Category: One-and-done

Pirate Jenny

by Mr. McLaren on September 15, 2009 in Music, One-and-done

For vaguely Alan Moore reasons I was recently checking out some renditions of Threepenny Opera tunes, and I found this version of Pirate Jenny that out-creepies the Nina Simone and Ute Lemper versions that I was familiar with. I thought I’d share. Read more →

Going To Mars

by Mr. McLaren on July 30, 2009 in One-and-done, Science and Technology

Have you taken a moment to add your name to the 2011 Mars mission? I did, and I can prove it. I partly did because hey, it’s Mars, and partly because one of my poker group works on the Mars Rover. I can get a lot of comedy out of “my participation” in the project. Sure, he did the mechanical… Read more →

Visualization And Facts

by Mr. McLaren on July 29, 2009 in One-and-done, Political

Are you familiar with GapMinder? It’s a great resource for visualization of all kinds of interesting data. One particular visualization that I’ve been thinking about lately is this presentation of life expectancy, average income, and population for several countries over time. It tells a primarily positive story about what’s been happening in the world over the last couple of hundred… Read more →

De Gustibus

by Mr. McLaren on July 28, 2009 in One-and-done

Normally you’d expect to visit an article titled 15 Ugliest Products Ever in order to have a bit of a drive-by laugh at what some people think is tasteful or interesting or whatever. Ugly is a subjective judgement, after all, but you do expect to be able to pretty well mock anything that someone is willing to put up as… Read more →

I would not have believed it.

by Mr. McLaren on July 13, 2009 in One-and-done

If I were playing Balderdash, or something similarI have this very vague memory of an old game show called Liar’s Club–I must have seen repeats of it or something, since it only ran until I was 5 or 6 years old. The premise of the show was that people would make up a set of incredibly unlikely explanations for something,… Read more →

Yes, that explains it.

by Mr. McLaren on July 8, 2009 in One-and-done

You may recall that we’ve discussed the Drake Equation here before, and also Nick Bostrom’s efforts to amend it with what I called a Doom Constant. Well it turns out that a very plausible answer to the Fermi Paradox that doesn’t involve either post has been suggested by a cartoon over at Abstruse Goose. I don’t know that the cartoonist… Read more →

Aside

It’s just vanishingly possible I’ve mentioned my appreciation for Scott Morse‘s art on the blog in the past. Given that I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that he’s doing a crazy online comic called The Shogunaut, which he’s been updating regularly. He’s up to 25 pages as I type this, and will likelly complete it soon. It’s kind of a Jack Kirby-meets-Maurice-Noble thing–perhaps not for most people, but if it’s the kind of thing you like, it’s really the kind of thing you’ll like.

Medical Slang Amuses

by Mr. McLaren on June 15, 2009 in One-and-done

Sometimes you just need to read random Wikipedia entries to find things that will educate, entertain, or amuse you. I’m not going to make any kind of statement about Wikipedia as a citeable reference, but damn there’s a lot of stuff in there that’s worth reading anyway. Today’s example: the article on medical slang. It nicely captures some of that… Read more →

QOTD: On Romance

by Mr. McLaren on May 28, 2009 in One-and-done

A good romance is defined by a passionate desire. A want of something so near, but unattainable. It’s longing of the future or of the past and the possibilities that could never be. It’s the futility and foolishness of making oneself vulnerable, no matter what disasters may occur. A good romance rarely ends happily, and if it grips you it… Read more →

Physical Culture and Self-Defence

by Mr. McLaren on May 26, 2009 in Books, One-and-done

Offered almost without comment: Both pages from Physical Culture And Self-Defence, one of the bazillion books at books.google.com. The internet keeps getting cooler. I note that you can download a PDF of the book for offline perusal. (Via Wondermark‘s David Malki!) Read more →

Dylan Moran

by Mr. McLaren on May 10, 2009 in One-and-done

You have seen Black Books, right? That’s a pretty hilarious show–I think it recently overtook Chef! in my mental ranking of funniest British shows. The thing I always find myself thinking when I see Moran perform is that the character he plays–who may or may not be himself to some extent–is That Guy. You know the one–every guy has at… Read more →

Aside

Sales of foundation garments for the gentleman of the house as an extremely reliable economic indicator? Maybe not as silly as it sounds at first.

QOTD: Trent Reznor

by Mr. McLaren on April 9, 2009 in One-and-done

“One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, ‘Wait – you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the f**k made that rule? Oh! The record labels… Read more →

The Latest Addition

by Mr. McLaren on March 17, 2009 in Hanging, One-and-done

The latest addition the collection of stuff hanging around my house: a signed print of Wondermark #442: In which Beth keeps her Books, which I have had framed, and which is now hanging on the door to my office/libraryCan I coin a new word for that? I mean I could just use study, but that’s kind of fusty. How about… Read more →

Aside

The Vampire of Venice. A true story, courtesy of the BBC.