Jack Baty (scraps)

"Stupid dumbfuck us. We’re backing the losers for control of a criminal enterprise known as..."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:56:06 -0500

“Stupid dumbfuck us. We’re backing the losers for control of a criminal enterprise known as Afghanistan. We call this “foreign policy.” A truer description would be “peeing up our nostrils.”””

- http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2009/11/is-obama-about-to-become-just-another-war-criminal.html

Abruptly, and for no particular reason, I began reading...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:05:00 -0500

Abruptly, and for no particular reason, I began reading Finnigans Wake. And just as abruptly, I stopped. Joyce can be safely added to the authors I’ll have to live without. Finnigans Wake (and probably Ulysses) are off my must-read list. Way off. It was an easy call to make. The 20 or 30 pages I muddled through read like a drugged, suicidal Dr. Suess. Hey Jim, you can keep your idioglossitastic flubberfications. I probably just don’t get it. I’m sure it’s fabulous for those who do.

Oh well, there’s always Stephen King’s new novel, which by the way, looks pretty good. It’s over 1,000 pages, but that’s the kind of “difficult” I can manage.

In the Loop is a terrific movie. So much great dialog. A couple...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:37:00 -0500

In the Loop is a terrific movie. So much great dialog. A couple of favorites…

Lt. Gen. George Miller: Twelve thousand troops. But that’s not enough. That’s the amount that are going to die. And at the end of a war you need some soldiers left, really, or else it looks like you’ve lost.

Linton Barwick: OK. Firstly, don’t raise your voice. This is a sacred place. Now, you may not believe that and I may not believe that, but, by God, it’s a useful hypocrisy.

Malcolm Tucker: “Climbing the mountain of conflict”? You sounded like a Nazi Julie Andrews!

So New Moon opened to $140.7 million on its first weekend....

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:50:00 -0500

So New Moon opened to $140.7 million on its first weekend. Compare that to Let the Right One In, which opened to $49,295. In fact, Let the Right One In has only grossed $10,562,447 worldwide since its release. This is yet another sign of the pending apocalypse. Whatsamatter with you people?

Please, if you have a teenage daughter with questionable taste, by all means go see New Moon. But if you decide you’d like to take her to see a good vampire movie, rent Let the Right One In instead.

Tim Bray: RubyConf 2009

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:45:22 -0500

Tim Bray on RubyConf 2009:

I’ve not attended a RubyConf where I haven’t had my thinking about how to do software expanded.”

Mr. Bray also points out the tendency of developers to trivialize or otherwise poke fun at those using other, perhaps older technologies. Resist that tendency, there are things to be learned.

I’ve only recently begun darkroom printing - again. The...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:38:00 -0500

I’ve only recently begun darkroom printing - again. The above image shows Richard Avedon’s notes to his printer. I can’t imagine doing anything like that.

"You are why people make bad things. When you look around you and wonder why people seem like they..."

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:04:00 -0500

“You are why people make bad things. When you look around you and wonder why people seem like they don’t know what they’re fuckin’ doin’, the answer’s that all of them are pandering to you, because you are stupid and tasteless and fearful. If you took more risks, we’d have Katy Hudson the country musician and Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta the singer. If you didn’t buy t-shirts from Cafepress, we’d have better clothing retailers than Abercrombie. If you’d paid attention to politics we wouldn’t have Joe Wilson and Sarah Palin. It’s your fault. Remind yourself of that every time you hear a shitty song or see a shitty film. You watch CSI instead of The Wire, Two and a Half Men instead of Arrested Development. You paid to see Transformers and Transformers 2. You like Adam Sandler more in Billy Madison than you do in Punch-Drunk Love. You. To paraphrase a comedian you don’t listen to, there is no “them”. You are a part of the same society all the people and things you hate are. Don’t hate people who pander to you. Hate yourself for letting them pander.”

- Rory Marinich: Talentless

I didn’t realize Regina Spektor wrote songs like this.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:59:45 -0500

I didn’t realize Regina Spektor wrote songs like this.

Leave well enough alone

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:36:51 -0500

Are you done yet?

Senator Al Franken draws map of USA. I’d be willing to bet...

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:51:23 -0400

Senator Al Franken draws map of USA. I’d be willing to bet that when Franken was in school, his parents would have actually encouraged him to watch the president speak.

"I guess when people are involved, there’s always a mess somewhere."

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:38:18 -0400

“I guess when people are involved, there’s always a mess somewhere.”

- The Thin Blue Line - Wikipedia

"You know who Kevin Federline is, don’t you? Why, for heaven’s sake?"

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:20:18 -0400

“You know who Kevin Federline is, don’t you? Why, for heaven’s sake?”

- Hot Celebrity Gossip! | Psychology Today

"Now I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance — a sharp,..."

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:48:19 -0400

“Now I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance — a sharp, vindictive glance.”

- James Thurber - Wikiquote

"I, too, refuse to let the medium of vinyl become just a footnote in the grand narrative of planned..."

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:50:15 -0400

“I, too, refuse to let the medium of vinyl become just a footnote in the grand narrative of planned obsolescence”

- An ode to vinyl and the celebration of concept

High-Speed Robot Hand. Apparently, I’ve not been paying...

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:58:55 -0400

High-Speed Robot Hand. Apparently, I’ve not been paying attention to robotics.

"I am a liberal. If you are a conservative, this appears to be a difference between us: I think you..."

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:49:20 -0400

“I am a liberal. If you are a conservative, this appears to be a difference between us: I think you should have guaranteed health insurance.”

- Roger Ebert’s Journal

"The stock answer is, “Of course! Nothing is too good for customers, user experience is crucial, and..."

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:33:58 -0400

“The stock answer is, “Of course! Nothing is too good for customers, user experience is crucial, and speed makes the experience better.” But that’s wrong. User experience is not what matters: getting your work done is what counts. Getting the book written, getting the plan approved, getting the right answer — all of these matter a lot more than a few seconds here or there.”

- Mark Bernstein: The Economics of Speed

"California spends $216,000 annually on each inmate in the juvenile justice system. In contrast, it..."

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:04:06 -0400

“California spends $216,000 annually on each inmate in the juvenile justice system. In contrast, it spends only $8,000 on each child attending the troubled Oakland public school system, according to the Urban Strategies Council.”

- Health Care or Prisons? - NYTimes.com

"But when we equalize the playing field with good technique the differences a become minor."

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:57:46 -0400

“But when we equalize the playing field with good technique the differences a become minor.”

- The Visual Science Lab: Examining Modern Mythologies About Camera Equipment. Part Two.

"Obsolete” means something very different than “no longer the newest model."

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:43:24 -0400

““Obsolete” means something very different than “no longer the newest model.””

- Marco.org - Planet Calacanis