PD

A few days ago I was playing against some aixois who didn't know a pool stick from a tapir dick.  One was having problems shooting, and I told him that in a pinch rubbing the blue chalk on your hand can reduce friction.

"But then your hand will be all dirty!"

How do I describe this guy without offending various genders and/or sexual orientations?

asparagusalmon

Sautéed asparagus and garlic with smoked salmon, comté and carrots for the hell of it.  Basic basalmic dressing.  Brut chardonnay mousseux.  Obrigod Shabim.

The (Recent) Human Evolution Project

The year is 2013, and we know more than ever about human evolution.  Most recently, technological breakthroughs in the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) has given us fascinating new insights into how we came to be, and has illuminated our controversial relationship with Neanderthals.  It is an exciting time to study human evolution by all accounts.

But during my 21st century odyssey to study the fossil record, I ran head-long into a frustrating 19th century problem - data from fossil finds are guarded jealously by academics instead of being rendered public for all to see and interpret.

These days human fossils are increasingly being repatriated to their countries of origin on the basis that they are a rightful part of a nations patrimony.  While a noble effort, this too can have the effect of further reducing access to fossil data.  (Can afford a trip to East Africa?  Great!  Hope they're not having a civil war now!) Let's take this idea one step further: human fossils are undeniably the patrimony of all of humanity, and should therefore be "repatriated" to a place where everyone can see/study/marvel at/ all of the relevant data. 

Let's create a website that has 3D scans, photographs, drawings, and interpretations of all of the human fossils discovered in the last 150 years. Current technology would make this a relatively easy task.  All that is needed is a genuine desire to share knowledge. 

Un rat!

I saw my fair share of rats in NYC. Hell, one even died in some unreachable place in my wall. For a month we just waited out the decomposition process - we didn't dare take a hammer to the place. But now that it's gotten warmer in Marseille, even I am shocked by the number of rodents scurrying in the streets. I see at least 5 whoppers a day. Just now as I was walking home I saw a big'un hauling half a baguette down the street.

fslmjkd

I listened to this song throughout my childhood. It was on one of me and Alida's favorite LPs when we spent the weekends at my dad's. Being a kid I just liked the sound, but now the lyrics have some impact on me. It's a weird feeling. I'm having a sort of delayed pubescence where love songs (i.e. all songs) have actual meaning for me.

I also just realized that the Flying Pickets LP we played nonstop came out the year of my birth. I guess my parents must have listened to it when I was a little red ball of shit tears and piss. My mom has largely evacuated her life of any music from that era. My dad, a more sentimental person, maybe took more pleasure in reliving that time.

EDIT: I just noticed they're clearly lipsynching the album version of the song.  Nice invisible microphones!

You want mirrion dorrar?

I clicked on this NYT blogpost on income inequality in the US, read the first few paragraphs, then closed it.  Reading more would have made me upset, and I'm trying to go for emotional stability these days. 

Why are we addicted to self-sabotage?  Is it because Americans love to identify with the rich, and while they're eating their Hamburger Helper and slugging a Natural Ice they imagine how they'll spend their future riches? Because they're cowboys that play by their own rules, and cowboy code prevents them from accepting "hand-outs," especially from the Government? Everybody, stop deluding yourselves!  You're never gonna be mega-rich.  Most of you will never even be sorta rich.  So increasing taxes on the rich will only benefit you.

I tire of the usual rose-tinted argument that the rich have a moral duty to pay more in the spirit of human solidarity etc.  Does anyone really buy that?  And even if you do, the rich always have a nice charity they can point to, as proof that they've already contributed more than their fair share to society.  This is a scam.

So let's unshackle ourselves from the slave-ideology that tells us what we "deserve" or "don't derserve."  No! Let's tax the rich the most possible for one simple reason: it benefits YOU.  Call it the tyranny of the majority if you want.  I'll call it altruistic egoism (collective egoism that benefits the whole), and it's certainly better than the pathetic self-flaggelation that the american poor and working-class seem to prefer today.

I know these are complicated economic problems, but when the mega-rich, an increasingly vocal group of economists, and, well, all of Europe think that considerably raising taxes on the rich is a good idea, maybe we can at least give it a try.

How to avoid psychological trauma tip N°9876

Never confuse Lars von Trier and Gus Van Sant.