contrarienne

Vegetarian Nightmare

2012-02-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Shit, the science always gets ya in the end, doesn't it? I haven't read this in depth, only skimmed, but my takeaway (the U.S. isn't Australia) is look for grass fed beef.

Thank You, Internet

2012-02-02T00:58:00.000-08:00

If it weren't for you, I would never have known about this old woman, whose name I cannot pronounce or spell, or her wonderful poetry.

Help Wanted: Writer

2012-02-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

Mean and deadly accurate, takes no prisoners, respects no creed, razor wit. Where do I apply? Oh, wait, the job is taken?

Housing Prices: Seattle

2012-01-31T23:05:00.000-08:00

Seattle had the third steepest housing price decline in the last year, 6.3 percent. Not even close to poor ol' Atlanta though. Or Las Vegas.

The S***h Files

2012-01-31T13:24:00.000-08:00

Now that I know I'm not going to be doing this on Pinterest (images only, what!), and because I can.

Have To Find Somebody With HBO Now

2012-01-31T13:06:00.001-08:00

Even though this is money in Mr. Smirky's pocket. Great cast!

How Are Insurance Co's And Dodo Birds Alike?

2012-01-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

Zeke Emanuel, Rom's bro and a big player in health care reform, says insurance companies will be extinct in eight years. The piece sort of explains for me the puzzling spectacle of my local hospital buying up local provider practices and clinics, affiliating with a big Seattle provider for reasons — as explained in the local press — that were indeciferable. Now the same thing is going on in my

Peeking Into Bedrooms Of Our Ancestors

2012-01-30T23:10:00.000-08:00

those Republicans paleontologists have no shame. Okay, so not only are we part Neanderthal, but apparently somebody named Denisovia was fooling with grandma, too. In Siberia, before she moved to New York.

Places To Go, People To Read About

2012-01-30T21:04:00.000-08:00

There's a new aggregator-with-taste out there and I thought you might want to know about it. I don't think I'll have time for much long-form reading, but who knows. Oh, it's called The Syllabi.

Comment O' Teh Day

2012-01-30T20:17:00.000-08:00

One of Krugman's fans, from Seattle, comments thusly on the Europeans' inability to admit that frugality is not going to save them: "Politicians are people who, when they see the light at the end of the tunnel, go out a buy more tunnel." --John QuintonI don't know who John Quinton is or was.

Almost Blue

2012-01-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

Isn't that the name of a song? Why yes, yes it is. Working on my Mood Music playlist in Spotify today and rummaging around for Chet Baker's My Funny Valentine. But I'll save that for Feb. 14. In the meantime: From Wiki: In 1983, British singer Elvis Costello, a longtime fan of Baker, hired the trumpeter to play a solo on his song "Shipbuilding", from the album Punch the Clock. The song was a

'I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes'

2012-01-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

And I'm okay with that. Who said it had to be unified, found in a central location. Aren't I central enough? I love this stuff.

There's A Poem In Here Somewhere

2012-01-29T13:12:00.000-08:00

There are hundreds of thousands of these foreigners in Israel; in 2010, the first victim of a Hamas rocket attack after the previous year’s Gaza War was a man named Manee Singueanphon, not Moshe Cohen.From an article, oddly, about eating in Israel.

They Did It On Purpose

2012-01-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

Sullivan today points to an interview with Francis Fukuyama recommending The Big Short. I'm probably never going to read that book, so it's good to know it's out there and being talked about by people who are listened to. Another book is co-authored by Kenneth Rogoff, who Krugman is always referring to as being under attack for his economic opinions. I won't read that book for sure, but am glad

OMG!

2012-01-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

She's wearing your grandmother's leopard print housedress. And what's that ugly, tacky thing on her wrist? I didn't know they had a gift shop at the trailer court. Oh, wait, let me pull myself together. Yes, when your enemies are busy destroying each other, do nothing.

January 29 Is Dog Day! Yay!

2012-01-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

Because you look as though you could use some cheering up. Warning: one or two of the links no longer work. Okay, then, dogs, dogs and more dogs. C'mon, you know you want it. Teaser (heh).

Physicists Can Be Funny Dept.

2012-01-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

The Crackpot Index. UPDATE: Upon further investigation, I have bookmarked something else to learn about as soon as I overcome my addiction to web surfing and politics. Not likely this year, but I like to think I will someday a) study Italian (they also offer Pirate) b) learn to code (because I think it would be good for me, a sure sign I won't do it) c) learn something about physics. Sample

Florida Primary Debate

2012-01-26T18:16:00.000-08:00

I was told there would be fireworks. Newt, you let me down. But he wouldn't put Marco Rubio in the cabinet, he'd give him a "more central, dignified role." President, perhaps? Heh. Oh, next question is "why would your wife make the best First Lady?" I can't believe anyone even considered that question. Oh, wait, Republicans. Not president Barbie, First Lady Barbie. Sorry, girls. I can see why

Juanita Jean

2012-01-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

for Honorary Contrarienne. What say you? It's decided then.

How's It Gonna Play?

2012-01-26T09:53:00.000-08:00

You tell me. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Pesky Facts Dept.: Apple And Jobs

2012-01-25T15:31:00.000-08:00

Krugman never ceases to please me. He doesn't confuse anecdote with data, no matter how charming the story. My friends hate it when I say stuff like that. I figure I'm in the right company. If your mother says she loves you, check it out. Obama’s auto bailout, just by itself, saved a lot more jobs than Apple’s US employment.

You Think You're So Smart

2012-01-24T12:32:00.000-08:00

which is pretty much irrelevant and unnecessary. Heh. What people haven't seemed to notice is that on earth, of all the billions of species that have evolved, only one has developed intelligence to the level of producing technology. Which means that kind of intelligence is really not very useful. It's not actually, in the general case, of much evolutionary value. We tend to think, because we love

I Am So Lucky

2012-01-23T20:26:00.000-08:00

I have a Roku and I have Netflix streaming and I get to watch all the Spectacle shows whenever I want. I don't know if they're still on (Sundance), because this one is from 2008 or something, but no matter, Elvis Costello is host, Elton John is executive producer and Diana Krall is one helluva musician. Which brings me to Diana Krall. Why haven't I ever thought to make her an Honorary

Election Year Assessments

2012-01-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

Last week, it was Andrew Sullivan writing for the cover of Newsweek. Pretty good piece, but weighted to personality, which is fine. Ryan Lizza is not as good a writer as Sullivan is, but he's armed with recently released internal WH memos to bolster his story in the New Yorker. It's about politics this time, a bit plodding, but then that's kind of the way governance is.

Once In A While

2012-01-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

I find a good poem. And I. Fall. Apart. That's the point, I suppose. Sullivan had this one up today. Fragment: Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of

Are These Guys What They Call Hipsters?

2012-01-20T00:14:00.000-08:00

Hey, Look, There's A Black Man In The White House!

2012-01-19T20:49:00.000-08:00

Standing Watch

2012-01-18T14:11:00.000-08:00

I believe my dog has an imagination. And a memory. Those are the two things you need acutely to be a writer. That and, uh, hands with fingers. And language. So instead of writing down what is in her head, she must make do with the loop of Shorty-generated stories she tells herself. Why else would a dog settle down atop a mound of snow, surveying her surroundings with interest and alertness, when

We Are The 4%

2012-01-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

Eighty five percent all the gravity in the universe comes from something about which we know nothing. ... [Add that to dark energy and] it is ninety six percent of the universe. Everything we know and love--electrons, protons, neutrons, light, black holes, planets, stars, everything we know and understand--occupies four percent of the universe. Dark matter and dark energy is everything else.

The Hearts Of Wild Men

2012-01-16T01:31:00.001-08:00

We Were Wanderers On A Prehistoric Earth from James W Griffiths on Vimeo.

I Can't Watch This

2012-01-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

Without my heart rate skyrocketing, my breathing getting shallow and goosebumps of the non-thrilling variety beginning to break out on my chest and neck. My fingers and toes get cold, my skin feels cool and damp. So it must be fun, right? More Surfing Videos From collosal.com: This is not your average surfing video. This astounding footage was shot on August 27th, 2011 by cinematographer Chris

Weather, Weather All The Time

2012-01-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

Weather is the safest and most common subject of human conversation. No, I can't prove that, but you know it's true. Then why, pray tell, do we know so little about it, we being you and me, not the people who actually know something about weather. I say it's because weather is science and, frankly, most of us avoid science like it was, well, the plague. Which is also science. So although the

1s And 0s

2012-01-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

In the first place, my tongue always slips when I try to say digital, and it sounds like Chinese Portugese for watercress sandwich. In the second place, I once asked a science-minded colleague over lunch what digital meant and he said, "I always think of it as 1s and 0s." Stopped conversation for five minutes and then I let him talk about baseball, which I never, ever do. So, yeah, I don't

Jeebus Was Not A Socialist, But Newt Is

2012-01-12T16:28:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: There's a nice discussion going on over at MeFi about the Mitt video and I particuarly liked this comment: Well put together. Some touches I particularly appreciated:- They never mention that he's a Mormon (could be controversial) but... they do a slow pan over a Timecover that mentions it. Time is so middle of the road and boring that this couldn't possibly cause trouble and they manage

And Spit On Their Graves

2012-01-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

Frederica outlived 'em all. Oldest Honorary Contrarienne so far. One of Frederica Sagor Maas' scripts launched Clara Bow. Maas eventually quit the movie business in disgust and much later wrote a scathing book about the industry.And while we're at it, throw in Eve Arnold, too. Although she only lived to 99.

Scratch That

2012-01-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

Yoga? Don't think so. Black has come to believe that “the vast majority of people” should give up yoga altogether. It’s simply too likely to cause harm... “Yoga is for people in good physical condition. Or it can be used therapeutically. It’s controversial to say, but it really shouldn’t be used for a general class.”

What Now Post-Iowa

2012-01-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

Here's what Andrew Sullivan expects: But how remarkable that the Tea Party infused GOP has picked two of the most fiscally liberal candidates as their final two. Now Newt and Santorum will savage Romney; and the press will expose Santorum. Paul will have his delegates and will have to be handled right if he is not to indirectly re-elect Obama in a landslide. I also do not see Santorum lasting

Top 18 (minus four months) of 2011

2012-01-03T12:40:00.000-08:00

Contrarienne is very grateful that not everything in ones and zeroes is garbage. She spent all New Years Day culling the year past for the best links that fed this site in 2011. But by the time she hit April, she was worn out and quit. Then she remembered she had to do the new video embed and that's a pain, really. So she procrastinated. Of course, she should have thought of all that a day or

The Standup Economist

2012-01-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

It's a little long and the video isn't very good quality, but I finally stumbled on this guy and just had to share.

60 Minutes Nails It

2012-01-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

And the smarmy Eric Cantor cannot escape. This link is to an analysis and if you can't stand to watch him aw-shucks his way through it all, just go over to the 10:19 mark and watch and listen as Cantor does a deer-in-the headlights and his press secretary makes a major blunder. Did he really think 60 Minutes wouldn't use it? I'd love to have been listening in on the phone calls as they begged and

Barely Able To Keep Up

2011-12-25T14:02:00.001-08:00

It is comforting, but only a little, to know that scientists are as flummoxed as mere mortal me when it comes to certainty. I have only recently learned the term "liquid" modernity to describe the sociologists' current world view of our basically unstable and unpredictable times, which at least seems to contain a finite number of people in a measurable space, thank Dog for that. As for the

A Little Story Not Many People Know About

2011-12-17T19:11:00.000-08:00

A movie star and an avant garde composer together invent a weapons system. Lamarr, however, not only possessed a head for abstract spatial relationships, but she also had been in her former life a fly on the wall during meetings and technical discussions between her munitions-manufacturer husband and his clients, some of them Nazi officials. ...Hedy’s folly may have been in assuming men in

Nature Wants To Eat You

2011-12-16T23:15:00.000-08:00

What an amusing title for a web site. The house centipede has the same poison fangs that normal centipedes do, but they can move towards you at great speed thanks to its long spindly legs. They have a top speed of 40 cm per second. Incidentally, 40 cm is the exact distance between the house centipede and your face.

Buckley on Hitchens

2011-12-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

Buckley is never as amusing as I want, but Hitchins usually was.One of our lunches, at Café Milano, the Rick’s Café of Washington, began at 1 P.M., and ended at 11:30 P.M. At about nine o’clock (though my memory is somewhat hazy), he said, “Should we order more food?” I somehow crawled home, where I remained under medical supervision for several weeks, packed in ice with a morphine drip.

Silly Me

2011-12-08T16:37:00.000-08:00

I assumed I would never have to think about John Bolton again. Then Newt promised to threatened to named him Secretary of State. Here's Juan Cole, the rational blogoshere's go-to guy on such matters: ... wants to bomb Iran so badly he sometimes just sits in an F-18 and imagines himself over Isfahan

O Death

2011-12-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

I was all set to make fun of Hillary's wardrobe, but I can't get the photos to work. In the meantime, here's something completely different. I'm not a big Hitchins fan, but he's so rigorously honest and truthful in this piece and I'm really grateful for it. So far, I have decided to take whatever my disease can throw at me, and to stay combative even while taking the measure of my inevitable

Remember Stuxnet?

2011-12-01T23:46:00.000-08:00

No. Well let me refresh your memory. And introduce you to Conficker. Dog, I love cyberterrorism.

They Call It Ego Depletion

2011-11-28T20:44:00.000-08:00

and here all along I just thought I was being stupid. Huh. But System 2, in addition to being more deliberate and rational, is also lazy. And it tires easilyIn my new quest to find out about happiness, Nobelist Daniel Kahneman's book is now at the top of the list.

Mitt v. Mitt

2011-11-28T08:55:00.000-08:00

But I still say, please Dog, let it be Newt.

I Don't Consider My Ideas Controversial

2011-11-26T17:46:00.000-08:00

I consider them right." Biologist Lynn Margulis, recently deceased and awarded an honorary contrarienne title because we hardly ever hear about them when they're alive

He Who Seeks Beauty

2011-11-26T00:01:00.001-08:00

shall find it.

Your Thanksgiving Therapy

2011-11-23T11:28:00.000-08:00

You're welcome.

So, Yeah, I Want To Believe He's That Smart

2011-11-22T15:17:00.000-08:00

You may have heard this week that all the Democrats have to do is do nothing. Wasn't that Sun Tsu's line? (Sun Ya? I get all those dead Chinese generals mixed up.) You may not have heard that this has been the plan all along. but if I hadn't been busy elsewhere I would have told you that the Supercommittee was not a serious move. I am happy to see that Jon Taplin's hangin' in there because I miss

Vaping

2011-11-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

Why, indeed, do I still yearn for it? They go on smoking in part because of a fact that the prohibitionists are loath to recognize: Nicotine is a drug with benefits. It has been linked by researchers (and smokers) to reduced anxiety and stress, lower weight, faster reaction time and improved concentration. Yet the New Puritanism of the anti-smoking crowd stinks strongly of a vested

Americans! Can't Live With 'Em, etc.

2011-11-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

http://ask.metafilter.com/200224/What-are-Americas-quirksMeFi has a lovely thread answering the musical question, "What do foreigners find weird about us/our country." My favorite:Only in America would we have a Mexican Sushi place that is actually called "Casa Sushi". It is nice to know that our service culture is actually superior to others, who apparently get away with being sullen and

Everything Is Amazing

2011-11-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

"New York to L.A. in five hours. It used to take THIRTY YEARS!" I love Louis CK, he's the smartest, funniest to come along in a very long time. Up there with Carlin, Seinfeld. Okay, I hated Seinfeld, but he contributed, as Louis would say.

Cucumbers v. grapes

2011-11-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

Some monkeys began throwing cucumbers at the scientists because they know a bad deal when they see it.

Your Incredible Shrinking Brain

2011-11-05T03:32:00.000-07:00

Made me laugh out loud, disturbing the three dogs, who are sleeping as I try to put myself back to sleep by visiting the internet at 3:30 a.m. Digression, cast adrift on the buoyant Dead Sea of your own narrations, is a sign of old age, and remarked by ancient moralists and proven by modern neurology and brain science to be a symptom of natural decay of the aging brain, so let me conclude with

And This

2011-10-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

This

2011-10-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

Matt Taibbi Is Such A Good Writer

2011-10-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

that I think I'd still read him if he was on the other side. Thank God he's not. Funeral director with a hangover indeed.

Corgis Do Not Like Halloween

2011-10-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

This is why. They do, however, like The Queen.

And outside the cabin, falling leaves.

2011-10-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

Maybe someday I'll write something about it all, but in the meantime, there's always Billy Collins. And Marvin Bell ("When the dead man throws up, he thinks he sees his inner life"), and Kay Ryan, and Anne Carson and Marie Howe ("This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me") and Philip Larkin and...and...well, and poetry, my dear.

Correct Me If I'm Wrong

2011-10-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

but weren't the Tea Partiers clamoring for an audit of the Fed? While one was going on right under their noses, mandated by the two favorite whipping boys (Frank-Dodd reform bill, anyone?) and put in to the legislation by none other than Bernie Sanders, that dirty hippy pinko anarchist probably born in Kenya as well. Guess what? It's out. Trillions, baby, tril-y-uns. I don't think any of what

On Any Day

2011-10-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

you can be amazed. If you just look. Monday The Owl, today The Juggler. In the hardware store parking lot.

Surprise

2011-10-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

I thought owls were nocturnal creatures, yet there she is at 9:03 a.m., two hours past daylight, perched on her third branch since I spotted her at about 7:30. Shorty has already been terrified by and in turn terrorized a wood rat on the side path — much growling and squealing and tossing of body into the air; the telephone repairman has come and gone, both of us shaking our heads in agreement

Steve Jobs Is Dead, But

2011-10-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

Charlie Kaufman is still alive and still writing. So there's that. I ran into a MeFi discussion about Kaufman related to a talk he gave somewhere but there was no video yet. But someone found this.http://youtu.be/xpjgjJqayxI I could embed it, but it's 72 minutes. And yes, some people hated Synedoche, NY and some people loved it. Now the question for me is, it's 11:30 so should I watch CK or last

Krugman's Army

2011-10-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Heh. I love people who actually know what they're talking about, in this case, the Occupy Wall Street movement and what is needed for the left to succeed. I admit I haven't been paying much attention. I sort of thought of them as Operation Pink or something. Then yesterday I read some personal stories (just the sort of thing I would have told them to put out there, I've yet to read any personal

Quote O' Teh Day

2011-10-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

Krugman steals from DeLong about a Bloomberg piece on the Koch bros and Iran. the hard right is worse than you can possibly imagine, even if you take account of the fact that it’s worse than you can possibly imagine. Not just Iran, as it turns out, but a nice long piece about Koch's long bad history. For six decades around the world, Koch Industries has blazed a path to riches -- in part, by

Posthumous Honorary Contrarienne

2011-10-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Pioneer photographer Anne Brigman. This from 1926. I'd look for Imogene Cunningham and include her if I was more motivated.

Meditation O' Teh Day

2011-09-28T16:37:00.000-07:00

Full screen recommended.

So Long, Summer

2011-09-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend with the very entertaining Locust Street Taxi on city pier in Port Townsend.

The Economy's Fucked. News At 11.

2011-09-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

I'm going to bookmark the article and read it later because it's long. It's highly (read MetaFilter) recommended. But I wanted to share this little wrap he puts on it under the heading Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction Dept. In 2005, Porsche began to buy shares in Volkswagen (I know that sounds the wrong way around), to help it ward off a foreign takeover. They kept buying shares over the next

If One Republican Loser

2011-09-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

(see Carly Fiorina) can't manage your company, maybe another one can (see Meg Whitman). Would I pay any attention at all if they weren't both women? Debatable. Definitely not Honorary Contrariennes.

Elizabeth Warren For President 2016

2011-09-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for the bumper stickers now.

Two, Count Them, Two

2011-09-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

Honorary Contrariennes. I've seen Randall on Charlie Rose a few times and, God help me, wondered — as with Samantha Power —how it is that one can be a beautiful blonde and still achieve such status. Bad Julie, bad Julie. And then there's Carolyn Porco. Hadn't heard of her until MetaFilter clued me in a few days ago. More reading to do now, dammit.

Dear Followers

2011-09-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

I had no idea until today that there were five of you. It's kinda nice to know you're out there. Guess I should be more prolific. But I'm curious. What happens once you become a follower? Do they tell you when there's a new post? Cuz that would be cool. Otherwise, I'm thinkin' what good is it except for my vanity. Do you think I should ask my FB friends to be followers? Or would they then get

The Teenage Brain On ... Life

2011-09-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

You've probably heard that the brain continues to mature into the early 20s, but haven't read much about it. This month's National Geographic devotes a cover to the topic, and here's an exchange between a neuroscientist, the author and others. I'm bookmarking this and I've just reserved Barbara Strauch's book about us fogies. As if I didn't have a big enough pile on the counter.

American Jobs Act

2011-09-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know why they have to turn basic info into PDFs, but that s what they did with the state impact info. To save you the trouble, I have copied and pasted for Washington. For the rest of it, you're on your own. THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT: IMPACT FOR WASHINGTON The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight.

TPM Attacked

2011-09-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

Apparently by the dweebs of Anonymous, whose reputation is to only do it for the laughs. It is speculated they were pissed when TPM published the mug shots of the 14 colleagues (co-conspirators, fellow nerds?) who were arrested earlier this year regarding other computer attacks, maybe even the credit card companies who dropped the donor arrangements with Wikileaks. Anonymous like Wikileaks.

And Don't Slip

2011-08-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

Andrew Sullivan has an ongoing discussion of infinity going, and I grudginly am bookmarking because I "should" try to understand this stuff. (In fact, I have a Neflix envelope on my desk containing the Nova segment on fractals. But only because I think they're pretty.) My favorite comment so far: One of the keys to math is not looking down.

Last Week It Was RNA

2011-08-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

and cancer. This week it's microbes and bacterial disease. I'm thinking the whole genome thingie is changing the earth on which I stand. Haiti was swept by cholera after last year’s earthquake. Cholera had not been seen in Haiti for more than a century. Why the sudden epidemic? The scientists quickly sequenced the genome of the bacteria in Haiti and compared them with known cholera

Can Burning Man Survive

2011-08-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

its transition to non-profit status? What's that you say, you thought it was just some spontaneous hippyesque happening that just grew, like Alice eating the mushroom, every year out in the desert, then quietly slunk away in a haze of...well a purple haze for suure, duude. Yes, that's what they wanted you to think. Some images.

Hang In There

2011-08-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Help is on the way. I well remember the 60 Minutes interview with the (MIT, I think) researchers who had done enough work on resveratrol to convince them to incorporate and seek venture capital. They ultimately sold out their company, staying on board to direct the work. The prospects for useful anti-aging drugs on the market were 5-15 years, they said, so just stay alive, Boomers, and you may

I Know It's Crazy

2011-08-18T02:16:00.000-07:00

but I allow for that. Here's the thing, cancer researchers are talking about the microbes that appear to occupy our bodies at a pretty dense ratio as if these other organisms might...oh, I dunno...be doing things we not only don't understand, but hardly even recognized even a few years ago. It's science fictiony, really. Not that they have controlling intelligence or anything. Or do they? What is

What This Site Needs

2011-08-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

is more pictures. This is a closeup of a Tom Jay cast bronze sculpture outside the Jefferson County Library in Port Hadlock, WA.

Atwood's Not Worried

2011-08-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

So I'm not going to worry either. She knows more than I do, a lot more. Shall we make her an honorary contrarienne? Let's. What do you make of the need to perform one's life on Twitter and Facebook? Margaret Atwood: It is just an extension of the diary. There is a wonderful book called The Assassin's Cloak which takes diary entries from all centuries and arranges them according to day of the

My Faith Is Waivering

2011-08-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

Krugman is not alone. The White House does, indeed, have its head up its ass. This wrong on so many levels.

Kittehs Ownz Intertoobz

2011-08-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: The embed is screwed up so here's the link. It's worth it.

The Brown Paper Bag

2011-08-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Josh Marshall is positively poetic today and the topic is The Donald. Yesterday was a day of jagged events coming together in unpredictable and surreal ways. Like one was how CNN had Donald Trump on air to provide financial commentary just as President Obama's scheduled 1 PM press appearance was pushed back to 1:30 PM, giving the Donald 30-odd minutes to riff and predict and generally get lost

The White Mouse

2011-08-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

The most decorated female in World War II, Nancy Wake worked behind enemy lines in France and with the French Resistance. She was the Gestapo's most wanted. She died on Sunday in Australia, where she grew up. She initially refused offers of decorations from Australia saying "The last time there was a suggestion of that I told the government they could stick their medals where the monkey stuck

I Well Remember Bernadine Healy

2011-08-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

Long a leader in women's health, her star lost some luster when, as head of the Red Cross during 9/11, the organization was caught using some of those donations for other purposes. I did not know until today that she had also been entangled in the vaccine/autism controversy. Maybe it was the brain cancer.

And Now, Straight From The BBC...

2011-08-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

Riots in London worsen, Stock Markets drop, and is it all over for hitchhiking?

Charlotte's Preggers

2011-08-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

She hung there from my ceiling in the same place next to my chair for almost three hours, not moving. She is, after all, feeling heavy and tired. When she stirred, I found an envelope for her to rest on, cut the cord, and took her outside. I am not sentimental about the skinny little striped ones, they do not survive if I find them in my house. But I have a soft spot for the white ones, which

Are You Neurotic Or Psychotic?

2011-08-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

A psychotic thinks 2+2=5. A neurotic knows 2+2=4. And hates it. Today, some believe, the hidden hand of who really runs the country made a margin call. That's all. Carry on. Hint: John Paulson (No, I never heard of John Paulson either. Here's Wiki: John Paulson is not related to former Goldman Sachs CEO and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.[3][6] Paulson was ranked 39 on the 2011 Forbes

I Think I'm In Love

2011-08-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but those who give advice as

Whatever Became of Kit Seelye?

2011-08-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

Who, you might ask? (Or is it whom?) I thought the byline sounded familiar at the top of a mostly ho-hum little featurette last week in the NYT about the multi-tribe annual canoe trip that Pacific Northwest tribes were in the middle of paddling. But I quickly forgot about it. Then today, an only slightly more informative feature on Japanese internment (does it mention the action was likely

I'm Switching Majors

2011-08-06T03:48:00.000-07:00

From Brain Stuff to Gut Stuff, because it suddenly seems our second brain research is yielding a helluva lot of new, confusing, disturbing results. Enough to qualify for the first-ever Contrarienne Two Quotes O' Teh Day. Next, we'll find that we're nothing more than giant virtual bodies for a strain of bacteria that wanted to rule the world. posted by mantecol at 4:02 PM on August 5 [1 favorite

Time For Bacon

2011-08-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

Fucking bleak is what it is. So in practice, we can pivot to talking about jobs, hoping for the best and perhaps using it as a political cudgel (though that seems quite dubious under the current conditions). But in practice, in reality, we appear to have no plan to do anything on the jobs front that has any prospect of passage in the Congress until 2013 at the earliest. I just bought a bunch

The Deal

2011-08-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

TPM's got a good summary and the comments are useful as well. What the country really needs is a large stimulus -- aid to states, big infrastructure programs and so on -- with an eye toward fiscal consolidation later in the decade. The White House argues that budgetary concerns so dominate the political landscape that new deficit spending right now is out of the question, and only possible in the