| Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, The Blind Side, etc, has <a... |
[21 Jun 2008|10:22am] |
23:14 18.06.2008
Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, The Blind Side, etc, has <a...
Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, The Blind Side, etc, has moved back to his native New Orleans to work on a book "that will center on the restoration of New Orleans". Back in Aug 2007, Lewis wrote an article for the NY Times Magazine about Hurricane Katrina and the economics of catastrophe. (thx, brian) (link)
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| ● Indiana Jones and Nuke the Fridge |
[21 Jun 2008|10:22am] |
18:41 19.06.2008
● Indiana Jones and Nuke the Fridge
Not so long ago, on May 24th, IMDB message board participant beachedblonde coined a new phrase: nuke the fridge. Here's the definition from the Urban Dictionary...it's roughly equivalent to jumping the shark:
A colloquialism used to delineate the precise moment at which a cinematic franchise has crossed over from remote plausibility to self parodying absurdity, usually indicating a low point in the series from which it is unlikely to recover. A reference to one of the opening scenes of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which the titular hero manages to avoid death by nuclear explosion by hiding inside a kitchen refrigerator.
Sample usage:
Man, when Peter Parker started doing the emo dance in Spider-Man 3, that franchise officially nuked the fridge.
Since then, things have progressed quickly. The original posting seems to have been deleted but the phrase caught on, infected other message boards and web sites, and is now a full-blown meme on the verge of nuking the fridge itself. Google currently returns close to 16,000 results for variations on the phrase. Some participants in the IMDB forums have already grown tired of the phrase's repeated use. A Wikipedia page was created and has already been deleted (reason: "Protologism with no RELIABLE sources evidencing more than extremely limited usage"). A web site dedicated to the meme is available at nukingthefridge.com, not to be confused with the movie review blog at nukedthefridge.com. And of course, no meme these days is complete without the proper new media accoutrements: Facebook page, MySpace page, t-shirt, YouTube page, an auction to sell the domain name, and a post on a large-ish general interest blog way after the whole thing's already played out. I only heard it for the first time an hour ago and I'm already sick of it. Memes seem to be spreading so rapidly now on the web that they burn out before they can properly establish themselves. It'll be interesting to see if nuke the fridge makes it through this ultra-virulent phase and somehow slows down enough to jump to casual mainstream usage. (via cyn-c)
read more at kottke.org
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| From an abridged script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom... |
[21 Jun 2008|10:22am] |
19:35 19.06.2008
From an abridged script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom...
From an abridged script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:
PRODUCER FRANK MARSHALL immediately proves his commitment to using CGI "only when necessary" by featuring completely necessary CGI prairie dogs in the first shot of the movie. A bunch of cars drive through the DESERT to AREA 51. HARRISON FORD'S SHADOW, then HARRISON FORD'S SHOE, then HARRISON FORD'S ARM, then HARRISON FORD'S HAT and finally HARRISON FUCKING FORD are eventually revealed. HARRISON FORD
Alright folks, let's get this show on the road. I want to make it to Country Buffet by four. CATE BLANCHETT
Pryvet, Harrison. I am evil Soviet. You vill help me find Moose and Squirrel, yes? HARRISON FORD
Holy Christ, you're not going to talk like that the whole movie are you? CATE BLANCHETT
Da. You vill help locate MacKuffin now.
(thx, david) (link)
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| An anecdote from Tim Russert's funeral: Russert's onetime boss, former... |
[21 Jun 2008|10:22am] |
21:57 19.06.2008
An anecdote from Tim Russert's funeral: Russert's onetime boss, former...
An anecdote from Tim Russert's funeral:
Russert's onetime boss, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, offered the day's only example of Russert blatantly lying. After Cuomo pushed through the nation's first seat-belt law in 1985, the two men were in a Buffalo motorcade when their car was struck from behind and Cuomo -- having forgotten to buckle up -- hit the dashboard. As reporters rushed over, Russert blurted out: "Thank God for the seat belt!"
(link)
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| Always amusing, Rosecrans Baldwin's dispatches from Paris. Unless (or perhaps... |
[21 Jun 2008|10:22am] |
00:40 20.06.2008
Always amusing, Rosecrans Baldwin's dispatches from Paris. Unless (or perhaps...
Always amusing, Rosecrans Baldwin's dispatches from Paris. Unless (or perhaps especially) if you're French.
One afternoon a roving band of 30 teenagers stopped traffic on the Champs-Elysées, marching toward the Arc de Triomphe, followed by a battalion of 60 police officers in riot gear, marching in rows of two. I asked a French co-worker what the kids were celebrating. He squinted, looking into the sun. "That it's May," he said. "That they're French, that they're young. You will not understand."
(link)
read more at kottke.org
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| Children in the mail! After parcel post service was introduced... |
[21 Jun 2008|10:23am] |
01:39 20.06.2008
Children in the mail! After parcel post service was introduced...
Children in the mail!
After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.
That photo is part of the Smithsonian Institution's collection at Flickr.
Update: A 1913 NY Times article includes a query from a citizen to the Post Office inquiring whether they could send a baby through the mail:
Sir: I have been corresponding with a party in Pa about getting a baby to rais (our home being without One.) May I ask you what specifications to use in wrapping so it (baby) would comply with regulations and be allowed shipment by parcel post as the express co are to rough in handling
(via genealogue) (link)
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| ● How much is that old iPhone worth? |
[21 Jun 2008|10:23am] |
16:39 20.06.2008
● How much is that old iPhone worth?
Just after Apple announced the iPhone 3G, Khoi Vinh whipped up a quick graph of the declining value of his iPhone over the past year. He generously estimates that when the iPhone 3G is released in early, his old iPhone will be worth $100, half of the price for a new iPhone 3G. At the time, I speculated that you'd be hard pressed to find a buyer at $75.
However, the resale market for old iPhones might not be so dismal. AT&T has confirmed to MacWorld that in-store activation of the iPhone 3G will be mandatory:
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel confirmed for Macworld that activation must be done at the time of purchase, in-store.
For those who want to use their phone on another network, an untethered 8 GB iPhone 3G would cost them at least $374 ($199 + $175 AT&T account cancellation fee). But a cheaper and easier way to get an iPhone that works on T-Mobile, etc. is to buy an old iPhone from an upgrader for $100, maybe even $150?
read more at kottke.org
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| For its July 2008 issue, Vogue Italia is featuring only... |
[21 Jun 2008|10:23am] |
20:22 20.06.2008
For its July 2008 issue, Vogue Italia is featuring only...
For its July 2008 issue, Vogue Italia is featuring only black models and feature articles about black women in arts and entertainment.
Having worked at one time with nearly all the models he chose for the black issue -- Iman, [Naomi] Campbell, Tyra Banks, Jourdan Dunn, [Liya] Kebede, [Alek] Wek, Pat Cleveland, Karen Alexander -- [photographer Steven] Meisel had his own feelings. "I thought, it's ridiculous, this discrimination," said Mr. Meisel, speaking by phone from his home in Los Angeles. "It's so crazy to live in such a narrow, narrow place. Age, weight, sexuality, race -- every kind of prejudice."
Here's a slideshow of some of the images from the magazine. As I've said before, Vogue Italia is doing some interesting things with the editorial nature of the magazine's photography (see State of Emergency and Super Mods Enter Rehab, both by Steven Meisel). (link)
read more at kottke.org
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