Uncouth Reflections

Letter from China: Big Underpants Again

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Fenster

Fenster writes:

I wrote previously about the Rem Koolhaas CCTV building in Beijing. The one they call Big Underpants, the one whose photo should be viewed through cheesecloth for proper effect, given Beijings’ chronic haze. In fact some days you can barely make him out at all if you are any distance away, and you have to wonder if that’s all of him.

I stayed in the Central Business District a few nights ago. Sure enough, as I walked out of my hotel in the morning there he was, Big Underpants, emerging from the haze.

Posted in Architecture | Tagged CCTV, koolhaas | 1 Comment

2 Higher Education Readings

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Fenster

Fenster writes.

CS50x is not the new Acura model. It is Harvard’s Introduction to Computer Science course, the one it offered free as part of its EdX initiative.

CS50x is Harvard College’s introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming for majors and non-majors alike, with or without prior programming experience. An entry-level course taught by David J. Malan, CS50x teaches students how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. . . .

PREREQUISITES

None. CS50x is designed for students with or without prior programming experience.

How cool is that? Harvard for free.

Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Technology | Tagged Bowdoin, education, EdX, Harvard, Harvey Mansfield, National Association of Scholars | 1 Comment

Might Makes Right!

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Fenster

Fenster writes:

Or might makes right?

As always, it’s your decision.

Which reminds me. You can make fun of Dan Brown all you want (and here is a spirited defense of his latest oovruh). But The DaVinci Code was if nothing else a brief against the sky gods.

Posted in Books Publishing and Writing, Philosophy and Religion, Uncategorized | Tagged Camille Paglia, Dan Brown, earth gods, sky gods | Leave a comment

Linkage

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Should all Americans be given a basic monthly income?
Con artist of the year.
“I’m 40 years old going on 65,” says an ex-lineman. “God knows what I’ll feel like when I’m actually 65 years old.”
Why is the Swedish establishment still in favor of joining the Eurozone?
Some smart and lovely words from Lloyd Fonveille in praise of a late John Ford western.
Jake Thomas takes a stand for Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II.”
Charlton Griffin gets a rave for his recent production of “Dombey and Sons.” Charlton is a great producer and narrator of audiobooks.
I’m feeling safer already.
Netflix Instant Recommendation Du Jour: “Fatal Attractions,” a somber and thoughtful British-made documentary series about people who are driven to bond and live with dangerous animals, from crocodiles to tigers to poisonous snakes. (It often doesn’t work out well.) Gorgeous photography featuring lots of shallow focus; impressively staged re-enactments; fantastic and sinister footage of terrifying and beautiful creatures; moving and informative interviews with friends and experts … All of it done in a style that deliberately evokes subdued and classy psychological horror pictures. This isn’t the usual loud, clattery, set-in-Idiocristan reality-TV show. Instead, it’s a series of character studies — deep looks into a peculiar kind of madness: the attraction some people have not just to animals but to wild and predatory ones. Where does it come from? Why do they feel they can get away with it? The Question Lady and I have found the series fascinating, and have enjoyed every episode of it.

Posted in Books Publishing and Writing, Linkathons, Movies, Politics and Economics, Sports, Television | Tagged Charlton Griffin, Fatal Attractions, football, Jake Thomas, Lloyd Fonvielle, Netflix | 1 Comment

Egalitarianism Question

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Shouldn’t the anti-stereotyping crowd be more worked-up than they are about the habit bookstores have of segregating some magazines into “Men’s Interest” and “Women’s Interest” sections? Isn’t it unfair to make — no, to impose — the claim that one group of people (“men”) is mainly interested in hot babes, gadgets and sports, while another group of people (“women”) is fascinated by weight loss, food, makeup and fashions? How are men and women who don’t conform to these stereotypes supposed to feel when they pass by a magazine stand? And where is the section devoted to magazines for the Trans set anyway?

What we have here, it strikes me, is an ingrained cultural habit as onerous as dressing girl babies in pink and boy babies in blue. What I want to know is: Where are the protestors?

Related:

Does Google’s auto-complete search feature need to be censored?
HBDChick explains the main reason why we should always expect different populations to have different bundles of strengths and weaknesses. To cut to the chase: “Thanks to natural selection, genetic differences between populations having had long histories of developing in different types of environments are inevitable.” Simple as that.

Posted in Books Publishing and Writing, Personal reflections, Politics and Economics, Sex | Tagged gender, magazines, politics, sex | 1 Comment

“Margot at the Wedding”

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Let’s tick the boxes:

absent mothers, actors blubbering, adult ADHD, adultery, anxiety, Asperger’s, Barely Legal, “Before you gave me your sweater I didn’t realize I was cold,” betrayal, borderline personality disorder, child abuse, college professors, croquet, divorce, early admission to Harvard, estranged sisters, fainting, father-daughter relationships, the Hamptons, Harper’s, hints of incest, ironic mustaches, ironic t-shirts, jump cuts, “Just then I felt so much love for you,” Manhattan, masturbation, near drowning, neurotics, New Yorker short stories, New York writers, no plot, NYU, OCD, panic attack, pedophilia, pills, R.E.M.’s Murmur, redhead Lolita next door, secret pregnancy, sexual abuse, shitting your pants, sibling rivalry, slackers, Stanford, symbolism, underlit night scenes, Vermont, walks in the woods, wannabe musicians, white wine, Williamsburg, Woody Allen’s serious movies

This movie fucking sucks.

More

The New Yorker fellates writer-director Noah Baumbach. At least I’m assuming they do b/c there’s no way I’m reading that.
In this interview, Baumbach does his Woody Allen impression and Greta Gerwig says “la di da.” I’m not joking.

Posted in Movies | Tagged I can't believe I watched the whole thing, Jack Black, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicole Kidman, Noah Baumbach, SWPL | 9 Comments

“Footnote”

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

I found this Israeli movie, which is like a family tragedy played as half-farce, to be messy and precious in ways that don’t really suit what’s best in it. But the characterizations — mostly of egotistical academics — are terrifically sharp, and it bounces off the brainy-verbal aspects of Talmudic scholarship in ways you don’t see coming. (While I can’t say I’ve ever longed to see a movie nail the peculiarities of academia in quite so accurate a fashion, I won’t deny that I appreciated the effort in this instance.) A scene in which the father uses his Asperger-y skills to suss out his son’s role in duping him is particularly good; it provides a thriller-style set-piece, and it serves as both a narrative summing up and a revelation of character (it grants us what no one else in the movie has — direct access to the old man’s brain). Director Joseph Cedar is a whiz at using cross-cutting techniques and compressed, multi-layered compositions to suggest the plate tectonic forces at work below the crust of professional and familial relationships. It helps that the actors are so persuasive. In particular, leads Lior Ashkenazi and Shlomo Bar-Aba make for a compelling contrast: the former is as open and sanguine as the latter is hermetic and perpetually aggrieved.

Posted in Movies, Performers | Tagged Film, Footnote, Israel, Joseph Cedar, Judaism, Lior Ashkenazi, movies, Shlomo Bar-Aba | Leave a comment

Linkage

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

GQ presents its list of the 21 books from the 21st century every man ~~who wants to bang an NPR listener~~ should read. The intro says they spent “months” creating the list which is surprising given that it has all the usual suspects. Not one genre work? And what’s with this assumption that the only “books” that seem to count are novels? They couldn’t think of a single piece of nonfiction?
Los Angeles’s Sixth Street Bridge — made famous in films such as Grease, Repo Man, and Terminator 2 — has “concrete cancer” so it must be torn down. Take a look at the replacement. Can someone explain to me why they shouldn’t just rebuild the original design? Speaking of garbage, real estate billionaire Eli Broad is building an art museum next door to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and here’s the new federal courthouse proposed for a couple blocks away. When will the public get sick of this antiseptic-white, swoopy-melty shit being foisted upon us?
To get the bad taste out of your mouth, here’s a gallery of charming (i.e. human-scaled and decorative) side streets from around the world.
Best Photoshopping Ever?
For all I know, in vitro meat will prove to be a godsend because it will one day allow the consumption of high-quality protein around the planet without all the inhumane and negative environmental side effects from CAFOs. But given the health, nutrition, and medical establishment’s track records over the past 60 years, excuse me if I’m skeptical.
Speaking of Ed Jagels and Bakersfield, let’s check in and see how things are going there.
While many are justly outraged over the DOJ monitoring the AP’s phone calls, the problem is likely much bigger. This Wired cover story about the NSA datacenter being built in Utah is worth revisiting.