mars 13, 2007

In praise of the slacker-hipsters

Too true: Salon's Cary Tennis wants to know when we lost the troubled slacker as cultural icon.

Give yourself a break, my man. If you are depressed and have a drug problem or have a metabolic imbalance, then that's some serious stuff and you need medical care. But if you simply lack ambition, I take my hat off to you. The world is way too full already of overly ambitious fucks elbowing us out of the way on the streetcar.

mars 02, 2007

Burroughs interview at The Paris Review

The 1965 interview with William S. Burrougs in The Paris Review is finally online:

Link: The Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 36.

februari 27, 2007

Oulipo: Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle

Link: Oulipo: N+7.

Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle

It made me laugh. Then write.

ABM gone, INF at risk

Link: Missile defense: the Russian reaction-Blog-Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces.

It's quite likely that Russia will use the system's deployment in Europe as a pretext for pulling out of the INF Treaty. What kind of benefit this withdrawal could bring to Russia remains unclear. But at this point, Russia could do so just to prove it can. If the United States is able to pull out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, why can't Russia unilaterally extract itself from the treaties it no longer likes? Isn't that what superpowers do these days? If so, we're in serious trouble.


There is only one, and for a very long time will be only one, important variable analysis of global power: nuclear weapons. Did you think that all that was over when the wall fell? Sucker!

februari 26, 2007

...and so we say goodbye to Starbucks

Bloated.
Starbucks was a big deal, make no mistake. It put pressure on everyone to start Selling Good Coffee Now, and it worked. Being a coffee-fiend became a much more pleasing thing in London, Dublin, and even humble San Jose, why not. Even Paris. Yes, I dare blaspheme. But then capitalism worked its magic and now the whole thing has become embarrassing and non-functional.
Time:

"You guys are actually proud that there are 10,000 different drink combinations. Are you insane? Don't you know what happens when you increase complexity in any business process? Steve Jobs makes 10 products."

Time for the next big thing I guess. Here's the general idea, I'm giving it away for free: Have a nice store, reasonably quiet, not too large. Sell coffee. Not chocolate. Not even tea. Don't sell too many buns and tasty things. Make sure that the coffee is good enough. Don't bother with syrups. Provide newspapers. Prosper.

februari 24, 2007

Ugly and wrong

Let me tell you about something that's ugly and plain wrong. It's a little something on the big old world wide web we know, use and sometimes love. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, please disregard.)
You Tube videos embedded in weblogs, that later end up embedded in the rss-feed and hence dumps all over your feed-reader.
It's the animated gif of the 21st century. Please stop.
That will be all.

februari 21, 2007

Blockwriter - such a gorgeous tool!

I have many, many flaws and weird hang-ups: one of them is IMPLEMENTS FOR WRITING TEXT. I can't resist fountain pens, typewriters, word processors... it's just embarrassing. I have dozens. Oodles. Anyway, there seems to be a bit of an upswing for applications that focus on writing as opposed to editing. That means clutter-free screen, limited search and layouting fiddly bits.
Blockwriter is a very neat little app, it made me smile and looks useful. (Clarification: Blockwriter is only a concept - probably in need of a skilled Cocoa programmer!)
Writeroom gives you monochrome full-screen editing in almost every application - very clever.
And for those moments when only a full word processor will do: Mellel is the way to go.

Now, just think what I could accomplish if I put as much effort into writing as I do into collecting tools...

300 - the movie

Frank Miller + Thermopylae + movie = terrible excitement. And it's only weeks away! Watch the trailer for gripping Spartan drama.
The movie is based on Frank Miller/Lynn Varleys graphic novel, one of my cherished treasures.
(Via Londonist.)

Sign of the times

Ionizing radiation is bad for you. Iaea hopes that this will be clear from now on.
Newradsymbol

However, the trefoil is a timeless design-classic, way prettier than the "improved" one.
Trefoil_usual

februari 20, 2007

Nature Takes revenge

...on Cat and Girl, in the form of a TERRIBLE BEAR!

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