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August 30, 2008

Marshall/Biden

Matt says,

If you haven't already, definitely check out Josh Marshall's recently [re?]posted interview with Joe Biden from summer '04. Fascinating. A snippet, from when Biden describes meeting Qaddafi shortly after the announcement of the dismantlement deal:

I said, "Yeah, why, why the change of heart?" And he says, "The real question is" -- through an interpreter -- "The real question is, why did we get off this way, why did you sanction me in the first place?"

I looked at him and said, "That's easy. You're a terrorist." I didn't mince, I said, "You are a terrorist." I said, you know I leaned to him and said, "You've engaged in supporting terrorists. Matter of fact, you blew up 35 of the kids who went to my alma mater along with another hundred or so people. You're a terrorist, that's why."

He sits there and he goes like this, he goes, "That's logical." (laughs) I mean the guy was great! And I said, "So, Okay. Tell me why." And he went, Well -- I'm paraphrasing -- "Nuclear weapons didn't help you very much in Vietnam, they didn't help you in Iraq and if I ever used them you'd blow me away."

Comments (2) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:58 AM

August 27, 2008

Numa Numa Rihanna

Robin says,

Well, I got my first story onto Current:News. I'm not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed of the fact that it was about Rihanna covering the Numa Numa song. (Click the pink "play this story" bar to check out the TV version!)

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 8:20 AM

August 26, 2008

Shockwave Traffic Jams

Robin says,

Here's the setup:

  • You're one of 20 or so cars driving around in a perfect circle.
  • No seriously, it's a perfect circle.
  • So your only job is to follow the car in front of you.
  • And keep your speed at around 20 miles per hour.

The result? You guessed it: traffic jams!

Check out the video evidence.

And apparently this experiment corresponds to real-world observation in at least one important way: In both cases, the "shockwave" of slow-down propagates back through cars at around 12 miles per hour. It's pretty mesmerizing to watch.

Thanks, Mathematical Society of Traffic Flow!

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 3:42 PM

An Evening with Rthrtha

Robin says,

Check out this fun, cut-and-paste-y music video. Give it a bit to warm up; it gets exponentially better as it goes.

I love the bats.

The song is from a group called Octopus Project -- sort of Ratatat times Pinback minus vocals. Actually, never mind, that makes no sense. I'm going to stop trying to describe music.

Bonus: Behind-the-scenes stills! Oh man that looks fun.

(Via Ted R.)

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 11:03 AM

August 25, 2008

Matt Bai Talks Up The Argument

Matt says,

The Believer interviews Matt Bai. (Oh, and speaking of the NYT Magazine, I highly recommend David Leonhardt's cover story on Obamanomics if you haven't read it.)

Comments (2) | Permasnark | Posted: 1:28 PM

August 24, 2008

Never Again?

Matt says,

Richard Just's lengthy explanation of why Darfur is still engulfed in genocide five years after it caught the world's attention is the most spellbinding, heartrending thing I've read in quite a bit. A surprising brew of circumstances have paralyzed us from stopping this tragedy, departing from the Problem from Hell template in a few key particulars. Do take a look.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:24 PM

NYT Discovers Linkblogging

Matt says,

... and it's good. (Don't miss the running tally of good reads in the sidebar.) Keep it up, Mr. Kuntz.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 8:36 AM

August 22, 2008

Buildings and Their Not-So-Secret Identities

Matt says,

The Walker Art Center recently concluded a spectacular exhibit called "Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes" (they've helpfully catalogued the whole exhibit in a wiki; oh Walker, how I love you). Among the highlights of the exhibit was this photo collection by Paho Mann, images of former Circle K convenience stores that have been transformed into other types of businesses -- tattoo parlors, Mexican restaurants, tuxedo rental places -- all taken from the same distance in similar light, all bearing the Circle K's suprisingly distinct form. (Also available as a Google Maps mashup, natch.)

I mentioned this to an architect friend, and he pointed me to the delightful NotFoolingAnybody.com: "a chronicle of bad conversions and storefronts past" -- photos of former chain restaurants lightly altered to house new businesses. (Such as "China Hut," the bastard offspring of -- what else? -- Pizza Hut.)

OMG I love the Web sometimes.

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 2:03 PM

August 21, 2008

Dirty Talk

Matt says,

A MeFi commenter describes sex talk:

Q: You like sex? You are a person who likes the sex acts that we are currently engaged in?
A: Yes! I am! I like sex!
Q: You like sex! In fact, you are a person who likes sex as much as a prostitute likes sex!
A: YES I LIKE SEXY SEX AS IF IT WERE MY PROFESSION!! TELL ME MORE ABOUT IT
Q: YOU ENJOY THIS ACT YOU SEXY SEX PERSON etc.
(Via this awesome thread. See also: "I am never really going to close the dork tag.")
Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:05 AM

August 19, 2008

Back to the Pleasant Peninsula

Robin says,

On vacation in Michigan for the next five day. You know what I'm gonna do? Not blog.

I hear there's another guy who hangs around here... maybe you can lure him out in the comments.

See you on Monday!

Comments (3) | Permasnark | Posted: 7:27 PM

August 18, 2008

Socratic Dialogue as Journalistic Format

Robin says,

You know what we need more of? Socratic dialogues! Totally not kidding. It's such a natural, effective way to explore an argument. (This one's about the Obama campaign, by Atlantic blogger Marc Ambinder.)

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 12:13 PM

August 15, 2008

How Is YouTube Not the Greatest Art Project Ever?

Robin says,

The question just occurred to me: How is YouTube not the greatest art project ever?

Imagine a slightly parallel dimension where Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim aren't web engineers from Silicon Valley but instead art scenesters from New York. They know the language of the art world; they know how to present work in that context.

But they also have tech chops -- NYU ITP grads, say -- so their project isn't a painting or an avante-garde video but a web app. It's a platform, a system.

And that project grows into YouTube -- one of the craziest, most kaleidoscopic reflections of humanity we've ever seen. It's beautiful. It totally encapsulates and embodies the spirit of the age. And, in our parallel dimension, as the YouTube guys struggle with servers and scalability, they're also submitting it to juried shows and, I don't know, biennials or whatever. They are framing it.

Isn't that high art? Isn't that incredibly successful, important art?

Now, forget the commercial objection, because for years YouTube didn't run a single ad. And let's push our parallel dimension even further and say that Google signs on not as the project's acquirer but as its patron. The Medici of Mountain View!

Am I missing some foundational idea or definition here? I don't actually know anything about art (though I will admit I am in this frame of mind b/c I just strolled through SFMOMA yesterday) -- what would the knee-jerk art-scholar reaction be?

And what do you think?

Comments (6) | Permasnark | Posted: 4:37 PM

Imperial Fleet Week

Robin says,

Oh, and if you're in San Francisco this weekend, don't forget to check out Imperial Fleet Week. Last year's was awesome. Even though the AT-ATs always trip over the MUNI lines...

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 3:04 PM

The Dark Knight, Age Nine

Robin says,

Meta-media is the new media! This swede of the Dark Knight trailer acted out by kids is both a funny, charming homage and some sort of biting commentary. (Or maybe I just want it to be biting commentary?)

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 2:22 PM

August 14, 2008

Video Madness

Robin says,

Wow wow wow. Check out this demo of some crazy video algorithms. I can't even quite find words for what this team is up to... but it's pretty astounding. Watch all the way through, because there are a bunch of different techniques demoed, and they get better and better.

(Via kd.to_tumblr.)

Comments (4) | Permasnark | Posted: 3:03 PM

Bat-Manga!

Robin says,

Ah, the mythic confluence of all things nerdy: Random House is publishing a book called Bat-Manga, edited by Chip Kidd (of course). Here's the story:

[T]he book features Batman and Robin as you've never seen them before -- in original Japanese stories from 1966 and 1967, written and drawn by Manga master Jiro Kuwata, creator of 8-Man! -- collected and translated for the very first time, over forty years after they originally appeared.

UnbeLIEVable. Why was I not told of this sooner?

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 12:58 PM

Coming Soon: coolness.snarkmarket.com

Robin says,

I like this map of famous trips throughout history from GOOD magazine... but what I like even better is their subdomain for special projects: awesome.goodmagazine.com!

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 12:45 PM

August 13, 2008

Sigur Ros @ MOMA

Robin says,

I've been remiss in not posting this 'til now: Sigur Ros performs live at MOMA, on Current. Honestly, I didn't realize they could create those sounds outside of a studio. Beautiful.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 4:27 AM

August 12, 2008

The Sexiest Equation Ever

Robin says,

Er-hem.

Comments (6) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:46 PM

Designing Neighborhoods

Robin says,

20080812_arch.jpg

Ahh, the eternal lure of architecture and planning, if only because you get to make little models like this. At first I was turned off -- all those houses look the same! Blech! -- but then I started to think about how it would actually get implemented, and how it would actually feel. And then the geometry of the streets really caught me -- totally regular, but not just a boring grid. I'm into it. You?

(Via City of Sound's links.)

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:10 AM

Flip-Flop, Schmip-Flop

Matt says,

MPR's Midmorning show today was about politicians flip-flopping. A tired subject, and nothing non-trite can be said about it. Still, I had to let this out:

What the news media often neglect in their coverage of the candidates is attention to their underlying governing philosophies. I think these provide a much more accurate guide to their behavior in office than their tendency to make shifts on small-bore, particular issues.

For all the media hullabaloo around "flip-flopping" in the Bush/Kerry election, we would have had a much keener idea of President Bush's flavor of governance had the media focused our attention on the core philosophies animating his team of advisers. Bush's reliance on and deference to those advisers, their belief in the unitary executive, their dogged insistence on loyalty