This is lovely modern fantasy!

Enjoy the clearest P.J. O'Rourke here! (via Marginal Revolution)

It's a beautiful contradistinction to the "Altruistic Singles" Meetup today accidentally witnessed by me. Randomly, they were at the Peet's 608. ("They" = both of them. A gal and a gay man, AFAICT. With a Meetup sign in case more showed!)

How can people not be freaked out by all this? Seeing a whole town of strangely dressed women crying because an "investigation" took all their babies away?

I get the theoretical possibility that the whole town was just eeeevil...but shouldn't reasonable outsiders be more curious and less bloodthirsty ( Read more... )

Tonight, apparently I give enough fcuk about an Oxford comma...to learn...

Use of the serial comma can sometimes remove ambiguity. Consider an apocryphal book dedication: To my parents, Ayn Rand and God. *

and

The Times once published this description of a documentary: : "...highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, ( Read more... )

In the inbetween moments these last few days, I've caught up on some truly great blogs I'd neglected this year.

I present to you my single favorite post I'd missed...I'm a lot like its author; I highly value the style he sketches, and I want to learn to do it more widely,

I have a problem.  It's the way I talk.  I speak in full sentences.(more)

I love the holidays this year.

AND, as Dec 25th rolls to an end, let's take just a moment to make logical sense of the Christians' culturally prevailing story.

[updated w/ youtube links]

SONG: 1. "Portions for Foxes" (*Lorelai!) 2. "Girlfriend" * (as featured in Big Love!) 3. "The Jeep Song" (*Veronica!) 4. "The Needle Has Landed" *

LBUM: 1. Pinkerton * (had to eventually become my most played...yay Orientalism!) 2. Forever *  (best youtube comment: What the hell is a PGP key?) (this album is still  ( Read more... )

so far.

Long-time screenwriter and first-time director Tony Gilroy weaves hyperrealistic social details (think Syriana) with stylized characterizations. It's engagingly fun, exploratory...feels continually novel.

And, we saw a very exciting promo poster for Harold & Kumar 2. The NPH rides a unicorn!!

The WashPost transcribed an excellent Sam Harris talk -- in which he argues against using his own most famous label! Highlights:
The (main) problem is that the (social) concept of atheism imposes upon us a false burden of remaining fixated on people’s beliefs about God and remaining even-handed in our treatment of religion. But we shouldn’t be ( Read more... )

If you can't solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can solve: Find it. - George Pólya

I'm playing two new (to me) problem-solving competitions that feel extremely different: heads-up no-limit hold em *, and Chess Tactics Server*. Their distinct feels make me meditate on how we build decision rules to navigate life's complex environs ( Read more... )