If the likes of Hitchcock and others could turn works that were mediocre in literature into great films, I wonder what mediocre films could have been great literature. (3)
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Tyler Cowen (10)
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Marginal Revolution (13)
3 days, 1 hour
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Richard Green writes to me:If the likes of Hitchcock and others could turn works that were mediocre in literature into great films, I wonder what mediocre films could have been great literature.The point is not to come up with a list (though some of you will) but rather to ponder what we can learn about literature as a medium. He continues:...literature adapted from films is almost (and this is a hedge because my experience says ...
Movies As Color Pies (10)
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Andrew Sullivan (44)
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The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (44)
3 days, 2 hours
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The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation & Marie Antoinette reduced to their respective color schemes: A description of the project: Curious to see if there were any stark similarities or contrasts within particular films, Pie aims to create an incredibly simple and concise baseline of comparison of films trough one particular trait: colour. This project was also the result of my first explorations into processing. The outcome is a number of triptychs comparing various films ...
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Josh said:
The John Holmes triptych is unsurprising, yet still amusing.
Cato Scholars Comment on Obama Choosing a School for His Daughters (Andrew J. Coulson, director, Center for Educational Freedom; Neal McCluskey, associate director, Center for Educational Freedom) (1)
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Cato Media Updates (0)
6 days, 6 hours
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Like Chelsea Clinton before them, Malia and Sasha Obama will be attending the prestigious Sidwell Friends private school. It's wonderful for parents like the Obamas to have an easy choice of so many different public and private schools. But wouldn't it be wonderful for less wealthy families to enjoy that same choice? The president-elect seems not to think so, since he has repeatedly opposed school choice programs that would bring the option of private schooling ...
I’ll Tell You What’s Tedious (3)
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Neal McCluskey (0)
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Cato @ Liberty (4)
6 days, 11 hours
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Jonah Goldberg finds “conservative complaints about Barack Obama’s public-schools hypocrisy…all a bit tedious.” Well, aside from my not having actually seen many conservatives complaining about Obama choosing a private school for his kids while telling the rest of us to support public schools, I find arguments like Goldberg’s main one tedious. Very tedious. Like, we-should-just-keep-trying-to-force-excellence-out-of-socialism tedious. Here’s the meat of Goldberg’s contribution to education reform: The real issue is why the public schools are unacceptable ...
Leave The Kids Be (3)
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Andrew Sullivan (44)
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The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (44)
1 week, 1 day
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Joan Acocella reviews the latest parenting literature: Marano thinks that the infant-stimulation craze was a scandal. She accepts the idea of brain plasticity, but she believes that the sculpting goes on for many years past infancy and that its primary arena should be self-stimulation, as the child ventures out into the world. While Mother was driving the kid nuts with the eight-hundredth iteration of “This Little Piggy,” she should have been letting him play on ...
The Myth of the Rational Elected Official (14)
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Tyler Cowen (10)
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Marginal Revolution (13)
1 week, 1 day
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Hail Mark Steckbeck, for sending me such content:US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). Here's one detail:Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was ...
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J Arbuckle said:
before we all get carried away.
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Ana Marie said:
There's a reason they call it "representative democracy." Though this is probably not it. In any case: They are representative.
Obey GE (1)
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William Yeatman (0)
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OpenMarket.org (0)
1 week, 2 days
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This is “Green Week,” NBC’s annual effort to show you how to “green your routine.” It sounds innocuous enough, but “Green Week” is actually part of a manipulative business strategy employed by General Electric (GE), the owner of NBC. GE is a world leader in the production of clean energy goods and services that people don’t want to buy, like compact fluorescent light bulbs. That’s why it spends millions every year to convince the Congress ...
Pink And Blue (9)
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The Obamas Walk Away from Public Schools (6)
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Andrew J. Coulson (0)
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Cato @ Liberty (4)
1 week, 2 days
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A few months ago, Barack Obama told a gathering of the American Federation of Teachers that he opposes private school choice programs, adding: “We need to focus on fixing and improving our public schools; not throwing our hands up and walking away from them.” It’s not clear whether or not the president-elect will be able to fix our public schools, and I don’t know if he’s thrown up his hands, but he and his two ...
Obama the Question Mark Man (7)
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Chris Edwards (0)
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Cato @ Liberty (4)
1 week, 2 days
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I picked up my local beer magazine, On Tap, and was surprised to see a front page story on Matthew Lesko, the government subsidies guy who famously wears a question mark jacket. The question marks indicate that all you folks out there can get on board the federal gravy train, and Lesko can show you how. As president-elect Barack Obama is trying to fill out his cabinet posts, I realized that Lesko would be perfect. ...
Facts about automakers (12)
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Tyler Cowen (10)
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Marginal Revolution (13)
1 week, 6 days
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Yermack estimates that the aggregate capital investment in GM and Ford since 1980 has led to a net reduction in capital of $465 billion...This is what I find particularly disturbing: with that $465 billion, “GM and Ford could have closed their own facilities and acquired all of the shares of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Volkswagen.” Here is more. And here are facts about GM wages.
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PHB said:
I'm with Brian Weaver on this one.
Would an Auto Bailout Lead to National Greatness? (4)
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David Boaz (0)
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Cato @ Liberty (4)
2 weeks, 2 days
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There have been plenty of criticisms here of neoconservatism and “national greatness conservatism,” but two of the occasional targets, Charles Krauthammer and David Brooks, have just published devastating critiques of the auto industry bailout. Here’s Krauthammer in the Washington Post: First, the arbitrariness. Where do you stop? Once you’ve gone beyond the financial sector, every struggling industry will make a claim on the federal treasury. What are the grounds for saying yes or no? The ...
Caption this. No, seriously. (93)
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Xeni Jardin (10)
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Boing Boing (146)
2 weeks, 3 days
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My buddy Sean Bonner pointed me to this non-hoax photo from the White House.We obtained it from this url, which originates at whitehouse.gov, and accompanied this news release. So, not a joke. Nevermind whatever the news release says, what the hell are they doing? Is that a masonic gang sign? The $700 Billion Shocker? Or are they throwing down for the largest, bloodthirstiest, thievingest gang in the world? Your conspiracy theories welcome in the comments.
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Lee said:
W
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tonyleachsf said:
Ellaine, you've gotta see this
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Jim Simpson said:
Bush and cohorts deliver The Shocker!
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Mark Whiting said:
Nice. So I think the task is to go through and determine who in the picture knows what this means. My bet is the guy in the front row 4th from the left gets it :-)
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Rich Tannehill said:
What?!?!?!?!?
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Travis Jon Allison said:
OMG. Seriously? Someone took a picture of the BoZo President throwing The Shocker?!?
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Bill O'Neill said:
Maybe the illiterates are trying to say "4 more years"?
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James Spratt said:
W and co giving it the Shocker, awesome.
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Promethean said:
weird.
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Kramer said:
Unbelievable
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Niranjan said:
Bush-Obama transition plan?
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Adam said:
The $700 Billion Shocker
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Jinny Koh said:
I'm very puzzled...
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J. James B said:
SHOCKING!
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Barry said:
Give 'em Hell Devils!!!
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Alice Robison said:
oh, i feel weird that i actually know what they're doing (it's an ASU thing)
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r0nya said:
East Coast? :)
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yooper1019 said:
Dude! That's "The Shocker"!!
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Trace W said:
OMG... that is freakin' hillarious!
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Kraki said:
that is funny shit!
Do Top Hats Dream of Electric Trains? - Boing Boing (8)
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Susannah Breslin (0)
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Boing Boing (146)
2 weeks, 5 days
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"Monopoly: The Movie"? Ridley Scott may direct, "with an eye toward giving it a futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic 'Blade Runner.'" Alex Balk wonders: "Do Top Hats Dream Of Electric Trains?" PENNYBAGS: [Slowly, deliberately] I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Boots mortgaging property to tiny dogs. Apartments torched on Baltic Avenue just for the insurance money. I watched someone roll triple sixes and land on Free Parking where a Get Out ...
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MV said:
Phillip K Dick is funny because in the 50s he wrote about men in love with their wives, and having to pick up pails of water -- in the 60s, after he gained some perspective through the rabbit hole, began writing a slew of the most mind bending novels I've ever read. Ubik is supposed to be a movie soon too. Giddy-up.
Change We Need, Except When, Umm, the Unions Don’t Like It! (7)
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Adam Schaeffer (0)
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Cato-at-liberty (0)
2 weeks, 5 days
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Kudos to Clarence Page for hitting President-elect Barack Obama on school choice. Obama’s daughters are currently enrolled in a private school. The Obamas are likely to send them to one of the more expensive and exclusive private schools in DC. But Obama opposes private school choice programs that would allow parents with smaller incomes and less power to find good schools for their own children. Page asks Obama, “what about the kids left behind in ...
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aaron said:
Good for Clarence Page
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Daltonsbriefs said:
My favorite was his new chief of staff's "charity" ownership of his personal house which pays for his kids to go to school, as a write off. True?
Why Palin Still Matters (18)
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Andrew Sullivan (44)
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The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (44)
2 weeks, 5 days
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Some readers think my continuing attempt to expose all the lies and flim-flam and bizarre behavior of Sarah Palin is now moot. She's history - they argue. Move on. I think she probably is history. Even Bill Kristol and his minions in the McCain-Palin campaign may not be able to resuscitate her political viability now. But even if she is history, she is history that matters. Let's be real in a way the national media ...
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charliereece said:
Even *I* think Andrew should give it a rest, but he sort of has a point here.
I’ll Never Let Canada Live This Down: Evil Carpooling Startup Fined (111)
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Michael Arrington (203)
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TechCrunch (346)
2 weeks, 5 days
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A ridiculous update on a ridiculous lawsuit: In August I wrote about a carpooling startup called PickupPal. The idea is that people can gather on the site to find others traveling to the same places, and carpool there to save gas. Great idea, right? Wrong. The bus companies freaked and sued under an Ontario law that limits carpoolers to traveling only from home to work and back, riding with the same driver every day and ...
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Ian Mulvany said:
we are truly doomed unless idiocy like this can be changed
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Anthony said:
What happened to that famed Canadian pragmatism?
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Chris Miller said:
check out this piece of Canadian madness. and you thought the US had some weird laws....
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benjamin claverie said:
Canada you let me down :( you're suppose to be the good guy's... This is freaking ridiculous.
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dj empirical said:
wtf'n'f?
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AndyDrew said:
what??? is this real. when did we become so lame?
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Jon P said:
This is absurd.
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Pedro Pinheiro said:
The blind protection of business interests is one of the battle that we need to fight, at all levels.
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Ranjith said:
Ridiculous laws on Car pooling !!!!
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Michael said:
Utterly stupid ruling and/or law.
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Chris said:
Absurd!
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Troy Forster said:
OMG! I never saw this before. Frick'n government and bus company wankers.
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Scott Overpeck said:
The model dream state HATES carpoolers?
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Hari K Gottipati said:
Its ridiculous, but what can we do if it is a law?
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That Kid from Omaha said:
Beautifully frustrating. Anti-logic scores again.
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Mark S said:
Uhh, what the hell?
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Nick Munson said:
what the hell is wrong with Ontario.
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Trace W said:
Wow... this is unbelievable.
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thejesse said:
I knew there was good reason not to trust those damn Canadians.
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Rob said:
head asplode. this is an actual law?
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Clint said:
man... Canada has just enough fucked up things about it to make you not want to move there. No real free speech - and no real freedom of vehicular travel either!
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Guy said:
This is fuckin' ridiculous!
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Jarvitron said:
Canada... what the fuck.
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Devlin D said:
Sometimes I just can't defend our messed up shortsighted government.
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Lindsay said:
Totally Retarded!!!!
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Ryan said:
People talk a lot about Market Failures, but almost never about Government failures. This is a inefficient result for no reason. At least Markets are self-correcting.
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Haltse said:
And that's why I fucking hate socialists. Coming soon to a US city near you
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Solon said:
god Bless our French heritage.
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patrick said:
WTF?!
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James said:
A sad, sad moment in the progress of human civilization.
Nature Is Good For You (2)
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Andrew Sullivan (44)
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The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (44)
2 weeks, 6 days
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Jonah Lehrer sums up a new study:Thoreau would have liked this study: interacting with nature (at least when compared to a hectic urban landscape) dramatically improves improve cognitive function. In particular, being in natural settings restores our ability to exercise directed attention and working memory, which are crucial mental talents. The basic idea is that nature, unlike a city, is filled with inherently interesting stimuli (like a sunset, or an unusual bird) that trigger our ...
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