Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Scientology nearly ready to unveil Super Power


A key aim of Super Power is to enhance one's perceptions - and not just the five senses we all know - hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell.


Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard taught that people have 57 "perceptics." They include an ability to discern relative sizes, blood circulation, balance, compass direction, temperature, gravity and an "awareness of importance, unimportance."

(link)

Monday, August 28, 2006

Numbers 13 and 14 in a list of 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Death


13 During a railway expansion in Egypt in the 19th century, construction companies unearthed so many mummies that they used them as fuel for locomotives.

14 Well, yeah, there's a slight chance this could backfire: English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.


link (via Digg)

Sunday, August 20, 2006

About Damn Time

David Foster Wallace finally writes about Roger Federer. I always thought Federer played kinda like Hal Incandenza in the beginning.

(via MetaFilter)

Free Wine

Apparently, every US blogger is entitled to a bottle of this wine. The full offer is on the blog, under the June 11th entry.

(via Majikthise)

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Spango Dips

So I started a blog of my own. *Way to strike while the iron is hot, Will.* I launched it with a vacuous maiden post about seven weeks ago, and neglected to tell any of you about it because I was intending to get it a bit nicer-looking before I started directing traffic to it, but I just got tired of waiting. Some of you (Greg) already knew about it due to being the sysadmin's cousin, and some of you (Tyson) dug it up by way of assiduous sleuthing—how did you find it, T?—but now I invite all of you to add it to your RSS register (which process probably doesn't require a hyperlink).

http://pers.picacio.us/quilly/

So last night I put a more substantial post up there broadly outlining my life's current goings-on, for those of you in the wonder. I'll try to be good about keeping it current, and someday, in the next ten or twenty years, it'll a.) look cool and b.) have an actual sense of purpose. Fingers crossed.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Really sad news. Memorial info to be found at the bottom, for those of you in the area.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Prayers to break curses

Apparently, AOL mistakenly released 3 months of logs from its AOL Search engine. Something Awful got ahold of them and has found some hysterical things by digging through. For example, here's a bunch of searches in a row from the same user:



Check out the whole Something Awful post for lots more.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Maybe you've already seen this.

(Via Ezra Klein)

I Confess I Don't Entirely Get It

So I just watched the first three episodes of Six Feet Under. It's good. Very good, even. I can see interesting storylines and characters developing. And the acting, particularly the women, is excellent.

But as of now, I can't exactly see why such accolades have been heaped upon it. As good as the show is, it seems not quite in the same league as The Sopranos and The Wire (which, full disclosure, I've only seen one season of).

To be fair, I realize three episodes is a very small sample size. And I do feel motivated to see more, which is a good sign. Improvement is evident too: the third episode seemed notably better than the others.

Whatever the case, I look forward to having my opinion changed - productive activity is overrated anyway.

Friday, August 11, 2006

FYI

August 12:
It is also known as the "Glorious Twelfth" in the UK, as it marks the traditional start of the grouse shooting season.

Also, I'll be in LA from the night of 13 August, Sunday, until the following Sunday. Let me know if you're around.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Predictfork

Blogger who tries to predict how much Piitchfork will like upcoming records. He does a pretty good job. (via MeFi)

Bwaaaaaaa-ha-ha

I passed, bitchez.

Now, the only thing standing between me the PhD is original research.

Shit.

Monday, August 07, 2006

worst

worst euphemism for semen i've yet encountered: Tadpole-treasure.

What's yours?

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Deedle-Deedle queep

The portland dwellers amongst you may remember making fun of me for using the phrase "deedle-deedle queep" in casual conversation, but no longer. After I said it, we had one of those moments like in The West Wing episode Mandatory Minimums:


LEO
My point is... we have to make it through the week without making any mistakes.

JOSH
We will.

LEO
I'm saying that this is...

JOSH
I'm saying calm down.

LEO
I'm perfectly calm.

SAM
You're not calm, Leo. You're acting like a nervous hooleelia.

Everyone looks at Sam.

TOBY
A what?

SAM
It may not be a word. It may just be something my mother used to say.


I insisted that it meant "nonsense". And it turns out that I was right and that the source is one most of us should have known: VALIS. Here's the passage, from p.133 of the Vintage edition (you can do an "inside the book" search on Amazon if you want to independently confirm):


If Kevin were here he'd say, "Deedle-deedle queep," which is what he says to Fat when Fat reads aloud from his exegesis. Kevin has no use for the Profound. He's right. All I am doing is going, "Deedle-deedle queep" over and over again in my attempts to understand how Horselover Fat is going to heal -- save -- Horselover Fat.


So, while the charge of being forgetful may still hold (thankfully there's an internet for that), I still insist that I am not, you know, actually crazy.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Update

Sorry for the self-absorption lately, but three notes anyway:
(1) Yesterday it came to my attention that I am not responsible for material that might be related to my syllabus but is not covered in my references. This is close to miraculous.
(2) As of now, I am more sick of studying than I am scared. I am told this is a good thing.
(3) I'm giving myself a 1/3+\epsilon probability of passing this time; 1-\epsilon chance if I have to take it again.

Arthur Lee Lost

So sad to report the passing of Love's Arthur Lee, one of the most unappreciated songwriters of his generation. To have lost him less than a month after losing Syd Barrett is remarkably tragic, them being sort of the two invisible architects of psychedelic rock (no disrespect to Roger McGuinn and—grumble grumble—Jerry Garcia).

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Send in the Elite Anti-Monkey Task Force

New Delhi Subway authority deals with its monkey problems via a bigger, scarier kind of simian. This sounds sort of like that Saturday Night Live commerical, with the ant being taunted and humiliated.

(Via Majikthise)

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Anthony Bourdain on the burning of Beirut

Chef, author, tv show host, and all around colorful figure Anthony Bourdain was in Beirut, Lebanon shooting a new show about "newly vibrant culinary and cultural scene" when the current Israel-Lebanon conflict began. He's written a great piece for Salon documenting his experience: Watching Beirut Die. It's worth a read.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Japanese singy game

Amazing Japanese game with catchy/horrifying never ending music. Looks a little like Katamari Damacy meets Sonic the Hedgehod.