Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
Gosh, who’d have thought? Ban tobacco in a jail, where almost everyone smokes the stuff, and suddenly black market cigarettes are US$125 a pack. Jailhouse cooks make more from smuggling than cooking.
Chuck Alexander, executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, says: “It didn’t do anything but make (tobacco) a lucrative business.”
Thanks to the clever lads at Freakonomics for the pointer — and some fascinating follow-up comments from their readers.
This poster advertising share accommodation in Sydney is pretty typical of the genre — a list of features, tear-off tags with phone numbers, and the notice that you’d be the fifth person in a 3-bedroom apartment.
But there are two features worth pointing out.
1. Boasting that “Nobody sleeps in the living room!!!!!” reminds us that it’s now normal to over-crowd CBD apartments. These buildings were designed with a certain occupancy, so may the gods help them all in the event of a fire.
2. Saying “Europeans, North- and South Americans or Australian applications preferred” is just a coward’s way of saying “No blacks or Asians” — which is a bit rich for someone choosing to live in Sussex Street, right next to Sydney’s Chinatown.
Owners of mobile phones 0415 520 775 and 0403 220 688, you may well own a plasma TV and “really nice furniture”, but you’re still racist turds.
If it wasn’t for the fact that doing so might count as harassment, I’d suggest that we all phone you and say so.
When I posted about the astronaut attempted kidnapping story the other day, I hadn’t realised it had already become a major global story. Now Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner asks: Why?
I realize the story represents a sort of perfect storm of media stickiness — a female perp and a female victim, lust, revenge, NASA, pepper spray, and of course the diaper — but I have to confess that I am overwhelmed that this has become such a round-the-clock story. Who cares, and why? They were even talking about the story on the two ESPN shows I saw pieces of last night (SportsCenter and Pardon the Interruption); in each case, the anchors sheepishly acknowledged that the story had zero to do with sports but… they simply couldn’t resist.
With 63 comments so far, there’s plenty of interesting ideas. Well worth the read. The highlights for me…
In 2003, British solider Lance-Corporal Matty Hull was killed in Iraq and a colleague injured when an American A-10 aircraft opened fire on his vehicle. The cockpit video from the A-10 was leaked, and the transcript has been published.
I watched the video.
I cried.
This astronaut didn’t have The Right Stuff, it seems. Or maybe she had too much of it. The photo at right is US Navy Captain Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew a shuttle mission to the International Space Station last July.
But on Monday she was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts, after she allegedly drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.
The ABC story apparently finds it important to mention that “Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she wouldn’t have to stop to urinate, authorities said. Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.”
Thanks to Richard for spotting this one!
Of all the annoying things which happened yesterday, the most annoying was a disrupted telephone conversation. We’d just started an important (but not urgent) discussion when I was told, “Hang on, I can’t talk now.”
Well, if you can’t talk, why answer the phone?
With the topic left hanging, I’m sure we both felt uncomfortable for the rest of the day. But if the ringing phone had been ignored, we could have discussed it later — when we both had the time to treat it with clarity.
Why do people give a ringing telephone such priority — even more priority that what they’ve already committed to at that moment?