August 2007
The Daily Metafilter Link Grab
The Daily Metafilter Link Grab:
- T.S. Eliot vs Portishead (mp3) “Crazy” meets “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head;” but, you know, T.S. Eliot.
- Clowns KKKick KKK ass! Wife Power!
Oh Crap
Oh Crap. I think I just met myself.
WORST FULLSTOP MOVIE FULLSTOP EVER FULLSTOP
WORST FULLSTOP MOVIE FULLSTOP EVER FULLSTOP. Who the HELL thought this would be a good idea? I mean, okay, Hollywood isn’t known for its high standards of integrity and quality, but this? Can you imagine the meeting?
EXEC 1: We should do a horror movie.
EXEC 2: What about another Leprechaun movie?
EXEC 1: You mean that trashy B-horror-slasher franchise about a little Irish dude? Perfect.
EXEC 2: … BUT, he’s in the ghetto, hanging out with drug-dealing ho-pimping rappers.
EXEC 1: OH MY GOSH THAT IS AWESOME IT WILL MAKE US A MILLION DOLLARS.
Willow, you disappoint me.
Time for Something Silly
Time for Something Silly: In reply to Chad’s Bebo song game. Some of these don’t make any sense, a surprising number do, and it’s spooky how right some of these are (see: “FOR YOU”.) Honestly 100% didn’t cheat.
- HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
- Lioness (Dead Poetic)
- WHAT’S YOUR OUTLOOK ON LIFE?
- Modern Love (David Bowie)
- WHAT DOES YOUR FAMILY THINK OF YOU?
- Saint Jude in the Village Voice (Ravens & Chimes)
- WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
- Your Cover’s Blown (Belle & Sebastian)
- WHAT DO STRANGERS THINK OF YOU?
- Cavity King (Project 86)
- WHAT DO YOUR EXES THINK OF YOU?
- Waiting for the 7:18 (Bloc Party)
- HOW IS YOUR LOVE LIFE?
- Pressure (Featuring Jay-Z)- Lupe Fiasco
- HOW WILL YOUR LOVE LIFE BE IN THE FUTURE?
- Mexican Sausage Link (Chingon)
- WILL YOU GET MARRIED?
- Freak On A Leash (Korn)
- WILL YOU HAVE KIDS?
- Lo Siento (P.O.D.)
- ARE YOU GOOD AT SCHOOL?
- I’m Alright (Jars of Clay)
- WILL YOU BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE?
- The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret (Queens of the Stone Age)
- WHAT SONG SHOULD THEY PLAY ON YOUR BIRTHDAY?
- Straight Line (The Kumquats)
- WHAT SONG SHOULD THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
- Ragoo (Kings of Leon)
- THE SOUNDTRACK OF YOUR LIFE:
- Something’s Missing (John Mayer)
- YOU AND YOUR BEST FRIEND ARE:
- Father’s World (Supertones)
- HAPPY TIMES:
- Thank You For The Venom (My Chemical Romance)
- SAD TIMES:
- Wake Up (The Arcade Fire)
- EVERY DAY:
- In The Pines (Ira & Charlie Louvin)
- FOR TOMORROW:
- Everything Must Go (Manic Street Preachers)
- FOR YOU:
- We Suck Young Blood (Radiohead)
- WHAT DOES NEXT YEAR HAVE IN STORE FOR ME?
- Somersault (Sky Larkin)
- WHAT DO I SAY WHEN LIFE GETS TOO HARD?
- Try, Try, Try (Smashing Pumpkins)
- WHAT DO I THINK WHEN I GET UP IN THE MORNING?
- Creep (Radiohead)
- WHAT SONG WILL I DANCE TO AT MY WEDDING?
- All Is Full Of Love (Björk)
- WHAT DO YOU WANT AS A CAREER?
- Stellar (Incubus)
- YOUR FAVOURITE SAYING?
- Beware! Criminal (Incubus)
- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
- Up Against (Blackout) (Taking Back Sunday)
- WHERE WOULD YOU GO ON YOUR FIRST DATE?
- Moonlight Drive (The Doors)
- DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
- L’Via L’Viaquez (The Mars Volta)
- WHAT DO I LIKE DOING MOST?
- Nest Egg (The Phoenix Foundation)
- SONG THAT DESCRIBES MY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL.
- Girls Get The Bass In The Back (No Doubt)
- WHAT IS MY STATE OF MIND AT THE MOMENT?
- Sensitive to Bees (Marzipan feat. Strong Bad)
- HOW WILL I DIE?
- Are You Ready? (The Majestic Twelve)
- THE SONG THAT YOU’LL PUT AS YOUR SUBJECT:
- Come My Way (Skillet)
“The War as We Saw It”
“The War as We Saw It”. An op-ed from U.S. soldiers currently serving in Iraq.
On the loyalty (or not) of the state army and police:
Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb [that killed and injured U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint].
On the U.S.-centric view of things:
Given the situation, it is important not to assess security from an American-centered perspective. The ability of, say, American observers to safely walk down the streets of formerly violent towns is not a resounding indicator of security. What matters is the experience of the local citizenry and the future of our counterinsurgency. When we take this view, we see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.
Current conditions:
At the same time, the most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation.
And this pretty damn condemning summary:
Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence.
…
In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.
#168
Underground house
Underground house: this is wicked cool.
Yoga, Thursday 6pm at Govindas (Colombo Street)
Yoga, Thursday 6pm at Govindas (Colombo Street). $15 (less for students), with a vegetarian meal afterwards. I will be there; meet me there, or cruise on up to my office before then if you’d like (text me to let you in.)
(They do it Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, so future weeks might be on a different day.)
Brian: 3. On the Run
Once at the bottom of the stairwell, Brian carefully pushed open the fire door at the back of the building. The alleyway beyond seemed deserted. He stepped out of the[…]
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(A Foo Fighters post for AJ)
(A Foo Fighters post for AJ). Why do UFOs always seem to show up in the good old U.S. of A? A charitable theory could be that they’re a Native American (that is, American Indian) phenomenon, but I can’t think of any particularly good reasons why that would be the case.
Also, marginally on that topic, why do we consider our governments completely incompetent, except in the realm of keeping bizarrely implausible and hugely significant things secret?
Brian, Chapter 3
Brian, Chapter 3. (Or read from the start.) In which more things happen.
Oh, that's real classy
Invisible Rope!
#161
There is, it turns out, a podcast of some of the speeches of Alan Watts (who is a renowned philosopher and mystic, apparently. Also, dead.) The South Park guys have animated a couple more of his speeches, too.
Allow me to point you all at Nick's blog
Allow me to point you all at Nick’s blog. I met Nick in Auckland (where he flats with people I used to flat with; I guess that makes us flatmates-once-removed), and I can attest to the uprightness of his character. Also, his little drawings are great.
Found on the 'net
Found on the ‘net:
There was a young fellow named Fisher
Who was fishing for fish in a fissure
When a cod, with a grin
Pulled the fisherman in
Now they’re fishing the fissure for Fisher.— Found at Fun With HTTP Headers
On evolving software
On evolving software:
Robustness is good, but the single biggest advantage of Evolutionary Programming is the final thing it has in common with biological evolution: it can solve problems that humans are unable to solve, or come up with solutions better than any human solution. In the biological world, animals can climb stairs, avoid obstacles, catch prey, and do many other things that humans have failed to get a robot to do well. In the a-life world, there are evolved programs like the 22s in Tierra. Lockheed Martin have evolved code that works out how to maneuver spacecraft from one orientation to another. It achieves the goal within 2% of the theoretical minimum time — which is around 10% faster than any human-written code can manage.
Pretty awesome stuff – emergent behaviour from a few simple rules, insanely compact programs evolving, algorithms smaller than the most compact human-written design.
