Cabel Sasser recently posted Japan: Muscle Park & Ninja Warrior; it illustrates some interesting differences between there and here, partly by discussing a TV game show called “Sasuke”:
And to give you an idea of how challenging the fourth and
final course is, Sasuke has run for twenty seasons, and only
two people have ever actually won. (Cultural note: can
you imagine how quickly, say, Deal or No Deal would
have been cancelled if there had only ever been two
winners in 10 years? But it’s genius: when someone fails
you feel it in your gut, and if someone wins it feels
like you’ve just watched history unfold.)
As usual, I must ask if Sagert has seen this show? Thoughts?
Wikipedia’s article about Opus the Penguin is further evidence for why this type of encyclopedia genre interests me so much:
…on several occasions, his “fanny” has fallen off (often with
a clanking sound on the floor), and he has also had instances
where his nose droops or is taken completely off as a result
of sneezing while using dental floss and so on.
Sometimes these are combined; he has had either his nose
and rear end fall off, or his nose droop while his rear end
has fallen off, and so on. He eventually learned that his
navel was in fact the screw that attached his rear end to
his body.
Where else would you read that last sentence? The internet == win!
The British company “albam” doesn’t use Chinese manufacturers to make its high quality clothing:
We are an independent company so we can listen to you.
We develop and produce our clothes in the UK because
we think the extra cost is worth the great quality. If we
don’t make a line in the UK it is because we haven’t found
a quality high enough to hang our hat on.
…
As someone told us “it doesn’t have to be radically
different, just a lot better”, well we are sticking by this.
Randall Munroe’s xkcd continues to supply so much insight into love. “Wait a second. Are you asking me to show her a mediocre time?” An instant classic.
About nine months ago, I really got into the musical stylings of Paolo Nutini, a 20 year old Scottish singer/songwriter busting out some alternative hits. I think I first heard the music because a guy in my P-Chem class was playing “New Shoes” (fantastic song). Anyhow, after taking a break from an album for a while, I find it’s really useful to go back to it and see if the music has any staying power. Well… Nutini’s album holds up really well. Take a listen to Jenny Don’t Be Hasty to see what I mean. Go ahead, turn it up and jam, I’ll wait.
Good stuff, no? Be sure to catch his new album this June. Oh, and if you’re a girl you’re probably attracted to Paolo. To the (I’d guesstimate 4) women reading tumbledry: you’re welcome!
My German prof (Professor Paul A. Schons) from freshman year of college has a “German History” mailing list in which, on weekdays during the school year, he sends out historical German facts and current events. He has got to be one of the nicest people I have ever met — sharp witted, too. So, I never unsubscribed to his mailing list… so, four years later, I’m still receiving it. Today, he writes:
Guten Morgen am 9. April! I hope your Wednesday
is excellent…even better than you had anticipated!!
I remember why I stayed subscribed for all this time. I think the world needs more people like Prof. Schons.
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If
you see distinctions between the genders, it does not
make you sexist. If you think critically about a
denomination, it does — does not make you anti-religion.
If you accept but don’t celebrate homosexuality, it does
not make you a homophobe.
Don’t let America’s universities continue to serve as
incubators for this rampant epidemic of new
McCarthyism. That’s what it is: New McCarthyism. But,
what can you do? How can anyone prevail against
such pervasive social subjugation?
Well, the answer’s been here all along. I learned it 36
years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington D.C., standing with Dr. Martin Luther King
and two hundred thousand people.
You simply disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of
course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to
think or what to say or how to behave, we don’t. We
disobey the social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes
personal freedom.
The battle against complacency is, in many ways, more difficult to fight than the archetypical battle against the British was in the 18th century. However, I don’t think complacency is unique to America; I think it is more of a chink in the bedrock, undermining the foundation of all long-standing governments.