NYT: Jet Plot Shows Growing Ability of Qaeda Affiliates

When I think about what the Birther movement and the Teabaggers would do with news of a successful terror attack committed on the U.S. by a skinny, African, Al Qaeda operative from Yemen, I get the sads real bad. [Link]

Happy New Year!!
2010!!

Unicorn chaser: The plane was bound for Detroit, so let's all enjoy some very political proto-punk from Death via the Evan "Funk" Davies Show [song | whole playlist ]

Hotel La Rut [Kids In The Hall]

Not all comedy is this timeless.

Autobahn & Kraftwerk: Side By Side

[For all you achievers.]

3 Minutes And 4 Seconds Of Elmo And Celebrity Ricky Gervais

"Patriarchal Omniscience" Or Something

I think if you want (me) to identify a single thread in Tina Fey's work—from creating the long-running SNL parody of the View to writing Mean Girls to helming 30 Rock—it's that she seems to have marshaled her amazing personal disdain for other women into comedy. If you think for a moment about other depictions of misogyny (e.g. In the Company of Men), and compare them to this montage of Jack Donaghy, it's hard to ignore that what makes his statements unique are the fraction of the time that they more resemble the mean things women think about themselves and other women.

It adds to this authoritative, "patriarchal omniscience" aspect to his character—an aspect I recognize as interesting, but shouldn't waste any more time on today.

"9th Annual Year In Ideas," with the Matthew Phelan Taxonomy

The moment all of you opened this year's installment of the New York Times Sunday Magazine's Ideas issue, many of you were curious about why it had not already been organized by the degree to which I found each idea either depressing or uplifting. Get excited; I did* it:

Most Depressing

Infant Sleep Is Destiny :: If your baby's sleep habits are like every stereotype of a baby's sleeping habits you've ever heard, your baby is doomed to lead an unproductive loser-y life.
Predictive Smiles :: Because I don't try to make nice or smile often, all my marriages will end in divorce.
Counterfeit Self, The :: Basically just about any minor deceptive practice you engage in (from lying on your resume to buying knock-off clothes) will snowball until you are basically Tom Ripley.

Most Life Affirming

Treating P.T.S.D. With Tetris :: From a very diluted (but analogous) bit of personal experience, I can tell you that this is true. It's also true of Laplace transforms.
Good Enough is the New Great :: The tech merchandise arms race is coming to a close! Men's magazine gadget ad revenue will need to be replaced.
Drunken Ultimatums :: The revanchist impulse is hard wired into us and I can stop feeling guilty about it.
Myth of the Deficient Older Employee, The :: Creed on the Office is an offensive stereotype—and this new research will keep some of us from getting canned just before retirement, unlike old people today.

* I didn't do them all; I have work I should be doing. Get off me!

A Refreshing Bit Of Sarcasm

Via Defamer:

There is no more personal act in the contemporary society than compiling a Best Of List. Since Congress decreed that people could no longer have personalities and substituted cultural pastiche for humanity, the choices we make in terms of what we put on our year end best lists has said everything about who we are and more importantly, whom we'd like people to think we are.