Recent blog posts by Michael Schaffer and Hendrik Herzberg nicely characterise the feeling of futility provoked by trying to track and understand all of the variables involved in the ongoing US election. It is very difficult to get a sense both of political events, and of the media and popular reactions to those events. [...]
The pastor whose prayer Sarah Palin says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witchhunt against a Kenyan woman who he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells.
Hannah Strange, “Palin linked electoral success to prayer of Kenyan witchhunter”, in Times Online, 16 September 2008.
“And face it—McCain and Weaver were [...]
Paul Doyle, “Chelsea’s potency uninterrupted by limp Bordeaux”, in The Guardian, 17 September 2008.
In 1677, the most unpopular law of the old customary code was finally abolished in France. Congrès was defined by the Frutière dictionary as: “the practice of coitus ordered by decree of an ecclesiastical judge, performed in the presence of surgeons and [...]
My friend Tyler is starting a new radio show and you should all listen to it, as his blurb makes absolutely clear:
This show features a combination of field recordings and experimental sound art (Glenn Gould, John Cage, Janet Cardiff, Max Neuhaus), home-recorded folk and pop songs (Charlie Mcalister, Simon Joyner, Wio), as well as [...]
One of the very nice perks of working right up the stairs from Open Letter Books—I have just got my hands on a dog-eared advance reader’s copy of 2666.
Nathan W. Bailey, “Love will tear you apart: different components of female choice exert contrasting selection pressures on male field crickets”, in Behavioral Ecology, Vol. 19, No. 5, September-October 2008, pp. 960–966. [URI]
Lay Summary
Theory predicts that exaggerated male ornaments can evolve through the action of female choice for those ornaments. Female choice consists of the [...]