August 2010
38 posts
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Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is the new spokesperson for a line of protein-infused vodka called Devotion, marketed in the United States by a former nightclub owner from New Jersey.
Does anything in that lede shock or surprise you? If so, then you have some faith in humanity left, and it needs to be shattered immediately.
(news via Jamie Leigh)
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While “Mannequins on the Subway” would be an awesome band name, what it is is a summary of my train ride home.
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Since I’m skeptical of mostly everything involving robots, I question the wisdom of deploying oil-absorbing robots to the Gulf:
“Using the principles of swarm robotics, thousands of such devices, interacting and coordinating with one another using global-positioning and wireless technology, could quickly form “teams” and tackle a burgeoning surface spill with crack efficiency....
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The Paris Review interviewed Natasha... →
(via natashavc)
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A writer writes about appreciating bad writing, and it’s rather spectacular:
“William McGonagall was a ridiculous and yet, in many ways, an admirable figure, worthy of our sympathy, compassion, and respect rather than of our disdain. If invincible delusion had not inured him to the cruel insults and practical jokes of his contemporaries, his life would have been truly tragic. But...
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“…there have been ‘more than 100 attempts to coin a gender-neutral pronoun over...”
– On the times when “he and she” just won’t do (via theeconomist)
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Oversharing in response to the Times article about The Youngs:
One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year.
Nine in total. Meh: undergrad dorm room, someone’s basement. Better: what seemed like the smallest efficiency apartment in Paris, a pretty big loft in a city that isn’t New York. Current: I can see if the bar across the street is open from my...
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“My mother having decided that Tonbridge was out of the question for her sensitive Christopher, some swift work had to be done to reposition me in the struggle—the whole aim and object of the five years at Mount House—to make me into a proper public-school boy.”
— Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22
Language Log dissects this difficult piece of prose.
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I have at least one Tumblr follower I can think of who would so completely ace this “Shakespeare’s Women” Jeopardy category.
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But we live now in a climate in which friends appear dispensable. While most of us wouldn’t last long outside the intricate web of interdependence that supplies all our physical needs—imagine no electricity, money, or sewers—we’ve come to demand of ourselves truly radical levels of emotional self-sufficiency. In America today, half of adults are unmarried, and more than a quarter live alone. As...
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diana-vilibert:
Things Men Should Never Wear, According to Me
Joke Tees You’re with stupid? If you’re wear a T-shirt with that message emblazoned next to a finger pointing to the person to your left… we’re sorry to break it to you, but it looks like we’re with stupid. Listen, we’re not uptight. We’ll joke around with your buddies and laugh at your poop jokes and make a few of our own—but that...
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baitandswitch:
Art exists because reality is neither real nor significant
— JG Ballard
