December 2011
39 posts
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“In fact, the N.C.A.A.’s real role is to oversee the collusion of...”
– Joe Nocera
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Favorite Songs of 2011
My favorite songs from 2011 that weren’t on my favorite albums
Think You Can Wait by The National w/ Sharon Van Etten
Book of James by We Are Augustines
An Iris by All Tiny Creatures
Rubber by Yuck
Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes
If I Had a Boat by James Vincent McMorrow
I Don’t Want Love by The Antlers
Baby’s Arms by Kurt Vile
Mary by Yellow Ostrich
Red Hunting...
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Best Albums of 2011
Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Wye Oak // Civilian
Megafaun s/t
Fading Parade // Papercuts
Wilco // The Whole Love
CYHSY // Hysterical
Radiohead // The King of Limbs
Grown Unknown // Lia Ices
Panda Bear // Tomboy
We Are the Tide // Blind Pilot
Best = favorite. Your favorites might not be wrong, but they’re probably not the best. I’m happy to join the Bon Iver parade, but why is there so...
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Life of the Party →
Former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter (R->D) is a comedian:
Specter explained that Gov. Christie was upset that a recent storm demolished his Jersey Shore house because it also destroyed “his entire library - both books. And he wasn’t finished coloring one.”
On the one hand, shocking, but on the other, this really shouldn’t be so surprising. It’s easy to...
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“We grow justly weary of our politics. But we must remember this: Politics — in...”
– Charles Krauthammer, via Wonkbook
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“In Mac OS X, you vote with your Dock.”
– Michael Lopp (2003) introducing an interview with Brent Simmons
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The Game →
Yale football coach and liar who convinced his quarterback to punt on Rhodes scholarship interview and play in the Harvard-Yale game resigns.
Scholar-athletes.
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Academia in Winter
Michael Bloomberg to Pick Cornell for Science School after $350M Gift Announced:
For the mayor, it is a chance to leave a lasting legacy that he hopes will make the city a world leader in computer engineering and transform the city’s economy. For Cornell, it could mean a chance to be the kind of incubator for new businesses — and the lucrative patents that come with them — that has been in...
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“Increasingly, with Twitter and other syndication means, readers gravitate around...”
– MG Siegler
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Mistaken for Strangers →
The National invited Trey Anastasio (as well as a few other musicians, more familiar to most indie rock fans) to join them for the finale of their five night New York City stand and presumably what was the end of the High Violet tour as well.
Too soon to tell if Pitchfork will ignore or post snark.
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The Great Blogfather (Was Slightly Goofy) →
Every once and a while it’s worth remember that social media had to be invented. Matt Haughey, MetaFilter founder, “… had to code all the software so he could “blog” in the first place.” Haughey:
And then I made comments. I’d only seen one other site with comments, so I sort of had to invent how blog comments work. I just thought those four or five authors might want to...
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Sports and Silence →
Michele Catalano writing for American McCarver explains why higher education needs to get out of the professional sports business:
There’s this culture surrounding sports where people are put on pedestals, held up as untouchable, infallible. Even when they do wrong (see, Kobe Bryant, Michael Vick, Ben Roethlisberger) excuses are made, forgiveness is quickly bestowed and alleged victims are...
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The American Composite of Gentleness, Rage and... →
Wilco has a set on Daytrotter. Sean Moeller introducing the set:
We all fight our problems, the ones that gnaw at our ankles and get into our bloodstreams. They slow us down and they speed us up and all that we can do about them is to acknowledge that they’re ours. They belong to us and we can still get along happily if we try our hardest to make it through. Wilco has taught us that.
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Jeff Tweedy as Weather Man →
I can’t believe how dark it can be.
Link via Mets Fan #1.
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“Maybe ‘I downloaded but didn’t share’ will be the new ‘I...”
– Andy Baio on remix culture
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“Barney Frank should absolutely be celebrated. Not as a great political talent...”
– Jonathan Bernstein
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Fanboy →
A definition of an Apple fanboy and commentary on those who prefer to use the term (from Jim Dalrymple, via Marco Arment).
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“Good people do bad things, bad people do good things, happy people get lost,...”
– Joe Posnanski on Penn State
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“Every business built on gatekeepers eventually fails. At some point some...”
– Jeff Price
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“The rule is: the further you are from your cave, there’s the exponential...”
– Michael Lopp on bags
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Snarls with Attitude and Anger →
Trey Anastasio on Neil Young:
Traditional concepts of rhythm and keys are great, but music is like a giant ocean. It’s a big, furious place, and there are a lot of trenches that haven’t been explored. Neil is still blazing a trail for people who are younger than him, reminding us you can break artistic ground.
Neil Young is #17 on Rolling Stone’s new Greatest Guitarists of...
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5by5 Illustrated →
A phenomenal tumblr for you to follow (via Marco).
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“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been....”
– Isaac Asimov via DF
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Erm, So... →
Dr. Drang’s script to clean telephone numbers for web forms just needs a bit on the end to play nice with Alfred:
pbpaste | tr -dc '[:digit:]' | pbcopy
So…. You’re Welcome.
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Alfred wins Macworld Award →
Alfred has been tabbed for a Macworld Annual Editors’ Choice Award.
It’s a good app. Certainly the only launcher that I have ever stuck with. I was hesitant to start using it after spending some hours around this time last year building an AppleScript launcher for Seth. But it’s way better than my little duct tape and string thing. If nothing else, it makes me feel more...
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“A cheeseburger cannot exist outside of a highly developed, post-agrarian...”
– Waldo Jaquith on the impracticality of a cheeseburger via Kottke
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Pedro Takes Himself Out of the Game →
Pedro Martinez is going to have a party and announce his retirement.
The greatest starter of all-time by ERA+. Some favorite memories:
9/10/1999 17 strikeouts against the Yankees in which the only base-runners allowed were a hit by pitch (Chuck Knoblauch) and a second inning home run by Chili Davis.
Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS. I still get chills thinking about a battered Pedro walking out of...
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Cloud Burst, Localized →
Via Jim Ray:
Gowalla, as a service, will be winding down at the end of January. We plan to provide an easy way to export your Passport data, your Stamp and Pin data (along with your legacy Item data), and your photos as well. Facebook is not acquiring Gowalla’s user data.
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Your Three Favorite Superhero Movies →
Man, This doesn’t seem like it should be so hard to do. I love this genre, but…
The Dark Knight and Burton’s Batman. I really like the second Burton film too with Devito and Pheifer. So those three and no X-Men, I guess.
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“For Siri to be really effective, it has to learn a great deal about the user. If...”
– Jon Pielak, former Siri-iPhone developer
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Reading on the iPad →
Shawn Blanc:
Ironically, the worst reading experiences are with the apps designed by the “professionals” that are based on the age-old history of reading in print: Apple’s own iBooks, and the Condé Nast apps. The best reading experiences on the iPad are Instapaper and Reeder. In part because they are easy to keep up-to-date, but also because their designs have the least amount of frilly bits,...
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“Reading magazines — and newspapers for that matter — is becoming a niche...”
– David Carr
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“In short, if you want public policy to reflect popular will, don’t stock the...”
– John Sides on Rick Perry’s proposed congressional pay cut
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Grade B →
Making the Grade: Why the Cheapest Maple Syrup Tastes Best - Yoni Appelbaum (The Atlantic)
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“Decentralization, in tech as in politics, is how we prevent one entity from...”
– Brent Simmons
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“The asymmetric nature of the bonus (an incentive for success without a...”
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb