We're all slobs

What I like about this is Brzezinski's clarion reminder that reading the NYTimes and Foreign Affairs amounts to little more than being slightly less intellectually lazy than the guy who doesn't. It is a powerful message in a digital age when we too easily accept the illusion of easy information as meaningful knowledge. It isn't. And won't ever be.

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And about that whole Israel/Palestine thing. I've reached the point where the issue has achieved its apotheosis as being purely and entirely tiresome. I attribute this to age. I remember watching this same shit on the evening news when I was six (that's back in 1984, around when Peres first took power). I take solace in the fact that I'm not alone. Even Ehud Barak has declared that the time has come to say these things.

December 30th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: study hard, Brzezinski, put down the pistol you rogue

A brief explanation of the structure of the known universe

Well this is 19 minutes of pretty impressive work.



November 22nd, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: structure of the universe, it's there because we're looking for it, paradox

Seriously

November 10th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: Prop 8, equality now

Decision 08

"When McCain, 72, a war hero who ran an uncharacteristically small-minded campaign, began to use "Joe the Plumber" as his last desperate campaign prop, he revealed that he had misread the new America as comprehensively as its foreign critics. White working-class males like bald-headed Joe have lost their electoral and demographic supremacy." -- Sarah Baxter, Times Online

November 8th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: 2008 election, secular sacred beats religion

Monkey learns to ride a Segway

Best. Video. Ever.



October 22nd, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: monkey, segway

Booze By the Numbers

The CBC is running a fascinating series of stories on alcohol consumption in Canada. My favorite is "Alcohol by the Numbers", to which I've added a few extras for comparisons sake:

• $18 billion: Total sales at beer and liquor stores in Canada in the fiscal year ending March 2007, a five per cent increase from the previous year.
• $220 billion: The entire budget of the government of Canada for fiscal 2007-2008.
• 47: percentage of beer sales as a proportion of total alcohol sales in 2007. That's down from 52 per cent in 1997.
• 2.3 billion: Number of litres of beer Canadians purchased in 2007; per capita that is 69.69 litres for every man, woman and child.
• 28: Wine accounted for 28 per cent of the alcohol market in 2007, up from 21 per cent in 1997.
• 71: 71 per cent of spirits sold in Canada in 2007 were Canadian spirits, with whisky, scotch and bourbon being the most popular choices.
• $667: The amount, on average, each Canadian spent on alcohol in 2007.
• $463: The amount that alcohol abuse costs every Canadian a year, in lost productivity, heath-care costs and crime-related costs, according to a 2008 study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
• 5: Alcohol's ranking on a list of harmful substances, behind heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methadone. Cannabis was 11th on the list, compiled by researchers at Bristol University in the U.K.

October 18th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: lay off the sauce

The 40-ft tall Optimus Prime of Kunming, China

October 18th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: transformers, kitch, public art, heroes