blips on the radar

azspot: Jeff Danziger

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:03:23 -0500

Jeff Danziger

The Loudness War

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:28:15 -0500

“Compression is a necessary evil. The artists I know want to sound competitive. You don’t want your track to sound quieter or wimpier by comparison. We’ve raised the bar and you can’t really step back.”

The 11/3 Project: 11 Principles and 3 Herbs & Spices.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:13:27 -0500

The 11/3 Project: 11 Principles and 3 Herbs & Spices.

Capitalism's Fundamental Flaw

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:31:46 -0500

Capitalism's Fundamental Flaw:

azspot:

But there is another less obvious bug in capitalism that I don’t believe regulation can quite handle. It is the fundamental flaw that our celebrated system rewards speculators much more than creators. A relatively junior hedge-fund manager or a bond trader on Wall Street makes a great deal more money in his career than Charles Kao, who invented the basic physics making optical communication a reality. Dr. Kao, now 73, won the Nobel Prize this year, but his net worth would not compare favorably with that of George Soros.

Yet, who added the real value? Soros or Kao?

In 2009, 30 million people sit unemployed in America. Yet, the speculators have managed to lift the stock market up, and the media pretends that we’re having a recovery.

We’re not having any recovery. We need the innovators, the entrepreneurs, the creators, the scientists, the technologists—those who build value, those who create jobs—to lead us out of this nightmare. Not a bunch of speculators who make money regardless of whether value gets created or destroyed. In fact, many of them are incentivized to destroy value by spreading fake rumors about companies and stocks, and they do so often. Some get caught, most don’t.

And our talented youth gets seduced by this profession of speculation known for its easy and abundantly flowing financial rewards, avoiding those that require much greater intellectual capacity. Most importantly, very early in their lives, our talented youth come to realize that fields that may earn them a Nobel Prize—cancer research or multi-core computing—may not make them rich. But moving money from here to there will.

And thus, we lose Berkeley Ph.Ds in nuclear physics to hedge funds and MIT computer scientists capable of delivering computing to 6 billion people to derivative manipulation on Wall Street.

azspot: William Shatner Reads Levi Johnston Tweets

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:21:30 -0500

azspot:

William Shatner Reads Levi Johnston Tweets

topfiver: The Wilco Loft

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:56:10 -0500

topfiver:

The Wilco Loft

"A conservative is a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:34:52 -0500

“A conservative is a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal who wishes to replace them with others.”

- Ambrose Bierce (via azspot)

Movie Narrative Charts Outstanding. And his visualization of...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:47:00 -0500

Movie Narrative Charts

Outstanding.

And his visualization of Primer’s narrative is not that much of an exaggeration.

Favre-O, you broke my heart.

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:04:00 -0500

Favre-O, you broke my heart.

soupsoup: Brilliant.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:26:45 -0400

soupsoup:

Brilliant.

sethherman: My friend Joe sitting on a couch and promoting...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:26:55 -0400

sethherman:

My friend Joe sitting on a couch and promoting modern warfare.

I thought you were a pacifist, Joe?

sethherman: A Cleveland view of the CC Sabathia-Cliff Lee...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:01:14 -0400

sethherman:

A Cleveland view of the CC Sabathia-Cliff Lee matchup

Perhaps most of all, there is anger at the sports gods who ordered up another kind of special humiliation for Cleveland fans. Two true aces emerge, after dozens of seasons without any aces. Our boys bring home the Cy Young Award in consecutive seasons — which never happens! — only to be traded away in consecutive seasons. Yes, this outrage, it’s juicy. Much worse than that 43-0 homecoming drubbing the Steelers gave the Browns in 1999, far more inexplicable than the Indians’ three-game collapse to lose the 2007 ALCS. This one, it’s special. Just like blowing the World Series with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in 1997’s Game 7, it’s a screwing that’s been saved just for Cleveland fans and nobody else. And don’t think we’re not pissed about it.

"In fundamentalism, the sky is always falling, the world is always ending and kids like me prayed..."

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:55:32 -0400

“In fundamentalism, the sky is always falling, the world is always ending and kids like me prayed apocalyptic bedtime prayers: Lord, please no earthquakes, wars, famines or pestilence tonight. And please don’t leave me behind if my family gets raptured. Amen. Fundamentalists like to read the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. When I was a kid, events both big and small foretold that the end was near: the proliferation of credit cards, Gorbachev, the year 1988, the first George Bush’s “New World Order.” Remember the public interest surrounding Y2K? Now multiply that by 1,000 and you’ll know what it felt like to be a fundamentalist in the months leading up to New Year’s Eve 1999. Eschatology is the pet hobby of fundamentalists. Nothing gets their blood pumping like a natural disaster—or just the threat of one. It’s also lucrative. You can make bank by selling apocalyptic books. Or by making movies starring Kirk Cameron.”

- Silencing Chicken Little - ElizabethEsther.com

(via robot-heart-politics)

Real Life Mario Kart (I love that he actually throws...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:08:00 -0400

Real Life Mario Kart

(I love that he actually throws banana’s at cars behind him)

Florida Man Says Home Depot Fired Him for Wearing 'One Nation Under God' Pin

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:52:44 -0400

Florida Man Says Home Depot Fired Him for Wearing 'One Nation Under God' Pin:

“Fishel said The Home Depot has its own sanctioned patriotic pins that employees have the option to wear.

Keezer said he opted to wear his own pin instead because none of the company’s pins mentioned God.”

—-

Apparently this man thinks he is the first person who was fired for being ignorant. Only on Fox News would a story like this make headlines.

Whoever coined the phrase “a picture says 1000 words” must have...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:01:33 -0400

Whoever coined the phrase “a picture says 1000 words” must have had this photo in mind. Yes, folks, Mark Shapiro’s worst nightmare has come true – Wednesday night is Game One of the 2009 World Series and will feature the last two AL Cy Young award winners. Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia. Hey, did you all know they are former Indians?

"In a slightly less perfect world, workers in America who got the flu would not infect friends,..."

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:53:32 -0400

“In a slightly less perfect world, workers in America who got the flu would not infect friends, colleagues and total strangers because their bosses would recognize the benefit to their businesses and the employees still standing when highly contagious workers are allowed to recover at home without losing a day’s pay. It’s called paid sick leave.”

- Bosses of America, how about coughing up a few paid sick days?

(via robot-heart-politics)

Preach it.

"Within the Christian churches, how else can we explain the obvious avoidance of so many of Jesus’..."

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:42:59 -0400

“Within the Christian churches, how else can we explain the obvious avoidance of so many of Jesus’ major teachings? Jesus’ direct and clear teachings on issues such as nonviolence, a simple lifestyle, love of the poor, forgiveness, love of enemies, inclusivity, mercy, and not seeking status, power, perks, and possessions: throughout history, all have been overwhelmingly ignored by mainline Christian churches, even those who call themselves orthodox or biblical. This avoidance defies explanation until we understand how dualistic thinking protects and pads the ego and its fear of change. Notice that the things we ignored above require actual change of our lifestyle, our security systems, or our dualistic thought patterns. The things we emphasized instead were usually intellectual beliefs or moral superiority stances that asked little of us: the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth, the atonement theory, and beliefs about reproduction and sex. After a while, you start to recognize the underlying bias. The ego diverts your attention from anything that would ask you to change, to righteous causes that invariably ask others to change.”

- Richard Rohr (via azspot)

Shaq’s New Offensive Flowchart

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:03:00 -0400

Shaq’s New Offensive Flowchart

azspot: David Fitzsimmons *Though pledge week is still...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:17:17 -0400

azspot:

David Fitzsimmons

*Though pledge week is still annoying.