if i didn't care: Archive

James Gleick, for Smithsonian.com.

The rise of information theory aided and abetted a new view of life. The genetic code—no longer a mere metaphor—was being deciphered. Scientists spoke grandly of the biosphere: an entity composed of all the earth’s life-forms, teeming with information, replicating and evolving. And biologists, having absorbed the methods and vocabulary of communications science, went further to make their own contributions to the understanding of information itself.

May 31, 2011

May 31, 201141 notes

May 30, 20111 note

“A real Memorial Day would involve commitments to cease sacrifices that don’t actually, you know, do anything in the name of freedom. Losing your legs so that Chevron can see higher profit margins is not noble. It’s a god damned shame. Dying in the service of defense contractors doesn’t bestow sainthood on the deceased. It just means that a life got snuffed out for no good reason. Reflexive military worship is a cancer on society. Unscrupulous people use it to justify their actions and avoid any criticism. That shit makes the act of asking why we should send young people to absorb bullets and get blown to pieces into some kind of subversion and/or sedition. How fucking ridiculous is that? Wondering if someone’s death was worth the cost doesn’t dishonor the person. I don’t know how we’ve confused evaluating the motives and actions of leaders with spitting on corpses, but we have. And until we can untangle those things, we’re just well and truly fucked when it comes to international affairs.” —I Didn’t Fight For Your Freedom (via azspot)

May 30, 2011178 notes

May 30, 201197 notes

“Je n’aime pas les hommes ; j’aime ce qui les dévore.” —André Gide (via bigfun)

May 30, 20116 notes

May 30, 20111 note

The Tide Is High Blondie

andrewmcclain:

the tide is high (john holt and the paragons cover) by blondie

This is one of those songs that seems like it has a high potential to annoy. I feel like it’s not hard to imagine anyone hating this song a lot, but I think that’s part of why I play it so loud and relish every second.

Weird New Wave/rocksteady covers, man…

And here I am on the Charles River again. One day in 1981 I came to meet my dad at his office, which was crappy and gray, practically Soviet. But it was adjacent to MIT on the river side, so it had this great view of the water. While he had a meeting or something, I waited there, sitting in this ancient spinner chair, not spinning, just staring out at the sun on the water. And this song played through a tinny radio on the windowsill.

When he got back we left to go get some tropical fish in an enormous, blue, stucco building nearby.

End.

May 30, 20115 notes

May 30, 20113 notes

Listen

Kay Starr - Wheel Of Fortune

Everybody Eats When They Come To My House (adaptation) John Lithgow

John Lithgow - Everybody Eats When They Come To My House

I’m so proud of John Lithgow right now.

“It took Peter Gilliver, the O.E.D. lexicographer working on the letter R, more than nine months harnessed to the duties of what Samuel Johnson once called “a harmless drudge” (plus many more months of preparatory research) to work out what he believes are all the meanings of “run.” And though some of the senses and their derivations try him — Why does a dressmaker run up a frock? Why run through a varlet with a sword? How come you run a fence around a field? Why, indeed, run this essay? — Mr. Gilliver has finally calculated that there are for the verb-form alone of “run” no fewer than 645 meanings. A record.”

May 29, 201123 notes

May 29, 201153 notes

Tonight You Belong To Me Eddie Vedder

andrewmcclain:

tonight you belong to me by eddie vedder and chan marshall

via themattsmith

well, if that isn’t the nicest thing i’ve heard today…

This song is the principal reason I took up the ukulele. No, still haven’t quite learned it.

May 27, 201150 notes