Today I started writing a competitive whitepaper; I’ve been working on a lot of these. They’re fun because at the draft stages at least you get to say things like “[Competitor] is a pernicious weed.” as your outline summaries.
Later on you have to go back to explain that [Competitor] is a well-respected and challenging rival, but even at the end, everyone who reads it knows you mean that they are pernicious weeds.
Via Atrios, an article at ABC News on evangelicals quoting Gary Cass of the Center for Reclaiming America (from what? its secular roots?) as someone who “wants a U.S. Supreme Court that will outlaw abortion and gay marriage. “Do you want to take your children to a National League baseball game for instance and have homosexuals showing affection to one another? I don’t want my kids to see that,” he said.
Now, if I’m not mistaken, it’s not a supreme court that outlaws gay marriage that prevents homosexual affection at a baseball game, it’s the Taliban.
Journalists are trying to avoid anonymous sources these days, but in this article — about intellectual property ethics, file trading, and wire fraud — they seem to have forgotten to inform those sources that they now publish names: “Yeah, I’ve turned away from file-swapping and started fleecing companies like BMG, said Jill Beady, a senior at the Eastman School of Music, who asked not to be identified.
Update, moments later: apparently a joke article.
Brad DeLong often rages at the poor quality of our national press corps but even the people he criticizes seem to have quite high standards, compared to the technology press. Legitimate newsmedia don’t have the problem of articles that quote blogs and pretend they’ve conducted an interview or journalists who do no research whatsoever and just write down any criticism they can find, no matter how blatant the lie.
Well, maybe the mainstream and political press do have problems with the blatant lying part. But I haven’t seen the mainstream press use such sloppy attribution that it quotes a website and implies it’s actually spoken with the writer.
I know nobody likes to be condescended to. But on the other hand, it’s hard not to look down on people who really believe stupid things, or, for that matter, people who read books like “He’s Just Not That Into You” (scroll down to second review– it’s vicious). It’s hard not to look at someone who actually likes Bridget Jones and not think “you poor thing. I’m so sorry.”
I’ve been thinking about how numbers run my life more than I know, and how I don’t necessarily understand them as well as, say, any of the other boys in the office, who are all good at math. Things like blood sugar levels and their fluctuation from the norm, the measurement of horsepower and torque, baseball stats, psychology. For example, it’s presumably OK to have a certain number of negative thoughts about one’s job, partner, life, meals, favorite television shows… but how many? If I chart them and notice them going up, is my relationship becoming dysfunctional?
So I’ve added “A mathematician reads the newspaper” to my reading list. Other items: “Dirty Havana Trilogy,” because there has to be some fiction in there, “* A Brief History of Everything” because Bill Bryson is hilarious, and “Something for Nothing” which is about luck and American’s obsession with it (again, stats). Plus some business books which are as dry as the day is long.
My brother sometimes calls me late in the evening and leaves long rambling messages. Now I’m getting back at him by posting an ogg of it.
Every game, between the top and bottom of the seventh inning, is the stretch, and these days it usually involves someone singing “God Bless America.”
Last night it was Amy Grant, and tonight it was that guy from Creed, who just strikes me as an Eddie Vedder imitation. I can’t decide which is more annoying.
As a wise woman said recently, “Today I saw a flyer for an anger management seminar. It was printed in Comic Sans. That made me angry.”
Untended and unturned, a houseplant leans
to an unhealthy light
grows fragile, rootbound,
dies.
I stand outside the window and watch
the man that I’ve become
unfurl new leaves
against the glass.
People really write this way. People really want to make movies about Kurt Russell fans. People really do want to hurt me. See also: how to write the above letters better.
Secretly Ironic 