Archive for 2009

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Not To Be Cryptic Or Anything….

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on September 18, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

Friday, September 18th, 2009

A friend accused me of being cryptic the other day. I begged to differ.

n pbhcyr bs lrnef ntb n sevraq bs zvar gubhtug ur jnf orvat ernyyl pyrire ol fraqvat zrffntrf va jung ur gubhtug jnf n frperg pbqr. ur jbhyq glcr n zrffntr va na r-znvy, gura punatr gur sbag gb n jvaqbjf “jvatqvatf” sbag. jung ur qvqa’g ernyvmr jnf gung ur jnf hfvat n zrgubq nf byq nf napvrag ebzr, gur fhofgvghgvba pvcure. gur snpg vf, gur nirentr crefba pbzrf hc jvgu cerggl ynzr zrgubqf sbe rapelcgvba. rira jvgu fvzcyr gnfxf yvxr cnffjbeq perngvba. guvf yvfg, sbe vafgnapr, pbagnvaf gur 500 jbefg cnffjbeqf bs nyy gvzr. bar gung v hfrq gb hfr dhvgr bsgra vf ba vg. vf bar bs lbhef? n tbbq rknzcyr bs whfg ubj tbbq rapelcgvba pna or vf gur xelcgbf fphycgher ol nzrevpna negvfg wvz fnaobea, juvpu vf ybpngrq ng gur pvn urnqdhnegref va ivetvavn. gur orfg rkcregf va gur svryq unir bayl fbyirq guerr bs sbhe cnegf bs gur zrffntr. vs lbh’er ernyyl vagb guvf fbeg bs guvat, gurer ner cyragl bs obbxf ba gur gbcvp, ohg gung yvax vf n gbgny erq ureevat; whfg na bccbeghavfgvp nznmba cebqhpg yvax. gur fbyhgvba gb gb gur fvzcyr pvcure hfrq sbe guvf negvpyr vf eryngviryl rnfl gb svaq; bar zrgubq jbhyq or gb hfr gur vzntr ng yrsg naq qrpbqr vg jvgu gur fnzr fvgr gung rapbqrq vg, juvpu hfrq fgrtnabtencul. vs lbh’ir znantrq gb fbeg guvf nyy bhg, cbfg gur grkg bs gur negvpyr vagb gur pbzzragf naq v’yy onxr lbh fbzr pbbxvrf be fbzrguvat nf n erjneq. Read the rest of this entry »

Hyena Men of Nigeria – Why BUY Pet Food When You Can BE Pet Food

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 17, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Having a Hyena as a pet may sound like fun, but the Hyena will probably have the last laugh. If you really want an exotic pet, there’s always Photoshop.

When I first saw Pieter Hugo’s photos of the Hyena Men of Nigeria , I instantly knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a Hyena Man of Nigeria. The problem being, of course, that I was neither Nigerian, nor had a Hyena. Nor was I bad-ass enough to walk around with a Hyena on a heavy-duty chain, and convince a Baboon to wear a Beckham jersey every day. Still, as an animal lover I’ve always had a childish fantasy of having a few especially beastly animals as pets. In my beastmaster vision, I have a falcon on my shoulder while I walk my black panther and white wolf, who happen to all be best of pals. Alas, as anyone who’s watched Grizzly Man knows, these attempts at bridging the gap between man and the wilder members of the animal kingdom don’t always turn out so well. That doesn’t seem to stop a lot of people from making the absurd decision to try, leading to “tragedies” like the Siegfried and Roy mauling, the occasional Elephant rampage (that video’s not for the faint-of-heart), and the random nature show host’s death. I’ll probably never live out my little dream; the fact is that trying to turn wild animals into pets generally ends in either the tragic death or injury of a human, or the tragic neglect of the animal. If you really want an exotic pet, there’s always Read the rest of this entry »

Hank Paulson Could Sell An Ice Cube To An Eskimo

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 16, 2009 by admin in Politics

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

And he sold Bush a bailout that Bush didn’t understand. But can he sell you a book?


So Long, And Thanks For All The Crocs!

I guess the fact that Hank Paulson is releasing the book On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System in 2010 should instill in us all a comforting feeling that the financial crisis is well behind us now. Well, it doesn’t. It does however, instill in some of us the feeling that Paulson is a greedy self-engrossed bastard that is so out of touch with the reality of those of us that are paying for his spectacular destruction of capitalism as we know it that he thinks we’d buy his book. Or be able to afford it, for that matter. It also – along with the impending release of Bush speechwriter Matthew Latimer’s Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor – makes for some hilarious pre-release reading. The only thing that might give you a better laugh than Latimer’s self-aggrandizing piece in GQ is Wonkette’s reaction to it. My favorite excerpt is when Wonkettes’s Juli Weiner takes Latimer’s passage “Paulson was supposed to be a nonideological, pragmatic, sensible type. He was bald with glasses and had a scratchy voice that sounded like he had a thousand-dollar bill caught in his throat” and translates it as “Paulson loved eating money. This is why the economy became so bad, because he ate all the money, we’d write. Because that’s what we were told.” Taking a more serious tone, the Vanity Fair piece Henry Paulson’s Longest Night rambles on in an almost surreal attempt to build compassion for Paulson by telling us what a tough job it was for him to hoodwink Washington with his buddy Bernanke and then sweep their frightening mess under the rug using the veil of secrecy provided by being in charge of the Federal Reserve. Probably the most gratifying thing in this piece is when the author describes Paulson throwing up in the next room while he talks about Nancy Pelosi. I can’t wait for more of the continuing flood of these opportunistic and treacherous “insider views”, but so far the most interesting thing I’ve learned from Latimer’s, Paulson’s and Tom Ridge’s tell-all sellouts is that Bush wears Crocs*. Read the rest of this entry »

Infoporn & Data Addiction

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 15, 2009 by admin in Technology

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

Our endless plot to chart your demise by making you view graphic depictions of life, work, and money.

Now that there’s an Internet Addiction Treatment Center, I wonder if there are plans for a treatment center for infographic addiction? As I pondered this, I wondered, of course, what a “no graphs infographic” would look like. My quick prototype is on the left. Which raises an interesting question: If infographics are such a powerful communication tool, why am I writing about them? We’ve touched on flow charts and a variety of amusing infographics before, but there seems to be an endless supply of them. I’m especially partial to the kind that puts incomprehensible things into tidy visual form, like what does a million dollars like? Which is why I especially like What If You Printed the Internet? Economic data is also always more palatable when viewed graphically, as in this Good Magazine piece. A bunch of little “MSN Buddies” out of work are much cuter than a photo of a bunch of haggard hungry people in line. Technophiles in particular are naturally drawn to data visualizations, which is why the food-group-like pyramid graphics Balance Your Media Diet and The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions have made the rounds lately. It’s interesting that “gaming” and “device failure” top the respective pyramids. If I don’t get treatment for my little graphic addiction problem, I’ll be back with more soon. But if you’re yearning for more now, check out some of the sites below for more interesting data visualizations. But first, can someone explain to me what Iowa’s problem is? Read the rest of this entry »

Canada Invades US – With Indie Music

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 14, 2009 by admin in Music

Monday, September 14th, 2009

While we’ve been busy trembling in fear of terrorists and calling our new president a socialist (is that actually an insult?) Canada has been busy invading our country. With a bunch of awesome indie music.


The New Pornographers’ Myriad Harbour
may end up being my favorite video of 2008

It’s somehow telling that there’s only one derogatory name for Canadians, and even that one’s pretty friendly sounding. I mean, who could get mad about being called a Canuck? I’ve been marveling for a while at the explosion of indie bands over the past several years, whether from the American scene, the Balkans, Japan, Iceland, or even in the form of surprisingly un-incongruous German Reggae. It’s almost impossible to keep up! And thanks to our kind & sensible friends north of the border, now I have even more to catch up with. I hadn’t noticed until recently how many bands creeping onto my playlist were Canadian: Arcade Fire, The New Pornographers, A.C. Newman, Feist, Great Lake Swimmers, Mother Mother… I think there are more, but my version of Winamp doesn’t seem to have a “sort by country” tab. But wait! There’s more! Okay, a generic list of over 200 bands isn’t very useful. Here’s a Wikipedia entry that describes the scenes a little bit, and here’s a list of 33 favorites picked by Canadian music bloggers. Guess I have some listening to do. If any of the stuff I haven’t listened to yet is half as brilliant as the The New Pornographers’ Myriad Harbour video featured here, I’ll be one ecstatic listener. Know of any Canadian indie bands worth checking out? Feel free to share. Read the rest of this entry »

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