The Los Angeles Times is apparently going to make a Wiki out of their editorial page online. This should be funny/hard to watch. Have they looked at the vandalism issues on wikipedia lately? And that’s just for internerds. This is going to be “Editorial Page Meets 1991 Usenet” or something. Ow, ow, ow.

1. Freakonomics: Boy genius economist explains it all for you. The author is a Chicago economics professor who is young and energetic. He’s hired a ghost writer to talk about him in the third person at the beginning of each chapter, which is jarring. Past the hype and the odd structure of the book, I found it enjoyable. It reminds me of some really enjoyable undergraduate courses I had which mostly consisted of cool stories illustrating some point of the subject. He talks about baby names, and crime, and other quotidian interests and relates them to microeconomics, so even if you hate economics he tricks you into being interested in it. Unlike the good undergrad course, the book doesn’t impart any real knowledge, so it’s just all the fun stories from the cool young prof. It leaves you feeling really smart, but you really aren’t. Worth two hours. B-

2. The Men Who Stare At Goats: British journalist documents New Age insanity of the military. Documentary filmmaker and writer Jon Ronson has a good previous record at dealing with nut cases. This time he’s found a treasure trove. A Strangelovian assortment of military officers, including the chief of military intelligence for the U.S. Army, spent years trying to walk through walls, stop people’s hearts with their brains, locate enemies with psychic powers, and become invisible. Some of them believe they did these things. A gaggle of unfortunate goats spent a while being stared at by military personnel who were trying to kill them with the Force, or something. At one point a psychic goes into a trance attempting to locate Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega and awakens with the important message: ASK KRISTY MCNICHOL! The latter part of the book gets more serious, as Ronson finds that some of the funny/silly New Age stuff has now been adapted into torture technique. One puzzled former Gitmo inmate relates attempts by his guards to drive him nuts with loud, bad music, and there are an assortment of similar psychological torments. Most of the book is for laughs, though, and he delivers. Another pretty good waste of two hours. B+ I strongly recommend Ronson’s previous book (and documentary TV series if you can find it) about extremists, with profiles of David Icke, Randy Weaver, and other nut jobs; it’s an A+. Engrossing and funny but tragic, and sympathetic to the kooks. Also, see Ronson’s own site.

If you use any kind of news reader (RSS/atom/whatever) and you want this, my del.icio.us bookmarks, and my flickr photos all in one stream, one click stalking is available:

Mac users: Safari does this automagically if you don’t have/want a newsreader program.

Enjoy,

the management

Stuart Pearson (“Hurdy Gurdy Guy”) played again tonight. He segued “Ghost Riders” into “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, did “White Punks on Dope” again, only screwed up a couple of times, and of course performed the fine version he does of “Baby Got Back” accompanied with a slinky. Go Stuart.

Quote of the evening, from genericus: I HAVE PAID SUBSCRIBERS WATCHING RIGHT NOW AND YOU ARE KILLING THE MAGIC!!

I think graduate school is basically a disease. In just the last week I’ve heard four horror stories, including one serious neurological ailment caused essentially by Ph.D. anxiety, one abandonment of the dissertation, and two people who dropped out after four and six years of pain and expense, respectively. All of a sudden I don’t feel so bad about never finishing my bachelor’s. I really knew this already because I grew up with a graduate school around me, and A’s experience at USC was instructive to see too. Friends don’t let friends pursue academic careers, folks.

For gentlemen: Very clean blue jeans, a bit baggy with turned up cuffs. Dark leather shoes of some kind, shiny. The “club shirt”, meaning a button-down collared shirt that is long enough that it cannot be tucked in, and drapes comfortably over a slight potbelly, giving the appearance of a large chest and shoulders and a flat abdomen. Slightly spiked hair with goop in it. Smirk..

For ladies: Very clean blue jeans, either hip hugging or secured with a black leather belt with a shiny buckle. Black leather shoes with heels. Lacy or diaphanously silky top that reveals the shoulders. Options here are spaghetti strap, tube top, off one shoulder (Flashdance look), etc. Shoulder length hair in some type of ponytail.

These rules are very strict. Out of maybe fifty dating couples I saw tonight, only five or six people total weren’t wearing this exact uniform.

In theory I can see my friends list with protected entries and everything in my news reader (NetNewsWire), when I pass it a magic incantation that passes the cookie to Livejournal that I set in my web browser.

In theory.

In practice, it fails silently. Anyone else got this to work?

I’ve been using this little Mac program that does things with Flickr. You can give it some tags and restrictions and it will periodically pull pics from Flickr and preview them from you in a tiny window, and then you can do stuff with the images. It’s a much better uploader than Flickr’s own. It’s nice having a slow flow of interesting pictures coming to me throughout the day, especially nature images. Brain-soothing for me.

You may prefer goatse or transgressive sexual violence streaming into your eyeballs, it’s your call.

http://1001.kung-foo.tv/

Hey kids! Die in an industrial accident, and the government will put you on a cool website and make you a CUSTOM COMIC!

Courtesy the Tofu Hut, we have OSHA’s “Fatal Facts” site, including but not limited to: Crushed by Dump Truck Body, Struck by Nail, Fire/Explosion and of course, Struck By/Caught Between. There is no number 63; there is no number 65; this is not a Monty Python sketch. Struck By/Caught Between sounds like a Pavement album from the 90s.

Two employees were making final adjustments to a large machine in a new paper mill facility. They were using two hydraulic jacks and two 4″ × 4″ uprights under one end of the 6,000 lb. piece of equipment which was suspended by four ¾ threaded rods. First, the employees would jack up one end of the piece about an inch. Then, one employee would climb a set of temporary steps to hand tighten the nuts on the threaded rods. Thus, the 6,000 lb. piece was supported solely by the two vertical timbers on the heads of the hydraulic jacks. The timbers were set under a 5/8″ side rail without any block or other devices between them. No cribbing, blocking, shoring or other stabilizing methods were used to secure the load after it was raised. When the end of the piece was jacked up, it fell, crushing one employee and narrowly missing the other.

Until I found this on the Internet tonight, I hadn’t realized what I am, and always have been, and always will be: A Glitter Graver Gothic Beauty. Why didn’t you all tell me years ago? I’m off to danse in the darque, now.

Glitter – Graver: With your cheeky grin and
outgoing personality its apparent that you are
the go-getter of the scene. When you dance
people watch in awe, even though youre good and
your friends keep telling you, it hasnt turned
you into a stuck up bitch. You dont mind
lending people clothes, money or hearing them
out. You are a night personbut only if its
punctuated by strobe lights! You have that easy
going nature which sometimes leads people to
take advantage of you, but you know how to deal
with scum, short, sharp and to the point. You
wear your tight pants and fluoro accents well
with black and you are damn sexy in them too.
Your motto is Friends are Forever

What is your style of Gothic Beauty?
brought to you by Quizilla

1. Just to make this perfectly clear: I am not a cowboy, and this thing on which I am riding is not a steel horse.
2. Have my Californian emigré friends managed to wreck Portland yet? They’re all buying real estate, it’ll only be a few years. Let me know!
3. I’m an awkward creature when I’m trying to be friendly. I should stick with sarcasto-bastard.
4. sprol_feed is a nice view of the Apocalypse.
5. Everything is better left unsaid (Rule #6)
6. If you like you can marry me, and if you like you can buy the ring.