Monday, May 09, 2005

7 plts, limited view. Denis Dutton in the WaPo says a book about the seven basic plots known to man has an interesting premise, but "I wish that an equal amount of pleasure could be derived from the psychology on which he bases his hypothesis."  (via Backwards City) 7:04:11 PM   permalink   comment []

Lee Gomes in the WSJ (subscription) likes using folders to organize information on his computer but worries that Google is trying to outmode them: "Folders and subfolders appear to be going out of fashion, with Exhibit A being Google's explicit rejection of them, not only in Gmail but in other parts of the company's growing suite of software offerings." "Like a hammer seeing everything as a nail, Google seems to see everything as a problem to be solved by search...Search shouldn't be sacrosanct. That's religion, which is great in church, but enormously unappealing in software design." 2:39:09 PM   permalink   comment []

We're going to the ALS fundraiser on Weds at the Koury Center. It's in honor of the late Murray Abrams, John Feinstein is the speaker, and it sounds like kind of a big deal, which is appropriate. 2:29:26 PM   permalink   comment []

A classic Davenport Jr. lede from yesterday's N&R column (unposted) about drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There's the blanket smear of anyone on the opposite side of the issue -- "But environmentalists, true to liberal fashion, have built their cases on sentiment, half-truths, and hysteria." Better yet, there is a strawman argument that shows a master of the genre at work: due to clever PR, says Davenport Jr., you might think ANWR is a place of "perpetual sunshine and warmth." Well, guess what, all you suckers who thought the ALASKAN fricking ARCTIC is a place of "perpetual sunshine and warmth" -- Davenport Jr. says it's cold and often dark. Got that, you hysterical sentimental half-truth believing liberal environmentalists? 12:03:58 PM   permalink   comment []

Elizabeth B from Linthead Living has some wedding pics up at her site (Sunday 5/8; somebody get the girl permalinks as a wedding present). 11:42:08 AM   permalink   comment []

Huffington Post launches. First celeb posts pretty awful, but then so are many first non-celeb posts at other blogs, so let's give it a chance. 8:46:01 AM   permalink   comment []

Rusty Sheridan to the fanboys chatting their way through Hitchhiker's Guide: "No one cares that you know what a hoopy frood is. You're not getting any more nerd points. And you certainly don't have any more of a chance to score tonight having pointed it out." 8:36:11 AM   permalink   comment []

Krugman: "Let me repeat that: to avert the danger of future cuts in benefits, Mr. Bush wants us to commit now to, um, future cuts in benefits. "This accomplishes nothing, except, possibly, to ensure that benefit cuts take place even if they aren't necessary. "Now, about the image of Mr. Bush as friend to the poor: keep your eye on the changing definitions of 'middle income' and 'wealthy'...Mr. Bush likes to play dress-up, but his Robin Hood costume just doesn't fit." 8:23:56 AM   permalink   comment []

And you thought your desk was messy. Meanwhile, a couple of guest artists, Bridget Conn and Nick Stedman, are blogging their Elsewhere experiences. 8:19:31 AM   permalink   comment []

Evolution on trial: Funny. Serious. Roundup. I've said it before: put Creationism and "intelligent design" into a curriculum taught by actual science teachers, and proponents of those faith-based ideas will be screaming to take them back out very quickly. 8:11:48 AM   permalink   comment []