February 2012
34 posts
3 tags
3 tags
The meaninglessness of baseball's big milestones →
Okay, they are not meaningless. 3,000 hits, 300 wins, etc. — all impressive milestones. But one of the big achievements of the advanced statistics movement in recent years has been to chip away at the importance of these big round numbers in favor of a more nuanced look at a player’s record. Bert Blyleven, who failed to reach 300 wins because he played for crappy teams, is the most...
Do you hear the steady drumbeat of war with Iran? →
think-progress:
Rep. Keith Ellison (R-MN) does, and asks lawmakers to sign onto a letter urging the president not to start war with Iran.
If you listen to the rhetoric around Washington and the Nation, Mr. Speaker, it is literally impossible to not hear the drumbeat of war with Iran. The rhetoric in Washington about the military strike against Iran leads me to think that we may be sliding into...
Building blocks of early Earth survived collision... →
shychemist:
This is a photomicrograph of a small, thin section of komatiite lava. The “spinifex texture” is a hallmark and considered unequivocal evidence of their ancient origin as molten rock extruded from deep in the Earth. Credit: Igor Puchtel, UMD
Unexpected new findings by a University of Maryland team of geochemists show that some portions of the Earth’s mantle (the rocky layer...
williebhines:
“Arthur Conan Doyle and The Ding...
WatchSorry for the second post, I forgot to embed the actual video!
I co-produced this short video for the show I work for, Need to Know, along with the correspondent, Win Rosenfeld. It’s airing tonight, so it’s the first thing I’ve made for television. I like it.
This is part of a video series we’ve been doing online called “Presidentiality,” where we deconstruct...
Translations
williebhines:
So when Santorum says “conservatism” what he means is “anti-gay marriage” and “talking about Jesus a lot as if that were the official national religion.” Not worrying about what words are supposed to mean, but that’s what he’s trying to communicate when he says “conservatism.” Right? I honestly want to know as I’m not ever sure what candidates are really talking about.
When any...
Improv Poems!
iweartshirts:
Hello Improv Nerds: I need your help! This is a project I’ve been dreaming of for a long time, I’m calling it Improv Forms in Poetry because that’s exactly what it is. My idea is to take improv forms (Harold, Evente, Monoscene, Le Ronde, possibly a Macroscene and Close Quarters/Vantage Point) and translate those forms to poetic forms. Then I will write a poem in that form!
My goal...
Interesting discovery of the day
Weezer’s “Say it ain’t so” is timed almost perfectly to last the duration of my walk from the place I usually get lunch to my office. If I start the song right as I walk out of Amish Market, on 50th and 8th, the last guitar lick will end literally as I open the door to the 12th floor where my desk is. Yes, I still listen to Weezer. Blue Album/Pinkerton are my comfort music....
7 tags
Five Things You Probably Don’t Know About Food... →
abbyjean:
A large and growing share of SNAP households are working households(see chart). In 2010, more than three times as many SNAP households worked as relied solely on welfare benefits for their income.
SNAP responded quickly and effectively to the recession.
Today’s large SNAP caseloads mostly reflect the extraordinarily deep and prolonged recession and the weak recovery. Workers who are...
January 2012
47 posts
John Tyler's Grandsons Are Still Alive!
mentalflossr:
Born in 1790, John Tyler was our 10th President. He took office in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died. And he has two living grandchildren!
Not great-great-great-grandchildren. Their dad was Tyler’s son.
How is this possible? The Tyler men have a habit of having kids very late in life. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, one President Tyler’s 15 kids, was born in 1853. He fathered Lyon...
Things that I regret that I will live with for the...
Thanks to Jackie Jennings I’ve now learned how to play “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s and the Lisa Loeb classic “Stay” on the guitar. I don’t know how to feel about this. Please don’t tell anyone from my high school band I’ve played anything other than Gin Blossoms, Pavement and Weezer.
Bill James' Best Pitchers' Duels of 2011 →
williebhines:
His description of how he measured which games were best is what I love about this article.
“Anything can be measured if you don’t have to start out with exactly the right answer. You can get an objective answer to any question if you can accept the fact that somebody else may have a different objective answer that’s just as good as yours. Those of you who wish to point out that I...
"Keep giving them you, until you is what they... →
adambozarth:
Lifehacker linked to this article on rejection from Psychology Today that I wish I had read sooner.
Rejection has always been quite a bugbear for me, which relatively recently learned to manage like a regular human. That is to say, I’ve started to accept failure as a learning experience and not as an indelible black mark on my living soul.
However, as Mr. Palumbo’s article points...
This Thing I Feel About Improv
alexpereira:
Don’t pretend.
This feels weird to say as an improviser, but I try to never ever pretend.
Pretending everything is great is how you lose your point of view and your unique perspective. Also, I personally don’t want people lying to me, nor do I like watching people bullshit each other.
However…
Don’t be a dick.
Openly disliking certain moves and points of view is how you scare...
