Life is like photography, you need the negatives to develop
~ Bathroom Quote
They tried to bury Media Dragons. They did not know we were seeds ...
*“Shortest books ever written” is a running gag at James Taranto’s “Best of the Web” feature at wsj.com. I only steal from the best.
AT THE RISKING OF WORKING VODKAPUNDIT’S SIDE OF THE STREET, Your Weekly ‘Alcohol is Good for You!’ Post
Costco starts selling cut-price coffins in Australian stores Sydney Morning Herald. EM: “I’m waiting for the in-store eco-friendly quick cremation service, myself. Coming up with tasteful-yet-catchy potential ad slogans for that is fun … ‘Every Wednesday is Ash Wednesday at your friendly neighborhood Costco!’, or maybe ‘Allow your dear departed to get fired in style! – they’ve urned it!'”
President Obama telling what I thought was a joke at the White House Correspondents Dinner:
They say Donald lacks the foreign policy experience to be president. But in fairness, he has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world: Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan.
Apparently Donald was listening because yesterday in an interview with Bret Baier he made exactly the same point but this time as argument:
Bret Baier: About Russia, you were asked yesterday if you’ve ever spoken to Vladmir Putin. And you said, “I don’t want to say”:Donald Trump: Yeah, I have no comment on that. No comment…I was in Russia….I know Russia well. I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago. Miss Universe contest which was a big, big, incredible event. Incredible success. I got to meet a lot of people….
This is really negative black, black result: Rodrigo Martin Duterte had caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles in recent weeks with a joke that he wanted to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary, who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot.
The world is losing its narbles as Rodrigo Duterte wins Philippine Presidential Vote
Director in Waiting: huge victory ... Amen
Loneliness is endemic to urban life: the acute feeling of isolation in a big crowd. Think of Warhol, surrounded always by people but never true friends... Slavic Loneliness
“The sub headline of Andrew Sullivan’s lengthy essay in New York magazine on the state of American democracy declares, ‘America is a breeding ground for tyranny:’”
America now has nearly 5 PR people for every reporter, double the rate from a decade ago Muck Rack
Here’s what it would take for the US to run on 100% renewable energy – Updated by David Robert – “The road maps show how 80 to 85 percent of existing energy could be replaced by wind, water, and solar by 2030, with 100 percent by 2050.”
Energy Environ. Sci., 2015,8, 2093-2117: “This study presents roadmaps for each of the 50 United States to convert their all-purpose energy systems (for electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry) to ones powered entirely by wind, water, and sunlight (WWS)
ELECTRIC FEEL: 2017 BMW i3: Now with More Electric Range.
Scientists build world’s tiniest engine Financial Times
How to Pick Music for People on LSD, From a Scientist Whose Job That Is Motherboard How does one get included in these studies?
Breast cancer: Scientists hail ‘very significant’ genetic find BBC
Surgical Robot Outperforms Humans; Airbus Plans Humanoid Assemblers Michael Shedlock. But will patients accept robot surgeons?
Solving Our Unemployment Crisis presentation, April 19, 2016 Bill Mitchell
“Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love,” Rilke wrote in contemplating how befriending our morality can help us feel more alive. Nearly a century later, John Updikeechoed this sentiment: “Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time?” And yet however poetic this notion might be, it remains one of the hardest for us to befriend and reconcile with our irrepressible impulse for aliveness. How, then, are those only just plunging into the lush river of life to confront the prospect of its flow’s cessation?
An actual case of cement shoes (NYT)
“Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute
and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is
love,”
Death Negatives ... When you’re dead, the pond will be gone, too — at least for you
Surgical Robot Outperforms Humans; Airbus Plans Humanoid Assemblers Michael Shedlock. But will patients accept robot surgeons?
Solving Our Unemployment Crisis presentation, April 19, 2016 Bill Mitchell
“Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love,” Rilke wrote in contemplating how befriending our morality can help us feel more alive. Nearly a century later, John Updikeechoed this sentiment: “Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time?” And yet however poetic this notion might be, it remains one of the hardest for us to befriend and reconcile with our irrepressible impulse for aliveness. How, then, are those only just plunging into the lush river of life to confront the prospect of its flow’s cessation?
An actual case of cement shoes (NYT)
Death Negatives ... When you’re dead, the pond will be gone, too — at least for you
The Supreme Court Just Refused to Shield Corporate America From a $15 Minimum Wage. What Happens Now? Think Progress
If secularism is a powerful force, why is it so often on the losing side of history? Because religion is no atavistic holdover; it's here to stay ...
Yann
Algan, Camille Hémet, and David D. Laitin have The social effects of ethnic diversity, a block-level study from France, based on what
appears to be very good data:
Relying on diversity measures computed at the
apartment block level under conditions of exogenous allocation of public
housing in France, this paper identifies the effects of ethnic diversity on
social relationships and housing quality. Housing Survey data reveal that
diversity induces social anomie. Through the channel of anomie, diversity
accounts for the inability of residents to sanction others for vandalism and to
act collectively to demand proper building maintenance. However, anomie also
lowers opportunities for violent confrontations, which are not related to
diversity How to make the U.S. collapse-proof. It’s an idea so crazy it just might work!
Hooters played a mean trick on a waitress more than a decade ago. It told her that, as the winner of a beer-selling contest, she would get a new Toyota. She was led blindfolded to the parking lot—where she was given a new toy Yoda doll from the “Star Wars” franchise.
This was not very nice, and her subsequent lawsuit produced a settlement and a new car. But there are worse things than perpetrating an adolescent prank on one unsuspecting victim. Such as perpetrating an adolescent prank on millions of them. Art V Junk
“The sub headline of Andrew Sullivan’s lengthy essay in New York magazine on the state of American democracy declares, ‘America is a breeding ground for tyranny:’”
Part of the Middle East and North Africa may become uninhabitable due to climate change, May 02, 2016
The First Aerial Illuminated Drone Show in the United States Takes Place Over the Mojave Desert Laughing Squid nothing to do with the Morava River or Dessert ...