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The Burning Questions
Fri, 06/24/2005 - 06:21 — deadprogrammer
Here’s a list of questions that popped into my head, but to which I never found good answers on the Information Superhighway: 1) Why are Republican states “red” and Democratic - “blue”? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? 2) Why is it considered to be classy to stick out your pinky when holding a drink? I actually went so far as to consult a couple of good manners books - none actually recommend doing so. But even an intellectually challenged cartoon starfish knows - “when in doubt - pinky out”. 3) What does dubya in JWZ stand for? Is It Walker? 4) What the hell really happened to Baghdad Bob? All I see are rumors that he committed suicide or moronic jokes. Really, what did become of him? |
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What's All this Then?
My name is Michael Krakovskiy, and this is my blog.
Here’s what you might find interesting:
100 Views of the Empire State Building project: I try to take 100 interesting photos of Manhattan’s (sadly) tallest building.
My Gastronomic Adventures: I eat weird food - from 13 year old New Coke to Durian and parasitic fungi.
My attempts to grow exotic plants: pineapples, coconuts, etc.
My photos, mostly of New York City.
My musings about architecture mostly illustrated with my own photos. Would you like to learn about a mental patient who died at 103 who served as a model for some very famous sculptures? How about Brooklyn’s ugliest building? How about a wooden skyscraper?
I find myself frequently writing about logos. The most popular article I ever wrote is about the redesigns of the Starbucks logo.
I wrote a series of “Best Sci-Fi You Haven’t Read” posts:
Psywarrior
Yes, Virginia There Is Synergy
Call Time Police - We’ve Got a Time Traveler
Other topics that interest me include NYPD, New York City subway system, Japan, and things made out of titanium. On top of all of that, I seem to be interested in pigeions and Rupert Murdoch.
Dear reader, please browse around. You are sure to find something interesting. I could really use some help in bringing in readership: subscribe to the rss feed, digg the stories (there’s a convenient button at the bottom of every article), link to my blog from yours, write some comments. I put in a lot of effort into writing, and I really appreciate your attention.
If you don’t want all this pseudo-intellectual and want some lolcats? Please don’t go away. Here, I have that stuff too. Here, here’s another. And another. And another. I lied about not posting cat pictures.
Comments
“Why are Republican states “redâ€? and Democratic - “blueâ€??”
I was going to speculate that David Brinkley’s comment in 1980 wrt Reagan’s victory - “It’s beginning to look like a suburban swimming pool” - had something to do with this, but looking it up to make sure of the veracity of the comment I found that it appears to be .. one of those things. A design choice by an anonomous set designer and the dichotomy for the next century is set. This is no way to run a railroad.
One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State
http://uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/ARTICLES/redblue.php
W = Whinger
A cursory glance over the last ten days:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/500522.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/494935.html
Ah, I see. That’s a good explanation as any.
So, how’s that skyhook that you are working on is coming along? Williamsburg is a bad place for it anyway - brooklyn has a better place for it. These guys might give you some competition though. :)
Yeah, could very well be.
Geoff Nunberg considered the red-blue swap on the Fresh Air program not long ago.
“So, how’s that skyhook that you are working on is coming along? ”
It’s coming along. Sadly we won’t be building in any urban areas for a awhile. While not as noisy as (say) a large airport an SE might need a large-ish impact area down range. That and there aren’t a whole lotta cities actually _on_ the equator.
I say sadly because the picture-in-my-head image of cargo lifting up for space out of (say) the middle of a city is pretty keen.
Perhaps Singapore will be interested when the technology matures ….
I do however read and enjoy his blog. For instance from here http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/501598.html I saw this http://www.sohoweeklynews.com//Book/Nightlife/annie_sprinkles_stump.htm?size=1&exif=, which made me wonder, who the hell is Annie Sprinkles?
She is quite a character, and has a sense of humor. Apparently disfigured Vietnam vets were her thing for a time, thus the odd picture: http://www.anniesprinkle.org/html/writings/pocketporn.html. Strange world.
Yeah, well, these days he mostly regurgitates Boing Boing and Yahoo news, but I still read his blog for an occational lucid rant or quality flame. His true greatness is in the past it seems.
Hmm, I always kind of thought that a skyhook would not be making much noise. Unless it comes crashing down, of course.
Aha. Yeah, I guess we are stuck with it.
Well, no it won’t .. or shouldn’t .. make a whole lotta noise. But the closer you get to the equator the better, and until we can prove that stuff isn’t going to just fall off on a regular basis - who wants one in their backyard? And there might be climate conditions to consider.
Hey, good work on the blog. It’s both interesting and fun. I’ve been told several times about why stretching out your little finger while drinking is considered classy, I can’t verify that it’s true though.
What I’ve heard is that one of the french kings of the 15-1600s had gotten a pretty bad case of syphilis, and this caused him to involuntarily stretch out his pinky when having a sip of his tea or whatever his drink of choice was. Then the rest of the court started emulating this behaviour either because the king was a trendsetter or they didn’t want the king to be embarrassed. And so it began….
As I said, I can’t verify this but many people I know hold this to be true. Either because it’s a good story, or because they want it to be true.
Red and Blue switch every election according to incumbence. In 2004, the incumbent party was designated as red. In 2000, it had been blue. But at that time, Democrats were incumbents, so Republicans were red. Now they’re red again. Next election, they’ll be blue, IIRC.
Hmmm…. wonder what would happen if a state ever voted for an independent candidate….!? :) (As if….)
Sean From Canada
(Unfortunate home of the one party system these days…..)
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