notes.husk.org. scribblings by Paul Mison.

Oscar Thoughts

I put some thoughts about the Oscar nominations into a reply to Joshua Nguyen, but here are some more.

• Hugo and The Artist lead the Oscar nominations by count. I suppose that proves that films about film go down well with people who make films.
• … either that, or they like nostalgia about the time when cinema was the new, revolutionary artform.
• Only one Best Picture nominee is set entirely in the present day (The Descendants).
• My Week With Marilyn gets some reasonably well deserved Actor / Actress nods.
• The Tree of Life should get the Cinematography award.
• Cars 2 is the first Pixar film not to be nominated for Best Animated since the award started in 2001.
• Music (Original Song) only has two nominees? Huh. At least there’s no Randy Newman.
• Sound Editing for Drive would be nice.
• Margin Call deserved a little more than Original Screenplay, but that it got that is far better than nothing.

An Express year

bibliophylax:

“Winter is coming.”

• BRITAIN FACES AN EARLY BIG FREEZE (Sep 20)
• -20°C TO HIT US IN WEEKS (Oct 8)
• BRITAIN FACES A MINI ‘ICE AGE’ (Oct 10)
• ARCTIC BLAST TO BRING SNOW (Oct 15)
• BIG FREEZE WILL KILL THOUSANDS (Oct 20)
• ARMY PUT ON SNOW ALERT (Oct 30)
• BIG SIBERIAN FREEZE TO HIT BRITAIN (Nov 2)
• BRITAIN FACES KILLER ARCTIC BLAST (Dec 8)
• IT’S A WHITE CHRISTMAS! (Dec 17)

An excerpt from a fantastic, terrifying glimpse into the world of the Daily Express (“like the Daily Mail but cheaper”) from Ned Morrell. As George Monbiot noted this week, the newspapers like making weather predictions, but they don’t often get called out when they’re wrong. (Christmas Day 2011 was mild in most of the UK.)

(via xalyhpoilbib-deactivated2012082)

Euphemistic

A non-exhaustive list in a vague genteel to rude order of names for, well:

• powder room
• the littlest room
• restroom
• bathroom
• wc
• commode
• lavatory
• outhouse
• throne
• potty
• toilet
• latrine
• bog
• crapper
• shitter

First inspired while noting the different terms used by Neal Stephenson in Reamde, and finally posted after reading an Economist article about euphemisms.

The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos

To save you paging through the entire list, here (in reverse chronological order) are Time magazine’s choice of the best music videos.

• Arcade Fire, ‘We Used To Wait/The Wilderness Downtown’ (2010)
• Kanye West, ‘Runaway’ (2010)
• Lady Gaga, ‘Bad Romance’ (2009)
• Beyoncé, ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)’ (2008)
• Gnarls Barkley, ‘Going On’ (2008)
• OK Go, ‘Here It Goes Again’ (2006)
• The White Stripes, ‘Hardest Button to Button’ (2005)
• Johnny Cash, ‘Hurt’ (2003)
• Fatboy Slim, ‘Weapon Of Choice’ (2001)
• D’Angelo, ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’ (2000)
• Fatboy Slim, ‘Praise You’ (1999)
• Chemical Brothers, ‘Let Forever Be’ (1999)
• Björk, ‘All is Full of Love’ (1999)
• Blur, ‘Coffee & TV’ (1999)
• Pulp, ‘This Is Hardcore’ (1998)
• Missy Elliot, ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ (1997)
• Jamiroquai, ‘Virtual Insanity’ (1997)
• Weezer, ‘Buddy Holly’ (1994)
• The Beastie Boys, ‘Sabotage’ (1994)
• Nine Inch Nails, ‘Closer’ (1994)
• Nirvana, ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ (1993)
• Sinead O’Connor, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ (1990)
• Madonna, ‘Express Yourself’ (1989)
• Peter Gabriel, ‘Sledgehammer’ (1986)
• Run-DMC, ‘Walk This Way’ (1986)
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’ (1985)
• a-Ha, ‘Take On Me’ (1985)
• Godley and Creme, ‘Cry’ (1985)
• Michael Jackson, ‘Thriller’ (1984)
• Talking Heads, ‘Once in a Lifetime’ (1980)

Herman Melville Lists Your Beard

In order, in two chapters of White Jacket:

• beards
• the crop
• suburbs of the chin
• homeward-bounders
• fly-brushes
• long, trailing moss hanging from the bough of some aged oak
• love-curls
• Winnebago locks
• carroty bunches
• rebellious bristles
• redundant mops
• yellow bamboos
• long whiskers
• thrice-noble beards
• plantations of hair
• whiskerandoes
• nodding harvests
• viny locks
• the fleece
• fine tassels
• goatees
• imperials
• sacred things
• admiral’s pennant
• manhood
• muzzle-lashings

Previously. Previously. Previously. via, by.

Choosing Your Market

I was taken by this section from Tim Bray’s post about Android, the iPhone, and the US Department of Defense:

the total DoD head-count is estimated at around 2.5 million. If you pick demographics that you might want to pitch mobile devices to, here are a few that are similar or larger in size:

• Korean teenagers

• Euro-zone business travelers

• Canadian retirees

• World of Warcraft players

• Indian cricket fans

This whole consumer-device business is oddly pure.

I’ve always been annoyed at the amount of bending over backwards that the UK government does for military manufacturing, not only because making things whose primary purpose is destructive is pretty rubbish, but also because it seemed better to me to have a market of millions of people buying small things than a tiny market of maybe twenty sovereign states (maybe) buying a few score million-pound things.

Stations of the Pyongyang Metro

#1 천리마선 Line

• 붉은별 Red Star
• 전우 Comrade
• 개선 Triumph
• 통일 Reunification
• 승리 Victory
• 봉화 Torch/Beacon
• 영광 Glory
• 부흥 Revitalization

#2 혁신선 Line

• 광복 Restoration/Independence
• 건국 National Foundation
• 황금벌 Golden Soil
• 건설 Construction
• 혁신 Innovation
• 전승 Complete Victory (in Battle)
• 삼흥 Three Rejuvenations
• 광명 Shine/Enlightenment
• 락원 Paradise

From Wikipedia’s page on the system (which uses old Berlin U-bahn trains).

Burnt. Ran over by car.

Edited highlights from the timeline section of the Wikipedia article on the Gävle Goat:

• 1972 The goat collapsed because of sabotage.
• 1974 Burnt.
• 1976 Ran over by a car.
• 1978 Again, the goat was kicked to pieces.
• 1979 The goat was burnt even before it was erected. A new one was built and fireproofed. It was destroyed and broken into pieces.
• 1980 Burnt down on Christmas Eve.
• 1981 Nothing happened.
• 1983 The legs were destroyed.
• 1985 Even though the goat was enclosed by a 2 metres (6.6 ft) high metal fence, guarded by Securitas and even soldiers from the Gävle I 14 Infantry Regiment, it was burnt down in January.
• 1987 A heavily fireproofed goat was built. It got burnt down a week before Christmas.
• 1988 Nothing happened to the goat this year.
• 1989 Again, the goat burnt down before it was assembled.
• 1990 Nothing happened.
• 1995 A Norwegian was arrested for attempting to burn down the goat.
• 1997 Damaged by fireworks.
• 1999 Burnt down only a couple of hours after it was erected.

You can see this year’s goat via a webcam.

Continuous…

These riffs on Linda Stone’s phrase have all been posted to Twitter by people I follow. Since some of them are private, these are presented without attribution.

• Continuous Partial Precipitation
• Continuous Renal Attrition
• Continuous Anal Retention
• Continuous Partial Mention
• Continuous Complete Distraction
• Continuous Partial Irritation
• Continuous Partial Tension
• Continuous Partial Intention
• Continuous Partial Aggravation
• Continuous Partial Exhaustion
• Continuous Partial Gumption
• Continuous Dolly Parton
• Continuous Partial Apprehension
• Continuous Partial Intertwingling
• Continuous Partial Airport
• Continuous Partial Teacup
• Continuous Emergency Month
• Continuous Partial Location
• Continuous Partial Equations
• Continuous Peak Neologism
• Continuous Partial Future
• Continuous Partial Comprehension

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have over the past few weeks. Keep them coming.