CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">      <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#" xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml" lang="en">  <head><script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=7YQSqjSh" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://kottke.org/","20131014032130","https://web.archive.org/","web","https://web-static.archive.org/_static/", "1381720890"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=p7PEIJWi" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta property="og:title" content="kottke.org"/> <meta property="og:type" content="website"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130im_/http://kottke.org/apple-touch-icon.png"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="kottke.org"/> <meta property="og:description" content="home of fine hypertext products"/> <meta property="fb:admins" content="549560637"/> <meta property="fb:app_id" content="279322152122365"/><title>kottke.org - home of fine hypertext products</title> <script src="/web/20131014032130js_/http://kottke.org/templates/2012/komments.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="/web/20131014032130js_/http://kottke.org/templates/2012/updater.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript">intvId = setInterval ("getUpdates('/frontpage/updates/index.php?id=','updates')",600000);</script> <script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130js_/http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <script src="/web/20131014032130js_/http://kottke.org/templates/2012/jquery.sonar.min.js"></script> <script> jQuery(document).ready(function($) { var $shareWidgets = $( '.meta' ); $shareWidgets.bind( 'scrollin', { distance: 200 }, function() { var $share = $( this ); $share.unbind( 'scrollin' ); $share.html('<div class="like-butt"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="' + $share.attr("data-url") + '" data-text="' + $share.attr("data-text") + '" data-related="kottke">Tweet</a></div><div class="like-butt"><iframe src="//web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=' + encodeURIComponent($share.attr("data-url")) + '&send=false&layout=button_count&width=90&show_faces=false&action=like&colorscheme=light&font&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:90px; height:21px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe></div></div>'); twttr.widgets.load(); }); }); </script> <meta name="viewport" content="width=950"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//web.archive.org/web/20131014032130cs_/http://cloud.typography.com/790324/737040/css/fonts.css"/> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/web/20131014032130cs_/http://kottke.org/templates/2012/kottke.css?v=202" type="text/css"/> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://feeds.kottke.org/main"/> </head> <body id="kottke-org"> <div class="tb"><a href="/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/"></a></div><div class="tb" style="background-color:#2fdfff;"><a href="/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/"></a></div><div class="tb" style="background-color:#7feaff;"><a href="/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/"></a></div><div class="tb" style="background-color:#c0f4ff;"><a href="/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/"></a></div> <div id="easel"> <div id="canvas"> <div id="main"> <p id="updates"></p> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/long-lost-episodes-of-doctor-who-found">Long-lost episodes of Doctor Who found</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 11</span></h2> <p>Nine Doctor Who episodes from the 60s featuring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24467337">have been discovered at a TV station in Nigeria</a>.</p> <blockquote><p>The BBC destroyed many of the sci-fi drama's original transmission tapes in the 1960s and 1970s.</p> <p>However, many episodes were transferred on to film for sale to foreign broadcasters. It is often these prints found in other countries that are the source of retrieved episodes.</p> <p>In this case, 11 Doctor Who episodes were discovered, nine of which were missing, in the Nigerian city of Jos.</p></blockquote> <p>The episodes are already available for watching on iTunes: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/doctor-who-the-web-of-fear/id704945256?mt=8&at=11l7dq&ct=blog">The Web of Fear</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/doctor-who-enemy-world/id704921951?mt=8&at=11l7dq&ct=blog">The Enemy of the World</a>.</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/long-lost-episodes-of-doctor-who-found" data-text="Long-lost episodes of Doctor Who found (and now on iTunes)"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/photos-of-airships">Photos of airships</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 11</span></h2> <p>In Focus has <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/10/airships/100607/">a nice slideshow of photos of blimps, dirigibles, and airships</a>, from the first flights in the early 1900s to the Hindenberg disaster to the blimps flying high over sporting events.</p> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130im_/http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/airship-uss-akron.jpg" width="640" height="425" border="0" alt="Airship USS Akron"/></p> <p>(via <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://twitter.com/alexismadrigal">@alexismadrigal</a>)</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/photos-of-airships" data-text="Photos of airships"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/rip-kumar-pallana">RIP, Kumar Pallana</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 10</span></h2> <p>Kumar Pallana, one of Wes Anderson's cast of regulars, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-kumar-pallana-star-of-several-wes-anderson-mov,104109/">has died at age 94</a>. Pallana appears as Kumar in Bottle Rocket, Mr. Littlejeans in Rushmore, and as Pagoda in The Royal Tenenbaums.</p> <blockquote><p>Pallana led a massively interesting life before hitting the big screen at nearly 80. Born in colonial India, he lived all around the world, and first made a name for himself as an entertainer in America in the 1950s. Back then he was known as Kumar Of India, and his specialty was spinning plates-he even appeared on Captain Kangaroo in 1961. (Other feats included magic, balancing, swordplay, and juggling-you can see him do a handstand in The Royal Tenenbaums.)</p></blockquote> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/rip-kumar-pallana" data-text="RIP, Kumar Pallana (aka Pagoda in The Royal Tenenbaums)"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/get-smarter">Get smarter</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 10</span></h2> <p>Andrea Kuszewski shares some research about human intelligence and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/03/07/you-can-increase-your-intelligence-5-ways-to-maximize-your-cognitive-potential/">offers five techniques anyone can use to increase their IQ</a>.</p> <blockquote><p>There are absolutely oodles of terrible things written and promoted on how to "train your brain" to "get smarter". When I speak of "brain training games", I'm referring to the memorization and fluency-type games, intended to increase your speed of processing, etc, such as Sudoku, that they tell you to do in your "idle time" (complete oxymoron, regarding increasing cognition). I'm going to shatter some of that stuff you've previously heard about brain training games. Here goes: They don't work. Individual brain training games don't make you smarter-they make you more proficient at the brain training games.</p> <p>Now, they do serve a purpose, but it is short-lived. The key to getting something out of those types of cognitive activities sort of relates to the first principle of seeking novelty. Once you master one of those cognitive activities in the brain-training game, you need to move on to the next challenging activity. Figure out how to play Sudoku? Great! Now move along to the next type of challenging game. There is research that supports this logic.</p> <p>A few years ago, scientist Richard Haier wanted to see if you could increase your cognitive ability by intensely training on novel mental activities for a period of several weeks. They used the video game Tetris as the novel activity, and used people who had never played the game before as subjects (I know-can you believe they exist?!). What they found, was that after training for several weeks on the game Tetris, the subjects experienced an increase in cortical thickness, as well as an increase in cortical activity, as evidenced by the increase in how much glucose was used in that area of the brain. Basically, the brain used more energy during those training times, and bulked up in thickness-which means more neural connections, or new learned expertise-after this intense training. And they became experts at Tetris. Cool, right?</p> <p>Here's the thing: After that initial explosion of cognitive growth, they noticed a decline in both cortical thickness, as well as the amount of glucose used during that task. However, they remained just as good at Tetris; their skill did not decrease. The brain scans showed less brain activity during the game-playing, instead of more, as in the previous days. Why the drop? Their brains got more efficient. Once their brain figured out how to play Tetris, and got really good at it, it got lazy. It didn't need to work as hard in order to play the game well, so the cognitive energy and the glucose went somewhere else instead.</p></blockquote> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/get-smarter" data-text="Five ways to increase your intelligence, including "seek novelty" and "do things the hard way""></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-myth-of-nasas-expensive-space-pens">The myth of NASA's expensive space pens</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 10</span></h2> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130im_/http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/space-pen.jpg" width="640" height="67" border="0" alt="Space Pen"/></p> <p>There's a story about NASA's incredibly expensive space pen and Russia's simpler solution that gets trotted out every time some large organization introduces some complex, bloated, over-engineered product or process. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp">The story</a> goes like this:</p> <blockquote><p>During the space race back in the 1960's, NASA was faced with a major problem. The astronaut needed a pen that would write in the vacuum of space. NASA went to work. At a cost of $1.5 million they developed the "Astronaut Pen". Some of you may remember. It enjoyed minor success on the commercial market.</p> <p>The Russians were faced with the same dilemma.</p> <p>They used a pencil.</p></blockquote> <p>Fantastic story, right? Except that's not what happened. NASA originally used pencils in space but pencils tend to give off things that float in zero-g (broken leads, graphite dust, shavings) and are flammable. So they looked for another solution. Independent of NASA, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen">the Fisher Pen Company began development of a pen that could be used under extreme conditions</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>Paul C. Fisher and his company, the Fisher Pen Company, reportedly invested $1 million to create what is now commonly known as the space pen. None of this investment money came from NASA's coffers -- the agency only became involved after the pen was dreamed into existence. In 1965 Fisher patented a pen that could write upside-down, in frigid or roasting conditions (down to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit or up to 400 degrees F), and even underwater or in other liquids. If too hot, though, the ink turned green instead of its normal blue.</p></blockquote> <p>After testing, NASA ordered 400 Fisher pens for use on space missions at a cost of under $1000. Russia switched to using the pens a year later. Fisher <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.spacepen.com/originalastronautspacepen.aspx">still sells the original Space Pen</a> and you can <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0015ZP2AC/ref=nosim/0sil8">get it on Amazon for about $32</a>.</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-myth-of-nasas-expensive-space-pens" data-text=""The Russians used a pencil" and the myth of NASA's expensive space pens"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/black-midi">Black MIDI</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 10</span></h2> <p>Black MIDI music composers <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/sep/23/impossible-music-black-midi/">make "seemingly impossible" music</a> consisting of millions of notes.</p> <blockquote><p>Blackers take these MIDI files and run them through software such as <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.synthesiagame.com/">Synesthesia</a>, which is kind of an educational version of Guitar Hero for the piano, and bills itself as "piano for everyone." It's kind of brilliant to imagine a novice piano player looking for some online tutorials and stumbling across, say, this video of the song <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KaNoK04Cy8&list=TLyDHoSekmGsBZQe_tK22bBDBrIZRi5VmL">Bad Apple</a>, which reportedly includes 8.49 million separate notes.</p></blockquote> <p>Here's a tune with 10 million notes:</p> <p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="//web.archive.org/web/20131014032130if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/DQTU8qVqQcE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>And another <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eznX4MYtLtk">with 110 million notes</a> that sounds like a random TV channel played at 5000x normal speed. I really thought dubstep was going to be the "those kids and their crazy unlistenable music" transition for me, but that's nothing compared to this. If this is what the youngs are going to be listening to in three years, count me out.</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/black-midi" data-text="Black MIDI musical pieces are made up of millions of notes"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-fallacy-of-success">The Fallacy of Success</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 10</span></h2> <p>In a book called <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0082TVWEO/ref=nosim/0sil8">All Things Considered</a> published in 1915, G.K. Chesterton <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11505/11505-h/11505-h.htm#THE_FALLACY_OF_SUCCESS">deftly skewers</a> the glut of books by gurus, articles linked to from Hacker News, and conference talks by entrepreneurs about how to be successful.</p> <blockquote><p>That a thing is successful merely means that it is; a millionaire is successful in being a millionaire and a donkey in being a donkey. Any live man has succeeded in living; any dead man may have succeeded in committing suicide. But, passing over the bad logic and bad philosophy in the phrase, we may take it, as these writers do, in the ordinary sense of success in obtaining money or worldly position. These writers profess to tell the ordinary man how he may succeed in his trade or speculation-how, if he is a builder, he may succeed as a builder; how, if he is a stockbroker, he may succeed as a stockbroker. They profess to show him how, if he is a grocer, he may become a sporting yachtsman; how, if he is a tenth-rate journalist, he may become a peer; and how, if he is a German Jew, he may become an Anglo-Saxon. This is a definite and business-like proposal, and I really think that the people who buy these books (if any people do buy them) have a moral, if not a legal, right to ask for their money back. Nobody would dare to publish a book about electricity which literally told one nothing about electricity; no one would dare publish an article on botany which showed that the writer did not know which end of a plant grew in the earth. Yet our modern world is full of books about Success and successful people which literally contain no kind of idea, and scarcely any kind of verbal sense.</p></blockquote> <p>Chesterton continues:</p> <blockquote><p>It is perfectly obvious that in any decent occupation (such as bricklaying or writing books) there are only two ways (in any special sense) of succeeding. One is by doing very good work, the other is by cheating. Both are much too simple to require any literary explanation. If you are in for the high jump, either jump higher than any one else, or manage somehow to pretend that you have done so. If you want to succeed at whist, either be a good whist-player, or play with marked cards. You may want a book about jumping; you may want a book about whist; you may want a book about cheating at whist. But you cannot want a book about Success. Especially you cannot want a book about Success such as those which you can now find scattered by the hundred about the book-market. You may want to jump or to play cards; but you do not want to read wandering statements to the effect that jumping is jumping, or that games are won by winners.</p></blockquote> <p>That Chesterton's observations ring so true today is not an accident. The last time income inequality in the US was as high as it is today? <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2012.pdf">The 1910s and 1920s</a>. (via <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://mustapha.svbtle.com/tfs">mustapha abiola</a>)</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-fallacy-of-success" data-text="The secret to being successful: succeed."></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/steady-rollin-with-eric-holladay">Steady Rollin with Eric Holladay</a>&ensp; <span class="date">AARON COHEN &ensp;·&ensp; OCT 09</span></h2> <p>Joan Jett and BMX, the perfect way to spend a Thursday night. It's not Thursday, you say? Well, this video makes it feel like it is.</p> <p><iframe src="//web.archive.org/web/20131014032130if_/http://player.vimeo.com/video/76532295?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640" height="361" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>(via <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://twitter.com/chrispiascik/status/388117549889507328">@chrispiascik</a>)</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/steady-rollin-with-eric-holladay" data-text="Joan Jett and BMX"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-sierpinski-triangle">The Sierpinski triangle</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 09</span></h2> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130im_/http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/sierpinski-curved.jpg" width="640" height="601" border="0" alt="Sierpinski Curved"/></p> <p>More than you've ever wanted to know <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.oftenpaper.net/sierpinski.htm">about the Sierpinski triangle</a>.</p> <blockquote><p>Throughout my years playing around with fractals, the Sierpinski triangle has been a consistent staple. The triangle is named after Wacław Sierpiński and as fractals are wont the pattern appears in many places, so there are many different ways of constructing the triangle on a computer.</p> <p>All of the methods are fundamentally iterative. The most obvious method is probably the triangle-in-triangle approach. We start with one triangle, and at every step we replace each triangle with 3 subtriangles:</p></blockquote> <p>The discussion even veers into cows at some point...but zero mentions of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menger_sponge">the Menger sponge</a> though? (via <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://news.ycombinator.com/">hacker news</a>)</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-sierpinski-triangle" data-text="More than you've ever wanted to know about the Sierpinski triangle"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/nhl-goal-of-the-year">NHL goal of the year?</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 09</span></h2> <p>The NHL season is only a few days old, but Sharks rookie Tomas Hertl may have already scored the goal of the year. This is crazy:</p> <p><iframe width="640" height="480" src="//web.archive.org/web/20131014032130if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/z-a-XPZqYIw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>Also, that was his <em>fourth</em> goal of the game. (via <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/77527/we-went-there-teenage-mutant-ninja-hertls-four-goal-night">grantland</a>)</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/nhl-goal-of-the-year" data-text="Crazy ridiculous between-the-legs hockey goal by rookie Tomas Hertl"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-mcdonalds-tasting-menu">The McDonald's tasting menu</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 09</span></h2> <p>McDonald's recently held an event where chefs took the ingredients used to make McDonald's menu items and used them to make dishes that one might find at a nice restaurant. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/mcdonalds-tasting-menu-dinner-kung-pao-mcnuggets">Thrillist has the report</a>.</p> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130im_/http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/fancy-mcdonalds.jpg" width="640" height="434" border="0" alt="Fancy McDonald's"/></p> <blockquote><p>The slow-cooked beef with blueberry pomegranate sauce and Mac Fry gnocchi comes from McD's chef Jessica Foust, and was, without a doubt, the best of the night. It's their burger beef before it gets ground, plus blueberries and pomegranates from the smoothies, thinly ribboned carrots, and French fries magically turned into gnocchi.</p></blockquote> <p>See also <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/01/lets-build-a-massive-meta-mcdonalds-in-times-square">a previous discussion</a> of fast food and fine dining. Dammit, now I'm hungry for a Quarter Pounder... (via <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://twitter.com/jeb">@jeb</a>)</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-mcdonalds-tasting-menu" data-text="The McDonald's tasting menu"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/silk-road-fallout">Silk Road fallout</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 09</span></h2> <p>With Silk Road kingpin Ross Ulbricht in custody, one imagines that a whole lot of his former customers are feeling a bit nervous right about now. And they should be. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://gizmodo.com/uh-oh-silk-road-users-are-starting-to-get-arrested-1442444359">Buyers and sellers are starting to get arrested</a>.</p> <p>Charles Thompson might be a little nervous as well. As he explains:</p> <blockquote><p>In February of 2013, I decided to order one gram of MDMA from Silk Road because I wanted to write an essay on whether it really was that easy to click a few buttons and have a package of Schedule I substances arrive at your door a week later.</p></blockquote> <p>It was that easy. And that's the bad news. From The Morning News: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.themorningnews.org/article/my-brief-binding-road">My Brief, Binding Road</a>.</p> <p class="evensmaller"><em>Syndicated from NextDraft. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://nextdraft.com/">Subscribe today</a> or <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nextdraft-days-most-fascinating/id549358690">grab the iOS app</a>.</em></p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/silk-road-fallout" data-text="Silk Road users starting to get a little nervous"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-pickup-artist-and-socialized-feminism">The pickup artist and socialized feminism</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 09</span></h2> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/cockblocked-by-redistribution">Katie Baker notes</a> that a prominent member of the pickup artist community has written <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.bangguides.com/travel/dont-bang-denmark/">a book</a> about why Denmark is a bad place for pickup gurus to find women. Turns out that the Nordic country's "excellent social welfare services" also function as an effective douchebag repellant.</p> <blockquote><p>Fans of the travel writer will be disappointed that "pussy literally goes into hibernation" in this "mostly pacifist nanny state," where the social programs rank among the best in the world. Roosh's initial admiration for those resources is almost charming, if you're able to momentarily forget that this is a man who considers devirginizing teenagers a sport.</p> <p>"A Danish person has no idea what it feels like to not have medical care or free access to university education," an awed Roosh reports. "They have no fear of becoming homeless or permanently jobless. The government's soothing hand will catch everyone as they fall. To an American like myself, brainwashed to believe that you need to earn things like basic health care or education by working your ass off, it was quite a shock."</p> <p>Shock turns into disbelief and then rage when Roosh is rejected by heaps of "the most unfeminine and androgynous robotic women" he's ever met. "Not a feminine drop of blood courses through their veins," Roosh rants. He concludes that the typical fetching Nordic lady doesn't need a man "because the government will take care of her and her cats, whether she is successful at dating or not."</p> <p>He's not wrong. Several of Denmark's social services are intended to reduce gender inequality by supporting women, a sort of state feminism that he can't accept.</p></blockquote> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-pickup-artist-and-socialized-feminism" data-text="The pickup artist and socialized feminism"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/how-to-be-a-man">How to be a man</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 09</span></h2> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://gselevator.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/how-to-be-a-fking-man-2/">This list of rules for the contemporary American male</a> is both awesome and awful, seemingly written by a douchebag Dalai Lama. Some of the rules are thoughtful:</p> <blockquote><p>Measure yourself only against your previous self.<br/> Staying angry is a waste of energy.<br/> If you believe in evolution, you should know something about how it works.</p></blockquote> <p>And some are not:</p> <blockquote><p>Desserts are for women. Order one and pretend you don't mind that she's eating yours.<br/> Yes, of course you have to buy her dinner.<br/> Pretty women who are unaccompanied want you to talk to them.</p></blockquote> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/how-to-be-a-man" data-text=""Measure yourself only against your previous self" and other rules for the contemporary American male"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/league-of-denial">League of Denial</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 09</span></h2> <p>League of Denial, the Frontline documentary on the NFL and concussions, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/league-of-denial/">is available online for anyone to watch for free</a>.</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/league-of-denial" data-text="Watch now: Frontline's documentary on concussions in the NFL"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-best-american-infographics-2013">The Best American Infographics 2013</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 08</span></h2> <p>Sadly, most infographics these days <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://xkcd.com/1273/">look like this</a>, functioning as a cheap and easy way to gussy up numbers. But when done properly, infographics are very effective in communicating a lot of information in a short period of time and can help you see data in new ways. In <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0547973373/ref=nosim/0sil8">The Best American Infographics 2013</a>, Gareth Cook collects some of the best ones from over the past year. Wired has <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.wired.com/design/2013/10/13-sterling-pieces-of-data-viz-from-the-best-american-infographic-2013/?viewall=true">a look at some of the selections</a>.</p> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130im_/http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/dog-infoviz.jpg" width="640" height="853" border="0" alt="Dog Infoviz"/></p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-best-american-infographics-2013" data-text="New book: The Best American Infographics 2013"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/joseph-stalin-serious-editor">Joseph Stalin, serious editor</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 08</span></h2> <p>Holly Case <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/142109/">takes a fresh look at Joseph Stalin</a> through the lens of his editorial work. Is the ruthless dictator best understood as an editor?</p> <blockquote><p>Joseph Djugashvili was a student in a theological seminary when he came across the writings of Vladimir Lenin and decided to become a Bolshevik revolutionary. Thereafter, in addition to blowing things up, robbing banks, and organizing strikes, he became an editor, working at two papers in Baku and then as editor of the first Bolshevik daily, Pravda. Lenin admired Djugashvili's editing; Djugashvili admired Lenin, and rejected 47 articles he submitted to Pravda.</p> <p>Djugashvili (later Stalin) was a ruthless person, and a serious editor. The Soviet historian Mikhail Gefter has written about coming across a manuscript on the German statesman Otto von Bismarck edited by Stalin's own hand. The marked-up copy dated from 1940, when the Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany. Knowing that Stalin had been responsible for so much death and suffering, Gefter searched "for traces of those horrible things in the book." He found none. What he saw instead was "reasonable editing, pointing to quite a good taste and an understanding of history."</p> <p>Stalin had also made a surprising change in the manuscript. In the conclusion, the author closed with a warning to the Germans lest they renege on the alliance and attack Russia. Stalin cut it. When the author objected, pleading that the warning was the whole point of the book, Stalin replied, "But why are you scaring them? Let them try. ..." And indeed they did, costing more than 30 million lives-most of them Soviet. But the glory was Stalin's in the end.</p> <p>The editor is the unseen hand with the power to change meaning and message, even the course of history. Back when copy-proofs were still manually cut, pasted, and photographed before printing, a blue pencil was the instrument of choice for editors because blue was not visible when photographed. The editorial intervention was invisible by design.</p> <p>Stalin always seemed to have a blue pencil on hand, and many of the ways he used it stand in direct contrast to common assumptions about his person and thoughts. He edited ideology out or played it down, cut references to himself and his achievements, and even exhibited flexibility of mind, reversing some of his own prior edits.</p></blockquote> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/joseph-stalin-serious-editor" data-text="As editor of Pravda, Joseph Stalin rejected 47 articles submitted by Vladimir Lenin. 47!"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-wes-anderson-collection">The Wes Anderson Collection</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 08</span></h2> <p>Out today is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.abramsbooks.com/wesandersoncollection/">The Wes Anderson Collection</a> (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/081099741X/ref=nosim/0sil8">at Amazon</a>), a coffee-table book about Wes Anderson's career.</p> <blockquote><p>The Wes Anderson Collection is the first in-depth overview of Anderson's filmography, guiding readers through his life and career. Previously unpublished photos, artwork, and ephemera complement a book-length conversation between Anderson and award-winning critic Matt Zoller Seitz. The interview and images are woven together in a meticulously designed book that captures the spirit of his films: melancholy and playful, wise and childish -- and thoroughly original.</p></blockquote> <p>Vulture has <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/how-wes-anderson-made-the-royal-tenenbaums.html">an excerpt</a> of the chapter on The Royal Tenenbaums.</p> <blockquote><p>Q: Gene Hackman - it was always your dream for him to play Royal?<br/> A: It was written for him against his wishes.</p> <p>Q: I'm gathering he was not an easy person to get.<br/> A: He was difficult to get.</p> <p>Q: What were his hesitations? Did he ever tell you?<br/> A: Yeah: no money. He's been doing movies for a long time, and he didn't want to work sixty days on a movie. I don't know the last time he had done a movie where he had to be there for the whole movie and the money was not good. There was no money. There were too many movie stars, and there was no way to pay. You can't pay a million dollars to each actor if you've got nine movie stars or whatever it is - that's half the budget of the movie. I mean, nobody's going to fund it anymore, so that means it's scale.</p></blockquote> <p>That's right, Gene Hackman (and probably the rest of them as well) worked for scale on The Royal Tenenbaums.</p> <p>Anderson also talks about the scene in The Darjeeling Limited where they show everyone on the train:</p> <blockquote><p>Q: When you turn to reveal the tiger, what is that, the other side of the train?<br/> A: No, it's all one car. We gutted a car, and that is a fake forest that we built on the train, and it is a Jim Henson creature on our train car. The whole thing is one take, and I think because we did it that way, while we were doing it, we did feel this electricity, you know? There's tension in it because it's all real. Fake but real. I mean, that was the idea. The emotion of it, well -- there's nothing really happening in the scene, you know? They just kind of sit there, but it was a real thing that was happening. But I did at the time have this feeling like "I don't know."</p></blockquote> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.sippey.com/2010/11/even-if-its-fake-its-real.html">Even if it's fake, it's real</a>.</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/the-wes-anderson-collection" data-text="The Wes Anderson Collection, a new book by @mattzollerseitz about Wes Anderson's career"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/gay-talese-annotates-frank-sinatra-has-a-cold">Gay Talese annotates Frank Sinatra Has A Cold</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 08</span></h2> <p>If you're even a little bit of a magazine nerd, you'll appreciate this: with the help of Elon Green <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2013/10/08/annotation-tuesday-gay-talese-and-frank-sinatra-has-a-cold/">Gay Talese annotates</a> his <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2012/04/24/whys-this-so-good-no-39-gay-talese-diagnoses-frank-sinatra-by-maria-henson/">celebrated</a> celebrity profile, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ1003-OCT_SINATRA_rev_">Frank Sinatra Has A Cold</a>.</p> <blockquote><p>EG: The punctuated alliteration is gorgeous -- "preened and polished"; "matured" and "molded". How much time would you spend on such a sentence?/eg </p> <p>GT: Oh, I could spend days. Sometimes these phrases come to you and sometimes they're terrible. Sometimes you think, "Maybe that's okay" and you let it in. I throw a lot of stuff away.</p> <p>EG: What percentage of what you write for any given story do you get rid of?</p> <p>GT: More than half. Because it's so easily the case that it's turgid or overwritten.</p> <p>EG: Do you throw away more now, now that you use a computer?</p> <p>GT: I don't think so. I've always thrown a lot away, even when I was working on daily deadlines for newspapers. That was really expensive because at the New York Times we were typing what they called a "book" -- it had seven or eight pieces of carbon. A thick thing. If you threw it away, you were destroying 11 cents worth of, well, something.</p></blockquote> <p>(via <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://twitter.com/yayitsrob">@yayitsrob</a>)</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/gay-talese-annotates-frank-sinatra-has-a-cold" data-text="Gay Talese annotates Frank Sinatra Has A Cold"></div></div> <div class="post"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/13/10/cloudpaint">CloudPaint</a>&ensp; <span class="date">OCT 08</span></h2> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130im_/http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/cloudpaint.gif" width="640" height="428" border="0" alt="CloudPaint"/></p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.cloudpaint.com/">CloudPaint</a> is a fully operational online version of the original <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPaint">MacPaint</a> released with the Macintosh in 1984. The source code for version 1.3 of MacPaint <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/macpaint-and-quickdraw-source-code/">is available from the Computer History Museum</a>.</p> <div class="meta" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130oe_/http://kottke.org/13/10/cloudpaint" data-text="CloudPaint is an online MacPaint emulator"></div></div> <p><a href="/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/?p=2"><strong>Older entries »</a></strong></p> </div> <div id="side"> <h4>kottke.org</h4> <p class="sidenav"> <a href="/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/">Front page</a><br/> <a href="/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/about">About + contact</a><br/> <a href="/web/20131014032130/http://kottke.org/everfresh">Site archives</a> </p> <h4>Subscribe</h4> <p class="sb-icon-tw"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://twitter.com/kottke">Follow kottke.org <strong>on Twitter</strong></a></p> <p class="sb-icon-tum"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://bonus.kottke.org/">Follow kottke.org <strong>on Tumblr</strong></a></p> <p class="sb-icon-fb"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://facebook.com/kottke.org">Like kottke.org <strong>on Facebook</strong></a></p> <p class="sb-icon-rss"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://feeds.kottke.org/main">Subscribe to <strong>the RSS feed</strong></a></p> <h4>Advertisement</h4> <div id="thedeck"><script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ (function(id) { document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="' + 'https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://connect.decknetwork.net/deck' + id + '_js.php?' + (new Date().getTime()) + '"></' + 'script>'); })("JK"); //]]> </script></div> <p class="adsp">Ads by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://decknetwork.net/">The Deck</a></p> <h4>Support kottke.org <span style="color:#ff9809;">shop at Amazon</span></h4> <div class="job"><ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008UA7I/ref=nosim/0sil8">All-Clad cookware set</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004G606EY/ref=nosim/0sil8">1493</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000NTPDSW/ref=nosim/0sil8">The Godfather Collection on Blu-ray</a></li> </ul></div> <p class="adsp">And more at <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=0sil8&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957">Amazon.com</a></p> <h4>Looking for work?</h4> <script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130js_/http://www.37signals.com/svn/job.fcgi" type="text/javascript"></script> <p class="adsp">More listings <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://jobs.37signals.com/?source=kottke">on the Job Board</a></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.enginehosting.com/"><img src="/web/20131014032130im_/http://kottke.org/images/side/enginehosting.gif" width="138" height="23" border="0" alt="Enginehosting"/></a></p> <p class="adsp">Hosting provided <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www.enginehosting.com/">EngineHosting</a></p> <br/><br/> </div> </div></div> <script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");</script> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/https://ssl." : "https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032130/http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-871179-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}</script> </body> </html>