John turturro

John Turturro is one of my favorite actors (I'd easily put him in the top three). I first saw him in the Coen Bros movie "Barton Fink" and, at that time I didn't think too much of him. But since then I've seen him play a lot of different roles (Miller's Crossing, Jungle Fever, Cradle will rock, Mr. Deeds, oh brother where art thou, you don't mess with the zohan). Despite having a very unique voice and look, he has managed to easily persuade me that each character was real.

By far, my favorite of his roles was 'the Jesus' from the big lebowski. Below is a video of him talking about how he made that character real.

The thatcher effect

I'd never heard of the thatcher effect before I saw this video. It's pretty wild.

Interpret your dissertation through dance

This is the first I've heard of it, but it turns out that there's a contest for dancing your PhD dissertation.

I guess the following video is this year's postdoc winner. It's a neurolinguistics dissertation.

Don't lay down on train tracks, especially when you are sleepy

Last year, a couple of girls fell asleep on some train tracks and, surprise surprise, they got ran over by a train (and, luckily, only suffered a foot and a leg amputation).

Yesterday, I saw this report on NPR "2 Teen Girls, Injured by Train, Cope With Change." I listened to it hoping that it would redeem my impression of these two children and their parents as complete fools. I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt in cases like these, but it was particularly difficult in this case: Even if they did not intend to take a nap, even if they held in their minds a belief that the tracks were unused, in what circumstances can you excuse two girls for laying down on train tracks?

Anyway, I listened to that story and, if anything, it actually made my opinion of these two girls and their parents worse then it was before. I don't like being judgmental. I sometimes find myself going out of my way to assume people are better, kinder, cleverer than they seem. But I'm having a really hard time with this story.

I was a nerd

If you were a pbs-watching geography buff/nerd growing up in the early 90's then this page on YTMND will make you smile.

Good ole Bernie always knows what to say to cheer me up

Bertrand Russell

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."

Brands

I don't know what brand of coffee beans I grind up and drink in the morning. I couldn't tell you what brand of napkins are sitting on my dining room table. If you asked me right now what brand of jeans I am wearing at this moment, I would not be able to tell you without bending awkwardly and looking at the tag by my ass (even then, they're probably so cheap and so old that the ink on that faux-leather patch is all worn).

Here's what I can tell you: I am currently using a microsoft OS and the firefox browser, I have an apple laptop, an apple i-pod, and a sony portable CD player, and my toilet paper is Charmin. I'm not immune to brand recognition but I guess I only pay attention to those of things that are truly relevant to me and my life.

Oh, and I love the in-and-out burger. I've begun to spot their signs more efficiently than the other big burger chains, even despite the jack-in-box rebranding campaign.

At last, the circle is complete

No, there's no video in this post. Instead, I found a story on slashdot that I really enjoyed:

"Germany has a new minister of economic affairs. Mr. von und zu Guttenberg is descended from an old and noble lineage, so his official name is very long: Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. When first there were rumors that he would be appointed to the post, someone changed his Wikipedia entry and added the name 'Wilhelm,' so Wikipedia stated his full name as: Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Wilhelm Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. What resulted from this edit points up a big problem for our information society (in German; Google translation). The German and international press picked up the wrong name from Wikipedia — including well-known newspapers, Internet sites, and TV news such as spiegel.de, Bild, heute.de, TAZ, or Süddeutsche Zeitung. In the meantime, the change on Wikipedia was reverted, with a request for proof of the name. The proof was quickly found. On spiegel.de an article cites Mr. von und zu Guttenberg using his 'full name'; however, while the quote might have been real, the full name seems to have been looked up on Wikipedia while the false edit was in place. So the circle was closed: Wikipedia states a false fact, a reputable media outlet copies the false fact, and this outlet is then used as the source to prove the false fact to Wikipedia."

It was only a matter of time before this happened. I guess when you don't want to pay for your newspaper (and therefore the news reporters) then you shouldn't be surprised when wikipedia becomes one of their major research resources.

Putin's a badass

So, how horrible would it be if the world found out you dig ABBA? Probably not so horrible, unless you're the ex-leader of Russia.

Even then, it probably wouldn't be so bad. But the BBC is reporting the story, so it must be important, right?

No, probably not.

Obama has a mouth on him.

Obama like you've never thought you'd hear a president.

Let the splicing begin.

Man gets quoted cost of data download for his cellphone = .002 cents per kilobyte
Man gets charged .002 dollars per kilobyte
Man calls company to complain and it turns out that the company (Verizon?) thinks .002 cents per kilobyte is equivalent to .oo2 dollars per kilobyte

An actual quote from the video:

Customer: "Do you recognize that there's a difference between One Dollar and One Cent?"
Manager: "Definitely"
Customer: "Do you recognize that there's a difference between Half a Dollar and Half Cent?"
Manager: "Definitely"
Customer: "Then do you recognize that there's a difference between .002 Dollars and .002 Cents?"
Manager: "No"

If we can't get this right, then what hope is there for rational thinking?

The video



It's not a difference of opinion... sigh.

Dear Deer

This here is officially my favoritest music video of ALL TIME: