February 2011
22 posts
2 tags
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sexy...
Here is the romance line of Book By You, where you can generate previews of fifteen romance novels by filling in character names and other salient details (hair color, sexual predilections, hobbies, &c.).
Here is a list of Nobel laureates.
Here is a list of My Little Ponies.
Here is a list of Autobots.
Here is a list of Elder Gods.
Have fun.
January 2011
15 posts
1 tag
One Small Sip for Man
While his position in the lunar module prevented him from achieving Neil Armstrong’s immortality, Buzz Aldrin does have one thing going above any other member—past or present—of the astronaut corps: a name perfect for mixed drinks.
A cursory google search will turn up three drinks that answer to the name of “Buzzed Aldrin.” Of these, two have pretty respectable...
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When I Think About Blurbs, I Touch Myself
Recently, I was asked to provide a blurb for something I really dig. This is a project I like a lot—both for its content and for the creators and philosophies behind it—and I really wanted to do it justice.
My first try was sincere, if a trifle dry:
With [project], the [production group] once again sets the bar for independent comedy: smart, silly, wholly original, and, above all,...
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25 Years Today
We try, and we triumph. We try again and triumph again. And we try again and again and again, and our exultations know no bounds, for we triumph again and again, and then - we are human, we are not perfect, we are fallible - tragedy pays the price for triumph. It has been ever thus.
-Senator John Glenn, speaking at a memorial service in honor of Judith Resnik.
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Friday, January 27, 1967
After what seemed like a long time, Don finally hung up and said very quietly, “Fire in the spacecraft.” That’s all he had to say. There was no doubt about which spacecraft (012) or who was in it (Grissom-White-Chaffee) or where (Pad 34, Cape Kennedy) or why (a final systems test) or what (death, the quicker the better). All I could think of was, My God, such an obvious thing...
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Boldly Go
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry has a replica Gemini capsule.
You can sit in it.
And if you bring a friend and exercise a certain degree of discretion, you can make out in it.
Just like a real astronaut.
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The Fallacy Files
Taxonomy of Logical Fallacies
(H/t to Lauriel)
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Subtlety for Beginners
First, there was this xkcd strip:
Several years later, when we’d all long-since forgotten, a softer world published this:
On the off-chance that you can’t read it, here’s the mousover text from the softer world strip:
it’s in love with randall munroe.
Well played, indeed.
The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of... →
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Pissing on Borges's Grave →
The article itself is pretty interesting—something that’s easy to miss in the shadow of its fantastic quotability:
“I am not just a person who goes around peeing on tombs, but a writer with a serious oeuvre,” he said today.
I kind of dig the irreverence and layered political and artistic nuance of the photo itself—and doubly so its use on a book cover. And it...
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But in my head, Archie Andrews is arguing with Betty Cooper about the merits of cultural versus political Zionism, and then they have sex.
-Cartoonist Eli Valley, interviewed in The Comics Journal
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Grasping at Fuses
I’m not sure where I’m going with this.
Is that okay?
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Presque vu
(from the French, “almost seen.”)
1. the sensation of being on the brink of an epiphany
2. nostalgia for something not personally experienced
