Archives
- 30 Nov 2008
- 9:35pm EST
- Politics
- This post contains political opinions. Reader discretion is advised.
uh-oh: another rural reeducation campaign in SE asia
[Nope. Still not ready to post on Mumbai. There are, however, dozens of Indian bloggers who are doing an excellent job of covering it, including our dear friend Shruti Rajagopalan. -ed.]
The Thai opposition, which has been staging massive protests in Bangkok since August, and occupied the international airport there last week. They are the frustrated hulk of the opposition that was soundly defeated by exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai party. TRT was a centrist-populist party founded by the aforementioned telecom billionaire that married such capitalist ideals as microcredit with socialist ones like free low-level primary care, and earned itself a stranglehold on Thai politics—and the ire of the left and the military elite alike.
After the 2006 coup, Shinawatra’s exile, and the restoration of an elected government made of up Shinawatra loyalists, Thailand has been through a lot. It seems that simply wearing assinine “not my [prime minister]” t-shirts for eight pretentious years isn’t enough for the Thai opposition, though:
If they win what they have dubbed their “final battle,” Bangkok-based People’s Alliance for Democracy members say they will start a campaign to tell “the truth” to the country’s rural majority, which has elected parties linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra four times since 2006.
“Rural people have good hearts but they don’t know the truth like we do in Bangkok,” said Noppakoon Lagum, 37, a surgeon helping to occupy the main international airport. “It is our duty to re-educate them.”
There are two words in the English language specifically designed for such a situation: HOLY F*CK. Granted, they probably mean “run out into the fields and make asses of themselves to hack into an overwhelmingly solid voting bloc”, but then we shouldn’t forget the last time crazed leftist groups decided to launch a rural reeducation campaign in Southeast Asia.
- 30 Nov 2008
- 10:30am EST
- Uncategorized
links for 2008-11-30
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Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil finally steps down after doing everything except protecting his homeland.
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The idea of creating and/or taking advantage of crises is phenomenon that the Right is using for evil, wrote Naomi Klein. Where is she while Rahm Emanuel and the Left are calling for the EXACT SAME THING? Oh, right, it's evil if you disagree with it. Intellectual honesty is for chumps. (via Jeremy H)
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Excerpts from a hilarious, profanity-laced tirade.
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My defense analyst sources (yes, you, JC), said Gates was unlikely. But hey, yes we can hope-change! (For More of the Same (TM).)
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Eating like they did during the Siege of Lenningrad will help you lose pounds…and get you in trouble with the ASPCA.
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Typography playing cards. Never got into Magic: The Gathering, but I would totally set up a game based on these.
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Convert Google Reader to a Helvetica-ful Swiss grid design. Uses Greasemonkey (firefox, et al.) or Greasekit (Safari, et al., and which I can't get to work quite right). (via Design Observer)
- 26 Nov 2008
- 7:20pm EST
- & Cetera
chicken head tracking
This post is not about Mumbai. I’m trying really hard to avoid frothing-at-the-mouth posts, so I’ll direct you to the live feed at Tweet Grid for information on that.
Here, I have something completely different. It’s about the physiology of the chicken. They are weird m*&^%$f@!#+rs.
- 26 Nov 2008
- 10:30am EST
- Uncategorized
links for 2008-11-26
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A saucer with a special compartment for a used tea bag, preventing excess dripping.
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The Fugee's John Forte is pardoned on cocaine charges after everyone from Carly Simon to Sen. Orrin Hatch (!) appealed on his behalf.
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"A compendium of what services and companies are no longer available for our Internet pleasure and use." (via Daring Fireball)
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Rael Dornfest jumps ship for Twitter. His company, Values of n, the creators of web productivity apps Stikkit and I Want Sandy, has also been acquired by Twitter. Both seemed really convenient: email an address where all your contacts/calendar items/notes would be aggregated, and get regular reminders via email/Twitter/Twitter-SMS. But in the end, emailing myself was easier. Still, should be interesting to see where Twitter goes from here.
- 23 Nov 2008
- 10:30am EST
- Uncategorized
links for 2008-11-23
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Helpful advice for those in a corporate environment.
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BJP leader and PM candidate L.K. Advani gets a fancy new personal campaign site, complete with all the modern annoyances. Choppy flash animations, autoplay audio on the front page, they've got it. In fairness, it's better than the BJP's own site, which is a cobbled-together late 90s mess.
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Behance releases a great new online project management tool, with heavy GTD flavoring. The design is a thing of beauty, too. It's too bad I've moved away from a full-fledged GTD tool, preferring instead the "write sh*t down" method. (via swissmiss)
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The follow-up to the most excellent "Kenya".
a study of myopia and hysteria
I like doing things with Helvetica and the Adobe Creative Suite. I also like infographics explaining why many of you are wrong. This is my latest creation.
- 22 Nov 2008
- 3:11pm EST
- Nerdery & Sundry
spammer chutzpah
A recent bit of comment spam that Akismet filtered out:
to: Admin – If You want to delete your site from my spam list, please visit this site for instructions: [obvious spam site]
“If you want me to stop hitting you, please run into my fist.” That takes some balls.
- 22 Nov 2008
- 12:10pm EST
- & Cetera, Pop Culture & Memes
saved by zero, the movie
If you watch this commercial, you will DIE.
Savedbyzero! Savedbyzero! Savedbyzero! [via Design Observer]
- 21 Nov 2008
- 10:30am EST
- Uncategorized
links for 2008-11-21
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A meticulously-designed information overload.
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A fascinating look into how the rich soils, developed during the Cretaceous period, led very indirectly to Obama being competitive in the Deep South. (via Kottke)
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Oh, were that it were real. Of course, with my luck, I'd bring it to the office and find myself writing in Arial! Oh, the horror!
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I thought I was the only one who noticed the type in Quantum of Solace. I wish someone could tell me if there is some connection between the type and the place.
- 20 Nov 2008
- 8:00pm EST
- Politics
- This post contains political opinions. Reader discretion is advised.
dear minnesota
I’m sorry, but you’re the new Florida. How many ways can you screw up a scantron ballot? I mean, seriously. . .
At this point, I’d rather a representative of the Lizard People entered the Senate from Minnesota than either of the two schmucks who are realistically in contention.