I think I would title the story Swedish Surrealist Heli-Ninjas Commit Perfect Theft. But the writeup at The Punch is pretty good too. That’s caper movie material right there–“competence porn”. I love that it actually happened.
Category: Aside
Aside
I love effective visualizations, and the Billion Dollar gram is a very simple and effective way to help normal people understand the relative sizes of some of the ridiculously large dollar values attached to various government, corporate, and public initiatives. As someone who enjoys data visualization I appreciate it. As a human being, I can’t get past that items across the top row without feeling a combination of almost blinding rage and terrible, terrible shame.
Aside
Apparently I missed the 250th anniversary of Guinness yesterday. There was a time that couldn’t have happened, since I would likely have been accidentally celebrating it on any given day anyway, but that time is receding into the distant past now. Hell, I used to have the stuff on tap in my house. When I do have a pint at a bar, I still go to Guinness when it’s the only stout, or the best of the available ones, but it’s not religious anymore and there are many better stouts out there.
Aside
I don’t feel like I “missed out” in my childhood because modern console gaming, or the Internet, or whatever hadn’t been invented yet. However, I do think that if books like John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series, or Joseph Delaney’s Wardstone Chronicles had been around when I was just coming into my teens, I would have absolutely devoured them. I’m retroactively jealous.
Aside
I should note that I still quite like Feingold, even if he is doing the cutesy acronym thing.
Aside
I’m not going to get my hopes up too high yet, but if it turns out that putting Sotomayor on the court was the start of the end of corporate personhood… well, let’s just say I don’t see myself having a problem with that.
Aside
I love garlic like few men love garlic, and I have even bought garlic from Lenny, but that doesn’t stop me from recognizing utter stupidity when I see it. If I were one of those “majority of householders” who were being prevented from having high speed by this kind of utterly cornball FUD, I would certainly be giving old Lenny a piece of my mind.
Aside
Cuddles and Mr. Mushroom illustrate the dangers of unthinking conformance to societal norms of civility.
Aside
“The correlation between U.S. aid and human rights violations has long been noted by scholarship.” Just because Chomsky is a thinker who’s ideas are best considered at a length beyond that of a soundbite, doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to throw in a finely polished and cutting bit of snark as an aside. And that article the snark is nested in–that also bears reading.
Aside
“My miracle is that when I feel hungry I eat, and when I feel thirsty I drink.” Yup, that’s a hell of a punchline.
Aside
I am not sure how to interpret the news that the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie will be based on a great novel by one of my favourite authors. I don’t want to be optimistic about the adaptation for obvious reasons. I guess I should just focus on the fact that Powers will get a well-deserved payday.
Aside
Yes, I am aware that the asides are not currently rendering as asides. The upgrade to WordPress 2.8 broke the plugin I use to manage that, and I’m giving the author a little time to get it sorted before I toss out the plugin and do it myself. At some point these will look correct again, one way or another.
Aside
If you’re a fan of The Wire (and really, you should be) then prepare for some cognitive dissonance, as you watch and listen to Jimmy McNulty, or rather Dominic West the actor that portrays him, read from one of the few dirty books that snuck into the canon of classical literature. In his actual accent.
Aside
Go and see what Chip Zdarsky (in his alter-alter-ego as Steve Murray) has wrought by bringing a George Perez sensibility to The Muppets. Apparently I am seriously behind in my Muppet continuity.
Aside
“Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends.” That’s one of many entertaining quotes from AC Grayling‘s appearance in the Guardian’s “This much I know” series.
