rethinks the window-based interface and explains why a standard touchscreen just doesn’t work for the desktop computer.
I’m always babbling about innovative laptops and cool user interfaces, but the video at left explaining a new user interface concept by 10GUI is probably the most insightful rethinking of the desktop that I’ve seen in a long time. As an interface designer myself, I think the iPhone (although I feel no need to own one myself) is probably the most brilliant personal computer interface to date. I’ve been dying to own a larger device that utilizes its multitouch features, which is why I’m always drooling over the idea of a Mac tablet or dual-touchscreen laptop, but have also often thought about how a lot of the features of a multitouch screen are actually antithetical to the realities of desktop use. This video by 10GUI references that, and offers a fantastic solution. I’d have to try the deeper levels of task and file management that they demonstrate in the video before I’d know if I agree with the solutions offered, but on the surface they make perfect sense. I’d love to see this interface integrated into a real device and try it. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, the nerd all the nerds love to hate (Michael Arrington) just (ahem) touched on this topic the other day over at TechCrunch. Read the rest of this entry »
Antichrist – Cinematic Genius? Or Pure Provocation?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 15, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, October 15th, 2009Lars von Trier’s latest film has everything you need to grab some headlines: Misogyny, dying babies, genital mutilation, and demonic talking foxes.
When you’re trying to market a film these days, it’s hard to cut through the noise. If that’s what you need to do though, call your film Antichrist, be sure to include lots of misogyny, scenes of babies falling to their death while people have orgasms, use the latest HD cameras, and attach a big name like Willem Dafoe to the project. Apparently it helps if you seem to be having a nervous breakdown in the first round of casting, and claim in the press that you’re not sure if you’ll ever make another film. I sound like I’m pre-judging Lars von Trier’s latest film “Antichrist”, but I’m really not. Who knows, it may be the greatest thing since Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, which also has stories about the production that rival the drama of the film itself; see for instance, this clip, in which Herzog explains how one of the native chiefs appearing in the shoot offered to kill Klaus Kinski. In all honesty, although I was very intrigued with von Trier’s approach to shooting Dogville, I’ve only seen miscellaneous clips of his work. However, the fact that Antichrist looks beautifully creepy in the clips I’ve seen, is so completely surrounded by controversy, and won an “anti award” at Cannes will probably compel me to see it. Antichrist is slated for odd US release dates; it’ll be available via Video On Demand on October 21, and in limited release October 23. See IMDB for the various release dates. Since it was shot with Red One HD cameras, the YouTube clip above doesn’t really do it justice; consider viewing the HD trailers at Apple.com Read the rest of this entry »
Tarot Cards Are Evil
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 14, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009Or so a good friend told me recently.
 This card pretty much sums me up. |
At least a friend surprised me recently by saying this when they noticed I had a deck of them. I didn’t know anything about this friend’s spiritual beliefs, so I was even more surprised when they described themselves as a “rational minded agnostic”. I asked them why they thought they were evil, and they said something to the effect of “silly fortune telling tools like that impede rationality“. Which underscored the fact that they had NO IDEA what Tarot cards are about, which is not surprising; the cards have a very murky history. Although the first documented mention of them is in 1367, The earliest documented use of them for divination wasn’t until 1781. Although many still use them in a predictive fashion, perhaps more people (like myself) use them as a reflective tool, to simply open up thoughts on a topic, much like Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies or Marshall McLuhan’s obscure Distant Early Warning Deck. Although the evidence is anecdotal, I think it’s safe to say that the more “occult” impression that modern people have of Tarot cards is a result of the same crazy British aristocratic types that would hold seances, go to India to get their personal gurus, and allow weirdos like Aleister Crowley to hang out with them. All of which I believe was driven at least in part by a sort of quiet Anglo rebellion against the stifling rules of the more repressive forms of Christianianity of the era. A more modern use of the Tarot is probably descended from the influence of C.G. Jung, who suggested that the images on the cards were “distantly descended from the archetypes of transformation“. Over the years I’ve personally used a few “conventional” decks. I started with the Rider-Waite
