March 2009
50 posts
The ethics of cheating (through essay mills)
I’m probably the worst person to talk about ethics because I’m a moralist with a foundation of nihilism and moral relativism. In other words, I stand behind my morals for the same reason kids love Apple Jacks. That manifests itself in me being a vegetarian who eats McDonalds from time to time. That said, I do try to logically compare values when it’s possible.
I just read a...
Comments to Janice Dickenson's latest blog post:
I THINK THAT BY LOOKING TO HER PHOTO ,SHE TOTALLY IS A SUPERMODEL .
I just wanted to comment on what a terrifically beautiful, strong woman you are. I don’t know much of you, but love your show. I admire your devotion to your children. I am a single (strong willed) Mom and found your story touching and makes me admire you even more.
I am 46!!!!!!!!!! Very Hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...
Today in my Islamic studies class, the professor mentioned the “African American” Muslim minority in the US and a Swedish kid said something along the lines of, “Yeah, but that’s the same thing as France; they have a lot of African Muslims, too”. It turns out nobody in the class had even heard of NOI, and there were two other Americans. Since I was the one who sorted...
Amigos! Lend me your ears!
melll:
Upcoming debate a week from Tuesday. Topic being: That the war on terror should continue. We’re the negative team.
So the question is, what would you argue? Because right now I’m thinking the oppositions argument will be pretty fkn strong…
Everything we’ve come up thus far with seems generic and damn predictable. At this point, we’re going in knowing that we’ll lose.
So, fire away!...
Why I'm not currently eating a pizza
A couple days ago, I was starving so I went to my dorm kitchen and scrounged through the freezer. I don’t tend to keep things in the fridge because that sort of stuff can go bad and I can’t juggle all these things like expiration dates in my memory. This is a recurring theme that will be explored later.
I took out some breaded cauliflower cheese grills (CCGs) that I had been saving...
A good defense is no defense
It’s interesting to see people defend others from things posted on Unfollow Friday. I think the thing about that and the original iteration of Salute Saturday is that it’s worse than whatever criticisms are being addressed. It basically eviscerates the person being attacked—adding insult to injury. You’re taking it upon yourself to say they can’t stand up for...
Becky has started working all day in a serious officey environment where they frown upon spending all working hours chit-chatting to boyfriends. She’s designing virtual environments or something—I don’t really know—but I’ve created my own competing virtual world in my mind that’s populated by robotic Lou Reeds, silly hats, the friendly Turkish people who make my...
I just finished watching the last Battlestar...
So now I can read Tumblr again. To any of those who haven’t seen it yet:
ADAMA KILLS DUMBLEDORE
I just finished watching “The Pelican Brief” and it spurred me to take interest in a small story developing about faked sources. The story is great because it involves bad grammar, terrorism, media unaccountability, and stupid British people—all the things I love to hate.
It revolves around Glen Jenvey, who is a self-titled ex-spy and “freelance terror investigator”....
Matte(r) of opinion
I used to be fervently against the shiny finish on Macbook screens, as I was accustomed to the lovely matte finish on my trusty (and by trusty I mean possible fire hazard) iBook. The switch to shiny was a sacrifice I had to make when my iBook evolved to create its own consciousness, which led it to decide when it wanted to be on or off. Having used the shiny-finished screen now for a few months, I...
Performance 320
My toilet paper is called Scott® Toilet Tissue Performance 320. Sometimes, when I’m sitting on the toilet, I try to think up titles for their other lines of toilet paper. Here are a few:
Precision 400
Xtreme Delux 250
Aloe Defense 350
Turbo-Wipe 300
The Peacemaker 320
Two-Ply Assault 400
Quilted Commander 270
Social media refugees
I had some trepidation writing this post, because, aside from Becky saying I write too much about Tumblr, I don’t think anyone’s all that interested anymore. Most of the things we used to criticize are firmly cemented and we just have to deal with them or move on. My interest, as it always tends to drift towards, is in the sociological aspects of Tumblr as an interesting case study, so...
Recently rejected FML submissions:
Today, my father died. We were very close. FML
Today, I found out my severe clinical depression is completely unresponsive to medication. FML
Today, my girlfriend left me for someone else and I’m emotionally unprepared to deal with it. FML
Today, my tour of duty was extended. FML
Today, I was reunited with my biological parents. At the cemetery. FML
Today, I was diagnosed with terminal...
My subconscious loves choose your own adventures
Living alone most of the time, I can do things like share my bed with my laptop each night. This allows me to jot down ideas I have as I’m drifting to sleep. I’ve created a file for just such ideas, and I’ve only gotten around to reading it today. They’re like a mix of ideas an eight year old might have and things that make no sense whatsoever:
start making comics of...
If chavs could use computers to comment on Daily...
“my heart goes out to jade and her family who ever thinks at 27 that was ur last days she has opened up a world of disbeilef i just hope jade has got the message across to have a smear test she will live on in every ones heart she has been an inspiriton good luck jade ur boys will shine on through u always just remember kid u dit it ur way xxxxxxxx”
-Lorraine Williams, Liverpool
“Man will become better when you show him what he is like.”
– Anton Chekhov
Decoding the Middle East: Part Two
filigree:
outofprint:
Is there a clash of civilizations?
Dear outofprint, So almost all of your criticism of COC was pretty good. Then, the last three paragraphs:
The Middle East, though, shares much of Asia’s phenomenal birthrate. What this means is that Asia is getting bigger and the West isn’t. This is probably going to be a problem because a lot of those Middle Eastern babies grow up...
Limbaugh: Kennedy Will Be Dead By The Time Health... →
megwhyte:
Can we please all agree - liberals, moderates, conservatives - that Rush Limbaugh is a reprehensible human being who is rotten to the core?
This HuffPo piece exemplifies all the reasons people can’t take the Democrats seriously, and I’m not saying that as a Republican or conservative. First, you’ve got a guy who says idiotic stuff all day, and all you can criticize him...
For the past couple weeks, someone in my dorm corridor has been locking the kitchen door. This drives me insane because I have a moral objection to needing a key to access my own kitchen that’s only two feet away.
They use like recycled shower water or some other disgusting stuff for the taps in our en-suite bathrooms (never too pampered to complain!) so when I want to drink water for free,...
Ad Hoc Identity
My mom can’t figure out captchas. I found this out when I was trying to get her to make her own Gmail account over the phone (if I made it, it would be @googlemail.com, which is unsightly).
She couldn’t decipher the distorted text or the accessibility audio option.
I had to make her hold the phone up to the computer speakers so I could write down what it said for her. Half way...
Q: ”I’d like to direct this question to messrs. Lennon and McCartney. In a recent article, ‘Time’ magazine put down Pop music. And they referred to ‘Day Tripper’ as being about a prostitute and ‘Norwegian Wood’ as being about a lesbian. I just wanted to know what your intent was when you wrote it, and what your feeling is about the ‘Time’...
21st Century Terrorist Organizations
Macintosh Martyrs Brigade
Guido Liberation Front
Armed Television Writers Movement
Log Cabin Republican Army
Unemployed Wall Street Jihad
Liberation Tigers of Twitter
Discredited Home Lenderos Luminosos
Black History February
Decoding the Middle East: Part Two
Is there a clash of civilizations?
The topic of civilizations and their proclivity to clash with one another was popularized in the mid-to-late 90s, following the paper and later book by Samuel P. Huntington on the subject. It basically posits that there are incompatible sociological differences between broad regional civilizations, and due to this, there exists a major struggle between the East...
Decoding the Middle East: Part One
As many of you know, I begrudgingly study foreign policy at university. What you might not know is that, outside of school, I’m actually quite interested in the subject. I’ll be writing a bit about it off and on as I have in the past, and one such undertaking will be a series of examinations of the Middle East, starting with this introduction:
International Relations (IR), which is...
There are two paths to get into town from my dorm. Over time, I noticed that the majority of the people who took the southern path were Asians and the majority of people who took the northern path were caucasians. I wondered what genetic or social predisposition led to this ethnic divergence and what other applications this phenomenon could have, until I found out that the southern path led to the...
“The men and women of the Animal Liberation Movement pattern themselves after the freedom fighters in Nazi Germany who liberated war prisoners and Holocaust victims and destroyed equipment-such as weapons, railways, and gas ovens that the Nazis used to torture and kill their victims. Other comparisons would include the Apartheid movement, led by Nelson Mandela, who used and supported...
"Expectations", or, "This is a post about me"
Earlier today, I found myself, as vanity leads one to do, searching my own name. In this search, I somehow came across a very old post that mentioned me. The girl who wrote it has since stopped following me. All she said was:
“Approaching the close of my first year doing this blog, and after reading Ben Wasser for a bit today, I started thinking about why I am here … and my revelations as a...
“Due to public interest in this matter, the Department of Justice is releasing...”
– The US DoJ has a way with words (and actions).
Whoever wrote this paper I’m editing loves the phrase, “capture our intuition”. I have no idea what it means, but it sounds magical.
doublethink:
“However, it is readily accepted that there is a greater moral imperative to moderate the content of some types of sites – for instance those which are used by children.”
Hrm…
Ways not to treat heartburn:
Old Jamaica Ginger Beer With Fiery Jamaican Root Ginger
Honestly, what was I thinking?
eatshootleave:
Normally I wouldn’t have called you on a spelling mistake but apparently people have improved their grammar too much for me to post anything otherwise.
Oh, come on; I saw someone write, “seize to amaze me” not a day ago.
“Oh, honey, did we send you to opinion school?”
– Joey Comeau
Freedom of speech
Some people have characterized me as a proponent of free speech, especially on Tumblr. I would like to say once and for all that this is categorically false. In fact, I want to herald the suppression of more voices here than anyone else. If it were up to me, there’d only be about five people allowed to blog.
Here’s the deal: I’ll happily shut down Unfollow Friday if the...
devincastro:
I say we email Tumblr Support and have UnfollowFriday suspended and/or deleted. I honestly joined Tumblr to share my thoughts and post things that I would want to remember when I age, not be bashed upon because of who I am as a person..
You should see the submissions I didn’t post about you.
gary:
Getting fame or money or more eyeballs doesn’t change you, it exposes you
Gary’s accidentally arguing pretty strongly for nature over nurture here, which I think is easy to disagree about. I’m clearly not insinuating that Gary has changed with increased popularity, as I have no idea, but people are in a maturation process for a good deal of their lives, and if they become...
I wake up-
and Jakob is back!?
What will I pray for now?
They don't even understand me in Leeds
I just read an article that was featured on Boing Boing called “A handy little guide to small talk in the Stone Age”. While the actual content was useless, I thought the whole thing was interesting from a cultural perspective.
Coming up with outrageous claims that certain English words like I, who, we, thou, two, three, and five would be understood by cavemen is a good example of the...
