2010 in Review

High points of the year from a personal perspective:

1. Taught a freshman biology course at the local community college. Nice to get back into it, hope I did more good than harm. Two thirds of the students would recommend that others take the course, which I'm told is a stellar review, so that's something.
2. Spent the second half of the year as Chief Marketing Officer of a startup software company.
3. Traveled a lot for business: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Miami, Toronto, Detroit, Toledo, Munich, Nuremberg. Narrowly avoided being groped & scoped by the TSA.
4. Recovered some of my long lost German language skills, although the Germans are speaking more English than ever before, about as much as the Dutch were speaking 20 years ago. The Dutch are now almost universally perfectly bilingual.
5. Met lots of interesting people, and have several prospects for new customers, clients and friends for the coming year.

Quote of the Day

I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty."

-Lily Bollinger

on champagne

The Books of 2010

1. Steven Brust—Iorich
2. Robert Skidelsky—Keynes: Return of the Master
3. Neil Gaiman—Violent Cases
4. Gregory Maguire—Making Mischief: a Maurice Sendak Appreciation
5. Malcolm Gladwell—What the Dog Saw
6. Richard Kadrey—Sandman Slim
7. Richard Holmes—The Age of Wonder
8. Robert Crais—The First Rule
9. Colum McCann—Let the Great World Spin
10. Matthew B. Crawford—Shop Class as Soulcraft
11. Larry McMurtry—Literary Life
12. Vaclav Havel—To the Castle and Back
13. Sam Sheridan—The Fighter’s Mind
14. Patti Smith—Just Kids
15. Josh Waitzkin—The Art of Learning
16. Mark Lamster—Master of Shadows: The Secret Diplomatic Career of the Painter Peter Paul Rubens
17. Chandler Burr—You or Someone Like You (reread)
18. Chandler Burr—The Emperor of Scent (reread)
19. Gary Rogowski—The Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery
20. Gregoire Bouillier—The Mystery Guest
21. Michael Pollan—A Place of My Own
22. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro—Burning Shadows
23. John Greenlee & Saxon Holt—The American Meadow Garden
24. Samuel R Delany—Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand
25. Stewart Copeland—Strange Things Happen: a Life with the Police, Polo and Pygmies
26. Robert & Cortney Novogratz—Downtown Chic
27. Jim Butcher—Changes
28. Samuel R. Delany—Dhalgren
29. Ellen Bass—The Human Line
30. Nassim Nicholas Taleb—“On Robustness and Fragility”
31. Luca Invernizzi—Ultimate Tropical
32. Alberto Manguel—A Reading Diary
33. Lee Child—61 Hours
34. Peter Greenaway—Prospero’s Books
35. Alberto Manguel—A History of Reading
36. Stieg Larsson—The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
37. Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson—ReWork
38. Jane Lindskold—Nine Gates
39. Michael Pollan—Second Nature
40. Cathryn M. Valente—This is My Letter to the World: the Omikuji Project Year 1
41. Joseph Campbell—The Hero’s Journey
42. Ozzy Osbourne—I am Ozzy
43. Bret Easton Ellis—Imperial Bedrooms
44. Bob Hicok—Words for Empty and Words for Full
45. Elizabeth Gilbert—Eat, Pray, Love
46. Andre Aciman—Call Me by Your Name
47. Nicholas Basbanes—Editions & Impressions
48. David Lipsky—Although of Course you End up Becoming Yourself (A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace)
49. Josh Kilmer-Purcell—Bucolic Plague
50. Josh Kilmer-Purcell—I am not Myself Right Now
51. China Mieville—Kraken
52. Paul Graham—Hackers & Painters
53. Neal Pollack—Stretch
54. Neal Pollack—Alternadad
55. Lawrence & Nancy Goldstein—The Friar and the Cipher
56. William Gibson—Zero History
57. Glen Cook—An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat
58. Garr Reynolds—Presentation Zen
59. Alex Ross—Listen to This
60. Alice McMaster Bujold—Cryoburn
61. Lee Child—Worth Dying For
62. Steven Johnson—Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
63. Jim Butcher—Side Jobs
64. Glen Cook—Gilded Latten Bones
65. Ricky Martin—Me
66. Jay Lake—Pinion
67. Joshua Braff—Peep Show
68. John McPhee—Conversations with the Archdruid
69. Eric Chase Anderson—Chuck Dugan is AWOL
70. Kathe Koja—Under the Poppy
71. Lev Grossman—The Magicians (reread)
72. GD Trudeau—40: A Doonesbury Retrospective
73. Patrick Hennessey—The Junior Officers’ Reading Club

The Year in Reading 2010

Notable books, or a Best Of list, though not all of these were necessarily published this year, out of the 70-odd books newly read over the past twelve months:

Bookending the year in reading, Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, which revolved around Philip Petit's tightrope walk across the World Trade Centers and a group of finely drawn characters kicked off the year that ended with Kathe Koja's excellent Under the Poppy.

The next group consists of memoirs by rock stars: Ozzy Osbourne's I Am Ozzy, Stewart Copeland's Strange Things Happen: a Life with the Police, Polo and Pygmies, Ricky Martin's Me, and the best of the group, Patti Smith's Just Kids, about her early life in New York and her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. What comes through more than anything is the sweetness and innocence of this part of their lives, and possibly of life in general at the start of the 70's. This was the best non-fiction read of the year.

William Gibson's Zero History was the fiction read of the year. The conclusion of the Pattern Recognition or Blue Ant trilogy, ZH takes the techniques of science fiction and applies them to the immediate past in the context of a search for clothing and designers with very unusual properties. I want me some Gabriel Hounds.

Another great discovery was to flash back to the past with some Samuel R Delany: Dhalgren and Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand are the kind of high grade science fiction that seemed to peak in the late 60's. Disorientation through language and imagery, fiercely drawn characters and invetive worlds to explore. That's the stuff.

Quote of the Day

“People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.”

— Bob Dylan

The river is story, it goes on.

Greer Gilman's parting tale for and about her mother, recently passed.

Elegy for Geek Culture

Patton Oswalt on the death (and inevitable Jean Gray-like resurrection) of geek culture. He hits the high notes of 80's haut-nerd life, and then spirals into a glorious fantasia of otaku:

Since there’s no going back—no reverse on the out-of-control locomotive we’ve created—we’ve got to dump nitro into the engines. We need to get serious, and I’m here to outline my own personal fantasy: We start with lists of the best lists of boobs. Every Beatles song, along with every alternate take, along with every cover version of every one of their songs and every alternate take of every cover version, all on your chewing-gum-sized iPod nano. Goonies vs. Saw. Every book on your Kindle. Every book on Kindle on every Kindle. The Human Centipede done with the cast of The Hills and directed by the Coen brothers.

Possibly the best essay of the year.

Endless Divers

(via boingboing)

Links for Later

1. 100 verses of A Bang on the Ear

2. Mixergy interview with AngelList's Nivi

3. So long, PayGo

4. Bon Iver plays Peter Gabriel's Come Talk to Me. Kelly Deal sez: "YOU PEOPLE AND YOUR GODDAMN BON IVER, I SWEAR TO GOD."

5. A Guide to the Market Oligopoly System (Economic art)

Krugman Critiques Obama

Part of an ongoing series. Paul Krugman is (rightly) angry at how Obama has misplayed his hand over the past two years, leading to needless Democratic losses and hard won accomplishments that could have been more easily, rapidly and frequently won.

Links for Later

1. Molecular biology of the phylotypic bottleneck. More here.

2. Last night, The Invisibles saved my life. (via linkmachinego)

3. A response to Bruce Sterling's Wikileaks/Bradley Manning/Julian Assange piece, "The Blast Shack"

The Future Is Now, Vol. LXXXIV: Village Greens

The Peace Corps reports on the growth of green power generation among remote villages, including solar, water, biofuel and wind generators that power hyperefficient lighting and other low-wattage, high-value appliances.

White Wine in the Sun

Tim Minchin



(via Neil)

Christmas Wars and Pagan Trees

Obsidian Wings traces the DNA of modern Christmas, by way of Washington crossing the Delaware and a lot of pagan celebrations:

To have a green tree in the house, filled with light, in the darkest and coldest time of year, as we feel the year turn from old to new -- how can that not be numinous? When we decorate with green branches and red berries, this isn't from Christian iconography --

"I remember hearing," said Susan distantly, "that the idea of the Hogfather wearing a red and white outfit was invented quite recently."

NO. IT WAS REMEMBERED.

(from Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett).

The rising of the sun and the running of the deer, seeing our families and having enough to eat: all of these things are worth celebrating. Such celebrations don't have to be either secular or religious, in the usual sense: they are pagan in the sense of "rustic, countrified, what the common people do". Human, in other words.

So we do have a Yule Tree in our house, and at its top is the sun

Links for Later

1. David Foster Wallace and the philosophical perspective

2. W G Sebald

3. Paris flea market

4. Barack Obama on the DADT win

5. They're made out of data

Bam, Pow

Of course Seattle has superheroes. Why do you ask?

Links for Later

1. The insanity of secession

2. Josh Stieber: from enlistee to conscientous objector to blogger

3. Amazing camera tricks with DIY methods

4. JQuery Sparkline app

5. A gay soldier's letter before leaving for Afghanistan

Khameleon808

More from the editor of the Apple Tree compilation video

Rerezzed (Tron/Glitch Mob remix)

Digital Nativity

Nicholas Was...

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

A new adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short short story.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Happy Birthday, Bill

The late, great Bill Hicks would have been 49 today.

Happy Birthday, Bill

The late, great Bill Hicks would have been 49 today.

Links for Later

1. Stem cell cure for baldness in 5 years

2. Borromean rings as a foundation for new forms of matter

3. Talking about spycraft with Jeff Stein: "I hope this spawns more Wikileaks."

4. Anybody with the time on their hands to write a 43-page dress code should be fired

5. How to write like an undergraduate male.

xkcd: Dammit, Julian

Bradley Manning

How long can a prisoner be kept in solitary confinement without their brains turning to jelly? The US is trying to find out the answer to this question using Wikileaks enabler Bradley Manning as a guinea pig. He's been kept isolated 23 hours a day in the US Marines brig in Virginia. No charges have yet been filed. What's going on in there? Glen Greenwald has some answers.

Time Now and Passing

Boys on the East Side insist on hanging to every passing sleigh, and if the owners protest, volleys of abuse are hurled after them.PA1878

-@Tweetsofold

This news item makes me melancholy, as it drives home the moment captured here so vividly happened 132 years ago. Everyone in the passing sleighs, the boys hanging on the sides, the writer of the piece, and everyone who knew them is dead and gone long ago. The sleighs themselves, for that matter, are long gone to dust, and maybe the streets where this happened.

The Year in Film 2010

15 Year Old Tells Establishment to Stick It

After the student protests last week in the UK.



(via Dangerous Minds)

Links for Later

1. The ghost town at Cairo, IL

2. Using GPUs for matrix calculation

The Tax Deal

How did he go from being Mr. Hope and Change to being as tough as a wet doily? As Anthony Weiner pointed out yesterday, liberals don't wish he was more ideological, rather that he was more of a pragmatist. The White House doesn't seem to grasp the fact that they're in a fight, whether they like it or not.

What a shameful performance on the part of the President. Absolutely disgraceful.

Cut The Tax Cuts

What Krugman said.

Not Such Wicked Leaks

Umberto Eco in Presseurop on the Wikileaks "scandal": it's a fake scandal filled with empty secrets, and the biggest scandal is that the secrets are empty.

But let’s turn to the more profound significance of what has occurred. Formerly, back in the days of Orwell, every power could be conceived of as a Big Brother watching over its subjects’ every move. The Orwellian prophecy came completely true once the powers that be could monitor every phone call made by the citizen, every hotel he stayed in, every toll road he took and so on and so forth. The citizen became the total victim of the watchful eye of the state. But when it transpires, as it has now, that even the crypts of state secrets are not beyond the hacker’s grasp, the surveillance ceases to work only one-way and becomes circular. The state has its eye on every citizen, but every citizen, or at least every hacker – the citizens’ self-appointed avenger – can pry into the state’s every secret.

How can a power hold up if it can’t even keep its own secrets anymore? It is true, as Georg Simmel once remarked, that a real secret is an empty secret (which can never be unearthed); it is also true that anything known about Berlusconi or Merkel’s character is essentially an empty secret, a secret without a secret, because it’s public domain. But to actually reveal, as WikiLeaks has done, that Hillary Clinton’s secrets were empty secrets amounts to taking away all her power. WikiLeaks didn’t do any harm to Sarkozy or Merkel, but did irreparable damage to Clinton and Obama.

Sweet Dreams

(are made of shamisen) Awesome.

(via Siege)

NASA Discovers Arsenic-Based Life on Earth

Today, NASA announced the discovery of a life form that has arsenic instead of phosphates in its genetic backbone. This is the most biochemically remote lifeform found to date on Earth.

Update: Or maybe not