Archive for November 2008

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

"The prospect of exclusive access to virgins may not be so appealing to anyone who has even one mate on earth, which strict monogamy virtually guarantees. However, the prospect is quite appealing to anyone who faces the bleak reality on earth of being a complete reproductive loser."

Wow, Barry Manilow sings Never Gonna Give You Up on his latest album. Kill me now.
What is with all of the identical twins in TV commercials lately? Seriously, Doublemint was cool about 20 years ago. Now? Kind of dumb.
@sperte Thanks for the heads-up about Qwitter… interesting! Also, you need to try Silk Nog. Much better than Egg Nog. Not as custardy.
And that seals it. Worst season in college football history. I am calling a bottom for Husky football.
Umm yeah, nevermind that last tweet. We’re going to overtime. Grand.
Nice. Even after the Huskies have the worst year in the history of college football, we still beat the Cougs. Poor little Cougs…
@meyerweb Funny. One of the main reasons I *left* MT was because it was so hard to *remove* the .php extensions the way I wanted to. :)
I love that the heads of all three automakers flew to Congress today in private jets… TO BEG FOR MONEY. Nice example guys. Nice example.
One of these days, I’m going to just uninstall every piece of Adobe software on my computer. The Adobe updaters are beyond ridiculous.
Shared

Gale force winds applied directly to people’s faces. (via @itscolossal)

Fungible:

An excellent, must-read treatise by Stijn Debrouwere about how journalism is slowly being replaced by other services which perform journalistic duties (inform, entertain, etc.) without being journalistic entities unto themselves. Examples include Netflix reviews, Quora Q&A threads, and the like:

There are organizations and websites everywhere that are taking over newspapers’ role as tastemaker and watchdog and forum. These disruptors don’t replace investigative reporting, but they replace the other 95% of what made professional news organizations important.

The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever:

Fascinating article about how memories work and how we are very close to being able to biologically destroy them.

“Memory comes with a natural updating mechanism, which is how we make sure that the information taking up valuable space inside our head is still useful. That might make our memories less accurate, but it probably also makes them more relevant to the future.”

How The Huffington Post Ate the Internet:

This is the best article about the Huffington Post that’s ever been written. If you care at all about business or the news industry, it’s an absolute must read. Whether you love or hate HuffPo, the story of how they rose to prominence is fascinating and instructive. When you’re done, also make sure to check out this 1983 New York Magazine article about Arianna (then) Stassinopoulos.

The Daily Show on Easter vs. Passover. When you’re done with part one (above), make sure and check out part two. I guarantee it’s the funniest thing you’ve seen all week.

The “worst” baseball cards in history… which of course means they’re the best. The Bill Pecota one is particularly great. Thanks Fleer! (via @gruber)

Stamen's Beautiful Alternative to Google Maps:

Using OpenStreetMap data, Stamen Design has taken map design to a new level. I love these. Goodbye Google Maps? (via jasonsantamaria)

How Three Germans Are Cloning the Web:

A fascinating story about the Samwer brothers and their lucrative-but-icky-feeling business model: identify American internet companies right after they become successful in America and then clone them internationally, to great financial success.

In today’s episode of Our Stadium is Better than Your Stadium… play this full-screen with the volume cranked.

Children’s Classics as Minimalist Posters: These are amazing. I particularly like the Princess and the Pea poster.

Did You Hear We Got Osama?:

This is a really great post; one of the clearest, most concise, and personally important ones I’ve read in a long time. It’s important to understand that the reason most people consume news is in order to entertain themselves. This isn’t the aspirational reason… it’s just the true reason, in most cases. If you can get your news consumption refined to the point where you are staying amply-informed without being overwhelmed, you stand to be a lot more productive.

Solitude and Leadership:

Multitasking, in short, is not only not thinking, it impairs your ability to think.Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other people’s ideas, or memorizing a body of information…

Takes a little while to get going, but overall a great article about the virtues of seeking solitude from distractions in order to develop your own original thoughts.

“I think you’ve got a pretty good imagination, despicability-wise!”