Space Invaders making a comeback

““Happy Up Here” from Röyksopp   Cool song, nifty video, but as someone who played a lot of Space Invaders in the early ’80s, this kind of freaks me out. So does the Threadless T-shirt design below (I always wondered how they maintained such a tight formation — turns out it’s all in the training!):

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The 12-week point

Maybe I should try this  Apparently the guy actually got a job offer out of it, after spending just 2 days standing out there with a sandwich board (hopefully not with a company that makes sandwich boards). (via Arbroath)

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50 Coolest Song Parts

The 50 Coolest Song Parts  Lots to argue about here, but tell me when you look at the top 5 on that bottom row you don’t already know which moments they’re talking about on the Queen, Who and Phil Collins albums. But speaking of arguing, sure the opening of the “Born to Run” title track is great, but is it really better than the end of the instrumental break where the Boss counts off to the last verse in the most awesome “One two three four” uttered by anyone whose last name is not Ramone?

Is it better, for that matter, than the moment in opening track “Thunder Road” where the song brings the whole album up to cruising speed with “Roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair”?

And while I’m thrilled that my Wisconsin homies the Violent Femmes are represented, WTF? The album’s best moment is from ”Blister in the Sun”? Are you high? No. Just no. Everybody knows it’s in ”Kiss Off” — “I take one, one, one ’cause you left me, and two, two, two for my family … Ten, ten, ten, ten is for EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING” (the good part starts at 2:40):

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You can’t do this on an iPod

Turntable Kitteh  Sometimes the old technologies really are best.

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Game theory, economics, Sicilians and death

Insights on Economic Choices from Game Theory and Cognitive Psychology  A professor of behavioral economics says, a key part of strategizing about what other people–or corporations, or countries–will do involves thinking about what they think you will do. “You can also think about what others think you think. . . . It can go on and on.” Gee, who knew? That is, aside from everyone who’s watched the scene above from “The Princess Bride”? Sadly, no word from the study on whether behavioral economics can tell us whether to go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

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The 11-week point

Career in the packing industry

Hopefully it won’t come to that for me. But it’s been 11 weeks now since I was laid off, and my prospects for a job as a writer or editor are still looking thin — I got a phone call from a headhunter yesterday, but it doesn’t look like much is going to come of it

But still, getting the call was at least a step further than I’ve gotten so far, unless you count the company from Craigslist who was looking for a dictionary editor and then flaked out after e-mailing me to arrange an interview.

(pic via Ruining the Internet)

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Why does God hate Buffalo?

Nice cartoon by Rex Babin of the Sacramento Bee. I eagerly await Babin’s explanation for Flight 3407.

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Wm. Shakespeare’s Five and Twenty Things Abovt Me

In the same vein as Historical Tweets, here’s Wm. Shakespeare’s Five and Twenty Things Abovt Me  Some of these variations on the Facebook meme are pretty lame, but “7   I hate to wear a Ruff, for I haue such a pleasing Necke” is nice, as is “9   Sometimes when I am Stvck for a rhyme, I new-mint a Worde because I jvst want to get the Damned script ovt the fvcking doore.” (pic via all talk and no action)

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Why the Internet is made of awesome

This is why the Internet is made of awesome: Someone puts up a blog post purporting to describe a Borneo phrasebook for tourists from the ’60s. Someone links to the blog post on Metafilter, and discussion ensues, along with some skepticism about the claim that a tourist phrasebook really included such gems as “The cockroaches have eaten my shirt” and “Wait while I remove these leeches.” Someone in the discussion happens to live next to a large library, looks for the book, finds the entries and posts them for all to see.

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Happy Darwin Day!

 

Blogging the Origin 

If you want the experience of reading Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” but don’t want to slog through 450 pages of Victorian prose (in print or online), this might be a decent substitute.

And if you want to digest Darwin’s “one long argument” in modern writing with more modern examples, try Steve Jones’ “Darwin’s Ghost.”

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