January 2009
harpers index...
Seconds it took a Maryland consultant in 2004 to pick a Diebold voting machine’s lock and remove its memory card: 10
Number of states John Kerry would have won in 2004 if votes by poor Americans were the only ones counted: 40
Number if votes by rich Americans were the only ones counted: 4
Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the...
from heel to throat
Memorization is a habit of mind that we’re, of course, losing. We don’t need to remember anything anymore. One used to have phone numbers, addresses, recipes, birthdays, all manner of useful nonsense in mind. Less now. People who live in cities are said to be particularly at risk of mental dither, as a recent study claims. Meditation is something some seek out as a way of centering. Memorize a...
Army Cats
Poetry by Tom Sleigh February 2, 2009
1.
Over by the cemetery next to the CP
you could see them in wild catmint going crazy:
I watched them roll and wriggle, paw it, lick it,
chew it, leap about, pink tongues stuck out, drooling.
.
Cats in the tanks’ squat shadows lounging.
Or sleeping curled up under gun turrets.
Hundreds of them sniffing or licking
long hind legs stuck in the...
After Monty Python Goes YouTube, Big Jump In DVD...
slashdot:
An anonymous reader writes
“Apparently it with the release of all of Monty Python’s material on YouTube, their sales have blown through the roof on Amazon.com. It is too bad there isn’t any proper news article about this, but I think it bodes well for those who champion free content. More importantly, it forces the MPAA’s feet into their mouths.”
Not...
random pix
via http://luna.typepad.com/weblog
obama's speech...*
“For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act—not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth…We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil...
Dorothea Brande’s 12 mental exercises.
bohemea:
spanghew:spitintheocean:officed:cakefordinner:
(From here.)
Dorothea Brande’s twelve mental exercises. Note: she wrote these in 1936, so you need to adapt of few of them.
1. Spend an hour each day without saying anything except in answer to direct questions, in the midst of the usual group, without creating the impression that you’re sulking or ill. Be as ordinary as possible....
“When you kiss a pretty girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a...”
– Albert Einstein (1879-1955) (deadlybrad42 via havent-got-a-prayer) (via girlindc) (via freckledawesome)
Man stole shark with bare hands
twothirty:
fuckyeahsharks:
hysteria:
LYNBROOK , N.Y., Jan. 15 (UPI) — Police in Nassau County, N.Y., said they have arrested a man who allegedly grabbed a shark out of a fish tank in a pet shop and hid it in his jacket.
Investigators said Elbert Starks, 30, entered the Total Aquarium store in Lynbrook Dec. 12 and grabbed the $350 nurse shark out of its tank with his bare hands, Newsday...
Watch<3 Obama! The first time recently where I’ve actually listened all the way through the speech of a politician, and felt something like being inspired, hopeful for a better future…