Both A People's History and Catcher in the Rye were books that people expected me to like that I couldn't stand.
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10:32:52 PM,
Friday 29 January 2010
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While this is a little bit longer than the State of the Union, it's completely fascinating: Obama answering Republican questions, and by questions, I mean bundles of half-baked talking points with a question mark at the end. The last question is particularly satisfying. It's just such a weird thing. It's almost like a deliberative body. You'd think, having not just one but two democratically elected deliberative bodies, I would have seen actual discussions between elected officials about how we should run the country before, but I haven't. I've seen panderfests where candidates try to compete for the mantle of the least principled, but that's subtly different. There are two videos, 1h 20m total, first his speech and then the questions. The speech can probably be skipped.
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08:33:49 PM,
Friday 29 January 2010
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The effect of water vapor in the stratosphere on global temperatures. Maybe a negative feedback mechinism, maybe not. Contains a particularly excellent graph. I really like his climatology posts: they're written as though he expects his audience to be interested in the science, and not just the political implications. I tried to read the NYT article on this, but it was almost entirely uninformative and confused.
I sometimes get science envy. They get to play with their data. I just have to make neat little piles of mine. I can't just go play with it without committing federal crimes.
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03:45:22 PM,
Friday 29 January 2010
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Bertie Wooster is rather like Huck Finn.
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03:09:30 PM,
Friday 29 January 2010
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Something I should ask myself more often: Is what I am doing right now improving the world more or less than petting the cat would?
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05:21:52 PM,
Thursday 28 January 2010
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If we have to have senseless abbreviations, can we at least make it SotU?
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(1)
02:19:16 PM,
Thursday 28 January 2010
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We just developed a critical need for something I did in the fall of 2004, and have sitting on my hard drive! That sort of thing always makes me feel better about life.
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01:57:19 PM,
Thursday 28 January 2010
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Coates on "forgetting Obama is black" and backhanded complements based on stereotypes in general.
"First, it takes my necessarily limited, and necessarily blinkered, experience with the fairer sex and builds it into a shibboleth of invented truth. Then it takes that invented truth as a fair standard by which I can measure one's "woman-ness.""
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12:40:53 PM,
Thursday 28 January 2010
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"How many of those generals do you think are gay?" "Well, the gay one isn't going to stand up and clap." Also: Erika can not watch Frowny Serious Nodding Biden without giggling uncontrollably. Neither can I, when it comes down to it. I avert my gaze.
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(1)
10:23:53 PM,
Wednesday 27 January 2010
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I continue to be very pleased with my president.
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10:22:28 PM,
Wednesday 27 January 2010
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Apple needs to make an iPoke.
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(1)
02:44:58 PM,
Wednesday 27 January 2010
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Self-auctioning art. Sort of charming the way in the way that ponzi schemes are charming.
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11:26:42 AM,
Wednesday 27 January 2010
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site & script courtesy of Moss
