I spent the month of November in New York, and for part of that time I hung out at the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center for Media), doing research for a book I’m writing on the ’60s TV show “The Fugitive.” When I wasn’t reading reviews and cover stories in old issues of TV guide, I was going to galleries, listening to concerts and seeking out movies that would probably not make it up to Delaware County. The movie I found was “Starting Out in the Evening,” described in the reviews as a “small film,” which means not only that there are no special effects, but that almost nothing happens (a point of criticism on the part of some reviewers).

Stanley Fish on Art and meaning and in sense looking at a mess he helped create as a critic by writing "Is There a Text in This Class?" and thus debunking authoritive meaning - oh the irony

Stanley Fish - Think Again - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Belgium’s favorite Surrealist son, René Magritte, is famous for his painting of an apple on which he wrote: “This is not an apple.” He did the same for a pipe. Today he might aptly produce a rendering of his native land and inscribe on it: “This is not a country.”

It looks like a prosperous one, with its lace and chocolate stores, and beautiful Bruges, and its glassy sprawl of European Union institutions, and its very own tennis champion, Justine Henin. But for more than a half-year Belgium has been unable to form a government because its 10.4 million citizens can’t decide what the state is for.

A Surreal State - New York Times

A Kenyan slum child inspired by finding a Manchester University prospectus on a rubbish tip says he is overjoyed to realise his dream of getting a degree.

Sammy Gitau was initially refused a visa to attend the UK university as he had only two years of formal education.

He grew up in crime-ridden Mathare slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where from the age of 13 he was the family breadwinner after his father's murder.

He sold drugs and battled addiction before turning his life around.

'Slum potential'

The University of Manchester describes his achievement in winning a master's degree as "a miraculous journey".

"It feels wonderful; it feels wonderful," Mr Gitau told the BBC's Network Africa about receiving his MSc degree in international development project management.

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Kenya slum dweller gets UK degree

Author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer's disease, it has been revealed.

fuck - I regard Terry Pratchett as one of the most talented comic writers of 20th century English

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Author Pratchett has Alzheimer's

Loud commentary and cell phone fumbling may be distracting, but new research suggests that the presence of other people may enhance our movie-watching experiences. Over the course of the film, movie-watchers influence one another and gradually synchronize their emotional responses. This mutual mimicry also affects each participant's evaluation of the overall experience -- the more in sync we are with the people around us, the more we like the movie.

Pass The Popcorn! Study Finds That Film Enjoyment Is Contagious

Paddington, the bear from Peru, will be arrested and interrogated over his immigration status in a book marking his 50th birthday.

8-)

BBC NEWS | England | London | Paddington Bear's birthday book

It is this order to choose Allah above his sense of conscience and compassion that imprisons the Muslim in a mindset that is archaic and extreme.

If moderate Muslims believe there should be no compassion shown to the girl from Qatif, then what exactly makes them so moderate?

When a “moderate” Muslim’s sense of compassion and conscience collides with matters prescribed by Allah, he should choose compassion. Unless that happens much more widely, a moderate Islam will remain wishful thinking.

Islam’s Silent Moderates - New York Times

When it comes to being tactile, the British are notoriously, well, hands-off. So what leads hundreds of people to travel to a giant hall in London all for a hug?

"Yes," replies the bus driver, somewhat wearily, for the third time, "this does go to Alexandra Palace".

Amma, the "Hugging Saint", is in town. And this procession of slightly disoriented passengers are among the crowds making their way to be embraced by her at the north London venue.

BBC NEWS | Magazine | A hug from Amma

So, yes, the version after IE7 is IE8. We looked at a lot of options for the product name. Among the names we considered and ruled out:

Of course, some people care about other aspects of IE8 much more than they care about the name. As I’ve walked different people through the plan, I’ve gotten “Does it have feature X?” “When is the beta?” “When does it release” and even the more thoughtful “What are you trying to accomplish with this release?”

You will hear a lot more from us soon on this blog and in other places. In the meantime, please don’t mistake silence for inaction.

Dean Hachamovitch
General Manager

Dear Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager Internet Explorer Team.

Fuck you

Fuck you for thinking a browser with some tabs and RSS support somehow warrants praise
Fuck you for Notepad as "View Source"
Fuck you for the CSS hacks I shouldn't have to do
Fuck you for your phony adoption rate and security comparison reports
Fuck you for the hell that is IE/JavaScript debugging

Fuck you for winning the web browser wars and then stagnating innovation
Fuck you for 6 years of inaction and silence
Fuck you for telling the world how the web is going to be
Fuck you for your utter contempt of web developers and web standards

Fuck you Dean Hachamovitch and fuck the team you lead. You are hurting us far more than you are helping us

This shit has got to end

Sincerely,
Billy Hoffman

Fuck you Dean Hachamovitch

Let’s say you were born in China. You’re an only child. You have two parents and four grandparents doting on you. Sometimes they even call you a spoiled little emperor.

a look at the modern chinese political/economic system which makes it sound like the old imperial system has returned except there isn't an emperor in the old sense but that the old confusian bureaucracy has after a 1000 years finally taken full power under a nominally communist banner
it's fasinating the way the chinese culture assimilates and defeats invading forces (the mogols, the manchu and communism) then reemerges slightly different but essentially the same. This gels with my knowledge of fighting chinese style via tai chi

Of the softest things in the world,
Nothing is softer than water.
Any hard objects in the way
Will be defeated by water.
Water never changes.
Hence soft defeats hard
Weak defeats strong.
Everyone knows this
But few practise it.

from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Section 78)

The Dictatorship of Talent - New York Times