Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 135

A Finer Lens on Housing

We’re not ashamed to declare ourselves total stats geeks, which means we’re always curious about the stories behind Big Important Numbers. And occasionally in our mathematical wanderings, we come to realize that some of those Numbers are a heckuva lot less revealing than they’re cracked up to be—batting average, for example, or Gross Domestic Product.

After a delightful stretch of investigation, we’d now like to add housing starts to that ignoble list. We’ve always suspected the all-important yar

“My War-Weary Willie…”

Since the missus is gone and we’re dealing with Microkhan Jr. all by our lonesome, we’re gonna post today’s NtHWS Extras installment a bit earlier than usual. Don’t worry, there are non-book goodies to follow today—but those are more easily written when the kid is napping.

Today’s focus is the poet laureate of the Ledo Road: Sgt. Smith Dawless. He was beloved for his ability to capture the suffering of enlisted men in verse, most notably in the famous “Conversation Piece”. After the war, Dawless

What About Bob?

We cut our journalistic teeth on the information security beat, which means we’ll always have a soft spot for great hacker yarns (such as this one). Sometimes, of course, the greatest break-ins don’t start with port scans, but rather with a more archaic form of trespass. Such was the case at an anonymous company that hired these guys to vet their security. To start the so-called penetration test, an operative was dispatched to check out physical security at the company’s headquarters. The verdic

Konyak Chest Tattoos

Once again we’re pressed for time as the screenplay calls, so today’s NtHWS Extra will be yet another visual quickie. The illustration at right, of a Konyak Naga chest tattoo circa 1923, comes courtesy of the great J.H. Hutton, arguably the great dean of Naga anthropology. Hutton did several tours up in the Indo-Burmese hills, and always brought along his sketchbook to record tribal ways. It is largely thanks to him that we learned about the Nagas’ Tibeto-Burman language(s), as well as their mod

“That’s Why They Call Him Easy J”

Apologies for failing to ease your case of the Mondays with today’s offerings so far—first corruption, then civil war. So we’re gonna try and make it up to y’all with the video above, featuring several of the gnarliest dunks ever committed to digital memory. They come courtesy of Guy Dupuy, a man who views Romanian Opels as no obstacle to athletic success.

On a related note, Microkhan pal Josh McHugh is currently in Cannes showing off Dunkumentary, a chronicle of his quest to learn the art of th

After the Tigers

When we went to bed last night, we were all set to kick off the week’s blogging with a “Where’s Prabhakaran?” post. But during our all-too-fleeting stay with the Sandman, the Tamil Tigers leader’s fate became widely known. Contrary to expectations, Prabhakaran did not end it all with a bite of cyanide, but rather (at least according to the Sri Lankan government) was gunned down while attempting to flee his last scrap of territory. And so endeth one of the planet’s longest, bloodiest civil wars,

Department of Odd Timing

After 42 years at the helm of Gabon, President Omar Bongo appears to be easing his way out the door. The official reason is declining health, but Microkhan finds it odds that Bongo seems to have taken ill after a French court lowered the investigative boom, in response to a complaint by Transparency International. The anti-corruption watchdog as long been on Bongo’s case, primarily about his lavish taste in European homes:

The African leaders stand accused of embezzlement, misuse of public funds

Skate or Die…or, Both

After a week’s hiatus, Bad Movie Friday returns with a vengeance, as well as the most unnecessary use of a rocket launcher ever committed to film. The ridiculous clip above is plucked from the 1987 Skinemax anti-classic Hard Ticket to Hawaii, in which several Playboy centerfolds play badass DEA agents. The acting is beyond atrocious; we remain convinced that at least half the cast was functionally illiterate, and thus had to memorize their lines by rote. And the Deron McBee-style hair throughout

Chasing the Dragon

Today’s installment of NtHWS Extras is gonna have a past-is-prologue feel, as we look back at Japan’s alleged narcotics profiteering during World War II. We’re accustomed to hearing plenty about the Taliban’s reliance on narco-dollars, but Japan’s wartime opium production is now largely forgotten. At the time, however, American politicians were fond of harping on the Axis nation’s plot to hook our kids on smack, then use the profits to help establish the Co-Prosperity Sphere. From a 1938 Time pi

Rough Side of the Weirdness

While Microkhan fully supports the idea of physical autonomy, this case in Minneapolis skeeves us out to no end. A 13-year-old boy suffering from Hodgkin’s disease is fighting for his right to avoid chemotherapy, in favor of a homeopathic alternative. Unfortunately, that alternative seems to be peddled by a man who strikes us as nothing more than a rank con artist. In the late 1990s, Philip R. Landis (aka Cloudpiler, aka Peopeo) apparently ran afoul of the law due to a Reishi mushroom scheme in