THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG

I hope the film charged with the task of revitalizing classic animation is good:

Random City Generator

The video below illustrates why I love Shamus over at Twenty Sided:

New Up! Trailer

For your enjoyment



This just confirms my suspicious that this film is inspired by Miyazaki. Biplanes and zeppelins, a flying house; they’d feel right at home in a Miyazaki universe (I personally wouldn’t mind a few more zeppelins around this universe, but too few agree with me.)

Don’t even get me started about the animation. It’s in a word: stunning. I’d like to talk about the light reflection on those balloons; but you’d just get bored and go watch the dancing parrot in the previous post.

So I’ll jus let you watch the trailer in peace.

The Wait is Over!

Finally, after a couple agonizing months of short fluffy posts, I give you a substantial one. So what is it? A political editorial? A philosophical treatise? The ethics of an approaching technology? A thoughtful post on art and life? Nay! Something even better:



Based on this video, I have decided that animals deserve rights (or at least dancing parrots, but they have to also like Queen.)

What is Corporatism?

Robert Locke writes one of the most thorough and well thought-out articles on political economics I have read in a very long time. The words “socialism” and “fascism” have been abused by misuse for so long they have essentially lost their meaning. I prefer the word “statism”, as a blanket word to cover many kinds of political control (but I realize this is too broad to be effective.)

Locke uses the word “corporatism”, which has a very specific meaning and is far more accurate then any other word commonly used in the public. To Locke, corporatism is particularly dangerous because all nearly all-major political ideologies support it in one way or another. The slow drift towards corporatism has been steady sense the turn of the 19^th century.

His article is a good read, be sure to check it out.  

My Sister Blog

I usually don’t talk about myself or my family, but this is fun enough to share. My little sister, a university student living in New York City, has made a blog, called Dating With Myself, about the perils and joys of doing things by oneself. Recently, she just saw Slumdog Millionaire.

As for my other little sister, she just won first lace in her track meet relay. So my family is doing quite well, in case you where wondering.

I Like this Guy

Just watch:

Everything's amazing, nobody's happy.

The world we created around ourselves really is incredible, I wish people saw it more. No, instead we decide to text each other about the dehumanizing affects of technology while sipping Jamba Juices in the middle of a metro area (true story.) Brats.

Astounding News

This article speaks for itself: UCLA team creates functional neurons from adult somatic cells. Yes, it’s pop science, but good pop science.

Keynesian Myths

Harry Binswanger talks very eloquently about the current stimulus and the economical philosophy that underlines it. Besides the first few opining paragraphs (which I think detracted from the main theme of the article) it is quite good:

Read it here.

Binswanger sums up recent silliness well by the end of the article:

"It is amazing that in this crisis, which is a crisis of over- consumption, over-borrowing, too little liquidity, the government's idea of a "stimulus" is to encourage more consumption, more borrowing, and less liquidity. It is especially amazing when all these points were known and well explicated by the classical economists, from Adam Smith on."

Amazing and Fantastical!

I swear I’ll post something significant soon, really. I have some mind-blowing posts in the works.

Wow, This Guy is Good

The Electric Bass Guitar gets a bad rap, even by those who like it. How often had I heard: “well, it’s not as showy as the lead guitar or singer, but the bass provides an important service to the team?” That sounds like the half-hearted support garbage men and people who deal with human waste seem to get; the kind of support that just ends up being condescending.

Well, I think the electric bass is a fine instrument in its own right. Just listen to this:

Investing in Failure

Very inspirational:

Sand Sculpture

This year’s sand castle competition has commenced; and as always, there are some pretty spectacular images.

Though there seems to be an increasingly broad definition of what constitutes a “sand castle:”

Something to Make you Smile

Michael Crichton, Complexity, and the Environment

I was saddened by the death of Michael Crichton. Not only did the world lose an incredibly interesting storyteller, but an incredibly intelligent and objective man.

Here he writes about complex systems, and how they apply to the environment; He even throws little economics and sociology in there. Anybody interested in “saving” the environment should read this. In fact, any body the least bit interested in science, complexity theory, economics, should read this; as it is not only incredibly interesting but incredibly informative.

….who believes that the complex system of our atmosphere behaves in such a simple and predictable way that if we reduce one component, carbon dioxide, we will therefore reliably reduce temperature? CO2 is not like an accelerator on a car. It’s not linear (and by the way, neither is a car accelerator.) And furthermore, who believes that the climate can be stabilized when it has never been stable throughout the earth’s history? We can only entertain such an idea if we don’t really understand what a complex system is.

There are also lots of pictures. So please, read it. It really is very good. A great tribute to a mind that is no longer with us.