linkfarming

Okay, the linkfarming posts are a cop-out. But I read and see so much cool stuff! Some of it's not even gross!

• Chinese typewriter, 1978.
• A professor talks with a professional paper writer.
• A bobcat on a cactus. You heard me.
• The real origins of food safety rules. Yes, you are overcooking your food for no good reason.
• The female body. Safe for work, not what you think, and sadly thoughtful.

Finally, go watch Stephen Colbert.

"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus is just as selfish as we are or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition... and then admit that we just don't want to do it."

More of my profound and brilliant writing is coming soon, I promise.

linkfarming

I'm finding a lot less time to read, but still enough, especially since I save everything to Pinboard.

• Bureaucratics. A photo set.
• Keynes vs Hayek: FIGHT! Round One and Round Two, both quite remarkable. (Dead but modern macroeconomists. Keynes has been updated and corrected; Hayek was substantially wrong, but had some cool ideas and arguments. Both men's views now distorted beyond recognition by American conservatives.)
• While we're at it, watch a hot nerd girl sing a love song to Hayek.
• Is sugar toxic?
• The worldwide war on baby girls.
• Starbucks is actually good for local coffee shops.
• We equate poverty with hunger, but other things might be more important than food.
• Finally: Gentleman Squid.

linkfarming

I've mostly been reading nerd stuff, which I won't torment you with.

• Typesetting and paste-up, 1970 style.
• Kevin Smith tries something new to distribute his latest movie: showing it one city at a time.
• What is your favorite intellectual joke? (Brutal.)
• Antarctica in Color: Photos from Shackleton's 1915 expedition.
• Perfect albums.
• Esoteric punctuation history.
• The youth unemployment bomb.

Actual writing soon, I promise.

contrarian

Answers you might not expect.

• Chilean food is overwhelmingly boring. I know, we think of Latin America and we think "Spicy!", for both the people and the food. Most of our experience of Latin food is Mexican food, or maybe Central American. You'll be even more confused if you've had Peruvian food, which is flavorful. And it's true, Peru is right there on the northern border (albeit a couple thousand miles from where I am in Chile right now). However, Peru and Chile hate each other. And in Chile, the word for "spicy," picante, also means "low-class" and "tacky." Anthropologist Jim Stuart explains why.
• The best thing about Chile was an empanada shop. Everyone expects something deep about this question. But my mind doesn't really work on linear-scale absolutes. Empanadas Las Tablas (Calle Ecuador in Vina del Mar) really is that good, and I talked a lot with the owner, Juan Pablo, who used to be a cop and went on a government-funded junket all up and down the American East Coast. The empanadas are so good that I pretty much got at least one every time I was in town, which was at least 3 times a week for aikido.
• I don't like Dr. Bronner's liquid soap. My friends all love it, but I've traveled with it quite a bit now, and I hate it. It's difficult to lather up, and it leaves my hair brittle and my skin dry, and I don't really feel clean. Fine for washing clothes, but ugh.