Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The American Experiment on the Last Day of the War
According to the government, the war in Iraq ends tonight at midnight. Given the war's inescapable presence in our politics over the last eight years, you would think we'd take this as the occasion for, if not celebration, at least some sort of commemoration. But so far, there's not even been much media coverage. Earlier in the month, the Pentagon staged a nighttime movement of combat troops from Iraq to Kuwait, timed to coincide with the evening news broadcasts, but aside from cutaways on NBC's cluster of channels (with some definite enthusiasm from MSNBC), it received about as much attention as a state visit to Senegal. A factoid about the impending end of aggressions made it onto the cable networks' bottom-of-the-screen crawl on Saturday, but then it was topped literally and figuratively by Glenn Beck's elaborate prank on Washington. Tonight, Obama will make with the official End of the War speech, to who knows what kind of ennui. No only do people think that the substantial residual force remaining in Iraq means that the occupation is continuing, many just simply seem to not believe the government when it says that the war is over. READ MORE
What's that, Science? You want to tell us something about old people? Well, go right ahead! "Older people like reading negative news stories about their younger counterparts because it boosts their own self-esteem, according to a new study. German researchers said older people tend to be portrayed negatively in society. Although they are often described as wise, they are also be shown as being slow and forgetful. 'Living in a youth centered culture, they may appreciate a boost in self-esteem. That's why they prefer the negative stories about younger people, who are seen as having a higher status in our society,' said Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, of Ohio State University." Fair enough! There was something else I wanted to mention about old people, but it seems to have slipped my mind. I'll be sure to share as soon as I can recall it, because I'm sure you haven't heard about it yet. | August 31, 2010
Gay Television Show Is Absolutely Horrific
This show, "The A-List," coming in October to a network that I will never, ever turn on now, is the most humorless, tone-deaf, nasty, vain little culture product I have ever seen. It's not an "interesting documentary look" at how some people are classist shitheels, or at "the way we live now" (which is apparently in a pit of shallowness and degradation). It's just bad. If I wanted to watch people burn money and waste their lives in such a fashion, I'd go down the road and watch people smoke coke. Or, in this case, I guess, go over to their heavily-mortgaged second houses and watch them cook ketamine for their dinner parties. In what is somewhat hope-inducing news, the commenters at EW and elsewhere had a similar reaction. (via)
There's a good reason for why your grandma keeps telling you about the terrible experience she had with the checkout lady at the grocery store who wouldn't take her coupon and so she had to call the manager, etc. Your grandma doesn't remember that she told you already. In fact, no old people do! But there's more! Take it away, Science! "'Older adults are additionally highly confident, compared to younger adults, that they have never told people particular things when they actually had,' study co-author Nigel Gopie, a cognitive scientist at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, said in a statement. 'This over-confidence presumably causes older adults to repeat information to people.'" I bet you didn't know that! | August 31, 2010
Baby Tortoises For All!
It has come to my attention that there are number of you out there who enjoy reptiles and feel like I do not provide with enough opportunities to partake in said enjoyment. So here ya go: baby tortoises! My favorite part of this clip is where the blonde co-host worries that one of the baby tortoises is trying to fuck another one. They have a great time on "Fox 10 Arizona Morning," don't they? Seems like a really fun, loose set. I mean, they bring you the news, but they don't take themselves too seriously. They're not embarrassed about doing an animal segment or anything. Good for them! OH MY GOD IS IT SEPTEMBER YET?
You know how old people are always repeating stories that they've told you a hundred times already? Science has figured out why: they're both stubborn and forgetful. "'Older adults are additionally highly confident, compared to younger adults, that they have never told people particular things when they actually had,' study co-author Nigel Gopie, a cognitive scientist at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, said in a statement. 'This over-confidence presumably causes older adults to repeat information to people.'" Now you know! | August 31, 2010
Flash Mob Creator Up To New Tricks
Is anyone else up for doing Fake Retweet Tuesday? #frtt
Bill Wasik
billwasik
Science, talk to me about old people. Specifically, why are they always telling you the same story over and over? Well, for one thing, they have lousy memories. Also: "'Older adults are additionally highly confident, compared to younger adults, that they have never told people particular things when they actually had,' study co-author Nigel Gopie, a cognitive scientist at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, said in a statement. 'This over-confidence presumably causes older adults to repeat information to people.'" Makes sense! | August 31, 2010
In Queens, To Find Locations Best
We recently lamented getting around in Queens, but little did we know, somehow, about this.
In Queens, to find locations best
Avenues, roads and drives run west;
But ways to north or south 'tis plain
Are street or place or even lane.
While even numbers you meet
Upon the west and south of street.
-VERSE AFFORDS MEANS TO GET ABOUT QUEENS, Dec 3, 1926. (via)
Further thoughts on the book that everyone's so agitated about: "So while it's probably annoying to Franzen that his novel's launch has been occluded, yet again, by an unrelated media frenzy, it's also refreshing. Freedom's characters also found their interior motivations revealed at odd, inappropriate moments. The cultural tsunami provoked by Franzen's Time cover, too, has apparently been lying in wait for some time. And why, it simply asks, do women writers never get Time covers? It's a question worth answering on its own terms, but if we keep the wrong turns of Freedom's principles in mind, we should get honest about it ASAP. Because while the debate is ostensibly about the size of critical attention Franzen deserves, asking the question alone has already quite successfully changed the subject. Looking at these results, one could arrive at a slightly more dangerous conclusion." | August 31, 2010
I Finished "Mockingjay" And I Feel Weird
In the end, I did not love Mockingjay, and neither, really, did the Slate book club. (Spoilers galore there, but also, it's clear they're all a little baffled.) The book suffers from a very admirable impulse by the author to not give us any wish fulfillment or narrative thrill. Significant action takes place off-stage! Our heroes are not "protagonists," which is a fine thing, except perhaps in a revenge-action YA book. (Even I did want a little agency out of our agents!) And every character in the book is exhibiting advanced PTSD. What does get recounted is rather profoundly grim: flying baby limbs, madness, gore, murder, you name it. It's fascinating that this very popular series is so terrifically adverse to being popular or well-liked. Or, you know, is not adverse to having really impressively horrific bloodbaths every other page. Kudos!
Good Riddance, August
Here's how August 2010 ends in New York. At the corner of Grand Street and Clinton, on the Lower East Side, with the temperature approaching 100 degrees, an old man in a light-blue polo shirt is being pushed in a wheelchair by his caretaker. "Not this way!" he shouts, as she noses him into the crosswalk on Grand. He points west, across Clinton. "I want to go there!" She continues, and calmly explains to him that they need to go in the direction they're going. Maybe they're going to the Rite-Aid on the corner, maybe the kosher butcher down the block. "No," he says, "the other way! Bring me the other way!" He twists his head around, straining to see her face. It looks like he'd bite her if he could. "The other way!"
This was a particularly shitty month in a summer full of them. And I'm happy to see it go. Here's to September.
Gmail Priority Inbox: Too Little, Too Late
Yay, I got my Gmail Priority Inbox! Yes, your Gmail can now be divided into "important" and "totally common." This solves all my organization and email response problems, clearly. Why won't totally wholesome and beneficial corporation Gmail provide me with a personal spider monkey that is trained to deal with email?
The hits keep coming! "A majority of Republicans believe that President Barack Obama 'sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world,' according to a survey released on Monday." | August 31, 2010
