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November 30, 2006

links for 2006-11-30

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Posted November 30, 2006 at 3:21 | Comments (0) | Permasnark
File under: Five Words

November 29, 2006

The 69 Test

Robin says,

Want a quick-and-dirty measure of a book's quality? Open it to page 69 and see what you find. (Another variation is the page 99 rule but, come on.)

I like how John Freeman at the National Book Critics' Circle blog puts it:

So that's what I began doing from time to time when the first page of a galley sunk into that logey, comfortable, throat-clearing prologue rhythm -- I'd flip to page 99 and see what I found.

Note to self: Never write anything "logey."

Comments (14) | Permasnark | Posted: 4:49 PM

The Lost Millennium

Robin says,

This ancient calculator is unbelievable. Second century B.C.!

20061129_ancient.jpg

And then:

Dr. Charette noted that more than 1,000 years elapsed before instruments of such complexity are known to have re-emerged. A few artifacts and some Arabic texts suggest that simpler geared calendrical devices had existed, particularly in Baghdad around A.D. 900.

Somebody I know once claimed, only half in jest, that if it wasn't for the Dark Ages we'd have landed on the moon by like 1200. Big ol' imperial space-galleys or something.

Comments (4) | Permasnark | Posted: 4:25 PM

November 27, 2006

Cease and Desist, My Fellow Human Being

Robin says,

How refreshing: A Google engineer sends the cease-and-desist email himself and writes it in the style of, you know, one thinking person communicating with another. Compare/contrast to the usual law-drone copy.

(Waxtastic.)

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 11:50 AM

November 22, 2006

PPT Love

Matt says,

TNR's Open University is reviving the age-old discussion of how awful PowerPoint is. (Cf. Gettysburg address told in PPT.) I've gotta dissent. I just think people use it wrong.

As a reporter/producer, I never had to make presentations. I told stories with images, audio, and text -- using Flash, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Word, and the like. My first month at the Star Tribune, I found myself having to use PowerPoint. Initially disdainful, I sniffed around for a few PPT tutorials, and stumbled across this blog. As well as provided helpful tips, the blog espoused an approach to PowerPoint that helped me to see it as just another storytelling medium.

The PowerPoint I created last October still lives on in bits and pieces today, in presentations I've given all over the Twin Cities. And I always get pretty good reviews.

Comments (7) | Permasnark | Posted: 9:47 AM

November 21, 2006

Blogs, Physics, and Nerd Love

Robin says,

This tale of blog-mediated romance is nerdy and sweet.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 5:17 PM

Fake is the New Real

Robin says,

Apropos of nothing: fake is the new real is a really striking webpage, yeah?

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 4:23 PM

How Current Works

Robin says,

Amanda Michel over at NewAssignment.net (Jay Rosen's cool collaborative journalism experiment) interviewed me about Current.

Go Digg it if you do such things!

Comments (2) | Permasnark | Posted: 11:37 AM

November 20, 2006

Robin's thoughts: Although in Matt's defense his head is somewhat less than perfectly spherical.... >>

Portrait of the Artist As a South Park Character

southparkmatt.gif

Hacktastic.

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Posted November 20, 2006 at 3:24 | Comments (2) | Permasnark
File under: Gleeful Miscellany

Equine Quartet

Robin says,

Direct animated horses as they sing a sweet little song.

If you don't click on that link there is no hope for you.

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

Kill Me Now

Robin says,

Michael Hirschorn leads his whither-newspapers story with EPIC. And this is, honestly, one of the best lines written about it, ever:

As a piece of pop futurism, EPIC 2014 is both brilliant and brilliantly self-subverting (at once inevitable and preposterous).

Oh yeah, by the way, IT'S IN THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

Update: Jon Fine mentions Hirschorn's story and points to some pretty interesting news: Two big-time WaPo reporters are striking out on their own to start a political news site.

Comments (4) | Permasnark | Posted: 12:39 PM

November 19, 2006

Like a Brain, Like a Heart

Robin says,

Take a look at this graph and try to tell me the internet isn't going to eventually wake up and, like, try to find other internets to play with.

Comments (3) | Permasnark | Posted: 7:02 PM

November 17, 2006

Somewhere in Oxford

Robin says,

Recently, two of my favorites -- Scott McCloud and Philip Pullman -- had dinner together. If they did not agree during this time to collaborate on a graphic novel, then there is little hope for this world of ours.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 1:00 AM

November 15, 2006

E-Chapbooks for the Masses

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So Revelator Press just released their second chapbook, Andrew Hungerford's play "Between the Water and the Air" (PDF).

Okay, there are like four things in that sentence you don't understand.

  • Revelator Press: brainchild of Wordwright and crew. I have never heard a group of people use the word chapbook so enthusiastically.
  • Andrew Hungerford: famous at MSU in my day for daring to double-major in astrophysics and theater. Should probably also be famous for owning the ofdoom.com domain name.
  • "Between the Water and the Air": Andrew's play, produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and elsewhere. I think it's quite good, and not just because it takes place in Michigan.
  • PDF-ness: You know, normally I'd be opposed, but honestly Revelator's Brandon Kelley did such a rad job on the design it's hard to complain. Print it out, read it on the couch.

I was going to try to write something brilliant and penetrating about the play itself but, you know, smart analysis is really Matt's department. I just serve up the links. So check it out.

One larger thing I will say is this: I really appreciate the dexterity and light-weight-ness of Revelator's approach. Wanna get your voice out there? No reason to wait for anybody to say it's okay, or tell you it's good enough. Just begin.

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Posted November 15, 2006 at 11:25 | Comments (0) | Permasnark
File under: Books, Writing & Such, Media Galaxy

The Dance in the Aisle

Robin says,

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Here's a great bit of artwork from Jen Wang: She renders the airline attendants' pre-flight safety routine as... a dance!

My sister is a dancer and is always talking about finding the dance in everyday activity: Not making it into a dance, as they do in musicals, but just recognizing the grace and rhythm inherent in normal, uncontrived motion.

(Via.)

P.S.: Remember how comments were busted for like a week? Well, they're fixed now. So comment away!

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 6:18 PM

Go Slow, Picasso

Robin says,

Even if this Malcolm Gladwell speech (PDF) was only so-so I'd probably still perfunctorily link to it. So, consider it a bonus that it's GREAT!

In it he talks about the differences between prodigies and late bloomers in art; as his prototypes Gladwell uses Picasso and Cezanne. (If that's too boring for you, he also compares The Eagles to Fleetwood Mac and Apple to Dell. And pharmaceutical R&D makes a cameo, too!)

It's a transcript of a recording, not just a speech text, so it has a really nice rhythm and tone. (Actually, it appears that the transcription was underwritten by the economist who Gladwell cites heavily in the speech... pretty slick.)

Gladwell's bottom line (which is almost beside the point in a speech as fun and discursive as this): Our culture has gone a little too wild for prodigies. We ought to make room for late bloomers again.

(Points of Note came outta nowhere with this one!)

Update: Rachel applies the Picasso/Cezanne paradigm to academic life.

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 6:13 PM

The Yield Curve

Robin says,

Okay, this is cosmic: Ben Hyde explains the yield curve (in short: it's a map of interest rates for various points in the future, and is a rough measure of investors' optimism) and links to a super-cool animation that shows its fluctuations from 1977 'til now.

It takes a bit of reading to understand exactly what it is what you're looking at, but once you do, it's pretty amazing.

For instance, here's the yield curve for December 1979:

curve_dec79.jpg

And for January 2004:

curve_jan2004.jpg

And based only on what you know about those two moments in time, you can probably begin to guess how to interpret the curve. So what do you think today's looks like?

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:42 AM

November 14, 2006

Missing the Concert

Matt says,

I heard one of this woman's songs week-before-last, immediately bought the album, listened to it during lunch at work the next day, and instantly went to a coworker's desk to announce I'd found her new favorite thing. And now I give her to you. Her name is Shara Worden, but she goes by My Brightest Diamond.

Tomorrow night, she'll be at 7th St. Entry, First Avenue's adorable little brother venue, but I cannot attend. This makes me sad. Support her when she comes to your town, that she may return to mine.

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 9:24 PM

Motown Remix

Robin says,

Track of the week!

It's Motown meets melancholy folk rock. (MP3 link!)

Again via the 'Move.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 4:24 PM

links for 2006-11-14

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Posted November 14, 2006 at 3:23 | Comments (0) | Permasnark
File under: Five Words

November 10, 2006

Fabric Constellations

Robin says,

Wow, never thought I'd be linking to quilts here on Snarkmarket, but... these are not your ordinary quilts. Just look at those colors!

Also: I saw the Gee's Bend quilts at the deYoung earlier this year, and was blown away.

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 1:35 PM

November 9, 2006

Frontline Does Kiva

Robin says,

You know I love Kiva; now there's a mini-doc about it posted on Frontline World. The piece has a great opening sequence, cross-cutting between a Ugandan with a peanut butter business and a San Franciscan with, um, a nice kitchen.

Globalization!

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:11 AM

November 8, 2006

The Wit and Wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld

Robin says,

This is a pretty snarky photo essay for TIME! Familiar with the meme, of course, but have never seen it so well-executed.

Slide four sorta sums it all up, doesn't it?

Also: a somewhat less-snarky photo essay on China. You can get 'em in a feed, you know!

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 10:00 PM
Peter's thoughts: You don