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Thursday, August 26, 2010
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Monday, July 26, 2010
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
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Tuesday, July 6, 2010
August 2009
Lance - brown thumb question: any chance Sg's 1wk old sunflower survives the winter?
- brown thumb question: any chance Sg’s 1wk old sunflower survives the winter?
See original: 
Lance - brown thumb question: any chance Sg's 1wk old sunflower survives the winter?
Lance - District 9 was awesome, but really gruesome at times. I was on heavy "tell me when it's over" duty. Thanks, AT, for sticking it out.
- District 9 was awesome, but really gruesome at times. I was on heavy “tell me when it’s over” duty. Thanks, AT, for sticking it out.
Lance - "In the Loop" is really, really funny, and very sharp.
- “In the Loop” is really, really funny, and very sharp.
See original: Lance - "In the Loop" is really, really funny, and very sharp.
Lance - expectations: "in the loop"=the office+the west wing; "district 9"=independence day+the wire.
- expectations: “in the loop”=the office+the west wing; “district 9”=independence day+the wire.
See original: Lance - expectations: "in the loop"=the office+the west wing; "district 9"=independence day+the wire.
Lance - Sg, after her first sip of Diet Dr. Pepper: "It's good! It's just like medicine!"
- Sg, after her first sip of Diet Dr. Pepper: “It’s good! It’s just like medicine!”
See original: Lance - Sg, after her first sip of Diet Dr. Pepper: "It's good! It's just like medicine!"
Lance - Brian and I made our own URL shortener out of a shortish domain name I had lying around: http://afitp.com/a.
- Brian and I made our own URL shortener out of a shortish domain name I had lying around: http://afitp.com/a.
See original: Lance - Brian and I made our own URL shortener out of a shortish domain name I had lying around: http://afitp.com/a.
Lance - is there any more certain indicator of a driver who will take your driving personally and respond aggressively than a confederate battle flag? I think not. Viva la grief!
- is there any more certain indicator of a driver who will take your driving personally and respond aggressively than a confederate battle flag? I think not. Viva la grief!
Musical Alphabet: D (Best Album Ever Edition)
I hadn’t planned to do another musical alphabet post so soon, but I was just taking a preliminary run through the “D” artists in my iTunes. I was thinking about how hard it is to just pick two or three tracks from among so many greats— Dylan, Miles, Nick Drake, De la Soul, the Dead Kennedys (umph), Dead Meadow, Claude Debussy, Depeche Mode, the Dirty Projectors, DJ Shadow…
Then I ran across the only track I could possibly post, and I figured I may as well go ahead.
If you tried to figure out which album in my collection is the very best album ever by focusing on objective criteria like number of track listens, number of whole album listens, length of time the album has been in rotation and the amount of that time it has been in heavy rotation, then Blowout Comb, by the Digable Planets, is easily in the top five. Where their debut album was cute and clever, Blowout Comb tones down the precious and trades in the bebop samples for some gritty funk and NYC nativism. Dre’s Chronic was less than two years old when Blowout Comb was released; Warren G’s Regulate… was still news. But the Planets and producers put together a sound that seemed to come from some time much later in hip hop history, when the pitfalls of G-funk had been identified and getting it right was easy. A few years ago it still seemed fresh, and even today it’s a little hard to tell from cues in the music when the album was produced.
I had never seen this Digable Planets video before tonight, and I like it. I got a pretty good laugh at Mecca rolling her eyes as she reaches one of the weakest rhymes in the track (near the end, just before the Jazzy Joyce cameo). For your viewing pleasure, the Digable Planets’ “9th Wonder (Blackitolism)” (viewing in High Quality recommended):
Incompetence as a Signalling Device
Scott has a great short piece at IHE on Gambetta’s book on communication among criminals, which inter alia summarizes Gambetta’s theory of the signalling benefits of incompetence in Italian academia.
Gambetta argues that something similar takes place among the baroni (barons) who oversee the selection committees involved in Italian academic promotions. While some fields are more meritocratic than others, he says, the struggle for advancement involves a great deal of horse trading. “The barons operate on the basis of a pact of reciprocity, which requires a lot of trust, for debts are repaid years later. …The most powerful figures in this system, says Gambetta, tend to be the least intellectually distinguished. … “… and this is what is the most intriguing, they do not try to hide their weakness. One has the impression that they almost flaunt it in personal contacts.” … Gambetta argues that the cheerful incompetence of the baroni is akin to the mafioso’s way of signaling that he can be “trusted” within his narrowly predatory limits.
“Being incompetent and displaying it,” he writes, “conveys the message * I will not run away, for I have no strong legs to run anywhere else. * In a corrupt academic market, being good at and interested in one’s own research, by contrast, signal a potential for a career independent of corrupt reciprocity…. In the Italian academic world, the kakistrocrats are those who best assure others by displaying, through lack of competence and lack of interest in research, that they will comply with the pacts.”
See original: 
Incompetence as a Signalling Device
Why the Kennedys Were Awesome
I usually try to steer clear of jumping on the eulogy train, but this seems like an appropriate time to say: I suspect that understanding the Kennedys (and in particular Ted’s generation) is key to understanding the second half of America’s 20th century. I say this because they seem to represent so much that is characteristically bad about politics during that time (corruption, nepotism and the boundless privilege of aristocracy) and so much that is good (a fundamental belief in the importance of public service and a compelling progressive vision of a peaceful, democratic America). They have also served as reminders that, as long as the political power of the individual is checked and balanced, and as long as the service rendered by that person is to the benefit of the nation, it doesn’t really matter in America whether that person serves as a means to acquire power or acquires power in order to serve—or even, in fact, whether that person’s daddy bought them a seat in the House of Representatives. (That last is about Jack, not Ted, of course.) So long, Ted, and thanks.