Speed Climbing Sans Ropes

Absolutely insane.

Syriana

I saw “Syriana” last night, which is writer/director Stephen Gaghan’s attempt to do for geo-political oil-related power brokering and international espionage what his film “Traffic” did for America’s war on drugs: i.e. shed light on an unexamined world and explose it warts and all.

Clooney as a hard-bitten CIA spook steals the show. And without revealing any spoilers, I’ll just say the flick contains a vivid monologue defending corruption — “corruption is what keeps us from eating scraps of meat in the street,” says a smarmy lobbyist — that people will be quoting for years to come.

If you’ve seen the film and, like me, you need some help deciphering the complex storyline, the Wikipedia entry for the film is a decent resource.

Syriana

Categories
Misc.

You Can Call me F. Stop Fitzgerald, Vol. 2

Here’re a few new pics to feast your eyes upon.

In this first one, I did not, in fact, remove the screen of my iBook. I took the image using a technique I noticed on Flickr. I simply captured a snapshot of what was behind my computer and then made the image my desktop wallpaper. This was my clumsy first attempt. Cooler versions can be seen in the Flickr transparent screens group.

2015-11-28_comp

This photo, meanwhile, was taken using the camera toss method — you set your camera to night (long-exposure) mode and then throw it up in the air. The light source consisted of some Christmas lights at my buddy’s Chris D.‘s house.

2015-11-28_toss

And then, lastly, we have this image, which I’m quite proud of. I was stopped at traffic light and noticed a striking sunset in my side-view mirror.

2015-11-28_street

DC: In the Throes of Baby Panda Madness

In my most recent Gridskipper dispatch, I examine DC’s current cute animal fixation: giant baby panda Tai Shan. (Be sure to check out the readers’ comments at the bottom.)

Tai+Shan, Butterstick, pandas

RIP, Richard Pryor

AP:

Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, has died, his ex-wife said Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died of a heart attack at his home in the San Fernando Valley sometime late Friday or early Saturday, Flyn Pryor said. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

WC06: The US Enters the Group of Death

CNN:

At some point you knew it would happen: The U.S. would draw into a Group of Death at the World Cup.

It finally happened on Friday as the No. 8-ranked Yanks were placed in Group E with three-time world champion Italy, the Czech Republic (ranked No. 2 in the world) and rising African power Ghana.

Here’s the full draw. More info here.

Yahoo Buys Del.icio.us

Wow. Yahoo has bought del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site — and a tool I can’t imagine using the Web without. (Here’s a good del.icio.us tutorial, if you’re interested in learning more about it.)

Beginner’s Guide to SEO

SEOmoz’s “Beginner’s Guide to SEO” — that’s search engine optimization — is a thorough examination of best practices in ensurating the Web sites are listed effectively in search engines. It’s necessarily a little inside baseball, but if you have a Web site or are curious about how search engines work, it’s worth a look.

SEO, SEM, search+engines

Categories
Misc.

New Gawker Media Blog

Gawker Media’s Nick Denton has just added a new title to his panoply of blogs (such as Gawker, Lifehacker, Wonkette, Gizmodo, and, of course, Gridskipper). It’s called The Consumerist, and it’s akin to Consumer Reports — but with ample heapings of cynicism and style.

Newley.com’s Debut in Today’s Express

Express
Click for a bigger version — I’m quoted at the top

Thanks to a kind reader for pointing out that my post yesterday about Friends of the Earth’s misleading climate change poster was excerpted in today’s Express (which is the Washington Post‘s free daily paper).

They used a snippet in their round-up of DC blogs — it’s on page 41 (here’s a PDF version, if you’re so inclined).

And if you missed this update to the post, check out what my friend Ben Preston has to say — he’s a climate scientist himself and points out some of the mixed messages the FOE is sending with their posters.