“I think that one of the things that separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool-builders. I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing of about a third of the way down the list – it was not too proud of a showing for the crown of creation. So that didn’t look so good. But then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And a human on a bicycle blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts. And that’s what a computer is to me. It’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with. It’s a bicycle for our minds.”

-Steve Jobs

Too bad GP computers will be defunct soon.

This is probably the most insightful thing I have ever read about Black Friday.

I really like it when smart people make me think of something I never would’ve thought of on my own, that also explains human behavior I previously could not have made sense of.

Of course the feeling of defeating capitalism at its own game is an illusion, but illusions are reality to the people experiencing them.

I’m really tired of the phrase “first world problems.” Originally, it highlighted something that was relevant and worth paying attention to.

Now it’s just used to dismiss people. For instance if my (nice, fast) car breaks down, yes that might indeed be a first world problem but it’s a real damn problem and I have to deal with with it.

“First world problems” has metamorphosed into a phrase mostly used to avoid paying attention to anyone who cares about anything besides your particular problem, and to guilt-trip people into silence.

This never works and is completely counterproductive, though it is a common liberal failure mode.

The Jezabels – Trycolour

Good song. Good hair.

Myth: The astronauts didn’t float away because they had heavy boots.

I don’t know why people seem to feel the need to apologize or excuse people who are freakin’ idiots. I would’ve gotten this question correct when I was four years old.

I annoyed a teacher one time when I was seven or eight years old who asked the classic trick question, “Which is heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of rocks?”

Of course I said, “They’re the same.”

Nothing like ruining lesson plans routinely.

Kappa Paul Band featuring Halie and Emma covering the Allman Brother’s “Midnight Rider.”

Not sure why they instagrammed the video, but so be it – they are better live and recording all at once than most bands in the studio with multiple separate takes and all sorts of digital enhancement.

This is one of the best essays I’ve ever read. It might be the best. Whatever its ranking, it’s fucking fantastic. I linked it at my other blog but it really needs wider exposure.

Usually when I read something, I think, Meh, I could’ve written that. Writing is an area (to paraphrase a movie from the ‘90) where I can just play.

Even the longer posts on here for instance I typically spend less than 15 minutes composing. Sometimes less than five.

But that – I could never have written that. What an amazing piece of work. It’s one of the few essays I’ve ever read – and perhaps the only one – that I’ve finished, then immediately started from the beginning again.

One of the very few ways I was similar to regular kids is that I perceived adults as being much older than they actually were. (While often perceiving them accurately as mendacious incompetents at the same time.)

For instance, in a movie I liked at the time and have since re-watched, a major character at the time seemed about 50-60 to me and in my view as a child was on the very doorstep of death.

Watching the movie now, I realize he is 28 or perhaps 30.

I remember very well what it was to be a child. How it felt, at least, and that I was really no different than I am now. Why do so many adults forget this, and then treat children and young people as if they are not people?

Perhaps it is because I was a very precocious child and grew up quickly that I have not forgotten the disdain and dismissal that I received from adults.

Perhaps also that people just like passing on the negative experiences they themselves experienced. Seems a common human thing to do.

It’s getting harder and harder to read Slate these days – nearly everything on there is some Matthew Yglesias-infected contrarian claptrap bullshit even if it’s not actually written by Matthew Yglesias.

That piece I linked – like most of his – is filled with false dichotomies, statements backed by no evidence (because there isn’t any) and a firm disregard for how anyone not Ivy League-educated and not already set for life experiences the world.

Liberals like Matt Yglesias is why I don’t call myself a liberal that often. In no way do I want to be associated with a such a wretched, deluded fucker.

I’ve deliberately made an effort lately to read more fiction by women. I already read something like 40% fiction by women naturally – now it’s more like 75%. Call it making up for lost time.

I didn’t expect the quality of my reading material to go down, and it did not. However, there is a lot more breadth in material written by women than in general than that written by men and that has improved my reading experience considerably.

As if there were any doubt, women and men are equally good writers, but female writers in general don’t seem as prone to be locked into certain binary ideas about gender or even society at large. That is to say, you are far less likely to read some unexamined translation of 1950s gender roles into a society of 2896 if it’s written by a woman.

The latest one I’ve read is Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, which was quite good.

We saw Catching Fire today.

Much, much better than the first film, and it had interesting things to say about how totalitarian regimes operate that even so-called “serious” films have never said on screen: namely, that the very rules that they establish as their modi operandi are also their weaknesses, for if they violate those rules in an obvious-to-the-rabble manner it undermines their very existence.

Of course, they will and do violate their self-set rules all the time in an unobvious and obfuscated manner – however, the point is and was if they do so apparently, they demolish their own foundations because “rule” like money is just an idea in a bunch of people’s heads more than it is anything physical.

Much more could be said about that for the film both handles this point subtly and capable and better than the books, but I also want to keep this post finite in length and I have to tell you about the character Johanna Mason.

Jena Malone (whom I didn’t even recognize) burns off the screen with this character. She’s a wild animal, utterly feral and unleashed by anything, and even though she’s fighting on the side of right she’s as scary in her wounded intensity and unpredictability as anyone I’ve ever seen on film.

I told my partner I was going to write a love song to her called, “Johanna, I love You – As Long as We’re Far Apart and You’re in a Cage.”

She said that was not very romantic.

The film was just filled with great performances, really, and subtle ones –  for instance, how Elisabeth Banks humanizes Effie Trinket without breaking character is just absolutely masterfully done.

And of course Jennifer Lawrence is Jennifer Lawrence – normally, someone like Jena Malone’s brilliant Johanna Mason would’ve upstaged her, but that’s not really possible.

Catching Fire corrected nearly all of the flaws of the first film, and even bested the book in some areas – something not often done. I highly recommend seeing it in the theater as it’s a movie that nearly cries out to be seen on a big screen.

It’s extremely odd to me that people criticize the premise of The Hunger Games as being outlandish when far worse things have occurred in our very recent history, and in fact throughout history.

I think this reaction occurs for a few reasons – people simply don’t want to believe that a society similar to theirs can possibly do not only such things but worse than what occurs in the novels. Another reason is that anything aimed at younger readers is automatically dismissed.

And yet another of course is that YA fiction features in their view too many female heroines and characters in general, as most people perceive a discussion to be female-dominated if it has above 30% female participation.

One of the fucking reasons I read YA so much is that women aren’t treated as sub-humans in the genre – and the writing is often a lot better and tighter.

It’s funny also that The Hunger Games premise is seen as ridiculous yet having 12,000+ people die of firearm homicides a year in this country is seen as normal, and having 50,000+ people perish because their medical care is inadequate – well, that’s just how things go.

People tend to ignore the horrors all around them, it seems, while concentrating on milder fictional ones.

Basia Bulat – Hush

The Trishas – Give it Away

Wikipedia is a great resource, with the caveat that approximately 10-15% of everything on there is either wrong or highly misleading.

This is better than conversations with most people, though, where 90% of everything stated is wrong.

A well-researched book in my experience probably contains about 5-10% incorrect information, so Wikipedia is certainly worse but not hugely so.