And what he has created—with “The Wire” and now with “Treme”—is a kind of novel in TV form. It became a cliché to describe “The Wire” as “novelistic,” but in fact the forms have a lot in common, far more so than the novel and film. The sheer length of the TV series allows it to take place in something like novelistic time, unspooling its plot and building its elaborate structure in relative leisure. And by creating shows that reward sustained attention and repeated re-viewings, Simon teaches us to watch television in a way that is very similar to close reading.
How can the NYT have an article about the seductive and dangerous qualities of PPT without quoting Edward Tufte? http://nyti.ms/ciuEdE
Those types of PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Hammes said, are known as “hypnotizing chickens.
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Yeah, so, I admit it—I’ve tried my hand at that too …
Enemy Lurks in Briefings on Afghan War - PowerPoint - NYTimes.com
Another incredibly mousable graphic from the folks at the NYTimes. This time, subway ridership. http://nyti.ms/9wQIS3
This is getting so meta! Nonetheless, an interesting look behind the curtain for us laymen: ‘What a Tweet Looks Like http://bit.ly/bik8AW
I just watched some stand-up in Finnish. It’s amazing how weird funny people look when you can’t tell that they are funny.
Comedy Fight Club 4 Finalen: Mikkel Malmberg (via DanmarkTV)
I don’t think Palin’s phraseology is actively attractive to her fans. Rather, what is remarkable is that this way of speaking doesn’t prevent someone, today, from public influence. Candidates bite the dust for being untelegenic, dour, philanderers, strident, or looking silly posing in a tank. But having trouble rubbing a noun and a verb together is not considered a mark against one as a figure of political authority.
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What Does Palinspeak Mean? | The New Republic
A fun little desconstruction of spoken English from a number of sources. It shows that Palin is indeed speaking the way many people do. The problem is that this means she isn’t thinking any more clearly than they are either.
'We're All Gonna Die - 100 meters of existence'
This is a very interesting photograph, but I can’t quite imagine it installed. A web browser seems like its perfect medium—a long print in a gallery doesn’t strike me as equally compelling.
Seriously, how “vibrant” a culture of intellectual inquiry are you going to have under a government that is afraid of Bjork?
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James Fallows: Every So Often It Must Be Said… - International - The Atlantic
I once knew someone who had an pathological fear of Bjork ever since the red carpet Ostrich Dress and Egg fiasco. Maybe its the same thing in this case …
It’s barely dawn, but this morningjas a hot-city feel to it.
