Sunday Morning Reading Material (Third Sunday in October)
It’s Sunday morning. Sundays mornings are for lounging around in bed, reading about the French Revolution. Or for sleeping while the rain goes pat pat pat over your apartment. If you’re crazy, Sundays might be for getting soaked in that rain, while trying to weave between ridiculously close set cones on a huge vibrating beast of a bike. Or for preparing for an interview.
This week the GIANTS WON THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WON THE PENNANT!! *ahem * I have utter faith that they will not win the world series. Also this week: the Iraqis who had “awoken” seem to have gone back to sleep shooting their fellow Iraqis for lack of religious freedom. Also also: most of France seems to either be on strike, or upset that most of France is on strike. Also also also? The British government has decided to deepen their own recession, in a noble bid to blow up the world’s economy.
Either that, or the English people elected a bunch of morons.
We’ve seen this type of recession before. It’s why FDR (and other leaders) put protections in place based on the lessons of the Great Depression. Turns out that when you yank half those protections, we can end up in exactly the same type of recession they used to have. Duh.
Speaking of incompetence: our corporations are really kind of bad. I’ve got a constituent who thinks they do this stuff on purpose. I’m not sure he’s wrong.
Rob Zacny tells us a bit about the wrong lessons of history. Seems the French were deeply mislead by their experiences in a couple of their wars, and. Well, click the link.
It may be the case that the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were fulfilled a few weeks ago, but America never signed that treaty. One result is that Americans can use the term “Champagne” anything we damned well please. The French are not happy about that
The lessons that Glen Beck has learned from history. I try not to laugh a the opposition too much. But this is really funny.
A religion based on puns. If they weren’t a raving bunch of racists, I’d be signing up.
Just for one day, the US military was allowing openly gay people to sign up. I fervently hope that America’s tomorrow includes many more days like that one.
Put This On dresses for the occasion. Let me tell you: that’s how I’m dressed in my heart…
There will be a quiz on this later. The biggest problem in the world? The Rent is Too Damn High. This is actually fairly true. If people were spending a lower proportion of their income on rent, they’d be spending more money on other things, which would give the economy a huge shot in the arm. But do click that link. It’s awesome. The “Rent is Too Damn High” party is basically an old testament Prophet.
There is no part of this article on goats that makes me feel better about my chances.
If you really, really don’t want the book, you can tell them to stop sending it to you. Honestly? Who needs this thing anymore?
The White House finally treats geeks as well as athletes
There are places on the moon with more water than the Sarah desert! This is extremely exciting news for the future of humanity. First the Moon, then Mars, and Europa, then… Out of the Sol system?
Building your own Cray Yeah, the Droid I have in my pocket is more powerful. Actually… if that’s true, then I should be able to use my phone to resequence dinosaur DNA and create my own Jurassic park! That would be the best thing ever!! Sorry. Got excited.
Speaking of older technology remember Window’s 1? Time for a trip down memory lane…
San Francisco’s Exploratorium is moving. This really should be a good move. I can’t wait to have it somewhere that’s roughly 10,000 times more accessible than it is now.
Would you know what to do if you were being chased by NAZI zombies? Just based on the name, this really does sound like best movie ever.
Leigh Alexander is a terrific games writer– I’ve linked to her stuff in the past. Turns out she’s also a baseball fan. Baseball is a game that inspires poetry, and she doesn’t disappoint. Of course, she’s not really writing about baseball…
How do games affect our brains? How does the language of gaming affect our play style? Troy Goodfellow looks into it.
The next 3 pieces are really good.
My friend Andrew tells us about experiencing bigotry while engaging with his religion. I refuse to play the “biggest victim” game, but we pagans do come in for some casual discrimination.
This is something that John Scalzi doesn’t have to think about. But today… he’s going to anyway. It’s a fantastic piece.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is perhaps the most beautiful writer in the English language. He also loves his fellow humans. Or, at least, the human experience, warts and all. This powerful piece talks about how survival strategies can be counter productive when applied outside their memetically appropriate context. But Mr. Coates isn’t as pretentious as me.
