A Funkaoshi Production

Caitlin Cronenberg has published a book of nudes.

A great promo video by Dyan Marie. It’s filled with a who’s who of Blansdowne. Well, except for me. Hah!

This is one of the best pieces of writing on friendship (and death) I’ve ever read.

Holy shit.

This was a really well done talk. Robert Martin clearly must have practice giving speeches. It’s an interesting look at the history of programming languages. (I particularly enjoyed his jab at Vi.) The main crux of his argument is that software guys have been sitting on their asses since the 50s-60s, unlike the hardware guys, who have been making magic till today.

This has to be one of the smartest things I’ve read recently.

A nice mix of photography and travel writing.

What is the downside of forcing more advanced students to stay among their peers to teach and learn from them in a social environment that more closely mimics the outside world? Is the fear that they will become delinquents and drop out because they aren’t being challenged academically? Well, maybe that’s an important lesson for children identified as gifted to learn – sometimes the institution won’t change to suit your particular needs, and sometimes you won’t be intellectually stimulated.

The gifted program in Ontario is a strange experiment. You take a bunch of children, tell them they are super smart, and put them in small classes with smart teachers. It almost sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Still, I know quite a few gifted kids who crashed and burned during and after high school. I think the program does breed a certain sort of laziness. It definitely breeds social awkwardness. I know plenty of gifted children who have trouble dealing with other people. (I wish this post still existed. People, keep your fucking sites online. Update: Krishna points out it is still up at archive.org.)

A touching story.

I need to find some time to go see this. Shima and I really enjoyed Rachael’s last play. (So did L.)

Go do it now: this web site will still be here when you get back.

Dominic Nahr and Moises Saman have both been invited to join Magnum (as nominees). Chris Anderson, who I saw give a talk last year, has been made a full member.

Awesome! I used to run a BBS called Land of the Wicker people, and was a member of a few in Toronto. Those were the days.

How have I never seen this before. Also enjoyable.

This application is amazing, and is probably one of the things that makes my iPad so awesome.

“Every week, the Masked Man, Deadspin’s pro wrestling correspondent, honors the sport’s fallen and examines their legacies — famous and obscure alike.” I can think of few professional sports that seem to destroy lives like professional wrestling.

This article is too good for pull quotes. A long and thoughtful look at the current war, and how the West is more or less fucked.

Anyone who wants to know why network television news hasn’t mattered since the seventies just needs to check out this appearance by Logan. Here’s CBS’s chief foreign correspondent saying out loud on TV that when the man running a war that’s killing thousands of young men and women every year steps on his own dick in front of a journalist, that journalist is supposed to eat the story so as not to embarrass the flag.

Can you guess who wrote this article? He’s consistently awesome.

Has the newspaper of record adopted a double standard for torture techniques—using the “t”-word when the techniques are applied by other nations, but using more evasive characterizations when agents of the United States government are in the spotlight? That question has now been authoritatively settled, and the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Shocking! Well no, not really. After reading Necessary Illusion I assume the NYT is lying and/or wrong when writing about American foreign policy.

A very cool use of YouTube. Who doesn’t love 8-bit RPGs?

This movie sounds awesome.

Hopefully more news sites follow their lead.