China memories

Howard French on an oral history of China:

Master Deng's life, and almost every other oral history in Liao Yiwu's new book, appropriately subtitled Real-Life Stories, China From the Bottom Up, gives the lie to this entire vision, making this a deeply subversive book. I do not mean the reader should expect a tract or treatise on Chinese politics. Instead, Liao casts aside the official "facts" of events and replaces them with "memories"--with the resulting contrast between the censored record and interior consciousness revealing a post-1949 China that has never stopped being a traumatic place. At their root, all of Liao's "real-life" stories share something fundamental: a fantastic, dreamy and nightmarish quality.

Jury Duty

From Phil Nugent:

As it happens, one night during my jury service in New Orleans, my grandmother came to town and I took her to see Jerry Lewis in Damn Yankees at the Saenger, and damned if one of my fellow jurors wasn't there, in her real-life role as an usher. When we saw each other again at the courthouse the next Monday, she told me that she had been a little wary of me, thinking that perhaps I deliberately dressed the way I did in hopes of making the lawyers and judges reluctant to put me on a jury, but that after having seen how I dressed to escort my beloved grandmother to an evening of theater, she now realized that I just didn't know any better.

I am a freak

I am a freak, by Younger Brother.

H.E.

“How does it hurt you?” That, my friends, is the coolly rational voice of homo economicus. While H.E. has his virtues, and can often help you think straight, sometimes you just have to tell him to fuck off.

Quotable

General Wesley Clark:

You'll never get the country to believe Democrats can defend our country until Democrats start standing up to defend other Democrats.

Don't Stop Movin

Don't Stop Movin' from S Club 7.

In the morning

In the morning, by Junior Boys.

49 Percent

49 Percent by Royksopp.

It Just Won't Do

It Just Won't Do, by Tim Deluxe

Sociology of the internets

PZ Myers receives threats of violence through the email. I'm a bit amazed at the 830-plus comments (the volume, not the mixture of stupidity and brilliance).

Threats of violence are actionable in a court of law. So should you, dear reader, lack common sense and/or common decency, I request that you be completely and utterly specific in describing how and why you will kill your intended victim when sending that intended victim an email. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better about it after you hit the send button. And so will the rest of us, when you are safely confined (our safety, not yours) in prison.

It is actually not surprising that Myers has received these threats: his blog is sufficiently controversial enough, and sufficiently anti-conservative. While his political views, when he rarely expresses them, skew left, his blog is for the most part politically neutral. What riles people up is his brash proselytization of atheism, his attacks on religious figures and what he considers to be religious idiocies, and his adamant defense of evolution. Any individual who routinely mocks irrational beliefs while praising rationality is a tempting target for the irrational among us. That's the way it is.

Frankly, the reason why I read PZ Myers is that he makes me think. I generally agree with his perspective, if I differ on ultimate conclusions.

For example, I am an atheist by default, in that I believe that if there is a supreme deity that he (or she) has heretofore shown absolutely no need or desire to be worshiped by little pipsqueaks like us. For example, if you believe in prayer, well more power to you, but all of the evidence I have seen suggests that you are more likely to get what you want if you just call a random stranger on the telephone. At least with a random stranger you have some evidence that they are actually listening to you (until they hang up).

But I for one do not care to mock religion. To my knowledge, no actual human society has ever been found or described that did not have an organized religion. Religion can inspire people to be amazing, altruistic, and wonderful human beings. But it can also, and often has, inspired people to be cruel, depraved, and inhumane.

I can imagine living without religion, and I do so now. But I am skeptical whether societies can live without religion. I am willing to be proved wrong. The question is, is everyone else?

Update: PZ also deals with sock-puppets. Hilarious, actually.

Harder, better, faster, stronger

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, by Daft Punk. Happy Bastille Day!

Truth will out

Jesse Taylor fills us in on the conspiracy:

Barack Obama, a man whose powers of time travel have already been seen a few times during this campaign (such as when he went back in time and manufactured his own birth certificate), once again shows the secrets of the universe unlocked by his fascist tinkering with the edges of perception and reality. He apparently engineered not only the placement of the Democratic Convention a full month before he declared his candidacy (easy enough, given that he probably did the latter once the former was ensured), but also engineered the very placement and nicknaming of the city of Denver.

Today's Foxtrot...

Today's Foxtrot references Penny Arcade, PvP, xkcd, and The Joy of Tech.

Sweet Dreams my LA Ex

Sweet Dreams my LA Ex, from Rachel Stevens.

From the dept. of tangible costs of intangibles...

How Much Does It Cost You in Wages if You “Sound Black?” (h/t Oliver Willis)

QOTD

The end result of global warming will be Rush Limbaugh on a Colorado mountain peak surrounded by oceans blaming the entire situation on Al Gore.

Smiley Faces

Smiley Faces by Gnarls Barkley. This is a fun video. See if you can spot all of the 'historical' appearances in the photos.

Remind Me

Remind Me, by Royksopp. This is one of the best videos I have ever seen. Visually enchanting.

Our current climate is stupid...

Global warming denialist denies that summer is warmer than winter.

Frontier Psychiatrist

Frontier Psychiatrist, by The Avalanches. This was from an interesting album, composed entirely by sampling and scratching. Apparently it took over 6 months to obtain legal clearances once the album was in the can.

Drop the pressure

Drop the pressure, by Mylo.

TSA considering shock-bracelets for air passengers

Want some torture with your peanuts?

You can watch the promotional video here. (Relevant info starts around the 3:00 mark)

Wherein I make a point...

but I worry that I might be too nuanced:

Actors and Musicians are brands. They have to advertise themselves in order to sell their work.

Scientists have to sell themselves too, but only to other scientists. But instead of spending a currency of celebrity, they tend to sell ideas and elegant experimental designs (also, scientists don't always have good people skills).

On the one hand it is absurd. But celebrity journalism reflects the values of our society.

On the other hand, celebrity journalism is an important business tool for actors and musicians. Don't think of them, then, as people, when they show up in the gossip sheets. Think of them as Tide, Tums, and Huggies. Only... with a human face.

This was written in response to this, which is terribly clever (and which I've already linked to today).

Sunscreen...

Sunscreen may not be all that safe:

Oxybenzone and similar cancer-causing chemicals in sunscreens contribute to the minority view that sunscreens actually cause more and deadlier cancers than they prevent. Several small studies have found an increased risk of malignant melanoma, by far the deadliest form of skin cancer, among regular users of sunscreens.

An online sunscreen guide.

And finally a bit of snark:

Total UV protection is within reach and has been used for millennia. It's called clothing.

Your thoughtful laugh of the day.

What if scientists were treated like celebrities? (h/t Pharyngula)

Well, duh.

I will nonetheless bet my neighbor's cat's bad habits that editorialists will endlessly recycle this story as a measure of the severity of the housing bust.

Crazy

Crazy, by Gnarls Barkley.

The original video for this song is visually fantastic, just fyi.

Update: Link wuz borken. Now fixxed.

Lincoln says...

I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood . . . .

(h/t Glenn Greenwald)

Woof, I say.

An Alsatian went to a telegram office, took out a blank form and wrote:
“Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof.”
The clerk examined the paper and politely told the dog: “There are only nine words here. You could send another ‘Woof’ for the same price.”
“But,” the dog replied, “that would make no sense at all.”

From: LaughLab.

Horizons

Horizons by LTJ Bukem

Free

Free by Ultra Nate. Not sure what's up with the surgical chic... but the song is a club classic nonetheless.

F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown

Yes We Can

Happy July 4th!

Sunrain

Sunrain by LTJ Bukem.

In my arms

In my arms, by Mylo.

Ordinary Day

Matt Bianco's Ordinary Day from 2004. The video was reconstructed, thus the occasional still image. The album this is from, Matt's Mood, is fantastic btw.

Sneaking out the back door

Another video from a very 1980s Matt Bianco...

Drink to moving on

Drink to moving on, by Grand National.

Music and Wine

Music and Wine, by Blue Six.

Destroy Rock and Roll

Destroy Rock and Roll, by Mylo.

Spain wins semi-!

Congrats to Spain, who now progress to the final of Euro2008. Hopefully Villa will make a quick recovery and be able to play Sunday.

I was able to catch most of the second half. Spain's first two goals were utterly brilliant.

Safe from harm

Massive Attacks' Safe from harm.

More than I can bear

More than I can bear, by the jazz-band-turned-pop band Matt Bianco.

A peculiar story arc

Larry Johnson's Strange Trip: How a onetime hero of the liberal blogosphere and the Democratic Party spread perhaps the most damaging anti-Obama smear of the primary.

Negislation

Promoting travel by making it more expensive:

[T]he conversation turned to a piece of legislation that’s being pushed hard by lobbyists for big players in the tourism industry, the so-called Travel Promotion Act. The Act is supposed to create a $200 million fund to promote tourism, by levying a charge on visitors to the US. The charge is non-trivial – the estimates I heard suggested that in order to raise $10 a head to give to the travel industry’s promotional fund, the government will likely have to impose a total fee of $25 to cover administrative overheads.

The Fruit

The Fruit by Sander Kleinenberg... with a v. prominent iPod in the video...

Mmmm Monday... time to get out of bed

Get outta your lazy bed, by the jazz-band-turned-pop band Matt Bianco, live on Top of the Pops. Look carefully, that's Basia singing the female lead.

Geriatric animals

Fascinating article on the aging wildlife population in zoos:

The Golden Years have arrived at the nation's zoos and aquariums, and that is taking veterinarians and keepers, along with their animals, into a zone of unknowns.

Do female gorillas, now frequently living in to their 40s and 50s, experience menopause?

Can an aging lemur suffer from dementia?

How do you weigh the most difficult choice — between prolonging pain and ending life — when the patient is a venerable jaguar who's been around so long she's come to feel like a member of the family?

All of those questions hang on a larger one that, until recent years, has been left to educated guesswork based on limited evidence.

Yes, Mylo might just be god...

Mylo's radio remix of No More Conversations by Freeform Five.

Saturday meme, pork and beans...

Pork and Beans by Weezer. I love this video.

Faster Kill Pussycat

Faster Kill Pussycat, by Paul Oakenfold. Get those muscles moving...

Unobvious note

There actually is a bank that isn't first: The Fifth Third Bank.

Does this mean they were the fifth bank to come in third?

Transcendental comedy

The writing on the Colbert report is probably the sharpest there is on TV.

Programming note

Here on out, I will be posting a new music video every morning at 9:00.

Inside and Out

Feist does a wonderful BeeGees cover.

Here I go again, pissing off would-be commentators...

Muslims against Sharia is pissed off at me.

I think this individual is a troll, and may even be properly considered a concern troll.

Here are a couple of things that don't add up in Muslims against Sharia's comment.

First: "We admit that most terrorists are Muslims [...]"

This statement is bogus. Most of the terrorists that we see on the nightly news are Muslim, but that's because most of the terrorists that American forces are dealing with are in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also this stereotype is further emphasized by Palestinian and Hezbollah attacks on Israel that receive press coverage in the states.

Look around. There are terrorists everywhere. Until recently there were terrorists in Ireland (Christian). In the 1970s and 1980s there were terrorists in Germany and Italy (both communist and US-sponsored). Currently in Sri Lanka there are the Tamil Tigers (Hindi). In Colombia there is the FARC (communist). There are lots more elsewhere. They usually don't make the nightly news because their political aims and political targets aren't sufficiently newsworthy for American audiences.

So right off the bat, this troll feeds anti-Muslim stereotypes.

Second, this troll makes a sweeping statement: "Where are all the so-called "Islamic civil rights groups" like CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, MAS, etc. who are quick to defend every Islamic terrorist, but are silent when Muslims in general are being denigrated?"

Now, I'm not personally familiar with these organizations, but I've at least heard of a few of them. I cannot believe that they are all terrorist sympathizers. This statement doesn't pass my BS-meter, and actually strikes me as a smear against these Muslim-American and Arab-American organizations.

Third, this troll denigrates several people who have been associated with Senator Obama and makes a claim that "Mr. Obama's website is insulting to hundreds of millions of people." Looks to me like someone is engaging in disingenuous hyperbole, and that the whole point of this comment is to smear Obama.

Update: If you feel the need to respond to my characterizations, please go to where the hubbub is.

Live with me

From Collected by Massive Attack.

Time to update Firefox

I'm always late to the party, even when I receive an invitation; but Firefox 3.0 is here.

Now that we have $4 a gallon gas...

You might want to read the essay where I wrote this:

Economically, suburbs and exurbs are not sustainable, as their very existence requires both a thriving metropolitan area and cheap fuel. Well gasoline is not going to become cheaper--although we might save on our long term costs by switching to hybrid cars. But... well I don't want to derail this entry too much by going into the state of our cities. Let's just say that my city, Rochester, gets by... but barely. Also, it is used to wearing a lot of hand-me-downs.

The truth is, off-shore drilling will do nothing to lower fuel prices in the United States when the main force driving up fuel prices is increased demand in the so-called third world (especially since there really isn't much oil off our coasts).

Link rot

Just a note: sometimes links expire.

Sulu to get married

George Takei and Brad Altman first to get marriage license in West Hollywood

One of the best songs of the 20th century

Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy.

Huh?

The Associated Press wants bloggers to pay $12.50 to quote as few as five words from an AP article.

Not only does this show a level of cluelessness about the culture of the internet, it also appears to fly in the face of copyright law: everyone is entitled to fair use quotations of published works.

From the U.S. Copyright Office's web-site:

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.” (emphasis added)

I doubt that most of the AP's claims for remit from bloggers on the internets will pass legal scrutiny. The Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center's web-site is v. informative and has a good section on Fair Use.

Update: Mark Glaser on all of this. (h/t Atrios)

Making a note

for future reference: Glossary of Poetic Terms.

Fever

A Guy Called Gerald, from 2000.

USA wins 8-0

Team USA is competing for one of 3.5 slots for the 2010 World Cup. They just won their first qualifying game 8-0.

Here are the current standings.

Vive le point-virgule

Encouragingly, a Committee for the Defence of the Semicolon appeared on the web (only to disappear some days later, which cannot be a very good sign).

Projected projection changes

Poblano tweaks his methodology, and explains his changes. Regardless, the electoral landscape is looking good for Obama. Hopefully this keeps up

One Evening

I love this song, One Evening, by Feist.

Job interview time

From Overcompensating.

Radio radio radio

Radio, by Felix the Housecat. Watching this video is like watching a movie in an incomprehensible foreign language... it tells a story, somehow.

No not my favorite band...

But I like this tune quite a bit. Good cure for those Friday the 13th blues.

Fist bumping for dummies

(h/t Oliver Willis)

Feels so good

Pacific state of mind

From 808 State.

I'm guessing this is the original video, since FSOL also had those old fashioned 'cool' computer graphics.

Jesus was Batman, pass it on.

Blogger profiles

Newsweek profiles Poblano, the mastermind behind FiveThirtyEight.

Hell Alright

Another from De-Phazz.

The bestest and the brightestestererers

John McCain once wrote this:

It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay. No other national endeavor requires as much unshakable resolve as war. If the nation and the government lack that resolve, it is criminal to expect men in the field to carry it alone.

(h/t Brad DeLong)

My Moon My Man

Another great song by Feist.

The perfect exam

Philosophy Exam – First Year

Answer two questions

Two hours

1. Patch together some things you have heard in lectures, in no particular order.

2. Has this question vexed philosophers for centuries?

3. Create an impression of original thought by impassioned scribbling (your answer may be ungrammatical, illegible, or both).

[more]

Bruno Bozzetto's Europe and Italy

I laughed. Then I laughed some more. Here's the link. Go.

Sunday morning cartoons

Rounding up De-Phazz weekend, this version of Viva La Felicita.

added: Blogger's posting into the future feature is not without quirks.

Detroit parenting

Sweet Juniper is zomg a good blog.

Sheldon on Indy 4

Sheldon points out everything that I found annoying about Indy 4.

True North

Continuing in a De-Phazz vibe.

Time for that certain holiday...

The Shanghai Bridge incident

Old news, but posted for a friend: The Shanghai Bridge incident from 2007.

Recap

Jon Stewart nails it.

99 problems

Warning: this is the explicit version.

Sports fans, fornicators, and pot smokers...

Someone has made of list of people who are going to hell. I only assume it is not all-inclusive.

But that said, I think they've covered almost everybody.

Reality cries in our beer...

Limited options for Anheuser in buyout drama.

Mama said...

Kos reconsiders caucuses

One thing I like about Kos is that he's willing to reconsider his biases when his biases conflict with hard reality. Case in point.

Beautiful Life, by Gui Boratto

QOTD

We are a nation that sees images of Jesus on toast.

Hunter strikes again. I love his essays.

Dispatch

I often think of troubadours (cf.
cavalier poets), their metrical rhymes,
their passions (n.: the sufferings of a
martyr). They too wanted love—but burning
in the timbers of their desire was a
hope, that love would lift them above the mun-
dane and ordinary, that through love they
would become more like the gods—more alive.
Think, my friend, on how ordinary and
extraordinary love is—pause—then, breathe.

Your friend (and troubadour, of sorts)—s(d)h

In the religion of capitalism, everything must be monetized in order to have value.

A case in point: ADHD can cost adults 20 or more workdays a year .

North Florida, 1998

When I return
                in summer,
I return
        to the summer rain—
   thunder in the distance,
                then near,
              then rumbling
                          away.

If the trees could
        they would shake themselves
           like dogs—
       every leaf is dripping.

And I walk
        between the puddles
under the trees
        to the field—
                subdued sunlight
          and grasses
and a moment
  I try vainly
        to grasp
           from time.

Beneath the opening sky
the thunder soft in the distance
there is a peacefulness
which is caught
     by the summer air
and fills
        every crevice
  inside.

Bestiality

        “Need is my tactic, detachment
         Is my strategy. When I had
         No lover, I courted sleep.”
                                 — Robert Pinsky, from “Samurai Song”


1.
I could quote you—
I was told once that the rhinoceros
with its one horn was symbolic
of purity—
the rhinoceros was the unicorn—
but to me, the rhinoceros is rage—
“Your letter truly shocked me.”


2.
“Your letter truly shocked me.
And yes, it angered me as well.”
You could have accused me of arrogance,
of hypocritical self-righteousness.
But instead you accused me of ignorance:
“I realized you [. . . ] don’t know me at all—how sad.”
You are the zebra who says,
“You are not like me,
    your stripes are not like mine.”


3.
When I swam with the fishes,
I was mean and cruel.
Sometimes, when I caught my prey
I would nibble on its fins
and let it swim away—
knowing, slower,
        it would never escape
        the next predator’s gaze.
But there is no ill-will among the fishes—
life is too short—
in the depths, they say, is Leviathon.
What Leviathon is afraid of
they do not say.


4.
Yes, there was a change in tone.
In our notes we discussed plans
to spend New Years in New York City.
Where I was so kind and understanding,
I became callous, cold.
I criticized you,
        and I criticized your life.
I wrote that “I never did want to fall in love with you [. . . ]
the primary reason is this: you are fucked up.
Your life is fucked up.”
I must have sounded
    like a baboon
       chiding
           the lion.