Raw Meat

Jun
10th

Tue

Down the hall was Ithiel de Sola Pool, who periodically would disappear from campus, taking trips to Vietnam to help interrogate prisoners as part of the Phoenix Program assassination campaign to wipe out local resistance.

— Remembering Tomorrow, ch. 9

Jun
7th

Sat

For a person with an iron constitution, a large fortune and a good lawyer, present0oriented desires could well be rational, but for those with fewer opportunities some concern for the future is needed.

— Jon Elster, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences, 39

May
26th

Mon

YES, we do sell MANGA!

— sign at Shakespeare & Co. (how far we’ve fallen…)

May
19th

Mon

My ex-wife left me for her WoW guild leader.

— Internet commenter

Apr
15th

Tue

The idea was not as well received by Paul Miller, past president of the American League of Lobbyists. […] “I don’t think the way you advocate is to put everything online and say, ‘All right American people, weigh in on that,’ because then what’s next?” Miller asked. “Are we going to let the American people decide our defense policy, our trade policy, our immigration policy?

— Public asked to shape open government bill

Mar
31st

Mon

The manual (which goes by the marvelously obvious and easily-typed name of ExtUtils::MakeMaker, by the way) is of limited help. It recommends solving the problem by travelling to Paterson, NJ, gouging your eyes out with your mom’s jewelry, and then driving over the Passaic River falls. Ha ha, just kidding. That would be a big improvement on what it actually suggests, for three reasons. First, it is clear and straightforward. Second, it would feel better than the stuff it does suggest. And third, it would actually solve your problem, although obliquely.

— Mark Jason Dominus, Suffering from “make install”

Mar
16th

Sun

The problem with studying social science these days is that psychology is lies, economics is damn lies, and sociology is statistics.

Mar
11th

Tue

I’ll tell you what makes me uncomfortable: When I forget the words to the song I’m trying to sing and someone else [in the audience] is singing along to it and they’re getting it right. That definitely makes me feel bad.

— John Linnell

Mar
10th

Mon

i thought the staff actedlike douches towards me b/c i have shampooed hair, looser jeans than my girlfriend, and lacked a tongue ring, but it looks like they treat everyone like their doing a favor by serving us a slice of pizza…hey guys it’s not our fault you’re 3o somthing year old pot heads stuck in a dead end job, so serve the slice and leave the attitude for mom and dad when you call to ask for more cash to pay the rent

— Yahoo Local review of local pizza joint

Dec
21st

Fri

In the immortal words of Dr. Johnson, “Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent: deliberation, which those who begin it by prudence, and continue it with subtlety, must, after long expence of thought, conclude by chance. To prefer one future mode of life to another, upon just reasons, requires faculties which it has not pleased our Creator to give us.”[^15]

[^15]: I might, however, “conclude by chance” and then invent the “just reasons,” for instance, by giving greater weight to the attributes on which the chosen option is clearly superior. This can have undesirable consequences. Suppose I have the choice between going to law school and going to frestry school. Being unable to make a reason-based choice, I go to law school more or less by chance and justify the decision retrospectively by giving more weight ot the income dimension of the two careers. With these newly induced preferences, I might go on to make other decisions that differ from those I would have made on the basis of my pre-choice preferences.

— Jon Elster, Explaining Social Behavior, 208