res ipsa loquitur

Jul
13th

Sun

RDJ plays Sherlock Wow, can’t wait for this!

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Jun
16th

Mon

Let’s dance to Joy Division and celebrate the irony. Everything is going wrong but we’re so happy.

— The Wombats (di ba parang theme song ‘to ng Pilipinas? ahahahah!)

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Jun
10th

Tue

Shatner on James T. Kirk “That was a good hero,” Shatner says. “He made decisions. He was forceful. He was compassionate. He was the instigator. He fought hard and long physically and emotionally. He carried the dilemma of whether to intrude or not to intrude. It was all the classic forms of good Greek playmaking: The hero has the dilemma and resolves the dilemma.”

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Live life like you’re gonna die, because you’re gonna.

— William Shatner

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The Pleasure of Being William Shatner

Things William Alan Shatner has done that you haven’t:

Released a live lemur from a baby carriage to help three women book cheaper travel online.
Broken up a road-rage argument on a Los Angeles street on his way to the Academy Awards.
Portrayed himself as a pickled severed head in “Futurama.”
Lent his face to psychopath Michael Myers of the original “Halloween,” whose producers bought a Captain Kirk mask and painted it white.
Cracked a fart joke in a “Star Trek” movie.
Simulated copulation with a Candice Bergen doll on prime-time network TV.

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Jun
5th

Thu

Bishop T.D. Jakes congratulates Sen. Obama “For me it was almost déjà vu as I sat with my son. I remembered a little over 40 years ago watching the famous King speech with my dad. Similarly, I watched with my youngest son last night as a historical moment unfolded. He and I saw the dreams of slaves come true as the sons of slaves and the slave owners clapped their hands in one progressive sweep.”

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Jun
4th

Wed

Scarcity is pervasive. We have to make choices between competing satisfactions, between jam today and jam tomorrow, between conflicting values and goals. Everything has a cost and nothing can be produced without work and sacrifice.

— Thomas Carlyle, paraphrased by Burton Malkiel in his foreword to Naked Economics

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Every calling is great when greatly pursued. But what other gives such scope to realize the spontaneous energy of one's soul? ... What a subject is this in which we are united—this abstraction called the Law, wherein as in a magic mirror we see reflected not only our lives but the lives of all men that have been. When I think on this majestic theme my eyes dazzle. If we are to speak of the law as our mistress, we who are here know that she is to be won with sustained and lonely passion—only to be won by straining all the faculties by which man is likened to God.

Pasukan na! So I’m desperately seeking inspiration from the greats. (Justice Wendy Holmes, in this case.)

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Dashed

T: Guys, tell me I'm not crazy. There are three types of dashes right? The dash, en-dash, and the em-dash? I just got into this big debate with my boss (we were both proofreading some black/white proofs, see) about dashes and I told her there are three kinds of dashes while she maintains there's only two: en-dash (the short dash) and em-dash. I don't have my trusty Strunk&White with me, but I seem to recall that there are three types of dashes. Or am I wrong, and there really are only two, and the shortest isn't really a dash but a hyphen?
G: OK for us non-nerds what the hey is the difference between the three (or two)? Inquiring usyosero minds want to know
C: Yes, there are three—the last one is your garden-variety hyphen, which is different from your en and em dashes
J: Ah, C beat me to it. Some people call the hyphen a "dash" (and use a "double dash" when they want to use an em-dash but don’t know how to do it) so that makes three "dashes." Technically, though, it's just the hyphen, the en-dash, and the em-dash.
X: i'm lazy. http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm

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May
26th

Mon

History admits no rules, only outcomes. What precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts and virtuous acts. What precipitates acts? Belief. Belief is both prize and battlefield, within the mind and in the mind’s mirror, the world.

— The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing in CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell

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In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan’t know until it’s finished, and by then it’ll be too late…

— This is how a character (R.F.) in David Mitchell’s CLOUD ATLAS describes a musical piece he has composed, the Cloud Atlas Sextet, but what he’s really talking about is the novel itself—yes, the one in which he appears as a character. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time—or ever. Language that sparkles paired with brilliant plot technique. I’m gushing, I know, but it’s only because Mitchell is a genius.

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May
20th

Tue

Impunity (CdQ on the RCBC massacre)

From today’s THERE’S THE RUB: “…The direct consequence of constantly lowering the bar of morality or decency is that morality and decency disappear in the end, to be replaced by lack of conscience or compunction. If you can be outraged by outlaws cold-bloodedly executing nine hostages, you have to be outraged by law enforcers dragging Jonas Burgos in the dead of day to a waiting car and making him disappear forever. You have to be outraged by the now hundreds of activists and journalists who have been shot in the head by their captors, many of them wearing uniforms, and buried in shallow graves.

“The people who coined the phrase “culture of impunity” got it completely right. Not just in the word “impunity” but in the word “culture.” Cultures, biological or social, have one definite characteristic:

“They spread.”

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