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via Waxy, augmented reality used to create vertiginous experiences. the looking glass in less than 10 years.

4chan vs. Time offers some insights into the emerging techniques of crowd-sourcing management.

Monday on CNN, Sanjay Gupta was wearing a surgical mask like a fashion accessory. I can’t believe he was almost our Surgeon General.

How does a person become evil? How does a person become good? “The beat that my heart skipped” (De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté) is an excellent movie: fast, focused and subtle. I expect it will stay with me for a very long time.

If we want America to stop torturing detainees, we must ask that America stop torturing its own citizens. We will one day recognize the use of isolation in our super-max prisons as a violation of our own constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Only we’ve made the use of isolation so casual that it [...]

JCVD: a good movie imperfectly executed is better than a bad movie perfectly executed.

From an interview with David Simon of The Wire: The fact that these really are the excess people in America, we– our economy doesn’t need them. We don’t need ten or 15 percent of our population. And certainly the ones that are undereducated, that have been ill served by the inner city school system, that [...]

The NYT on Banh Mi in Brooklyn and beyond.

Achron, the time travel game. “Paradoxes can exist, but since the window of time is limited all events eventually fall off.” More new math. “Entrapment = You’re Gonna Do It Anyway + Cops.” Tone matrix.

The Colbert Report: On his web site, [Republican Senator Richard Lugar] says “The unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of bringing democracy to the Cuban people.” Maybe, but it has been very effective in bringing Cuban people to Democracy.

OG responds to my open email to NPR’s Morning Edition on their misuse of the Dow Jones Industrial Average: You suggest that the DJIA is not relevant to understanding the “reaction” to Obama’s address on auto industry restructuring. The DJIA is certainly not an “expert.” However, as you note, it is “an indirect representation of [...]

Robert Krulwich makes linguistics fun and accessible in a five-minute segment for NPR on grammatical gender.

I became a fan of 30 Rock, which I now watch on Netflix Instant Play, by watching Hulu.com. The show continues to air on broadcast television. As my relationship to the show changed, so did the way I wanted to consume it. If most audiences go through similar phases, it may be possible to provide [...]

Is The Oprah Winfrey show ever a downer? I don’t think so. Even when it tackles the toughest of topics, the show manages to be optimistic. That optimism is most likely the secret to the show’s longevity. (For example, I was introduced to The Road by Michael Chabon but millions more were introduced to the post-apocalyptic [...]

What Steely Dan get right in Aja is mood. It’s rare to hear music that is both sunny and cool. The instrumentation and the lyrics may become dated but the album itself is relatively timeless because its affect – smart, expansive – is so effectively conveyed.

Omega Man is clearly about 70′s politics. So what is I Am Legend about? Making money on the international release?

If you can read this, you’re not infected.