Malcom in the middle

Speaking of The New Yorker, I saw a video excerpt from its recent "Stories from the Near Future" conference.

The excerpt caught my eye because it is a presentation by author Malcolm Gladwell, whom I wrote about recently.

Gladwell is as fascinating as a speaker as he is as a writer. I think part of that has to do with the fact that he looks like a Saturday Night Live character, or a human version of a muppet.

Eddie Muphy's Buckwheat meets Jimmy Fallon's IT guy.

His topic deals with why so often the wrong people are hired for the job, from teachers to policemen to presidents of the United States. It's much more interesting than it sounds so go check it out at the link above if you have some time over lunch.

tagged: The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell, Saturday Night Live

YouTube Tuesday: Toast to Hillary

The presidential campaign of the last two years really has me worn out. I still haven't decided which of the three democrats still in the race (Obama, Clinton and McCain) I could vote for.

It seems like the Democratic party, in it's quest to squelch democracy, is really putting the pressure on Hillary to drop out of the race. Evidently according to the Party Bosses, the gajillions of people who support Clinton don't really deserve to have their votes counted.

Be that as it may, I've been enjoying the Naked Campaign series from The New Yorker illustrator Steve Brodner. In his latest webisode, he toasts Hillary's campaign...



tagged: movie, YouTube, video, politics, campaign, Hillary Clinton, Naked Campaign, democrats

RE: Your Brains

Props to Zach for snagging some horrific pictures of the Kansas City Zombie Walk in Westport.

Go check out the ghouly images. It's yet another example of local bloggers breaking important news stories that the mainstream media are afraid to cover.

Also, in honor of the event, here's another apropos song by Jonathan Coulton...


tagged: Kansas City, Wetport, zombie, brains, Jonathan Coulton

HEADLINES: This week's tough SOB award goes to...

You remember that story from last year about the Florida guy who fought off a bobcat with his bare hands. Yeah, that d00d was one tough SOB.

This week, we met another tough old SOB, Steve Wilder of Omaha, Neb.

Wilder awoke a few nights ago to find that his throat had swollen shut and he was unable to breath.

What to do? Call 911 and die while waiting for an ambulance to show up too late? No thanks. How about give yourself a tracheotomy with a FREAKIN' STEAK KNIFE!!!

"Got a knife and located it and pushed in and blood went gush.” Blood was gushing out, but air was gushing in. Wilder was successful at performing a self-tracheotomy. "I think I closed my eyes, but fear or something took over. I didn't feel no pain or nothing."

Surgeons train for years to do what took Wilder only moments, though it wasn’t an entirely new experience. He had throat cancer several years ago, which is where his breathing problems originated. The same thing happened some years back, so he grabbed a steak knife and went to work.

Dayum! Makes my self-ingrown toenail-otomy look kind of wussy by comparison.

Look for a story link similar to this to show up on ER or Grey's Anatomy in the next few weeks.

tagged: headlines, news, tracheotomy, steak knife, Steve Wilder, surgery

Friday Blogthing: Sometimes you feel like a nut

Sometimes you fee like three nuts, right The D?

You Are a Cashew

You are laid back, friendly, and easy going. Compared to most people, you have a very mild temperament. You blend in well. You're often the last person to get noticed. But whenever you're gone, people seem to notice right away!

What Nut Are You?

tagged: Friday, blogthing, nut, cashew, quiz, blog, meme

And to wash it down...

Mad props to Chimpotle for hepping me to the latest fast food artery clogger, the 60-slice bacon cheeseburger.

But after ordering a cheeseburger with 60-slices of bacon, it seems silly to wash it down with a plain old soda. If only there was something more appropriate.

Hmmm... Oh yeah!

MEATWater!!!

It's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes!

tagged: bacon, meat, water, food, health

Book Report: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Title: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Synopsis:
Blink is a non-fiction essay about the ability of the human mind to make highly accurate snap judgments, the process by which we make these kinds of judgments and pitfalls and dangers that can occur when we don't realize what influences this kind of decision making.

My thoughts:
This book was highly recommended to me by many people. Several of my managers at work are Gladwell disciples and have also recommended his earlier work The Tipping Point.

There are also some pretty smart bloggers out there who recommended Blink as well as one of my favorite football coaches.

So why all of the acclaim? Well, for one thing this is a really well written piece of non-fiction. Gladwell covers several case studies where split second decision making has been successful and where it has led horrible, tragic mistakes.

Case studies run the gamut from marriage to military games (not much difference there, right?) and from fine art to speed dating.

Gladwelll introduces fancy terms like "rapid cognition" and "thin slicing" that and explains them in a clear and entertaining way.

There is also a fascinating discussion of facial expressions, or rather the various component parts of facial expressions made up by the various individual movements of facial muscles.

Microexpressions, as they are called, can involuntarily reveal a glimpse of a person's true emotional state to the trained observer.

And interestingly, just as emotional states cause these involuntary facial movements, voluntarily producing certain facial movement can influence one's emotional state. It's a two way street.

Gladwell's writing style is conversational and easy to read, a reflection no doubt of his time in the newspaper world.

It's a fast 320-page read and the insights into how our minds work (or don't work, in some cases) makes it well worth your time.

Rating: Recommended

Note: Read additional 3AM Book Reviews here.

tagged: books, literature, Malcolm Gladwell, Blink, thin slicing, rapid cognition, microexpression

The Man and the moon

You may have seen the news story trumpeting the new surveillance video cameras recently installed in some areas of Kansas City, Mo.

According to the story linked above, the police state installed the cameras in part at the request of neighborhood groups.

"So far I've been stopped by two citizens who have thanked me and said they've been praying for these,” said Sergeant Patrick Rauzi, who is overseeing the project. “One gentleman said he owned three different houses in this neighborhood and has been waiting for the cameras. He couldn't thank me enough."

I wonder if these potentially hypothetical neighborhood groups had really thought through what they were requesting.

Now I'm all for police patrols. Increase the frequency of cops on the beat if you must. Absolutely demand that when there is a call for help, help arrives within a reasonable amount of time.

But inviting the police to spy on you in your neighborhood seems a like another step toward the pre-crime world of the Minority Report. You're essentially giving the "authorities" the right to watch you without first getting a warrant.

And I know there's an argument that people who aren't doing anything wrong shouldn't worry. If your not breaking the law, you shouldn't be concerned, right?

Not so fast my friend.

According to one of my many inside sources* police abuse of this type of surveillance is already happening.

Police in Northumberland, Great Britain, are trying to track down a man who took a crack at sharing his deepest feelings about unwarranted government invasion of privacy.

A front seat car passenger was photographed baring his backside at a speed camera in Northumberland.

The "mooning" man was snapped by the mobile camera as the black BMW X5 drove past on the A1171 Dudley Lane in Cramlington last month.

His behaviour has been labelled as "dangerous and offensive" by road safety campaigners.

Police may take action against the man for public order offences and not wearing a seat belt.

Officers have the registration of the car, which was not breaking the speed limit, and intend to contact its owner.

So there you have it. The jack-booted thugs are just waiting to bust you for daring to speak you mind.

Well, I say KCMO shouldn't stand for this. I hereby call on all freedom-loving Kansas Citians to moon these surveillance cameras in the downtown entertainment district and wherever else you see them.

Show the police state where they can put their cameras!


*© Greg Beck at Death's Door

tagged: surveillance, spy, cameras, police, moon, privacy, freedom

YouTube Tuesday: Oh boy, the show on next is Barnaby Jones

Remember back in the day when the first CSI teevee series came out?

I'm not talking about CSI: New York, or CSI: Miami, or even CSI. I'm not even referring to Medical Investigation or Crossing Jordan or House.

The first time these shows were on teevee, it was called Quincy (or Quincy, M.E. for you purists) and Jack Klugman had more acting chops in his receding hairline than David Caruso has in his entire pint-sized, dramatic-sunglasses-taking-off body.

Take a trip with me now down amnesia lane to those golden days of yesteryear when television shows had cool theme songs.



tagged: movie, YouTube, video, television, TV, humor, CSI, Quincy

Random Photo XI: Grand Canal (in miniature)

I was trying out a tilt-shift Photoshop technique that I recently read about. I chose a picture from our trip to Italy a few years ago.

Click to enlargify...

Venice, Grand Canal, 2001

What do you think?

tagged: Venice, Italy, Grand Canal, photo, Photoshop, picture, tilt shift technique