January 2010
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“Also: The Star Wars trilogy was an incontrovertible, uncorrupted masterpiece of...”
– I was all set to write about the 2000s and how it represented a decade of change, but then I found this post from The Awl.
December 2009
81 posts
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The Year In Songs I Couldn't Get Out Of My Head
With 2009 coming to a close I thought I’d take a look back at the songs I would listen to on repeat a bunch. Each song was unique to a different part of the year, so in a sense, it’s a look back at 2009 for me.
Una Soda - The Refreshments - 2009 started off on a rough patch. I found myself driving out in the hills at night a lot to clear my head. I had the windows down and this song...
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“I had penetrated Beijing’s top-secret aerospace complex (near Zhichun Lu,...”
– On penetrating China’s space program. Idle Words is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs.
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“Yvette Arteaga over at the Willow Creek Cafe in Mason speaks for the multitudes...”
– A Fleeting Glimpse of the White Stuff
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WatchMy dog, Sekanji, “unwrapping” Christmas presents. She enjoys tearing apart the paper more than playing with the gift inside.
I bet she looks forward to this day each year.
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Argentina On Two Steaks A Day →
In short: delicious grass-fed beef every day. Memories of my trip to Brazil came flooding back when I read this blog post.
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“But the main reason to take action now was a business decision. When Mack came...”
– UT President Bill Powers on Coach Mack Brown’s $5 million per year salary.
I’ve always been supportive of how UT’s athletics programs are financed. Our football, softball, volleyball teams and other sports programs are a great source of pride for the University and for Austin....
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The End of the '00s: Decade In Netflix "Instant... →
Hilarious list of shows and movies this guy has watched with streaming Netflix. My favorite entry is “Fear dot com”.
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Infographic: Climate Change Deniers vs. The... →
Hits some of the main arguments from climate change skeptics. The bottom line:
“That’s why humanity’s release of CO2 is so perilous. We’re out of step with the natural cycle.”
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Carving the Christmas Turkey Like A Butcher →
This Christmas I’m going to try removing the meat from the turkey like a butcher, instead of just taking it off the bird. You get a lot more meat and you’re able to cut against the grain, which is important.
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The Thermodynamics of Climate Denial
For all of the criticism and hootin’ and hollerin’ from climate change deniers about climate science, I think they’re actually relying on thermodynamics for their argument. The funny part is they probably have no idea they’re doing it.
Take this tweet from Sarah Palin:
Copenhgen=arrogance of man2think we can change nature’s ways.MUST b good stewards of God’s...
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"Welcome to the 90s, Mr. Banks."
More like: “Welcome to the 2000s Mr. Wogan.”
I’ve finally started using an RSS reader regularly, after avoiding one for many years. The constant barrage of email updates from news sites (The Economist, NY Times, Grist, Energy & Environment, etc.) have become too much for my inbox to manage.
I got tired of staring at this every day:
Now I use NetNewsWire to aggregate the...
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“Copenhagen was much worse than just another bad deal, because it illustrated a...”
– How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room by Mark Lynas
I don’t see how we can justify calling China a developing country for much longer.
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Central Park's Tavern on the Green to close →
i.e., the restaurant in Ghostbusters I where the Terror Dogs catch up with Louis Tulley and turn him into The Keymaster, aka, Vinz Clortho.
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“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing...”
– - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption.
I finally got around to watching The Shawshank Redemption with Andy the other night. In the 15 years it’s been out, I’ve never seen it in its entirety. It’s a fantastic movie and also happens to be the #1 movie on IMDB’s 250 list.
...
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“Rockefeller has been a critic of the cap-and-trade legislation that came out of...”
– - EENews Daily
Funny, and I thought that should be the goal of the legislation.
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“But before we cede the entire moral penthouse to “committed vegetarians” and...”
– - Natalie Angier, NYT.
I’m reminded of the Ents.
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IMDB's Top 250 Movies →
This list made for some great trivia at our annual roommate holiday dinner at P.F. Chang’s the other night. There are a lot of movies on this list that I haven’t seen, like: The Godfather I and II (and III for that matter, but it didn’t make the list); Pulp Fiction (I’ve seen parts here and there); and 12 Angry Men (Andy, I promise we’ll watch it!).
There’s...
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Remember my iPhone Pay idea? Looks like somebody... →
Here is the idea I had. I’ll take it as a compliment that I’ve been thinking up some useful and practical ideas.
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Sumerians Look On In Confusion As God Creates... →
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“i’m another one of those people who thought it was john barrowman and...”
– I still have no idea who John Barrowman and David Tennant are. It’s just me and John dancing and eating cake at Matthew’s wedding. I can’t believe this video has over 33,000 views!
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The Best New Blogs of 2009 →
I came across the above article about the best new blogs of 2009. Check it out, there are some really stand-out blogs in that list. Some of my favorite blogs this year, however, are from my friends and family. I love keeping up with their blogs whether or not I see them on a regular basis. So here they are, in no particular order:
Read AJ - I enjoy reading AJ’s blog because it is smart,...
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Browser Pong →
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English is sadly limited in the range of forms of... →
Indeed. For example, the limited distinction between doctors often leads to the awkward/funny “oh, you’re not a real doctor!” when kids of medical doctors meet their parents’ PhD friends.
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“In the spirit of Operation Chokehold, here is my song of the day for you…...”
– @dmwogan
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“Because seriously, my dude, you are going to cripple the entire economy of the...”
– - Fake Bin Laden on Operation Chokehold.
Don’t forget that Operation Chokehold is tomorrow - 2pm CDT.
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Creative Applications [dot] net →
These guys dig up some really great apps for Macintosh, iPhone, and more.
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Greenpeace "Green Police" cordon off the US... →
Usually I think protests are silly and try to avoid the Greenpeace activists at all costs, but I like what they’ve done this time. The US Chamber of Commerce is filled with a bunch of hacks.
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Wait, there's another David Wogan in the US??? →
Oh no - he’s a fan of SEC football. We have problems.
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Operation Chokehold →
Dear iPhone friends (those two things are synonymous, right?),
Let’s do it.
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China is going to build a bunch of nuclear plants... →
You know, for all of the criticism of China’s greenhouse gas emissions, it seems like they’re doing things we only talk (and argue) about here in the States (e.g., nuclear). We can only blame others for so long.
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NASA satellite confirms water vapor feedback loop →
Climate models have been criticized for the uncertainties surrounding water vapor’s effect on global temperature changes. Looks like the models assumptions are fine.