Monthly Archives: February 2012

Can be found, here: Charlotte Brontë · L’Ingratitude · LRB 8 March 2012. It is …

…a story written in French for her teacher Constantin Heger, has just been found by Brian Bracken at a museum in Charleroi.

Bonus! There is an audio version on the site as well, with the text read by Gillian Anderson.

Thanks to Maud Newton for pointing this out.

This brilliant essay, by Stephen Marche in The Walrus, That Time We Beat the Americans, is not just a superb review of the War of 1812. It also establishes just how important that war was and why we don’t give it more attention. It is the best type of historical writing – clear, concise, insightful, approachable. Please take a moment to read it. I highly recommend it.

As this article (Drones With an Eye on the Public Cleared to Fly – NYTimes.com) as well as any number of stories have illustrated, drones are here and they are here to stay, at least for a little while.

If you live in a rural setting or a suburban setting, this changes alot. Now you can build fences or surround yourself with land in order to maintain privacy and keep people away. With drones you will no longer be able to do this, short of building a massive tent over you. Regardless of how high they are, they will be able to video you with a high degree of accuracy, and for the short term, you won’t be able to do anything about it. Eventually drone users will abuse them and they will be dragged to court and boundaries will be set down, but this will take time.

Ironically, it will be better if you live in the city. It will be harder for drones to navigate in the city, and buildings will block them from flying and photographing. As well, if you live in the city and around tall buildings, you have more of an awareness that people can spy on you and govern yourself accordingly. I expect city dwellers to suffer less from intrusive drones.

We live in interesting times, and all new technology changes the way we live in some way. Drones will do that in a significant way.

Thanks to Doug Saunders for highlighting this article (@dougsaunders on Twitter).

Over the next few months, quite a number of Cineplex theatres across Canada will be showing Family Favourites on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. If you are looking for your kids to see some classics, this is a good opportunity to do it on the big screen.

A big star in a small space, performing great work. Enjoy!

Adele: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert – YouTube

I think this is more about them than a genuine protest. All it will do if it does work is show their might: I can’t see how it will effect meaningful change of any kind.

Will it work? It depends on how many recruits they get (real or virtual). I suspect they will disrupt some of the root servers, but I think the root server clusters will be able to handle it overall.

Other than the lulz, I don’t see this working out well for Anonymous. The perception of them may shift from We-Take-On-The-Big-Bad-Organizations to We-Are-Reckless-Vandals. They already took a hit when they backed off from taking on Mexican crime lords. This may result in them taking a further hit. But I am hedging here, obviously….we shall see the result soon enough.

For some details on this, see Pastebin.com

I used to wonder why Paul McCartney still made music. He doesn’t need to money or the fame. His new music is no longer influential. So why?

From watching him at this year’s Grammys, I concluded he simply does it because he loves to make music. He seemed to be having a great time here:

A love of music would explain his new album, Kisses on the Bottom. You really need to read this article by Will Friedwald in the WSJ.com, to see why I think that. (The article is excellent.) It’s easy to be cynical about such an album, and think that it might be a waste of time, but Friedwald convinced me to think otherwise. As he says:

From bottom to top, “Kisses on the Bottom” is a much more classy and heartfelt effort than all the other rockers-go-standards projects (a genre partially launched, coincidentally, by fellow Beatle Ringo Starr’s 1970 “Sentimental Journey”); it will probably be the only one that, in future years, I’ll listen to anywhere near as often as the classic recordings of Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra.

Lisa Levy has a good review of it here: A Peaceful, But Very Interesting Pursuit – The Rumpus.net.

It seems like something that Eliot liked, not only for what it provided him, but for what he was doing. And while Ezra Pound and others worried about how it affected his writing, I believe Eliot did well with this job: it may have even helped him instead of harmed him when it came to writing.

(Found via Andrew Sullivan.)

Populations are aging. As Doug Saunders writes: The world’s losing its workers. How will we compete? – The Globe and Mail. Doug’s column is a good one, and the notion of Peak People is a smart one. Like all his columns, it’s well worth a read.

To see how this might affect the world, it’s worthwhile to look back to the 14th century and how it was changed by the Black Death (Wikipedia). Vast amounts of the world population was lost in this century, with estimates up to half the population perishing from the disease. This had a profound affect on the world, as touched on in this column: How the Black Death Changed the World | LiveScience. I expect the same thing is going to happen in the 21st century (something already visible).

I also expect other changes, like a decline in global warming, more democracy and economic equality, an even greater focus on geriatrics, and a greater appreciation and support for children and families. A population that is declining and aging will drive all this.

James Blake is another artist I found on Tuneage. Great sound. Haunting. Here he is:

The Wilhelm Scream (BBC Sound Of 2011, Live Studio Perfor… – YouTube

Extremely catchy pop! Danse!

P.S. Thanks to Tuneage for the great pointers!

Mika – Elle Me Dit (clip officiel) – YouTube

Smart. Dizzingly versatile. Raunchy.  Fresh.

Did I mention raunchy? Heh. But so so smart.

AZEALIA BANKS – 212 FT. LAZY JAY – YouTube

This is older, but still valid. The Globe did a series on people getting ready to run a 10K and the ran a number of articles on the people, the races, and other things that should motivate you to get out there, regardless of your background. Go here for more details: 10 weeks to 10K: Meet the runners – The Globe and Mail

This article has been going around recently (Top five regrets of the dying | Life and style | guardian.co.uk) for good reason. It is well written and insightful. I highly recommend it. But what I recommend even more is that you flip around the top five regrets and make them something you resolve to start doing now.

This article has been going around recently (Top five regrets of the dying | Life and style | guardian.co.uk) for good reason. It is well written and insightful. I highly recommend it. But what I recommend even more is that you flip around the top five regrets and make them something you resolve to start doing now.

Here’s some visual evidence:

It’s not that being 74 causing the muscles to decline: the 74 year old triathelete has the same body composition of the 40 year old triathelete. Furthermore, if the the 40 year old triathelete was to be incapacitated for a long period of time, they would start to resemble the 74 year old non-athlete.

This is not to say that our bodies don’t suffer wear and tear as we get older. But we have more control over the aging process than we may think. So get out there and exercise, regardless of how old you are. Just do it. 🙂

Via Jay Parkinson + MD + MPH = a doctor in NYC (What really happens to our muscles as we age if we…) and swissmiss.com

This article, My Faith: What people talk about before they die – CNN Belief Blog – CNN.com Blogs, is worthwhile reading to the end, regardless of what you believe. It is simple and profound at the same time, but like much that is profound, it is right in front of you and overlooked.

As an aside, it is easy to deride CNN these days, but kudos to them for hosting such good writing.

(Found via AndrewSullivan.com)