A Thursday Miscellany
- Wow. Moore wasn’t kidding. LOST GIRLS is really, really, dirty.
- You know what really gets me about this story: people were complaining! Who seriously feels threatened on an airplane because someone is praying–regardless of what language they are doing it in? I thought this kind of madness was American-only, but I guess we’re just as bad.
- My home office is “Programmer’s Bill Of Rights“-compliant. I wonder to what extent the same thing would be true if I actually worked in one of the company offices? Certainly the chair would suck compared to what I have, and it would be much less quiet. Oh, and the internet connection would be fast, but restricted to only certain company-approved sites.
- Did you know Wikipedia has a whole section on “Films considered the worst ever“? Quite an entertaining read. I’ve only seen one of the B-movies they list, and two of the ones in the “Stars” category. (Incidentally, Battlefield Earth should be in a different category of badness–Travolta was far from the only thing wrong with that movie.) In the other categories I have a lot more “hits”.
- Any understanding of economics over the last century has to include some understanding of Milton Friedman. You don’t have to agree with his premises, or all of his conclusions–I certainly don’t!–but you can’t be part of the discussion if his ideas are completely unknown to you. This is true of lots of other economists, of course, but I mention Friedman specifically since his PBS series Free To Choose is available for free on Google Video.
- Who knew there was so much to say about emoticons?
- On oldie, but still a goodie: “Putin said he viewed mysterious forces with suspicion and advised those who took them seriously to read the Bible, Koran or other religious books.” Yes, that’s right, the Russian President thinks reading religious books will stop Cthulhu. He’s in for a surprise. I bet he’ll wish he had those giant robots that day.
- I guess I’m a “fan” of both Comsky and Zinn, but I still found this Lord Of The Rings commentary gag pretty damn funny. Even when I was being pissed off at the not-to-subtle portrayal of the two of them as apologists for an obviously evil regime who cast blame on the undeserving heroes, I was still having a laugh.
- You don’t need to understand Vietnamese to grasp the beauty of these incredible works of “paper cut” art.
- “John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.“
