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I was going to tweet a series of antagonistic, Foursquare-themed...

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:15:35 -0400

I was going to tweet a series of antagonistic, Foursquare-themed haikus the other day (itself a problematic sentence); I’m glad Merlin and I are on the same page.

merlin:

Because, it’s really important to have goals.

If whatever the fuck these things are made me feel the slightest twinge of enhanced self-esteem, my next merit badge would feature a silhouette of a sad guy with a revolver in his mouth.

Sponsored, perhaps, by the Smith & Wesson® “Unlock Your Xtreme!™” Social Networking Gunmunity.

Man. It’s just so excruciating to me to imagine what your life must be like when a 160-pixel .PNG sponsored by a company that manufactures pens feels like a win.

In fact, it’s so excruciating that I’m never going think about it again.

Do I get a badge for that?

words wholly unrelated [via the ragbag]

Sat, 15 May 2010 00:20:00 -0400

words wholly unrelated [via the ragbag]:

I’ve probably retold this to a half dozen people in the last month; it’s only right to give due credit. I hadn’t noticed the “spoiler alert,” but my god is it true.

[spoiler alert: this one will mess you up]

island & isle

sweet scrotumburgers with mayo and relish! am i trying to tell you that the words island and isle ARE NOT etymological cousins or even cogneighbours?! that even though they are almost pronounced the same, almost spelled the same,…

Click through for the thrilling conclusion.

Fresh summer look

Thu, 13 May 2010 17:42:14 -0400

Over the last couple years I’ve grown fond of the visual brand, such as it is, of this, my own little patch of domain parking.

Summer is nigh, though, and Peter Vidani’s fabulous “Well Liked” theme felt like the perfect way to throw the windows wide and let the fresh air come blowing in. Who knows, maybe it will even inspire me to generate some worthwhile content. Anyway, click over to my site proper – I hope you like the new look.

Errol Morris's Commencement address to the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

Wed, 12 May 2010 11:18:00 -0400

Errol Morris's Commencement address to the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism:

Basically guaranteed to be great. Filed to read soon.

The women in this photo could be models. The men in this photo...

Sat, 01 May 2010 11:57:00 -0400

The women in this photo could be models. The men in this photo are, well, typical schlubby D.C.-types. I’m sure they’re all crazy-impressive, but I wonder who sets the bar for women’s admission to the West Wing (or, perhaps, to the Times Sunday Magazine).

Regardless, this story is some great power porn and a nice source of tabloid ennui for anyone of a certain age and with a certain subset of college diplomas. Read it and self-flagellate.

# All the Obama 20-Somethings from the Sunday Times Magazine

So good. topherchris: Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash, in Flash. ...

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:05:39 -0400

So good.

topherchris:

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash, in Flash. Big improvement.

(Better: Adobe Flash CS4 crashed twice while I threw this together.)

Calmness, curation, cat porn: Dave Eggers’ joys of print

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:42:00 -0400

Calmness, curation, cat porn: Dave Eggers’ joys of print:

from the Nieman Journalism Lab

I am perpetually aghast, whenever conversation with friends turns to the future of print media, that not a one holds attachment to the physical form of the newspaper. They all defend books, but I have yet to hear from someone with the same romantic attachment to newsprint and the attendant benefits of printed periodicals.

Dave Eggers is one of my people, and God love him for it. I emphatically agree with every one of the four points Nieman teases out of his lecture here - you’ve really got to go over and read it.

"It’s getting easier to talk about “white culture,” maybe even white politics, without knee-jerk..."

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:14:00 -0400

“It’s getting easier to talk about “white culture,” maybe even white politics, without knee-jerk sarcasm or, for that matter, knee-jerk sympathy. And it’s getting easier to imagine an American whiteness that is less exceptional, less dominant, less imperial, and more conspicuous, an ethnicity more like the others. In the Obama era—the Tea Party era—whiteness is easier to see than ever before, which means it’s less readily taken for granted. If invisibility is power, then whiteness is a little less powerful than it used to be.”

- I think Kelefa Sanneh nails it here. Zadie Smith and – new to me – the fabulous Valarie Kaur both have spoken beautifully about how a flourishing of mixed/mulatta experience disrupts traditional constructions of race and racial privilege. In the latter half of the twentieth century (inaugurated, perhaps, by Loving v. Virginia), children began to be born who felt entirely at home in what had previously been distinct spheres of experience and self-understanding. I’ve been moved by the picture Kaur and Smith paint of what that coming of age offers our culture, but have been skeptical that it can really start to tear at the edges of white institutional supremacy in a real way.

I think Sanneh’s is a first answer. Whiteness is indeed defined by the unnamed-nature that allows it to take whatever form necessary. As the multivocal (Zadie’s term) and the shadow children (Valarie’s term) grow in number, they give the lie to the invisibility of whiteness. I love the Tea Party example because it’s so immediate. The more we are able to name – to make conspicuous – White America, the more difficult it becomes for whiteness to shapeshift as it did a century ago in an effort to maintain power. I don’t think this is the answer, if there were one, and I certainly don’t think white privilege is going anywhere anytime soon, but this passage from Sanneh’s solid piece really turned a light on for me.

# ‘Beyond the Pale’ in the New Yorker

# Steve Jobs on Paul Rand, in 1993. Instant classic. How have I...

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:40:00 -0400

# Steve Jobs on Paul Rand, in 1993.

Instant classic. How have I never seen this before? It’s a bit surprising that Steve didn’t know Rand – they’re both iconoclastic visionaries, and have come to define their fields. (via Kottke)

Index of Hobbes’s Leviathan (by Rosie)

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:38:00 -0400

Index of Hobbes’s Leviathan (by Rosie)

John Paul Stevens is retiring

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:02:00 -0400

John Paul Stevens is retiring:

He addresses his formal letter, “My dear Mr. President.”

I read Jeffrey Toobin’s The Nine this winter, and no one comes off better than Stevens. Souter garnered superlatives for his talents as a jurist when he retired, and everyone knows it was Sandra Day O’Connor’s court while she was there, but for sheer thoughtfulness, humility, and good-humor, Stevens seems to be nonpareil. And he expertly took Scalia apart in his lengthy dissent to District of Columbia v. Heller just two years ago. He’ll be missed.

Francophile et francophone

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:56:00 -0400

Heyo! Maybe I’ll pontificate a bit further, in English even, on Sarko’s speech at Columbia this morning – I really did find it compelling, even after a second viewing and debate with Lauren back at the apartment. For now, I’m just here to brag about being quoted in Libération, the leftist French paper. Well, the reporter’s blog, at least; it’s not clear if I make it into print. Either way, I think she helped me come off well – and «francophone» ? I’ll take it! In case you’re wondering, “pitrerie” means “bufoonery,” natch:

Malgré cette pitrerie, après le discours les étudiants semblent plutôt séduits. « Je sais qu’en France on le trouve très à droite, observe Steve McFarland, 23 ans, étudiant en théologie, francophile et francophone. Mais là, vu des Etats-Unis, il m’a semblé très très à gauche. Il fait des réformes pour essayer d’emmener la France un peu plus à droite, je l’admire pour cela. Obama essaie lui d’emmener les Etats-Unis un peu plus à gauche. On pourrait se rencontrer quelque part ». Le couplet de Sarkozy sur la nécessaire coopération entre les peuples du monde ne l’a tout de même pas totalement convaincu : « En France et en Europe, il me semble bien que la xénophobie gagne aussi du terrain, non ? »

The full post has the snarky title, Sarkozy, c’est qui? She was delighted to know that Ahmadinejad had attracted a bigger crowd.

Great bit of guerilla activism in Prospect Heights, protesting...

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:59:43 -0400

Great bit of guerilla activism in Prospect Heights, protesting the disastrous Atlantic Yards project (helmed by developer Bruce Ratner) which just broke ground earlier this month. [via Brownstoner]

"Privately, a Columbia official said that compared to other visits to the school from world leaders,..."

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:58:36 -0400

“Privately, a Columbia official said that compared to other visits to the school from world leaders, preparations for this one were among the most complicated and detailed. Requests included a special espresso-making machine ready to serve him coffee in an office reserved especially for him. The French also flew in their own podium for the president, but failed to install a rug they wanted to put in place for the speech.”

- I just got out of this speech by Sarkozy. His charms cannot be denied, and somehow even a rightist French xenophobe sounds like a breath of fresh air over here. He spoke forcefully about the dangers of capitalism, and then he shook my hand. Also, his wife was there. Here’s the AP:

# Sarkozy urges world finance rules in US speech

And if Libé uses any of the quotes I gave their reporter, I’ll let you know! Also, Stiglitz and Dinkins were there! And, as I tweeted, lots of insufferable Eurotrash international affairs students.

My lady’s (fleeting) entry into the record of our...

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:42:00 -0400

My lady’s (fleeting) entry into the record of our nation’s senate, back when she was an intern on the hill. Eep!

EDIT: Lindsay Graham is totally reading the paper at the end there. Your government at work!

Portion Sizes in 'Last Supper' Paintings Grew Over Time

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:16:52 -0400

Portion Sizes in 'Last Supper' Paintings Grew Over Time:

[via Kottke]

The Acorn Sting

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:59:00 -0400

In his weekly column, Clark Hoyt, the Times’ Public Editor, revisits the Acorn hidden-camera ‘pimp’ sting that has pushed the organization to the brink of bankruptcy. Hoyt quotes an independent auditor, who confirms the most damning clips, but also,

said the news media should have been far more skeptical, demanding the raw video from which the edited versions were produced. “It’s outrageous that this could have had this effect without being questioned more,” he said.

The narrative for months has been that this story was picked up by Fox and right-wing blogs, but buried by the Liberal Media until it became so big that it couldn’t be ignored. And in truth, that seemed pretty credible in this instance. I believe Hoyt had even said as much in previous columns.

But that quote reveals the real harm to the public of having unaccountable bloggers and house organs like Fox News dredging up our news: in the pursuit of a partisan story, they don’t hold themselves to basic journalistic standards. By waiting until they had to take a reactive, hasty plunge into this story, the rest of the media accepted and perpetuated the frame offered by Fox and the far right and failed to do any further reportage.

If the Times – or any real news outlet – had broken this story, they would have gotten the unedited video. It wouldn’t have been quite so salacious, but it would have been responsibly done. When conservative activists want to take down a progressive darling, and have a partisan cable channel at their beck and call, all of a sudden it poisons the well for the rest of the conversation. I knew Fox was bad for people who watched or cared about Fox, but here’s a case where it was bad for everyone. It’s all of the Sarah Palin “death panel” fallout, with none of the immediate push back, and that’s scary.

A fabulous, and not entirely disingenuous, bit of infographics...

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:55:50 -0400

A fabulous, and not entirely disingenuous, bit of infographics which succeeds in making me feel better about the fate of the nation. Seen on the Slate Political Gabfest page in response to news of Tufte’s appointment to the administration, although it’s not clear he’s behind this particular graph. Still, great work.

# Road to Recovery

"Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was..."

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:22:00 -0500

“Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”) “The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based,” Ms. Dunbar said.”

- I think I read about this in the book of Revelation:
# Texas Conservatives Win Vote on Textbook Standards

Wow, what a space. Please can my next apartment come to resemble...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:46:41 -0500

Wow, what a space. Please can my next apartment come to resemble this?

# Best Brunch - Best of New York Food 2010