Posts Tagged ‘linkdump’

Turns out “tiger” parenting isn’t such a good idea. When pirate costumes go wrong. “Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers. Oh, and they should put those damn smartphones down and get off my lawn already.” Please turn off your portable electronic devices prior to takeoff. Unless [...]

On Homeland and The Americans. I don’t watch the former, so I can’t comment on it. I will say that I have been struck by a parallel between The Americans and The Sopranos in the sense that as with Tony Soprano, there are only so many ways that Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings’ story can end, [...]

It was Cinco de Mayo, I was down on the bayou… Here’s a video of a cat, dressed as a shark, chasing a duckling while riding on a Roomba. Also features a dog in hammerhead shark costume, because of course it does. If this doesn’t represent the pinnacle of the Internet, I don’t know what [...]

Better music through data. Metadata, that is. It’s hard to find a scripted drama that hasn’t used rape and/or murder as a plotline at least once. I will note that their list is incomplete – by my reckoning, “Royal Pains” and “Veep” are not listed, and there may be others. But you get the point. [...]

An Anthony Weiner mayoral candidacy would be a gift for shameless headline writers, if nothing else. It’s time for MLB to honor all of its pioneers, without whom there couldn’t have been a Jackie Robinson. “People who assumed Siskel & Ebert was just about movies were never really paying attention.” “Eden Foods — an organic [...]

The first obstacle for Hillary Clinton to overcome if she wants to run in 2016 is to not have Mark Penn on her campaign payroll in any fashion. The untold story of how Apple built an operating system. Maybe Mark Sanford isn’t the right guy to defend traditional marriage. Superhero women wearing pants? It could [...]

Ah, baseball. I’ve missed you. Twenty great Billy Joel songs that haven’t been overplayed. It’s great living in the future, isn’t it? “Many big network breaches begin not with brainy hacker code but with workers who are tricked by so-called social engineering, which manipulates people into revealing sensitive information. So companies are trying to get [...]

And out like a lamb… Geez, now even I’m worried about Gmail. Thanks, Ezra. The Nielsen Family ain’t what it used to be. This five-year-old girl discovered a new species of dinosaur, which is now named for her. What have you done with your life? “70′s Actor Erik Estrada To Star In Right Wing ‘Religious [...]

I understand there may be a basketball game on TV right about now… First and foremost, what Charlie Pierce says. “Can we challenge ourselves to come up with some new or adjunct language for mean girl? How about angry girl? Fearful girl? Insecure girl? Perhaps this would shift our conversation to one of less judgment [...]

Are we feeling a little green today? RIP, What Not To Wear. I hope by now we all have it figured out. Latinos love movies, and Hollywood has noticed. Need some good female role models from the world of fiction for your budding scientist? Now you have them. Personally, I’d like to see him pay [...]

What self-inflicted crisis is next on the agenda? I’ve lost track. Ain’t no party like a toddler birthday party, ’cause a toddler birthday party don’t quit till everyone loses their pants and pees on their shoes. A Lego Hogwarts that will make Olivia insanely jealous. This is a lousy reason to build a park. You [...]

In like a lion… The way we measure how we watch TV is about to reflect how we actually do watch TV these days. The same will be true for how we listen to music, too. Some geeky origami to help celebrate Pi Day. “Cruz is a very smart guy. There’s no question about that. [...]

“I asked Jack White if Jack White had met Jack Black. They had. It has been on my mind for a long time. Now I know.” I’m not embarrassed to punctuate with exclamation points where I feel they properly convey my intentions, but I’d totally use an ElRey mark if one were available on my [...]

Dunk or dunk not. There is no try. James Harden is a Zen master. And then God made a more accurate representation of farming in America. No, we don’t have a fertility crisis in the US. Illegally uploaded movies on YouTube aren’t being blocked as often as they once were. Twenty-five years of “Raising Arizona”, [...]

There needs to be a constitutional right to vote. So how do owls twist their heads so far around, anyway? From the Don’t Criticize What You Don’t Understand department. Now this is how you deal with an obnoxious troll. When was the last time you saw the Shakespeare insult generator? Well, that’s too long. On [...]

See you in the fall, football. What if Jimmy Olsen were a woman? Doesn’t bother me. Derek Jeter goes to Davos to talk about climate change. Maybe they’ll listen to him. Please don’t photograph the food. Thank you. The march towards equality continues apace. What Nate Silver gets wrong. App and mortar retailing is the [...]

Jimmy Carter makes a stand for equality. I hope many of his fellow Baptists follow him. There are a lot of things we don’t know about gun violence. The HP Lovecraft problem. On “healthwashing” Girl Scout cookies. When a (Yankees fan) man loves a (Red Sox fan) woman. Beware the rogue cloud. Google says “Death [...]

Hail to the Chief, it’s the Chief that we are hailing… Woo hoo! Flying cars! About damn time. Google wind. That’s a noun, not a verb. How to not be a menace during cold and flu season. These eight words come in handy in many other contexts as well. The semi-open gay lives of some [...]

Be on the lookout for pantsless people today. Triskadekaphobes, unite! You have nothing to lose but your mild anxiety. The Bloggess can be your patron saint. The top ten skywatching events to look for this year. “There are many advantages in this world to knowing June Foray and that was one of them.” “I really [...]

Does joking about writing the wrong year on checks mark one as irredeemably old? “A spider that builds elaborate, fake spiders and hangs them in its web has been discovered in the Peruvian Amazon.” Arachnophobes the world over shudder in horror at the thought. Gingerbread Downton Abbey. You’re welcome. Airline fees impede price comparisons. The [...]

I don’t know about you, but this was one of those years that I thought would never end. America’s worst bosses. All are responsible for at least one large payout of a discrimination-related lawsuit. The worst columns of 2012. I have no idea how they managed to stop at 50. The top physics breakthroughs since [...]

“Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then — just as your calendar begins again on January 1 — another long-count [...]

Happy birthday, Aunt Judy! More apps = less television. I don’t think this is what all those people with the “Kill Your TV” bumper stickers had in mind, though. Less whining about Christmas is a good idea in general. Ten ways to reduce inequality without raising tax rates. Which does not mean that raising tax [...]

“In the great green-certified room There was a smartphone And a silver spoon And a picture of— A high-contrast, brain-stimulating black-and-white moon” What being a graduate student in math has to do with vacuuming cats. “Immaterial goods turn out to generate equally immaterial income.” “The telco industry charges more, kilobyte by kilobyte, for sending a [...]

Insert standard plaintive cry about where the year has gone here. Help the Waltrip High School Band travel to play at President Obama’s inauguration. Here’s a comprehensive list of people who are paid to pontificate about politics saying dumb things about the 2012 election. “Tastes like dinosaur”. Sure, why not? More Congressfolk like Dr. Raul [...]

“But what I learned from this experience is that if you’re a Christian — left or right, it doesn’t matter — and if your religious convictions lead you into political activism, do not bring Jesus into it unless you’re prepared to let him shape not only the causes you support, but the way you go [...]

Isn’t it nice to be able to watch live TV again without having to dread the political ads? More early voting, and more voting by mail, would do a lot to make voting easier. The Internet withstood Hurricane Sandy. One reason we know why voter fraud is not a big problem is that those who [...]

But here in this graveyard that’s still no-man’s-land The countless white crosses in mute witness stand To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man To a whole generation that was butchered and damned. It’s now a lot harder to use a stolen smartphone. You can thank those evil, meddling government bureaucrats for it, too. Speaking [...]

It’s almost over, it’s almost over, it’s almost over… Paul Krugman writes the introduction for a new edition of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy. You may commence having your nerdgasm now. This is sort of like Kickstarter in reverse. “Common sense” economic policies usually aren’t the least bit sensical. Chocolate chirp cookies. And no, that’s not [...]

Obsessing about “Mark Trail” is a game the whole family can play. Adultery is the bigger sin even when there are plenty of other big sins to choose from. Why “follow the money” is so often good advice. “What the hell are we gonna do with photos in the modern age?” “Maybe one day, with [...]

“The Shikse’s Guide to Jewish Men”, published in 1978. Exactly as awesome as it sounds. “Now I’ll bet you didn’t wake up wondering today how turtles go pee. But that’s what I want to talk about.” If there wasn’t some kind of biblical prophecy about this kid, there should have been. RIP, Arlen Specter, former [...]

You’re doing it wrong. I need to remember that tip about boiling eggs. How “The Big Bang Theory” is helping NASA with its public image. What’s the expiration date on a spoiler? Two words: Dilithium crystals. Oh, yeah. I have the exact same objection to “Imagine” that this guy does. The first rule of “vote [...]

Only 24 more shopping days till Halloween. “So, honey, it’s just impossible for me to say how old The Pip will be when you’re forty-one. I’m not sure it’s even a well-defined question in a relativistic universe.” Baseball brings us together, even in Congress. Meet Pono, Neil Young’s digital music player. It’s important to pronounce [...]

Is San Francisco too high tech for its own good? Warp speed, Mr. Sulu. A positive solution for plagiarism. I had no idea Sparky Lyle was the (unwitting) pioneer of entrance music for relief pitchers. A candy bar that stays with you long after you’ve eaten it. Stephen King, public intellectual. Data centers are big [...]