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Judge suspended for jailing court
A US judge has been removed from the bench for jailing an entire courtroom audience after none of them admitted being responsible for a ringing phone.
Yeah… that’s what we call an overreaction.
Writing in The New Yorker a few weeks back, Adam Gopnik analyzed some recently released abridged editions of the canon - including that old terror of American Lit students everywhere, “Moby-Dick”. Some choice quotes:
[The abridged version] still has its phallic reach and point, but lacks its flaccid, anxious self-consciousness: it is all Dick and no Moby.
Books can be snipped at, and made less melodically muddled, but they lose their overtones, their chesty resonance - the same thing that happens, come to think of it, to human castrati.
And, my personal favorite:
Who was the mohel of “Moby-Dick”?
I’m wondering if there’s a theme here…
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Anderson to marry Paris Hilton ex
Really? How is this real and not an Onion joke?
Two (obviously related) comments:
1) The new[-ish] Spoon album is awesome. In particular You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb and The Underdog have been on pretty much constant repeat on my playlist the past two days.
2) The Amazon MP3 store is awesome as well. As a few folks have pointed out, it might be a short-lived experiment, as either labels might balk or prices might rapidly rise. That said, while it lasts, it’s absolutely the right model - the selection is surprisingly good, the prices are reasonable, the interface is well done, and - key, to a control freak like me - no obnoxious DRM. So, follow the links above and buy the Spoon tracks - they’re worth it, and the Amazon store doesn’t insult you by locking your purchases down.
‘God’ responds to legislator’s lawsuit
Well played, God. But how will you handle discovery?
6 Exciting Job Ideas for the Adventurous
This little snippet of wisdom, featured on the Yahoo front page today, is full of delicious ridiculousness. For example, did you know that “with language skills and a criminal justice degree, you can qualify for agency training that can lead to a job paying $53,000 per year”? Isn’t that awesome? Sign me up for some advanced spy training!
The list:
1. Police Detective
2. Undercover Operative
3. International Business and Trade
4. Adventure Resort Chef
5. Private Investigator
6. Emergency Medical Technician
Other highlights include the selling points for #6 (”A combination of on-the-job learning and medical training can help you earn $25,000 or more per year in this heart-pounding profession”) and #4 (”Want to wield a sharp knife under duress?”) Personally, I think the latter would be a much better lead-in for #2, but I guess that kind of thing is on the decline after the latest round of CIA reforms.
Of course, the whole thing is just a shill for craptastic “online training”, mainly emphasizing the “criminal justice” degree (note that three of the six professions are conveniently related to the field of kicking ass and - optionally - taking names). It was slightly surprising that this drivel was featured in the top spot on the front page, but I guess it shouldn’t be - after all, Yahoo sold out a long time ago.
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Rock stars more likely to die prematurely
I wonder, though, whether this holds true today - or, more interestingly, whether the risk factors are different (Tupac and Hendrix both died early, but from rather different causes).
That’s a pretty interesting experiment: a world-famous violinist playing a D.C. metro station… to little reaction. I wonder how I’d react; I’d like to think that I’d stop and listen, though I’m certain I wouldn’t recognize him by name, and quite probably not as a master.
[via Danny]
The Daily Show is as substantive as the “real” news
Is anyone really surprised?
Tonight, 9 pm - season 3 premiere of Veronica Mars! Watch it on your local CW station!