I am thoroughly enjoying Angus and Julia Stone’s Down the Way at the moment. Its great music to write to, and the Dire Straitesque, or Knopfleresque, guitar solos are an interesting mix with their folky ennui. It looks like Mumford and Sons were a slippery slope into folk.
Here are a few of their songs if you’re uninitiated.
And a couple of nice live versions to finish:
Here’s a hint. If you’re an ex-professional sports star, particularly an incredibly well paid member of one of the most lucrative sports in the world, say the NBA, and you’ve made millions from being an oversized white, anglo-saxon, possibly protestant male – that doesn’t entitle you to claim minority status if you’re in the running to be governor of your state. Being tall also doesn’t qualify you for “minority” status in a way that helps you empathise with the marginalised and downtrodden.
“When Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Dudley addressed the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs’ monthly “Coffee & Issues” breakfast on Sept. 24, he reprised a comment he’d made at an earlier interview with the Urban League of Portland.
“I heard him say he ‘understood what it was like to be a minority because he had played in the NBA.”
Yeah, even if he meant it as a joke it’s a pretty stupid joke to be making when you’re running for office. Basically, if what you say as a joke kicks up a media controversy and turns significant portions of the community against you, it’s a campaign no go zone.
Especially if your “minority” is one that millions strive to become and never achieve rather than being a quirk of your birth (though being ridiculously tall probably falls in that category).
No, I’m not exploring my creative side by doing one of those drawings where you get those little coloured plastic cogs, and a pen, and swirl them around a page. That diagram is the result of careful mathematical study of the geometry of baseball, it represents the fastest path around all four bases – useful only if you hit a deep ball that doesn’t go over the fence and you want to run home – it’ll shave milliseconds off your time.
If you are running to first, or between first and second (or second and third, or third and home), which I believe in baseball parlance is a single (what would I know, I’m from Australia, we play cricket) the straight line is no doubt still the best bet. This circuitous route shaves about 25% off the time taken for the run – because turning sharp angles slows runners down substantially.
Some quotes from the story:
The issue is that turns slow runners down. The tighter the turn, the greater the slowdown, so while the straight-line path between the bases is the shortest, its sharp corners make it one of the slowest. Rounding the corner is faster, making the path a bit longer in favor of an efficient turn. And indeed, baseball players typically do this: They run straight along the baseline at the beginning and then, if they think they’ve hit a double or more, they bow out to make a “banana curve.”
But this can’t possibly be the quickest route, observes Davide Carozza, a math teacher at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., who studied the problem while was an undergraduate at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. It’d be faster, he reasons, to veer right from the beginning, running directly from the batter’s box to the widest portion of the curve. Of course, a runner is best off running straight toward first base until he’s certain he’s hit more than a single. But Carozza noticed that even when the ball heads straight for a pocket between fielders, making a double almost certain, runners almost never curve out right away.”
One of Carozza’s colleagues, Stewart Johnson, optimised the path by computer (coming up with that diagram).
“The result was surprisingly close to a circle, both in its shape and its speed: It swung nearly as wide and was only 6 percent faster than Carozza’s circle. On this path, a runner would start running 25 degrees to the right of the baseline — toward the dugout rather than toward first base — and then swing wide around second and third base before running nearly straight to home. Johnson also computed the best path for a double, and it swings nearly as wide, venturing 14 feet from the baseline.”
Augustine quotes a couple of his friends use of the majestic voice (a style of public speaking that appeals to the emotions) on the subject of women wearing make up. Here’s a hint. They don’t like it.
On the insult make up does to God’s artwork
“Suppose a painter should depict in colors that rival nature’s the features and form and complexion of some man, and that, when the portrait had been finished with consummate art, another painter should put his hand over it, as if to improve by his superior skill the painting already completed; surely the first artist would feel deeply insulted, and his indignation would be justly roused. Dost thou, then, think that thou wilt carry off with impunity so audacious an act of wickedness, such an insult to God the great artificer? For, granting that thou art not immodest in thy behavior towards men, and that thou art not polluted in mind by these meretricious deceits, yet, in corrupting and violating what is God’s, thou provest thyself worse than an adulteress. The fact that thou considerest thyself adorned and beautified by such arts is an impeachment of God’s handiwork, and a violation of truth.”
On Hair Dye
“Thy Lord says, ‘Thou canst not make one hair white or black;’ and dost thou wish to have greater power so as to bring to nought the words of thy Lord? With rash and sacrilegious hand thou wouldst fain change the color of thy hair: I would that, with a prophetic look to the future, thou shouldst dye it the color of flame.”
On wearing make up being worse than adultery
“Hence arise these incentives to vice, that women, in their fear that they may not prove attractive to men, paint their faces with carefully-chosen colors, and then from stains on their features go on to stains on their chastity. What folly it is to change the features of nature into those of painting, and from fear of incurring their husband’s disapproval, to proclaim openly that they have incurred their own! For the woman who desires to alter her natural appearance pronounces condemnation on herself; and her eager endeavors to please another prove that she has first been displeasing to herself. And what testimony to thine ugliness can we find, O woman, that is more unquestionable than thine own, when thou art afraid to show thyself? If thou art comely why dost thou hide thy comeliness? If thou art plain, why dost thou lyingly pretend to be beautiful, when thou canst not enjoy the pleasure of the lie either in thine own consciousness or in that of another? For he loves another woman, thou desirest to please another man; and thou art angry if he love another, though he is taught adultery in thee. Thou art the evil promptress of thine own injury. For even the woman who has been the victim of a pander shrinks from acting the pander’s part, and though she be vile, it is herself she sins against and not another. The crime of adultery is almost more tolerable than thine; for adultery tampers with modesty, but thou with nature.”
“Now of all who can with us enjoy God, we love partly those to whom we render services, partly those who render services to us, partly those who both help us in our need and in turn are helped by us, partly those upon whom we confer no advantage and from whom we look for none. We ought to desire, however, that they should all join with us in loving God, and all the assistance that we either, give them or accept from them should tend to that one end.“
I was thinking something along these lines the other day – one of the problems I have with a particular school of thought that says Christians should be doing good deeds for the sake of bringing order to God’s creation as we look forward to the new creation is that I think we actually do good deeds as a means to a different end – and I think this other view is guilty of a category error where a means becomes and end. I like what Augustine says here. And I think it fits with John 13:35 (and myriad other passages):
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
I did it. Hooray. Seven posts ago now. Sorry. I was so busy procrastinblogging that I missed the milestone. From the early days (launched some four years and six months ago) on blogger as nathanintownsville to this wordpress.org powered “St. Eutychus” multi-polar iteration spamming RSS readers all over the world with whatever I find, this blog has been a blast.
How does one mark such an occasion? I could do a K-Rudd and let you all know that I’m “proud of the fact…” I could do a “best of release”… I could urge you to search the archives instead (maybe start with the tagcloud at the bottom of the page). I could launch a week of festivities. I could hold a Roman triumph, walking the streets while tossing handfuls of coins bearing my image, and the blog’s logo. And of course, I could offer a series of thank-yous to those who have undertaken the journey with me, I’d like to thank God, my wife, and you, humble readers… but that would be cliched. I could ask you to pause, and reflect with me, what it actually means that I’ve written 4,000 posts. That’s bigger than a novel. If you printed out my blog it would use hundreds of pages, it’d probably kill a tree. Wow.
If each took post took an average of 5 minutes to write (ignoring research and commenting and the like) that works out at 333 hours of my life, or almost 14 full days.
Or I could just post something to mark the milestone, and get back on with the job of reading the Internet so you don’t have to.
Some ideas seem really good at the time. Be the mayor. Take an employee, dress them up like a salad ingredient, and leapfrog them into the headlines courtesy of a colourful photo op. But then disaster. You have forgotten your inability to leap high enough. And you kick the unsuspecting staff member in the head and it costs you a lot of money. Sadly the whole incident is captured in photographic brilliance for the world to laugh at.
“Jim Rodgers accidentally kicked Belfast City Council employee Lorraine Mallon in the head in a publicity stunt that went spectacularly wrong. Ms Mallon, who was dressed up as the huge fruit for a photo shoot to promote a gourmet food fair, suffered a slipped disc in the ill-fated leap.
She brought a negligence case against the council and a settlement was reached this week in Belfast High Court.
She has been paid £24,021.75 with the council also agreeing to cover the cost of the action.
Egged on by press photographers, Mr Rodgers tried to jump over her but he slipped on wet grass on his run up and ended up kneeing her in the back of the head.”
Ouch. The second bad PR stunt comes courtesy of a PR company in Singapore who thought it would be fun to dress somebody up as a bear and have them hang out at a bus stop. Late at night. Only, their bear costume was a little bit too realistic. Prompting panic, and zookeepers prowling around with tranquilliser guns. Prompting a little trouble, and the release of this statement.
“We had anticipated the attention that the bear will draw but did not anticipate that it would cause any alarm. We acknowledge the too-near resemblance of the mascot to a live bear in the bus-stop video.”
“In retrospect, perhaps we should have made the bear do something more obvious like a dance at the bus-stop to ensure that consumers knew that this was a humorous stunt. We sincerely apologize for any concerns raised and inconvenience caused.”
For the record, the initial sighting of the supposed bear at the bus-stop was one of many appearances planned.“We had also intended for the bear to make humorous and tongue-in-cheek escorted, mascot appearances in place of high traffic such as participating in marathons and queuing at hawker centers to buy food etc. Later on, we would form a close link between the bear and the shaver.”
These plans however have been shelved.
The seemingly innocent campaign is now being investigated by the police and may be classified as a public nuisance case, which under Section 268 of the Penal Code could lead to a fine of S$1,000.
The third comes courtesy of an Orange County band called Imperial Stars who thought parking a truck in the middle of the highway was a good way to promote a new song called Traffic Jam. And it was. Because you’re reading about it now. They stopped, climbed on top of the truck and serenaded traffic for about twenty minutes. Things were going well. Until:
“The freeway musicians didn’t have more than about 20 minutes to perform before they were swarmed by Los Angeles Police Department officers, followed by California Highway Patrol officers and Fire Department personnel. The driver of the truck apparently fled the scene with the keys, so the CHP had to call in a tow truck.
A ladder was propped against the band’s truck so the musicians could climb down. Northbound motorists crawling up the freeway gawked at the spectacle on the opposite side. A driver in a pickup waved cheerily as he drove by.
The band members were arrested on suspicion of a medley of criminal counts — malicious and willful disturbance by loud noise, willful obstruction of public officers or emergency medical personnel, committing an act injuring the public health, and the old standby, unlawful assembly.”
If your PR stunt gets you a fine, or prison time, you’re probably not doing it right.
Helvetica is a nice font. Did you know that Arial is basically a plagiarised version of Helvetica? Perhaps not. But here’s an ad for Helvetica from Flickr.
Quite a bit of cash if you manage to secure one that is short, punchy, and in demand.
Here’s an article about the recent sale of the most expensive domain in that infographic.
If you love data visualisations like I do, then this website may waste your valuable time. Many Eyes allows you to make data visualisations from your own data, or from datasets uploaded by others.
It’s fun and informative. Here’s one I made about coffee exports. It took thirty seconds.
I haven’t watched this yet – but it promises to be pretty interesting and I’d like to be able to find it easily.
Staying edgy when you’re already out on the edge as the “caped crusader” is pretty tough. Here’s a chart of Batman’s attempts at “relevance” or “contextualisation.” Who says you shouldn’t change your logo with the times… (other than Superman).
Here’s a video identifying when and what versions led to the changes.
Via FlowingData.
Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you. For, suppose that you had a great deal of some commodity, and felt bound to give it away to somebody who had none, and that it could not be given to more than one person; if two persons presented themselves, neither of whom had either from need or relationship a greater claim upon you than the other you could do nothing fairer than to choose by lot to which you would give to both. Just so among men: since you cannot consult for the good of them all you must take the matter as decided for you by a sort of lot, according as each man happens for the time being to be more closely connected with you… – Augustine, On Christian Teaching
What would church ministry based on this model look like? Is this a good way to think? Thoughts? Responses?
