ForcedPerspective

Figure-ground obsessions

Ever since the other person who lives at my house told me about it, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the arrow in the FedEx logo. It's genius, or maybe just inevitable:

Update: here's an interview with the creator, in which he answers several of my questions.

After Eccleston, Who?

The BBC has a rundown of five actors deemed likely to play the next Doctor. Here's my take on their picks:

David Tennant: too fey (or maybe it's just the photo they used)

Bill Nighy: too old

Richard E Grant: too famous

David Thewlis: no opinion (possibly too actory, but Eccleston seems to have done okay)

Alan Davies: could be

And what about my favorite, Eddie Izzard?

Ozark Fun

Yes, you can laugh at dated 70's Ozark tourism, or you can gape in awe at its present day splendor!

Gross Happiness

Not only is history being made, but you can watch the process online: Bhutan's first constitution is in the making! When one writes a constitution these days, one has to be far more specific (electronic communication, the environment, torture and so forth), but one is still able to soar to inspirational heights:
"The State shall strive to promote those circumstances that will enable the successful pursuit of Gross National Happiness."

Unfortunately, my unfamiliarity with Bhutanese culture results in some passages sounding a bit like science fiction:
"The title to the Golden Throne of Bhutan shall vest in the legitimate descendants of His Majesty Druk Gyalpo Ugyen Wangchuck as enshrined in the inviolable and historic Gyenja of the Thirteenth Day, Eleventh Month of the Earth Monkey Year, corresponding to the Seventeenth Day of December, Nineteen Hundred and Seven"

Let us all strive for Gross National Happiness!

Win That War!

Foods That Will Win the War and How to Cook Them, from 1918 advises:
1. Buy it with thought
2. Cook it with care
3. Serve just enough
4. Save what will keep
5. Eat what would spoil
6. Home-grown is best

Don't waste it!

Life half-way imitates parody

If Weird Al's math is right, on Ted's 1275" tv, Robert De Niro's mole would be only about six feet wide.

May not come with Tatami

Hey, look! A portable office, only 1.5 Tatami! From the people that brought you a slightly larger portable room.

Fischer heads to his new home

Bobby Fischer, paranoid recluse and former world chess champion, has been granted Icelandic citizenship (presumed to be a show of gratitude for Fischer's role in drawing international attention there in 1972 by defeating Boris Spassky in Reykjavík), leading to his release from Japanese detention.

So much for glorking

I hadn't ever seen the "Don't" sign (symbol of universal hatred over a plain blue field) before we were in Iceland, and I finally decided it must mean "no parking," since I believed a plain blue field meant "parking okay." I had to take the BBC Roadsign Quiz to find out I'm wrong.

Much better movie news

Joss has signed up to write and direct Wonder Woman!

I'd so like to reserve judgment

My initial reaction to the headline " Last Star Wars to be 'emotional'" was "Oh, right, because that's what he's good at." But, y'know, I seem to remember American Graffiti being genuinely moving in parts. But reviewing his oeuvre on IMDb makes me wonder if maybe it's just that I haven't seen AG in a long time. Or maybe it's that AG had actors in it.
Either way, it's a sad day when George Lucas is aspiring to be James Cameron.

Doctors and Pens

No Free Lunch is a doctor-to-doctor campaign to reduce the influence of drug company representatives on their work. As far as I know, we don't have any medical personnel in our readership, but if anyone wants to get rid of drug company pens, we sure could use some extra pens where I work.

Irwin Allen put to shame

As if we didn't have enough to worry about, the next Yellowstone Supervolcano is 40,000 years overdue. Give or take. The last one left a crater within which Tokyo would fit, and the effects sound about the same as the dreaded nuclear winter.

A Library Primer, reprimed

Way back in 1899 (revised 1903), John Cotton Dana wrote in A Library Primer (now available online!):

"The librarian should have culture, scholarship, and executive ability. He should keep always in advance of his community, and constantly educate it to make greater demands upon him. He should be a leader and a teacher, earnest, enthusiastic, and intelligent. He should be able to win the confidence of children, and wise to lead them by easy steps from good books to the best. He has the greatest opportunity of any teacher in the community. He should be the teacher of teachers. He should make the library a school for the young, a college for adults, and the constant center of such educational activity as will make wholesome and inspiring themes the burden of the common thought. He should be enough of a bookworm to have a decided taste and fondness for books, and at the same time not enough to be such a recluse as loses sight of the point of view of those who know little of books."

Notes and Queries

I think I had heard of Notes and Queries before I read Not Even Wrong, but reading that at least reminded me to look and YES!! There is an online archive of issues of N&Q from 1849-1869 online. N&Q is a newslettery repository of the research interests and results of the Victorian research nerd. The modern version has refined this to the classical research nerd, as the other nerds have made their own nests elsewhere.

The one new thing I learned today

Tortilla Flat's title in Swedish is Riddarna kring Dannys bord

Long time no post

While I haven't posted lately, you, loyal reader, are ever on my mind. I have some great links saved up for you for later. Until then, cutting edge cookie eating robot from Mcvities (who else?).

So that's what it takes...

Drive a company into the ground (well, okay, mortgage its future for short-term stock price gain)? Get named President of another one. Bring along an exec who is later jailed for illegally arranging employment for a government official? Take over as Chairman and CEO. Have consensual, extra-marital sex with an opposite sex executive, though, and you're out on your ass.
Condit was renowned for his affairs during his tenure (his second wife had been his secretary, and it was well and widely known inside the company when he moved into a hotel when his third marriage (to his cousin) was falling apart), so I can imagine only that somebody decided Harry must go. I'm able to infer some entertaining irony at the notion that maybe it was the ethics code that Harry made everybody sign that made his extra-curricular activities a bootable offense.

Random Wonderfalls reading

I've been watching Wonderfalls lately. I missed it in its run because I didn't have access to a Fox station, but bought the DVDs on faith in Tim Minear (near as I can tell so far, Tim got called in to tune up Bryan Fuller and Todd Holland's idea). I got to wondering about which of WF or Joan of Arcadia came first. According to this article, " The two shows were developed and sold to their respective networks at the same time, but the September debut of Joan of Arcadia and its status as one of the season's few hits make Mr. Fuller and his colleagues seem like laggards, or worse, copycats."
Also of note in the article, JoA creator Barbara Hall comes off as an asshole and a bit dim: "I don't see Joan of Arc anywhere in [WF]." And hidden in the middle of the article, where Holland and Fuller are spit-balling series pitches, "How about Rosemary's Baby, all grown up and fighting the evil within?" Now where have I heard that before? Finally, I can't figure why the article claims Tim wrote for Buffy.

We love the obvious jokes

Well, I love the obvious jokes, anyway. So I'll join the probable chorus of geeks remarking along the lines of "Oh, sure, we have nothing against being known for genocide, but you had damned well better change the name of that carcinogenic dye!"