Sawyer Paul's Blog, page 192
June 3, 2011
June 2, 2011
The 100 greatest cinematic threats of all time. In case, you...
The 100 greatest cinematic threats of all time. In case, you know, you're a little angry today.
Awesome Wrongness
Related to the previous post.
About a year and a half ago, all the Very Serious People said that it was time for a pivot in economic policy. Recovery was underway, so no more efforts to stimulate demand; the big threat was the bond market vigilantes, so it was urgent to slash the deficit now now now.
So, here's what has happened to employment…
It's not pretty.
laphamsquarterly:
Are you on the clock? Are you wasting time?...
Are you on the clock? Are you wasting time? Multitasking? In our Workaday World list we've got the facts and figures on what you, the worker, do every single day.
Oh yes that's right, the minimum wage in 2010 was $7.25.
In 1968, when adjusted for inflation, it was $8.54.
Are you angry now? I know I am.
June 1, 2011
Aggressive Reading #3
Once a week, I'm going to list a few good reads that fit within the realm of what I'm trying to do here. If you've got Instapaper, follow me (ksawyerpaul) and you'll get a lot of these early, along with a bunch of others, because Instapaper is the thing I use most on the internet (shocking).
Aggressive Reading #3
Rupert Murdoch - A Portrait of Satan by Adam Curtis (journalism)
Rupert Murdoch doesn't like the BBC
And sometimes the BBC doesn't seem to like Rupert Murdoch either.
Following the principle that you should know your enemy, the BBC has assiduously recorded the relentless rise of Rupert Murdoch and his assault on the old "decadent" elites of Britain.
And I thought it would be interesting to put up some of the high points.
I don't care if you read this article by Dave Pell (rant)
The Internet measures everything. And I am a slave to those measurements. After so many years of pushing much of my life through this screen, I've started measuring my experiences and my sense of self-worth using the same metrics as the Internet uses to measure success. I check my stats relentlessly. The sad truth is that I spend more time measuring than I spend doing.
FOX News Turned me into a TV Slut by Meghan Keane (journalism)
When I looked in the mirror, I could sort of recognize that I was still there underneath all that makeup, but I was pretty surprised to see how I had completely transformed into a Fox News babe.
I was even more surprised when I got into the holding room where guests waited to be called up. I was greeted by another young woman who looked surprisingly similar to the girl who had been escorting me around the building. She was excited to see us both, and while a male producer began explaining to me the format of the show and when I'd go on, I noticed that the two of them were chatting about their outfits and started applying more makeup to their already very done up faces.
Reading Readiness—A Little Bit on A Lot by Frank Chimero (zen)
My shelf is full of books for which I am not yet ready, but this is the benefit of the format of a book. The form itself denotes weight; the thickness lets you know what a book asks. What is being asked is laid bare, so no one skims Ulysses—if a reader were to consider skimming an option for literature, they wouldn't start reading Joyce. The greater the task, the more futile these shortcuts seem.
Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide' by Daniel J. Solove (journalism)
On the surface, it seems easy to dismiss the nothing-to-hide argument. Everybody probably has something to hide from somebody. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn declared, "Everyone is guilty of something or has something to conceal. All one has to do is look hard enough to find what it is." Likewise, in Friedrich Dürrenmatt's novella "Traps," which involves a seemingly innocent man put on trial by a group of retired lawyers in a mock-trial game, the man inquires what his crime shall be. "An altogether minor matter," replies the prosecutor. "A crime can always be found."
"Life is a bitch, but she's totally, totally doable."
- "Bye Bye Symphony" - Foxy Shazam
May 31, 2011
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (via eightmillimeter)
This was a line of dialogue on a serious wrestling programme.
Lawler: Who did Wayne Newton ever double cross?
Cole: Clark Griswold in Vegas Vacation!
